Homeowner Forum / General / January 2006

Extra principal won't reduce mortgage payments
Dear Dr. Don,
Once a mortgage is set up and I decide to pay extra on the principal,
should my actual monthly payments go down?

We have a Heat-N-Glo gas fireplace with rear/top direct vent. A few
minutes after shutting it off, there is a loud "boom" sound from behind
the wall on which the fireplace is installed.
We have not used the fireplace much since installation (about 1.75

(crossposted to a relative group)
Anyone have any comments positive or negative? Please post or email me.
Thanks.
trestonklease at yahoo dot com

We have a bedroom with a celing fan fixture, but the
ceiling lights were removed from the fixture by the previous
owner. Thus, the room is poorly lit and has no overhead lighting.
Currently, there is a lamp, but it's not illuminating the whole

The wall at my house is leaning, maybe due to a possible foundation
problem. I wan to measure it to see how many degrees it is off. How to
measure that? Could I buy something from Homedepot or Lowes to measure
it? Or anyother method? Thanks.

Ok, I just had a new roof with a ridge vent installed on my Cape, along with
new siding and perforated soffit vents. There are also gable vents on either
end.
Because of the configuration of the upstairs hallway, installing a whole

Students need your help!  Online focus group participants needed- will
be paid.
Students in a marketing class need you to participate in on online
focus group.  Please complete this short survey to see if you qualify.

I have a couple sofas from This End up Furniture- bought it in the
early 80s. Looking to get rid of them- they are extremely heavy to
lift- I forgot, do they come appart? I've been looking but dont know..
Like I said, they weigh a ton

There are special dimmable compact fluorescent bulbs, but they are very
pricey. Do these work with regular wall dimming switches? I've seen
suggestions that there are also special dimmers that work with regular
CFL's. Anyone with experience and/or sources for these special dimmers?

I have a 7-year old A.O.Smith 40 gal water heater. Works fine, but I've
only drained it out once about 4 years ago. Assuming that that water
heaters last about 8-10 years, I have some questions
- how often should I be draining and cleaning it out?

I have a 3 year old house with rounded wall corners. They are denting
and the metal is seperating out of the wall. Anyone know the best way
to redo these.

All the guy does is spam us with re-posts of commercially published
articles by others.  (And often about pretty "doh" basic stuff, too.)
Ablang dude, drop it.  Just because that stuff is new to you.  Let the
people read it where it was published to begin with.

Greetings all!
I have never had a pool or spa before, but am considering getting one
of each , so I could use some advice regarding energy efficiency/cost
of two different paradigms we are considering.

This is a very old post, but I am just curious of what the opinions
are:
http://groups.google.com/group/misc.consumers.house/browse_thread/thread/ae764cc
14401b002/62119d832cf5c2c2?lnk=st&q=COST+PER+SQUARE+ROOF&rnum=1#62119d832cf5c2c2
The very last thread of the post states:

re: Thomas Andrade, Encore Cabinetry, Inc. and Matteo Family Kitchens
-- suppliers of Kraftmaid Cabinetry
Be forewarned.
Tom seems like a great guy on the telephone. But he will not return