Let's talk about furniture and household goods

[hockeysc23]

My recommendation for a new place would be to feel it out first. It’s tempting to just fill with new furniture but as I’ve gotten older I’ve realized you will move stuff around and your tastes may change. Remember those ginormous sectionals from the early 2000s? If
You bought one of those now a days you’d be severally limited. We try to use craigslist, FB etc for furniture. It’s much cheaper. Allows us to try new things etc.

My one new recommendation would be a sofa.
Crate and barrel makes some great sofas that last. Good cushions with timeless designs

It also depends your style and how you use the space we love to entertain and I have to ensure everything has a home. So we look for multi purpose items like ottomans that can store and double as seating etc.

[Dun]

Any suede, real or modern stain proof fuax, upholstery experiences? It’s too hot here for regular leather

Flooring recommendations? The newer luxury waterproof vinyl plank systems seem to be better than any of the press board variants of flooring but I’d love to hear some thoughts.

Any Murphy bed experience here?
We would love for the guest room to also be an office/projector room

A well-stocked workbench to fix all the stuff that inevitably needs it when you are a homeowner... and a wine room

Probably a separate thread, but as we are just buying a townhouse- I would love to hear non-professional opinions on what is worth tooling up for home repairs and what is worth it just to leave to professionals. Especially with limited tool space options

[rd27]

Any suede, real or modern stain proof fuax, upholstery experiences? It’s too hot here for regular leather

Flooring recommendations? The newer luxury waterproof vinyl plank systems seem to be better than any of the press board variants of flooring but I’d love to hear some thoughts.

Any Murphy bed experience here?
We would love for the guest room to also be an office/projector room



Probably a separate thread, but as we are just buying a townhouse- I would love to hear non-professional opinions on what is worth tooling up for home repairs and what is worth it just to leave to professionals. Especially with limited tool space options

Can't say that I have any experience with those things. But on your question of professional vs DIY, my personal opinion is that if you have the time, tools, and knowledge, you can do it yourself. Otherwise, hire a professional. Also, if you don't feel safe doing a project yourself, hire a pro. Rather pay a pro than a hospital bill.

[rd27]

My recommendation for a new place would be to feel it out first. It’s tempting to just fill with new furniture but as I’ve gotten older I’ve realized you will move stuff around and your tastes may change. Remember those ginormous sectionals from the early 2000s? If
You bought one of those now a days you’d be severally limited. We try to use craigslist, FB etc for furniture. It’s much cheaper. Allows us to try new things etc.

My one new recommendation would be a sofa.
Crate and barrel makes some great sofas that last. Good cushions with timeless designs

It also depends your style and how you use the space we love to entertain and I have to ensure everything has a home. So we look for multi purpose items like ottomans that can store and double as seating etc.

You're right. I've changed styles several times and purchased things from all over that I didn't love completely and have had to replace all of them. Better to be sure you're getting something you like.

[mebejoseph]

Probably a separate thread, but as we are just buying a townhouse- I would love to hear non-professional opinions on what is worth tooling up for home repairs and what is worth it just to leave to professionals. Especially with limited tool space options

We have a townhouse with a small yard (about 25 x 15) and a garage. I find I need almost all the same tools I did when we had a house, except for tools for sprinkler repairs.

But for sure you should have enough tools to hang pictures and mirrors (get a stud finder as well), replace a washer in a faucet (or you'll end up paying $200 to a plumber to do a 15 minute job), and touch up the paint on your walls when needed. If you're not afraid of working with electricity, you should be able to replace a wall outlet--especially if your house is old. The outlets get worn out and won't hold a plug. If you can do that, you'll probably want to replace light switches yourself--We Mo and others make smart ones now and they're fun to have.

You'll probably also want to do minor drywall repairs from time to time. Sometimes you have accidents and dent your walls with a door knob or a piece of furniture--or when I was younger--it was anger issues, I'm sad to say.

[Dun]

...replace a washer in a faucet (or you'll end up paying $200 to a plumber to do a 15 minute job), and touch up the paint on your walls when needed. If you're not afraid of working with electricity, you should be able to replace a wall outlet--especially if your house is old. The outlets get worn out and won't hold a plug. If you can do that, you'll probably want to replace light switches yourself--We Mo and others make smart ones now and they're fun to have...

Good points, thanks. I can probably ask the handy man at work to teach me how to do those safely. And ooh I probably want a smart switch for the ceiling fan

[mebejoseph]

Good points, thanks. I can probably ask the handy man at work to teach me how to do those safely. And ooh I probably want a smart switch for the ceiling fan

Youtube has hundreds of home repair videos.

[rd27]

We have a townhouse with a small yard (about 25 x 15) and a garage. I find I need almost all the same tools I did when we had a house, except for tools for sprinkler repairs.

But for sure you should have enough tools to hang pictures and mirrors (get a stud finder as well), replace a washer in a faucet (or you'll end up paying $200 to a plumber to do a 15 minute job), and touch up the paint on your walls when needed. If you're not afraid of working with electricity, you should be able to replace a wall outlet--especially if your house is old. The outlets get worn out and won't hold a plug. If you can do that, you'll probably want to replace light switches yourself--We Mo and others make smart ones now and they're fun to have.

You'll probably also want to do minor drywall repairs from time to time. Sometimes you have accidents and dent your walls with a door knob or a piece of furniture--or when I was younger--it was anger issues, I'm sad to say.

Kind of a silly question, but are you at all concerned about smart devices collecting data on your household?

https://gizmodo.com/the-house-that-s...-me-1822429852

[mebejoseph]

Kind of a silly question, but are you at all concerned about smart devices collecting data on your household?

https://gizmodo.com/the-house-that-s...-me-1822429852

I do have some concerns about privacy and that's why I've limited my smart devices. I don't have any type of voice activated smart devices. We don't have Alexa or anything like that. We don't have any cameras. We have a few lights on WeMo. We have a smart climate control system I operate from my phone. We have the whole-house music system. Of course we have the typical streaming entertainment. I also have a couple of fitness apps on my phone.

I think the biggest privacy "leak" we have comes from all the computers we have, not the smart devices. We are always on the internet looking up something for work or shopping or home improvement or just for fun.

Plus--I keep my calendar on a computer and on a central calendaring system we have for our law firm management. The "internet" knows when and where all my appointments are.

Am I really going to worry about the world knowing what time I turn on the A/C, if I'm searching on google for "psilocybin mushrooms chocolate recipes" or "best remote control vibrator"?

[DocDave]

Kind of a silly question, but are you at all concerned about smart devices collecting data on your household?

https://gizmodo.com/the-house-that-s...-me-1822429852

Definitely not a silly question. The convergence of big data, not to mention the power concentrating in to five main companies (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google) is definitely not good for consumers. Throw in the abuse of user privileges and the sharing of data between businesses for their profit and you have a recipe for disaster.

Take a look at Google and their acquisition of Nest. When they first bought Nest they claimed Nest would stay a separate company from Google and that Google would not co-mingle and aggregate data. Now? Google has rolled Nest in with Google Home appliances and there is no data distinction between the two. All of your data is going in to one big melting pot.