iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

I missed the spiciness too, so I'm mostly just on X. Most people are. Every time I'd come over here, everyone was just agreeing and patting each other on the back, and I'm interested in more back and forth than that! 😅

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

If you thought it was hard to get a subcontractor on the phone before...just try during deer season in Pennsylvania 😅

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

Tonight's tipple:* One of my favorite beers of all time: Small Change "the future is unwritten," an English style dark mild. Perfect for a fall evening by the fire! *Those who followed me on the Other Site know this is a regular feature of mine. Cheers!

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

Torties are the best! So much sass. I hope my sweet girl lives that long! ❤️

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

I don't know of any that do the proper modeling/design that it takes to design an HVAC system (not that they aren't out there!) HVAC is *highly* dependent on the particulars of the house. Best to get a small mech engineer and maybe architect, but I understand that's cumbersome for small projects.

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

I'd really just like to follow the @radiofreetom.bsky.social strategy of posting which is to talk about serious stuff most of the time but still have a significant percentage of posts dedicated to the resident reigning feline. In my case, Pepper:

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

Been there!! Working on a serious pile as we speak. Can't fit a dumpster onsite, don't want to pay each sub to haul their stuff. So I guess I will. 🤷🏼‍♀️💪

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

I'm not belittling this kind of work, btw. Beauty, attention to detail, and making the world visually better is good and important work 💪

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Sometimes you solve the world's problems, sometimes you sort out receptacle colors 🤷🏼‍♀️

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

Doing area calculations and playing Jenga by the fire...be still my heart 🥰🥰 (Him: do you know how to calculate area? Me: yes! Him: even crazy shapes? Me: yes :) Him: that's so cool! Me: 🥹🥹)

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

You are correct. This is the update 😅 Achilles tendonitis that didn't respond to rest/stretching. Should be ok in a few weeks and I'll get back out there!

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Yeah and now let's do airlines, airports, and the road system 🙄

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Here's how my latest attempt at running has worked out:

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Every bland 5-over-1 Hardi special in every city in America.

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

...they want us to "break up the massing" and "create variety using materials." We show them stuff like this, they love it, then won't let us do it? Instead they make us create Frankensteinian waterproofing and flashing nightmares with 47 materials and "bump outs." FFS.

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Hear, hear. I'm sick and tired of the "architects are lazy or bad at design or have terrible taste" or whatever when whatever we take before these boards is macerated into mush. They literally fall all over themselves for precedents we would never be allowed to build now, bc (cont)

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Ah yes, mid-November, that time of year when "after the first of the year" sounds so far away but is actually about 4 minutes from now.

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

What makes a building easier for one person may make it harder for another. Nothing can be perfect for each and every person. But designing with wider swaths of the population in mind is always a good thing!

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

I worked with someone one time who said that "buildings create disabilities in people." While that's an oversimplification, there's a lot of truth in it. Our buildings and public spaces should be as accommodating as possible, while balancing the implications of that.

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

- mobility accommodations are helpful for many people... you never know when you may become temporarily disabled and you'll be very glad for them! - this would all be *a lot* harder if I weren't already generally healthy and in shape

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

I have a cast on my lower leg right now. I'm pretty mobile, but definitely struggle with some things. Some observations: - handrails and grab bars are a godsend - some people are very rude til they see my cast - most people are very nice

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

Apparently, he holds the Guinness Record for length of continuous time teaching driving! I remember that he was totally unruffled during our lessons, although he did have a brake on the passenger side of the car 🤣 I still remember many of his lessons! Small town stories ftw ❤️

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

Reading the local Sunday paper, and noticed that my driving teacher passed away. We didn't have driver's ed at my school, so my parents called on Mr Hibshman. (I had learned to drive around the farm on my dad's '48 Willys at age 13 or 14, but didn't have any road skills.)

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

Some favorites: - buildingscience.com - buildingsciencefightclub.com - thebsandbeershow.com - Fine Homebuilding - Journal of Light Construction - my stuff! My X feed and newsletter cover a lot of building science

buildingscience.com

Home Page | buildingscience.com

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

It doesn't have to be that way, and it doesn't take a ton of money to just do it right in the first place, and you'll likely save a ton of space bc you bothered to think through these details. - signed, your favorite HVAC/architect nerd ❤️🛠️

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

It's such a massive part of getting a project right, on so many levels, and almost always is wrong. I'll see homeowners go bananas over a tiny, indiscernible chip in their countertop but just shrug and say "oh well" when they're uncomfortable in their house literally every day bc of shitty HVAC.

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

Watching homeowners chase HVAC issues because they 1. didn't want to pay to have it engineered/designed properly in the first place, or 2. listened to the HVAC sub who based the whole system on completely outdated principles, is heartbreaking.

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Yep! Whenever someone says "cement truck" I always say "well I hope they put the other ingredients in there too" 🤣

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Absolutely! I'm sure it's equally exciting and overwhelming for their teams

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

This is what I meant, and what I was having trouble with! Now it seems to be working. Bluesky has been really buggy for me, but I suspect it has to do with the recent inundation of activity!

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

But what if I want to tag someone in a post?

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Back in the day, on The Other Site, we used to do "here's who you should follow" type posts, and that's a big way we all grew and learned about great accounts. Excited that maybe stuff like that might work here! But...I can't figure out how to easily tag folks. What am I missing? 😅

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Don't worry, I've got that one queued up! (And I agree!)

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Bonus: Here's my favorite Sesame Street video of all time, which shows the fabrication of an I-beam. t.co/s9M1IczazP

t.co

https://youtu.be/49FBci5D7Ik

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

In the design phases, when selecting beams, we're always balancing these two dimensions: a deeper beam can span farther, but may make stories too tall/not allow enough head room. We can make it shallower by making it heavier, but then it's more cumbersome/expensive to install.

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Wide-flanges are more versatile and can carry a lot more load, so the majority of structural steel for buildings is in this shape. They are designated by height/weight; a W12x50 is 12" tall and weighs 50 lbs per foot.

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Quick vocab lesson: "Flange" refers to the top and bottom (horizontal) parts of the beam. They distribute load and resists bending forces. "Web" refers to the middle (vertical) part, which resists shear forces.

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Sound smarter on the jobsite! Don't say "I-beams." In a recently constructed building, 99% chance it's *not* an I-beam, it's a Wide Flange (or W-Section, same thing). An I-beam (or S-section) is taller, and has narrower, curved flanges. A Wide Flange is wider + has flat flanges.

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Built my small business in Cambridge, but we work in Boston all the time! 🥰

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

ALWAYS include a shaving shelf! You didn't go to all this effort to renovate your house, or pay all this money for a night in a nice hotel, to fall all over yourself in the shower! (Also, Antonia is amazing - you should be following her, if you aren't already!)

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

Oh lordy...! "I'd like to save money by helping you build the project." "Sir, I'm going to charge you *more* if you want to help" 🤣🤣

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

Yep, 100%. And those types of clients would *never* hire an architect, so there's also no coherent design or good drawings to work from. If someone is wanting to run their project like that and burn their money and not listen to experts....I've learned to just let them 😅

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

When you're doing a project - of any size - you need to make sure you're working with this kind of thinker (who is, of course, also biased toward action). If you aren't, the project will be a shambles - your team will make decisions based on what's best for them, not you or the project.

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

Good GCs and architects think about the big problems, they solve problems in a multivalent way and in consideration of more than just what's in front of their faces. They marshal the subject matter experts (subs, engineers) and balance the needs of each one in terms of the whole project.

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

Remember: in construction, the sub you're talking to will be hyper-focused on their own scope, and that will impact the advice they give you. They will not be thinking of the impact of their suggestion on the overall project, or other trades. That's why you need a good GC and a good architect!

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Marilyn Moedinger @mwmoedinger.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

It's very silly. Can't we just say "post?"

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