I'm done with AARP and I'm sticking to Houzz only. Sorry ladies!

olldbob, false alarm.

The AARP link is secure. I checked again and I was allowed into the AARP site only b/c of the AARP cookie in my computer. When I erased the AARP cookie from my computer's privacy settings, I could not get back into OLLD-AARP unless I signed back in to AARP.

I am fine with continuing to use Houzz. I like Houzz + AARP site seems slow. If we want to exchange personal information, we can use AARP.

I think divulging your grandkids names on Houzz is a HUGE mistake. Please erase names of grandkids and if U feel the need to write & tell us their names, or nick names, go to the AARP site and tell us there.

Hi everyone, back from my meeting. You're right that AARP can be slow at times, and I'd have no problem using that just for more personal discussions.

Eztia & Janishill - There are no "pending memberhsip requests" from you on AARP! Please explain to me what you've done so far, so I can try to help you get into the OLLD group!

Astraea, can you please remove me from the AARP discussion group? Thanks!

Bobbi - Are you sure?

Yes ma'am, thank you!

well, i tried to do the aarp thing and i dont know if it's my computer or what, but it just kept making clicking noises and took forever for me to do anything on it. i think i may be too impatient for it. maybe it's just the work puter though? anywho.....

tornados are headed my way it seems! crazy winds and temps so nice! my daffodils are blooming, like i knew they would. way too early, so i will only get to see a quarter of what should be there this spring. ;(

old washer /dryer out in the carport, new (used) set in, and hooked up. had to run home for a sec to help J cart them in. washing machine sounds a bit loud, but i don't really care as long as it cleans the clothes.

my gosh, my life is boring....lol

Bobbi - I've removed you, but if you change your mind, just let me know!!

Ooh .. tornados; those of us in the Hurricane Sandy area, get very nervous now, when there are any strong wind advisories!! My one friend who had a tree land on her house, said it's pointless to worry, because there's nothing she could do about another one falling!

Can you put the washer/dryer on a rubber mat to absorb the vibration & noise?

1st load so far astraea, so maybe J knocked something ajar when trying to move it my himself yesterday...i have no idea how he did it alone, but that usually means trouble. It may be that tub is slightly off. He'll figure it out by the time i get home prob. nothing major i'm sure. do you guys have a preference as far as gas vs. electric dryers? I always had electric in the past until i moved into this house and there was a gas dryer there. it's been great, but seemed to take longer to dry to me than electric. now i'll be back to electric. are gas dryers just more energy efficient? anyone know off the top of your head?

help: i posted a question in "other" yesterday to see if anyone knew anything about the loveseat and chair and now i don't know how to delete it. i can't even find a "help" button anymore!

yowza! it's crazy outside! major rain and blowing sideways pretty much! i think they said it will be pretty bad until 8pm.

MP, I'm JEALOUS!!! I love a good rain storm, especially if you're lucky enough to be home enjoying it. It's 63F here right now and I just saw the first bee of the season. Blech!

MP - When they transport washing machines, there's something to hold the drum in place. When I got my new one, it worked, but was noisy as I recall .. and the service guy said that the installer hadn't taken out the last of those "blocks" holding the drum in place!

I've always had gas; I think it's supposed to be more efficient, but I'm not sure.

I think someone said that there's a time limit to edit or delete posts?

MP, can you help this poster? You might be able to paint something for her! https://www.houzz.com/discussions/seeking-irish-blessing-garden-sign-plaque-dsvw-vd~302756

well i started this thread myself last night or yesterday late afternoon....surely you can delete your own dilemna??/ no?
of course no one has answered it either. i knew they wouldn't. lol but i found out everything i needed to know anyway, so there! ;)

MP, I sent Emily an email asking her if we could delete our own dilemmas, she hasn't gotten back to me. Do you want to shoot one off to her?

thank you honey....not sure if i'll be on the computer tonight or not. if not, i'll shoot her an email in the morn. J wants to watch a groovy movie with me tonight, i think???

Almost time for me to go..yay! rain has stopped and no tornado hit us and the roof is still on the house! that's what i'm talkin about!

talk in the morn ladies!

good morning roo wherever you are!!!! (swimming in a sea of foam!)

and creesy, i hope you are feeling better today along with the rest of the fam!

Creeser! Where are you? I can see you posting on dilemma's, are you feeling better yet?

Hi, mp, bye mp, one day we will catch up. I do not believe you could ever look ewwwww at any hour of the day (or night). Fortunately the foam didn't come up as high as we are although I was tempted to go down for a paddle.

Many brands of washing machines do need the tub anchored before moving and it seems some Maytags do need this. Can't comment on dryers, I only use the sun. Good luck to J with the job although it sounds like he could become a pro craigslist flipper.

Do you guys use Craigslist much? I mentioned it to my dd one time and she freaked and said there had been murders linked to it. Maybe there are areas and there are areas, and LA isn't one of them?

@ roo. You have to be careful on Craigslist...just like anywhere else. I have never bought or sold anything there, so cannot say from personal experience. I have heard of a murder but mainly scammers. Scammers R everywhere, but I think most people R very honest and there R great deals to be had.

well i'll be a son-of-a-gun! put the washer and dryer on craigslist and sold it within 20 minutes!
next the couch and chair i guess? have to take some good pics. may not be the best place to sell that, but we'll see...
craigslist experience; i bought my asko dishwasher there for $200...check!
got our stove there for $300...check!
sometimes we check for garage sales on there too. everyone here advertises those around here on craigslist. no harm so far. seems you have to be more careful about job ads there more than anything.

mp - you are a legend!!

I have seen some fabulous homes on here where the owners have found things on craigslist super cheap which was why I suggested it to DD.

I get more concerned about people accessing my banking details. I won't even do online banking.

I do online banking. I love it. Have not had a problem.

I know lots of people who do it j22, but I hear too many bad stories. We have enough problems here with our ATM cards as our banks are way behind in technology.

That is a good thought ez - one thing about computers, there are always back doors - humans are smarter after all.

I remember when we had our first scare here I was able to delete all my comments from OLLDs for about 2 weeks which took it back to the beginning of the month, I couldn't do the previous month. However, I couldn't do that on other comments, some I find I have lost that ability in about 7 or 8 hours.

Ez I just checked back and I can delete back to the 1/25 - considering it is the 31st here, that is 6 days.

Oh my goodness, just checked your latest post, you must be absolutely exhausted, but what a great day of cleaning. You will really appreciate it when you get up in the morning and your house is sparkling back at you.

I was just doing some washing up and noticed all my utensils I rarely use are getting very grimey, plus a couple of things I have out, I do keep it to a minimum. Have to go and give it all a good soak and wash.

ez, I'm sorry that happened to you! That sounds like a giant mess and a lot of work. Did your HVAC guy say anything about what kind of regular maintenance work we should be doing to avoid a problem like this? Or do you know what caused this to happen? It sounds like something I'd like to avoid.

Roo! How goes the painting? And the curtain sewing? Can you see the finish line yet?

Hey bobbi and MP, here I am. Better with the cold and I think most of the fam is over or on the mend. Just trying to shake the remnants of it. Thank you for asking. :) MP, did you get blown away? The winds are still wicked here this morning.

Hi Creeser! We missed you! Glad to hear you're feeling better and family is too. I think your weather must have been really wild because it made this morning's local news! Wow! I do love a good storm, but only if I'm tucked safely in my home, don't want to be out in it.

What's on your agenda for today? Do you want to open 1/31?

Catching up ..

Roo - I used Craig’s List before I moved, to sell my late aunt’s bedroom set. I advertised my piano & the set of wicker furniture too, and got interest, but no takers at a reasonable price. I guess you just need to be careful, about letting people in your home, and how genuine they sound. One guy in another part of the country contacted me about the wicker, which I probably listed at top dollar. He said he’d take it .. no haggling .. and would send “an agent” to pick it up. A red flag went up; I told him to have his “agent” bring cash or a bank check; I never heard from him again! One woman came with her daughter to look at the piano, but like a lot of people wanted it for nothing; it was a 5 year old baby grand; she wasn’t getting it for nothing!

I don’t think I do what most people think of as “online banking”. I do pay some bills online, either charging them or paying from checking, but nothing’s set up for auto payment, where it pays the bill without my approval each time. I started doing that 2 years ago, when a payment for a credit card bill allegedly didn’t reach them; so I probably save on 50 stamps a year, and have a receipt for paying online.

Craigslist sounds very normal really, you would take that kind of caution anywhere. I think dd is a bit paranoid. She does use my credit card to buy things online in the US for me, mostly from Amazon or well known 'brands' and I haven't had a problem there yet, in fact, to date, everything has run very smoothly even credits for returns haven't been a problem.

BH pays all the bills here so that is his problem, I think he does it all online and he is financial manager for his mother's affairs and does everything online there - he would never manage that if he didn't. The only auto payment I have is my gym membership.

Creeser, glad it sounds like you are improving, must be hard with that terrible weather or yours, I would defiitely be hibernating. I got a good joke one time about being a bear, I will have to see if I can find it.

Bobbi, I am still on strike with the painting but muddling along with the curtains. I have fabric absolutely everywhere, they take up so much space and each seam seems to take forever to sew, but we are getting there. The rain has stopped me from getting out looking for tape I'm having problems with and it looks like more rain is hitting this weekend. At least we got 2 gorgeous sunny days but they were spent washing, replenishing food supplies which is very local and cleaning up after the wet. Our area got the highest rainfall in all Sydney over a 24 hour period by about 20 mm.

GDD went home on Tuesday and BH has spent the last two days helping dd here as today was the last day of school holidays. The kids here all go back to school on different days according to what year they are in, makes sense staggering it. Just waiting now to see what happens, he has two sheets hanging across the doorways to the bathroom and toilet as the doors can't go back until I have painted them and all the woodwork and I'm sure it will drive him up the wall soon, I'm just biding my time. Of course as soon as things dry out a bit he will be out mowing the lawns again, they seem to have grown 4" just over the weekend. I will keep you informed.

Ah, yes, the painting wars! I think R should help more, he's better at it than I am and faster, too. And he complains less! I may just give him that job, as there are still two rooms left.

I just finished making fresh blueberry/mango muffins with streusel topping, they're in the oven and they smell so yummy! Well, sort of fresh, the blueberries and mangos were actually frozen.

School holidays, is that like spring break, or was that for Australia Day?

Astraea, on-line banking makes me a bit nervous, you? I think you have to have a great firewall on your computer, I know we do, but.....

Bobbi - I don't actually do anything on the banking website, other than occassionally cross-check that money has been transferred as expected. So it's more like "viewing" their records, than me doing anything. I worry more about things becoming so automatic, that people lose track of the money they're actually spending, or if they find a mistake in a bill or a bogus charge, they're on the hook for getting the money back, rather than fighting to correct the mistake upfront.

My utility companies periodically do estimated billing, and the electric company did an estimated bill based on 2011, right after Hurricane Sandy .. when most of us had no electricity for a week or longer! I checked the meter & sent in my own reading .. why overpay them (which would have happened with auto payment), and then wait for the excess to be used up over the next few months?!

Well he has this demarkation thing in his head as to what are his jobs and what are mine and if I'm not doing what he thinks I should be doing then he sulks and does nothing because he considers I'm not doing anything if it isn't what he wants done or thinks should be done. Male logic!!! I should be doing the bathroom over making the curtains in his opinion. If he wants the bathroom done, then he pulls his weight and helps, I can't see him sitting at the sewing machine making curtains, it was hard enough getting him to hang the tracks back up again. He just doesn't see that I do at least 90% of the things in the house as it is.

Muffins sound nice, not that into blueberries, bit tasteless to me but mango ............................!!! I have been buying a bit of frozen mango yoghurt lately, so refreshing in the heat.

School holidays at Christmas here are our major summer holidays, like your summer break only they go from about a week before Christmas to the end of January. Our schools are divided into 4 terms with a 2 week break between each. Easter sort of dictates the holidays as they generally include it in the first break so this year the terms end 28th March, 28th June, 20th September and 20th December.

Astraea, great idea on doing you own meter reading. The first month we lived here the utility bill was $24. The next month, $384!!! Quite the shock. As much as I hate extreme heat I have to keep the a/c at 74F to keep the bill under $300. Ugh. I'm comfortable with the temp around 65F so it's a really long summer for me.

Roo, you keep your own schedule, does he keep yours? Doubtful! We have to do what makes us happy and comfortable. That dang shingles flare up I'm sure was do to all the painting and stuff I was doing the week before. R never puts pressure on me to do anything which is lovely, my pressure comes strictly from myself. I set un-meetable deadlines, why do I do this? hehehe Only four more things left to do in GB1, I'll get to it next week. The red ochre dresser is now a medium shade of gray and it looks just fine.

Bobbi - I'm more affected by the cold than heat .. but either way, it's expensive!! I thought my gas bill was high last month, so I'll keep an eye on the usage .. then ask them to check the meter. One of these days, the meters will be connected to the telephone or other fiberoptic wires, and they won't have to come out & physically read them, except if the number don't make sense.

Roo - It must take a lot for people changing hemispheres, to get use to Christmas in the summer, and all the other seasonal shifts you have to mentally make! How many time zones are there, across Australia?

We'll be switching to Smart Meters soon. We had a choice between switching and not switching, but if you choose not switching they charge you extra! It's funny, our meter reader is a tall, skinny man, super nice and always brings a biscuit for Rocky, I'm sure that's out of self preservation! And even tho we've been here almost two years now I'm still not used to seeing anyone wandering around in my backyard and it still startles me!

Bobbi - I know some people who still refuse to allow the utility to put a remote reader outside the house, so they have to be home to let the meter reader in .. can't understand that at all! I'm not surprised when they show up in the street, but one meter reader was on the street behind me, and climbed over the fence, to get into my yard .. and surprised me when he walked out onto my street! He was gone before I could catch him; I don't need him to do that & fall .. then sue my neighbor & me!!

That's just nuts, Astraea! So why do you supppose they didn't just put the meters in the front of the house? I know! It makes too muich sense!

It's all about people's paranoia; even if the meter reader comes into the house, you don't see what he keys into his handheld device! The answer I got when I asked the question was, "I want to know when he comes!" So the homeowner becomes a prisoner waiting for the meter reader! If the weather's bad, he may come a day late .. and you've lost an extra day waiting around!

My (weird) neighbor has the utility company banned from entering his yard, and every month he puts these cards in his kitchen window, they look like meters and he sets them to the meter readings he's read himself! I've never seen that done before. But I have seen his yard, and I have seen him in his yard wearing his undershorts and urinating under a big tree. So I would say the meter reader should count his blessings.

bob, i'm not jealous of your neighboring weirdos! ha! he sounds like a real kook!

MP, he is a kook! But, he's the most normal of the plentitude of kooks on my street!

You've got quiet a neighbor there!!

Oh, yeah, but you should see his boxers!

BETWARE OF SMART METERS!!! Those smart meters are coming in here but from news reports they are a bit of a con AND they catch fire. There have been quite a few house fires and near misses caused by them. One person even captured one blowing up on camera - just in the right place at the right time.

Our system here is you have the choice of off peak electricity or an extended off peak. Off peak generally means you have to have a larger tank according to the number of people in the house, and your hot water is only heated during the night. During the day as you use it, it tops up with cold water so it is easy to run out before the day is done. Semi off peak means there are extra hours during the day when the hot water will reheat, meaning you only need smaller tanks and generally don't run out. You can also have a continuous hot water but that is uber expensive. As for the rest of electricity used it is all charged at the same rate.

With the Smart Metres, there are different rates for electricity used according to the time of day, basiclally trying to get people to use more electricity from midnight to 6am - fine except who wants their washing machines, dishwashers and dryers (if used) running while trying to sleep, there is the added risk of fire and it is also encouraging people to run their pool filters through the night which is actually illegal. Classic case of the left hand not knowing what the right is doing. To get the benefit of these cheaper rates the main daytime rate is actually more expensive than the rate for a standard meter, so it can actually end up costing you more, unless you have all your equipment running through the night.

I'm not sure if they change an area over whether it is compulsory or not, I haven't heard any mention of being charged extra, but a lot of people are very against them because they realise they are going to pay more in the long run, it is just an excuse to bump up bills. Haven't heard much about them lately, I think all the fires put things on the back burner a bit.

Our Govt privatised electricity services some years back with the promise of cheaper electricity but those in the know said it would have the opposite effect and it has. The providers are now claiming it is all the Govt's fault because infrastructure is so antiquated and was never properly maintaned by the Govt so they need to spend a fortune fixing it or we will have no electricity at all. It is now so bad that we have power brokers who are making a business out of getting better rates for people, just like mortgage brokers. Whole streets of people are ganging up on providers demanding better deals or they will change - surprisingly it seems to be working.

Roo – It sounds like the controls are on the water heater, for when it goes on & off. The problem has always been – since I worked for a utility 29 years – that “cycling” generators isn’t efficient or good for them .. meaning that at night there’s much less electric usage, so the generators power down, then have to come to peak during the day. Utilities have always wanted to find a way to “level usage”, which is much more efficient.

Once electricity was deregulated here, lots of companies appeared out of nowhere as 3rd party brokers/providers. Those companies have to negotiate contracts for the future, and if you switch for lower rates now, they may not have the same deal in 6 months. I just stick with the utility, because their rates are still controlled by the public service commission, to some extent.

Astraea - no the hot water heaters are separately switched on our switchboard so they control the power to them there. The Govt has no control over our power companies anymore to a point, any increases have to go through our Pricing Commission which everyone complains about as it is a bit of a toothless tiger as they basically agree to anything as long as companies keep below CPI levels. Trouble is if the CPI goes up even 1% by the time everyone puts their products up 1% the poor houseowner is further behind than ever. The media constantly recommend people shop around, but as you say the rates in contracts vary so much over a year you can end up paying more in the long run over a period of time. They know what they are doing!!!!