haapai
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Post by haapai on Sept 4, 2019 10:53:20 GMT -5
I got my monthly water bill yesterday. It's just a postcard from the city. I also got the water bill for one of the neighbors in my subdivision.
So this morning I leashed up my dog, grabbed the bill, and dropped it into the appropriate mailbox. Then the owners of the house next door pulled into their driveway.
I asked them if the house was currently occupied. They answered that it was not but that the landlord came by every once in a while. This jived with what I already knew. The family that had lived there previously moved out around Memorial Day.
The water bill showed two and a half times the water usage as my household. There is no pool and the front lawn is yellow.
A water leak is a possibility, but I kinda doubt it. It's far more likely that something is getting irrigated and it sure isn't the front lawn. Does anyone here have any idea when this grow will be harvested and the house returned to occupancy? I don't know how long it takes to raise an indoor crop and I sure as hell don't want to be asking questions in my limited circle.
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GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl
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Post by GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl on Sept 4, 2019 10:56:23 GMT -5
Sorry, but had to . If the house turns out to be good for growing, it might become a long-term grow facility.
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haapai
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Post by haapai on Sept 4, 2019 11:04:36 GMT -5
I can only hope that the landlord is only aiming for enough profit to fix up the place. This area is currently experiencing a severe housing shortage. I've got my fingers crossed.
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bean29
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Post by bean29 on Sept 4, 2019 11:38:37 GMT -5
I got my monthly water bill yesterday. It's just a postcard from the city. I also got the water bill for one of the neighbors in my subdivision.
So this morning I leashed up my dog, grabbed the bill, and dropped it into the appropriate mailbox. Then the owners of the house next door pulled into their driveway.
I asked them if the house was currently occupied. They answered that it was not but that the landlord came by every once in a while. This jived with what I already knew. The family that had lived there previously moved out around Memorial Day.
The water bill showed two and a half times the water usage as my household. There is no pool and the front lawn is yellow.
A water leak is a possibility, but I kinda doubt it. It's far more likely that something is getting irrigated and it sure isn't the front lawn. Does anyone here have any idea when this grow will be harvested and the house returned to occupancy? I don't know how long it takes to raise an indoor crop and I sure as hell don't want to be asking questions in my limited circle.
Owning rentals for us, is a bad investment. We once had a water leak inside the wall and did not realize it (pipe was old and rusted through). It took us quite awhile to realize what was going on, because the water was not in the unit. It is not unusual for us to have a unit vacant for a few months. Our units are currently vacant b/c DH is fixing them up, and he likes to do the work himself rather than hiring someone. DH is an idiot. He is losing $$ not hiring someone. I told him this last weekend. He bough wall tile on Sunday to install in the upper, then tells me he is going to Chicago this coming weekend to renew his passport. We are not planning to go anywhere anytime soon. We are thinking about Mexico at Christmastime. I told him that he needed to install the wall tile on Saturday, not go to Chicago.
Anyways, I would not assume the landlord has a "grow", I would assume they have a water leak and have not realized it yet. From my understanding, a grow house will end up in very bad shape and destroy the house, so I don't think the "owner" would be intentionally doing that.
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Tennesseer
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Post by Tennesseer on Sept 4, 2019 11:43:45 GMT -5
What would be interesting to get in addition to your own electric bill would be your vacant neighbor's electric bill too.
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haapai
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Post by haapai on Sept 4, 2019 11:58:28 GMT -5
What would be interesting to get in addition to your own electric bill would be your vacant neighbor's electric bill too. Yes, that would be extremely interesting information to have. I'm so glad that the house is not right next door to me. If it were, I'd be tempted to read their (exterior) electric meter. That would be very wrong for me to do.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 4, 2019 12:24:26 GMT -5
What would be interesting to get in addition to your own electric bill would be your vacant neighbor's electric bill too. Yes, that would be extremely interesting information to have. I'm so glad that the house is not right next door to me. If it were, I'd be tempted to read their (exterior) electric meter. That would be very wrong for me to do.
Only if you get caught.
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raeoflyte
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Post by raeoflyte on Sept 4, 2019 12:25:21 GMT -5
Why would you assume it isn't a leak?
I figured you were going to ask if it was an overstep to notify the owner when its because you got his mail.
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haapai
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Post by haapai on Sept 4, 2019 12:43:04 GMT -5
I'm assuming that it isn't a leak because of scuttlebutt. There was talk of the house being "trashed inside" before the tenants left. There's also a whiff of green in the air around that corner, so much so that I had nick-named an adjacent house "The House of Burning Leaves". I may have misidentified the source of the bud.
OTOH, a water leak is definitely a possibility, although you'd think that the person paying the bill would notice astronomical use and either find the leak or switch the main valve in the basement off.
The bill that I saw did not have a previous balance. That means that it is getting paid regularly but that process does not require much human action. Our municipality has automatic payment options, so it's possible that nobody is looking at the bill.
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haapai
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Post by haapai on Sept 4, 2019 12:54:34 GMT -5
FWIW, when I bought my house I used a public and completely free and anonymous database to look up information on my home's previous deed history, sales history, and water usage. It was absolutely astounding how much information was freely available and frankly quite unsettling.
I think that the resource that I used is no longer available. If it were, I'd definitely be tempted to look up quite a few things.
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Wisconsin Beth
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Post by Wisconsin Beth on Sept 4, 2019 12:59:51 GMT -5
It's my understanding that a grow house also needs to be vented outside.
and like Bean, I've been told that the inside of a grow house is trashed and moldy. And helluva expensive to fix.
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happyhoix
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Post by happyhoix on Sept 4, 2019 13:06:14 GMT -5
What would be interesting to get in addition to your own electric bill would be your vacant neighbor's electric bill too. It's my understanding that the people running the grow house redo the electrical to install a bunch of grow lights - something that has to be professionally removed and redone once they leave - and often they leave without paying their enormous electrical bill. Not sure who ends up paying for that.
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NoNamePerson
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Post by NoNamePerson on Sept 4, 2019 13:18:45 GMT -5
What would be interesting to get in addition to your own electric bill would be your vacant neighbor's electric bill too. I remember a news report long ago about the power company reporting extremely high usage on a property. Raid ensued and bingo!!
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gs11rmb
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Post by gs11rmb on Sept 4, 2019 13:19:42 GMT -5
If you're very concerned you could always call the police and report your suspicions. I'm sure it could be done anonymously, if you prefer.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Sept 4, 2019 13:31:58 GMT -5
We had a water leak last year. The bill the month before it skyrocketed was just a little higher, nothing alarming. The following month, our water bill was 2+x normal. The leak was not in the house, but in the pipe between the road and the house. It didn’t change the area of the yard it was broken in.
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haapai
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Post by haapai on Sept 4, 2019 13:54:59 GMT -5
If you're very concerned you could always call the police and report your suspicions. I'm sure it could be done anonymously, if you prefer. I'm thinking about that but I've got a lot of reservations.
I've left some clues that I saw the water bill.
I'm not sure who owns the place but the name on the bill was strangely familiar.
I'm not particularly anti-pot and the status of small grows in my state is currently quite murky.
I see the fire possibility in bad wiring and/or stolen electricity. This is probably the issue most likely to lead me to report.
I know enough about the layout of the house (post-war cookie-cutter subdivision) to know that it probably would not make a good grow house. It's quite small and not particularly tightly-built. Retrofitting the house to keep the marijuana odor from giving away the game would be quite tricky and expensive and would yield less than 1500 square feet of floor space.
I'm fairly certain that the house is already extremely moldy. It sits at the bottom of an incline that turns into a river during heavy rains. The storms sewers frequently get blocked with debris and the result is a very large puddle very close to where the house sits.
I estimate that a similar property in good, habitable condition would be worth $80k to $100K at most and that this house may be too far gone to be rehabbed. That is, I don't know if it would be worth stripping it down to the studs and rebuilding if mold is one of the issues.
I'll have to think about this some more. I really don't see any hero moves here and I don't know who all is involved. The structure itself is probably beyond repair and will be a blight on the neighborhood no matter what happens next.
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haapai
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Post by haapai on Sept 4, 2019 14:09:02 GMT -5
We had a water leak last year. The bill the month before it skyrocketed was just a little higher, nothing alarming. The following month, our water bill was 2+x normal. The leak was not in the house, but in the pipe between the road and the house. It didn’t change the area of the yard it was broken in. I don't think that a break in the water line outside the house would cause this bill to be this high. My water usage is metered in my basement. A meter is attached to the main water line about a foot off of the ground in the basement. Only water that passes through that point is charged for. I'm fairly certain that the house in question has an identical system.
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Sept 4, 2019 14:16:41 GMT -5
What would be interesting to get in addition to your own electric bill would be your vacant neighbor's electric bill too. I remember a news report long ago about the power company reporting extremely high usage on a property. Raid ensued and bingo!! I remember a news story of a raid on a house that had high electrical usage and when they busted in there they found a normal family, with 4 teenagers. All 6 of them were using computers and watching TV, playing video games and every light in the house was on. Lol.
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haapai
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Post by haapai on Sept 4, 2019 14:19:59 GMT -5
I'd like to appeal again to anyone who knows anything about indoor pot growing. Is there a season? How long does this season last? What kind of profits can be reaped from filling an 800 SF basement with plants? Any ideas?
I desperately want to believe that this might be a one-off, between renters,thing and getting a bead on the upside (or lack thereof) might clarify my thinking.
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Wisconsin Beth
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Post by Wisconsin Beth on Sept 4, 2019 14:39:48 GMT -5
I found a grow calculator online. It depends very much on how you grow but for 800 sf of space - it's anywhere from 133.3 to 800 plants.
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haapai
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Post by haapai on Sept 4, 2019 15:01:06 GMT -5
I found a grow calculator online. It depends very much on how you grow but for 800 sf of space - it's anywhere from 133.3 to 800 plants.
Okay, that's interesting, and it's definitely making me wonder a bit about the 3' by 9' space in my basement that I had always preferred to think of as an amateur photographer's darkroom.
I feel the need to bathe and also an urge to remove the light-killing partition that cordoned off the room/closet/whatever.
But what I was really aiming for was some sort of estimate of how long it takes to grow a crop. I want to know when my neighbor might knock off this nonsense, not how many mortgage-lifting ladies I can grow in my own basement.
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Wisconsin Beth
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Post by Wisconsin Beth on Sept 4, 2019 15:07:22 GMT -5
Assorted websites say 3-4 months, depending on how you grow it and what strain you're growing. I saw as little as 8.5 weeks to 8 months. And there was something about harvesting every 2 weeks, which implied an ongoing crop.
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countrygirl2
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Post by countrygirl2 on Sept 4, 2019 15:26:01 GMT -5
From what I read it absolutely ruins a house inside.
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Artemis Windsong
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Post by Artemis Windsong on Sept 4, 2019 15:26:15 GMT -5
I heard someone in AZ talking about water usage. The neighbors bill suddenly went up. After searching it out, the flapper in the toilet was old and leaking. Not enough to flush the toilet but enough to run up the water usage.
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Tennesseer
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Post by Tennesseer on Sept 4, 2019 16:23:18 GMT -5
I heard someone in AZ talking about water usage. The neighbors bill suddenly went up. After searching it out, the flapper in the toilet was old and leaking. Not enough to flush the toilet but enough to run up the water usage. About ten years ago, I received a letter form MLGW (Memphis light, Gas, and Water) advising me they notice my water usage had gone up and out of the norm from past years. They told me to look for leaks, etc. Turns out, as you noted above, the flapper in the toilet was old and the water slowly but always running. I was impressed the utility company took the time to notify me. Kudos to them.
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NoNamePerson
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Post by NoNamePerson on Sept 4, 2019 17:19:06 GMT -5
I heard someone in AZ talking about water usage. The neighbors bill suddenly went up. After searching it out, the flapper in the toilet was old and leaking. Not enough to flush the toilet but enough to run up the water usage. About ten years ago, I received a letter form MLGW (Memphis light, Gas, and Water) advising me they notice my water usage had gone up and out of the norm from past years. They told me to look for leaks, etc. Turns out, as you noted above, the flapper in the toilet was old and the water slowly but always running. I was impressed the utility company took the time to notify me. Kudos to them. I can hear this when it has happened. I always said my toilet was flushing itself. I had a friend look at me like I was nuts when I told her her toilet was flushing itself. I asked her about increase in water bill. The light bulb came on.
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wvugurl26
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Post by wvugurl26 on Sept 4, 2019 18:32:37 GMT -5
Our water is billed quarterly. One or maybe it was two of the three toilets had small leaks that we didn't notice. Bill jumped from $150 to $500. We had the utility company out to check meter and for leaks.
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Sept 4, 2019 19:54:08 GMT -5
I'd like to appeal again to anyone who knows anything about indoor pot growing. Is there a season? How long does this season last? What kind of profits can be reaped from filling an 800 SF basement with plants? Any ideas? I desperately want to believe that this might be a one-off, between renters,thing and getting a bead on the upside (or lack thereof) might clarify my thinking. I don't think there is a "season" for growing indoors. And I don't think there is a "season" for purchasing/smoking/ingesting pot. So, I'm not sure there is a definitive answer to your question. If it is profitable, someone can plant new plants the day after the harvest. Could be the toilet/flapper thing.
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mollyc
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Post by mollyc on Sept 4, 2019 20:47:16 GMT -5
Assuming there is a grow-op in the home:
DH is permitted to grow his own and even with him being in his grow shed a number of times every day, things can go wrong. He was wondering how often is "once in a while"? The most obvious problem with no one around to adjust the humidity is mold/fungi. That includes powdery mildew on the plants. If it gets too hot or too cold, you'll kill your plants or least slow down their growth. If there's too much moisture in the soil, you get root rot.
He can't imagine an automatic system that wouldn't cause you problems if you weren't monitoring it daily. That might be a failure of imagination on his part but he figures at a minimum you're not going to catch any male plants before they fertilize the females. That's good if you're intending to make your money from the seeds however, it lowers the value of the weed to have seeds in with the buds.
Growing season is all year round indoors, assuming you are willing to pay for or steal the electricity. Stealing electricity will get you caught and prosecuted faster then a high electric bill. I imagine that's because the electric companies have a stake in stopping theft but not usage.
DH is highly skeptically of the plants that claim to mature in 8 weeks. His plants generally take 12 - 14 weeks to mature. Sometimes he lets them grow longer then that. Then there is the drying time. DH is only permitted so much usable product at a time so he always has plants growing at different stages.
If this isn't something that the landlord's done before, he might never do it again. Not only is there the growing time but there is also the drying time and the things that can go wrong with that. If the place was already trashed and he does well with this, I don't know why he'd stop. Rehabbing a house for human occupants wouldn't be cheap, assuming you actually want to ensure its safe to live in.
At one point when DH was considering giving up his grow license, he checked with our insurance company for the steps to rehab the garage he was using. It was a multi-year process if we wanted to be able to insure it.
I checked with our insurance before he started growing his own. In Canada, no one will insure his grow shed although they will insure our home. If he had a fire which caused damage to our neighbour's property, the neighbour's insurance would cover the damage and then sue us to recover their costs. As long as our insurance company knew about the grow shed, they would repair our home assuming the fire department didn't find the fire was the result of code violations or negligence.
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gambler
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Post by gambler on Sept 4, 2019 21:02:47 GMT -5
I put in a big ice maker it has tripled my water bill. The holding bim is not insulated so some melts and is replaced every day
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