coming out of lurkdom
Hi all, I have been reading all of the posts for quite some time and learning alot while keeping quiet. For all the knowledge I have gained from this group I wish to thank you. There was some talk awhile back about tube and knob wiring or something along those lines. I had no idea what was being discussed. I asked my hub to explain and even though he tried to, I was still slightly confused.That is until yesterday. We are doing major renovations to our house and pulled up part of our sons bedroom floor and there it was. The old wiring that all of you had been speaking of. We believe that it is one of the few areas in the house with that type of wiring left , since we have been rewiring every room as we go.We also believe that it is the wiring that belongs to our dining room light,which is constantly flickering and acting totally unreliable. We have called the electric company in about the strange acting lights and they say that it is our problem with our inside wiring,so hopefully we will soon have that fixed.But without this group I would have never known anything about any of this wiring. I have also learned a day late that there is more then one type of polyurethane.I mention that I learned a day late since I now have a nice new counter in my kitchen that is yellow from the poly that we used. Thank goodness it is only a temporary counter. :-) I could ramble all night about how wonderful this group has been and all of the people in it but I wouldn't want too many heads to start swelling. :-) I do now have a question for you: We are getting ready to take out the chimney,(it is useless).But we will have to either run the pipes from the gas water heater out of the house via another route or buy an electric water heater. We are leaning towards the new water heater. Can you tell me the pros and cons of gas versus electric water heaters? I appreciate any answers you can send my way. Soon I will have a ton of questions about installing windows,hanging drywall in rooms that aren't square or level and so many other things. This is our first house and I can tell you that I love to tear things down and demolish what is in front of me,but putting it back together is at times quite a challenge. :-) Thanks again for your help. Tami
Well after lurking some more and trying to get caught up on email this is what we have figured out about our water heater. We decided to go ahead and get that 90% forced vent or whatever it was called for a gas water heater. Seems to be the better way to go in more ways then one. We are going to go ahead and tear out the chimney because it only goes to the floor of the attic and doesnt go out through the roof anymore. We are now going to do some MAJOR work and "try" to make the attic into a bedroom/recroom for our teenage son. So where the chimney is now is where we will somehow have to build some stairs going up into the attic. Has anyone ever redone an attic? If so,anything I need to be on the lookout for as to problems? Any idea how steep to make a stairway going up to an attic? How do you figure the steepness and how many stairs and all that kind of stuff anyway? Can you tell I am totally unlearned when it comes to this stuff? But once again I am happy because I get to tear down more walls and build something again. Thanks for the advice about the water heater. Dale,I have to ask; How is it that you seem to know so much about all this stuff? Is remodeling and/or repairing your field of work or did you just learn as you went? Thanks again for the help.Maybe one day I will be good enough at this stuff that I might get to answer a question once in awhile instead of just asking all the time. Tami
Dale,I have to ask; How is it that you seem to know so much about all this stuff? Is remodeling and/or repairing your field of work or did you just learn as you went? Well Tami, in the first place it helps to have lived a long time and to have paid the tuition at the School of Hard Knocks. I have in the past been in the service business. I've built and re-built several buildings and homes, but mainly I have a natural curiosity and when I see or hear of some new method or product I go on a search and learn expedition. I have over the years worked in or walked through many places and watched to see how others were plying their trades, but I've spent nearly 50 years either building or fixing things from nuclear submarines to run down farm stead's. Dale in the Flat Lands