LUNAT1C’s new(ish) asylum! (First home purchase)

[00R/T]

Garage is looking great! The MyQ system is nice. My house had fairly new Craftsman openers but they didn’t have WiFi, so I bought the MyQ bridge to get them online. I have them integrated with Apple HomeKit like everything else, and it’s nice to have. I also bought two of those belt drive units with the battery backup like you have when there was a clearance deal at Lowe’s. I’m going to install them in my main garage when I get a chance and then the craftsman will move to the detached garage

I can’t believe they’re hitting you for $30 for the Homelink bridge now. They were giving them away for free when the new openers came out because people were angry. The good thing is that they work very well. I had one when I had my 08 WK and used it for years.

[LUNAT1C]

Learning more and more about the quirks of these new openers. Turns out, you can't use just any LED bulb in them. Naturally the assembly directions say something to the effect of "install incandescent bulbs (not provided) or the Chamberlain-branded LED bulbs ONLY!!" which for years has always meant "we'll only guarantee great performance if you spend more money on our overpriced stuff with our name on it". I popped in some old LED bulbs I had kicking around and moved on.

Well, the past few months I have had issues with the 2002 HomeLink communicating with the opener even with the bridge installed. It programs perfectly fine, but seemed like after a few days it would stop communicating. Worked fine around Carlisle, didn't work by August. Reprogrammed right before SC and worked flawlessly. Button 1 didn't open the door coming home from SC, button 2 did. Took the car out the next day to wash it and no buttons worked. Got it back into the garage, now buttons 2 and 3 work, button 1 does not.

Googling found multiple sources saying the Chamberlain brand LED bulb thing is legitimate, they operate on a lower frequency designed not to interfere with the opener signal. Other brand bulbs have a habit of interfering.

For now I plan to pull the car out of the garage and reprogram one more time (I had linked the opener and buttons after connecting the buttons to the bridge while the car was in the garage, I think that impacts the range somehow because the range seems bad and doesn't open until I'm in the driveway, while the Durango gets a good hit from the cul-de-sac), and stick some incandescent bulbs in since it's not on very often. The Chamberlain bulbs are $10, EACH!

[TrepKing95]

Learning more and more about the quirks of these new openers. Turns out, you can't use just any LED bulb in them. Naturally the assembly directions say something to the effect of "install incandescent bulbs (not provided) or the Chamberlain-branded LED bulbs ONLY!!" which for years has always meant "we'll only guarantee great performance if you spend more money on our overpriced stuff with our name on it". I popped in some old LED bulbs I had kicking around and moved on.

Well, the past few months I have had issues with the 2002 HomeLink communicating with the opener even with the bridge installed. It programs perfectly fine, but seemed like after a few days it would stop communicating. Worked fine around Carlisle, didn't work by August. Reprogrammed right before SC and worked flawlessly. Button 1 didn't open the door coming home from SC, button 2 did. Took the car out the next day to wash it and no buttons worked. Got it back into the garage, now buttons 2 and 3 work, button 1 does not.

Googling found multiple sources saying the Chamberlain brand LED bulb thing is legitimate, they operate on a lower frequency designed not to interfere with the opener signal. Other brand bulbs have a habit of interfering.

For now I plan to pull the car out of the garage and reprogram one more time (I had linked the opener and buttons after connecting the buttons to the bridge while the car was in the garage, I think that impacts the range somehow because the range seems bad and doesn't open until I'm in the driveway, while the Durango gets a good hit from the cul-de-sac), and stick some incandescent bulbs in since it's not on very often. The Chamberlain bulbs are $10, EACH!

Those bulbs are ridiculously overpriced! But it reminds me of an issue with a 2012 era Charger that would randomly set TPMS sensor location undetermined codes, that was eventually tracked down as a result of the aftermarket LED switchback bulbs the customer was using in the front park/turn lights. Crazy how something as seemingly insignificant as LED bulbs can cause so many headaches.

[LUNAT1C]

Another project nearly complete. The previous owners left a huge storage thing in the basement that I tried to use as a project bench and storage bench, but it was too cumbersome and too rickety. While I'm off work this week, I got acquainted with my crow bar and ripped that sucker down .

New bench built:

PXL_20211229_025241021.jpg

Shelves built and objects going in:

PXL_20211230_022006984.jpg

The first project is already on the worktop, some recent Carolina residents may recognize it.

I have another shelving kit to build shelves under the stairs, to hold the fascia, dash, and rear bench seats I have stored. I have two light taupe rear Special seats, I should probably get rid of the one I got from a yard years ago.

[LUNAT1C]

One more item partially checked off. For many years I've wanted a wired home network, and kind of had something like that at a couple rentals. Last week I got a box of plenum rated cat6 and a low voltage wall bracket, and assorted connectors and tools, and ran four lines from the basement up through the return to the bedroom I use as my office. Together with a network switch, I can get the full output of my Nest router to my office.

I moved the Netgear modem down to the basement along with the Nest Wifi mesh router. The modem takes the signal from the cable line and passes Ethernet to the router. The router then passes Ethernet to the 16-port switch as well as passing internet through the mesh wifi to the mesh point in the back room of the house. The switch then creates a wired network connected to the internet. Current my desktop and NAS upstairs are connected to the switch. This doubles the speed to my desktop versus wifi and connects my NAS to the internet, creating a personal cloud (as opposed to paying a monthly or yearly fee to Google or Microsoft for their cloud services).

The other two lines will be a spare, and something to connect another wifi point to if I get another one.

I'd like to run several lines out to the backroom as well to hardwire the point back there and hardwire the game consoles, but I'm not sure how to get into that room. The return is at the floor and the room is sunken, no basement below it. The wall behind the TV is an exterior wall. The interior wall behind the couch has no basement access. Might need to peruse the attic above the garage for access to the basement and perhaps ways of dropping a line down along that wall if we keep the point in the back of the room. Won't help getting the consoles connected though.

The new basement setup, power to the equipment is through a UPS with battery backup so the network can run a few hours in a power outage:

PXL_20220126_042631109.jpg

[Sneke_Eyez]

Very cool, Robert.
I want to hardwire my TV, which is directly above my FIOS modem, but I need to run the cat6 and get a network switch and I haven't yet had the energy to do so.

[LUNAT1C]

Very cool, Robert.
I want to hardwire my TV, which is directly above my FIOS modem, but I need to run the cat6 and get a network switch and I haven't yet had the energy to do so.

What drove me to finally do it was my NAS. Western Digital had a big sale on hard drives over the holidays, so I got 8TB of storage for cheap and bought the Synology unit at the same time. To make the Synology a personal cloud, it needed it's own internet connected line. So I went down that rabbit hole of buying a switch at Microcenter, a UPS, low voltage drywall mount, and snake tool at Lowes, and cat6 with keystones from Monoprice. Then it was a matter of finding out which of the returns went to my 2nd floor office before I put a hole somewhere it didn't belong.

[LUNAT1C]

The joys of living in a 30 year old home constructed by a builder that slapped up hundreds (maybe thousands, several neighborhoods near us look similar) of homes in the eighties and early nineties, in what used to be woods...

The previous owners told us about the flying squirrel they had the previous year in the attic, which was removed and hole repaired (poop not removed... that's apparently my "duty"), but they seem to have covered up a rather significant field mouse problem in the basement. Last summer we started noticing chunks of nuts and mouse poop in the basement. Come to find that the plywood that "sealed" (using that term loosely, see builder comment above) the base of the kitchen bay window was thoroughly rotted, and the plywood sealing the base of the dining room bay window didn't cover the entire opening. Naturally, mice, gophers, squirrels, mountain lions, man-bear-pigs, small dogs, and so forth had full access to the basement. At this point, we've pulled out and replacement half the insulation in the basement after finding nuts and poop everywhere, replaced the rotted wood on the one window, and added plywood to the other to close it up. I did the best I could to seal both up with expanding foam outside, but that was next to impossible with the ground less than a foot away.

This month, field mice taught us two things. 1 - The replacement plywood wasn't fully screwed up like I thought it was and 2 - the garage door weatherseal used 30 years ago was doing literally nothing. We were still finding fresh poop in the basement, the new insulation I installed was loaded up with poop and nuts, and we found poop in the back corner of the garage that is up against the basement.

We set traps in the garage and caught one right in front of my car, so I ripped the useless metal trim from the around the vehicle door and nailed up new plastic trim with rubber seals pressed up tight to the door. I also pulled off the old bottom bulb seal and installed a new one after finding a company that restarted manufacturing of the old type seal for Stanley garage doors. No more mice getting caught in the garage... and the temp inside remained over 40F even when it was in the teens overnight. Double win.

Downstairs, I used rodent-type expanding foam inside the bay window that wasn't screwed tight and filled in all the edges. I'm not feeling anymore air gaps now. I did this after traps down there caught two mice. Leaving the insulation out another week to make use of all the below freezing nights we have left and see if any more of them come in. If not, I'll reinsulate, then tear out ALL of the remaining original insulation and the faced insulation they had slapped up to cover the problem from our inspector, and replace it all with fresh attic/crawlspace rated unfaced R30.

We must be making headway. Last summer, our neighbors said they had no issues. One of them did when she bought her house 7 or 8 years ago and she had it taken care of, and loaned us her traps. Last week our other neighbor who is have a $50k kitchen and bath reno done said she found nuts on some of her totes in the basement... they must be looking for other places to go as a result of finding our house harder to get into.

Doesn't make sense that they keep coming to us, we don't keep food in the basement, garage, or outside. Usually try not to put trash in the cans outside even until just before trash day (today).

Hoping that's the end of it... and the freshly sealed door helps even more. I still need to put some wood putty on the surrounding door trim where the previous owners let leaves collect and rot the wood and old metal trim.

[FIREM]

Maybe you guys have made it "the place" to be in the neighborhood LOL.
Have you tried an "Electronic Pest Control Device" ? Our son Paul had an older house with a partial basement / dirt floor crawl space with a rodent problem. Older house with many posable entry points for critters. After "thinning the heard" by conventional means one of these devices was placed in the area. For the next few years there was no issue or evidence of unwelcome "pets" .
Don't remember what brand it was but we did have success with it.
Note : Some of these devices are not "pet' friendly. This was not a problem for them but knowing you have a few would be a consideration.

[LUNAT1C]

I saw a low voltage device at Lowes last week for that purpose, apparently it emits a tone they don't like. Said it was safe for pets, but you're right, that's unknown until plugged it. Two cats and a dog who occasionally will sharply look in a direction with lots of alertness, apparently from a noise we can't hear.

If another one gets in then next step is removing the insulation from the front window area. I had looked at the front bay window outside last year and didn't see any issues.

[LUNAT1C]

Quick follow up on the pest problem - Assuming we can control the local chipmunk infestation, I think we're in good shape. We replaced the rotten board for the kitchen bay window, closed up the lower board for the dining room bay window that was open to the elements (and rodents) for close to 30 years, injected rodent-repelling expansion foam in all the cracks since my woodwork skills that day were terrible. The traps in the basement have been empty for months and I'm not seeing any new signs of nuts/poop down there. Time to install new insulation before winter hits. Regarding the chipmunks, they've been driving us and our neighbors up a wall with how many there are and that they're burrowing beneath all of our paver patios. 3 of the 4 of us set traps and the 4th called professionals after seeing the mice that were getting into our basement, now are in hers. We've caught about 20-25 chipmunks. Yikes.

Next house mod is coming immediately after Carlisle. We get home Monday afternoon, they show up Tuesday morning to prep the cabinets and remove the doors and drawers. The plan is they will take the doors and drawers off site, bore out the doors to accept soft-close hinges, and paint. Cabinets will be painted on-site, then everything reassembled. They'll also be installing crown molding in the kitchen. End result will be Pure White oak cabinets, and likely Knitting Needles (light gray) on the island. When they call to confirm colors I want to ask what other grays they have, because the Knitting Needles seems awfully close to our wall paint, and doesn't have much difference from white. We considered Pumpernickle, but that's way too dark for our kitchen, the island would disappear in summer when the kitchen is darker.

We originally weren't going to go with Pure White after seeing Darlene's cabinets and our neighbor's new renovation, both off white, but the off white this company has is even closer to the knitting needles, and the Pure White doesn't look quite as pure as the name suggests with our warm white lighting.

After that big job we have a few more that we'll need to get quoted.

- Paint foyer, stairs, front room, dining room some sort of neutral gray, repair ceiling in the landing (already quoted $1500 by this company)
- Replace rotted exterior sawcut trim and paint a slightly darker brown similar to our neighbors house, maybe replace the chimney vent since all that trim has to be replaced (quoted $7k without the chimney vent by another company, yikes!)
- Countertops and backsplash in the kitchen
- Polyuretic floor coating in the garage - Two of our neighbors up the street did it and using Motor City Coatings. One of them works for M1 Concourse, the local driving course/auto enthusiast condo complex in Pontiac on M1 (Woodward Ave) and said I should get a discount if I mention her and M1, I guess they've gotten a lot of business from the Concourse and garage/condo owners
- Replace carpet on the stairs and landing, update balusters
- Refinish the existing oak hardwood in the kitchen/foyer/mudspace/powder room, preferably in a light gray tone that complements the LVP in the dining and front rooms
- Replace the cheap blue carpet in the office and guest room with oak-look LVP similar to what's in the master and downstairs, probably a different brand this time

[StealthM]

Chipmunks are delicious on the BBQ.. Taste like chicken.....lol

[LUNAT1C]

I guess there's no rest for the wicked. Immediately upon returning home from Carlisle, after unloading the car and putting it back in the garage, and cleaning the house a bit, we set to task readying for the next major upgrade, scheduled to begin the very next day. Refinishing the kitchen cabinets and island, adding soft-close door hinges, and crown molding!

How the kitchen appeared as we inherited it (taken as we were moving in and making long overdue repairs to the house and repainting rooms, reflooring upstairs, April 2020). Extremely dark and dank with tomato soup walls, oak floors and cabinets that turned amber, and cheap boob lighting.



As we were preparing for cabinet refacing, already replaced the dinette light, replaced the sink boob light with a pendant, painted the walls Sherwin Williams Online, and had added oil-rubbed bronze hardware to the doors and drawers.



End of Tuesday this week, doors and drawer fronts removed, primer applied to cabinet faces, crown molding installed. I have no idea why crown molding was never added to this room, it gives it the appearance of greater dimension and height, and makes the soffits make more sense. It matches the crown molding already in the dining room, living room, and foyer.



End of Wednesday, cabinets and island painted, crown molding touched up. Still need to sand and apply second coat to the sides of the cabinets and touch up the faces. Paint also applied to baseboards and quarter round molding. Pure white on the upper and lower cabinets, since we have warm white lighting, and Knitting Needles on the island, which is a very light gray. The next level of gray matched the walls, and the next after that was too dark. This room gets dark in summer, so we wanted a light gray tone.




Tomorrow there won't be any on site work, as they'll be working on boring out the doors, priming and painting the doors and drawers, and installing the new soft-close hinge hardware. Friday they'll be back for second coats, touch-ups, installing the doors, and cleaning up. They'll need to touch up the walls in a few places with the wall color. I was going to wait until we were ready to have the floors refinished, but I may pull up the remaining oak quarter round and put in new white trim, or simply paint it all and nail it back down. It runs in the kitchen, foyer, and back hallway.

Next for this room is refinishing the floors, in some kind of natural or neutral gray stain that pairs well with the Woodford Oak LVP we put down in the dining and living rooms, upgrade counters and add backsplash, upgrade sink and faucet, and replace the single boob light over the island with a pair of pendants. Need an electrician for that.

[First Lady]

Wow!! What a difference!! It looks great!
Can't wait to see it make the turn and get put back together.

[Legenbas]

I am really late to the ball game with this thread. Totally my fault for not catching on. Kitchen is coming along nicely for sure.
I can’t wait to see what it will look like once completed.

[StealthM]

looking good guys.....

[LUNAT1C]

And done!

PXL_20220722_163943934.jpg

Much much brighter in there now. They'll be back Monday to do a small touch-up, but it's done. Next in here will be the boob light over the island. Will need an electrician and drywall work for that since we want two pendants balanced out over the island. Current light is only on one side.

[Sneke_Eyez]

All of the kitchen improvements look great - congrats on what I am sure feels like another big step!

[First Lady]

Wow!!!! Such an amazing before and after...and a quick turnaround. Looks awesome! So cool to see your vision come to life. Enjoy it!!