Home Ownership Vent...

I bought our current house in december 2008, we moved in february 2009 after it sat for a year and half unsold. It's a 1950s bungalow in the pine barrens. It was added onto over the years by various pineys and it's obvious the phrase "plumb, level, and square" was not one used very often. They added onto to original square box over the years and it shows. Outside walls are now inside, old furnace pipes in the attic, and the OLD ROOF in the attic -- yes, shingles and all. We've made it our over the years, but it's also entailed me having to re-do the electrical between the screen porch and the laundry roof by way of the living room, where I made cut-outs in the walls to rerun wires. That was fun.

Maybe start with a good home inspector and don't buy a shitty home riddled with problems?

I'm being facetious. I bought a home in 2020 and made some repairs/improvements. I did some of the work myself and hired professionals as well. The key is finding good help and shopping around to get it. Once you find "the guy", keep him around and be loyal.

Also, a lot of the guys who work for bigger companies (plumbing, electric, etc.) moonlight on the side, and for much, much less. Don't be shy about asking.

Last, talk to your neighbors. They have probably seen the same people and can save you a headache.

I mean it was hot here too, I paid 50k over asking, waived any inspection issues (but still did one obviously). It's a tradeoff; if you are comfortable buying a fixer-upper, you need to be comfortable depleting your reserve funds. Getting involved in the process and learning a bit about everything helps a lot. I'm not saying one needs to be a master electrician of plumber, but you can learn enough to call bullshit when someone is quoting you 1k to reset a breaker. It's like being on the forum - I came because I like watches, but unexpectedly I'm learning about movements and autowerks and barrel arbors, mainly from you lol. I'm not going to start repairing my collection by myself but It helps me not to buy tempting watches that are doggie doodoo. Thanks for upping my knowledge btw.

Ahhhhm I think some folks might’ve missed that my posts were very much tongue in cheek.
Here in Oz a tradie needs to have a sense of humour and be able to cop a joke at their expense or they just won’t survive in the trade, their coworkers just won’t work with them. The job is hard enough without some misery guts rocking a humour bypass!
Here the tradies have to work to high safety standards amongst the highest in the world, certainly higher than those I’ve seen in the US.
Tradies can’t even climb a ladder without a working at heights certificate of competency.

I’m a multi skilled tradie, originally a motor mechanic (it’s a proper trade here, not just something to keep high school dropouts off the bread line) which lead me to being a ship’s engineer which then lead me to retrain as a mechanical fitter, adding full advanced rigging, scaffolding working at heights, height rescue and confined space certificates along the way.
My license to do high risk work has eight endorsements on it. (Which is a good thing)
From there I went into ship building and repair as a contractor to the military. Along the way I picked up shotfirers (powder monkey) certificates and did some structural high rise construction and demolition. Stepped sideways into elevator installation and then was trained to be a telecommunications technician, built mobile phone networks for a while (got too old to climb the towers) ended up doing what I do now which is industrial mechanical fitting my specialty is production line installation/relocation working in the plastics, automation/robotics, packaging and food manufacturing industries to name a few.
Oh I forgot the certificate in occupational food studies picked up along the way
A serious shortage of mechanical fitters has me currently doing night shift engineering coverage for a large chocolate manufacturer client, we can’t find anyone who’ll do nights. It’s not the money that’s bloody good, probably better than most of the world, higher than the US.
It’s that good tradies can pick and choose, most are going for more lifestyle friendly hours.

I'm an out of work male stripper. Let me know if any tradies want to swap their services for a private gig.

maybe this guy can help...

Let us know whether the breaker replacement or re-seating of the breaker did the trick. It certainly could cause the issue especially if the copper clad contacts had become oxidized or lost their tension.Sometimes they sit a little sloppy in the slot.

Any resistance in either the supply or the neutral line could cause such a problem. I'd have checked where all the neutral wires (typically white wires) come together on a bus within the load center (breaker box) as well. A loose binding screw could cause intermittent power (flickering) as well.

Cheers,

Last year I smelled gas near our fireplace, so called out a plumber (and since it was a pretty high priority for us, ended up with one of the big companies with little accountability that have been mentioned because they were the only one I could find to come out that day). The guy wanted to remove stone from the fireplace to access the valve, and of course they would not have replaced it. Thankfully the exterior wall was covered with panels of siding, so I went outside and removed a panel. Made for some tight workspace for him, but it saved us a mess inside and a costly masonry repair. A little caulk and paint and good as new.

It astounds me that someone would build/install a gas fireplace leaving a shut-off or control valve inaccessible.