The Super Official Homeowners Thread

[Apoc]

Reston sounds awesome.

Its not without its warts, thats for sure.  Fortunately most of the small housing cluster HOA's are no fuss.  Yes, we have two.  

I am glad that RA keeps the neighborhoods from looking like shit but for fucks sake their attitude is just awful and I dont know how these people sleep at night, although the view from their ivory tower must be awful nice.

After dealing with the toothless HOA in Leesburg, I'm convinced they're actually only any good if they're hardcore like Reston. We have none here and we don't have any problems an HOA would fix, so it can work without them too. Have you considered not being poor? That's clearly your problem here.

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I'm sure no one is surprised, but my battery powered chainsaw (top composite photo) wouldn't hold a charge after five years. The battery is plug and play, but I realized there's a chainsaw for the EGO mower system I have while googling replacements. Home Depot had a black friday 25% off sale and the reviews were really high, so I bought the chainsaw without battery and charger. The upgrade not only got me from 18v to 56v, it also removed one charger from my garage. 

I never had any major complaints about the old chainsaw, but it did require a good bit of downward force to cut anything worth a damn. I figured it was the price to pay to have a chainsaw on hand without having to deal with gas. Well, turns out a 56v mower battery does amazing things to a chainsaw. I've had this stump in my backyard for two years - a side effect of collecting free firewood from neighbors. I did a few test cuts, said "holy shit" out loud, giggled with glee, and then realized I had to film cutting this thing. The video is at the bottom. 

The ergos are pretty good consider the size and weight of the battery. I don't think I'd want to use it for hours, but it's well balanced for cutting. The 14" bar makes a bigger difference than I thought it would. Honestly speaking, I now realized how my old one wasn't really good at all. THIS is what chainsaws are supposed to be like. If I can do my entire lawn, when wet, on one charge, I can't imagine killing the battery on this thing... unless I'm disposing of dozen of bodies or something.

Now I'm thinking I need the blower.