Homeowner Forum / Repair / May 2008

First a bit of history.
My Chimney has been pointed twice in th e10 years I've owned my house.
The first time about 9 years ago, the second about 3 years ago.
The first time, it looks like the guy just scraped out about 1/4" of

My 3000+ sq ft  (incl basement) house has two-zone heating/cooling, with an
oil furnace and air conditioner for the basement and first floor, and a heat
pump for the upstairs.
I bought the house three years ago, when oil was less than $2.00 per gallon.

I just had an outdoor faucet fail due to a cracked compression nut.
The nut and valve have been removed and in looking at the remaining
pipe I see the olive is secured to the pipe.  The olive itself spins
in place but cannot be slid off of the pipe itself.  My guess is that

Everyone knows common 60-watt incandescent bulbs are inefficient. In an
effort to find something better, the Department of Energy is funding the $1
million "L-PRIZE." It is hoped this incentive will spur innovation and
thereby cut our energy demands.

Just had a new residential service box installed; replaced a 30 year old
Federal Pacific one which everyone said was not safe.
New box is a GE Powermark Gold Model TLM 2412 CCU (TLM 24 bc)
The box is rated for a 125 amp main breaker, and has spaces for 24  1"

I'm no engineer but here's my question;
we have a log home, approx 3,500 sq ft in PA, we have a great location
for a windmill and I'm seriously considering installing a windmill
that can augment and hopefully replace most of my oil usage.

Wife has a guest cabin to vinyl the exterior.
We're using KayCan "snow-white" vinyl siding.
The building needs 80' perimeter by 10 vertical,
What's the best way to cut that type of siding?

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wasting money on gas?

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Dear Friend,

you know, the kind that you jsut screw in to any old light socket.  I
need some kind of flashlight
so I can take it with me to areas with no electric socket available.
I don't want a regular scoop

I know this has been discussed here in the past but have a lot of people
gone with this service since the last time it was brought up?  Have people
decided it is good or bad. I installed it a few days ago and so far
everything went very well and I have no complaints.

We had a leak in the master bath (upstairs) and so now in the midst of
a complete bathroom remodel.  Electrical question....
The old bathroom had two circuits flowing into it - the first (15A,
14/2 wire) connected to one outlet (not GFI) and then hopped to

My guess is that one mandrel assembly is out of alignment on my one year old craftsman 20hp 42" model 917.27682.
It was scalping the lawn when going over bumps at low heights. I thought it was a bent blade but did the same
with a new blade.
I removed the deck and did some tests. ...

After we lose our tv signals in Feb of 2009, none of our tv sets will
be worth anything.  Most will go to the garbage, but I am looking for
creative ways to reuse them.  This is a recycling project for our
local boy scout troop.  If anyone has any ideas for using tv sets to

The issue is a bungalow with an addition on it. Where the roofs meet,
it creates a 'V' obviously on a slope. Below the edge of the 'V' the
eavetroughs form a right angle turn. When it rains, the water streams
down this 'V', creates a mini-torrent of water and almost overshoots