Home Improvement Today?

Yes, it is coming down as well but needs to be topped first to control the direction of fall

 

Beaver management. It’s a thing now.

 

We had Beavers living in the creek about 15 years ago, they moved on. Haven't seen them since.

 

If they got Married you’ll never see ‘em again. Don’t ask me how I know.

 

Thanks for the input, I’ll consider ditching the toilet and removing the wall.
Water heater will either go above the apartment or (more likely) on the shop side of the wall between the apartment and shop, it will have enough air circulation to warrant a heat pump style heater.
A jack and jill bathroom is one thing that I refuse to have, I’ve never been a fan of them.
Wasted space as in the space directly in front of the door and beside the desk? The space in front of the door is just large enough for one of my gun safes and any free wall space in the office will get shelving or filing cabinets to help organize stuff. From my rough estimates that leaves a walkway to get in and to the desk and access most wall space comfortably.

 

Stackable washer and dryer and a small linen closet or shelving for towels, sheets, etc

 

With the shape those poplars were in, by the look of the trunks, they should have been removed before the shed went up but you probably figure that out the other day.

 

Well we finally have good water in the house. Really surprised the previous owners live here for 20+ years and never did anything about the water. (its really high TDS, hard, and few other things).



Only issue is the pressure pump keeps coming on every 5-10 minutes indicating a small leak somewhere (the pump has a pretty tight cut on/off point though). So went to isolate things and figure out where it was. Upon which Ive learned most of the shut off valves need work. This one (of course the hard to get one) wouldnt even close due to gunk inside it. Of course discovered this on Christmas so nowhere was open to get a new one. Thankfully disassembling it and cleaning it has it not leaking for now. But it will be getting replaced (along with most other ones)

https://www.tacomaworld.com/media/pxl_20201226_131439333.676007/

 

Pump might also be cycling because of the very small pressure tank! The bigger the better, makes for less cycles in the long run.

 

A bigger pressure tank will make for less cycles of the pump (unless that's just a booster of some sort). I have a pressure tank almost the size of one of your plastic tanks. Less cycles is better for the pump motor, pressure switch, power consumption (if you're off grid like me).

Big ones are self standing so you just plumb from the removed pressure tank to the larger one with braided nylon hose.

 

its a booster pump. The actual well side stuff isnt shown

 

That's a high tech system. Mine is downright medieval compared to yours. Fortunately, we do do not have hard water. This system was here when we moved in almost 30 years ago. I figure, if it's not broke don't mess with it. We do have multi filter system for our drinking water. Truth be told, the public water system, which the residents who live on the main road have, is terrible: old pipes that constantly break and water that tastes undrinkable.

 

it both is a "high tech" system and also not at the same time. It looks like a lot of stuff but its mostly just simple things. RO unit feed the tanks. Theres a chemical injector (anti scalant...basically alternate for salt), a UV recirc system that just cycles the water in the tanks, and then the booster pump setup. The hardest part for the guys installing was just getting everything working right (hence why some of the valves are throttled instead of fully open)


I had a setup like yours at our old house. All we needed was a sediment filter though. The water in this area (even city) sucks. But a lot of it is from farming. The city water in town isnt nearly as bad our well water but the water company we used still installs a ton of systems on city water home. Not nearly as "complex" as ours though

 

Yeah. I have a sediment filter on it, then the 4 stage filters for the drinking water. I don't have any smell, thankfully (when I was a child the neighbors had well water high in sulfur; it smelled like rotten eggs. I was always turned down their offer for a drink).

 

I have hard water as well with a water softener installed. It’s original to the house which is 21 years old. I need to update the system.
Just a heads up to all with hard water and softening systems, drain 10-15 gallons from the storage tank and water heater every 6 months, this helps with build up and lifetime of water heater.

 

Another thing to do is swap out an aluminum anode rod for one made out of magnesium. Aluminum rods can create an aluminum oxide gel that can be difficult to impossible to flush from the tank. My dad's water heater was so full of the stuff that he didn't have enough hot water. When I tried to drain the tank nothing much came out. Ended up my brother and I had to manhandle a 300+ pound beast out of his basement. (not fun)

They say magnesium doesn't last as long, but does a better job of protection than aluminum. After one year in softened water this is what my aluminum anode rod looked like. I replaced it with magnesium and after a year by I'll pull it for a comparison.

 

This may be a better question for woodworker thread but gonna try both spots:
I have a bedroom set that has these annoying plastic guides (Kenlin Rite-trak II) and many have broken. Any thoughts on what is better to replace it with?

We bought this set about 10 years ago and don’t want to replace it with plastic again.

Other than some random dents and dings from moving the bedroom set is in great shape and not needing/wanting to replace it for at least another 5 years when I retire and am done with all the military moves haha

 

Here's my next project: replacing the sump pump in my basement. I got almost 25 years out of the old one.

 

@DarthPow did you end up buying this kit or something like it?

 

yea i ended up grabbing this kit, with some modifications:

https://www.backstreet-surveillance...vue-prokit8-70d-8-camera-security-system.html

I only ordered 5 cameras instead of 8, and decided to get the cables from elsewhere, since it seems they're charging a little premium on them.

overall I got the setup for about $1300.

I haven't had a chance to install it yet, been too busy with the holidays.