penandink's Profile
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March 25, 2008
Entry door sets
Our double entry doors have beautiful antique pulls, but no latch. That is, the only thing holding them shut is the deadbolt. We're planning to change the pulls for some kind of reproduction set, but are having trouble finding anything nice for double doors. There would have to be a deadbolt and latch on one side, and matching dummy handles on the other. The problem isn't the bolt/latch side, of course, it's the matching handle on the other side. Apparently, most people in this world don't have double entry doors!
Anyone have a lead on great door hardware?
Corner cabinets for sale
We have a pair of vintage (from the 1940s) round corner cabinets for sale. These would look great in a traditional dining room (our isn't so traditional).
Asking $1200 for the two. Please see our Craigslist posting for more details, more pictures.
http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/fur/618277474.html
February 28, 2008
Stripping brick facade
The back of our house is brick that's been thorosealed. I've read all the comments saying thoroseal is awful,and brick needs to breathe, etc, but it seems mostly OK in our case, so far. However, when we moved in, we pulled down an extension/shack attached to the first floor. The portion of the brick facade inside that shack area was painted, many times. Definitely with lead paint at some point. When we exposed it, our workman thorosealed over the paint, and it's since been chipping off that area. We now have a baby, and want to make the back deck area safe for playing, so want to get that wall stripped, and not have all the paint run into the garden. Any recommendations for clean and tidy facade guys? I've seen several noted here--any experiences of this type with:
1. Malek
2. Metro
3. CBI Breeze
4. Roy D Construction
5. Saga
6. Aziz
7. Cecil King
--would be appreciated. As would other recommendations.
(all found in comments somewhere)
thanks!
February 19, 2008
water bill craziness
Just wondering if anyone has any advice about our situation:
We've owned our Sunset Park limestone for five and a half years, and have consistently used in the range of 1800-2200 cubic feet of water (about $100) per quarter, with an occasional spike to 3000 or so. Last summer, however, we suddenly got a bill for 5400 cf ($250). then in the October bill, we got billed for 36,000 cf ($1800)!!
We had the DEP send someone out to look at the meter and inspect the house, and he was seriously the dumbest person I've met in a really long time, but he did find a silent internal leak in one toilet. I'm willing to believe that the summer's high bill was caused by that leak + watering the garden or whatever, but there's no way it accounts for the 36,000 cf bill.
The proof for this is that we fixed the toilet when he was here, in the middle of the next billing period, and our latest bill was slightly high (3500 cf, $180), reflecting the extra usage in the first half of the quarter. Not anywhere close to explaining the 36,000 cf.
To give you an idea of how much 36,000 cf is, I did a little calculation: if we made our entire 45 x 20 backyard into a 6-foot-deep swimming pool, we could have filled it 6.66 times with that much water. It's simply impossible.
we've also had the free water usage survey the DEP offers: no leaks. And all the meter readings are actual, not estimated.
We are appealing this bill, but I just don't have any way to explain what happened. Has anyone had a situation anything like this?
thanks.
Author's Comments
Responses to Author's Forum Comments
TT here:
Actually, the "water just running straight down the tube" was exactly our prolbem. In our case, it was audible. Anyway the plumber told me the fill level is often set too high at the factory.
I just looked again at our water bills. The sewer charge is consistently 60% of the total bill. (So our 1400 bill was $544 water, $863 sewer.) For one thing, that means it costs more to put waste out than fresh water in. (Go figure.) But, it also seems to mean that if that ratio is consistent, the extra water coming in is also going down the drain, not into the walls--right?
If we got water bills monthly (instead of quarterly) one could catch problems sooner. After all, Con Ed now reads the water meter, as well as gas and electric every month. I suppose that would mean extra administrative work for DEP, but it could save lots water in the long run.
Posted by: guest at February 19, 2008 8:51 PM in response to water bill craziness
You may want to check the archives. I think I read at some point that someone had a problem with their (old) meter, somehow it went berzek as they were using too much water for the size of their water main. They replaced the meter and they had the problem fixed. My memory is sketchy - you may want to read through the archives.
Posted by: guest at February 20, 2008 9:01 AM in response to water bill craziness
thanks for the comments. I do have a watering system, but it's drip irrigation, and was shut off by the time in question.
The toilet leak--the only thing the DEP found--was not a running toilet (I'm highly aware of that) but an internal leak, where the float was set wrong, so water was just running straight down the tube--silently. I had no idea it could do that! Anyway, as I said, that toilet leak couldn't have explained the water bill, since it wasn't fixed until half way through the next billing period, which was high, but what I'd call normal-high.
There's no way the meter can malfunction?
Posted by: penandink at February 19, 2008 5:53 PM in response to water bill craziness