Homes… Your Thoughts… Old or New?

[ultrarunner]

How big of hole to you have to cut in walls to blow the insulation it? One at the top and then fill or multiple holes per “framing pocket”?

2” round top cavity and another 2” for the bottom cavity…

Holes filled with a cork and then stucco and spot painted to match…

 

[ultrarunner]

I was once called in for service on a owner built house where bath outlet wasnt working. Opening the outlet up, i found that the house wiring was done with lamp cord…at least at this point. I packed up my tools and left. Im not touching that. I told owner my insurance would not allow me to touch this job. I have no idea how or if they fixed it.

I got called to trouble shoot T-Bar lighting and brought ballasts and 4’ tubes with me.

I found zip cord through the knockout with no bushing…

Saw enough that I did not want any association because I could imagine the place going up in flames and I would be in the middle of it… 1979 building.

 

[Dftodd]

Been there, done that. Good intentions.

My shocking electrical story, best one of many, I was tearing carpet out of a bed room when I came across an extension cord wire that eventually ended up in a wall outlet.

Needless to say, the house got all new electric.

That sounds like some of the work in my last house.

The old lady we bought the house from had one of her sons work on the place since he was a "Handy" man.

Well he wasn't very handy. I was in the attic shortly after purchasing the home.

I kneeled down and got shocked.

I started digging in the insulation and found where he added some lights. Instead of using junction boxes for the wiring, as well as wire nuts for the connections. He just stripped the wires back, twisted them together, and left them exposed.

I went to home depot and picked up a bunch of junction boxes and covers, as well as a box of romex connectors and wire nuts.

I spent two days in the attic hunting and fixing his electrical connections.

I found 9 connections exposed in the attic.

 

[ultrarunner]

Flat screens have come down so much in price. We paid $500 for our 65" TV 5 years ago.

Walking through Walmart, we saw our TV for sale for $380 last year

I’ve put up several 65” at work and had to be creative mounting on the 2’ on center tin foil studs.

I can only imagine pricing if tariffs kick in.

 

[Dftodd]

I’ve put up several 65” at work and had to be creative mounting on the 2’ on center tin foil studs.

I can only imagine pricing if tariffs kick in.

My 65" is in storage. Hope it's still working. It's been there for 1.5 years.

I got a 40" fire TV we purchased and installed in the camper we are currently living in. I won't find out if the 65" is any good until we get our home built and can move in.

We were fixing to get started on the house, and then my wife got injured while on a cruise. She's been out of work for 3 months now, and doesn't look like she will be released to go back for at least another 3 months.

She fell, broke her elbow, tore the tendon and dislocated it. She's had surgery to put hardware in to stabilize it, had manual manipulation done on it the other day to free it up (contracture).

She's finally got a straight arm, but lots of painful stretching and physio for the next week every couple hours.

Then surgery in 2 months to remove the hardware and more physical therapy.

As soon as she's back to work we'll start pushing to get the house built.

 

[WinterDeere]

How big of hole to you have to cut in walls to blow the insulation it? One at the top and then fill or multiple holes per “framing pocket”?

Note the prior owner had this done, so I wasn't here to see it, but I remember watching an episode of This Old House where they were doing the same thing in another old house. My recollection was they used a hole saw only slightly larger than a shop vac hose, perhaps 3" - 4", and then with some scarfed-in lathe strips, re-installed the same plaster or drywall plugs when the job was done.

Of course that still leaves you with some touch-up spackling and painting work when their job is done, but I imagine any good firm is at least going to get the holes covered and first coat of spackle done while they're on the job.

Thats weird. My GE Monogram built in 48” refrigerator/freezer was purchased in 1998, still going strong.

As is our 1998 refrigerator, they were much more reliable back then. But those we purchased ca.2012, 2016, 2019, 2021, and 2023 are all in the scrap yard now. Meanwhile, the 1998 fridge keeps ticking away just fine.

I could go into details, but it's not really the point of this thread, nor is it very entertaining reading.

 

[ultrarunner]

My new home is 33 years old and appreciate the added insulation, triple pane windows and being fully fire sprinklered.

Being an engineer he used structural steel in places with x-rayed weldments and oversized rebar and narrowed placement.

The owner builder was onsite everyday and made certain things were to plan without shortcuts…

Building Code sets the minimum standard here for Certificate of Occupancy.

As always, buyer beware.

 

[Oaktree]

Go Back… I still have it with VHS and DVD in the living room… Zenith.

I also was given a 27 Toshiba by neighbor that asked me to help move it to the curb… nothing wrong with it.

She got a new flat screen and now on her third… she has not been pleased with the flats… 2 replaced under warranty.

With rabbit ears I get over 60 channels and about half are English.

I'll agree that old-school tv's had much better tuners in them, especially the old rotary-knob ones. Moot point here since after the digital conversion there's no OTA tv to be had...too far from any tv city, and hilly terrain. Of course, had nothing to do with the type of display it had.
I've got a ~12 year old flatscreen tv that someone was throwing out (apparently a 42" set was "too small" ). Still works fine.

 

[Oaktree]

Has anyone here insulated a 1860s house? How did you go about it and was it worth it?

My house is 1830s vintage, previous owner took advantage of a state program for the elderly and they did kind of a half-@ssed job insulating. What the crew apparently didn't know was that this house is plank construction, ie-4 x 24" vertical planks notched into the sill and top beam. So basically solid wood walls. At some point in the house's history strapping was put on and drywall installed. The gap between the wall & the drywall got kind of filled with the insulation. When I redid the kitchen & bathroom I got rid of that & used 1" styrofoam board then drywalled over it. Not a very high R value, but at least no gaps. Not sure what the R value of solid wood is. House holds heat fairly well.

In some parts of the house I saw evidence that there were once plastered walls, but in one room I'd gutted there was wallpaper applied directly to the wall planks. I'm guessing that was pretty drafty.

Yeah, you gotta keep the original windows.

I don't know how much of my house is "original". I did put in modern replacement windows in the upstairs rooms...the sashes were in rough shape. Downstairs many of the windows are the ones that were here when we bought the place, other than the bow window we put in the kitchen.

Once upon a time they made vinyl tracks for double-hung windows, I re-did all the windows in my previous house using them, but when I moved here I couldn't find them...matter of fact, couldn't even find anyone that even knew what I was talking about.

 

[ultrarunner]

I'll agree that old-school tv's had much better tuners in them, especially the old rotary-knob ones. Moot point here since after the digital conversion there's no OTA tv to be had...too far from any tv city, and hilly terrain. Of course, had nothing to do with the type of display it had.
I've got a ~12 year old flatscreen tv that someone was throwing out (apparently a 42" set was "too small" ). Still works fine.

I have two digital converter boxes that were about $20 each after government voucher from Radio Shack.