26 September, 2008
Moving
The link above refers to a company that helps you move by bringing a container to your house and then moving it for you once you fill it. They pay bloggers to enter good reviews about them. If you are looking for this service, there are others out there. If you must do business with this company, look for their reviews on consumer web sites first, do not trust what you read in blogs about them.
27 August, 2008
Flights
I've been trying for months to book a flight, I keep watching fares. I see the following trend with regard to prices. Prices seem to start out in a structured manner, where the first person gets one fare and it goes up for each x people who buy. Then after the first few waves are filled and the flights is only months away, the price starts to rise steadily. It peaks somewhere before, less than 30 days out but more than 14, depending on the airline. Then it starts to fall again because the airline is worried about not filling the flight. As the flight approaches, the price rises again to take advantage of people who book at the last minute (they tend to be the least flexible). Finally, on the day of the flight, one of two things can happen: for popular flight times, the price rises dramatically to take advantage of last minute business travelers who have no choice in flight times; whereas for less popular flight times the price can drop dramatically due to a worry that the flight wont fill up. Spirit complicates this for their customers because they have a $9 fare club which allows you to get deals that are typically on flights in the next 7-30 days and more often on weekday flights than weekend. If you are watching for flgihts, check out AirFareWatchDog. They inform you of sales, even for Spirit's $9 fare club which you can then join to get the fare and cancel after your flight.
26 August, 2008
Publish Your Own Book!
If you've ever wanted to publish your own book, Lulu.com is the place to be! They let you upload your book and set the price (above their standard rates). Then they print the book on demand when someone buys it and you get the profit! Aspiring writers can use this to get published, or you can write a book just for yourself and purchase the one and only copy before removing it from their site... Publish anything short of photo quality including company books, family trees, your will, your life story, your school essays (I plan on doing that one some day), and a whole lot more!!
Cookbooks and Such...
There is a great site called Blurb that lets you print your own photo books. I'm not talking 50 cents a page either. I'm talking about 11"x17" pages and 400 of them for $100! I am planning on one day printing several things: I want to print a cookbook (I did this once, but on my ink jet printer and with no pictures, plus it is now stuffed with recepies that I have collected so it needs an update). I want to print my blogs (probably just whenever they reach 400 pages, and I'll include the pictures that I have on my personal blog). And I want to print a photo book for each year once my kids are grown up (that's a long time off) with all my best photos and I'll give them each a copy of the "library." Think of the possibilities!
Aerogarden Part 2
Just a note to let you know that I am trying tomato plants in my aerogarden. I'm not pleased with the fact that it has been a month now and the plants are only 6-8" tall and show no flowers or fruit yet. I'll let you know when I have more to report.
Insulation
Ever thought about doing a better job of insulating the outside of your house? There are a lot of options available. The most expensive is to rip down your drywall and put up new with better insulation inside. The next step down is to laminate more drywall over your existing drywall. Going down still further in price is having holes drilled in your block (from the outside) and foam insulation injected (then the holes get patched). But I just found out about loose fill insulation and other similar products which can be blown in to existing walls by cutting small openings in the walls at every stud (usually every 16 or 24 inches). You cut the holes, blow the insulation in using special equipment, and patch the wall back to look good as new. This can be hard when walls are wallpapered because you can't really patch wallpaper. You don't get as much r-value as installing board insulation in new walls, but you save a fortune. Estimates I found online showed an average of 50 cents per square foot for the complete process including patching your wall back to normal, but those could have been old or inacurate estimates, so I recommend you contact several companies in your area and compare their quotes.
Mold Resistant Drywall
Well, you probably have guessed (if I haven't said) that I'm in the drywall business. Today's post is a summary of why you shouldn't use regular drywall when rennovating your house. In fact, if you are buying a new house you should ask if you can upgrade your drywall for a small fee. XP board (or Gold Bond Mold Tough or another equivelent) is a far superior drywall when it comes to mold. Let's face it, people in the desert have to worry about mold these days. Mold is a health hazzard that comes from everywhere and no one should have to deal with it. Having mold in your house can cause all sorts of health problems, and you are far more likely to have these problems with regular drywall.
Now behind tile you need cement board, because that provides a far better mold barrier. But your regular drywall needs a mold and mildew resistant paper AND CORE. Old fashioned green board doesn't cut it anymore, and it doesn't meet commercial building code in my area. I have mold in my bathroom that I need to get rid of, but I'm putting it off until I can redo the bathroom and I'll rip the walls down and build them right. Everyone may have mold in their walls that they can't see! And the worst part is that what you can't see CAN hurt you...
Now behind tile you need cement board, because that provides a far better mold barrier. But your regular drywall needs a mold and mildew resistant paper AND CORE. Old fashioned green board doesn't cut it anymore, and it doesn't meet commercial building code in my area. I have mold in my bathroom that I need to get rid of, but I'm putting it off until I can redo the bathroom and I'll rip the walls down and build them right. Everyone may have mold in their walls that they can't see! And the worst part is that what you can't see CAN hurt you...
01 August, 2008
Fix Scratches Yourself
If you have scratches on your car, this site is for you. For small scratches, they sell paint pens that fill in the scratch with your original paint. For large scratches or entire panels, they sell spray paint cans and give complete instructions.
If you are looking for a perfect finish, you should let a professional paint your car, because you wont be as good as a professional and you are likely to end up with slight bubbles or irregularities in the paint. But if you just want to do some light touch up, or if you don't care how the paint looks as long as it is painted, this site is for you!
Incidentally, if you do get your car painted, I recommend using a dealership. They will be more expensive, but the job will usually be done better. I have had body shops that looked like they did a great job but a year later the paint bubbled and cracked!
If you are looking for a perfect finish, you should let a professional paint your car, because you wont be as good as a professional and you are likely to end up with slight bubbles or irregularities in the paint. But if you just want to do some light touch up, or if you don't care how the paint looks as long as it is painted, this site is for you!
Incidentally, if you do get your car painted, I recommend using a dealership. They will be more expensive, but the job will usually be done better. I have had body shops that looked like they did a great job but a year later the paint bubbled and cracked!
Fix Your Yellowed Headlights
This post assumes that you have a car with headlights that have yellowed from age. Many people think that headlights yellow because they get wet from inside and the yellow is a discoloration caused by the water that dries on the lenses. While water getting into your headlights can cause its own problems (reducing light output by diffusing the light, for example), these problems are not the yellowing that you may see. This yellowing is a reaction to UV rays that the plastic lense covering the lights has. When certain types of clear plastic are exposed to UV rays for extensive periods of time, they can yellow. This is why garage parked cars will show less yellowing and also cars of people who live up north will show less than those who live in the south.
Fixing this is easy! All you have to do is buy a kit to repair it. These kits are sold in several places on the internet, and range in both quality and price. Remember that more expensive doesn't mean better. The kit will usually have a buffing pad that fits on an electric drill, some compound that strips the top layer of the plastic off, and a protective coat to reduce future damage by making your lenses UV proof. A more expensive option, for people who want their cars to look perfect, is to buy new headlights. I bought a new one after an accident (save money, do your own auto repairs) and it worked perfectly! Depending on your car, the lights may cost anywhere from $40 to $400 or more per side. Mine are $125 per side, so I bought the kit for $25 and cleaned them up.
There is an important safety concern as your headlights yellow. This yellowing reduces light output and causes reduced visibility. You should definately consdier repairing your lenses if they are yellowing.
Fixing this is easy! All you have to do is buy a kit to repair it. These kits are sold in several places on the internet, and range in both quality and price. Remember that more expensive doesn't mean better. The kit will usually have a buffing pad that fits on an electric drill, some compound that strips the top layer of the plastic off, and a protective coat to reduce future damage by making your lenses UV proof. A more expensive option, for people who want their cars to look perfect, is to buy new headlights. I bought a new one after an accident (save money, do your own auto repairs) and it worked perfectly! Depending on your car, the lights may cost anywhere from $40 to $400 or more per side. Mine are $125 per side, so I bought the kit for $25 and cleaned them up.
There is an important safety concern as your headlights yellow. This yellowing reduces light output and causes reduced visibility. You should definately consdier repairing your lenses if they are yellowing.
29 July, 2008
Aerogarden
I was tending to my Aerogarden today and I though I'd blog about my experience with it. I got it about 4 months ago, I know because I ran out of my first 3 month seed kit a month ago and I keep neglecting to do anything about it. I love the garden, but I simply don't have time for all the maintenance. The Aerogarden has the advantage of being able to be neglected for 2 weeks at a time. Then the light starts blinking and it needs water and food tablets. Once that 5 minute task is done, it is good for another 2 weeks. The problem is that every 3 months you have to throw the plants out and shell out another $20 to keep it going. You also loose a month to regrowing each time you renew it. And you are limited to one type of plant (you can't grow basil, tomatoes, lettuce and flowers all at once). My last garden started out as half lettuce and half herbs, and the lettuce suffered because of it. I ended up cutting the lettuce off at the stem and forgetting about those holes for the next few months. Now I'm on to tomatoes.
So who do I recommend the Aerogarden for? I think if you can afford to shell out the money for it without feeling like you gave up something else (that doesn't describe me), and you like the novelty of having a small fresh garden indoors, then you should get an Aerogarden.
Incidentally, if you have an Aerogarden, try putting potted plants (perhaps more herbs or flowers) next to it. Those plants will greatly benefit from the added light. Add some fertalizer to those plants from time to time, and don't forget to water them. I got a few aqua-globes (at Bed, Bath and Beyond I paid $8 for two after their standard coupon) to water these other plants and now I just water everything once a week.
The final touch to my strange garden is out on my back porce. I got an upside down hanging tomato plant (the hanging pot was from Target for $10 and the plant was also from Target for $2). I water that once a week too. However, I have been neglecting my weekly watering the past few weeks and this plant is looking sad. I'm going to try to keep on a better schedule going forward and see if I can boost it back to life!
So who do I recommend the Aerogarden for? I think if you can afford to shell out the money for it without feeling like you gave up something else (that doesn't describe me), and you like the novelty of having a small fresh garden indoors, then you should get an Aerogarden.
Incidentally, if you have an Aerogarden, try putting potted plants (perhaps more herbs or flowers) next to it. Those plants will greatly benefit from the added light. Add some fertalizer to those plants from time to time, and don't forget to water them. I got a few aqua-globes (at Bed, Bath and Beyond I paid $8 for two after their standard coupon) to water these other plants and now I just water everything once a week.
The final touch to my strange garden is out on my back porce. I got an upside down hanging tomato plant (the hanging pot was from Target for $10 and the plant was also from Target for $2). I water that once a week too. However, I have been neglecting my weekly watering the past few weeks and this plant is looking sad. I'm going to try to keep on a better schedule going forward and see if I can boost it back to life!
18 July, 2008
Price Increases...
I know that some of my readers may be contractors like myself. And if you are, then I'm sure you know about price increases in steel these days. Some suppliers are even revoking price quotes. Well, I may as well tell you that I don't put up with quote revocations. I have had two such revocations recently. First, Deitrich Metal Framing sent out a notice that all price quotes now expire after 30 days unless a contract is signed. I responded by sending a letter to my suppliers stating that if they have bid Deitrich framing on any job that has not been awarded yet they need to get another company to match Deitrich's price and in future I will not accept a price quote from Deitrich unless it states that the quote is vallid until the expiration date regardless of company policy or material price increases and is signed by an officer of the Deitrich corporation. Of course this means that I don't get Deitrich quotes any more, but even though prices are going up the market isn't and it is easy to find another vendor, especially for metal studs!
Last week I got an even worse one. I have a job called the MIC that is contracted already. I haven't signed a PO to Armstrong for the ceilings yet, but I informed them that I intended to buy from them. So I have a price quote and I have told them that I would buy from them. I have sent in all the submittals already. Now they say that they are increasing my grid prices and wont honor their quote. I am in the process of working my way up their chain of command. I told my rep that not only will I not accept this because the price quote is effectively a contract with their company, but that I intended to switch this job and all future jobs to USG and never buy from Armstrong again unless they honored their quote. Needless to say, a few people over at Armstrong are mad at me. And I work for their largest customer in the area and one of their oldest direct contractors. So I'm expecting the president of my company to tell me to back off at any moment. But I still have the choice in what products to use on future jobs and Armstrong will loose a lot more business from me than they will gain if they don't honor their quote.
So why am I so upset by this? Well the way the system works is that an owner calls 3 GCs and asks them to bid on a project. The GCs each call three drywall companies and asks them to bid. Then I call on one or more suppliers and ask them to bid. My suppliers, in turn, could call on raw material producers and ask them to bid, but they don't. I am bound to my price just as my suppliers are bound to theirs. So when a supplier ups their price to me, I directly loose money. And I wont stand for it anymore. There are hundreds of small manufacturers across the country for every type of material. If Detrich doesn't want my business, Allsteel will. If Armstrong doesn't want it, USG will or perhaps Chicago Metallic. The point is that I always have another option and contractors should not just lie there and take price increases without regard for their own profit.
So if you're a subcontractor and you get a price increase notification, respond with a letter that states you accept the increase for jobs that have not already been quoted but their quotes must be honored. If they say no, then tell them that it has been a pleasure doing business with them and you hope that they have success with another company buying from them, because you wont buy from them again.
And remember that the person who thinks long term will always get the last laugh because the next time that prices drop below cost because there is a housing slowdown and they can't give the stuff away fast enough, just ask for 10 bids on a project until you get one that is low enough to make up for the losses you incured before.
Last week I got an even worse one. I have a job called the MIC that is contracted already. I haven't signed a PO to Armstrong for the ceilings yet, but I informed them that I intended to buy from them. So I have a price quote and I have told them that I would buy from them. I have sent in all the submittals already. Now they say that they are increasing my grid prices and wont honor their quote. I am in the process of working my way up their chain of command. I told my rep that not only will I not accept this because the price quote is effectively a contract with their company, but that I intended to switch this job and all future jobs to USG and never buy from Armstrong again unless they honored their quote. Needless to say, a few people over at Armstrong are mad at me. And I work for their largest customer in the area and one of their oldest direct contractors. So I'm expecting the president of my company to tell me to back off at any moment. But I still have the choice in what products to use on future jobs and Armstrong will loose a lot more business from me than they will gain if they don't honor their quote.
So why am I so upset by this? Well the way the system works is that an owner calls 3 GCs and asks them to bid on a project. The GCs each call three drywall companies and asks them to bid. Then I call on one or more suppliers and ask them to bid. My suppliers, in turn, could call on raw material producers and ask them to bid, but they don't. I am bound to my price just as my suppliers are bound to theirs. So when a supplier ups their price to me, I directly loose money. And I wont stand for it anymore. There are hundreds of small manufacturers across the country for every type of material. If Detrich doesn't want my business, Allsteel will. If Armstrong doesn't want it, USG will or perhaps Chicago Metallic. The point is that I always have another option and contractors should not just lie there and take price increases without regard for their own profit.
So if you're a subcontractor and you get a price increase notification, respond with a letter that states you accept the increase for jobs that have not already been quoted but their quotes must be honored. If they say no, then tell them that it has been a pleasure doing business with them and you hope that they have success with another company buying from them, because you wont buy from them again.
And remember that the person who thinks long term will always get the last laugh because the next time that prices drop below cost because there is a housing slowdown and they can't give the stuff away fast enough, just ask for 10 bids on a project until you get one that is low enough to make up for the losses you incured before.
16 July, 2008
Personalized Products
If you are like me, you enjoy personalized products. Things like my wife's purse which has pictures of our kids on it, or a photo frame that is etched wood saying our names. There are thousands of examples. Partly to share these with my family, and a little motivated by wanting to get a percentage of sales, I put up a website at http://darkskies.org/snap/ to allow people to buy from my favorite personalization companies (and Amazon.com and a few others). I get a percentage of sales through those links. So check out the products, I think you'll like them. And if you use the links you will be supporting my writing, which I hope to do more of in the future.
Site Map
I'm asking for help from my readers. Please e-mail blog@mccarthy.cn with your suggestions. I am looking for a good site map creator. I want to create a site map by giving it FTP access and having it look for every HTML document and put them in a file structure type of format and them letting me edit and remove what I don't want published.
Creating My Own PVR
I made my own personal video recorder (PVR) using a PC and GB-PVR software about two years ago. Two years later I am letting you know that I don't use it. The GB-PVR software works most of the time; but, because every so often it screws up, my wife wont use it. And the Media-MVP which I use to play back, gets 5 minutes without restarting at best. I had it working for 30 minutes at a time for a while, but then it went back to 5 minutes. Naturally, I gave up on it. What I need is a Tivo, only one that can store to and play from either its own drive or a networked computer, that stores in a common format without copywrite protection, and that will allow me to transport my videos to my computer and play back in Windows Media Player. I want upgradability, I don't want to be stuck with one brand forever. Any comments?
Household Wiring Considerations
With 7+ years of experience as an engineer working with voice, data, radio and telephony systems, I have a unique perspective on home wiring. If you are having a new home built, or remodeling your current home, you might want to consider this post. Homebuilders who want to market to the younger generations who are increasingly "wired" should also take note. Now before I proceed, I should speak to those of you who are thinking that wires are obsolete. It is true that everything I am about to discuss can be done without wires. Computer networks, telephones, speakers for your home theater system, just about everything in your home except for one phone jack and your cable TV lines can be done wirelessly. But there are benefits to wiring your home. I will first tell you what I want in my future home (when I get around to buying one, I currently live rent free and don't complain about the lack of wiring).
First, you want to consider what systems you will have in your house. Computers, telephones, fax machines, in home audio systems, home theater systems, perhaps an alarm system, your thermostat, maybe an intercom, the possibilities are almost limitless. And of course, you can't wire for everything. If you are having a new home built and piping is cheap I would recommend putting in pipes for every system that you currently think you may want. In my case, all bedrooms get one pipe for computer, telephone and tv (combined on one faceplate) as well as two to the ceiling for whole-house audio speakers and one to the door for both the volume controls for the speakers and an intercom. Common rooms (living room, dining room, family room, den, library, game room, whatever you have) get the same, but with extra data/phone/tv jacks around the room whereever I may one day need them if I reposition all my furniture (don't have a need for a computer or tv in the living room today? Wire for it anyway just in case you change your mind in 10 years). The kitchen and bathrooms are special cases. My kitchen gets several data/phone/tv jacks in the upper cabinets around the room for future use (under-cabinet tv, drop down telephone, recepie computer, etc). Also, one set behind the fridge because some newer refridgerators have a network connection to reorder your groceries for you and a TV built in to watch while you cook; and one behind the stove because who knows when they will come out with a stove that you can monitor from your network. Plus jacks in the ceiling for future network cameras so you can walk away from your stove and leave a monitor on in the other room to watch for smoke. Of course, in-ceiling speakers and a volume control/intercom location by the door are necessary. The bathrooms get special treatment too. For right now, just the speakers and volume/intercom locations. But for future use I'll leave two pipes burried in the wall, one opposite the toilet and one in the shower (don't forget to leave empty pipes to your breaker panel too for future power). In the future, if I get bored and want a really complicated project I could open the wall up and build in a shelf (behind plexiglass and sealed water tight) that holds a TV (the shower one would be able to pick up any channel, the one in front of the toilet would show whatever is on the main TV so that you can run to the bathroom during a movie without stopping it and making everyone wait). I would also run alarm pipes to each window, door, and each room for motion detectors. Future alarm systems are already available that, if wired right, can show you on a panel where an intrusion is taking place, call you if you aren't home, call the police automatically (without a service to charge a monitoring fee), and even turn on video cameras in the rooms where the alarm is going off. I would put up boxes for cameras outside (you can get systems for about $1,500 now with 16 day/night cameras and a single recording machine that stores a month of footage from all cameras on one digital drive). One more consideration is speakers for your home theater. In the room with the big tv, you may want pipes from behind the tv to various points around the room (think big, we are up to 8 speaker systems with 7.1 out and who knows what will come next) or you might go with in-wall speakers that turn drywall into a speaker surface for a truely concealed system that has great sound (don't forget that in wall speakers are easiest to install before the walls are finished, so consider buying these and wiring them before the house is done even if you wont be powering them for a while).
Don't forget the electricity, any place that you leave a computer hook-up (or tv or phone) you should have an electrical outlet. For home theater systems, or multiple computer locations, you should consider a quadruplex outlet on a dedicated 20 amp circuit.
Speaking on don't forgets, what about outside your house? You may one day want to put a laptop computer station outside, so anywhere you will have a table and chairs (or may have one in the future) you should put a data/phone/tv box and electrical outlet. How about holiday lighting or just landscape lighting? Putting an electrical outlet by every tree will save unsightly cords later on. And if you want to do low voltage landscape lighting (which is brighter than solar), consider putting in an electrical outlet by your controls and running pipes in series all over the yard with boxes at the start of every row of lighting. Remember, you don't want to tear up your yard later. And think about a sprinkler system while you are putting in all these pipes.
Now let's look at wiring. If money is a concern, and it always is if you aren't hiring someone to do this all for you, then only wire what you need and leave blank covers on the other boxes. It is still good to have them because in the future you can simply change the cover and run some wire to have a new location. All your boxes should go to one location and you should have a wire management system (such as an equipment rack with patch panels for data/phone/tv cables and 66 blocks on the wall for speakers). And I recommend never running a single cable for the tv/phone/data blocks (consider 3 or 4 CAT-5e cables and 2 co-aux cables to give an extra of each type for future use). If you later need another cable, you often can't just pull it in and may end up pulling out your old wires just to pull in a whole new set. It makes sense to put in more cables than you need now, while it is easy, just like putting in extra boxes if you are having a new house built because it is easier to do now than later.
Don't forget to think about home automation, such as a thermostat box because you may upgrade to a network based thermostat at some point; or a box in the laundry room, basement or garage for an alarm point that alerts you to water leaks. There is a company called SmartHome that can give you some ideas for future automation technologies that you may encounter.
As for what to do with the wiring? That's the subject of another post. But I did promise to tell you why wiring your house is a great idea. First is your telephones. Make sure that your home has at least one wired phone, and that the wiring for that phone isn't power dependant (no amplifiers or so forth) because that gives you an emergency phone for when the power is out. Also, wired phone locations near exterior walls mean you can place wireless bases in locations that are reachable from the outside, future phone systems will allow for multiple bases and multiple phones to create your own cell phone system within your house, the phones will hand off to the best base that they can find. Next is your data network, you need this to be wired for security purposes. Even if today's hackers aren't a big threat to you, who knows what tomorrow will bring. Having at least the pipes in place to give you the option of wiring in the future will mean peace of mind in case you get attacked. TV, of course, has to be wired. Alarm systems should be wired because the wireless versions are more easily hacked. Cameras and speakers should be wired for optimal quality and to avoid people picking up your signals. And you should also keep in mind that as more people go wireless the interference will increase and one day it may be that you can't use your wireless devices without getting into a power increasing war with your neighbours that would be both expensive and hazardous to your health. So all things considered, wiring is the way to go!
First, you want to consider what systems you will have in your house. Computers, telephones, fax machines, in home audio systems, home theater systems, perhaps an alarm system, your thermostat, maybe an intercom, the possibilities are almost limitless. And of course, you can't wire for everything. If you are having a new home built and piping is cheap I would recommend putting in pipes for every system that you currently think you may want. In my case, all bedrooms get one pipe for computer, telephone and tv (combined on one faceplate) as well as two to the ceiling for whole-house audio speakers and one to the door for both the volume controls for the speakers and an intercom. Common rooms (living room, dining room, family room, den, library, game room, whatever you have) get the same, but with extra data/phone/tv jacks around the room whereever I may one day need them if I reposition all my furniture (don't have a need for a computer or tv in the living room today? Wire for it anyway just in case you change your mind in 10 years). The kitchen and bathrooms are special cases. My kitchen gets several data/phone/tv jacks in the upper cabinets around the room for future use (under-cabinet tv, drop down telephone, recepie computer, etc). Also, one set behind the fridge because some newer refridgerators have a network connection to reorder your groceries for you and a TV built in to watch while you cook; and one behind the stove because who knows when they will come out with a stove that you can monitor from your network. Plus jacks in the ceiling for future network cameras so you can walk away from your stove and leave a monitor on in the other room to watch for smoke. Of course, in-ceiling speakers and a volume control/intercom location by the door are necessary. The bathrooms get special treatment too. For right now, just the speakers and volume/intercom locations. But for future use I'll leave two pipes burried in the wall, one opposite the toilet and one in the shower (don't forget to leave empty pipes to your breaker panel too for future power). In the future, if I get bored and want a really complicated project I could open the wall up and build in a shelf (behind plexiglass and sealed water tight) that holds a TV (the shower one would be able to pick up any channel, the one in front of the toilet would show whatever is on the main TV so that you can run to the bathroom during a movie without stopping it and making everyone wait). I would also run alarm pipes to each window, door, and each room for motion detectors. Future alarm systems are already available that, if wired right, can show you on a panel where an intrusion is taking place, call you if you aren't home, call the police automatically (without a service to charge a monitoring fee), and even turn on video cameras in the rooms where the alarm is going off. I would put up boxes for cameras outside (you can get systems for about $1,500 now with 16 day/night cameras and a single recording machine that stores a month of footage from all cameras on one digital drive). One more consideration is speakers for your home theater. In the room with the big tv, you may want pipes from behind the tv to various points around the room (think big, we are up to 8 speaker systems with 7.1 out and who knows what will come next) or you might go with in-wall speakers that turn drywall into a speaker surface for a truely concealed system that has great sound (don't forget that in wall speakers are easiest to install before the walls are finished, so consider buying these and wiring them before the house is done even if you wont be powering them for a while).
Don't forget the electricity, any place that you leave a computer hook-up (or tv or phone) you should have an electrical outlet. For home theater systems, or multiple computer locations, you should consider a quadruplex outlet on a dedicated 20 amp circuit.
Speaking on don't forgets, what about outside your house? You may one day want to put a laptop computer station outside, so anywhere you will have a table and chairs (or may have one in the future) you should put a data/phone/tv box and electrical outlet. How about holiday lighting or just landscape lighting? Putting an electrical outlet by every tree will save unsightly cords later on. And if you want to do low voltage landscape lighting (which is brighter than solar), consider putting in an electrical outlet by your controls and running pipes in series all over the yard with boxes at the start of every row of lighting. Remember, you don't want to tear up your yard later. And think about a sprinkler system while you are putting in all these pipes.
Now let's look at wiring. If money is a concern, and it always is if you aren't hiring someone to do this all for you, then only wire what you need and leave blank covers on the other boxes. It is still good to have them because in the future you can simply change the cover and run some wire to have a new location. All your boxes should go to one location and you should have a wire management system (such as an equipment rack with patch panels for data/phone/tv cables and 66 blocks on the wall for speakers). And I recommend never running a single cable for the tv/phone/data blocks (consider 3 or 4 CAT-5e cables and 2 co-aux cables to give an extra of each type for future use). If you later need another cable, you often can't just pull it in and may end up pulling out your old wires just to pull in a whole new set. It makes sense to put in more cables than you need now, while it is easy, just like putting in extra boxes if you are having a new house built because it is easier to do now than later.
Don't forget to think about home automation, such as a thermostat box because you may upgrade to a network based thermostat at some point; or a box in the laundry room, basement or garage for an alarm point that alerts you to water leaks. There is a company called SmartHome that can give you some ideas for future automation technologies that you may encounter.
As for what to do with the wiring? That's the subject of another post. But I did promise to tell you why wiring your house is a great idea. First is your telephones. Make sure that your home has at least one wired phone, and that the wiring for that phone isn't power dependant (no amplifiers or so forth) because that gives you an emergency phone for when the power is out. Also, wired phone locations near exterior walls mean you can place wireless bases in locations that are reachable from the outside, future phone systems will allow for multiple bases and multiple phones to create your own cell phone system within your house, the phones will hand off to the best base that they can find. Next is your data network, you need this to be wired for security purposes. Even if today's hackers aren't a big threat to you, who knows what tomorrow will bring. Having at least the pipes in place to give you the option of wiring in the future will mean peace of mind in case you get attacked. TV, of course, has to be wired. Alarm systems should be wired because the wireless versions are more easily hacked. Cameras and speakers should be wired for optimal quality and to avoid people picking up your signals. And you should also keep in mind that as more people go wireless the interference will increase and one day it may be that you can't use your wireless devices without getting into a power increasing war with your neighbours that would be both expensive and hazardous to your health. So all things considered, wiring is the way to go!
15 July, 2008
Installing a Post Mount Mailbox on A Slab
I had a pedistal mount mailbox until recently, that's the kind that bolts to a concrete slab instead of being stuck in the ground. When it was time to replace it and my wife chose a post mount variety, I should have torn up the slab and started anew. But instead I came up with a way around this. I went to Lowes and looked in the section where they have metal connectors designed to hold different sized wood together when building a roof. I found a piece designed to take a 4x4 post and connect it to concrete. I put in an expansion anchor, tied this down, put the post on, stuck the mailbox on, and after a few hours I was done. At least that's how it should have gone. But cheap parts and the fact that a mailbox is heavy worked against me and now the thing rocks from side to side a few inches in each direction. Of course, you can't pull it out, a hurricane isn't going to take down out mailbox, but it could twist the metal to the point that it wont stand straight again. So soon I'll be redoing the mailbox by ripping up the slab and putting the stake in the ground. The moral of the story is that you are better off doing a mailbox the way it was meant to than trying to come up with your own design.
Patching a Hold in Drywall
I recently broke my wall, so I had to fix it. I wont go into details, but lets say that someone got mad about something and put a foot through the wall. Anyway, I could have put in backing and cut a new piece of drywall, taped the edged and then finished it. But instead I went the easy route and headed to Lowes. I bought an 8" by 8" wall patch for $5 that doesn't require backing, tape or drywall. I put it up, mudded over it, and scraped away the excess. I'm not a good finisher, in fact I've only done a few small things like this before, so I did my best and then fixed it with sanding 24 hours later. After sanding, I did a second coat, waited 24 hours, sanded, did a third coar, waited 24 hours and sanded one more time. Then I painted with some touch up paint that I had saved. I would have painted the entire wall over to get it perfect, but that would have been too big of a project considering that I will be repainting this room in a few years...
Closing in My Garage
I recently closed in my garage. It was an easy process, and I thought I'd tell you all how to do it. First, you need to have a garage. I don't, but I live with my father-in-law and I closed in his, so that was close enough. Second, you need to decide how much you want closed in. In my case, I wanted to close in 2/3 of the garage, which is much easier than the whole thing. Third, you need to decide how to air condition it. In my case, I wanted this to be temporary, so I bought a stand alone air conditioner for the garage, but it is easy to tap off your household A/C if you can access the crawl space where the ducts are.
For stage one, I built a wall. I put up metal track on the floor and ceiling (using a laser I borrowed from work to line up the ceiling track, but you could use a plumb bob from Lowes just as easily). I left a gap in the bottom track where my door is going (I got a metal door frame and solid wood door that was left over from a job, one of the benefits of working in construction). I put the wall parrallel to the garage door and right where the door ends, so if I open the door too hard it hits the wall, but otherwise this is a great way to do it because it gives the maximum space without changing your garage door or building an exterior wall to replace the door. If you want to leave the door there for asthetic reasons but will never open it again, you could also put the wall right in front of the door without wallboard on the outside and then cut (using a blow torch if you know how or a good bolt cutter) the garage door track off. Since I put the wall about 6' into the garage, I put wallboard on both sides. Next come the studs at 16" o.c., with double studs on each side of the door frame and track and studs above the door frame. Be sure to put the door frame in as you frame the walls, unless you are using a knock-down frame that gets put in afterward. Then I hung the drywall on one side.
Next came the insulation, make sure you pick up an insulation suit because this stuff is terrible to work with. Use FSK faced insulation and put the foil toward the outside, this will help with moisture. Also, make sure the drywall on at least the outside of the wall is moisture resistant (such as National Gypsum's XP board, I use this everywhere since my wife has alergies). After the insulation is in the cavity, put up the other layer of wallboard.
Next you need to finish the wallboard, and caulk the floor. I caulked the top too because this is temporary and I didn't want to have to scrape down finish material, but since I was meeting a drywall ceiling I could have finished it like an inside corner instead. Be sure to use fire caulk and fire rated drywall if you want this wall to have a fire rating. Consult UL details and other sites for information on fire rating of drywall partitions. This is particularly important if you are planning on leaving part of a garage because garages are places where fires often start.
Next I hung the door. I could have furred and insulated the outer walls, but I chose not to because this is temporary. Then I put in the A/C unit. This was done by standing it in place and running the exhaust through an existing vent hole in the side wall. I needed to close that vent up anyway, so I simply put the exhaust hose in it and used Great Stuff expanding foam to fill around it. I could have done more to prevent bugs from crawling in through the exhaust, but in Florida this thing is never going to turn off and it is only temporary.
I put down carpet squares without adhesive since it is temporary, but for a permanent room I would have done wood laminate. You can do that for under $2/SF if you install yourself and buy from Costco!
My long term plan is to buy the house, when I do I want to clear out the rest of the garage and move that wall back to the door so it completely encloses the garage. I'll furr and insulate the side walls and add some low walls to seperate a work area and an office from the rest of the room, which will be a game room. I'll also put in a closet that will hold the house's network equipment. About that time we'll be upgrading the A/C anyway, so I'll have the A/C company install a vent for me to get rid of the portable A/C unit. And I'll consider wood flooring as well.
For stage one, I built a wall. I put up metal track on the floor and ceiling (using a laser I borrowed from work to line up the ceiling track, but you could use a plumb bob from Lowes just as easily). I left a gap in the bottom track where my door is going (I got a metal door frame and solid wood door that was left over from a job, one of the benefits of working in construction). I put the wall parrallel to the garage door and right where the door ends, so if I open the door too hard it hits the wall, but otherwise this is a great way to do it because it gives the maximum space without changing your garage door or building an exterior wall to replace the door. If you want to leave the door there for asthetic reasons but will never open it again, you could also put the wall right in front of the door without wallboard on the outside and then cut (using a blow torch if you know how or a good bolt cutter) the garage door track off. Since I put the wall about 6' into the garage, I put wallboard on both sides. Next come the studs at 16" o.c., with double studs on each side of the door frame and track and studs above the door frame. Be sure to put the door frame in as you frame the walls, unless you are using a knock-down frame that gets put in afterward. Then I hung the drywall on one side.
Next came the insulation, make sure you pick up an insulation suit because this stuff is terrible to work with. Use FSK faced insulation and put the foil toward the outside, this will help with moisture. Also, make sure the drywall on at least the outside of the wall is moisture resistant (such as National Gypsum's XP board, I use this everywhere since my wife has alergies). After the insulation is in the cavity, put up the other layer of wallboard.
Next you need to finish the wallboard, and caulk the floor. I caulked the top too because this is temporary and I didn't want to have to scrape down finish material, but since I was meeting a drywall ceiling I could have finished it like an inside corner instead. Be sure to use fire caulk and fire rated drywall if you want this wall to have a fire rating. Consult UL details and other sites for information on fire rating of drywall partitions. This is particularly important if you are planning on leaving part of a garage because garages are places where fires often start.
Next I hung the door. I could have furred and insulated the outer walls, but I chose not to because this is temporary. Then I put in the A/C unit. This was done by standing it in place and running the exhaust through an existing vent hole in the side wall. I needed to close that vent up anyway, so I simply put the exhaust hose in it and used Great Stuff expanding foam to fill around it. I could have done more to prevent bugs from crawling in through the exhaust, but in Florida this thing is never going to turn off and it is only temporary.
I put down carpet squares without adhesive since it is temporary, but for a permanent room I would have done wood laminate. You can do that for under $2/SF if you install yourself and buy from Costco!
My long term plan is to buy the house, when I do I want to clear out the rest of the garage and move that wall back to the door so it completely encloses the garage. I'll furr and insulate the side walls and add some low walls to seperate a work area and an office from the rest of the room, which will be a game room. I'll also put in a closet that will hold the house's network equipment. About that time we'll be upgrading the A/C anyway, so I'll have the A/C company install a vent for me to get rid of the portable A/C unit. And I'll consider wood flooring as well.
31 March, 2008
Welcome Back
I am working on starting this blog up again. This time, I've got to stick to it... Anyone who reads this should keep checking, I'll have more reviews soon!
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