As someone who recently stopped working with keys and locks as my job, this is super common because idiots don’t know that a) you can check codes on packaging to see that locks are keyed alike, and b) if you can’t find enough matching sets you can have the hardware store person rekey them, or do it yourself if it’s the Kwikset Smartkey type. People fuck that up all the time too though and lock up the mechanism so it has to be taken in to the hardware store again to reset with a special tool.
Are you sure you bought the home from the people who own it?
Yes of course I am sure.
They did come back and found the right key. I could also see how they failed by testing keys when the door was already unlocked so while the tumbler didn’t turn, the door knob would.
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I have no idea where @James lives, but most states in the US require a Title check when you buy a house, to address that precise question. You want to make sure you’re buying a house from the person who legally owns it.
Yes, there are rare instances when Title checks aren’t done, but that’s usually well publicized ahead of time, and in those circumstances it’s caveat emptor.
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Between needing more power for my workshop and wanting a proper charger for my car I need to upgrade the power to my garage. If I’m going to do anything major with my house’s wiring it probably makes sense to rip out the panels entirely because my 75 year old house has 2 fuse panels and a breaker panel.
I guess as long as I’m at it I should make sure everything is set up to handle a solar installation for whenever I decide to do that.
How do you actually do this? Ive been having an issue tripping my garage’s breaker every time I attempt to weld. It’s caused me to turn the machine down to lower voltages than I need to do it properly. I’ve been continuously unsure what to do about this issue.
I’m in North Carolina, which is kinda restrictive about having a licensed electrician do things. But you probably want a subpanel near your work area and anything as beefy as a welder should have a dedicated circuit within it. Nothing complicated really if you have the tools and common sense.
In my case I already have a subpanel for my shop, but it’s puny especially considering the car charger I want is 220V 40A. So my current rough plan is for the new panel to be a 50A 220 and three 110 circuits: tools, ventilation, lighting.
Honestly you get an electrician unless you know what you’re doing. If you fuck up wiring you burn your house down.
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Yeah, that’s true. You can always rough out what you want then hire an electrician to execute it and fix your dumb design mistakes. I basically have to do it that way. You can often save money by supplying the parts yourself.
That’s weirdly common. People are really dumb (or at least profoundly inattentive of their surroundings and interactions), and often never notice.
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When we were looking for houses upstate, I encountered all of the following:
- 6 bedroom house that was definitely a meth lab
- split-level with an illegal second apartment, complete with kitchen and illegal gas line splice
- a second story sliding glass door to nowhere
- an 8’ drop ceiling in the entire ground floor
- Half a dozen houses with fake ventilation louvres in the attic
- A house that seemed fine until I discovered a 2" crack across the entire kitchen, that upon inspection of the basement was a 2" crack through the entire house and foundation
- A second, worse meth lab
- Mcmansion with nearly non-euclidian geometry due to poor building practices. Mismatched corners, unaligned molding, etc… It almost gave me a headache walking around
- Coal boiler for a furnace. Coal.
- “That stain isn’t from water damage” (spoiler: it was from water damage)
- Knob and tube wiring
- “There is no record of this house ever having been built”
- Every room is piped with gas line access for some reason
- “What’s a sump pump?”
- Fusebox that’s clearly been bypassed
- 220 line in the livingroom for some reason
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If this is the McMansion I remember, it’s worth a fortune now. Missed opportunity.
I have one in my living room. It’s for my ultra powerful air conditioner. If it’s not near the window, then I have no fucking clue why it is there.
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No, that one was solid. You didn’t see the one I’m talking about here.
Some appliances can use a 220 line for reasons, the more heavy duty the more likely they need 220.
I have a story that is not quite to that extent:
There is a drilled well on my property for which no record exists. The company that drilled it no longer exists, the town has no paperwork for it, and it’s not anywhere in the DEC register of residential wells.
I literally had to find an obit of the original owners, track down their children, call them up, and say “hey I bought your childhood house and I’m wondering where the hell the physical wellhead is.”
Turns out, 85 feet underground with no surface marker at all.
Super fun stuff!
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Huh… Unless the house was old enough to predate common central AC that’s bizarre.
The house, like all good houses, had central HVAC…
A lot of modern houses don’t have central AC, especially in northern parts of the US.
I remember when my parents built their current house back when I was in high school and college. I told them to put central AC in, but they thought it was an unnecessary expense.
Fast forward to last year, and my mom paid a fortune to have it retrofitted in.
Retrofitted central AC is rough though. Usually the houses aren’t set up for it, and you have to make severe compromises in terms of efficiency or cost. Having modern ducted HVAC was a huge point in favor of any house I was looking at buying upstate.
Central air is default in most middle-class+ suburbs in Michigan, if the burb was built after the mid 70s, Can’t speak for other northern states though. Granted, Michigan summers are hot even pretty far north.
I do wish my apartment had central ducted AC instead of three separate zone units, but that is actually really rare.
The house I spent high school in had both fully ducted central HVAC and an attic fan. It was sublime.
A lot of places in the northeast, rather than fitting central ducting, install ductless mini-splits. Substantially more efficient and relatively cost effective when you look at what’s involved.
Of course, you have to have an ugly-ass air unit in every room, but hey, it works.
I thought about the ductless route when I was considering an air-source heat pump for heating, but we already have ductwork so I might as well just stick with that.