What home improvement work did you do today?

I have both, but also my Luba “turtle” does 95 % of my mowing now.



The deer are curious seeing the robot in action. It takes about 8 hours over 2 days to do my lawn area. It about 5000 sq ft around the house and another 20 K in the back. I break it into 2 days, as it has to come and recharge, the slope in back is about 15 to 20 degrees in spots, a drain on the turtle battery.
Here is a closer look at my turtle.

 

Lifts are kino but yeah drywall is a huge pain, for me it’s the finishing step that sucks the worse.

 

Yeah I’m equally dreading finishing. But I know it’ll be worth it to have a brand new kitchen when it’s all said and done

 

Getting the house surveyed for solar panels.... These electric bills are getting out of hand....

 

Always forget about this thread. Some recent bath renos. That full mosaic shower is crazy, but sometimes the client wants what they want.

 

Yes they do. That's what made me take the plunge, everything that I have going on right now, I'm going with a PPA agreement. It's the best choice for me at the moment, since these medical bills are becoming overwhelming. Once I catch up with most of them and see how the Tesla wall holds up against the heat after a couple of summers, I'll swap it to a full purchase. This for sure will cut my bill in half, a full purchase would just replace my 80% of my current bill... I now how sales pitches go, but I want to see the reliability of these power walls, how far will they go before they loose efficiency under 100+ heat...

 

Yeah, they're increasing the rate next month and again in January, as they've already put in a request earlier in the year and this is the 3rd one this year if I remember correctly. So by the time June '25 rolls around my average monthly payment will probably be around $650-700. My average fall and winter bill sit around $280... My last power bill was $1,500, the one before was 1,800, and my thermostat is set to 78 as the power company wants it and my kid loses his mind cuz he hates sweating. Eitherway I've set up my account to pay the average for the year, so they'll average my usage based on previous years and get an average bill which in my case was like $450 a month, but this year has been a little rough, so to speak. So, I took a gander on my bill since I got an email about changes to my payment plan and that B ballooned up to like $6K, so my last 3 bills must have been 16, 17, 18 and 1500 per the last 4 months... At this point I'm like yeah, I'm drawing the line in the sand here.... I'm done with getting abused, what sold me to jump on this was the power wall, since the peak rates are after the sun goes down, so even if you have solar in this area, they'll still get us. 2 they'll upgrade my electrical panel, and repair any parts of the roof, since they have to guarantee it for 10 years. Both technically for free, but we all know nothing is free in this world... It will buy me some time to make bigger repairs with the offset in the bill. I do plan on purchasing the system in a few years, may not be able to get a tax credit with it, but I'd have caught up with a lot of things in the meantime.

 

How do you like those freestanding tub fillers?

Had to install ours on slab foundation...what a pain

 

That shit is just criminal, I can't believe those bills.
CA I'm assuming?

 

LMAO.. Yes. I bet that now that I'm getting panels the summers will not be as hot anymore and we'll have more weather days as well.. Cuz it always works out that way.

 

The room looks great and congrats on the upcoming kiddo! After the shock wears off, it's awesome. I had the 'new' rona jump on me recently and it knocked me down for a few days. Never really felt super 'sick', just extremely fatigued. Hope you are feeling better now.

 

We went from Propane heat to heat pumps. I definitely wanted to get off the propane bill, and the heat pumps did it but I’d did not realize we would be using the cooling of the heat pump as much as we did in the last 2 months. I keep the heat pump cool temp at 73.
We installed our solar panels in Oct 2022. We had been given 2 panel design estimates, one for the basic and another for future expansion. We opted for the larger system with a battery backup on 6 circuits. I thought that was enough for our needs. Fast forward a couple years and a house about a mile away installed a system with double my panels and 10x battery backup. He has his whole house backed up in case of power outage.
Anyways, what they recommend is one thing but what you may want is another. And what you end up doing depends upon your disposal income. Good luck.
We like our system and we generate enough electricity and feed excess back to the grid for credit when we need it in the winter due to lack of sun, clouds and rain. We have not had an electric bill beyond the monthly $15 since March 2023.
My wife loves the fact the battery back up is seamless. Our first power outage was when was watching tv, she did not realize the power was off in the feast of the house. I used to work and travel, and still hear about when the power was out for 5 days in the winter. We had a generator and transfer switch at the old house but it was not a permanent installation. The battery backup was a no brainer. We still have the propane furnace so if the power goes off we still have heat as the propane is still there. That worked also.
Also, in our area, if you do not have a battery backup your system ….for some reason it cannot be hooked to the grid to send power back. The sending power back may not be an option for all areas from what I have heard and may be available for a certain time period if you read the fine print.

 

Yeah, I'm reading the fine print, I learned that lesson in the Navy aka Never Again Volunteer Yourself, among other ones.... My system is being built for 110% of power usage based on my biggest bill...

I've been advise to replace my TRANE A/C unit as it sounds like it's on its last leg which may decrease my energy usage, on top of that SCE is pushing back on how many panels I can mount up there, if I can get them to pay me it would be better, and I'd push for a much bigger system.... We get so much sun out here no one knows what to do with... The only thing I'm really worried about is battery and panel longevity under direct sunlight. There is a house down the road with shattered panels, that can be seen clearly under the sun

I may go back with American Home Shield... I got mad and ditched them when I purchased the house, because I filed a claim in August about my A/C unit not working and it took them all of 6 months just for them to give me a call back, so I let it lapse, now I may have to swallow my pride and go back for some free99 services, lol.... Cali is trying to get people on them heat pumps... I may consider it, since the gas bill is out the ass too.... January's bill was $1,000 Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you too... I'm looking forward to some of this relief though, not gonna lie.

 

Here's my theory about solar panels...

99.5% of people who have had solar panels installed have them put on the roof of the house.. So now how many holes are they putting in the roof to bolt those panels down ?? That's that many chances for a leak ...

Say your roof is 10,15,20 years old when the panels are installed... That was a pretty big expense to have those panels installed... Now 5,10 years later and you need a new roof.. What do you think the expense will be to have those panels removed, the new roof put on, then the panels reinstalled with new holes (how many was that) drilled in the new roof for all those chances of a leak again...

I dunno.. just can't bring myself to do that...

 

I had the same thought when we went through the process. Luckily we had the space and had them ground mounted. Charged us more for it but went with it anyways. This way I can clean them, maintain them or replace them much easier.

 

Progress, floor in, walls up. Not sure on doors and windows so I will cut them in when I figure that out. Lot of Orbs in last pic.

 

100% agree with you, and I got roof tiles and in Cali, so that would be three times the price..... On another note, it appears they come with a 10 year leak proof warranty, but I'll have to read the fine print to verify this. The claim is they'll repair any issues with the roof prior to installing any panel... Installing them will introduce various failure points, and I understand this. Outside of that, I don't live in climate diverse area. I live in the high desert where we do get frost from time to time, some rain from time to time, and most of the time it's clear and a million... I can probably count in 1 hand the times it rains out here... We get a sprinkle and that's rain... We've had heavy downpours, probably 4 times in the last 3 years... At the moment, I'm not really worried about. I do worry about bird poo, but they come with a maintenance plan included and again I'll have to read the fine print for this, which if I elect to purchase will fall under my responsibility. On top of that we have what's called the wind festival, that lasts from the 1st of January till the 31st of December.

 

Let me say this first, this is a non-political post, just the facts of what's going on here....
How? Was the same question I've asked.... My highest bill my 1st 2 years were like $300, but this last winter, a bunch of heavy-duty diesel vehicles were banned from entering/operating in the state... Word is newer heavy duty trucks were forced retired due to emissions testing tightening, so it exploded our rates because now only certain trucks could enter the state and be used for transport. People all around my neighborhood were getting easily double the bill I was getting, but $1,000 was the average cost. Once people from all over the county were complaining, they turned in their carbon credits in an attempt to save face and sorta lower rates... we get a $1000 bill, best they could do was $50-75, official pdf file below.... lol..

N24J007A_Climate_Credit_2024-2_23_final.pdf (socalgas.com)
News: California's Commercial Diesel Truck Restriction Is In Effect - Here Are All the Details - The Fast Lane Truck (tfltruck.com)
Diesel Cummins vs Electric Truck - Are EV Trucks REALLY the Future OR Just a Flash In The Pan? (youtube.com)

 

Wow, EVERYTHING came out beautifully! Love it, great job on the house and the furniture!

 

I too never understood the draw to solar panels. By the time you factor in all the costs, including the cost of the actual panels and installation, as well as future maintenance and repair costs, it would probably take 30 years at least to actually break even, let alone see any value. I could be wrong, but you are better off just paying your normal electric bill!

 

my brother got a Rivian and wanted to explore the solar options for his whole house, including charging the suv. They came out and spent a ton of time measuring, calculating, discussing…..after he crunched the numbers, it would have taken 32 years for him to show a return on investment…..he is 55. There is zero chance he is going to do it now but we were both shocked at the upfront cost and the time it would take to show any benefit financially. They make it seem like it’s a no brainer and it’s “free” power…..as we all know, NOTHING in life is free….

 

at 2 different times, we've had a couple companies come out and talk to us about it. We finished building our "forever home" at 30 years old, so figured if we could make the numbers work....we would. we had 2-3 companies come out 2 separate times about 4-5 years apart. there were different tax incentives each time. both times, almost each company stated that the return would take 30 years or more (assuming the price of electricity would cost the same or go up slightly). most didn't even push hard because they all seemed to know that the numbers wouldn't match up. in the end, we opted out of doing it because our energy bill payments would be typically less than the monthly fee for the panels. unless there's another decent tax incentive of 80% coverage of the panels and labor, we wouldn't consider it. that's not mentioning anything about the extra to run off grid with battery backups either. i'm all about "investing" in something that could pay itself off, but it wasn't there.
then there was the factor of wtf are we going to do with these once they are done/defective?

i'm not 100% no on it, but it's a "no for now" until prices improve, efficiencies improve, disposal options, etc.
i've got 3800 sqft of living i'd love to have help on heating and cooling bills, but seems i'll have to stick with efficient AC units for the biggest factor. having the spray foam has been a HUGE help for us!

 

Thank you. I am feeling better today for sure. It started as a runny nose and then turned in to the, I just dont have the energy. Unfortunately, the wife caught it and it is much harder on her.

And we are getting excited! He could be here any day and our lives are going to change so much1