Found another excellent savings website: Budget101.com

[IrishAyes]

Every time I think I already know everything about anything, even making a dollar holler, I find out I'm wrong. And I don't mind it a bit.

[PumpkinAle]

1. That's a great site

thank you.

[Curmudgeoness]

2. Dang it!

I just read about growing your onions on a windowsill by planting just the root part off and planting it. And since I always cut the root part off AND THROW IT AWAY, I am spanking myself now.

[IrishAyes]

4. Live and learn, right?

At least you didn't pour de-icer salt down an open washing machine drain to melt an ice jam in the trap! Nobody can top that lunatic mistake, but nobody. I'm still shaky from the result, even though I eventually got off easy by comparison. Throwing away onion roots and anything else you ever did can never match my low-water mark.

[Squinch]

5. I hate to ask, but what happened?

[IrishAyes]

6. No apology needed; we're all here to learn from one another.

You must've missed my Endless OP wherein I held forth at unforgivable length about the grand scheme that turned out all wrong. I'll try to make this reply short and sweet.

Polar vortex:

As a damnYankee I know a thing or two about living in cold climates. What I failed to learn is how to cope in the MidWest where the house I bought for retirement has a narrow crawl space that nobody's been willing to enter for any amount of $ in 8 years so far. The pipes are unwrapped. The trap for the pvc exit pipe for the washing machine is NOT just above the laundry room floor where it belongs. Every year at least a couple times the water in the trap freezes; all I generally need to do if I can't wait for it to thaw on its own is pour boiling water down the exit pipe, or failing that, baking soda and vinegar.

Before this year the weather's never stayed so far below zero such a long time, at least not since I've been here. Recently I tried over a week to thaw the ice jam in the trap and couldn't, the mound of dirty laundry prompting my doomed solution. Next I tried non-toxic anti-freeze. No luck - too late. Then I hit upon the brilliant idea of pouring a few teaspoons of non-toxic de-icer salt down the exit pipe, which promptly swelled up and hardened like brick when I added boiling water on top of it. For another week that refused to budge. The manufacturer assured me it would NOT melt. So I had to saw off the exit pipe around 2" above the floor and throw away the 3' plugged up section. There was a tiny bit of de-icer left that low but not too much to work out.

So I got off rather easily, discounting wear and tear on my nerves. There would've been no use turning any sort of heat on the original 3' of pipe sticking up above floor level because (pre-salt) I would've been heating air. The trap's ice jam is too far away to be affected. The only permanent solution - putting the trap inside the house - is too expensive right now. So with the next Polar Vortex due soon, I'll put a half cup non-toxic anti-freeze down the pipe before it has a chance to freeze. The washing machine hose itself fits way down that 2" section of pipe that still extends above floor level w/o any attending problems.

So apparently the sometimes infamous Luck of the Irish ran north this time. But nobody except a masochist would want to use ice melting salt on an ice jam in a pipe. One of the worst ideas I ever had, no matter how clever it seemed until I did it. Live and learn.

[Squinch]

11. Oh, yikes! Stories like this make me happy I live in an apartment.

Glad it was at least not the worst it could have been.

[IrishAyes]

12. Hence the adage, "You don't own a house - it owns you." Worse than a boat!

Worse than that, loving old houses should count as a Class A Mental Disorder. There's nothing you won't do for them, and they always demand more. Mansions on Rodeo Drive might leave you cold, but the sight of an old faded rose, especially a real Painted Lady, sets your heart atwitter. Don't ever fall in love with anything that can't love you back.

[Squinch]

13. I do understand this.

My mother passed last year, and my siblings and I spent a year updating the house we all grew up in to get it ready to sell. It's on the market now, and I keep going into some insane place where I take out a calculator and try and convince myself that I can afford to buy it.

Intellectually I know it is impossible, and the worst idea ever, and if I did it I would be forever house poor and fixing things that come up on an old house.

I think I am over the danger of actually going through with buying it, but I don't think I'll be completely safe till someone else closes on it.

PS: Great site. Thanks.

[IrishAyes]

14. Don't pine too much after a boat, either; I've heard many a former boat owner say

the two happiest days in his/her life were the day they bought it and the day they sold it.

[ConcernedCanuk]

15. I totally get it - I recently bought an old renovated cabin with just a crawl space

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And I do mean CRAWL.

It is on uneven ground - and to get from one side to the other, one must dig a path - obviously, no one has never done this before.

After seeing some of the "handiwork", I moved all of the water pipes inside the house.

I wanted a bathtub as the house only had a shower - just a cheap stall.

So, I put a RAISED bathtub in the sunroom - at first just because I wanted it at window level to be able to enjoy nature's view when I soaked.

An unplanned bonus - the water trap is INSIDE the house, not under it so no worries of freezing.

I closed off and heated a small area underneath where the intake from the well, and the trap for the shower are. I have an inside switch for the under the house heater, and a remote thermometer to monitor the under the house temperature so I can shut off the heater when not needed, or effect repairs if the heater fails, which the thermometer will advise me of.

Thermometer is mounted right in front of the toilet - so it gets checked numerous times a day without me having to remember to do so.

A nicer shower stall (raised) is planned for this summer, water trap to be inside the house so I can reduce the space needing heat, and save on future hydro costs.

Yep - an old house "owns" ya ( so does a new one if you have a mortgage) - but seeing as I am retired, home is paid for, and handy with all sorts of trades - not a biggee.

I will not die of boredom.



CC

[IrishAyes]

17. We who are about to freeze salute you!

[Curmudgeoness]

10. No, you are right, I did not pour de-icer salt in a drain.

But I have had my share of disasters....anyone who tries to do things themselves around the house screws something up, at least once. That's ok, it is the ones who make the same mistake twice that we really have to worry about.

I have had a lot of fun looking around that site. So much great information. Thanks for posting it.

[Kaleva]

3. Bookmarked

[ConcernedCanuk]

16. me too!

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Thanks for getting my brain firing on another cylinder

CC

[TxDemChem]

7. Ah, another great bit of info from you.

Thanks for the heads up.

[IrishAyes]

8. I owe other Duers far more than I can ever repay.

[TxDemChem]

9. I think you are the gift that keeps on giving.

I've already picked out a recipe to try tonight - coffee syrup looks yummy!

[ConcernedCanuk]

18. Sure you can

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I take PayPal



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[IrishAyes]

19. Whazzat?