#homeimprovement — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #homeimprovement, aggregated by home.social.
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CW: Rant or something like that; on the state of Linux desktop, if nothing else, ostensibly. However you or anyone else use a computer/phone/whatever-else is none of my business and therefore not a hill I would enjoy dying on. If you would like to disagree, you sure can, and that's fine and we're both wrong anyway.
@plutarch I don't understand every term in this rant of yours, but I think I understand enough to recognize why fundamentally we agree on this concept & why so much feels so wrong.
If anything close to sense & safety gets done on my home repair/remodeling effort set, within another 18 months, beyond full recognition of the terms I don't now, I'll have a #Linux or other #OpenSource operating system or systems on a functional desktop computer or 2 in my home, they likely staying in 1 or 2 nooks of my house. On them will be the simplest setups I can find because I too believe computers are tools not lifestyle foci nevermind centers of life.
One of the best features in my old house is the plaster walls, which make wifi signals travel like smoke in a house that's a chimney.... so beyond my directly having the "smart home " feature set removed from their automatic inclusion in the upgrades & rewiring of the house, I enjoy the fact that internet & in turn computer access in my home exists but is & will remain contained.
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CW: Rant or something like that; on the state of Linux desktop, if nothing else, ostensibly. However you or anyone else use a computer/phone/whatever-else is none of my business and therefore not a hill I would enjoy dying on. If you would like to disagree, you sure can, and that's fine and we're both wrong anyway.
@plutarch I don't understand every term in this rant of yours, but I think I understand enough to recognize why fundamentally we agree on this concept & why so much feels so wrong.
If anything close to sense & safety gets done on my home repair/remodeling effort set, within another 18 months, beyond full recognition of the terms I don't now, I'll have a #Linux or other #OpenSource operating system or systems on a functional desktop computer or 2 in my home, they likely staying in 1 or 2 nooks of my house. On them will be the simplest setups I can find because I too believe computers are tools not lifestyle foci nevermind centers of life.
One of the best features in my old house is the plaster walls, which make wifi signals travel like smoke in a house that's a chimney.... so beyond my directly having the "smart home " feature set removed from their automatic inclusion in the upgrades & rewiring of the house, I enjoy the fact that internet & in turn computer access in my home exists but is & will remain contained.
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I got the idea of painting birds on the Garagarchive doors from Pinterest. Luckily I've taken hundreds of Cardinal pictures to choose from. #home #homeimprovement #homeimprovements #painting #mural #murals #outdoorart #outdoorarting #art #artist #arting #makingart #civicart #largeart #cardinal #cardinals #bird #birds #birding #birdwatching #birdwatcher #birdwatchers #birder #birders #project #doityourself #doityourselfproject #workingathome #painting #housepaint #fern #ferns #bostonfern
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Taming the Mess and the Schedule
The inside of our home is now my sanctuary. In late April, I brought in someone to help me start cleaning up our house. To say the boys’ rooms were problematic was an understatement. It wasn’t their fault: We have five pets, and I hadn’t gotten in to help them declutter or clean much in probably three years. Over the course of three visits, my helper and I tamed the mess entirely. The first visit, we tackled Porter’s room. I’d already packed up a good bit of things that […]https://carolineprice.com/2026/06/08/taming-the-mess-and-the-schedule/
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I Need a Nap
I’m stressing out about home improvement projects, big time.
1–800-GOT-JUNK was here today. I had so much shit for them to haul off that they had to send a second truck. That sounds bad because it is bad, but it’s not as bad as it sounds (talking in circles much?). The first truck was about 1/3 full before it go here and they actually fit everything into the first truck, but they had to pull a few things out from the previous stop and move them to the second truck so that they could go to a different facility because they were metal and get recycled differently? That’s what they told me at least.
The bad part is that we’re going to be scheduling another pick up next week. All of this so that we can clear out our cellar storage space so that a work crew can get easy access to the exterior walls so that they can close up any gabs between the house and the foundation. All of that so that we can qualify for a Massachusetts loan and rebate when we buy and install a new AC unit for our central air. They are coming to do the foundation stuff on June 12th and they just asked if we wanted the new AC unit on the same day. Do we? I thought we were going to wait until the fall but they said the loan and rebate paperwork will be complete by the 12th so why not do both jobs at once.
Ummm… okay?
My head is literally spinning. There’s also a customer project at work that is stressing me out too. I am just Mr Stress today. You know what would be nice? Not being stressed. That would be nice.
The good news today? I took the last week of July off from work. Turns out the new Spiderman movie comes out that week. Might we be sneaking in a matinee? Could be.
Okay. That’s enough of a mental health minute for me. Back to stressing out.
#homeImprovement #homeOwner #Stress #work -
Busy Busy
Today is Sunday. The last day of May, 2026. It is about quarter past 8:00am and it is 48 degrees out. It is warmer than it was for most of the day yesterday. Thanks for nothing, mother nature.
I have a home owner type project going on this weekend that is both overwhelmingly intimidating and completely kicking my ass. That’s probably why I am writing this post rather than actually working. That’s okay though. I guess. Maybe?
We are doing a long term sort of thing. At some point later this year we are going to upgrade our HVAC system. We had a guy out to do some routine maintenance on the AC unit and he told us it’s pretty much at death’s door. Shit. The upgrade is going to cost a fortune, but Massachusetts has some solid rebate and loan options if you qualify. Now in order for us to qualify we have to have some work done on the house to bring us up to code.
One of those upgrades requires me to clear a three foot wide path around the outer walls in the cellar. Unfortunately for me, about 60% of those walls is made up of storage and closet space, all of which is full to bursting with crap. I have to clear all of that out which wouldn’t be too bad except that our cellar interior is also full of crap… well, crap, a laundry room, an office space where I do my morning exercise and my music stuff, and a living room. Basically, I have to pull everything out of storage but the only place that makes sense to move it to is already full of stuff. Shit.
The solution then is to purge. We’re going to book a visit from a junk removal service. They are going to take as much of the shit as I can pile up. Then we’re going to book a second visit and they will take the rest of the shit when I pile it up where the first load of shit was piled up. After that I just have to move furniture away from the walls. It’s going to suck to the high heavens, but it is worth it. We have all of that storage space (which was a huge selling point when we bought the house) but it’s all full. Now it will be cleared out for the most part and we can get to work filling it with new useless shit. Bonus!
So that’s my big project for this weekend. My smaller, less important project is already finished. On Friday night after work I mixed two songs. I wrote them on Monday, Memorial Day (I think the last time I wrote about them in a post here I said I wrote them on Sunday, but it was Monday). I had the bass, drums, and rhythm guitars done on Monday. I put the vocals on both songs on Thursday morning before work, and put the lead guitars down on Friday before work. Then I mixed them and uploaded them to my alonetone.com account before bed on Friday. For the first time in ages I submitted something to the RPM Challenge’s Record Every Month challenge thing.
I accomplished something musically. That felt good. Maybe next week I can accomplish something photographically too. That would also feel good. Creativity is good for my soul, or something like that.
Okay… time to start my day and see if I can’t get some stuff done. Happy Sunday, everyone.
#Guitar #homeImprovement #homeOwner #Music #Recording #Songwriting -
Heat Recovery Ventilator (HRV) — Operating Principle
A recuperator (heat recovery unit) transfers heat from exhaust air to incoming fresh air without mixing the two streams.
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How It Works
Two airflows:
Exhaust air (warm, from indoors)
Supply air (cold, from outside)
They pass through a heat exchanger:
separated by plates or channels
no direct mixing
heat transfers through the material (conduction)
Result: → supply air is preheated
→ exhaust air is cooled
→ overall heat loss is reduced---
Types of Recuperators
1. Plate Heat Exchanger
aluminum or plastic plates
efficiency: ~60–90%
no moving parts
2. Rotary (Wheel) Heat Exchanger
rotating drum
transfers heat and some moisture
efficiency: up to ~85–90%
3. Counterflow Heat Exchanger
air streams move in opposite directions
highest efficiency: up to ~95%
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What Is Transferred
heat (primary)
sometimes moisture (in enthalpy units)
---
Efficiency Example
outside: 0°C
indoor: +22°C
after recovery: ~16–20°C
---
Advantages
reduced heating energy demand
continuous ventilation without major heat loss
improved indoor air quality
---
Limitations
frost formation in winter (needs bypass or preheater)
filter maintenance required
upfront cost
---
Core Idea
A recuperator doesn’t generate heat — it recovers and reuses it.
#HVAC #HeatRecovery #HRV #ERV #EnergyEfficiency #Ventilation #IndoorAirQuality #AirExchange #HeatExchanger #SustainableLiving #GreenBuilding #EnergySaving #HomeComfort #SmartHome #BuildingEngineering #ClimateControl #EcoTech #Airflow #FreshAir #LowEnergy #PassiveHouse #NetZero #HomeImprovement #Engineering #CleanAir
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Heat Recovery Ventilator (HRV) — Operating Principle
A recuperator (heat recovery unit) transfers heat from exhaust air to incoming fresh air without mixing the two streams.
---
How It Works
Two airflows:
Exhaust air (warm, from indoors)
Supply air (cold, from outside)
They pass through a heat exchanger:
separated by plates or channels
no direct mixing
heat transfers through the material (conduction)
Result: → supply air is preheated
→ exhaust air is cooled
→ overall heat loss is reduced---
Types of Recuperators
1. Plate Heat Exchanger
aluminum or plastic plates
efficiency: ~60–90%
no moving parts
2. Rotary (Wheel) Heat Exchanger
rotating drum
transfers heat and some moisture
efficiency: up to ~85–90%
3. Counterflow Heat Exchanger
air streams move in opposite directions
highest efficiency: up to ~95%
---
What Is Transferred
heat (primary)
sometimes moisture (in enthalpy units)
---
Efficiency Example
outside: 0°C
indoor: +22°C
after recovery: ~16–20°C
---
Advantages
reduced heating energy demand
continuous ventilation without major heat loss
improved indoor air quality
---
Limitations
frost formation in winter (needs bypass or preheater)
filter maintenance required
upfront cost
---
Core Idea
A recuperator doesn’t generate heat — it recovers and reuses it.
#HVAC #HeatRecovery #HRV #ERV #EnergyEfficiency #Ventilation #IndoorAirQuality #AirExchange #HeatExchanger #SustainableLiving #GreenBuilding #EnergySaving #HomeComfort #SmartHome #BuildingEngineering #ClimateControl #EcoTech #Airflow #FreshAir #LowEnergy #PassiveHouse #NetZero #HomeImprovement #Engineering #CleanAir
-
Heat Recovery Ventilator (HRV) — Operating Principle
A recuperator (heat recovery unit) transfers heat from exhaust air to incoming fresh air without mixing the two streams.
---
How It Works
Two airflows:
Exhaust air (warm, from indoors)
Supply air (cold, from outside)
They pass through a heat exchanger:
separated by plates or channels
no direct mixing
heat transfers through the material (conduction)
Result: → supply air is preheated
→ exhaust air is cooled
→ overall heat loss is reduced---
Types of Recuperators
1. Plate Heat Exchanger
aluminum or plastic plates
efficiency: ~60–90%
no moving parts
2. Rotary (Wheel) Heat Exchanger
rotating drum
transfers heat and some moisture
efficiency: up to ~85–90%
3. Counterflow Heat Exchanger
air streams move in opposite directions
highest efficiency: up to ~95%
---
What Is Transferred
heat (primary)
sometimes moisture (in enthalpy units)
---
Efficiency Example
outside: 0°C
indoor: +22°C
after recovery: ~16–20°C
---
Advantages
reduced heating energy demand
continuous ventilation without major heat loss
improved indoor air quality
---
Limitations
frost formation in winter (needs bypass or preheater)
filter maintenance required
upfront cost
---
Core Idea
A recuperator doesn’t generate heat — it recovers and reuses it.
#HVAC #HeatRecovery #HRV #ERV #EnergyEfficiency #Ventilation #IndoorAirQuality #AirExchange #HeatExchanger #SustainableLiving #GreenBuilding #EnergySaving #HomeComfort #SmartHome #BuildingEngineering #ClimateControl #EcoTech #Airflow #FreshAir #LowEnergy #PassiveHouse #NetZero #HomeImprovement #Engineering #CleanAir
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The Best Thermostat To Keep You Warm Without Running Up Electric Bills
Saklakova/Getty Images It can be tempting to turn your thermostat up to keep your house toasty during the winter months, but if you do, you run the risk of increasing your electricity bills. If you're conscious about heating costs, installing a smart thermostat can be a great way to monitor and adjust your heating usage. The best smart thermostats will not only let you keep tabs on your property's ambient temperature while you're at home but will also let you adjust the temperature remotely […]https://onlinemarketingscoops.com/2025/11/01/best-thermostat-to-keep-you-warm/
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Here is a list of Screw Types
#ScrewDrives #DIY #HomeImprovement #Tools #Handyman #Crafts #Woodworking #Engineering #Hardware #ToolLovers #DIYCommunity #SlottedScrew #PhillipsScrew #PozidrivScrew #HexSocketScrew #AllenScrew #HexScrew #TorxScrew #StarScrew #SquareScrew #RobertsonScrew #HexagonScrew #Hexagon #SecurityHex #SecurityHexScrew #SecurityTorxScrew #SecurityTorx #Screw
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🪛 🔧 What's your favorite screw drive type? 🔧
Whether you're a DIY enthusiast or a professional, share your go-to screw drive in the comments below! 💬
If your favorite isn't listed, let us know what it is. The more the merrier! 😊
#ScrewDrives #DIY #HomeImprovement #Tools #Handyman #Crafts #Woodworking #Engineering #Hardware #ToolLovers #DIYCommunity #SlottedScrew #PhillipsScrew #PozidrivScrew #HexSocketScrew #AllenScrew #HexScrew #TorxScrew #StarScrew #SquareScrew #RobertsonScrew #HexagonScrew #Hexagon #SecurityHex #SecurityHexScrew #SecurityTorxScrew #SecurityTorx #Screw @gutocarvalho