Kevin Perry (u/the_kevin)

Posts

Rented a floor sander from Home Depot and ruined my hardwood

I thought I'd save some money refinishing the living room floor myself. The rental guy told me 36 grit would get the old finish off fast, but I didn't realize how aggressive it was. After two passes I had gouges an eighth of an inch deep in the oak. Cost me 800 bucks to have a pro come in and fix it with a drum sander and filler. Anyone else had a rental tool turn into a disaster? What sander grit do you actually use for old Edmonton homes?

2 comments

c/ancient-tech-leftovers•

the_kevin•1d ago

Old CRT monitor started smoking, turned out to be a cap I ignored for 2 years

I had this Sony Trinitron from 1999 sitting in my basement. Used it for retro gaming every weekend. Started hearing this faint buzzing last December but I figured it was fine. Then last Tuesday it literally started smoking out the back. Took it to a repair guy and he pointed at a blown capacitor right on the power board. He said I could have fixed it for $3 and 20 minutes if I caught it earlier. Now the whole board is fried and I'm out a perfectly good monitor. Anyone else ignore a weird noise from old gear and regret it later?

2 comments

c/auto-mechanics•

the_kevin•5d ago

Old timer at the parts counter said something that stuck with me

Guy in his 70s told me he never uses a torque wrench on lug nuts. Just feel and a breaker bar. After 50 years he never had one come loose. Made me wonder how much we overthink simple stuff.

2 comments

c/charlotte-real-estate•

the_kevin•7d ago

Had to pick between a flip house in NoDa and a fixer-upper in Plaza Midwood, went with the NoDa property and the foundation issues nearly drained my savings in the first 6 months

The Plaza Midwood place had a newer roof and better bones but the sellers wouldn't budge on price, so I gambled on the NoDa house that needed everything and now I'm wondering if the location premium was even worth it - has anyone else made a similar call between two Charlotte neighborhoods and regretted it?

2 comments

c/fake-band-lore•

the_kevin•9d ago

Got obsessed with a fake 80s synth band called 'Voltage Cathedral' last week

Honestly, I was digging through old cassette tapes at a thrift shop in Portland and found this beat-up demo labeled 'Voltage Cathedral - 1986'. The A-side is this wild synth track called 'Digital Rain' that sounds like a broken arcade machine. B-side is just 12 minutes of a guy yelling about his car's odometer. Has anyone else ever found a fake band's tape that felt way too real?

2 comments

c/cybersecurity-tips•

the_kevin•10d ago

Burned $200 on a sketchy password manager that didn't work

I paid for this flashy password manager with vaults and sharing features, turns out it couldn't even sync across my phone and laptop. Anyone else fall for a paid tool that should have been free?

3 comments

c/bizarre-browser-bookmarks•

the_kevin•10d ago

Found a bookmark from 2012 for a website that predicted your death based on cookies

I was cleaning out my bookmarks last night and stumbled on this old link to a site that would calculate your doom based on how many Chips Ahoy you ate. Has anyone else unearthed a truly cursed bookmark from their past?

2 comments

c/butchers•

the_kevin•10d ago

Old timer at the wholesale club changed my mind about aging beef in the bag

He pulled me aside last Wednesday at the Boston Cash & Carry and said 'you're losing money letting that strip loin sit in the cryovac for 28 days, the moisture breaks down the muscle fibers into mush and you're giving away yield on every steak,' and now I cut mine open at 14 days max, anyone else had better results with shorter wet aging?

2 comments

c/blogs-no-one-reads•

the_kevin•10d ago

One comment on my hiking blog changed how I write trail reports

Some random person told me my posts were too long and nobody cares about my breakfast routine. I cut my posts down from 2,000 words to around 500 and started just listing the elevation gain and water sources. Has anyone else gotten feedback that actually made their blog better?

2 comments

c/drywall-installers•

the_kevin•11d ago

The worst drywall job I saw was in a brand new house in Austin

I did a patch job last month in a house that was built 3 years ago in a new development near downtown. The homeowner said they had nothing but problems from day one. I pulled off a baseboard and saw the bottom edge of the drywall was just sitting on the concrete slab with no gap at all. Moisture had wicked up into the board and it was all crumbly and soft for about 4 inches up. The whole room probably needs to be redone because of something that should have been caught during the install. Has anyone else seen builders skip the gap at the bottom on purpose?

2 comments