I have a Nest Protect Smoke/C0 alarm I got to pass an inspection and I like it... but I also bought brand new replacement smoke detectors to replace my hard wired units from Amazon.
This was the brand in my house and was a direct replacement. They seem to be the "standard" unit builders use with the 3 wire setup:
It works well and does automatic self checks and alerts on your phone that it is going to do one in a few moments and lets you know if it passed or not. It also acts as a night light if you want and will illuminate a soft glow when motion is detected. Kinda nice when you have it in a hallway. Probably wouldn't use that option if it was in a room though.
SAWCE wrote: ↑Mon May 04, 2020 12:14 pm
Yeah man, don’t beat yourself up too hard. You’ve done outstanding work, and your idea for getting the color on the stairs to match the flooring worked almost flawlessly. Take the lesson learned on sanding deep enough, apply it to the handrails, and then kick back and admire your accomplishment while treating yourself to some top shelf food, booze, and weed with the money saved on doing the work yourself.
Well said brother. Still just kicking back! It's good to be able to take a break from it.
Tarspin wrote: ↑Mon May 04, 2020 11:41 am
So the good and bad:
That staircase wasn't like painting a bedroom/family room, it was HARD WORK, there are so many edges and corners, basically a whole room filled with just edging.. I can see why it's a 10k job, but in my case I went above and beyond by varying how much paint got mixed into the stain to give the treads the grey but translucent look. Each layer (3 total) and each tread was painted individually to bring out a similar color that matches the flooring. There is no way that a contractor would take that time, so its special.
Another positive point:
Nor would a contractor hand scrape each tread to give it an aged character look. It doesn't come out at obvious as I thought it would, more of a color range to the wood then actual texture because of the urethane. But even that is a custom feature that is rare to this staircase.
Not so positive:
What pisses me off is my mismanagement of some edges from step to step. I didn't sand some edges deep enough to get good stain absorption so the layering looks a bit more like grey paint in spots then it does a translucent polyurethane with a grey tint. Either way, I'll be the only one that sees the defects, and I can remind myself of the cost savings and the pride I take in doing something like this way out of my scope of skill sets (until now).
I still have the hand rails in my garage and I'm a bit deflated. They may sit there for days before I build up the courage to stain them. Something tells me it will be an easy job but I don't know how deep I need to sand. Maybe I'll try a piece and sand it down again if I don't like what's happening.
Yeah man nobody will notice that except for you.
So true, if things stay slowish i might try to sand one discrete edge and redo it. Might be an easy fix and I still have leftover goop.
Desertbreh wrote: ↑Mon May 04, 2020 4:19 pm
SMOKE DETECTORS. Need some new ones because, if no other reason, the current ones have yellowing plastic and therefore reek of poverty. They are hard wired. I have removed two, one because it won't stop chirping new battery or not, and the second because it is on a high peak in the house and will go off when I am cooking thick fatty steaks in a cast iron skillet. (Single story home with exits galore and no olds or infants, so don't judge me brahs.) Anybody ever installed the fancy kind like Nest that you can theoretically turn off with your phone? Any recommendations on basic bitch? Your responses are appreciated in advance.
Basic bitch for me. Makes noise when the house catches fire, as long as they work I'm
It works well and does automatic self checks and alerts on your phone that it is going to do one in a few moments and lets you know if it passed or not. It also acts as a night light if you want and will illuminate a soft glow when motion is detected. Kinda nice when you have it in a hallway. Probably wouldn't use that option if it was in a room though.
1 nest to turn off when cooking steaks, five basic bitch.
Detroit wrote:Buy 911s instead of diamonds.
Johnny_P wrote: ↑Thu Feb 09, 2023 3:21 pm
Earn it and burn it, Val.
max225 wrote: ↑Mon May 01, 2023 5:35 pm
Yes it's a cool car. But prepare the lube/sawdust.
When we moved in our house, it had ZERO smoke detectors. We almost burned the house down on Christmas a few years ago, and the next day I installed Nest detectors on all levels of the house.
I'd absolutely buy them again. The nightlight features is fantastic. Doesn't seem like much, but it illuminates enough when you're walking around at night in the dark for bathroom or whatever.
I also really like how they talk to one another "smoke detected on main floor" or whatever, and it's REALLY nice being able to silence them with the app if there's smoke from cooking or something.
Desertbreh wrote: ↑Tue Oct 10, 2017 6:40 pm
My guess would be that Chris took some time off because he has read the dialogue on this page 1,345 times and decided to spend some of his free time doing something besides beating a horse to death.
Detroit wrote: ↑Tue May 05, 2020 9:46 am
When we moved in our house, it had ZERO smoke detectors. We almost burned the house down on Christmas a few years ago, and the next day I installed Nest detectors on all levels of the house.
I'd absolutely buy them again. The nightlight features is fantastic. Doesn't seem like much, but it illuminates enough when you're walking around at night in the dark for bathroom or whatever.
I also really like how they talk to one another "smoke detected on main floor" or whatever, and it's REALLY nice being able to silence them with the app if there's smoke from cooking or something.
Did not know about the night light feature, might have to and get some of these with our leftover TrumpBux.
Detroit wrote: ↑Tue May 05, 2020 9:46 am
When we moved in our house, it had ZERO smoke detectors. We almost burned the house down on Christmas a few years ago, and the next day I installed Nest detectors on all levels of the house.
I'd absolutely buy them again. The nightlight features is fantastic. Doesn't seem like much, but it illuminates enough when you're walking around at night in the dark for bathroom or whatever.
I also really like how they talk to one another "smoke detected on main floor" or whatever, and it's REALLY nice being able to silence them with the app if there's smoke from cooking or something.
Did not know about the night light feature, might have to and get some of these with our leftover TrumpBux.
I knew about the nightlight feature when I bought them, but assumed gimmick.
Nope, it's indeed handy. I placed them at the top and bottom of stairs, and they've legit kept me from falling down/up stairs when I'm
Mine aren't hardwired (house is from 1910, hence none to begin with), and just on the batteries they've been going for a year and a half now...and the app claims the batteries are still in good condition.
Desertbreh wrote: ↑Tue Oct 10, 2017 6:40 pm
My guess would be that Chris took some time off because he has read the dialogue on this page 1,345 times and decided to spend some of his free time doing something besides beating a horse to death.
Did not know about the night light feature, might have to and get some of these with our leftover TrumpBux.
I knew about the nightlight feature when I bought them, but assumed gimmick.
Nope, it's indeed handy. I placed them at the top and bottom of stairs, and they've legit kept me from falling down/up stairs when I'm
Mine aren't hardwired (house is from 1910, hence none to begin with), and just on the batteries they've been going for a year and a half now...and the app claims the batteries are still in good condition.
Ours would not be hardwired either. Civil war era here.
Detroit wrote: ↑Tue May 05, 2020 10:19 am
I knew about the nightlight feature when I bought them, but assumed gimmick.
Nope, it's indeed handy. I placed them at the top and bottom of stairs, and they've legit kept me from falling down/up stairs when I'm
Mine aren't hardwired (house is from 1910, hence none to begin with), and just on the batteries they've been going for a year and a half now...and the app claims the batteries are still in good condition.
Ours would not be hardwired either. Civil war era here.
I love old houses.
Desertbreh wrote: ↑Tue Oct 10, 2017 6:40 pm
My guess would be that Chris took some time off because he has read the dialogue on this page 1,345 times and decided to spend some of his free time doing something besides beating a horse to death.
Did not know about the night light feature, might have to and get some of these with our leftover TrumpBux.
Mine aren't hardwired (house is from 1910, hence none to begin with), and just on the batteries they've been going for a year and a half now...and the app claims the batteries are still in good condition.
Mine isn't hard wired either, I use it as a supplemental to my other detectors... Just checked and the battery reports okay, and my last manual check was when I installed it, 1,361 days, or 3.7 years ago.
Detroit wrote: ↑Tue May 05, 2020 9:46 am
When we moved in our house, it had ZERO smoke detectors. We almost burned the house down on Christmas a few years ago, and the next day I installed Nest detectors on all levels of the house.
I'd absolutely buy them again. The nightlight features is fantastic. Doesn't seem like much, but it illuminates enough when you're walking around at night in the dark for bathroom or whatever.
I also really like how they talk to one another "smoke detected on main floor" or whatever, and it's REALLY nice being able to silence them with the app if there's smoke from cooking or something.
I would do that if I had multiple stories/a basement, etc. but I have a 1 level Cali shit box with three exits. If I the nest I will replace the other hallway detectors with one.
Detroit wrote:Buy 911s instead of diamonds.
Johnny_P wrote: ↑Thu Feb 09, 2023 3:21 pm
Earn it and burn it, Val.
max225 wrote: ↑Mon May 01, 2023 5:35 pm
Yes it's a cool car. But prepare the lube/sawdust.
Detroit wrote: ↑Tue May 05, 2020 9:46 am
When we moved in our house, it had ZERO smoke detectors. We almost burned the house down on Christmas a few years ago, and the next day I installed Nest detectors on all levels of the house.
I'd absolutely buy them again. The nightlight features is fantastic. Doesn't seem like much, but it illuminates enough when you're walking around at night in the dark for bathroom or whatever.
I also really like how they talk to one another "smoke detected on main floor" or whatever, and it's REALLY nice being able to silence them with the app if there's smoke from cooking or something.
I would do that if I had multiple stories/a basement, etc. but I have a 1 level Cali shit box with three exits. If I the nest I will replace the other hallway detectors with one.
We have 4 levels if you count the basement. Legit dangerous if you're on the third floor and a fire breaks out on the first or second floor. The smoke detectors communicating with each other is huge for us.
We did find a fire ladder from the 70's that someone left on the third floor. Wife was going to throw it out, but I convinced her to put it in a closet.
Desertbreh wrote: ↑Tue Oct 10, 2017 6:40 pm
My guess would be that Chris took some time off because he has read the dialogue on this page 1,345 times and decided to spend some of his free time doing something besides beating a horse to death.
I would do that if I had multiple stories/a basement, etc. but I have a 1 level Cali shit box with three exits. If I the nest I will replace the other hallway detectors with one.
We have 4 levels if you count the basement. Legit dangerous if you're on the third floor and a fire breaks out on the first or second floor. The smoke detectors communicating with each other is huge for us.
We did find a fire ladder from the 70's that someone left on the third floor. Wife was going to throw it out, but I convinced her to put it in a closet.
My wired basic ones communicate with each other too. If one goes off they all do within a few seconds. There's an output and input wire on each one.
Detroit wrote: ↑Tue May 05, 2020 11:55 am
We have 4 levels if you count the basement. Legit dangerous if you're on the third floor and a fire breaks out on the first or second floor. The smoke detectors communicating with each other is huge for us.
We did find a fire ladder from the 70's that someone left on the third floor. Wife was going to throw it out, but I convinced her to put it in a closet.
My wired basic ones communicate with each other too. If one goes off they all do within a few seconds. There's an output and input wire on each one.
Yep, that's a feature and huge bonus of the hard wired ones...but in a house like mine that never had them hardwired, it's a monumental job to add. The nests talking to each other wireless is 5/7.
Desertbreh wrote: ↑Tue Oct 10, 2017 6:40 pm
My guess would be that Chris took some time off because he has read the dialogue on this page 1,345 times and decided to spend some of his free time doing something besides beating a horse to death.
My wired basic ones communicate with each other too. If one goes off they all do within a few seconds. There's an output and input wire on each one.
Yep, that's a feature and huge bonus of the hard wired ones...but in a house like mine that never had them hardwired, it's a monumental job to add. The nests talking to each other wireless is 5/7.
Way cheaper to Nest.
Nest is a solid product too, I use the door lock at my beach house for rentals and it works flawlessly unless I loose the internet, then I have no control of the settings but it's still
5/7 would nest in situation.
I'm just and don't want to spend on smoke detector tech if I don't have to. So multilevel pre-wiried, or single level I'd get the cheapest thing I could find. Maybe place two or three cheap ones in a bungalow with no basement.
Man, I got this down payment cash burning a hole in my safe right now and want to build a house, but I think I need to ride this out and see if the prices drop.
Anyone else have any ideas about home pricing over the next 3-6 months?
Evaluating all the options on paper this week and we added the Reno/Sparks house back on the list since nothing is off the table yet... only issue is that in the last 18 months their pricing increased $100k for a new build. I feel like I should have bought before Musk opened the Tesla Gigafactory there.
CorvetteWaxer wrote: ↑Tue May 05, 2020 2:42 pm
Man, I got this down payment cash burning a hole in my safe right now and want to build a house, but I think I need to ride this out and see if the prices drop.
Anyone else have any ideas about home pricing over the next 3-6 months?
Evaluating all the options on paper this week and we added the Reno/Sparks house back on the list since nothing is off the table yet... only issue is that in the last 18 months their pricing increased $100k for a new build. I feel like I should have bought before Musk opened the Tesla Gigafactory there.
I think housing prices are certainly going to drop. I'd guess 15-25% depending on where you're at.
People who have savings and have lost their job are going to be depleting them if they can't get back to work. People who were stretching to buy a house and have now lost their jobs aren't going to look to buy anymore.
CorvetteWaxer wrote: ↑Tue May 05, 2020 2:42 pm
Man, I got this down payment cash burning a hole in my safe right now and want to build a house, but I think I need to ride this out and see if the prices drop.
Anyone else have any ideas about home pricing over the next 3-6 months?
Evaluating all the options on paper this week and we added the Reno/Sparks house back on the list since nothing is off the table yet... only issue is that in the last 18 months their pricing increased $100k for a new build. I feel like I should have bought before Musk opened the Tesla Gigafactory there.
Like Max has said in other threads, there's just so much uncertainty that it's hard to predict right now. In my local market in shitty Michigan, nothing has really changed. Inventory is the lowest it's been in a while and houses that do list fly off the market over ask in a day. Until we know what the new "normal" is, I think it'll be immensely hard to predict.
If it were me, I'd hang tight on doing anything major. I have a really hard time seeing how things could get more expensive in the future.
Desertbreh wrote: ↑Tue Oct 10, 2017 6:40 pm
My guess would be that Chris took some time off because he has read the dialogue on this page 1,345 times and decided to spend some of his free time doing something besides beating a horse to death.
CorvetteWaxer wrote: ↑Tue May 05, 2020 2:42 pm
Man, I got this down payment cash burning a hole in my safe right now and want to build a house, but I think I need to ride this out and see if the prices drop.
Anyone else have any ideas about home pricing over the next 3-6 months?
Evaluating all the options on paper this week and we added the Reno/Sparks house back on the list since nothing is off the table yet... only issue is that in the last 18 months their pricing increased $100k for a new build. I feel like I should have bought before Musk opened the Tesla Gigafactory there.
Oh?
To be fair, you've lost that much gambling before.
Detroit wrote:Buy 911s instead of diamonds.
Johnny_P wrote: ↑Thu Feb 09, 2023 3:21 pm
Earn it and burn it, Val.
max225 wrote: ↑Mon May 01, 2023 5:35 pm
Yes it's a cool car. But prepare the lube/sawdust.
CorvetteWaxer wrote: ↑Tue May 05, 2020 2:42 pm
Man, I got this down payment cash burning a hole in my safe right now and want to build a house, but I think I need to ride this out and see if the prices drop.
Anyone else have any ideas about home pricing over the next 3-6 months?
Evaluating all the options on paper this week and we added the Reno/Sparks house back on the list since nothing is off the table yet... only issue is that in the last 18 months their pricing increased $100k for a new build. I feel like I should have bought before Musk opened the Tesla Gigafactory there.
Oh?
To be fair, you've lost that much gambling before.
CorvetteWaxer wrote: ↑Tue May 05, 2020 2:42 pm
Man, I got this down payment cash burning a hole in my safe right now and want to build a house, but I think I need to ride this out and see if the prices drop.
Anyone else have any ideas about home pricing over the next 3-6 months?
Evaluating all the options on paper this week and we added the Reno/Sparks house back on the list since nothing is off the table yet... only issue is that in the last 18 months their pricing increased $100k for a new build. I feel like I should have bought before Musk opened the Tesla Gigafactory there.
I'd like to give my usual advice as "pricing wont be climbing right now" and to wait and save. BUT, I have no experience in Vegas area housing. I know 6-8 years ago it was very cost effective place to build but then got over built quickly. That area is likely much different than areas I track. I dont think its as inflated as cali though either.
CorvetteWaxer wrote: ↑Tue May 05, 2020 2:42 pm
Man, I got this down payment cash burning a hole in my safe right now and want to build a house, but I think I need to ride this out and see if the prices drop.
Anyone else have any ideas about home pricing over the next 3-6 months?
Evaluating all the options on paper this week and we added the Reno/Sparks house back on the list since nothing is off the table yet... only issue is that in the last 18 months their pricing increased $100k for a new build. I feel like I should have bought before Musk opened the Tesla Gigafactory there.
Oh?
To be fair, you've lost that much gambling before.
But I'm still ahead overall.
I just don't want to sign and then 3 months later be double digit percentages lower.