David Meiland

The foreman gets bonus points for finishing quickly, not for getting all the details right, especially the ones that might not come back to haunt.

IMO those straps are ridiculous. No framer is going to notch the sheathing or the framing to set the strap in flush. We use HDs or anchor bolts and continuous sheathing.

Bigger than I would do...

Yeah. I would do nothing. If you do something, you are making yourself liable for doing it right, which will bring into play all of the survey, setback, fire separation, and other stuff. It is what it is, and neither of you put it there. I wouldn't budge unless I was served with a lawsuit. You probably already have adverse possession. This type of situation is exactly what adverse possession is all about. A couple of guys I know bought 40 acres in the 80s and built two houses on it, one for each of them (it was OK then to have two houses on one parcel). Fast forward to today and they want to subdivide into three parcels and sell one of them. They get a surveyor out with today's very accurate GPS gear, and find out that one of them has built his garage a few feet onto a neighbor's property. At the time, it was built in accordance with the lots lines that were surveyed... not as accurate as what was done today. There was no hanky-panky and every effort was made then to do it right. The neighbor got huffy but his lawyer told him not to even bother. The guy with the garage gave him a few bucks as a token gesture, and they called it good. It is what it is.

You mean the tube is somewhat translucent?

Agree with both things Randy said. Look at energy.wsu.edu for contact info. You can usually get a live person there within a few seconds of dialing the phone.

This topic got pretty hot on the RESNET/BPI forum on LinkedIn, and I think there are enough people interested to move it forward. All that's needed is someone(s) to organize it.

Somewhat related http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the ... nt-trolls/

I can't see shit in those pics either, but I'll offer this. It is possible to insulate an attic that has been problem-free, and cause a condensation problem. You need the right confluence of factors. Perhaps it's an unvented attic that was built with shakes on it, but now has a layer of OSB, felt, and comp. Airflow is much reduced. Perhaps it's in a cold climate. Without much insulation, a lot of heat from the interior migrated up to the attic, and kept things above the dewpoint. Now, someone has blown in a bunch more insulation, so the attic temp is lower, but they didn't air-seal anything, so there's still humidity moving up there from inside, and you have a problem. Not saying that's what you have, because I can't see shit.

It looks like forms were placed against existing concrete, but not tightly enough, so that a bit of slurry went down into the gap and created a misalignment between the two concrete planes. They probably would have had to anchor the second form set to the first pour using blue screws or similar in order to avoid that. Instead, they tried to apply pressure with wood stakes or something else that doesn't quite work.

I think "thin" is the key word there. You are metering the ply/particleboard substrate, but probably not the first ~1/16" of less at the surface. Just a wild guess.

Maybe the heat pump can recover waste heat from the dryer??

I suppose there's also the possibility that the loop isn't flowing because of an air bubble in it, or an obstruction of some kind. What's the chances of getting those little tiny screwdriver valves to turn easily??

Couple of questions here. Is the A/C condensate line tied into the furnace exhaust? Not quite clear in the pic but it looks like there's perhaps a trap that connects to the bottom of that larger tee. If so, the furnace exhaust would have to keep the trap full in order to prevent a small (?) amount of exhaust gas from being pushed into the airflow at the A/C coil when the furnace was running. Perhaps there's enough condensate to reliably do that, I dunno. And, is it legit to leave off the intake pipe when installed in an open attic? I've never seen a two-pipe furnace with one pipe. They always have two pipes here, no matter where installed.

Which direction does it face?

I assume these are not factory-drilled holes... they would be consistent if so.

I grudgingly concede... http://grammarist.com/usage/forego-forgo/

We sometimes use double angle stops... they connect to a single stub, have two handles and two outlets. If you were willing to forego the disposer, could this setup the somewhat improved by leaving the connection to the drain as is, and using two traps? The need to tee in the second sink makes a single trap too low.

It would take a plumber maybe an hour and $30 worth of parts to re-do that.

Centerline of cooktop/range has to be known early in the process. There is always a range hood centered above or a downdraft below, and there is a gas line and a couple of electrical boxes, so the builder would have been asked early where the cooktop was going, along with many other precise placements that go into a kitchen layout. That's a big screw-up. My guess is that the plumber never installed one before, and didn't know they had a long reach, so he installed it over the burner... although not high enough to fill a large pot.

I have a SeeSnake--it's marginal if you are really trying to figure out what's going on, but OK for seeing if something obvious is there or not. If the stakes were high (as they might be based on the OP), I would invest in a much more expensive unit that is self-leveling. I like the idea of the unit in Marc's link because you aren't using some stupid little tiny shiddy screen.

Funny, this topic came up today on the radio. http://www.npr.org/2013/05/30/185993899 ... up-its-air

Made me happy to look at those pics.

250g / day is totally normal for 4 people, especially 2 teens. My daughter likes to take long showers and she's only 7.

I don't know what it would cost to install a meter... maybe a few hundred dollars? What are the chances that a water meter registers a large amount of usage that didn't actually occur? Seems like the consensus here is that a million gallons couldn't go missing without some evidence. If it were in the house, you would have heard it running. If it were underground on the downstream side of your meter, the water crew's work would not have fixed it. I think I'd push back on the $2500 bill. In fact, I think your normal daily usage (~250g/day) seems high, unless there are 3-4 occupants in the house. One person... no way.