Renovating my house in the suburbs

[pmsmechanic]

I thought that true up deal was an annual settling of the bill for people with solar panels. The way I read that, your friend used $2700 more in electricity for the year than she produced. Her solar system wasn't sized large enough to cover her usage, so she had to buy power from PG&E. At least I think that's the case. :confused3:

I Googled "California True Up". The contract I read says that if you produce more power than you use in one year you don't get paid for the extra kw's. So people deliberately undersize their solar panels. I'm thinking that the extra "true up" bill would have paid for extra panels in short order.

 

[Jim Nelson]

I had 14 panels installed in 2014, my first true up San Diego Gas & Elec. owed me $9, I figured perfect, I broke even. Then it gradually started costing more each year,
last June when my true up bill came I owed them $600. I had 7 more panels installed and so far I'm ahead $ 42. This is after the hottest part of the year for us so we should come out ok for now.
The biggest objection is that they pay the a customer a small percentage of what they sell power to us for. As I recall under the tier system, which we have, they charge us $.034 per kWh but only pay something like $08 per kWh and that is issued as a credit toward the next years bill. I don't know of anyone who has actually received a check from them.
Before moving to this county we lived in Riverside County and had So. Cal. Edison ,which charged the same amount per kWh but their handling and other charges were much less.

 

[MossRoad]

I had 14 panels installed in 2014, my first true up San Diego Gas & Elec. owed me $9, I figured perfect, I broke even. Then it gradually started costing more each year,
last June when my true up bill came I owed them $600. I had 7 more panels installed and so far I'm ahead $ 42. This is after the hottest part of the year for us so we should come out ok for now.
The biggest objection is that they pay the a customer a small percentage of what they sell power to us for. As I recall under the tier system, which we have, they charge us $.034 per kWh but only pay something like $08 per kWh and that is issued as a credit toward the next years bill. I don't know of anyone who has actually received a check from them.
Before moving to this county we lived in Riverside County and had So. Cal. Edison ,which charged the same amount per kWh but their handling and other charges were much less.

Something's way off with your decimal places in those numbers because that's a sweetheart deal in your favor the way it's written.

 

[ultrarunner]

My first annual "True Up" resulted in a check to me for just under $300... but the net to me was less because if the $11 average monthly service fee.

PGE unilaterally change peak usage to later in the evening to capture the segment of the population that had been waiting to off peak 8 pm to cook, dishwasher, dryer, A/C.

The combination of heat and smoke resulted in using more A/C electricity while production of solar electricity plummetted.

As for regs they seldom become more favorable...

 

[Jim Nelson]

Something's way off with your decimal places in those numbers because that's a sweetheart deal in your favor the way it's written.

You're right, its actually 34 cents and 8 cents. Wish it was as I originally posted.

 

[Muhammad]

Been busy... did some carpentry and staining of the center island and started on tile on Saturday.

Here we are four days later, 74 man hours so far and I've got half a fireplace and one wall of backsplash done in items of tile.

The fireplace is using a natural stone which I cut into a chevron pattern. So every tile needed two 45s and then many needed other cuts. The back wall angles forward and in so I focused on the center lines and am not losing sleep over the outer edges being off a bit. Just including a before picture for now since it's not connoisseur finished. I decided to do more than originally planned so need to pick up more tile in Los Angeles soon.

As for the backsplash... this is a beast. 1500+ tiles in a herringbone pattern, counter to ceiling and trimmed around the cabinets, shelves, and range hood. I'm three days in and just today finished the section above the window. It's basically a nightmare scenario in terms of details as almost every single tile needed a cut today, and working above cabinets that are already installed makes measurements difficult. Also on the 45s I met two 22.5 degree corners to continue the tile across the corner. This wasn't actually the worst of it... above the cabinets was the worst of it, especially after I finished one side and while working on the other side realized I had one tile out of place so I had to pull off six tiles and cut new ones.

 

[dragoneggs]

You are just a glutton for punishment with all this tile work after your distressing work!

 

[MossRoad]

Looking nice Muhammad.

These are more my style...

Tic Tac Tiles

:laughing:

 

[Muhammad]

You are just a glutton for punishment with all this tile work after your distressing work!

Honestly I feel like I'm running a super marathon... just keep going. I'll eventually get to the finish line and then I can recover. But yeah it's been difficult mainly because the baby wakes us up at 1am, 3am, and 5am every night.

 

[Muhammad]

Looking nice Muhammad.

These are more my style...

Tic Tac Tiles

:laughing:

That doesn't count! What are those!

 

[MossRoad]

That doesn't count! What are those!

Peel and stick tiles :laughing:

 

[Muhammad]

Peel and stick tiles :laughing:

You might need to moderate yourself over that one. Or just "stick" to the outdoor work... har har

 

[MossRoad]

You might need to moderate yourself over that one. Or just "stick" to the outdoor work... har har

Seriously, though, our current house has that old-looking cheap paper-based paneling in the kitchen. It came that way, we didn't install it. Wife wanted the kitchen spruced up, but not a ton of money spent. We found a good way to paint the paneling and she found those tic-tac-tiles for the backsplash. I was extremely skeptical. But they were cheap and I thought, what the heck, we'll give it a try VS tearing out the paneling under the cabinets, backer board, tile, grout, etc... you know... the right way! :laughing: Surprisingly, they look pretty good and we've gotten good reviews from friends and family on how nice they look. If they only knew. :laughing:

 

[Muhammad]

Seriously, though, our current house has that old-looking cheap paper-based paneling in the kitchen. It came that way, we didn't install it. Wife wanted the kitchen spruced up, but not a ton of money spent. We found a good way to paint the paneling and she found those tic-tac-tiles for the backsplash. I was extremely skeptical. But they were cheap and I thought, what the heck, we'll give it a try VS tearing out the paneling under the cabinets, backer board, tile, grout, etc... you know... the right way! :laughing: Surprisingly, they look pretty good and we've gotten good reviews from friends and family on how nice they look. If they only knew. :laughing:

Yeah I've heard the same from a few people. It's definitely a quick and easy solution versus the week of work it would take to do it with real tile. Also it's marketed to people who probably don't have the interest in taking in the larger project. Reminds me of those individual square glue down vinyl flooring tiles that were popular in the 90s. My mom got those a few times and would just lay them over existing linoleum. They usually lost their adhesion in a few years.

 

[EddieWalker]

Sounds like you underbid this job. Just kidding. Its always shocking how much longer tile takes when you are dealing with a variety of angles.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Well... July 18... baby came early. Wound up in the hospital for three days.

I think I should have saved this suit for painting.

Healthy baby girl 7lbs 4ozs... View attachment 670309View attachment 670310

I see she has the "angel kiss"; it runs in my family too.

 

[MossRoad]

Yeah I've heard the same from a few people. It's definitely a quick and easy solution versus the week of work it would take to do it with real tile. Also it's marketed to people who probably don't have the interest in taking in the larger project. Reminds me of those individual square glue down vinyl flooring tiles that were popular in the 90s. My mom got those a few times and would just lay them over existing linoleum. They usually lost their adhesion in a few years.

When we bought this house, there was ZERO drywall or plaster. The interior was entirely wood. Knotty pine board paneling, paper board paneling, pecky cypress board paneling, oak board paneling, rough plywood paneling. Some was stained, painted, shellacked, etc... not one room had matching woodwork. The living room was the least problematic; it only had two different kinds of pine and two different colors of cherry. Anyhow, we gutted most of it many years ago, but left the kitchen with its 5 kinds of wood. She'd had enough of it 2 years ago.

Here's a before and after of the tic-tac-tiles and paint. She was happy so therefore I was happy.

 

[Muhammad]

When we bought this house, there was ZERO drywall or plaster. The interior was entirely wood. Knotty pine board paneling, paper board paneling, pecky cypress board paneling, oak board paneling, rough plywood paneling. Some was stained, painted, shellacked, etc... not one room had matching woodwork. The living room was the least problematic; it only had two different kinds of pine and two different colors of cherry. Anyhow, we gutted most of it many years ago, but left the kitchen with its 5 kinds of wood. She'd had enough of it 2 years ago.

Here's a before and after of the tic-tac-tiles and paint. She was happy so therefore I was happy.

View attachment 673059 View attachment 673058

Looks good... and like much less work than I'm into. I've seen the old cabin theme before. When I was a teenager we lived in a log house that had t&g pine ceilings, wood beams, cherry floors, and of curse solid wood walls. Not an inch of drywall in there either. It was rather dark.

 

[herm0016]

I cant imagine a scenario where I would do a backsplash with tiles that don't come in sheets unless is big tiles like we did in the last place. 12x18 I think they were. looked great and installed quickly. these were bad enough with no 90 degree corners.

 

[MossRoad]

Looks good... and like much less work than I'm into. I've seen the old cabin theme before. When I was a teenager we lived in a log house that had t&g pine ceilings, wood beams, cherry floors, and of curse solid wood walls. Not an inch of drywall in there either. It was rather dark.

Yep. We were fortunate to be able to gut it and repair before we moved in. No timeline. Completely on our own pace. We bought it in October and didn't put our house on the market until Memorial Day (sold in 1 day). I remember those long days. Work all day, come home for dinner, go to other house, work all evening. No cell phones. I swung a deal with the phone company to have the same number at both houses. Rang in both places. But whichever house answered first had the call. It wasn't like an extension. So if someone was looking for me at the other house, my wife would tell them to hang up and call again let it ring at least 10 times. We gutted 1 bedroom completely, 2 walls in to other bedrooms, and 4 walls in dining room. Did all 4 ceilings in drywall. Re-did a lot of electrical, too. Just replacement, no new circuits. I do enjoy that kind of work, but I like to do it at my own pace, not on a deadline.

I found out I particularly like painting. I know a lot of guys hate it, but I really enjoy it.