Adventures In DIY

My upstairs A/C unit is going out. I’m guessing it is well over 10 years old, which in some ways doesn’t seem to be that old for HVAC units. Since moving into our place we’ve had regular maintenance done on the two package HVAC units. The average bill for maintenance has been $500 per year. Just recently the technician said our upstairs unit was performing at 50% capacity and it was a matter of time before it went out.

Helpful links I’ve found while researching HVAC units.

• Explains the different types of HVAC Systems
• California Consumer Energy Center explaining energy efficiency, how they work and sound levels
• Some links for figuring out which manufacturer to go with
  • Yahoo Answers posting
  • 2007 JD Power consumer report on HVAC-Residential and Light Commercial Contractor Satisfaction
• Best practices guide for residential HVAC retrofit. The focus of the article is on duct work, but I found it really informative on how important your ducts are.
• Here are some HVAC manufacturer websites. I focused on what I could get here. Post a comment if you have more suggestions for this list.
  • Trane
  • Lennox
  • Rheem
  • American Standard
  • Amana
• Government tax credits for energy efficiency. I should qualify for the $1500 rebate.
• I can also take advantage of the NV Energy rebate for putting in energy efficient units that meet certain SEER and EER ratings. Make sure you check your electric company’s website to see if they have similar deals.

We have package or all-in-one HVAC units, so heating and cooling are in two units on top of our roof.

Next step for me is to start getting estimates from contractors. I know this is a DIY site, but there are some things that I won’t mess with, and putting in new HVAC units is one of them. Plus you don’t mess around with not having a working A/C unit in the Las Vegas heat.

I was working on a ranch this last week for my job. We had to pull about 300 feet of network cable through some 1 inch conduit we put in to the ground.

When I went into town, the electrician I bought the pull string from had a great tip for getting the pull string through a long run.

• Tie a small piece of a plastic bag, a piece of plastic grocery bag worked best, on the end of the pull string.
• Hook up a shop vacuum on the other side of the conduit run. We ended up using some irrigation pipe to downsize the hose to the 1 inch conduit.
• Turn on the vacuum and the plastic on the other end is pulled through.

We ended up getting a pull string through 300 feet of conduit this way!

Hi!

Just wanted to say THANKS SO MUCH!! for the ratcheting screwdriver kit I won in the Home Depot & Adventures in DIY giveaway. It has already been borrowed once. And a close family friend (a retired engineering executive at Mack Truck) is quite envious. It is so nice not to have to hunt (usually without success) for the exact size needed - They’re all in one place. Thanks again.

Sincerely,
Jeanie Myers

We decided to convert our grass filled front yard to xeriscape. The great thing about doing this is if you live in Las Vegas call the Southern Nevada Water Authority before starting the conversion you will potentially get up to $1.50 sq/ft back. If you do this it is important to have them come out first before ripping out turf.

There is one thing I know about something as labor intensive as landscaping, that in order to get it done in a timely fashion we are going to have to pay to have someone do at least part of the project. To save some money we’ll do most of the demolition work ourselves.

The Plan
After sketching out the dimensions of the front yard, we came up with an overall plan for the front yard. We can’t afford to do everything we want all at once so we’re going to break it up into 3 stages. Here are some of the things we would like to incorporate into the new front yard.

• 2 different sizes and types of rock
• Additional parking
• A small wall in front to keep debris and the random dog out of the yard
• Minimal plant maintenance

Stage 1 - Remove all the existing decorative walls, the planter box attached to the front of the house, sandstone gravel and turf. Once that’s finished we’ll work with a landscaper to put in the new gravel and irrigation in.
Stage 2 - Figure out a paver solution for the additional parking section. I want to use pavers so water can go into the ground and not the street.
Stage 3 - Put in the stacked stone wall in front of the house.

Original Front Yard

Congratulations Jeanie Myer of New Castle PA!!!!!!!

There were some really great sayings that people posted, everything from funny to some great projects people finished. I’d like to thank everyone that participated in the contest, and Home Depot for sponsoring it.