Homeowner Forum / General / June 2005

During the summer my office at home is significantly warmer than the rest of
the house. This is likely because I have a computer, a large fishtank, and a
TV in this room. Last night, I measured the temperature and although the
rest of the house was around 72 degrees, it was over ...

I'm buying a new house in the Phoenix area and will live there for one year,
1550 square feet, a very well design house. I order no upgrades for the
floor, so would it be wise to put tile in? Say spend about $2,000 for a sub
contractor to put in tile. If I do that would I get  $3 ...

We are in the process of adding central air to our house.  The one
thing we might have a problem with is wiring the thermostat.  I noticed
that we only have 3 wires coming up to our thermo.   I've been told
that you can use 3 wires but I am not sure if it's possible.

We've seen an adult racoon go under or come out from under the back
deck a few times now.  Presumably a mother as we've also seen a small
raccoon recently; haven't seen the small one go under or out from
under the deck which may only mean we weren't looking at the right

I'm currently selling my townhouse in NJ. I have a couple of friends
who have sold their homes by owner over the winter, both of the have
done so by paying 1 1/2 - 2% commissions to RE Agents who brought them
qualified buyers.

A few months ago, the two outside wall electrical outlets and an
upstair bathroom outlet went dead, no power. Then all of a sudden, just
let it went out, they all came back. Breakers are showing OK
throughout.

My wife told me of two radio programs she heard which discussed how
closely the rates are tracking between 15 year and 30 year mortgage
loans, and how it's worth changing to the longer term loan in order to
free up money that could be otherwise invested.

I live in the northeast and was wondering if anyone in this climate has
installed a heater for an above ground pool. I was wondering what
benefits each one has. I am looking to use the heater during the early
and later parts of summer when the nights get to be quite cool. Any

As our cat is rather partial to scratching the arms on our new (and
expensive!) leather sofas we were recommended to try double sided
sticky tape as arm protection when we went on holiday.
This seemed to do the job.

Hi all - any help is greatly appreciated.
My garage door opener (an older Sears/Craftsman 1990) has started
throwing off the chain.  The sproket is in good shape (was replaced a
few years ago) but there seems to be a collar or bushing missing (or

I've got an 8-10 year-old (as estimated by a HVAC contractor - we
didn't buy it originally) 2.5t Goodman central air unit on our house.
It seems to work fine and cools the house effectively.  My only
complaint with it at this point is its noise - the damn thing is VERY

I am curious if there is a 'standard' or 'traditional' way to paint
windows, doors, and screens. By this I mean that if the exterior color
is one color and the interior color is another then which color should the
"sides" of doors, windows, and screens be painted? Are they usually

I've been using a Havahart trap to control the population of rabbits around
my yard (I take them to a nature reserve a couple miles away and release
them ... 12 or 13 so far).  During the early spring and mid-to-late fall,
cut-up carrots work fine.  But now that there's so many ...

Will tempered glass windows be stronger in standing up to things like
earthquakes and hurricanes vs. standard annealed glass?  Or is the
only real advantage the safety of breaking into balls instead of
shards?

The concrete slab in our screen porch slopes toward the house instead of
away.  This is a problem when it storms and blows rainwater into the porch
through the screen or whenever we want to hose it out.
Not sure if it was always like this (it was when we bought the house 5