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Our back porch is our favorite place to hang out when the weather is nice during the year. It is screened in and we put wood frames with plastic in them up during the winter to keep it warmer inside and to prevent snow from getting in. Part of the problem is when its warm out and raining - the water comes right inside because the plastic isn't up. Our solution was to replace the screens with a multi-track window system. The windows are made of vinyl instead of glass so they're super lightweight but very durable. ...

It's grilling season again (finally) here in Wisconsin. I got my Range iOS-enabled thermometer over the winter season and only used it once with a ham. I used it today with grilling burgers, brats and steak and really enjoyed it. The Range thermometer is really fast at responding to temperature change. The problem I always have with even the best analog thermometers is that once they reach a high temperature, it's hard to test temperature of meat that may be a little bit colder. I can move the Range thermometer around from each thing on the grill and not have to wait for it to reset. ...

A couple days ago we had to replace the air conditioning condenser and evaporator units in our home's central air system. The unit was 21 years old and was leaking coolant slowly throughout the last summer. It was just time. The new unit is much more efficient, handles more air, and should be quieter even though it's physically larger. We had been talking about another item in our furnace and that was replacing the A/C motor with a D/C motor. The A/C motor is called a PSC or permanent split capacitor motor and they are largely inefficient over time. The Nest Thermostat allows you to schedule your fan to be on for time periods in the day. We've been running our fan for 15 minutes every hour during the daytime to keep air circulating to reduce warm/cool spots and to help reduce dust. Running the fan that much with a standard PSC blower is expensive and taxing on the motor itself. ...