What home improvement work did you do today?

I'm pretty sure you have a Window Depot up there in Phoenix. We did our countertops with granite from them a couple of years ago, best prices I could find and they will usually have some pieces laying around either extras or slabs slightly broken in shipping that you can get super cheap.

 

Thanks. I'll look them up if our countertop guy can't assist. We ended up using Stone City AZ from a friends recommendation.

 

I love Phoenix area. It was my late father-in-law’s favorite place. He lived in Glendale around 2004-2006 while running an office we had down there. My wife went to ASU for a year in early 90’s and lived down there for another year after that... she still has friends in Tempe and Ahwatukee, and my MIL has two time shares in Scottsdale that we have gone to for spring break about every three years.

 

Tile is officially finished. Had to get the plumber in to redo the lines. Now ready for drywall paint and base in the whole house.

 

Find the cell provider with decent service. T-mobile and Verizon both offer 4G Home Internet now. ATT is a little trickier if you want unlimited.

Check out www.ltehacks.com for other options.

I'm using Verizon right now typical speeds are 30-50 down 4-6 up. My wife is working from home and daughter has been remote schooling with no issues.

 

"Open Concept" .... The art of making a tiny house look huge inside while also sacrificing everyone's privacy.

Learned a lot watching HGTV and looking for houses. I mainly learned I hate the Open Concept floor plan.

 

Looks like the home improvement work I'll be doing tomorrow will be replacing my furnace flame sensor...

 

I can't really "like" that. Bummer. Hope it's not a COLD night for you...

 

Only -11C (+7F). Could be worse, I suppose...

 

Mind sharing what brand and model your new faucet is? (I tried to zoom in and all I could make out was the number, which didn't yield anything productive)

 

I believe it’s a Danze

 

Good eyes!!! Now that you said it, I can totally read it. Damn my eyes!

 

Well, the existing flame sensor magically started working after I cleaned it (even though it didn't look dirty at all) so I guess I'll just hang onto the replacement I bought for now.

 

Sounds about like the crap we have out this way. I'm waiting for Elon to get the bugs worked out with StarLink and I'm jumping on board that shit.

 

So much for Viasat install - line of site problems, and we'd have to do a custom install with ~$2k worth of equipment plus trenching power and network out through our yard for ~300 ft to power it.

 

I'm on the waitlist for the Starlink Beta.

Here's my speed currently on Verizon 4G Home. This is with me streaming Hulu, my wife working on Zoom/Quickbooks Online, and my daughter doing a Google Meet with her friends. Typically early morning just streaming it hits 50+

 

We're trapped with one shitty provider (Spectrum) where I live, there's no others in the area. They shaft you on speed and stick it to you with the billing because they know there's no competition. Should be illegal.

 

I'm also on the StarLink waitlist. Fingers crossed.

After spending $1k on a WeBoost home system, I can get 1 bar of Verizon 4G in my house. T-Mobile and ATT are even worse for my house. Just tucked behind a mountain and in the trees enough that nothing gets here.

We've been fighting with our DSL provider (paying for 5Mbps down/0.5Mbps up - the "best they can offer") for two months now - service went to shit (more than usual) as soon as the fall rains hit, massive static on the phone line, and any time a phone call would ring the internet would drop out. They kept saying "lines are perfect, check your filters, etc." The first tech (took 4 weeks for the first service call) put in a splitter at the demarc box in place of the hardwired splitter in my basement (I've got a pretty elaborate wiring setup). No change. Second tech (2 more weeks waiting) checked all the pairs/splices back to main gear and couldn't resolve it. Third tech (another 2 weeks waiting) just yesterday was actually very knowledgeable, and after he looked at my setup he said he could tell that I had already eliminated any issues downstream of the demarc box, so it HAD to be somewhere upstream. Just to be sure, he tried a new splitter, no fix. Checked all splices and all pairs in the same cable as ours all the way back to the main gear. Lines all checked out clean. Then he came back out and ran a bunch more tests - confirmed 100% that the data was filtering at the splitter, but the line was still static and would drop data as soon as a call came in or went out. Said he'd never encountered anything like it. In a "last ditch" check, he switched our line to a new port on the main gear - and the problem was instantly solved. He actually spent the entire day working on it, more than any of the others wanted to spend.

This isn't the first time we've had a port on their main gear be the issue (last time it happened our whole system was down completely - about 4 years ago). You'd think that would be the first thing to check... Unfortunately, all of the techs were contractors (because our crap little phone company can't man their own service), so they were dealing with limited access and limited information.

So, for now at least, we've got working internet. Still the same ~3/0.3 we've been getting for the past couple years, but at least it's working again.

Needs a little clean-up since I've been messing with it the past two months trying to ensure it wasn't something on our end, but this is the distribution in our basement. Most everything in the house is hardwired except mobile devices. And my eero wifi is all on hardwire backhaul to keep the wifi mesh dedicated to devices. But I'm stuck "filling a swimming pool with a garden hose" when it comes to my actual connection.

 

I feel your pain, even the Verizon hardwired here 90% of the work is subbed out and the 3 boxes between me and the closest station are literally covered with duct taped garbage bags. It's bad enough they never even offered DSL in my area.

The WeBoost systems are great for phone calls but unfortunately don't do alot for data. Directional antennas to a 4G router may get you decent results, I was seeing 15/3 with that setup with a -110db signal.

 

The WeBoost we've got is a directional external antenna (I've got a 6ft mast on the third story of the house with RG11 running down to the actual booster, then RG11 running to the internal antenna in the main living/dining/kitchen area of the main floor). I set it up with the hope that if we could get something from it, we could try a 4G router. Unfortunately, we're not even seeing -110db at the antenna. With the booster, I can see -130db to -118db if I stand within 10' of the internal antenna.

 

Exterior paint is finished with the exception of the front porch ceiling and back patio ceiling. The drywall guy will be out on Monday to do some repair before those are painted. Still laying more tile today as well.

Before/after paint.

 

That looks really clean, nice job.

 

That front yard must be a bitch to mow.

 

Tile guys made some more progress today.

 

I really like that color tile, good choice.

 

It was actually one of the cheaper tiles, but we really liked the color. Floor and Decor.

 

Edgebanding walnut shelves for the kitchen. Almost ready for a few coats of poly.

 

I'm in Dublin - Get the dogs on, I'll bring the beer.

 

More baseboards.

1 more room and a few complex sections/transitions left to go.




Edit: Also need to paint that white HVAC grate.

 

Finally got around to replacing the mailbox. Will stain the post this spring when I do the fence.