Home Improvement Thread 2: Electric Redo the Loo

wokeupnew said:
Alternatively, a question I was eventually going to ask here... Has anyone gone #NoLawn here or planted native plants successfully in large swaths of their yard? If so, what steps did you take doing that? How much did it cost? Was it a lot to undertake etc?

We hate lawns and want to eventually transition away from having just grass. The previous owner neglected lawn care so there's some patches of brown spots, different types of grass here and there, they didn't bother raking so some leaves and sticks from trees left spots and patches where grass couldn't grow. They also had two smalls dogs who probably had favorite spots to do their business on the lawn. From a distance or if you drive by it looks totally normal and good, but up close you can see the issues. There's some nicer landscaping where plants are still surviving/thriving that we'll try and help this summer. But by next spring/summer we want to try and break ground on removing some grass in areas.
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I really like this idea. For now, @debianlinux and I have been researching edible gardening and we would like to transition our yard that way.
 
nolalady said:
I really like this idea. For now, @debianlinux and I have been researching edible gardening and we would like to transition our yard that way.
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Is it edible gardening or EDIBLE gardening? I have no desire for the Denver connotation kind but would be interested in it otherwise and also would like to know how you keep all the varmints from eating stuff.
 
wokeupnew said:
Alternatively, a question I was eventually going to ask here... Has anyone gone #NoLawn here or planted native plants successfully in large swaths of their yard? If so, what steps did you take doing that? How much did it cost? Was it a lot to undertake etc?

We hate lawns and want to eventually transition away from having just grass. The previous owner neglected lawn care so there's some patches of brown spots, different types of grass here and there, they didn't bother raking so some leaves and sticks from trees left spots and patches where grass couldn't grow. They also had two smalls dogs who probably had favorite spots to do their business on the lawn. From a distance or if you drive by it looks totally normal and good, but up close you can see the issues. There's some nicer landscaping where plants are still surviving/thriving that we'll try and help this summer. But by next spring/summer we want to try and break ground on removing some grass in areas.
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You can DM me. I did it in California so a lot of my plant knowledge is specific. But I researched the process and did it mostly myself.
 
So we have this fancy chandelier/light fixture in our dining room that came with the house. It's not something we'd have chosen ourselves, but we're vibing with it for now.

The issue is that it hangs down slightly too low for the tube that the wiring is supposed to fit in. It was a lot worse. It used to hang down about a foot and a half below the tube but I was able to adjust the anchor wire (silver wire in close up picture) so it's shorter. I cannot adjust it any further without being able to reattach the top half sphere unit. So I was able to readjust it about 6 inches too long. For the anchor wire to be the appropriate length I'd have to remove the whole unit from the ceiling, cut or cinch the anchor wire the proper length and reattach. I'd like to not have to remove the whole unit from the ceiling, especially for a light fixture that we're not big fans of. We'd probably replace this in 1-2 years anyways.

So, with the screw you can see in the second picture, when that is lifted up to screw into the tube above, it doesn't quite stay. I'm not sure if the threads are worn, but it keeps turning and turning without being secured/tightened. It does feel like it's hitting the threads when screwing, but it'll last for about 5 seconds before coming undone and falls down 6 inches to where the anchor wire is holding it up. The screw has got to be like a 1/4 of a millimeter too narrow or something like that.

Therefore, my question is, what would be a solution here? Can I use Red Loctite on the threads and hold up the unit in place for it to stay screwed in? Can Loctite support the weight of something like this? The light fixture is about 15-20lbs hanging down. Worse case scenario it doesn't hold and I'm just back to square 1 where it's hanging down 6 inches again.

image1.jpegimage0.jpeg
 
wokeupnew said:
So we have this fancy chandelier/light fixture in our dining room that came with the house. It's not something we'd have chosen ourselves, but we're vibing with it for now.

The issue is that it hangs down slightly too low for the tube that the wiring is supposed to fit in. It was a lot worse. It used to hang down about a foot and a half below the tube but I was able to adjust the anchor wire (silver wire in close up picture) so it's shorter. I cannot adjust it any further without being able to reattach the top half sphere unit. So I was able to readjust it about 6 inches too long. For the anchor wire to be the appropriate length I'd have to remove the whole unit from the ceiling, cut or cinch the anchor wire the proper length and reattach. I'd like to not have to remove the whole unit from the ceiling, especially for a light fixture that we're not big fans of. We'd probably replace this in 1-2 years anyways.

So, with the screw you can see in the second picture, when that is lifted up to screw into the tube above, it doesn't quite stay. I'm not sure if the threads are worn, but it keeps turning and turning without being secured/tightened. It does feel like it's hitting the threads when screwing, but it'll last for about 5 seconds before coming undone and falls down 6 inches to where the anchor wire is holding it up. The screw has got to be like a 1/4 of a millimeter too narrow or something like that.

Therefore, my question is, what would be a solution here? Can I use Red Loctite on the threads and hold up the unit in place for it to stay screwed in? Can Loctite support the weight of something like this? The light fixture is about 15-20lbs hanging down. Worse case scenario it doesn't hold and I'm just back to square 1 where it's hanging down 6 inches again.

View attachment 203058View attachment 203059
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I think loctite will work for you. That stuff is pretty legit from my experiences using it, even on heavier things. Problem is that you'll need to find a way to hold it up until it solidifies.

Edit: Also, I like the light. It has a whole submarine mine looks going for it. My wife probably wouldn't be a fan, but I'd definitely put it up in my office.
 
Hemotep said:
I think loctite will work for you. That stuff is pretty legit from my experiences using it, even on heavier things. Problem is that you'll need to find a way to hold it up until it solidifies.

Edit: Also, I like the light. It has a whole submarine mine looks going for it. My wife probably wouldn't be a fan, but I'd definitely put it up in my office.
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LOL yeah! I popped a cat tree on top of the table under a few books, and put a few pillows on top of it so it can sit on it at a raised height. Also the bottom 3 light bulbs need to be removed before placing it on the pillows. It was a whole contraption I had set up to work on it a few days ago because the fixture is so awkward.
 
wokeupnew said:
So we have this fancy chandelier/light fixture in our dining room that came with the house. It's not something we'd have chosen ourselves, but we're vibing with it for now.

The issue is that it hangs down slightly too low for the tube that the wiring is supposed to fit in. It was a lot worse. It used to hang down about a foot and a half below the tube but I was able to adjust the anchor wire (silver wire in close up picture) so it's shorter. I cannot adjust it any further without being able to reattach the top half sphere unit. So I was able to readjust it about 6 inches too long. For the anchor wire to be the appropriate length I'd have to remove the whole unit from the ceiling, cut or cinch the anchor wire the proper length and reattach. I'd like to not have to remove the whole unit from the ceiling, especially for a light fixture that we're not big fans of. We'd probably replace this in 1-2 years anyways.

So, with the screw you can see in the second picture, when that is lifted up to screw into the tube above, it doesn't quite stay. I'm not sure if the threads are worn, but it keeps turning and turning without being secured/tightened. It does feel like it's hitting the threads when screwing, but it'll last for about 5 seconds before coming undone and falls down 6 inches to where the anchor wire is holding it up. The screw has got to be like a 1/4 of a millimeter too narrow or something like that.

Therefore, my question is, what would be a solution here? Can I use Red Loctite on the threads and hold up the unit in place for it to stay screwed in? Can Loctite support the weight of something like this? The light fixture is about 15-20lbs hanging down. Worse case scenario it doesn't hold and I'm just back to square 1 where it's hanging down 6 inches again.

View attachment 203058View attachment 203059
Click to expand...
Can you unthread the gold rod from the top and try to thread it to the sphere at the bottom? Just to see if it's a wire or something preventing the threads from biting? Light fixtures are also not too hard to take down and figure out. So if you did need to glue something you could do it without having to support the whole light.
 
folsom_lives said:
Can you unthread the gold rod from the top and try to thread it to the sphere at the bottom? Just to see if it's a wire or something preventing the threads from biting? Light fixtures are also not too hard to take down and figure out. So if you did need to glue something you could do it without having to support the whole light.
Click to expand...
I don't believe it can be unthreaded from the top, but I can check!
 
We have a 2 story house with Air Conditioning. The AC is down in the basement and doesn't cool as well at the top floor as it does the basement and first floor. It'll be like 60F in the basement, 72F in the first floor and like 78F upstairs. I know that is the nature of hot/cold air, but I don't think it should be that hot upstairs. We use a portable AC unit in our bedroom to cool it but our office, the smallest of the 3 bedrooms gets up to 84F during the days. I'm typing this from our dining room table because it's unbearable.

I have an AC guy coming to service our unit next week, but I think the culprit is actually our attic insulation. I haven't actually been up in the attic since moving in. It's not a big, storage attic, more of a crawl space. To access, there's a small hatch in our office/3rd bedroom's closet. The closet doesn't have a door so some heat may be seeping down from the attic. Our home inspector went up there before our closing to examine and recommended more insulation. His notes are below

1720716106136.png

1720716183542.png

From my cursory research of seeing other people mention similar, this seems like an issue. Hot air in the attic is seeping down into the upper floors and the cooling is not staying insulated in the upper floors well. This was also a small issue when we first moved in mid-April. It wasn't freezing, but I remember being colder than I expected working in our office during the day. Colder air from outside was likely seeping into the upper floors.

I believe it's recommended that the joists should not be noticeable from the attic and more batt insulation is needed.

So 2 questions, 1) Is my issue likely poor insulation or something else? 2) If it is insulation, how easy of a job is this to DIY or should I get a professional to come and do?
 
I could be wrong but... I don't see ANY insulation in that attic. That looks like plywood along the roof joists no?
 
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