Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with homeimprovement

How do I build a balcony enclosure to reduce wind and noise yet preserve my awesome view of NYC?

jacquilinala — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 08:37:41 -0800

Help me make my noisy, windy city balcony more enjoyable. I recently moved into an awesome apartment in Brooklyn. It's on the 6th floor and has a balcony... which has an unobstructed, amazing view of the Manhattan skyline. However! My apartment faces the BQE and it's noisy. It's also freaking cold out now, and being on the 6th floor, it's very windy on the balcony.

I thought it would be a fun project to try to build a balcony enclosure of some sort. While I don't want to obstruct my view of the city, I would love to be able to go out there and not feel like I was going to blow away. Noise insulation of some sort would be great too.

I googled around and found this, and while that's the same idea, it's not what I'm looking for. I'm thinking more like going to a lumber yard, buying some kind of wood (?), and DIYing it. Some sort of noise insulation stuff. Maybe plexiglass on one side to preserve the view?

Of course, this would have to work in the summer too...

Ideas? Here are the dimensions... and a picture of the balcony.

129" wide (approx 126" within the railings)

49" deep (approx 46" within)

43" height of railing.

pic 1 and pic 2

Thanks!

What happens when you report an illegal rooming house in Toronto?

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:52:05 -0800

What is the likely result of reporting an illegal rooming house in Toronto? e.g. How often do they end up getting cleaned up, repaired, and properly licensed vs. shut down (whether by the inspectors or by an owner who doesn't want to bother fixing it up)?

How to tell when a furnace is on its last leg?

Nonce — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:19:16 -0800

I have a 20-year-old furnace. The HVAC person is coming today to do a minor repair (expected cost less than $400). When s/he sees how old it is, I fully expect him/her to push me to have a new furnace installed.

Should I? I know it's lived past its planned lifespan, but there aren't any moving parts. If nothing else is wrong with the furnace, should I insist on just the minor repair? If there are a few other minor items that need adjustment, what is the cutoff at which I should say fuck it, install a new furnace? $1,000? Or more or less than that?

It's a SnyderGeneral model GUG117A016N manufactured in 1989.

Installing Radiant Heat Flooring

crush-onastick — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:10:18 -0800

Chicago home improvement filter: We'd like to get an estimate for installing radiant-heat flooring in our condo (6-flat built at the turn of the last century. We own a duplex down, with the primary living area being on the ground floor) or possibly replacing the HVAC with baseboard heating. Anything, really, because the conversion from whatever-it-was to the gas furnace HVAC it now is was badly done and the place is freezing all the time. Any business or contractors you recommend? Suggestions for going about this the right way? Dire warnings? Our condo is two bedrooms, three baths, living room with a separate dining room and an enclosed sunroom. There is a small finished basement. The living room and dining room are hardwood floors; the rest of the house is carpet (except the baths and kitchen, which are tile). At a minimum, I'd like to put radiant-heat flooring in the kitchen and baths, but I'd like to find out if it's possible and financially-viable for us to convert the whole place to radiant-heat flooring or baseboard heat because the furnace doesn't do it. We've had the furnace inspected, cleaned, tuned, but it's not efficient. When it was installed, the duct-work was poorly placed (for one thing, the vents are at the *top* of extra-tall walls, so all the heat floats up to the high ceilings).

No, we have no interest in doing this ourselves. None. Not even touching up the paint afterwards. But I don't know where to begin finding someone to assess the possibility and doing the job for us. I have asked a friend--who is an architect--but he was not much help.

Help me fix my bifold door.

Wordwoman — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 09:59:12 -0800

How do I repair my bifold door? I have a bifold closet door that fell off of its track. At the bottom of the door is a pin that anchors it to the floor. When the door fell, the pin was wrenched, causing the hole that held it to be stripped. Now, the hole that it needs to go into is much bigger than it should be because the wood was ripped up when the door fell.

How should I fill up the excess space in the hole so that I can put the pin back in it?

Soundproofing against neighbours noise

lilyflower — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:45:26 -0800

How do I soundproof my home to reduce noise coming from our neighbours? I live in flat with neighbours on both sides who produce noise which bothers me. I would like to soundproof the walls in the rooms where I am most affected by the noise, I would like advice on a cost effective solution.

I am based in England and have found a company which supplies rubber panels which are glued onto the walls and then covered with two layers of plasterboard. This system seems quite expensive at £30 per square meter and I was hoping for advice on what alternatives there are.

I am concerned with blocking noise from neighbours, products like this foam seem mostly about reducing noise transmission out of a room, so am I right in thinking that these sort of products do not apply?

Further information:

The noise that disturbs me is high pitched children's screams.

The flat was built in 2001 and the walls seem to be standard cheap new build; plaster on both sides of a hollow stud partition - is there a way I can fill the partition to soundproof, or in conjunction with some sort of panelling on the wall?

All the rooms that I want to soundproof have enough space which may allow for layers to be applied to the walls.

I would prefer a DIY solution to help save money, but I am open to the option of a contractor carrying out the work if necessary.

Both of the properties are rented so them soundproofing their side of our adjoining wall is not an option. I have also spoken to both neighbours about their noise and although they are slightly quieter they are still disturbing me.

I am sensitive to noise, I would prefer a detached house but unfortunately it is not an affordable option at this time.

How to remove paint flecks from polyurethane

Red58 — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:55:34 -0800

Sadly and frustratingly I ended up with paint flakes in the polyurethane I applied to my the seat of my new bay window. How can I get them off the wood so I can refinish it again with the poly? I got a bay window with an oak seat and header that I have stained and have started to apply poly. I started with just the seat so I could do some learning about how this is done. I am applying multiple coats of the poly so as to make it water proof for the plants that will live there, along with my cat who will (and already has) deposited a few hairballs. I applied my first through third coats, carefully sanding with extra fine sandpaper between coats, waiting 24 hours, and wiping with a tack cloth. For the final coat I purchased a new china bristle brush and applied the poly. But thenn I noticed little white flecks in the poly, and they were not bubbles. Careful inspection after the fact revealed that someone had purchased this brush, washed it and returned it to the store. There was still dried paint on the interior bristles and now there thousands of small flecks embedded in the poly in my window seat. I am sick.

I tried sanding, picking them out with a small knife, but I still see white flecks. Do I have to sand it all back to the wood? Should I try mineral spirits? Help!!

Should I get a Marmoleum kitchen floor?

Bardolph — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:13:59 -0800

Flooring-filter: Talk to me about linoleum in general, and Marmoleum brand linoleum in particular. Is it nice? Is it DIY-able? What should I know before choosing it for our kitchen? So we're looking to replace our current, ugly, vinyl kitchen floor with something non-vinyl. Our original idea was ceramic tile ($2/sqft), but our contractor is claiming we'll have to replace our Luan subfloor with concrete backing board in order to stabilize the tile, bringing the final total to ~$13/sqft installed (!). At those prices, we've been considering alternatives, and Marmoleum in particular has looked interesting. We love the environmental friendliness, its warmth and softness underfoot. The material itself is pretty expensive, though ($6/sqft), so in order to make it competitive with tile we'd have to be able to keep our existing subfloor and DIY the installation.

I'm worried, though, because while I really really want to love Marmoleum, both the installation and the material itself get perplexingly mixed reviews on sites like this one. There seems to be some concern, for instance, that it bubbles up when installed by anyone but a super-gifted and experienced professional, and that regardless of installation the material is hard to clean and not very durable.

If you've got a lino floor yourself, or know of anyone who does, I'd love to hear some more reliable perspectives on this. In particular, is linoleum or Marmoleum attractive/comfortable/durable? Does it work with DIY installation? And is there anything else (alternative brands, caveats, tips and tricks) I should know before I make this choice?

If it helps, our decisionmaking criteria are (1) durability/livability, (2) cost, and (3) aesthetics, in that order. Thanks!

Why are these outlets upside-down?

el_lupino — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:37:54 -0800

HomeImprovementFilter: Why are all these outlets upside down? The house we moved into last year has lots of outlets in every room, most of them three-prong. The two-prong ones are clearly older, as well as a couple of the three-prong ones. The thing is, a lot of the newer (all three-prong) ones are in the wall what I would think of as upside-down, with the hole for the grounded third prong on the top instead of the bottom. The ones that are upside down look competently installed, but looking at them I would guess they weren't professionally done.

This doesn't really make much of a difference, aside from a handful of things built on the assumption that the outlet would go the other way, e.g. nightlights, digital timers, etc. Aside from the occasional annoyance of resetting a timer that's upside-down, I don't really care, but I'm wondering why anyone would do things this way. Is this some slacker home improvement shortcut that I've never heard of? The building inspector said everything was up to code, so I'm more curious than worried.

Taming a treacherous staircase

Bardolph — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 15:25:36 -0800

Our new house has a steep steep staircase. What are some ways I can make this feature safer for my family, and especially for our soon-to-be-toddling baby? So the new house we purchased has what I'd call a very steep hardwood staircase-- steep enough to have caused several wobbly near-misses in the move-in period alone. I feel especially nervous climbing or descending when I'm carrying my four-month-old, since she's getting wriggly enough that I usually need to use both arms to hold her, leaving no way to hang onto the banister. It's less that the individual steps are high, than that they're shallow-- not enough room for the whole shoe to fit on each one, so you have to watch the balls of your feet for placement all the time.

I'm wondering what can be done about this, since we'll have to navigate this stair 10+ times/day for the next few years, eventually with a still heavier and wrigglier baby, and then with a toddler/small child who may not always follow our instructions to take the steps carefully, slowly and backwards. At a minimum, I'll be putting a large and cushy carpet over the tile floor currently at the bottom of the stairs. But other options I've considered so far are:

1. Do nothing, since maybe we'll get used to the stair mechanics after a few weeks of climbing them?

2. Carpet the whole thing, with lots of padding-- would probably make falls likelier due to slipperiness of carpet, but they might be less damaging when they occurred.

3. Skip the carpet, coat the treads in that sandpapery nonslip stuff-- would make falls less likely, but not less dangerous when they occurred.

4. Save up for some sort of big remodel-- perhaps changing to higher-but-wider steps? Or adding a right-angled section and a landing? I don't know how expensive, or how feasible this sort of thing might be.

I'd love to hear any additional suggestions, or advice on executing any of the options above (particularly #4). Thanks!

Wood deck vs. stone patio

colemanm — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 11:53:38 -0800

I'm going to build a deck or patio in my backyard, but I'm trying to make the final decision between poured/stamped concrete, stone pavers, or a standard wood deck... The finished product we hope will be about 15'x25', or something in that range. We'd like a pretty good size, so it can be multipurpose. What's generally the cheapest option? The most expensive?

My concerns with a wood deck seem pretty standard across the internet: lots of maintenance, size (if raised off the ground... my yard is not humongous, so I don't want the deck to take over the yard), and lack of durability. I'm attracted more to a stone patio for looks and lifespan, but I've had a couple people tell me that a deck would raise the home value more, at least if the economy was not a wreck.

Any advice on the cost of one vs. the other? I don't mind some hard labor, or an up-front investment in something that'll last for years, so my budget is flexible.

Rusty Roof, Rusted.

SirStan — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 13:22:16 -0800

House help! What kind of metal; and how do I stop it from rusting? The porches on my home have a metal roof that is rusting. Can you please help me identify:

1. What kind of metal these are.
2. What course of action should I take to un-rusty them.

The paint store dude said I needed to sand it down, and prep it and then paint it.

The home inspector said there was some stuff you could paint over it and it would take care of the rust, and keep it awesome.

The very special guy at the hardware tried to sell me cans of rustoleum.

Photo of roofing in question:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sirstan/3781685731/

Grrrrrrrrrrrout!

spicynuts — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:23:39 -0800

Grout - how do I remove it without removing shower tiles? Pictures and detailed question inside. The grout that creates the seal between my tub and the bottom row of shower tiles is cracked and in some places has gaps. I would like to remove just this line of grout between the tub and tiles and replace with caulk. I bought a grout tool but it doesn't seem to make any headway against this concrete-like material. How do I get the grout out without removing the tiles?

Here is a pic of the basic set up.

Here is a close up of the general grout line sealing the tub

Here is a close up of what happened when I tried to use the grout tool - note I could not get more than the already loosened grout to come out.

Do I need a grout saw? Do I need to remove the tiles entirely and regrout the upper seam and the caulk at the tub?

Wrong time for expensive house maintenance?

Anonymous — Wed, 27 May 2009 15:44:25 -0800

Getting the exterior of my house painted: A dumb investment, given the economy? Or not? (Anonymous due to details re: my personal finances.) I bought my house a couple of years ago, and if I sold it today, I would probably be able to get enough to pay off my mortgage. (It's an unusual house, and there isn't another to compare for value, but generally houses in my area have gone down just a little bit in value. However, I only put 9% down on my house, so I only have a small amount of equity in it.)

This summer I need to get my house painted (it's flaking off in some spots), which will cost somewhere between $6,000-$10,000, a big chunk of my financial cushion. The higher end of the above estimate includes re-doing (and improving) the screens on my porch, which is a definite improvement to my home, but the actual painting seems like basic maintenance and will therefore be a total wash (and not increase the value of my home). I can pay $10,000 without taking out a loan, but it will mean reducing my savings by a third (I have about $35,000 in the bank right now; my 401k is anemic and not worth considering). I am fully employed but work for an industry which is laying off people practically every day. I could, if needed, get a much cheaper job done for $2-3k -- basically, minimal prep work and a coat of paint slapped over it, which would of course have to be re-done sooner -- but I would rather have a really nice paint job done. I am 36 years old and do not have children, and I am not planning on selling the house in the next year or two. My gut feeling is that spending the big bucks is the right thing to do, but I am worried I will essentially be throwing $10,000 away. Am I? Is now a terrible time to do home improvements (ones you can't get awesome government grants or tax breaks for)? Please, either reassure me, or tell me I'm being foolish!

My new novel: "How Effed Was My Bathroom"

littlerobothead — Wed, 27 May 2009 14:58:56 -0800

Bathroom DIY Filter: Tiling our one full bathroom. Is it okay to do one wall of tile, cover it with plastic, and take a shower? It's really the only way I see of doing this and having a normal life in the process. Or we're gonna be some stinky people. Also, I realize the grout will need to cure after it's sealed. Does it necessarily need to do this in a 100% moisture free environment, or can I tape 2 mil plastic sheeting over the whole affair so my wife and I can take (quick, cautious) showers?

Help me be an informed remodeler.

medusa — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:59:56 -0800

Please recommend resources for learning about home remodeling, particularly basement finishing. I am starting the process of getting the basement of my house finished. (Note that I will not do most of the work myself; I'm planning to hire a contractor.) I would like recommendations for books, websites, or other resources to learn about the remodeling process, what questions to consider, common problems and how to avoid them, what to watch out for, etc.

So far I have read information at www.buildingscience.com, which I think is great. It has specific recommendations about basement finishing that I found helpful.

Other building science resources would be helpful, but I also want to learn about design and planning, budgeting, finding a contractor, negotiating with the contractor, dealing with construction, and anything else I should know but haven't thought of yet.

How can I turn a mattress into a couch?

arnicae — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 09:27:21 -0800

I'm trying to create a convincing sofa/chaise out of a twin mattress, particularly one that resembles DWR's Vegas couch. I'm pretty lacking in crafting talent, but am willing to try anything. I really like Design Within Reach's Vegas couch for our office. The problem is, we already have a bed for me to sleep on - a twin tempur-pedic that I love. But I'd really like my office to look professional during the day. Any suggestions of how to turn a twin mattress into this?

Clamping without long clamps

condour75 — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 07:30:30 -0800

How do I clamp a 3' long bookcase for gluing, without expensive long clamps? So I'm about to start my first carpentry project. I'm going to build a 3' wide x 4' tall bookcase with 12" x 1" pine, using dowel joinery. So I have my circular saw, my lumber, my drill and dowel jig, copious instructions from the internet and books. The one thing I don't really have, because I balked at the price, is the long cabinetry clamps that would be required for the glue-up, to clamp across the width of the whole case. They're 40 bucks each.

So... what's a poor man's gigantic clamp? Are there other ways to do this? I have weights and a couple cinder blocks, I could try rope, but I'm curious what the ask mefi woodworking team will say. Feel free to yell at me, too, if any of my plan sounds misguided.

(I realize this is a pretty big project to tackle as my first, but it's actually the test project for building much bigger bookshelves, and I've done some set-building in high school so I know basically how to use the tools)

I have no clue...

Eringatang — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:08:35 -0800

Please help me identify these electrical thingies in the house we are buying. We are buying a house built in 1980. There are two electrical-looking thingies and we don't know what they do--neither do the home inspectors, current owner, nor the electricians that we have asked. Please help!

Mystery thingy #1
It is a "green" house from the 1980s, with passive solar heating (internal brick walls heated by sun through southern-facing windows) and it also has two fireplaces. It is possible that these fireplaces were an integral part of the heating system at some point. There is a box attached to the wall next to the basement fireplace. It looks like this inside. What is it?

Mystery thingies #2
These black-and-white capsule-looking thingies are under the porch. There are kennels under the porch, and there is a sprinkler system in the back yard. It is possible that the thingies have something to do with these, but also possible they are unrelated. What the heck are they?

Confused by Cat5e voice and data wiring

iknowizbirfmark — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 10:30:42 -0800

I'm trying to do all the wiring in my house in order to distribute data and voice connectivity to each of the locations to which Cat 5e is run. It's been a while since I've done wiring (last time was probably a college job maybe 15! years ago), and I've got a few questions about how to set this all up. Sorry for the length, but I wanted to be as clear as possible about my current set-up. All the inbound and outbound wiring goes into a structured wiring enclosure from Open House, using their data termination hub.

My current set-up: my Comcast cable modem's RJ-45 output is plugged into my WRT54G, which broadcasts a G network. The WRT54G's 4 outputs go to:

an Apple Airport Extreme to broadcast an N network to faster wireless devices;

a Slingbox;

the DirecTV receiver;

and a computer at that location for playing video and music and browsing internet on the attached display.

I want to connect the 4 outbound wiring locations to the wired network. So far, I have just wired in the outbound wiring to an data termination hub, matching the colors on the wires to the colors on the hub. Then, I wired all the jacks attached to that outbound wiring using the T568A standard. All the jacks seem to work fine, and I can remove one of devices currently attached to the WRT54G and connect that output to the jack on the termination hub which corresponds to each of the outbound wires. I get connectivity at the other end of each of the wires, and things seem to work well.

Question 1: Is there a way to check that this wiring is done correctly? I get the same kinds of numbers through Speedtest that I get from wireless devices on the network and the devices wired directly to the WRT54G, but it's limited by the outbound network connection and not anywhere close to 100baseT capacity. Is there a way to verify that the wiring is done correctly, or does the fact that I have a good internet connection mean that all is good? When I finally get a decent LAN set up, I feel like I will be using much more of the "capacity" of my wiring set-up, and I'm not that sure of my skills and connections.

Question 2: What do I need to put between the WRT54G and the jacks on the Cat 5e termination hub in order to distribute the network to each remote jack? Will an simple unmanaged hub do, as long as the WRT54G is not overwhelmed by the number of different active connections? Can I use a hub at each remote jack, if I want to have multiple wired devices in each remote location? Or do I need an actual switch between the WRT54G and the Cat 5e jack connected to each remote jack? What does an unmanaged hub actually do? If the WRT54G does all the routing and switching, do I just need to physically connect the right wires at the remote jacks, so that I could just wire multiple jacks into the same wire and let the WRT54G figure it all out? Bonus question: Whether I need a hub or a switch, will I find anything to fit nicely into my Open House enclosure? Is this or this what I need?

Question 3: Eventually, I will probably want to use the Cat5e drops to provide voice to the remote jacks as well. How can I figure out what twisted pair or pairs actually carry the voice signal from the phone company? Can I determine this by looking at the network interface box? How can I pass the voice and the data for the network over the same Cat5e cable, even if the maximum data speed is slower, maybe limited to "10baseT" speeds? Which wires get wired where?

Thanks for any help you can provide to a guy who hasn't messed around with low-voltage wiring since the mid 90s!

How can I repair my old oak doors.

bonecrusher — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 08:46:17 -0800

Can someone help me fix my beautiful old wooden doors? My condo has six very nice old oak interior doors, which I believe are original to the building (built sometime in the 1890s). At some time in the past (I assume in the mid-century, when the area was not so nice, and building was a flophouse), it looks like deadbolt locks were installed on each of the doors, as can be seen here and here. Here is the hardware was added above the knob, and here is where it was added below the knob.

To "fix" this a thin wood veneer, stained more or less the same color as the door, was added to each door over the holes. You can see it here, and a closeup here. It doesn't look that bad, but by now all the veneers are cracking and peeling from the doors.

What should I do to make the doors look nice again? I considered just replacing the veneer, but it doesn't look that nice and it's obviously not a long-term solution. I've looked for a metal door plate, but I haven't found any that are large enough to cover the holes, they're very expensive (well, they are at Van Dyke Restoration, anyway - I don't know of a cheaper place for this sort of thing), and they dominate the doors - I'd prefer something a little subtler. Wood paste would be obvious, since the doors have a distinctive grain to them.

no-go on the two-flow shower

msconduct — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 17:44:21 -0800

asking for a friend: dueling showerheads & the main one is losing. I have a shower with a regular shower head (A), and an additional handheld shower (B) which of course is separate from (A). On the shower wall is a dial that controls the hot/cold water mixture, and below that, a large "button" - when pushed, the button SHOULD divert the water from the regular shower head (A) to the HandHeld (B).

What is SUPPOSED to happen is you turn the water on and it immediately comes out of (A). When you want the water to come out of (B) you push the large button and all the water then comes out of (B). If at this point you want the water to come back of out (A), you have to turn the water off (which releases the button pressed earlier) and then back on.

What ACTUALLY happens is that when I turn the water on, water comes out of both (A) & (B). When I hit the button, water comes out of only (B), like it is supposed to, but I can NEVER get the water to only come out of only (A). I've switched out the big button once, and still have the same issue. [I even installed an additional diverter as part of the hand held shower (B), but that thing won't completely close off all water to the hand held handle.]

Any suggestions?

Where online can I find a magnificent selection of wall shelves and other screw-in fixtures?

cowbellemoo — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 06:53:16 -0800

Where online can I find a magnificent selection of wall shelves and other screw-in fixtures? Just wondering if there's a world for this beyond Ikea and Home Depot. I'm particularly interested in wall shelves with invisible mountings and large hook fixtures -- like for hats, scarves, coats, bags, headphones, plants, etc. Modern and clever designs, as well as light DIY projects, welcome.

Looking for rectangular paintable ductwork that looks as good (and works as well) as boxing it in with drywall.

winston — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 09:12:22 -0800

We just boxed in with drywall a round 5" heating duct, running from floor to ceiling in the corner of the living room. Because of some odd features of the room, this took up more space than it should. What I'd really like is to replace the duct (and drywall) with a paintable rectangular duct running up the corner of the room, that would look just as good as drywall. This would have to be rugged enough to withstand small children playing in the room (e.g. not dent like typical metal duct). Does this exist? When I search for paintable duct, I get stuff that's intended to run across the ceiling, not be good as a wall. (e.g. I suspect that the metal duct would not only dent, but the paint would flake off when it did dent).

FWIW, the duct was already there and the renovation we just did made the box much smaller than it had been, but I want more.

The duct will have to make a 90-degree turn into a round duct immediately above the ceiling.

How should we pay for our home improvements?

a22lamia — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 07:19:28 -0800

We have about $6,000 in home improvements we need to do before we sell our house (our market, so far, has remained pretty strong). We have a few ways we could do this, help us figure out which is best. Our house is paid off, we are living on one income so I can stay home with our son, we have $20,000 in Series EE bonds that we inherited (current value, not face value), we don't have much debt outside of student loans. Our savings, outside of the bonds is pretty non-existent, but we are working on that

The options I can think of are

1. Cash in $6,000 worth of bonds and deal with the taxes come next year
2. Take out a 5 yr home equity loan (rate is ~6%)
3. Open a home equity line of credit with a variable rate (currently 5%) and pay it off with bonds if/when the rate gets too high.

Which is our best option? Are there other options I'm not thinking of?