Home ownership

Got out the ladder. It's a 28' (26?) type 1 (1a?) aluminum extension ladder. So not super heavy, but not going to collapse either. Kinda long and unwieldly, and I'm not real strong.

Whenever I'm extending it, I have the feet on the ground, grab the loose end of the plastic rope, and pull up the top section a little. Then, it feels like it's going to tip over, so I stop and stabilize, then go up a little more. I'm sure there's something wrong with my technique, it seems as if it's harder than it should be.

Anyway, got it up on the house and got the extraneous stuff mostly cleaned up. One stick was out of my reach, and I didn't get every single leaf, but it's pretty well cleaned up. Cut back the maple tree over there while I was up.

Managed not to fall off. Back's a little sore being in awkward positions the last couple days, but it will be ok.

Now, what's the next project?

As someone needing to get on a ladder to scrape leaves off gutter guards and a couple places on my roof but waiting until weather conditions suit me, I recommend something ground-level.

Heh. My neighbor tried to rig up a PVC contraption to attach to his blower to clean out the gutters. Didn't work, but seems like a good idea.

I was thinking afterward if I should've gotten my leaf blower out and really given the roof a good cleaning. It's corded, though, so that probably would've ended in disaster.

It may have helped to break your fall a tiny bit 😃

We tried an attachment like that several years ago, but it was real PITA and didn't do a complete job. In addition, I get a ton of acorns on one part of my roof and they crumble or deteriorate or something. That gets wet and turns to gunk that you really need to get your hand across it to wipe it off. Life was much easier before we had to add the gutters.

how often do you guys swap out the filters on the air vents?

Same. Which reminds me, I forgot to do it Jan 1.

"Buy cheap, replace often." May thru Oct, once per month. Hardly use it enough to justify changing the filter Nov - Apr.

As part of the HVAC project, I had them put in a 5" MERV filter, hoping it would help with my allergies. I think it has, but it's also been fall/winter.

Anyway, those they recommend to swap every 6 months.

For the regular ones, it was more "when I remember", which was on the order of quarterly. Often, I'd check and they weren't dirty, so would wait anohter while.

I bought the cheapest dishwasher. After 18 months it decided to die (6 months after the warranty).

Replaced it with a midrange Bosch. Fits in really well!

Looks good. I've been lucky so far in that every time my dishwasher seems to be done I've been able to fix it with a $5 part. 3 times so far. It's many years old. It's running right now, so I can't look at the nameplate to see just how old, haha.

I agree it looks nice and I assume white is not always easy to match.

I also have a Bosch and am very satisfied. Not sure what tier, but a quick search suggests it is also a midrange level unit (top controls as opposed to front). Super quiet and cleans things very well.

Love my Bosch 800 series and I hate stainless steel appliances, so two thumbs up.

A little tip for old Bosch owners... If the door seal is looking a little beat up, You can pull it out and flip it around. It's like a brand new seal.

My Bosch is around 20 years old. Biggest issue is that parts are nonexistent.

Two small nags I've had over the life of the unit is it has a plastic pipe that delivers water to the spinning arm under the top rack. That arm likes to work itself loose from the floor/drain area. It's held in by friction. (I just push it down every now and then) Also the spring loaded soap cover is a little fidgety to get locked close.

Also have a Bosch 800 and like everything about it except the top top flatware rack. So quiet you only know if its on by the red light glowing by the floor

Climbing on roofs is a young man's game. Buddy just fell off his ladder and broke 3 ribs and a wrist along with many bruises - thats the good news, bad news is they did MRI for internal damage and found kidney cancer so he's going in this week to get one totally removed and one cut down in size.

In our prior house we put in all Bosch appliances. We were very happy with them.

Good thing for him he fell off the ladder! My grandad had a fortuitous break with cancer. He had an allergic reaction to a medication that totally closed up his throat and somehow led to an xray that caught his lung cancer super early.

As mark said, that actually seems like a good fall. Hopefully they've caught it early enough that treatment can work. Best wishes.

Agree with mark and golddog. Lucky fall in his case but what a painful way to get an early (?) diagnosis. Best wishes for him going forward.

I'm done with getting on roofs, and I'm much less adventuresome with ladders than I used to be. And getting less adventuresome every year.

get a proper roof tile/slate

never understood americans with their partial felt roofs

thats what we put on sheds

I love the top rack, what's wrong with it?

Nothing really wrong with it except my wife refuses to use it so its redundant to the basket for us. I guess my minor gripes would be I have several tall cups/glasses that wont fit on the 2nd level and it took a learning curve to get JetDry into the right spot without spilling most of it.

That said, I was skeptical of the Crystal Dry technology but it works as advertised. Now its just a waiting game to see if it lasts as long as my Kenmore Elite (13 years)

I can see that. When we got our first one in 2019 my wife kept using the basket then the basket mysteriously disappeared. Oops! Now the top rack has all of the silverware. We have the normal dishwasher loading battles between me trying to fill it as full as possible but still get everything clean to her finding an open space and putting whatever wherever. My theory is to jamb as much possible in that won't break anything. If something doesn't get clean, it can just get run in the next load.

For tall glasses, I have the right side configured for the most space - the top drawer is adjusted to the highest setting and the middle drawer is on the lowest setting and everything but one really tall glass will fit.

The lights on the ceiling fan in my living room have quit working. For a while there, the lights would come on when I hit the fan button on the remote. Then, I would just re-press the fan to turn that part off, and use the wall switch to energize (or not) the lights.

That trick quit working. Now the lights don't come on at all. So, I got out my folding ladder, which gives me enough height to reach the pullchain.

Flipped the switch to on, hit the fan button to ensure things were energized. Climbed up and pulled the chain--no lights.

Well, rats. I was hoping I could just get a chain extender and work it that way.

Problems are, my ladder doesn't give me enough height to affect a replacement. (It's a vaulted ceiling, one of the few things I don't care for in this house.) Also, I can't find a fan I like. Even though it's outdated, I quite like the style that's in there now.

So, I'll keep looking and get someone here to replace it if I find one I like. Until then, if anybody has an idea for another approach I could try, lmk.