A home facelift, AKA replacing defective vinyl siding

My wife and I have been in our house for just over nine years.  A year or so after we moved into our house, we had problems with our vinyl siding.  We knew the siding we had was defective because we have some neighbors that had the same batch (same color even) installed, they had problems and they got their siding replaced.  However, we opted not to pursue a warranty claim at the time.  The contractor that built our house was not very good to respond.  Our siding issue at the time wasn't very bad (we had a few warped boards) so we decided to not do anything.

A couple of years ago we decided that we wanted to sell our house.  We actually listed our house on the market for six months, but nothing ever happened.  It was at that time that our vinyl siding looked like crap pretty pathetic.  It had warped in some spots and was severely faded.  We talked to a siding installer and he told us that our siding has a lifetime guarantee.  So we decided to pursue a warranty claim and get our known defective siding replaced.

Short story, we got the run around.  The local siding dealers were not very helpful (I'm being very kind here...).  The "limited" lifetime warranty wasn't worth the paper it was printed on.  And, get this, warranty services denied our claims.  We even had a company claims guy come out and look at our house and tell us specific issues that we had with our siding so we could get a claim.  Denied.  Literally, a year's worth of work all for nothing.  Needless to say, we were not happy.  So after trying for a year to get the issue resolved on our own locally, we decided to go talk to a regional manager and plead our case with him.  And the most amazing thing happened......  We called and told them our issue.  The very next day we were approved!  Yeehaw!  The local guys were still jerking us around, but we got it approved.  We order our product and it arrived at the house.

All good.  So we have the guys yank off the old siding.  And while we were at it, we had some brick work that was installed that we wanted redone.  So we asked one of the neighbors to help out.  Well, come to find out we had a bit of a problem with the house.  Check out this photo:

(C) Tom Larsen - 2010

Yep.  You guessed it.  Dry rot.  Our fake "cultured" rock and brick work was not done correctly.  I can't complain too loudly because I'm one of the installers.  The vinyl installers didn't help either.  But we had a bad installation and so we ended up with dry rot in a portion of the wall.  So we ripped out the rock so we can fix the dry rot problem.  In the end, we didn't want to do this ourselves.  So we asked this same neighbor to come and lay brick for us.  By the way, he did an excellent job.  I'll have to upload a photo or two of the finished product.

The brick work finished at 1:30 AM on Friday, November 5th.  The vinyl siding guys have done three of the four walls of my home.  Now that my brick is done, I hope they come back on Monday to do the front of my house.  But then again, the weather is supposed to be crappy on Monday, so that may not happen for a while.

So there you have it.  Our house had a face lift.  Now, where did I leave my drill?  Has anyone seen it?

Going cold turkey - No more cable TV

Last Friday I called my cable provider and asked them to disconnect me.  I thought they were going to do it yesterday, but they didn't.  Instead, they came by today and disconnected us.

My first reaction was "Finally!"  But then I thought about it a bit and realized that there won't be any "entertainment" on any more.  If I want to watch something, it will have to be from the video collection.  Or I'll have to hook the home PC up to the TV and watch something over the Internet.  Ick!

So we'll see what happens.  I may have it reconnected at the end of the week.  Then again, maybe never!  But right now, it is a relief that I don't have to pay one more thing that I really don't use much or need to have in my house.  One less distraction for me and my family.

Google TV - no more cable TV

A week or two ago I purchased a Logitech Revue.  I bought it Friday night.  Took it home.  It was late, so I didn't even bother to take it out of the box.  I slept on it and the next day I realized that I had made a $300 mistake.  So I took it back to the store the next day for a full refund.  The inner geek wants it.  The realist in me knows that I have no time to waste sitting in front of the TV watching garbage or surfing the Internet.  And we've had some expenses that have taken a toll on our savings account.  I guess I'm just trying to be fiscally responsible this year or something.

I also decided to cancel our cable TV subscription as well.  I called on Friday and they will be shutting it off today.  It is only $15/month, but there is just so much trash on TV that I really don't think we'll miss it.  There is a lot of stuff on the Internet.  If we go through withdrawals, we can sign up again or hook the home PC up to the TV and watch TV via the Internet.  Or I may break down and get that Roku player that I've been thinking of getting....  Naw.  We'll just go without.  We'll be OK.

High School Haikus

When I was in high school many millennia ago, my English teacher tortured us gave us an assignment to write three haikus.  I think she gave the class one or two days to do the haiku assignment.  This is one of the assignments that I actually liked and had fun with.  When it was explained to me, a haiku consisted of three lines.  The first line had five syllables, the second line had seven syllables, and the third line had five syllables.  And the topic of the haiku had to be about nature.  So with those guidelines I crafted three gems of literary enlightenment.  Yeah, whatever.

First haiku:

Ordinary plant

So simple, yet so complex

There must be a god!

Second haiku (and my personal favorite):

Nature is calling

Right as I get into bed

What do I do now?

And, I don't remember the other haiku.  So you'll only have to put up with only two of my three entries.

Oh, and by the way........  If are a student and you steal my haiku, I hope your teacher finds the haiku online and fails you.  Haikus really aren't that hard.  So go and write your own.

BTW, (c) 1983 and (c) 2010

Slow Internet

Today as I left work (I work from home), I initiated several large downloads to the work PC.  So I started them and walked away not thinking much of it.  The download speed seemed fair enough to me.

I returned later and noticed that my downloads were chugging along.  But they seemed really slow, which was really weird to me.  So I mess around a bit and then for grins and giggles, I login to my DSL modem.  And check this out:

Normally my "DownStream" connection speed is in the 7,000 kbps range.  This is the first time I've ever experienced it lower than 7,000 kbps.  So it made me wonder what is going on.

So I did a search and found others, mostly Verizon customers, have the same problem.  Slow throughput.  But the thing that was different is their trained up speed was normal, but using speed tests, their actual results varied.

I'll keep an eye on this.  If it doesn't adjust back upwards, I'll turn it off and on again and see what happens.  This kind of stuff ticks me off.  Besides, I need to call the phone company tomorrow about my bill and what they're doing with my DSL fees.

The housing market collapse and foreclosure quagmire

I've been reading the news about various banks (GMAC, Bank of America, JP Morgain Chase, etc.) and the mess their foreclosures are in.  I've got to say is just one word:  Wow.

One of my neighbors got behind on their mortgage because of health related issues.  Their mortgage is with one of the three banks mentioned above.  They will call the bank and ask when they will be foreclosed on.  The bank representative tells them that they need to apply for a loan modification.  They apply and subsequently get denied.  This has happened several times.  Then the bank will call them.  Tell them that they need to pay $10,000 to the bank.  They ask the bank if they pay the $10k if they will get to stay in their house.  The bank says, "This doesn't guarantee that you will be able to keep your house."  The neighbors ask what the money is for and the bank can't/won't tell them them what the $10k is for.  But the bank wants the money.  So out of frustration and disgust, my neighbors are leaving the house.  They know they will be foreclosed on but the bank is unwilling to work with them.  So they are just going to walk away.  So who knows how long that house will sit vacant while the lender goofs around with it.

In order to clean up our housing mess, the country really needs to get these foreclosures done, sold and out of the way.  I personally fear what this foreclosure will do to the property value of my own home, because it will probably end up being sold at about 1/4 to 1/3 less than what is owed on the house.  And that will just kill the value of my house.

Interesting to see where we go with this.  Probably more bailouts.  Or a double-dip or triple dip recession.  Bleh.

The perfect time - 10:10:10AM on October 10, 2010

Today it October 10, 2010, or as dates goes 10/10/10.  Being the nerd that I am, I waited until 10:10AM and 10 seconds.  Even more nerdy, I actually took a photo of the event.  The "perfect" moment in time.  All 10s.  So here is the photo from my clock, from just a few minutes ago:

Now, as you look at the clock, you just see 10:10, but the second hand is superimposed on top of the minute hand, so it was indeed 10:10:10 when I snapped the photo.  I also have a photo at 10:10:00, but that isn't as spectacular as 10:10:10AM. 

OK, enough useless drivel for the day. 

The squirrel mug

A couple of years ago I went to my sister's house for summer vacation.  She lives relatively close to Yellowstone National Park.  So we used her house as home base while we were there.

My sister is a party animal.  She always likes to invite people over and have some fun.  So they decided to do a white elephant gift exchange from all the junk neat stuff that she and her friends had collected over the years.  One such piece of junk treasure was a set of squirrel mugs.  I even have a photo to show you.  Check this out:

The mugs ended up in my family's possession for some odd reason.  So, I have another sister that showed up at the same time we were there.  Their luggage was downstairs, so we took the set of mugs and put them into one of their suitcases.  And the mugs silently disappeared.  We didn't even hear anything of any kind come back about them whatsoever.  In the end, I think we ended up with one of these mugs at our house because we failed to get rid of all the mugs.  We packed it into some unsuspecting family member's car.  And we forgot about it.

Last weekend both of my sisters were in town.  After they left my wife went outside to turn on the water or move the water hose.  When she did, she discovered the above treasure.  I thought that my older sister was the culprit, so I sent her the following email with a photo of the junk coveted mug:

"Did you forget something?  [My wife] found this outside by our water valve today.  It might find a home with [your son] when he gets married."

Here is what I got back from her:

"+HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

Actually, [your sister] had it in her car since July. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA" 

So now I know who the culprit is.  Unfortunately none of her kids are getting married any time soon.  So we now have the coveted squirrel mug in our possession.  I wonder who will get the mug next?  Does anyone here want it?

Is this the future of TV?

I have a very basic cable TV subscription.  I pay $15 a month for about 13 channels.  So what do I get for $15 a month?  The major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CNN), PBS (KBYU and KUED), BYUTV, and a few others that make me go "Huh?".  And I've been fairly disappointed in the content.  I turn it on and think, "This stuff just sucks."  I've even contemplated dropping my cable TV subscription altogether.

In the past I've looked at a Roku player.  If you're not familiar with Roku, go and visit their site.  Their latest line of players is very compelling.  I've looked at a few other media players and Roku appears to have some fairly descent media content alternatives and is the cheapest media player out there.  For $100, you can stream HD content.  A hundred bucks is fairly cheap.

I was going to dive in head first and get a Roku when I decided to email a friend and co-worker of mine and see what he uses.  BIG MISTAKE.  (Note to self:  Geeks shouldn't email other geeks to find out what they use for high tech stuff because it will only wreck your plans.)  He told me about Google TV.  Currently the Logitech Revue is the only stand-alone Google TV appliance that will be available soon on the market.  Best I can tell, the Revue runs an Intel CPU, and I assume it is probably an Intel Atom based device.  For those of you who are not in the know, the Intel Atom CPU is the brains of most NetBook PCs, the small cutesy little $300 laptops with minuscule little screens.  (I've been tempted to get a netbook, but for a few hundred more bucks, you can get a real laptop, not some neutered, half-pint PC.)  So I think this Revue is a netbook minus the screen.  But the bad thing about the Revue is that it is $300.  Dang.  And it isn't available yet, but will be soon.

So the cheap person that I've become (out of necessity) tells me to get the Roku and to quit fretting about this.  But the inner geek in me says that the Revue will be so much more versatile (it actually has a web browser with Adobe Flash support, along with most/all the features that the Roku has).  My biggest concern is this:  Do I really want a wide open web browser (or PC) attached to my 46" TV screen???  And do I really want to spend $300 for the device?  That's my heartburn of the day.

I've asked some friends and looked at opinions about the Google TV appliance.  Some of my tech friends discount the idea.  Tech opinions (from other geeks, mind you) speak highly of the device.  My gut instinct tells me that this will be a big thing, similar in nature to the iPhone.  An industry game changer.  Never in my life have I pre-ordered a device.  This is the only thing I might consider pre-ordering.  But procrastination in the tech world generally is a good thing, and the procrastinator in me may wait until the Revue is actually released and setup at a Best Buy so I can go and look at it before committing my hard earned money to the stupid thing.  Like I said, it may be a hot item and I won't get to see it until next year.  Oh well, so be it.

NYC Mosque

This whole thing over the NYC mosque is being blown out of proportion.  All this media coverage is just ridiculous.  The bottom line is that the Muslims have the constitutional right to place that mosque there.  Period.  End of story.  However, given that the hijackers of the airplanes that crashed into the twin towers were Muslim, there are some bad feelings toward Muslims.  Although Muslims have the constitutional right to place a mosque where they want to place it, I think they should be sensitive to the locals and probably move the mosque to a location that isn't so close to the site of the twin towers.  Having some sensitivity to the placement of that mosque will probably go a long way to healing the wounds that have been created.  Like I said, they do have the right to place the mosque there, but they should probably move it to a different location.