baconbits

Reverse osmosis. Not sure why he'd want that for an ice maker. Only people I know with those have multi thousands invested in reef tanks or own detailing businesses.

Spoken like someone whose had malaria before

Mine are all dumped into the clay tile drains at the base of the foundation. I'd love to use PVC or those flexible extensions to extend it away from the house but it's not really feasible given the landscaping and location of my downspouts. I mean, 10 feet of PVC a foot from my neighbor's driveway in the front yard is unsightly at best.

Looks like the yard is naturally sloped anyway so I wouldn't worry too much in that particular spot.

As far as Samgung, I'll stick to TVs and those kind of electronics when it comes to Samsung. I hear their appliances can be nightmares. My girlfriend's parents had a hellish time trying to get their LG fridge fixed.

New stuff like this gives me the willies... water connection so I worry about it leaking, has less power draw than the old fridge but still, do I have the temps set correctly, etc. I'm having trouble leveling it but then again, my floor isn't flat or level either. Freezer door hinge looks over-bent from the factory so it scraps the top of the door a little. Temps seem stable. I did notice yesterday however, that it seemed as though it ran for 3-4 hours, constantly. I got a faint burnt rubber smell in my kitchen, definitely wafting out from under the fridge itself. I pulled it out from the wall, moved the rear cover, stuck my nose in the back and it's definitely coming from the fan area. Compressor was warm but not too hot to keep my hand on it, fan was spinning freely, not making noise, wires were room temp. Condenser coil was slightly above room temp but not hot. I "let it ride" at the advice of a friend because it was 24 hours old at that point and it eventually shut off after apparently reaching the temp set points of -12F in the freezer and 34F in the fridge. I'm thinking it actually took 24 hours to go from 95F at the time I turned it on to -12/34 and that's why it ran for so long. My "let it ride" friend found something saying that as the compressor gets warm, not even hot, that it can do something to the rubber vibration mounts that can cause that smell when new, along with the fact that it runs longer cycles when new to get down to temp that the fan motor might get warmer than normal or something along those lines.

Got a new fridge yesterday to replace the 25+ year old GE. It's not that the GE died, but it was small, loud, and didn't have an automatic ice maker. Replaced it with a Frigidaire 25.5 cubic foot side-by-side with that "no prints" stainless steel that I got on sale at Lowe's for $300 off or something... pretty good deal for $860 out the door I think. After the new fridge and freezer got to temp (three whole hours? really?), we moved all the food over and I got the old fridge into the basement for beer, sodas we don't drink, and more freezer space for CostCo runs. Moving on up, getting fancy stuff my friends and family have had for a decade

Depending on material costs in your area and how you want to anchor it to yourporch, you could do a 12x13 rectangle by 9 feet tall like I did for $450ish probably. Depends on what size you want for posts, cross bars, PT or cedar or redwood, etc. My posts were part of the deck so the pergola alone cost is a little skewed. My mom is pretty nifty with a sewing machine too so she's making me a canvas cover for the pergola to hold me over until I can get some vines or hops or grapes to grow and cover it.

Thanks! We're really happy with how it turned out. I love the stain color you put on your deck. I'm going to probably stain my deck a similar color, maybe slightly lighter, in the spring after the wood dries out a bit.

Finally finished the deck minus some landscaping to fix the grass around the outside. I got home from Lowe's Saturday morning with 4x 2x6x12s hanging out the back of my sedan, carrying two of them up the driveway to see my girlfriend hurriedly trying to assemble the outdoor sectional. I stare at her with a blank face realizing there's a new grill, fire pit, and boxes for three tables spread all over the yard too. She mustered a meek "Happy anniversary," somewhat sad I was home before she could finish and hoping I wouldn't get in full future-husband "Honey, how much did you spend" mode. I love the grill, the furniture is what we wanted (just next spring), and the tables are great. Grill was an anniversary gift and the other furniture was her contribution to the deck is slaved over for a month and a half. She had it delivered the day before and told me not to go in the garage because my birthday gift was hidden in there... I was assuming it was a new golf bag or something. I got the crossbars up, hung two strands of lights on hooks, built a quick step from scraps, and I'm calling it done for the season. Night shot after we had her parents over for a birthday shindig. The lights aren't nearly as bright in person and are the perfect brightness... bright enough to see where you're walking but dark enough for some mood lighting with a bonfire.

I finished the deck boards and the fascia boards Sunday and decided that was enough for the day and had a ham sandwich. I ended up finishing the pergola top Monday. I still need to add some 2x8 crossbars going toward the house because there's still a lot of give in the pergola. There goes another $50 on wood and lag screws. I've got some lights and hooks to hang them with but I'm going to wait until the wood structure is totally done before doing that. We'll get a patio sectional couch and some other stuff in the spring. I might also build some of those wood raised planter box things along the house as well... pic for reference. Probably put some herbs or something in them.

Well, for some reason I can't upload more pictures (invalid file?) even though they're below the max resolution and size and they're jpg. So here's the one of where I was at Sunday night with the exception of the posts in the middle of the outer spans which were cemented after the picture. I framed the back wall of the deck and just set it into the joist hangers along with the center spans sitting in hangers as well. I have those in there to make sure I cement the posts in the right spots... just a guide really. I'm going to put 2x10 fascia boards up and bolt them through the posts as well just to make everything more sturdy before I dig the base out and frame in all the deck joists. I also have to dig window wells in the back and possibly relocate the hose. Below's Simpson Strong Tie's rating for the "deck joist tie" that I used.

I used the Simpson ties someone else mentioned a little while back. When used with the specified 8x 16d/penny 3.5" nails, they're good for 1100lb or something crazy. My spans are 12 and 13 feet but there's a post in the center of each span too. Pics later.

Slow going on my pergola/deck combo due to other commitments during the week, some overtime, and the weather. I managed to get the big pergola cross bars up and bolted in today by myself. I have wood in my garage to frame out the main box/perimeter of the deck tomorrow as well, so progress is being made. I'm really not looking forward to digging out inside the main box but it needs done so water isn't draining toward the house. My neighbor asked if he could take the dirt (SCORE) but I still have to get rid of the sod somehow.

Corner posts in for the deck. I ended up going with 4x6s as all the 6x6s (like 40 of them) looked like hell. I'm pissed at myself for being out of square by a half inch or so but once it's all built, no one will know. It's the engineer perfectionist in me.

Yeah, camera and LEDs for $15-30ish. I haven't found one with USB-C for my Google Pixel (haven't looked much though) but they have them for most everything else. For how often they get used, I couldn't bring myself to pay hundreds for a dedicated one.

They have them on Amazon with LEDs that plug into the USB/stupidiphoneport on your phone... like 12 foot lead for $20 bucks or something and they're small diameter so they'd work for tight spots on cars too.

Just stiffness comparison. I'm not tiling an outdoor deck. I'm saying if a floor isn't "springy" for tile, it won't be springy for a normal deck if built with the same or better deflection. People use tile outside?

When prepping an indoor floor for tile, they say you need deflection no more than L/360, otherwise the floor bends too much and as we all know, masonry doesn't flex so the tiles pop. Using L/360 deflection as the "standard" with 10 pounds per square foot dead load (weight of the structure itself) along with 80 pounds per square foot live load (what kitchens and other residential gathering areas are sometimes built to), I can do a max span of 7 feet 10 inches on a 2x6 joist if spaced 12" OC. http://www.awc.org/codes-standards/calculators-software/spancalc Southern Pine is what most lumber is made from, pressure treated is usually plain ol' "Number 2", non-incised, etc etc...

Just something my neighbor said... he only poured half depth for the posts for his pergola. I didn't know that was a thing which is why I asked. It'd also be a way to save on concrete. If I have 9 holes, 12" diameter roughly (maybe bigger), 6x6 posts (5.5"x5.5" actual), and I pour roughly 36" deep, I'll need 22x 80lb bags of concrete. That's over the payload limit of most pickup trucks...

Also, I could do 2x6 joists (max span 7'10") if I space them 12" OC, assuming 10psf dead load, 80psf live load, and I'm cool with L/360 deflection which is the "standard" deflection allowed in prep'd floors for tile. This would keep the deck shorter and wouldn't block as much of the windows... If it's stiff enough to keep floor tiles from popping...

I'm going to put in some window wells for the windows. Can't do an actual ledger board to masonry. My house is also a legitimate brick frame on the exterior walls (no studs) so there's no good way to secure it. I'm going to use 2x8s for the deck (no spans over about 6.5 feet) and adding a max 1.5" for the deck board thickness, I have about 9-10 inches height. The windows are about 16" tall so I won't completely block them. Deck will slightly slope away from the house. Because of the hose and the electrical conduit, I have to stay about 6" away from the house anyway. I'm still trying to figure out what to do so people/chair legs don't fall into that gap. What can't be seen is where the holes are furthest from the house, the ground is about 6" higher than next to the house, which is a water nightmare. I'm going to have to dig all that out by hand under the deck. Going to dig out the rest of the holes tomorrow I think (final depth with post hole digger) and maybe do the corner posts Wednesday. How deep/much would you guys pour for the concrete? All the way to ground level or stop at about 3/4 depth of the hole?

Finished laying out the batten boards and string so I could mark post hole locations. Rented the 2 man auger from Home Depot and muscled it with my dad for four hours to get the nine holes made. I still have some clean up to do with a standard post hole digger (tailings falling back into the hole) but otherwise they're done. After clean up, they should be about 40 inches deep, 12 inch diameter, ready for some 6x6 posts. I'm going to do the corner posts first (12 footers) and after that concrete sets, I'll use those posts as the braces to keep the shorter middle posts straight. Going to put ~6 inches of gravel in the bottom of each hole and the rest with concrete.

My neighbor had a couple "squares" of his driveway done like that... couple hundred bucks and a couple hours and they were done. Way cheaper, faster, and easier than demo and pour fresh as long as the rest of it's in good condition.

Yeah... the floating deck I'd be building would not be attached to the house at all. That said, I'm 99% sure tearing down and rebuilding my non-attached garage would require a permit for more than just the electrical. Go figure. Thinking about something like this with a pergola. http://hgtvhome.sndimg.com/content/dam/images/hgrm/fullset/2012/12/14/0/DYCR608_floating-deck_s4x3.jpg.rend.hgtvcom.1280.960.jpeg