u/firsthomeFL

Instant Pot Duo Plus

I am new to Instant Pot, but it appears to be set up correctly. The steam release button is closed.

I added a cup of water, and then a tray, and then two frozen chicken breasts. I put it on manual and set it to high pressure for 14 minutes since they're pretty large.

It preheats forever, and right before it gets to the cooking section, it will say FOOD BURN - and when I check it, the water is mostly evaporated out the back.

I tried this last time with two cups of water, for good measure, on two chicken breasts which were mostly defrosted and also not cooked (from the first round of trying).

I feel very dumb. (And might be.) I opened the whisper quiet cover and the steam-pipe-bit is floppy and clearly letting water through. It is less floppy when the lid's switch is up (Seal), and more floppy when it is down (Vent). Should it be allowing water through?

Am I missing something? I was so excited but this is really disappointing. I have had it for like a year and I am sure I cant take it back. :(

Southwest Florida is showing off with heat advisories right now, and as my garage stays hotter than the outside, I assume my attic has become untenable for human life. (I don't know for sure; absolutely not going up there right now.) At night, the house also stays hotter than outside all year round, which is a boon in almost any climate but this one.

I am reminded that more than one HVAC tech said I could improve my attic ventilation, but they had different suggestions on how to achieve that. I've got soffits and also ridge vents, and I have been reading about baffles (which I don't know if I have) and keeping the soffit clear, which I will confirm when I can. I've also read about power vents and solar fans, which seem interesting, but I worry about cutting into the roof and causing an issue for rain or hurricane-force winds.

Is my paranoia about cutting into the roof well-founded? Is a powered exhaust fan something I could install into the soffit and draw air out there? Are there other solutions I should be looking at?

We are on the coast and got hit by a Category 5 and several smaller storms in the last few years, so roof security and water ingress issues are top of mind. House is cinder block, one story with 8-12' ceilings inside, and roof is asphalt shingles.

My situation is a clusterfuck, so bear that in mind.

I had IKEA out to measure my kitchen for a full redesign. While here, the guy refused to show me his measurements and said I needed to get them from my designer. I was told to (essentially) trust the process since the measurers know how to measure in a way that works for IKEA, or something to that effect. I found that extremely odd, but ok.

When working with my designer, I noticed that measurements for two of my three walls were a little off. I was told not to worry about it.

WELP

All my kitchen items showed up - IIRC it was something close to two hundred items, per the invoice. My handyman and I started building, only to discover that the walls really were measured wrong all along. Infuriating, especially given that I had booked time for this project.

I worked with the designer to revise my plans against the measurements we gave them. It took forever. I scheduled a delivery of the new stuff I needed, and a pickup of all the items that I wouldn't need. (Separate trucks/events, of course.) The delivery order arrived first, and was massive, and the prepped pickup order was also something like a hundred items.

I was there for the returns pickup, but in all the back and forth I didn't realize until the next day that one of the loaders loaded a few items that were not supposed to go. I am now out three mollekulla countertops, a sink cabinet, and a fridge cabinet.

I contacted IKEA and was told that it would be sorted out when the return was processed by the receiving warehouse.

After several weeks without an update, I called and was told that the return order was so big that they didn't bother doing an inventory on the items they received; they just accepted it as claimed on my return. Which means they didn't notice that five items came in that weren't supposed to be there.

I opened a ticket with IKEA. Its been more than six months of back and forth. I call, spend 1-2 hours on the phone with a new person, they file a ticket, and at some point, a few days later, a weird number of calls that my phone suppresses as spam, and they send me a vague email with a vague PDF that is zero percent helpful, which advises me to call them again. Yesterday I called again, and customer service was suggesting this is an unreasonable request because it's been ~six months, as though that's my fault.

I am exhausted and furious. And in the meantime, I have had to purchase the items again at an increased cost because I can't get redelivery OR a refund.

Do I just ... chargeback through my card on the original order, to either get their attention or just get my money back? Do I file a police report?

I genuinely believe this was an honest mistake, but I will not eat almost a thousand dollars in theft ON TOP of IKEA's fuckup of mismeasuring my kitchen that has led to this whole mess with dozens of hours - many paid to a third party, my handyman - trying to piece this mess together. I have spent more than 20 hours on the phone with IKEA. This is absolutely unreasonable.

TL;DR: IKEA return service took IKEA items from my garage that weren't supposed to be returned, and has no record of it. I can't get customer service to do anything except "file a case," and I can't ever seem to connect to people who actually work on these cases. Do I have recourse I am not considering, here?

I'm renovating my bathroom and building out a wall to add a tub ledge along my tub, which will allow for wall-mount bath plumbing and also act as a shelf. It will be the same depth but lower than a similar adjacent ledge for the shower, which is to the left of the bathtub on the same wall. We are tiling the low wall and leaving drywall up top to probably wallpaper.

At some point, I lost sight of how narrow the space was between the window and the adjoining wall, and... well, fuck. It's not great as-is, but it's going to be worse once we add duroc, thinset, and the ~1/2-inch tile on the wall.

My options seem to be the following. (I hate many of these, but just trying to articulate every option I have.)

1. Lose the tub ledge entirely, install the wall mount plumbing on the original wall, and put in a long shelf.
2. Lower the wall several inches below the windowsill. That's less aesthetically and functionally pleasing, and that also constrains the space I have for the bath plumbing. At ~ 6 inches of wall space, we think it might be technically doable, but it's not great.
3. Build the wall around the window sill. There will be a slight overhang of the wall into the window space by less than an inch, making an odd bit in the far, non-operative corner of the window. Not great but maybe not that serious?
4. Notch the window sill so the wall is intact and the sill is flush. That will still create an odd bit in the back corner of the window.
5. Make the shelf wall shallower to avoid the windowsill. That's also not great, but might be my best option.
6. End the shelf wall before the corner.
7. Keep the tub ledge as is, but swap out the window sill for something without an overhang. (Not a real solution, but maybe less obnoxious in the corner fight for supremacy.)
8. Some other option I haven't considered yet.

Photos: Measurements of the framing and the windowsill, my uninstalled bathtub + corner, and a random photo thrown in to explain the general concept of a tub ledge I am going for.

https://preview.redd.it/9fgau33is51h1.jpg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a4bbad1013618051a8d52b9f5f1c4e8e430d9878

https://preview.redd.it/r4duq03is51h1.jpg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4c6da0b452523145c4e4947cbb24b66cbda4a6f9

https://preview.redd.it/ratw413is51h1.jpg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5bfdf14b6108beebda8c70ee9a3866febb95cb41

https://preview.redd.it/5bey813is51h1.jpg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b3458d91113ff1cf9d29a116f807395154eb53e4

https://preview.redd.it/eatypxx9w51h1.png?width=1238&format=png&auto=webp&s=79cf775807ba675f30ff30be9113c8cac2543cea

https://preview.redd.it/f9ak3630y51h1.png?width=786&format=png&auto=webp&s=04ddbe7095faa2c3e93773b9869595857328fdab

yikes.

I'm renovating my bathroom and building out a wall to add a tub ledge along my tub, which will allow for wall-mount bath plumbing and also act as a shelf. It will be the same depth but lower than a similar adjacent ledge for the shower, which is to the left of the bathtub on the same wall. We are tiling the low wall and leaving drywall up top to probably wallpaper.

At some point, I lost sight of how narrow the space was between the window and the adjoining wall, and... well, fuck. It's not great as-is, but it's going to be worse once we add duroc, thinset, and the ~1/2-inch tile on the wall.

My options seem to be the following. (I hate many of these, but just trying to articulate every option I have.)

1. Lose the tub ledge entirely, install the wall mount plumbing on the original wall, and put in a long shelf.
2. Lower the wall several inches below the windowsill. That's less aesthetically and functionally pleasing, and that also constrains the space I have for the bath plumbing. At ~ 6 inches of wall space, we think it might be technically doable, but it's not great.
3. Build the wall around the window sill. There will be a slight overhang of the wall into the window space by less than an inch, making an odd bit in the far, non-operative corner of the window. Not great but maybe not that serious?
4. Notch the window sill so the wall is intact and the sill is flush. That will still create an odd bit in the back corner of the window.
5. Make the shelf wall shallower to avoid the windowsill. That's also not great, but might be my best option.
6. End the shelf wall before the corner.
7. Keep the tub ledge as is, but swap out the window sill for something without an overhang. (Not a real solution, but maybe less obnoxious in the corner fight for supremacy.)
8. Some other option I haven't considered yet.

Photos: Measurements of the framing and the windowsill, my uninstalled bathtub + corner, and a random photo thrown in to explain the general concept of a tub ledge I am going for.

https://preview.redd.it/9fgau33is51h1.jpg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a4bbad1013618051a8d52b9f5f1c4e8e430d9878

https://preview.redd.it/r4duq03is51h1.jpg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4c6da0b452523145c4e4947cbb24b66cbda4a6f9

https://preview.redd.it/ratw413is51h1.jpg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5bfdf14b6108beebda8c70ee9a3866febb95cb41

https://preview.redd.it/5bey813is51h1.jpg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b3458d91113ff1cf9d29a116f807395154eb53e4

https://preview.redd.it/eatypxx9w51h1.png?width=1238&format=png&auto=webp&s=79cf775807ba675f30ff30be9113c8cac2543cea

https://preview.redd.it/f9ak3630y51h1.png?width=786&format=png&auto=webp&s=04ddbe7095faa2c3e93773b9869595857328fdab

yikes.