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What's on your mind at this instant? -- Volume 13


ammcinnis

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4 hours ago, stm25rs said:

Not planning on having kids, so that helps with the budget! We also offered significantly less than asking price, and the sellers accepted, so I think we got pretty lucky. 

It's in Baltimore County, Middle River area.

We had looked at a bunch of waterfront houses before going the build route. Didn't really like the older (~1950s and earlier) houses, which are mostly split levels or small cape cods. We also looked at some newer builds which had the nice open floor plans we wanted, but those were in neighborhoods we didn't like as much.

DR or rural zoning?  After having city water I won't go for well and septic, which limits my choices of lots if I ever want to build.

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Alex Jones is an asshole and he didn’t get 9 years in Russian prison.  Off to get my abortion and new pistol, y’all.  Cough cleared up, but these genital pox lesions are making it hard to walk.  Should I try bleach on them? AFAF…

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16 hours ago, thefultonhow said:

DR or rural zoning?  After having city water I won't go for well and septic, which limits my choices of lots if I ever want to build.

DR5.5. Lot already has sewer and water hook-ups. No natural gas in the neighborhood, so we were thinking about having a big buried propane tank installed, primarily for cooking. But reading more about induction cooktops, that's the route we're gonna go. 

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7 hours ago, stm25rs said:

DR5.5. Lot already has sewer and water hook-ups. No natural gas in the neighborhood, so we were thinking about having a big buried propane tank installed, primarily for cooking. But reading more about induction cooktops, that's the route we're gonna go. 

How big is the lot?  That's a pretty dense zoning... usually used for townhomes AFAIK.  Cool if you've got a big lot though...

Do the propane tank anyway, both for heat and possible future generator (dunno how the power is there, but it will be nice to have the ability to put one in if you need it).  Plumb a line to the back deck area for a grill while you're at it.  My parents were thinking about doing a propane cooktop when they renovated, but went induction and don't regret it.

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My neighbor work truck got stolen. The funny thing is these thieves are so stupid. His truck has the company name and phone number on both side of the truck. I went to view my CCTV they stole it around 3:43am. 

Edited by amusa
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8 hours ago, amusa said:

My neighbor work truck got stolen. The funny thing is these thieves are so stupid. His truck has the company name and phone number on both side of the truck. I went to view my CCTV they stole it around 3:43am. 

Either stupid or stolen for parts and contents in which case they don't care that it was a work truck.

Sometimes all they are after are tools of the trade in the truck.

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4 hours ago, apexi said:

Sad, and surprising. I had no idea this airbag shrapnel stuff went back all the way to 2006. A 23 year old was killed by shrapnel in his 2006 Ford Ranger after a minor crash.

https://weartv.com/news/local/troopers-pensacola-traffic-fatality-blamed-on-recalled-takata-air-bags

Farther back than that.  The earliest cars with the issue are from 2001.  The latest are from 2016 or newer (I haven't checked recently, so not sure if more cars have been added).

My boss's (since-retired) 2003 Honda Pilot and my mom's 2016 Tesla Model S were both recalled, as were my 2005 LGT (after I had already sold it) and my dad's 2010 Outback.

If you have any car produced in that timeframe, especially a 4th gen or 5th gen Legacy or Outback, check your VIN for recalls to see if your car is included.  As a reminder, the repair is free.

EDIT: looks like the oldest car currently on the list is the 1996 Honda Civic Coupe and the newest one is the 2018 Infiniti QX30.  Subaru vehicles included are the 2003–2014 Legacy and Outback; 2003–2006 Baja; 2004–2011 Impreza; 2006–2014 Tribeca; 2009–2013 Forester; and 2004–2014 WRX and WRX STI.

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16 hours ago, thefultonhow said:

Farther back than that.  The earliest cars with the issue are from 2001.  The latest are from 2016 or newer (I haven't checked recently, so not sure if more cars have been added).

Yeah I'm a dummy. I totally forgot that my '09 legacy had the passenger side replaced, so 2006 shouldn't have been much of a surprise. 1996 on the other hand, dang..

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On 8/5/2022 at 4:35 PM, thefultonhow said:

How big is the lot?  That's a pretty dense zoning... usually used for townhomes AFAIK.  Cool if you've got a big lot though...

Do the propane tank anyway, both for heat and possible future generator (dunno how the power is there, but it will be nice to have the ability to put one in if you need it).  Plumb a line to the back deck area for a grill while you're at it.  My parents were thinking about doing a propane cooktop when they renovated, but went induction and don't regret it.

Lot is around 0.22 acres. 50 ft wide and about 200ft long. Other homes in the neighborhood are on 50 or 75 ft wide lots. DR5.5 includes a variety of structures including single family, duplex, and townhouses. We would love to have a couple acres, but a couple acres on the water around here would be $1.5+ million.... so just a little outside of our budget lol

We plan to do solar panels, and I'm expecting propane will continue to get more expensive, while grid electricity stays comparatively stable or drops in price. 

Maybe a smaller above ground tank for grill and generator, but won't be doing a large buried tank for heat and hot water. Big upfront cost adder, for an uncertain return on investment.

We'll be doing an instantaneous water heater. It'll need to have a high capacity for when we have guests, but since it'll mostly just be the two of us, won't be wasting a lot of heat with a large tank heater.

I can post drawings later, just need to edit out personal info.

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3 hours ago, stm25rs said:

Lot is around 0.22 acres. 50 ft wide and about 200ft long. Other homes in the neighborhood are on 50 or 75 ft wide lots. DR5.5 includes a variety of structures including single family, duplex, and townhouses. We would love to have a couple acres, but a couple acres on the water around here would be $1.5+ million.... so just a little outside of our budget lol

We plan to do solar panels, and I'm expecting propane will continue to get more expensive, while grid electricity stays comparatively stable or drops in price. 

Maybe a smaller above ground tank for grill and generator, but won't be doing a large buried tank for heat and hot water. Big upfront cost adder, for an uncertain return on investment.

We'll be doing an instantaneous water heater. It'll need to have a high capacity for when we have guests, but since it'll mostly just be the two of us, won't be wasting a lot of heat with a large tank heater.

I can post drawings later, just need to edit out personal info.

The electric tankless water heaters aren't very energy efficient. If you're going all-electric, a hybrid heat-pump tank unit makes more sense. 

Similarly, although heat pump HVAC does help, electric emergency heat (needed for very cold temps when heat pumps lose efficiency) is really inefficient compared to NG. 

Your house, but if it were me I'd still do a full sized propane tank. The upfront cost is peanuts compared to all the other expenses of building, and it's not like you'd ever regret having extra capacity, but you might regret not having it. 

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3 hours ago, apexi said:

Yeah I'm a dummy. I totally forgot that my '09 legacy had the passenger side replaced, so 2006 shouldn't have been much of a surprise. 1996 on the other hand, dang..

There are quite few 97-99 models on the list, too. Bizarrely, one of them is the Supra. 

It really picks up around 2001, though. I think the early dual-stage inflators were the worst. 

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13 hours ago, thefultonhow said:

The electric tankless water heaters aren't very energy efficient. If you're going all-electric, a hybrid heat-pump tank unit makes more sense. 

Similarly, although heat pump HVAC does help, electric emergency heat (needed for very cold temps when heat pumps lose efficiency) is really inefficient compared to NG. 

Sure, but propane is more $/BTU than NG, so it isn't as big of a difference when comparing propane to electric as NG to electric.

We're doing a high efficiency wood fireplace on the first floor, so that will help for supplemental heat.

 

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There's a huge price increase in new england once you go buried propane. If you can even find a tank. The above ground tanks, though not as pretty, are much more affordable. Ours are actually free if we fill them 1.5 X their capacity in a year. Two 100 gallon tanks next to each other will likely get you through a good amount of time in your area. Maybe even 1. 

Also, you've mentioned pulling permits, etc. Are you gc'ing this yourself? We just built, and i can assure you, not using a (GOOD) gc will add a fair amount of time and headaches. Part of my job is construction management in a way, and i still didnt want to tackle that!  Plus, time was of the essence. 

Be ready to order your cabinets, and what not as soon as you have a plan in place and your site work people are ready to go. Siding choice as well. Some things are really easy to get, but if you want something very particular, you may have to wait. This is also where using a GC will help you. They can steer you in the right direction to supply houses that can actually fulfill on time. We were just about 6 months to completion once the foundation was done. That was with crews there nearly every day. Our gc did a nice job keeping the subs as tightly scheduled as possible. 

Solar panels may help, but Im not sure what your state's rules are. Are you netzero? Buying the panels is almost always the best option. At that rate, you might want to think about a power wall. Especially if you were ever to think about an automatic generator anyways... The price for the powerwall is more, but they're pretty wild. 

 

My two cents at least!

Edited by jasejase
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3 hours ago, jasejase said:

There's a huge price increase in new england once you go buried propane. If you can even find a tank. The above ground tanks, though not as pretty, are much more affordable. Ours are actually free if we fill them 1.5 X their capacity in a year. Two 100 gallon tanks next to each other will likely get you through a good amount of time in your area. Maybe even 1. 

Also, you've mentioned pulling permits, etc. Are you gc'ing this yourself? We just built, and i can assure you, not using a (GOOD) gc will add a fair amount of time and headaches. Part of my job is construction management in a way, and i still didnt want to tackle that!  Plus, time was of the essence. 

Be ready to order your cabinets, and what not as soon as you have a plan in place and your site work people are ready to go. Siding choice as well. Some things are really easy to get, but if you want something very particular, you may have to wait. This is also where using a GC will help you. They can steer you in the right direction to supply houses that can actually fulfill on time. We were just about 6 months to completion once the foundation was done. That was with crews there nearly every day. Our gc did a nice job keeping the subs as tightly scheduled as possible. 

Solar panels may help, but Im not sure what your state's rules are. Are you netzero? Buying the panels is almost always the best option. At that rate, you might want to think about a power wall. Especially if you were ever to think about an automatic generator anyways... The price for the powerwall is more, but they're pretty wild. 

 

My two cents at least!

You don't have to do leased tanks. In fact, I wouldn't. My parents bought theirs. They can use whoever the lowest priced service is that will deliver to them. With a leased tank, the tank may be "free" if you get regular deliveries but you'll likely pay more for the deliveries than market rate, because you're locked into a contract with the one company. 

I do like the powerwalls. When we go solar I think I will put one of them in too. The goal would be to get as little power from the grid as possible. 

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100% accurate on the tank issue. If you want to shop around every fill up, that's an option. Where we have tanks, there are only a couple games in town, so I didnt want to deal with it.  Especially to save $30 a fill up. 

 

 

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On 8/9/2022 at 10:27 AM, jasejase said:

Also, you've mentioned pulling permits, etc. Are you gc'ing this yourself? We just built, and i can assure you, not using a (GOOD) gc will add a fair amount of time and headaches. Part of my job is construction management in a way, and i still didnt want to tackle that!  Plus, time was of the essence.

We're working with a builder. Interviewed several, got references, lots of other due diligence. He's done several waterfront builds, including one on our peninsula that was completed last year. The homeowners invited us in for a tour and had tons of praise. Sounds like he's got a lot of the supply chain issues pretty well sorted out - knows when things need to be ordered, etc.

Our architect is doing the permit submission package, and it will probably take about 3 months to get approval. So in that time we'll be finalizing our finishes and getting ready to order. 

I also did some more research on the heat pump low temp efficiency subject. Looks like in the last 10 years or so, there have been big efficiency improvements, and plenty of units that still have COP around 2, down to single digit temps. So maybe a COP of 3.5-4 at 40 degrees, but still around 2.5 at 20-25 degrees, so I think we're good there. An electric aux heat wouldn't kick in until the heat pump drops below COP = 1.

We'll probably be doing a power wall, need to research incentives from the new bill. Will be doing 400 amps for the house, having garage prepped for EV charging, probably prep for a generator transfer switch, things of that nature.

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On 8/10/2022 at 12:06 PM, stm25rs said:

We're working with a builder. Interviewed several, got references, lots of other due diligence. He's done several waterfront builds, including one on our peninsula that was completed last year. The homeowners invited us in for a tour and had tons of praise. Sounds like he's got a lot of the supply chain issues pretty well sorted out - knows when things need to be ordered, etc.

Our architect is doing the permit submission package, and it will probably take about 3 months to get approval. So in that time we'll be finalizing our finishes and getting ready to order. 

I also did some more research on the heat pump low temp efficiency subject. Looks like in the last 10 years or so, there have been big efficiency improvements, and plenty of units that still have COP around 2, down to single digit temps. So maybe a COP of 3.5-4 at 40 degrees, but still around 2.5 at 20-25 degrees, so I think we're good there. An electric aux heat wouldn't kick in until the heat pump drops below COP = 1.

We'll probably be doing a power wall, need to research incentives from the new bill. Will be doing 400 amps for the house, having garage prepped for EV charging, probably prep for a generator transfer switch, things of that nature.

Nice!

 

A generator is still handy to have with a power wall.... Just in case. A dual fuel one would be even better. Im a fan of the interlock kits, but if you want automatic, that's not possible. But if you have a power wall, you wont have automatic, so interlock could be an option to discuss with your electrician. Especially if you have a little know how. You just have a lot more flexibility on your panel. 

The federal incentive drops from 26% to 22% in January 2023. It is what it is. 

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3 hours ago, jasejase said:

The federal incentive drops from 26% to 22% in January 2023. It is what it is. 

Sounds like, with the new reconciliation bill, it's actually 30% for the next 10 years.

Also, Powerwalls are now eligible for the 30% incentive too.

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Today, I'm doing a complete front brakes. My pad warning light came on from Friday. Went to inspect it and I have no brake pads left up front. Lucky it happen before I left for this road trip. 

Also my neighbor got his work truck back.  Found out there was another vehicle was stolen from the neighborhood last week. Not sure if that person ever got his vehicle recover. 

Edited by amusa
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