Tom Raymond

I did an 1870 house last year that had two cisterns. One had been opened up with a hatch in the basement when the kitchen was built over it. Rats were using the inlet piping to get in, several didn't find a way out. The other was being used as a patio off the mudroom adjacent the kitchen. The pump was seized and the lid bolted down and freshly painted. I didn't open it.

Or the sequel to Broke Back Mountain. Why did you only give it 5 years? The rain breaks are tight and the gloeocapsa staining isn't too bad. Based solely on your pics I wouldn't guess the cover to be much more than 10 years old.

He is way too far into his project for Delta. I would want the carpet to breathe as much as the pad. The plastic fiber area rug in my dining room creates enough of a VB that the 144 year old T&G tulip floor cups slightly under it. Interestingly, the white pine in the living room stays flat under an identical rug less than 6' away.

The answer is only once. The trauma of a spoiled dinner party will cement the location of the device to memory. How is it any different than having GFCI protection located at the breaker?

I just found out that my wife's employer is dropping our plan. They have paid for six weeks of coverage that we are not going to get, they are trying to get refunds. Also, while our doctors participate in the plan none of the other employees' docs will accept the coverage - they dropped out because the reimbursement rates are too low. Lastly, the company is located near the County line. Except for us, everyone else - including the business, resides in a County where the plan wasn't authorized to be sold. The layers of bureaucracy and complexity are so astounding that no one noticed for months. The competency is not exactly awe inspiring...

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Since when does replacing a duplex receptacle require upgrading the branch circuit to current code?

My employer was considering converting the HRA into an HSA or FSA to limit their burden last year. I only looked as far as the plans the broker was recommending. They were exactly as I described, set aside my money to spend as they prescribe or lose it all to the tax man. I wasn't aware there was a savings plan like yours. I have been telling my wife for years that health insurance is a bad bet. We endure a hardship every day so that someone else will give us a hard time about paying for the hardship that may never come.

Who talked you into an HSA? A Health Savings Account is use it or lose it. You fund it through payroll deductions and either spend it on health care or give it to the IRS. If you go HRA, a Health Reimbursement Account, your business funds the account and gets to keep anything left at the end of the coverage period. Funds used for healthcare are operating expenses. HRAs have more stringent restrictions on reimbursable expenses (dental and vision mostly) but if you are more closely aligned with the bottom of the pyramid it might save you some money. Of course, whichever you choose you get to pay an insurance company to administer your money.

This is the future of reporting...until he drops a $500 Ipad down a chimbley.

That's corrugated. Foam it. There have been enough expansion cycles to elongate every penetration including the fasteners. Once that cover is removed it's scrap metal. ccSPF will stick as long as it is reasonably clean but the panels will oil can when the temps swing.

My premiums have been increasing at a rate of 18-25% per year since 2006. In 2008 my employer went from paying half the premiums to providing an HRA for my deductible and my share tripled. In 2013 those premiums amounted to 40% of the salary I earned at my day job and that was for a high deductible plan. We spent more on health insurance last year than we did on housing - two mortgages, my escrow, and all utilities. The day job ended November 2, primarily due to increasing health insurance costs. My wife's employer, a company of 7, purchased on the Exchange. They bought a single plan for each employee and allowed my wife to buy one for me with pretax dollars. That is going swimmingly, we were to have coverage 1/1 but to date have nothing from the carrier. The poverty imposed on us by last years health premiums made my kids eligible for a State sponsored plan that covers almost everything for peanuts, $15 a month each. That program is so overwhelmed that they botched my application and actually lost my initial payment. It took 8 weeks to sort out. Truthfully, I only need health insurance for the aneurysm the carriers are going to give me. The proverbial hole in the head.

I am on the roster and I understand the fee schedule. I can't make heads or tails of the handbook, it is so poorly written it might as well be in Cantonese. The more I read it the more lost I become.

Would any of the 203k consultants here be interested in discussing what it takes to get a consulting biz of the ground? An open dialog here would be fine. Thanks in advance.

Does someone have a picture of the dates on a gas valve or TPR? I have yet to find them. I even just went and looked at my boiler and water heater. No dates.

Make it a bold statement.

Kid protectors left in for long periods of time will compress the contacts in the receptacle. At best cords just fall out, at worst they arc, a lot. I had to replace all of the receptacles in my son's room when we switched the decor from little boy to little man.

That's a train wreck.

Those inspectors will be municipal employees. Only a government would provide man power and a $30,000 XRF for that little scratch. At 50% compliance that's $160 each. I expect at least a dozen positions, you know, for efficiency. Worse than that, the really crazy regulations the rest of us have to live with get exported from Cali.

A Superior Court Judge has found 3 companies liable for $1.15 billion in damages for the clean up of lead based paint and in the process declared 5 million homes across the State a Public Nuisance. Home prices could plummet as a result. Read the full story here.

You need to take a break buddy. Kiel was waxing on about how nice it would be if all crawls were sealed and conditioned.

A $350 case for your $700 phone? Dewalt's $750 visual IR thermometer has a 15x15 IR resolution overlayed on a 120x120 visible image. Completely useless. Flir has a line of real cameras at that price point. $995 gets you a sling psychrometer, moisture meter, and an 80 x 60 IR camera. With their new MSX image blending that might just be big enough for the average HI.

I like the light.

Reminds me to send my Coast light back. Dropped it 4' onto concrete, didn't nick the finish but it won't light anymore.

I'll second that. I replaced a 13 or 14 month old water heater the night before Thanksgiving.