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Post by 3piggles on Jul 25, 2019 20:31:04 GMT
Been there, Shades. You have my sympathy I hope the rain brings some relief! I'm going to an outdoor wedding on Aug. 3, which is normally a really hot, humid time. So far the 10 day forecast went from that weekend being horrible, to being tolerable. Fingers crossed! Isn't a/c wonderful, when you really need it We've actually had the windows open, and the a/c off, the last few nights. It won't last, but it's a nice break. I read that Europe(UK) is in another heatwave. Seems as if it's been a really hot summer over there Maybe it will be a mild winter for them! Bean, they're very visible from the house, and since the back yard isn't very big, easily noticed from there, too Hubby is good about watering, and if this is something we decide to do for next year, he'll set up a watering zone on his wifi irrigation program Basically, there isn't enough dirt to plant much, so I wanted to try putting pots on the berm, and it works. We may do smaller pots next year, and more of them, but we had these pots, so just tried them.
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Post by Bean on Jul 26, 2019 4:51:56 GMT
Last night was definitely one of those rare nights that we wished we had air conditioning. It was hot and humid yesterday and the promised storms in the evening didn't materialise, so we've all boiled overnight! Some of us went to be with the freezer packs for the ice box!
It's caused travel chaos. Most trains were disrupted yesterday as they were worried about the tracks buckling in the heat, so everyone was on a go slow. I don't think that actually happened, but what did happen was that some power lines sagged in the heat and got caught up on the top of a train. So some poor souls on their commute suddenly had loads of live powerlines crashing against the sides of their train, and then got stuck on a hot train for ages while it was sorted out. It was on a busy line, which had to be shut down, so loads of trains were cancelled or delayed as a result. Add in all the trains in the wrong places because of the speed restrictions and a lot of people will have another challenging commute this morning.
Then with the storms over Europe last night, apparently quite a few planes aren't where they should be this morning, so even more travel fun!
At least temperatures seem to be dropping now. Paris hit 42c yesterday, not at all fun. All those people on city breaks probably won't end up seeing very much in those temperatures!
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Post by 3piggles on Jul 26, 2019 22:48:49 GMT
Then today's stage of the Tour de France was stopped by hail, snow and landslides, in the Alps. I hope some of that cooler weather gets to the rest of Europe and the UK! What a mess, and right in the way of the riders, who couldn't possibly have made it safely through that mess.
A Facebook friend from Lincolnshire said all the freezers and fridges at the supermarkets were down. I wondered if the country had brown-outs, when less electricity if given to everyone, so there will be enough for everyone. Some of her friends reported it was happening all over Britain, today. With excessive humidity, the cooling units may have just frozen.
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Post by bazookagoof on Jul 27, 2019 17:25:10 GMT
Last night was definitely one of those rare nights that we wished we had air conditioning. It was hot and humid yesterday and the promised storms in the evening didn't materialise, so we've all boiled overnight! Some of us went to be with the freezer packs for the ice box! Bean, I forget if it was ever mentioned, but are ceiling fans popular over on your side of the pond? We have four of them in our house, and they help a bit, provided they are turning in the right direction. (I mention this because when I first moved into my own apartment all the fans were set to winter, so my place was always uncomfortable- I didn't know the fans' rotation made a difference!)
We used to have five fans, but my daughter foolishly wanted her room to have a chandelier, so I replaced it and now her room is stuffy in the warm season. I tend to remind her of that whenever she complains. ("Hey, a ceiling fan would work wonders in here. Who wanted it taken out again?")
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Post by 3piggles on Jul 28, 2019 17:24:00 GMT
We have ceiling fans in all but the dining room and kitchen. Those are on hubby's To Do List! They make a great difference. In summer, we're supposed to have the set to pull the hot air up and away, but I have them set for Winter, when we blow the hot air down. Since we're air conditioning, we're not really blowing hot air down, but mixing up the cold air from the a/c, so it circulates around the rooms.
If you get a ceiling fan, make sure it has reversible directions. Clockwise sucks the air up, and counter/anti clockwise blows the air down.
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Post by bazookagoof on Jul 28, 2019 21:29:54 GMT
If you get a ceiling fan, make sure it has reversible directions. Clockwise sucks the air up, and counter/anti clockwise blows the air down. Oh, I learned all that when I started doing home maintenance! I made many a tenant grateful when I readjusted their fans and informed them what I did. "My god! I was WONDERING why I could never get this room cold during the summer!"
Here's one odd thing- my boss installed a ceiling fan in his living room that is NOT adjustable- it's set for winter only, and the room is not great to be in when it's hot. I don't know why or how this happened, but I'm surprised because he knows far more than me.
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Post by 3piggles on Jul 30, 2019 2:01:23 GMT
Is it comfortable for him? I didn't even know ceiling fans came without being reversible, at least not in the last 20 years or so. Wow!
My sister and daughter are both people who love heat. Even my husband is cold with my choice of temp. I tell him he can put on more clothes, but I can only take of so many. Maybe your boss is a heat lover.
I imagine being in building maintenance, you learn a whole lot of things you might never have learned otherwise. I thought about doing that, way back before I got married, but figured the tenants might be a real nightmare.
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Post by bazookagoof on Jul 30, 2019 22:07:17 GMT
I imagine being in building maintenance, you learn a whole lot of things you might never have learned otherwise. I thought about doing that, way back before I got married, but figured the tenants might be a real nightmare. Oh, you have no idea.
The tenants were one of the reasons I fought like mad to get out of there. True, there were tenants who were real sweethearts, but the worst ones are the ones that haunt you in your nightmares and they never stop complaining. You made the correct decision.
Oh, and I always thought all fans were reversible; I think my boss probably removed it from an older building slated for demolition and installed it in his own home.
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Post by 3piggles on Jul 31, 2019 19:37:24 GMT
Oh, that could be. If it's a much older fan, it may predate being reversible. I had one, maybe 30 years ago, that was reversible, but it required doing something funky with the pull cord. Don't remember what, but I never did it, because it was so hard to make it work, I didn't want to get it stuck sucking the air up come summer. There used to be job offers for apartment maintenance/supervisors. Came with an apartment and a small salary. That was why I thought of it, and I had done a lot of remodeling work on my parents house, and figured I could do it. After what you said, I'm glad I didn't. I'm not great with difficult people, at the best of times! I have a tub stopper that pushes down and seals, then push down again, and it opens to drain the water. It broke! We couldn't believe it. I don't know if it got corroded by something, but all I ever did was push it down to seal, push it down to unseal. Not a hard job, but apparently too hard for that drain plug, lol Hubby is at Lowe's trying to get the equipment and replacement parts he needs to get the rest of the plug out of the drain. The house is 3 years old! Multiply that by 100 apartment units, and I'd probably have gone bonkers!
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Post by bazookagoof on Aug 1, 2019 21:27:00 GMT
Oh, that could be. If it's a much older fan, it may predate being reversible. I had one, maybe 30 years ago, that was reversible, but it required doing something funky with the pull cord. Don't remember what, but I never did it, because it was so hard to make it work, I didn't want to get it stuck sucking the air up come summer. There used to be job offers for apartment maintenance/supervisors. Came with an apartment and a small salary. That was why I thought of it, and I had done a lot of remodeling work on my parents house, and figured I could do it. After what you said, I'm glad I didn't. I'm not great with difficult people, at the best of times! I have a tub stopper that pushes down and seals, then push down again, and it opens to drain the water. It broke! We couldn't believe it. I don't know if it got corroded by something, but all I ever did was push it down to seal, push it down to unseal. Not a hard job, but apparently too hard for that drain plug, lol Hubby is at Lowe's trying to get the equipment and replacement parts he needs to get the rest of the plug out of the drain. The house is 3 years old! Multiply that by 100 apartment units, and I'd probably have gone bonkers! Ugh, sometimes what seems to be the easiest job turns out to be the worst! I recall several instances where a simple clogged tub turned out to be far more than anything my skill level and /or equipment could handle- we would end up calling a specialist to finish the job. The management didn't mind, but it sticks in my craw to think that if I had enough training, I could have done it myself. I hated maintenance to the degree that I sometimes had to act like I knew what I was doing.
Fortunately, I don't have that problem with my current job.
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Post by 3piggles on Aug 2, 2019 15:55:41 GMT
At our last house, a four-story condo, the bathtub on the second floor would drain all over the bathroom on the first floor, and the carpeted family room in the basement. We had a plumber living at the other end of our condo group, but he wouldn't commit to what might be causing it. After enough of these overflows cost us the furniture and carpeting in the family room, Hubby redid the plumbing. It probably cost him $100 in parts, and several hours, but it totally fixed the problem. Our plumber neighbor was amazed that a nonplumber did such a fantastic job. Hubby wasn't concerned about getting top dollar for his work, just about doing the best work. We both have watched This Old House since it first aired, have done home plumbing jobs of our own, so had the DIY books, and have watched YouTube videos since they became available. I know self-taught is often badly taught, but we've done some great work. I regret having the arthritis stopping me from doing what I know how to do, but just can't do anymore. You may have had to call in the pros sometimes, but don't sell yourself short. You know far more about building maintenance now, than you did when you started, including when to call in the pros. You have a solid foundation of information, and could do a whole lot with some YouTube videos. I wish they'd been around when I started, back in the 60s, but it was a bit before PCs
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