Useless Conversation

[ezrast]

I feed my feeds vegetables.

WE ARE NOW MORTAL ENEMIES.

[Yegolev]

BABIES NEED MEAT

[Signe]

IN AUSTRALIA BABIES ARE MEAT.

[Cyrrex]

Sometimes I eat meat just because I feel that something needed to die.  I also eat tons of eggs, because fuck chickens.

[Salamok]

IN AUSTRALIA BABIES ARE MEAT.

I just knew Vegemite had a Soylent Green thing going on, such an Orwellian name.

[Draegan]

So somehow I got onto a Trip Adviser newsletter list. I unsubscribed to it and they tell me it will take 4-5 business days for it to take effect.

What?

[WayAbvPar]

So somehow I got onto a Trip Adviser newsletter list. I unsubscribed to it and they tell me it will take 4-5 business days for it to take effect.

What?

Sometimes the daemon gets backed up. He is in the union so only works 8 hours and takes all his breaks.

[IainC]

It's so that in the meantime they can continue to send you promotional emails (some of which may in fact be tailored specifically for retention purposes if their marketing department is at all competent) in the hope that you'll realise what a valuable service they are providing and reconsider your decision to unsubscribe.

[Merusk]

Yup.

More disturbing is this:

"Wait... I just told you my new address and you entered it in your database."
"Yes"
"But you're saying it won't take effect for 4 months?"
"Yes"
"The post office only forwards periodicals for a month, you know this right. I'm going to be missing part of my subscription. Why can't you just use the address I just gave you?"
"I'm sorry sir, I can't help you, this is how long it takes."

[Draegan]

It's so that in the meantime they can continue to send you promotional emails (some of which may in fact be tailored specifically for retention purposes if their marketing department is at all competent) in the hope that you'll realise what a valuable service they are providing and reconsider your decision to unsubscribe.

Not sure if you're being Captain Obvious on purpose or not.

[Merusk]

So that was a female "What" on your part looking for empathy rather than the male "What" where you're looking for explanation.

[Chimpy]

Signed the contract on the house I found this afternoon.

In 2 months I will be a homeowner 

[Cheddar]

Signed the contract on the house I found this afternoon.

In 2 months I will be a homeowner 

Grats, man.  Upkeep is a bitch but nothing like having your own place.

[Abagadro]

Signed the contract on the house I found this afternoon.

In 2 months I will be a homeowner 

Congrats and my condolences.

[Chimpy]

I think I dodged most of the upkeep bullet for now. All mechanicals are less than 3 years old, kitchen and bathroom were redone last year, carpet and flooring throughout was redone at the same time.

I will have to buy a lawn mower...

[Samwise]

Speaking of being a homeowner, I spent about twenty minutes this morning tearing my general contractor a new one because his sub fucked up and he hasn't yet presented the sub's head to me on a silver platter (translation: he needs to make the sub fix his fuckup, or fire the sub and find one who will do the job right, rather than his current tactic of trying to convince me that the fuckup wasn't really THAT bad).  Not many people get the privilege of having me be well and truly pissed off at them, but he earned it.  I've been nothing but courteous and understanding through a long series of minor fuckups, but don't piss on my head and tell me it's raining.

I wish I'd recorded it.  The choice quote of the conversation that I can remember through the general haze of rage was "This is not a grade school art project.  You do not get points for trying your best."

[Yegolev]

I think I dodged most of the upkeep bullet for now. All mechanicals are less than 3 years old, kitchen and bathroom were redone last year, carpet and flooring throughout was redone at the same time.

Lolololol


But yes, congrats and condolences.

In other news, sometimes kids baseball is the most hilarious thing ever.

[Selby]

(translation: he needs to make the sub fix his fuckup, or fire the sub and find one who will do the job right, rather than his current tactic of trying to convince me that the fuckup wasn't really THAT bad).

I really don't understand this mentality these days.  Seems like every time someone fucks something up, hours and hours are dedicated to convincing everyone that it "really is what you want\need" or "it really isn't that bad and you'll learn to love it" when in reality, if someone shits on the carpet the last thing I expect is to be told that I'll learn to love the smell and ambiance added by the coiled little pile sitting there.

[Samwise]

In my case the guy's expecting to be paid $12k for his fuckup, and fixing the fuckup requires doing the entire job over again at his expense.  So I imagine it'll take more than hours and hours to convince him to see reason.  Hopefully lawyers won't be involved.

[Paelos]

I think I dodged most of the upkeep bullet for now. All mechanicals are less than 3 years old, kitchen and bathroom were redone last year, carpet and flooring throughout was redone at the same time.

You poor, naive bastard. Good luck, sir!

[Merusk]

In my case the guy's expecting to be paid $12k for his fuckup, and fixing the fuckup requires doing the entire job over again at his expense.  So I imagine it'll take more than hours and hours to convince him to see reason.  Hopefully lawyers won't be involved.

What were you having done?

[Yegolev]

Murphy bed.

[ghost]

In my case the guy's expecting to be paid $12k for his fuckup, and fixing the fuckup requires doing the entire job over again at his expense.  So I imagine it'll take more than hours and hours to convince him to see reason.  Hopefully lawyers won't be involved.

What did they fuck up?

[Ironwood]

Tell them about the Powerpoint Sam.

[Morat20]

I think I dodged most of the upkeep bullet for now. All mechanicals are less than 3 years old, kitchen and bathroom were redone last year, carpet and flooring throughout was redone at the same time.

You poor, naive bastard. Good luck, sir!

Indeed. Good luck. :)

As a homeowner I am currently dealing with (and by dealing with, I mean "Trying to get to, but I have other jobs"): Some sort of fuckup between switch and fan (or fuckup OF switch or fan) that makes trying to turn on the bedroom light a fun game of "will anything work, and will it be the right thing, or will I give up on the idea of turning on the light and just hold down the button and hope it settles on the fan speed between "barely on" and "rip it from the walls" like I want), a hole in the plaster on a wall that I hope to GOD is also the reason said wall weeps water on hot days (there is no plumbing through there, so it's that or a weep hole problem), a kitchen sink that occasionally backs up into the dishwasher, a cracked pan on the shower, a thatched front yard (I don't even know how that's fixed!) and a backyard that is one third grass, one third bare dirt, and one third what appears to be some sort of mutated clover.

The sad life of a homeowner is not only caring about stuff like that, but trying to prioritize it, find someone to fix it who won't fuck it up and/or overcharge you, and weeping a lot. :)

[Merusk]

This is why I built new 10 years ago.  I saved sooo many headaches on my first house.

Of course 10 years on now I'm starting to get the usual headaches.  For example, the recent rains have collected in my toilet's vent pipe, leaked out around the seams and caused a wonderful water stain along the gyp bd seam of my master ceiling.  Oh, and that pipe was leaking on the ceiling fan electrical box, too.   

I figure I'm going to have to overhaul the furnace soon, and last year we replaced most of the carpets.

[RhyssaFireheart]

This is why I built new 10 years ago.  I saved sooo many headaches on my first house.

Of course 10 years on now I'm starting to get the usual headaches.  For example, the recent rains have collected in my toilet's vent pipe, leaked out around the seams and caused a wonderful water stain along the gyp bd seam of my master ceiling.  Oh, and that pipe was leaking on the ceiling fan electrical box, too.   

I figure I'm going to have to overhaul the furnace soon, and last year we replaced most of the carpets.

Yep, this is what we're running into now as well.  House was built new in 2001 and now little things are starting to show up that need to be fixed - cheap vinyl flooring in the kitchen is peeling where a chair leg rubs, water stains in the ceiling/wall point in my office, right next to where the chimney is outside, nail pops galore all over the place, cracks from settling, things like that.

Congrats on joining the mortgaged brotherhood, Chimpy!

[Rasix]

Yah, plus now all of your appliances will start failing. That's fun. The paint everywhere will start looking like crap, etc etc.

Our air conditioner is hanging on for dear life.  I wanted to move before it came to replacing that.  Not so sure we'll make it.

[Merusk]

Now that you mention the paint, we're repainting the kitchen this weekend to put the house up for sale soon.   Bher is some damn wonderful paint.

Appliances should be good so long as you upgraded when building. Our standard dishwasher started to go a few years ago and we replaced it but the Refrigerator and Range we bought ourselves are still strong.  Microwave #2 is in but it was a midrange model at the start.

I'd think you AC should be OK Rasix.  Just get its engine overhauled and have the fluid checked. 

[Samwise]

In my case the guy's expecting to be paid $12k for his fuckup, and fixing the fuckup requires doing the entire job over again at his expense.  So I imagine it'll take more than hours and hours to convince him to see reason.  Hopefully lawyers won't be involved.

What did they fuck up?

Tell them about the Powerpoint Sam.

I'll just let the slides do the talking.

tl;dr version: 8.5" risers are not the same as 9.0" risers, and spiral staircases have a very very small margin of error on measurements like that.

[Ironwood]

The Poor Stick Bloke banged his noggin.

lol.

[Merusk]

The powerpoint is awesome and I want to know how I missed it since it was clearly mentioned somewhere else.

That's all such basic stuff that I'm amazed they're fighting you on it at all.  When you have to tell your GC "the bottom riser gets adjusted for materials" something's fucked.  Is the stair guy his brother in law or something?

At the least he should be able to flat-frame that landing portion where you're not at 78" until it's past the tread.


Also: today I learned that California residential code still uses the mid-20th century 9 1/2" rise instead of 7 3/4" that the current IRC uses or the 8 1/4" that was standard sometime in the 80s.  Interesting.

[Samwise]

The powerpoint is awesome and I want to know how I missed it since it was clearly mentioned somewhere else.

That's all such basic stuff that I'm amazed they're fighting you on it at all.  When you have to tell your GC "the bottom riser gets adjusted for materials" something's fucked.  Is the stair guy his brother in law or something?

At the least he should be able to flat-frame that landing portion where you're not at 78" until it's past the tread.


Also: today I learned that California residential code still uses the mid-20th century 9 1/2" rise instead of 7 3/4" that the current IRC uses or the 8 1/4" that was standard sometime in the 80s.  Interesting.

It was mentioned on the Facebooks; you might have me filtered out.  

When I first talked to the stair guy and asked him why the fuck he'd changed the riser heights, his initial story was that the GC had told him to make it shorter in order to account for materials.  Hence me including that in my presentation to the GC (who claimed he told the stair guy no such thing, because that would obviously be retarded).  I honestly think the stair guy is a pathological liar and was just making something up on the spot; when I talk to both these clowns tomorrow I'm going to ask him about that exchange.  I'm betting he will deny ever having said it since that lie's not going to hold up while the GC is in the room.

The 76.5" clearance called out in my powerpoint is without accounting for materials, so in real life the frame makes it more like 74", which is literally short enough for me to crack my head on (I'm 6'1").  There's no compensating for that unless the landing is reduced in size (that's what the stair guy wants to do; I'm not buying it, because fuck him, even if he can get an inspector to sign off on it now, I shouldn't have to deal with a narrower squeeze on my landing and potentially get nailed with a code violation some years down the line when I try to do something else with the house because he didn't check his measurements).

The 9 1/2" rise is only for spiral stairs -- normal stairs max at 7" in California.  Requirements for spiral stairs are different because if you tried to make them with 7" risers they'd only work for midgets due to the aforementioned headroom issues.

[proudft]

I keep reading GC as Ghostcrawler, which is just making everything hilarious.

You are, however, frightening me about our upcoming stair project.  Exterior and non-spiral, at least!

[Samwise]

There are far fewer ways to fuck up a normal flight of stairs.  Spirals require an obsessive-compulsive level of attention to detail to get right.

If I knew where exactly I'd gone wrong I'd tell you what to do differently, but the only thing I can think of is to ask the contractor ahead of time to show you the drawings he's working from so you can double-check them, and I actually did do that.  (He brushed me off and said he was just working directly from the site plans I'd provided him, the ones that clearly say 9".)