Advice The Home Improvement/Automation Thread

I got my sister's art (her undergrad degree was in photography) and hung it up in the office/guest room, right alongside my kids' art.

Finally framed and hung my diplomas as well. All three of the fuckers. Got one more art to hang, but the room is looking more and more like a room instead of a catch-all storage closet with a desk in it.
I built a blanket fort with christmas lights and sleep there
 
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I got curious to see what my attic looked like in my house last weekend. Attic access is a 1/4" plywood square screwed to the ceiling frame, with bats of fiberglass insulation on top of the board. Water stains are on the frame of the door (must be condensation in the winter). So that's one thing that needs to be fixed. Once I popped my head into the attic, I was looking to see if the master bathroom ceiling fan was properly vented but I didn't see any piping. I didn't have time to go walking through the blown-in insulation to dig around for any pipe. But that's probably another item to fix. I also wanted to scout out a cable path to the basement to run some network cables for cameras, wireless accesspoint, and anything else that I might need.
 
I got curious to see what my attic looked like in my house last weekend. Attic access is a 1/4" plywood square screwed to the ceiling frame, with bats of fiberglass insulation on top of the board. Water stains are on the frame of the door (must be condensation in the winter). So that's one thing that needs to be fixed. Once I popped my head into the attic, I was looking to see if the master bathroom ceiling fan was properly vented but I didn't see any piping. I didn't have time to go walking through the blown-in insulation to dig around for any pipe. But that's probably another item to fix. I also wanted to scout out a cable path to the basement to run some network cables for cameras, wireless accesspoint, and anything else that I might need.
Plumbing wall should have a straight shot. Drop it right next to the vent stack. There are fish sticks, fiberglass poles, you can get that make it easier. Do extra too, 3 cat5, one coax, one fiber.
 
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Plumbing wall should have a straight shot. Drop it right next to the vent stack. There are fish sticks, fiberglass poles, you can get that make it easier. Do extra too, 3 cat5, one coax, one fiber.
Yeah I do lv wiring work for a living. I just don't like doing it on my own stuff. Plus the basement ceiling is finished drywall not ceiling tiles. Only place not finished is a small closet. I won't pull coax because no one uses it anymore. I'll pull a bunch of cat6 into the attic, eventually getting PoE security cameras setup around the house, mostly to observe wildlife that comes around. Don't need fiber up in the attic, but will pull fiber out to my barn via the underground comm conduit and eventually out to my observatory when I get it built.
 
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Yeah I do lv wiring work for a living. I just don't like doing it on my own stuff. Plus the basement ceiling is finished drywall not ceiling tiles. Only place not finished is a small closet. I won't pull coax because no one uses it anymore. I'll pull a bunch of cat6 into the attic, eventually getting PoE security cameras setup around the house, mostly to observe wildlife that comes around. Don't need fiber up in the attic, but will pull fiber out to my barn via the underground comm conduit and eventually out to my observatory when I get it built.
omg I want to be invited to your first observatory party.
 
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Unrelated, I bought another wood lot next to my property, closed on it Wednesday. I've got around 30 acres of land now. 1 more lot to the north of me, 3.3 acres, that I'm trying to get cheap while the economy is weird. And I'll have bought most of the land around me. No direct neighbors except 1 for the win. The 1 neighbor directly next to me is a retired US army veteran who keeps to himself and I rarely see. So that's cool.
 
Our washmachine has developed a loud squeak during the final spin
Sounds like a worn bearing
Machines 13 years old or so
Havent looked into it but hoping I can do sort of the same
 
Our washmachine has developed a loud squeak during the final spin
Sounds like a worn bearing
Machines 13 years old or so
Havent looked into it but hoping I can do sort of the same

top or front loader? Ive tried a couple o times to remove the drum to replace a bearing on top loaders, and its always so corroded in place there isnt a chance
 
top or front loader? Ive tried a couple o times to remove the drum to replace a bearing on top loaders, and its always so corroded in place there isnt a chance
Front loader.
We hate the thing anyways and if it shits the bed may just get something different. 13yrs aint bad for a modern appliance I guess
 
So a nasty thunderstorm rolled through my town last weekend. Pea-sized hail, 1.25" of rain in like 45 minutes. I counted 5 lightning strikes that were less than "one Mississippi" away (1/5th of a mi). One took out the power right out. Also fried my DSL modem. Was out of power for 4 hours. In talking with my neighbor next morning, he said lightning struck the utility pole out front of his house twice, maybe 75ft from his house. Somehow He didn't lose anything. Just flipped a breaker for his home office.

I had him install a whole home surge protector in the main panel. Had 2 spare 30 amp breakers left by prior owners so it worked out.

Now to get even better surge protectors for the telco lines, better than what the telco uses.
 
Have I shared this yet?



The wife wanted to move out of the guest room so we set her up in teh back of the theater room which meant I needed a drop down screen solution to allow light in when not in use. I'm a sucker for having the speakers behind the screen too which meant it needed to be a creative little solution so here we are after a few thousand in spend. BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE. She wanted to move into the guest room again, get rid of the guest bed and make it her gym/office... Whatever, marriage is fun AMRITE
 
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That was a lot of detail about your wife life.

The recessed projector shelf is a nice touch vs a ceiling mount.

Looks like you have space on either side of the window for in-wall speakers, but then they wouldnt be behind the screen