What Did You Do To Your House Recently?

[tn535i]

When I built my detached garage I used the zip system for the walls and roof. Good stuff. I'm seeing more and more of it.

[davintosh]

Tore up the backyard by driving Uglina across it.

Dang, Charlie... That 'Cruiser looks nice.

As for the house, well I've done a fair bit recently, but don't have much for photo evidence.

The workshop (lower level of the garage) is unheated, and I futzed about trying to warm it up a bit over the winter, but mostly failed. It's warm enough out now that the shop stays a decent temp all day & night, but I'm going to do something this summer to get ready for next winter. I might take a stab at making a solar collector to heat & circulate air, or maybe just bite the bullet and put a natural gas heater in it.

And in the workshop, I got tired of dealing with the cobbled-up mess that the previous owner called a workbench, so that is on its way out, and a spiffy new one is in the works. Film at 11.

Most recently though, my wife got a burr under her saddle about the landscaping, and hired an outfit to come in and spend a pile of money for us. There's a slope on the south side of the garage that was a bit of an eyesore, what with 25-year-old unkempt landscaping and some mostly unusable steps from the driveway down to the sunken patio. They started demolition today, with a plan to make some terraced gardens with a stairway twisting through it. Should be awesome when it's done, and the best part is I don't have to do any of it. I like that part.

[tig]

I didn't take any during photos (?!?!) but last week I got the wild hair to create a better mousetrap for the hose bib at the garage.

Previously I had a big plastic hose reel in a box, with a handle. It was 15+ years old, leaking, and creaking.

I had a vision of an auto-retracting reel mounted on a welded & painted stand, bolted to the concrete.

I found the reel on McMaster-Carr, ordered it, and then the vision came to life, almost perfectly (if I say so myself).

[Kenny Blankenship]

I didn't take any during photos (?!?!) but last week I got the wild hair to create a better mousetrap for the hose bib...

Uhhhh...okayyyyyyy....

[tig]

I didn't take any during photos (?!?!) but last week I got the wild hair to create a better mousetrap for the hose bib...

Uhhhh...okayyyyyyy....

Is it "a wild hair" or "the wild hair"? And where did this saying come from?

[John in VA]

Is it "a wild hair" or "the wild hair"? And where did this saying come from?

https://www.waywordradio.org/wild-hair/

[Mike W.]

I didn't take any during photos (?!?!) but last week I got the wild hair to create a better mousetrap for the hose bib...

Uhhhh...okayyyyyyy....

Is it "a wild hair" or "the wild hair"? And where did this saying come from?

I think it's a wild hair up a certain location.

[a]

An electric take up Quel decadent! Everyone family plus my growing cast of medical professionals nixed my roofing plans. Fine, my knees hurt just getting up on it to show an old framing buddy turned turnd CertainTeed roofing installer the roof. Trust is worth paying him 2X the lowest bid. With the Dow cruising at 33.4K. I'm making more than I ever did working. The house is mine free and clear. Time to protect my real estate investment. Thankfully, I have the means to trade money for time.

[tig]

I didn't take any during photos (?!?!) but last week I got the wild hair to create a better mousetrap for the hose bib at the garage.

Previously I had a big plastic hose reel in a box, with a handle. It was 15+ years old, leaking, and creaking.

I had a vision of an auto-retracting reel mounted on a welded & painted stand, bolted to the concrete.

I found the reel on McMaster-Carr, ordered it, and then the vision came to life, almost perfectly (if I say so myself).

The other day, I made one for the lower driveway/garage. Plasma cutting is SO MUCH FUN. I'm getting better.















This time I bought the retractable reel on Amazon because I wanted a really long hose. I'm pretty impressed with this unit.

TACKLIFE Retractable Garden Hose Reel,1/2" x 100+6.7FT Wall Mounted Retractable Garden Hose Reel, 8 Pattern Hose Nozzle, Any Length Lock/Auto Rewind/Wall Mounted/180°Swivel Bracket
[/quote]

[Karl Grau]

Dusted off the Langstrom 7″ gangly wrench and replaced the terlits in the rental unit.
The condo was still rocking the 50,000 gallons per flush toilets from 1975 so I went with modern 3 ounce per flush versions.

[krhodes1]

Today's project - hurricane shutters for the slider to the lanai and the kitchen window that looks out to the lanai. The rest of the windows in my wee FL bungalow came with nice clear polycarbonate plastic shutters for the windy season, but just nasty old plywood for the lanai. And now I see why - Lowe's was actually the cheapest source for materials, cheaper than any online source I could find. And it was still over $800 to cover the door and window! Yowza! And I really wish I had done this before it was 90F and 90% humidity. But not a terrible project, and now when I am down here in the summer the place won't be quite so cave-like. Migrating to Maine for the summer in two weeks, so time to batten down the hatches.

I got the the header and K-trak ralls in for both, and the poly cut for the kitchen window tonight before I ran out of steam. Just need to cut the nine panels for the slider. Nine panels at $80ea... Measure seven times and cut once on those bad boys. I'll post some pics once I have the poly up on the silder.

I did discover a tool I wish I had known about when I bought the place four years ago - there is such a thing as a wingnut driver! The poly panels slide up into a header, then wingnuts hold them to bolts in the K-rail. And putting all those wingnuts on and off every year SUUUCKS. Not anymore!!!

This house is pretty near done, only big project left is replacing the old original crank-out windows in the bedroom. Will not be DIY'ing that though! Starting the planning for my next house - an oversized garage-shop with a 3br semi-detached house. Plan to keep this one as a rental.

-Kevin

[Mike W.]

I was just about to go to bed the other night and my wife screamed. Come here, come here! I didn't know what was wrong but I took off running down the stairs. The bathroom was flooded. Broken toilet, the tank. Second one that this has happened to. Actually this one was broken in two different places, in back running around to the bottom in front and by the handle hole which is where the other one broke. The usual, fixing the flange, fixing the floor, removing and replacing caulking, tough up painting. I hear people talk about half an hour to R and R a toilet and just laugh. Nothing ever goes that smoothly. But at least this one flushes better.

[vinceg101]

I was just about to go to bed the other night and my wife screamed. Come here, come here! I didn't know what was wrong but I took off running down the stairs. The bathroom was flooded. Broken toilet, the tank. Second one that this has happened to. Actually this one was broken in two different places, in back running around to the bottom in front and by the handle hole which is where the other one broke. The usual, fixing the flange, fixing the floor, removing and replacing caulking, tough up painting. I hear people talk about half an hour to R and R a toilet and just laugh. Nothing ever goes that smoothly. But at least this one flushes better.

Tell me about it, mine took all day. That included the two trips to the hardware/Big Orange store.

[Karl Grau]

I hear people talk about half an hour to R and R a toilet and just laugh.

Tell me about it, mine took all day.

Amateurs!

[Mike W.]

I hear people talk about half an hour to R and R a toilet and just laugh.

Tell me about it, mine took all day.

Amateurs!

Au Contraire. I have been paid and paid well to replace many at the county gov center where I worked for so long. And I don't know how many in the jail. Grrrr, nasty, nasty job. I don't even like working on my own, let alone many of the county's customers. Lots of rubber gloves, lots.

[Mike W.]

This time it was the garage door spring. Again, or rather the other one. And damn, have they gone up in price, but with availability going way down. Got one off ebay that was supposed to be the same but only turned out to be close. Still ok. A bit of work, takes an hour or two, unless you're like a friend of mine who jacked up his shoulder trying to do it and almost ended up in ER. But that's just him, a mutual friend once named him the glass man.

[TheE28Ranch]

Started the process of relocating the laundry room, from the upstairs mud room to downstairs mechanical room. Keeping busy on our home while waiting on an overdue tub (supply chain woes) for a customers bathroom remodel (I am a remodeling contractor). Gutting the mud room to the studs tomorrow. Sorry, no pictures.

[gadget73]

I honestly would love to be able to move my laundry stuff upstairs. Would never be able to get it there because the design of the house is stupid and it won't fit up the stairs or through the doors though. All the bedrooms and the bathroom are upstairs, so having laundry upstairs would eliminate hauling baskets up and down. Also my downstairs utility room is dumb and small, which forces me into a stacker unit that I hate.

[vinceg101]

I've been slowly repairing and repainting my Dining Room. It was the last room left to address since we did both the Living Room and Kitchen on either side of it some years ago. This room suffered a lot during those remodels as it became both the temporary Living Room and Kitchen at different times during those remodel projects. On top of that, it hadn't been painted since we moved in, so it was overdue.

On the items was to replace the baseboard we installed back in 1999 when we removed the 1970's wood paneling that was glued to the walls (the glue took bunches of the original textured plaster with it when removed it all and there was no way to match the knock-down plaster finish from 1927). We ended up floating a plaster skim coat between a new baseboard and picture rail at 8' in both the Living and Dining Rooms. That left the original textured plaster above in the ceiling coves and vaults which worked design-wise. The main issue was we had to use an off-the-shelf baseboard at the time which didn't match the existing baseboard in the rest of the house. That didn't matter in the LR because it is isolated but in the DR it connects to existing rooms. We actually had custom base to match when we remodeled the Kitchen and had the forethought to mill enough for the rest of the house, so I decided to replace it all in the DR.

The doorway from the DR into the interior Hall used to be traditional swinging panel door that matched the rest of the doors (I sure wished I had the knob and lockset that was on it as they are as rare as hens teeth), but the PO of this house decided to remove it and install a pair of really crappy louvered cafe doors back when the wall paneling went in. We immediately ripped these out when we moved in but never addressed the butchered jamb and millwork. I started by stripping of nearly 100 years of paint to find some of the clearest, straightest, tightest Vertical Grain Douglas Fir (Clear Heart #1) I have ever seen. Being built in 1927 on the west coast, the entire house was built out of this stuff as it was common construction grade stock at the time; all old growth forests from up north. Once stripped, I had to patch and Dutchman plug the old and newer hinge cutouts since all this was going to be painted (as much as it pained me to do so). If I had my druthers and had someone handling the plaster work, I would have ripped out all the millwork and just created a plaster pass-thru into the Hall like to the other openings; but oh well.

Then it was just a matter of more prep work for the new paint. Right now we are one final coat of trim work away from finishing this room.








Next up is the Hall. Then repainting the Bedroom. Then remodel the Bathroom. And so on, so on. Ah the joys of old home ownership.

[John in VA]

I honestly would love to be able to move my laundry stuff upstairs... All the bedrooms and the bathroom are upstairs, so having laundry upstairs would eliminate hauling baskets up and down.

But no one wants to spend the time upstairs doing laundry when the family room, kitchen, etc., are downstairs!

[TheE28Ranch]

I failed to specify the “upstairs” mud room is actually ground level (ranch), downstairs is a walkout lower level. Who puts a mud room on a second floor haha ?? …the demo turned into a shit show upon discovery and forces my hand at a rather involved project sooner, than later. Might as well just deal with it and get it going (attached garage, mud room, powder room, kitchen … into cold roof system, siding removal / insulating / windows doors new siding decks blah blah - might see some cars for sale soon! And then my wife states that the driveway is a also a “must do” this year. “Yes honey, on the list yes, yes …”

[Mike W.]

... which forces me into a stacker unit that I hate.

Tell me more please. I'm looking at one for our laundry room and putting in a utility sink. Is it your stacker you hate or them in general?

[TheE28Ranch]

I honestly would love to be able to move my laundry stuff upstairs... All the bedrooms and the bathroom are upstairs, so having laundry upstairs would eliminate hauling baskets up and down.

But no one wants to spend the time upstairs doing laundry when the family room, kitchen, etc., are downstairs!

When one has really “arrived” in life, they have a Master Laundry Room for their chambers. And another for the pleibs, elsewhere closer to the community / guest rooms. Life goals!! Haha

[gadget73]

... which forces me into a stacker unit that I hate.

Tell me more please. I'm looking at one for our laundry room and putting in a utility sink. Is it your stacker you hate or them in general?

Might be this one specifically, I don't know. I've had two, the first was a Kenmore, current is a Frigidaire which I think is who is to blame for the Kenmore. The Kenmore had the drum mount "spider" fail after about 4 years and it was out of warranty. That resulted in the Frigidaire. Both have issues with moisture inside the soap drawer, causing black moldy slime to grow inside the machine above the tray. Have to pull that out and wash it from time to time, and cleaning inside the machine involves jamming towels into an area my fat hands don't fit into very well. It traps water in the lips of the front seal so that also gets nasty. I keep the door and soap tray open to help with it but it still gets gross. I've had to take the thing apart a couple of times to clean the drain lint trap out too. Most of them you pop the front panel off, mine you have to take the entire front of the machine off, which needs the drier removed from the top. Once its all apart cleaning the trap is easy. Putting that front panel to drum seal back in is not easy either.

Drier is the original Kenmore. The control panel burned up maybe 5 years ago, replacing that got it running again.

They do a reasonable job cleaning clothing, just keeping the machines running is a hateful experience that I have not enjoyed.

[Mike W.]

The back fence. Which I thought was Redwood, since we're uh, about a mile from the nearest redwood mill, but no, seems to be cedar, which is why it's in such poor shape at the bottom being gnawed at by small insects.

But it probably wouldn't have looked much better, it had once been stained but now was just dark and ugly. Pressure washing and fresh stain, wow, what a difference. Spent so long dicking around with different stains and techniques I had to pressure wash it again. But it's worth it, it looks good now instead of awful. I still need to do the sides, but I look out the slider and see the back, loud and clear. The sides not so much. Soon, but not too soon.

As you can see it was pretty ugly. This was during the pressure washing process. Old fence, it's thinner now after abusing it with 1300 PSI.



Not exactly like new, but much better. A few weeks later it looks better still.



And for anyone looking beyond the fence, yes, I have barn envy. Except it's probably got more mice than I don't know what. But a covered place to store and work on things? Ah, the stuff of dreams.