Back to the Basics - Weather Stripping

NOTE:  This blog story takes place just before "Replacement Window RFP". 

That chair is my place.  Used to
 be the coldest seat in the house.

We had just received a sizable windfall and were pondering all the options.  Our drafty Ball home was freezing us to death in the winter.  No joke, you needed a coat at dinner time if you sat in the chair closest to the door.  We needed new doors and windows, but the cash was only going cover one of the options.  The decision did not become apparent until the furnace crapped out.

Lucky for us, our HVAC guys are good.  Charles from B&D Refrigeration came out to fix the furnace issue, and we posed the question to him.  He took one look at the doors and gave us the answer.  "I'd get the windows and just repair the doors".  The builder either forgot to install weather stripping, or it was worn out so bad that the wind could blow in.   To make matters worse, the door was not hung level.  Excessive upward force was required on the door if you wanted to throw the dead bolt.  On a bright, sunny day you could see a nice sliver of light between the door and the frame.  The next call was to our favorite handyman.

We had a backlog of stuff for Alvin to do:

• Paint exterior
• Repair bricking on back of house
• Seal doors
• New door hardware
• Level doors

Alvin is one of the best handymen in the area.  If you don't have a guy like him, you really need one.  Compared to me, he's the Yoda of home repair.  He can wave his hands and things magically go into place.  He can do stuff with vice grips that I can't pull of with real tools.  We've known him for 10 years and hope that he'll never retire.

One of the things we had Alvin do was install new door handles and dead bolts on all the doors.  For some reason I don't understand, the back doors had different keys than the front.  That's just a little too complex for me.  One house key is plenty.  Rekeying the locks in your place is something that should be done shortly after move-in, and we hadn't done it yet.  Who knows how many people had keys?

Alvin reset the door, repaired the rotten wood, and installed something called weather stripping.  Weather stripping is a foamy, rubberish material that goes around your entire door frame.  The stuff comes in all different shapes and styles, so check your doors before heading off to Lowe's.  Our doors have a groove around the entire frame, and the weather stripping has a tab that slides right into the groove.  After doing a little research for this article and looking at the doors, I bet installation took about 15 minutes on each door.

The black stuff is weather stripping



Top Pic

So what happened?  The difference was night and day.  Where a screen door previously existed, a solid door materialized.  My chair is no longer the coldest seat in the house, and the coat can stay in the closet.

My recommendation?  Check the weather stripping if your doors are drafty.  Odds are that you can do a simple repair that won't cost must money. 
Would I do the job myself next time?  Yep.
What about the next windfall?   Hmmmmmmm.....

Big B's Budget Part II

OK, get out your virtual pen and check off the items that are complete:

___   Excel
___   Bank account for personal escrow funds
___   Summary of fixed, variable, and non-monthly expenses

If you don't have checkmarks in all 3 slots, this articles won't be much help.  Head back to Part I of Big B's Budget Blog for your homework assignment right here. 

Now for the big question, how did the budget turn out?  Mine had a few surprises (like negative cashflow).  Assembled below are some of the best tricks I've come up with since living on a budget.  Nope, none of the concepts were stolen from Dave Ramsey, Wikipedia, or mint.com.  They all came from the school of hard knocks.

You need a suitcase full of these to buy anything.

Fun Money

This is the toughest budgetary item for most folks out there.  First, decide how much money to spend on the frivolous, unnecessary items.  For people making tons of money, you're probably OK putting all the money in one line item and discussing the items as you go.  If fun money is a very low amount, or you can never agree on how to spend the money, give everyone in the family an allocation of cash.  My budget had this issue early on.  We had a puny $100 to dump in this bucket.  Well, it was really more like a thimble.  The spreadsheet had 2 line items:
     Me           $50
     Her           $50

Her

The money could be used for eating out, computer games, or setting a fire in the back yard with $1 bills.  If we went out to eat, she could have the $35 lobster tails with a glass of wine.  I could suffer through the $6 meatloaf, but pick up a copy of Diablo II at Best Buy on the way home.  You get the drift.  As an added bonus, the leftover fun money carried into next month's budget!  That way, we could eventually buy stuff that cost more than $50.  Small loans into next month were also permitted for special occasions.

Me

Windfalls

In the pre-budget days, my first windfall was about $1,000.   WOW!!   My first thought was that we had plenty of money to do anything in the world.  Fun stuff got slapped on the credit card like mad until the statement came in. A quick calculation showed that the windfall was spent approximately 2.5 times. I don't remember pondering this one over a bourbon, but it was probably the case. After the "windfall disaster", a new worksheet appeared in Excel named "Bonus Money". The after tax amount is listed at the top, line items summarized, and the remainder is computed right under the amount.  We take great care these days in planning bonus money, and doing it is fun to boot. All of the money is either spent on things that are agreed on or put into an interest bearing account. How do we pick things to spend the money on? Check out the "Long Term Projects" tab. Yes, future house blog articles are listed in priority order here with an approximate cost. 


Scratching your head and wondering how you get windfalls?  Here are a few ideas:

• If you get paid biweekly, only budget 2 paychecks each month.  That way, 2 paychecks each year are windfalls!  (well, technically you get 3 every 7-8 years)
• Set federal and state withholdings, so you get a tax return instead of paying.  Don't go crazy, Uncle Sam doesn't pay interest.
• Get a credit card that pays cash back, like my Chase Rewards Visa.  Withdraw the money for a windfall when the money builds up.
• CHRISTMAS MONEY!!!

What is the HSA tab?

Up until recently, my company had a Cadillac health insurance policy that included $10 doctor visits, $15 prescriptions, and no deductable.  My first son was born to the tune of $100.  Seriously.  Fast forward to corporate cost cutting ideas and high deductable health care plans.  Family plans with a $3,000 deductables are common now.  That's tough on a monthly budget, but Uncle Sam has a program to assist with some of the cost.  If you have an HSA plan at work, an account can be opened to pay for medical bills.  Any money deposited into the HSA savings account is pre-tax, so the money doesn't make it to the Taxable Earnings column of your paycheck.  We deposit enough money in this account to pay for 100% of medical costs.  Doctor bills and prescriptions are entered in this tab and paid with the Chase Visa card (earning us a 1% rebate), and money is moved out of the HSA account to cover the bills. 

Short Term Savings

Lots of the expensive stuff in your house has a tendancy to break over the long haul like hot water heaters, A/C coils, microwaves, and TV sets.  Cars have the same problem. Most monthly budgets can't handle a $2,000 repair bill, even if you eat refried beans all month.  While we still had 2 incomes, my wife shoveled money into an account to pay for expensive, incidental items.  Ours is set up in a brokerage account that is invested in bonds and a money market cash fund.  Unless you have a bigger pile of money than the picture, stick to funds that are easily liquified.  Sure, Verizon stock pays a great dividend, but what if you need $4,000 to pay for a new roof when the Dow is down 1,000 points?   If you don't have a rainy day fund, start one now.  Either take a windfall and sock it away or allocate money each month to build one up.

Donations

Last but not least, the donations tab keeps track of money that we donate to charity.  We give money to several causes throughout the year, and I print this tab before going to the tax guy. 

Parting Thoughts

Big B's budget has evolved over nearly 20 years, and it works for our household like a charm.  Feel free to take any of the ideas in the article and add new ones that pertain to your own personal life.  Managing your money with a budget over time can greatly reduce the stress in personal finances.  What if the greatest stress in your budget was how to spend a windfall?  That's my dream.

Interested in tips to lower your electricity bill?  Click here

Big B's Budget Part I

How do you pay for all the things that you do your poor house? Simple, I cashed in a Powerball ticket for $100 million. 












Well.........  Not really.......  Winning large sums of money isn't really something I'm good at.  My luck is pretty good with insignificant things like parking in the food court at the mall on Christmas Eve, but winning money isn't a big strength.  This story begins with a couple trying to save for their first house.  After 2 years of "saving", our household had actually racked up about $2,500 in credit card debt.  After a particularly bad confrontation about not owning a house, I figured out something that most people don't understand.  Unless you're Britney, Oprah, or Donald Trump, you need a budget.

A budget?  Won't that force me into living like a pauper?  It could, but if you do it right, you'll feel wealthier than ever.  How to get started?  First you need Excel.














My journey at budgeting started with Excel 4.0 (man I'm old), no bourbon (too poor), and no Google (it didn't exist yet).  You're lucky today, because you get a head start with the latest and greatest gear.  Microsoft Office Home and Student 2010 runs for about $100 on sale at Best Buy, Staples, or Office Depot.  Pick up a copy even if you're not an IT guy.  You don't even need to start from scratch, because I've included my budget template.  Click right here to open it up: budget_template.xlsx.  Note: The values in the spreadsheet have been changed around a little to simplify the exercise.

Next, separate your expenses into 3 categories: fixed, variable, and non-monthly.  My list goes something like this:

Fixed: House Payment, Gas, Phones, Power, Netflix, Cable TV, Security, Newspaper, Discretionary Money, and Savings
Variable: Sewer/Water, Groceries, Vehicle Maintenance, Gasoline, Pets, Clothing, Kids, Misc, , and Cell Phones
Non-Monthly: Car Insurance, Property Taxes, Homeowners Insurance, Preschool, and Springtime Yard Work

Tip: something that my household does to make the numbers more predictable is allow the utility companies to put us on a "budget" plan.  They check recent usage, and the bill is the same every month.  They'll also have a settle-up month where you get a credit for money not used or a bigger bill for a shortfall.

Monthly Expenses
Open the template and click on the "Bills" tab.  The fixed expense amounts are on the left and variable expenses on the right.  Pull out your last month's bills and fill in the numbers.  Make a good guess on the variable expenses.  They can be fined tuned as you go along.  The "fun+save" tab has a place to keep track of discretionary spend and non-monthly bills.  Let's leave the discretionary money alone for now and head to the non-monthly expenses.

Your Personal Escrow Account (Nonmonthly Bills)
Punch in the non-monthly bills, add up the total, and divide by the number of paychecks you get in a year.  The spreadsheet has a spot to work this equation for you.  People that get paid biweekly have 26 pay periods as a rule.  Some years are 27, but let's not get that complicated.

Now, take a break from Excel and head to the bank.  Open up a savings account that draws interest. We'll call this your personal escrow account.  Take the "Escrow Budget (Pay Period)" number from the spreadsheet and set up an automatic draft from your paycheck or checking account into your personal escrow account.  Each paycheck will deposit money into the escrow account.  My company has a credit union that works well for this task.  This new account separates your monthly budget money from the non-monthly money and also draws interest.  All your non-monthly bills get paid from here. Note: The spreadsheet has a calculation to show deposits into the account.  Depending on where the non-monthly bills fall, you may need to start the account with an initial amount.  That's so you don't go negative during the year.  My example needs an initial $1,100 to keep it running.

Tip:  If you get paid biweekly, try as hard as you can to live on two paychecks a month.  That way you get an extra two paychecks to spend each year.  We take one paycheck to spend on Christmas and apply the other one towards a family vacation. 

Setting Up The Budget
Head back to the main page of the spreadsheet, and let's get started on income.  Add the "net" amount of money you typically get from paychecks and other income (like tips).  This amount is after taxes, insurance, 401K, and pretty much everything else that drains your check.  Next, subtract out the escrow account money from each check.  The template uses $1600 per pay period for budget income ($265 is taken off the initial amount).  This amount is your budget income.  Summarize your fixed and variable expenses and add them up to get the "budget expense" number.  Subtract expense from income.  If the number is positive, that's really good.  You have leftover money.  If the number is negative, it could explain why you're getting deeper into debt.  (Don't feel bad, most of us have been there before.)

Now what?  Punch in your expenses into the "actual" column during the month.  The spreadsheet will calculate your total spend at the bottom.  Monday night is my time to pay bills and type receipts into the spreadsheet.  I use "save as" to make a copy of this spreadsheet for each month.  Printing a copy out in the middle of the month for the wife/husband helps keep the budget on track.  You'll also want to make some adjustments to the budget after getting all the numbers on the computer for a few months.

Hey, what are those other tabs for?????  Click here for the budget blog Part II, which has more details and lessons we learned from living on the budget for over a decade.

Got a question?  For the first time, I'm soliciting feedback on the house blog.   Go ahead and email suggestions, questions, and comments to: houseblog@theroysefamily.com.

Interested in tips to lower your electricity monthly bills?  Click here.
Read this article to see how to lower your phone bill to $25 a year.

Land Line for 25 bucks a Year

This story starts with a conversation with myself.

You can't write about this one, Big B.
"Why not?"
The project was too easy.
"But this could save people hundreds of dollars a year."
It won't be very funny.  You didn't even go to Lowe's three times or drink any bourbon.

We had a dilemma.  Our son was born, and we had just worked up the courage to hire a babysitter and head out for a date.  The issue was that our land line was disconnected many years ago due to cheap cell phone plans that include free mobile to mobile and 1400 rollover minutes.  What if something goes wrong and the babysitter's cell phone doesn't work?  We needed a land line, but didn't need the pricetag.

Version 1.0 of this blog story started with the original MagicJack.  Don't get one.  They stink.  The first MagicJack required your PC to be turned on all the time, and the app made your PC boot up so slow that you could brew a pot of coffee before the PC was usable.  To fix this, I wrote a script to deactivate MagicJack from the startup and made sure that the PC was on before the babysitter got there.  Your average Joe doesn't have these kind of skills, and the whole thing was kind of a drag.  Version 2.0 of this product fixes all that.  Mine came straight from www.magicjack.com when they were running a half price sale (about $40).  RadioShack has them for $69.99.

MagicJack Plus doesn't need a computer to run, just to activate.  First, plug the MagicJack Plus into a USB slot on your PC.  Then run through a configuration routine on the PC to get everything ready.  After running setup, the MagicJack plus plugs straight into a router via an ethernet cable.  Plug another cable into power, run a phone line to a regular analog telephone, and you're all ready to go.

MagicJack Plus connections.  Power on the right,
ethernet and phone cord on the left.

Ethernet cable plugs directly into router.
No PC needed for daily use.

MagicJack service runs about $25 per year for unlimited long distance and local calling in the US.  I know people that pay the phone company $50 per month for the same service.  MagicJack offers add on services (like a vanity number) for a fee if you want.  They also sell international calling at more reasonable rates than cell phone providers.  Quality of the service has been very good for the past 6 months, and the international service sounds like you're talking to someone right next door.

You'll also need an analog phone to actually talk on the thing.  For about $40, I got a Uniden cordless model with 3 handsets.  The base and spare phone are in the basement close to the router, and we also have one upstairs.  The Uniden set has voicemail built into the base, but MagicJack service also includes voicemail that gets forwarded to your email address.

Any drawbacks?  Figured you'd ask about that.  First, MagicJack doesn't offer local phone numbers in every town.  I had to pick a local number in a town about 25 miles away.  No biggie, because long distance is pretty much free these days anyway.  The service also isn't as reliable as a land line from the phone company. 

We use a cordless phone to plug into the MagicJack Plus

To summarize, you need these things to run a MagicJack plus:

• Broadband internet service
• Free port on your router
• Analog phone (mine was about $40)
• MagicJack Plus hardware (about $70)
• MagicJack service (about $25 per year)

A land line for $25 a year? Absolutely, and you don't need a lot of gear or IT knowledge. 

Want to read an article about lowing your electricity bill, too?  Click here.

The Coolest Grill

 

One of my friends always has the coolest grill.  He routinely refreshes "the coolest grill" with top of the line Weber products.  Lucky for me, my wife is in the distribution chain of the hand-me-down models, and we received his very first coolest grill.  This model is a vintage Weber Genesis Gold that was purchased some time before I could legally drink bourbon.  Hint: tenure at my current job is 20 years and change.  Why is the grill on the deck instead of the curb?  Read on to find out.

The story starts in 2004 with my wife informing me of the arrival of the coolest grill (note: names have been changed to protect the innocent).

"Take a look at this grill we just got"
Where did that come from?
"Zane just got a new grill and gave his old one to Lonnie.  Lonnie just gave me Zane's old grill from last time."
Looks like a poke o'doody to me.
"Zane always buys really nice stuff.  I bet this grill is a good one."
That grill is older than Methuselah.

My grill was fairly new and working fine, so the coolest grill sat in the back yard for several months.  At my house, things like this usually get thrown away quickly.  However, my relationship would run much smoother if we just kept both grills and put the new junker on the back burner.

Early the next year, an act of vandalism rendered the non-cool grill inoperable, and the unit was sold in a giant yard sale.  On an evening when a steak dinner was planned, I took a look at the coolest grill to see about connecting a propane tank.  Grill technology must change over the years just like IT equipment.  The propane tank wouldn't screw on the regulator.  After a quick trip to Lowe's for a new regulator/hose assembly, the steaks were sizzling.  The Weber held a steady temperature and cooked the steaks evenly.  The steaks were, frankly, the best ones I'd ever cooked!



New regulator and hose for tank

The coolest grill started chugging away.  We were eating some of the best cooked food in the history of our  household, but the grill had some serious issues.  Do you remember me saying something about this grill falling apart?  When a grill starts to die, it's not exactly the end of the world.  The scenario is more like Steve Austin from the Six Million Dollar Man.  "Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology."

At first, cooking was fine if you didn't stray from the right side.  One of the burners on the left had a huge hole, which created a small blowtorch soon after the grill was lit.  The real problems began when another hole popped up on the right.  When you get to this point, either you get a newer model or start buying parts.  We didn't want the good food to stop, so I hopped in the car for a trip to Lowe's.  Usually, they've got everything you need at Lowe's, but this time the grill dude had to get on the computer and order me a set.  When he started asking about lengths and model numbers, he got a blank stare.  If you do this, make sure you measure parts, take some pictures on your smartphone, and write down model numbers.  On the second trip to Lowe's, all the questions were answered, parts were ordered, the Chase Visa took a $115 hit.  The coolest grill was down for about a week.

During the repair job, more problems came to the surface.  Lonnie had installed a custom grate (built from the side of an outdoor AC unit) to hold ceramic bricks just above the burners.  The grate had to be removed for the burner replacement.  Let's just say that the grate was in nearly the same shape as the burners.  After the burner replacement, I did my normal Google and bourbon meditation to do a little more research on grilling.  A couple of things came to light.  Number one, the coolest grill needed a new set of flavorizer bars.  These sit right above the burner (protecting them from grease) and more or less keep flames from directly hitting the food.  Number two, www.grillstuff.com is a great place to go for hard to find Weber parts.  They have a great selection of Weber parts and good pricing.  After another wait of about a week, the custom grate came out, the flavorizer bars were installed, and things hummed along for a while ....... well, until we stained the deck.

Flavorizer Bars

The coolest grill despised being moved, period.  Picking the grill up to move it into the yard and then back to the deck caused the legs to come totally apart.  Think something like broken legs stops me?  No way.    For about $20 and 3 hours of labor, brackets were bolted on the legs, and the entire frame got a nice coat of Rust-Oleum paint.  Weber uses some stout steel on the frame, and 2 drill bits broke in half while drilling holes for the brackets  Also, the wood from the grill got pressure washed and treated with the same stain as the deck.

Brackets on legs.  Drilling the
holes was the hard part.

This year, the cooking grid started developing more rust than was easily avoidable.  I have several grilling buddies on Facebook, so a poll was in order to pick the right material for the grids.  The choice was stainless steel, cast iron, and porcelain-enameled coated cast iron.  The last option is nearly maintenance free and has the added benefit of holding in heat, so Grillstuff got the business again.  Here's a neat article that explains the pro's and con's of the different types.



Brand new grill grids




After cooking on the grill for several years, I've got a few tips for the amateur griller:

1. The round thing with numbers on it, commonly called a thermometer, is a necessary part of grilling.  The temp I use most frequently is 450, which works great for chicken breasts and steaks up to 1" thick.  Let the grill heat up for a good 10 minutes and allow the temperature to stabilize before putting anything on.
2. Whatever you do, please, please, please don't mash hamburgers when you grill them.  The juice was designed to stay inside the hamburger (makes them juicy) and not catch your backyard on fire from a flaming grill.
3. Thaw meat and let it warm up at room temperature for 10-20 minutes before grilling.  That way, the food is cooked evenly, rather than burned on the outside and cold on the inside.  If you absolutely must cook food that's a little frozen, cut into smaller pieces before grilling.  The best case scenario is to purchase and cook food on the same day.
4. Quick recipes have 2 components, oil and spices.  After tip #3, coat your big steak with olive oil on both sides and sprinkle on the spice.  Our favorite is Montreal Steak by McCormick.
5. If you really want to get fancy with recipes and marinades, pick up a copy of Weber's Big Book of Grilling.  The best book for basic grilling (food times and temperatures) is Weber's Real Grilling.  The "Real Grilling" book has great guidelines for different meats and times for well done, medium, etc.  WARNING: these books can add to your waistline as well as cholesterol level if you're not careful.
6. If you choose not to read the books and want to slap on some thick BBQ sauce onto your hot dogs, wait until the food is nearly done.  That way you don't have burned sauce on top of raw meat.
7. Keep the lid down guys!!!  Keeping the lid up lets all the heat get away.  Not even expert grillmasters understand how to cook the good stuff with the grill top open. 
8. Keeping with #7, try to limit the number of flips.  The pro's will only do 1 flip.  I usually need 2 for steaks and 3 for chicken.
9. Let your food sit for 5 minutes before eating.  Food will continue to cook while it sits.
10. Buy some real grill tools for cooking instead of using a puny fork.  The food holds together better, and you don't get burned during a grease flare-up.
11. A cold beverage always makes the food turn out better.

Now haven't I spent more on parts than a new one would cost?  Sure, but you'll get no argument from me that this grill cooks better and will last longer than anything new on the market.  Maybe even Zane would agree.  Last time he was over, he looked at his old grill and said, "I really liked that old grill.  It was pretty cool."

Facts and Myths of HE Washing Machines

CLUNK!!!!!  

What in the world just happened in the laundry room?  The washing machine just ended in the middle of the cycle, and my quick diagnosis is that the transmission just took a direct hit from a hand grenade.  The machine is pretty old, so it's time to go shopping.  Little did I know that the world of laundry had changed drastically between 1996 and 2007. 

Last time this happened, the whole ordeal took less than 3 hours.  We just bought a fancier washing machine that had about 16 cycles.  It even had hand wash, which was pretty big stuff back in '96.  The price tag approached $500 for a super nice machine.  Easy-peasy, lemon squeezy as my son would say. 

This time, we hit the usual stores and took in all the details.  2007 was fairly early in the days of consumer grade HE frontloading machines, and my head started spinning from all the details.  Sales teams are all well versed in the gospel of HE: less water, less power, and less time doing it!!!  Oh, and spend at least twice as much.  Hmmmmm.  We opted for an offsite meeting at Applebee's to digest all this new info and make a decision.  Happy hour appetizers usually help out with this kind of thing.  Since both of us were pulling down a paycheck (yes, we were DINK's back then) , we decide to spend the bucks and take the HE plunge.  The model we picked was the Frigidaire Affinity series, which a good middle of the road brand.  If you've got more money, step up to a Bosch set.  They actually have suspension built in to make the spin cycle quieter.

After getting to know the new machines and doing research along the way, I've assembled the facts and myths of HE machines.

First the facts.

FACT #1:  Although it may be more aesthetically pleasing, a new dryer is not necessary with a new HE washer.  They don't make HE dryers, but a matching dryer is usually much larger than your run of the mill dryer.  We bought one, because we had the cash and it looked way cooler than my old one.

FACT #2:  A good deal of profit margin is built in, so be prepared to negotiate for the best deal.  We picked a locally owned store that gave us good pricing and some extras. 

FACT #3:  HE washers and dryers are built to sit on pedestals.  Very expensive pedestals (about $200 each).  In theory, you could set them on the floor, but the reality is that you need them.  Otherwise, you're crawling on the floor doing your laundry.  The store threw in one of these for free. 



Pedestals = very expensive storage drawers

FACT #4:  The units use less water.  According to the marketing material, a full load uses about 15 gallons, compared to 40 gallons for a conventional washer.  I had some trouble benchmarking the water usage, because my first son was born at about the same time.  Our water usage didn't seem to go up much, so the washer and baby must have cancelled each other out.

FACT #5: They will save you time and electricity.  IMHO, this is the greatest benefit of all.  The drum on the washer spins water out of the clothing at around 2,000 RPM's.  If you're sitting in our basement, the sound is similar to a helicopter landing on the roof.  Not a good idea to wash clothes while people are trying to sleep, but the clothes really do come out drier than conventional machines.  With the old setup, drying a normal load took at least 1 1/2 hours, and a big load of towels could take longer.  No joke, even  a huge load of towels takes no more than 45 minutes to wash and 50 minutes to dry.  Sound too good to be true?  Believe it.  Our record is 12 loads in a single day.  Since the dryer is a big consumer of electricity and runs about half as much as before, it's a no brainer that you're going to save power.

Now for the myths.

MYTH #1: HE detergent is needed.  Remember the tidbit of using less water?  Less water = less detergent, right?  Imagine my surprise when I found out that HE detergent is the same price for the same amount of loads.  The detergent makers say that HE detergent is specially formulated to clean better with less water and produces less suds.  Some units will even tell you that conventional powders will void your warranty.  WARNING! USE THIS INFORMATION AT YOUR OWN RISK.  What in the heck did laundromats use before HE detergents became available?  I found a post by a laundromat dude with the answer:  "We used less soap".  For a normal load, about 3 tablespoons of conventional powder (Tide Free) does the trick.  You'll need to adjust the amount based on load size, because the washer senses the size of the load and uses less water for a partial load.  A new box of Tide lasts us a long time, and I've been running the same stuff in our HE unit for years.


One time the dishwashing detergent came
with a scoop that was the perfect size!

MYTH #2: HE washers don't clean as well as traditional units.  Our 2 and 5 year old boys test this myth on a weekly basis.  For the little buddy clothing, we add Oxi Clean powder to the detergent tray, select an additional rinse cycle, and treat the tough spots with Oxi Clean spray.  Oxi Clean has powerful enzymes that do a great job of breaking down pretty much anything yucky in the laundry.  Be careful about getting Oxi Clean spray on your fingers.  The enzymes can also start breaking down the skin on your fingers like it did to me one time.  Be careful with the spray and wash hands right after use.  Note: the instructions say to add Oxi Clean powder directly to the drum of the washer, but the clothes seem to do better when adding the powder to the detergent tray.

Oxi Clean spray
takes out the tough
stains.

Oxi Clean Powder - Good Stuff!!

MYTH #3: Fill the scoop up with detergent.  No way!!!  I've noticed that most detergent makers put giant scoops in the box.  More is better right?  No, it just runs out quicker and makes detergent companies richer.  Read the instructions, and draw a line on the scoop with a sharpie.

Stock scoop from the Oxi Clean box.
  Believe it or not,that line I drew at the bottom
is the marker for a full load!

Our Frigidaire units have worked out great, and the best feature is the huge time savings.  If you've got the money to spend, HE is the way to go.

Basement Hi-Fi Upgrade

 

The music at our last Halloween party had a small issue.  The sound of 55 people started drowning out the music.  My system isn't exactly a wimp, but you couldn't hear the music in the back of the basement.  This one doesn't sound too hard to fix.  Time for an upgrade.

Current System:

• Pioneer Surround Sound Receiver   100 watts x 5
• Front (A):  Fisher 3 Way Speakers   12" Driver
• Sub:  JBL 12" with 200 watt amp 
• Patio (B):  Yamaha Outdoor
• Center:  JBL
• Surround:  Polk RC60i (Ceiling Mount)

The basement in the house is roughly 1500 square feet of open space.  The JBL sub can easily overpower a crowd, so we don't need more bass.  If you're close the Fishers, the music is overbearing.  We need to push more highs and mids to the back of the basement.  Adding speakers is the ticket.

Polk RC60i - In Ceiling Speaker

Crutchfield has an excellent selection of audio and video equipment, so they were naturally my first pick for some in-ceiling speakers.  These Polk's are rated for 100 watts,  mount in the ceiling, and cost about $120.

Use the template and a sharpie to draw the cutout.
Believe it or not, a razor knife does the best job.

The speaker has anchors that clamp
the speaker to the tile.

Mounted in ceiling

A wiring run to the back of the basement needs at least 16 gauge speaker wire.  You start losing sound if you go with small wire for a long distance.  Also make sure the wire you use will fit into the speaker outlets.  I ran the wire up the wall to the ceiling, following the same path as the cable TV coax.

16 Gauge Speaker Wire
About $12

Think it's a good idea to just plug a bunch of speakers into the B channel on your amp?  Nope.  Most amps are made to run speakers at 8 ohms.  When you start hooking up more speakers to the same output, the ohms drop and your amp starts working hard to keep the sound going.  Very similar to hopping on the exercise bike and cranking the resistance all the way up.  You'd wear out quickly and pass out.  If you're lucky, your $400 receiver will burn up.  Unlucky, and it'll catch on fire.

Enter the Monster Cable SS4.  This box supports 4 pairs of speakers and keeps the ohm rating safe for the amplifier.  Amazon.com has these for about $60.  Connect the box to the B speaker outlets on the receiver.

Monster Cable SS4

So now, I've got a new set of speakers in the back of the basement.  The Monster box is driving the Yamaha patio speakers and the new Polks.  What about playing music on the rear surround speakers?  Well, that one took a little thought.  My old school Pioneer receiver doesn't have a setting to change the rear surround speakers to regular music. When you push the surround sound button, movies in Dolby 5.1 come to life, but 2 channel (stereo) audio sounds like crap. 

A little more searching online turned up a speaker selector switch made by Specialty-AV on Amazon.com, roughly $30.  This is a little hard to explain, so you may want to slow down a bit.  The box is really made to hook an amp up to two sets of speakers and select between the speakers.  In my application, the flow is backwards.  The rear surround speakers from the amp go into the "Pair 1" speaker outputs on the box and the "B" speaker outputs from the amp go into the "Pair 2" speaker outputs on the box.  The inputs on the box go to the Monster box inputs.  I use the box to drive all the speakers with either rear surround sound (for movies) or "B" outputs (for music) from the receiver.   

Speaker switcher

Both boxes all hooked up.
Looks a little messy from the back

Label the buttons and the job is finished

This job was actually a lot of fun and only took a couple of hours.  For a bit north of $220, the basement system can safely drive 4 pairs of speakers.  We'll all be smiling at the next Halloween party.