Mia Davis (u/davis.mia)

Posts

Picked LVP over tile for my Edmonton basement last fall

Tile was the plan for months. But at $5 a square foot installed vs LVP at $2.50, I went with the cheaper option. Now I'm finding dents from my office chair in high traffic spots. Has anyone else regretted a basement flooring choice?

2 comments

c/bakers•

davis.mia•3d ago

My sourdough starter went dormant for 3 weeks then came back to life

I left my starter in the fridge while I was on a trip to Portland for 10 days. When I got back it had a thick gray liquid on top and smelled like nail polish remover. I almost threw it out but my friend said to just stir it and feed it twice a day. After 3 weeks of feeding it finally doubled in size again and the smell went back to that tangy yogurt smell. The first loaf I baked with it was actually the best one I've made in months. Has anyone else had a starter that looked dead but came back?

2 comments

c/alarm-system-installers•

davis.mia•4d ago

Accidentally found a better way to wire motion sensors in drop ceilings

I've been installing alarms for about 4 years now, mostly residential but some commercial. Last week I was running wires for a motion sensor in a warehouse with those T-bar drop ceilings. Normally I just fish the wire through the tiles and call it good. But this one spot had a beam in the way, so I clipped a small zip tie to the wire and used a magnetic pickup tool to guide it over the beam from above. It worked way better than I expected, took me like 10 minutes instead of the usual 30. The sensor mounted clean and the wire didn't snag on anything. I'm thinking about buying a longer magnetic pickup tool for jobs with tricky ceiling runs. Any of you guys use magnets for stuff like this or is there a better trick I'm missing?

2 comments

c/buyer-reviews•

davis.mia•4d ago

Left a 1-star review on a cheap power drill and the seller offered me $50 to change it

I bought this $30 drill off Amazon for a quick concrete anchor job, and the chuck stripped out after 10 holes. The seller messaged me within hours offering cash to delete my review, which felt super sketchy. Has anyone else had sellers try to buy off their honest feedback?

2 comments

c/boilermakers•

davis.mia•5d ago

Found a way to fix a bad stud weld with a frozen water bottle

Last week I was out on a job in Pittsburgh and kept blowing through studs on a beam that was just too thin. My foreman laughed and told me to grab a frozen water bottle from my lunch and hold it against the back while I welded. I tried it on the next four studs and every single one held solid. Anyone else ever use something random like that to fix a tricky weld?

2 comments

c/budget-travel-hacks•

davis.mia•5d ago

Switched from booking flights through third party sites to direct airline sites after a mess in Denver last spring

After a blizzard cancelled my connecting flight and the third party site took 6 hours on hold while the airline rebooked someone in line next to me in 10 minutes, I will never go back to using those aggregators for anything time sensitive.

2 comments

c/bookbinders•

davis.mia•6d ago

Warning: That cheap PVA glue from the dollar store wrecked my book project

I thought I was being smart saving $12 on a gallon of store brand PVA glue, but it dried all cloudy and cracked after 2 weeks. The pages started falling out of my journal binding and the spine looked terrible. Has anyone else had this happen with off-brand adhesives, or did I just get a bad batch?

2 comments

c/drafters•

davis.mia•7d ago

Old drafter at my first job showed me why my lineweights were all wrong

I used to just pick a layer and draw, not thinking about what would print. He pointed out that my hidden lines were the same thickness as my object lines and it looked like a mess on paper. Now I set up a lineweight table before I even start a drawing, saved me so much cleanup time.

2 comments

c/finance-advice•

davis.mia•8d ago

I used to think paying off my car early was dumb until I ran the numbers

I was at a diner in Detroit last month looking at my loan paperwork and realized I was paying $4,200 in interest over 4 years. I did a quick amortization calc on my phone and saw paying an extra $100 a month would save me $1,800 total. Anyone else have that moment where the math smacked them in the face?

2 comments

c/alarm-system-installers•

davis.mia•13d ago

Hardwired zones aren't always better than wireless - here's why I changed my mind

I used to push hardwired everything on every install. Then I did a job up in Bellingham last fall where the customer had a 1920s house with lathe and plaster walls. Running 22/4 through those walls took me almost 6 hours for 4 zones. The wireless panel I put in the next house saved me 3 hours of labor and worked just as clean. Has anyone else run into older construction that made them rethink the all-hardwired approach?

2 comments

Recent Comments

1d ago

Hit 400 degrees on my air fryer for the first time last night

Yeah but @andrew693, 400 just burnt the outside on mine and left the inside raw.

1d ago

I finally learned the hard way about cheap mud pans

The $7.99 ones are a total gamble, I've been burned by those too. I actually grabbed a plastic pan from the hardware store on sale for $9.50 once and the handle snapped off halfway through a shower pan job. Total nightmare. The steel ones at $12 are a steal when you think about how many times you'll reuse them without them falling apart. I still have my first steel pan from like five years ago, just a little surface rust if I forget to dry it, but still solid. It's one of those things where you pay a few bucks more and save yourself hours of frustration.

2d ago

Wasted $80 on a 'premium' cable management kit that was just zip ties and shame

80 bucks for zip ties, thats rough. I got suckered into a 50 dollar "cable management box" that was just a plastic bin with holes cut in it. The worst part is those velcro straps they include are never long enough for thicker cables like monitor cords, so you end up using your own anyway. I ended up throwing half the kit away and just using the zip ties to bundle up the ones I could reach. The whole "premium" label is a joke, its all just marketing to make us feel like we need fancy stuff for a basic job.

5d ago

Picked a $30 rice cooker over a $150 instant pot

My rice cooker does one thing and I still manage to burn rice...

6d ago

Vent: I used to think steamers were a waste of time for oily skin extractions

Is 8 minutes the magic number or do you go longer for really stubborn spots?