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Welcome to Keepthatshitrunning, a journal of small repairs and fixes around the American home, made in an effort to improve the comfort of living (and extend the life of certain things). #keepthatshitrunning

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Furnace Fan Control Mystery- Solved

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 When we first moved into our house, one of the first upgrades we tried was to replace the HVAC thermostat with a nifty Nest unit. We thought it was working fine until we got the energy bill for that first month (over $300). Our Trane XL80 two-stage furnace seemed to be doing a good job keeping the house warm, yet appeared to be working too hard to accomplish that (it would be on for long stretches of time). That's when I started to pay close attention to how the furnace was behaving. Whenever it started I would head to the garage and just watch and listen to the unit operate. I would head back into the house and stand under the intake and listen. It didn't take long to learn that the unit was shutting off and restarting multiple times even before reaching the temperature set point. But why? Why was it taking so many breaks? I removed the front panel of the furnace to reveal its insides: In the top left corner exists the White-Rodgers Model 50A51-495 control board. On it there...
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Inspection Behind Dishwasher

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 So its summer again, and the ants have been trying to make a comeback. Saw a trail of them coming from what looked like behind our Kitchen Aid dishwasher. Made the decision to pull the sucker out. You do this by removing the 2 screws that secure the dishwasher to the bottom of the counter top. I also removed the bottom panel held in by another 2 screws. Once thats done you can pull the dishwasher out by lifting it gently from the ceiling (hands inside the dishwasher with palms up against the ceiling). IMPORTANT: Remember to disconnect any lines before pulling the dishwasher. This includes power, water supply and drain. My drain line connects to the sink drain and is held in place with a hose clamp. It was in a tight spot behind the sink, so I had to use my handy-dandy socket wrench that I impulsively purchased at a discount store during a trip to Seoul. (ps I love cheap tools that work). This set cost me 5000 won, which is about $3.80 nowadays. I think all the sockets are metric b...
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Bermuda Inside The House!

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A couple of years ago we planted bermuda grass in the backyard. I heard that it spreads aggressively, but this is over the top! Check out the images below.  Our wall construction is made of the following materials in the order of inside to outside paint>primer>mud>drywall>wood frame (sits on concrete foundation with fiber insulation in between members)>house wrap>steel lath>stucco. That's alot of material to get through! I'm guessing it climbed up the side of the concrete footing, found a spot in between the wood frame and the house wrap, climbed up the frame and poked through a gap in between the drywall and window sill? Hard to believe, but it will warrant further investigation.....Didn't think I'd have to mow the lawn inside  the house!
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