Home Improvement: Low-cost DIY painted cabinets made a big impact in my bathrooms |
- Low-cost DIY painted cabinets made a big impact in my bathrooms
- A year and a half into our home and we finally planted some trees!
- Don't try this at home! I needed to change 2 light bulbs in the ceiling. Problem was: ladder is 8' high, I'm 5'10", ceiling is 16' high. Wasn't going to work so I built a 4' high platform to set the ladder on. 2 hrs to make the platform, 2 min to change the bulbs! https://imgur.com/fjp6mOn
- Converted an ironing board cabinet into a spice cabinet
- Looking for supposed irrigation system in yard, found this valve thing. Anyone know what it is?
- House leveled?
- Installed 108 screws worth of French cleats in my garage yesterday, and tripped a GFCI circuit on the same wall in my kitchen. How can I help diagnose before getting an electrician involved?
- Am I paying too much to have a water softener installed?
- Kitchen Remodel - Are Cabinets Just Insanely Marked Up?
- What happens if I call in an inspection on new plumbing work but the old plumbing is out-dated/ not up to code?
- Suggestions on how to get rid of this sound?
- Stiffening Floor With 48" On Center Flooring
- Is $2,800 a lot for a Radon reduction system?
- Does anyone have a better way to rip up subfloor that has hardy board stuccoed to it?
- Who should I call to replace a tub?
- How do you make a small brick paver bad?
- I need to put a flood light somewhere that doesn’t have power, and I’d like to be able to either turn it on and off or have it one a timer. I can’t find anything but a motion sensing light. Any ideas?
- Replacing windows with drywall returns
- Question on wood plank sizing
- Dust in Bedroom Despite Coway Airfilter
- Would you pay $500 to have asbestos dust removed from a small portion of your carpet?
- Paver patio base is spongy
- Looking for some advice on the best deck stain to use for Canada/North US kind of climate.
- R/drywall dead?
| Low-cost DIY painted cabinets made a big impact in my bathrooms Posted: 01 Jun 2020 12:29 PM PDT Let me preface by saying I've been living in this house for quite a while and haven't painted a single surface up until this year. After perusing many inspo pictures, a lot of time at home, and watching a ton of YouTube tutorials, I've finally mustered up the confidence to make some major (low cost) DIY changes around the house. The first DIY project I've completed is painting both of my bathroom cabinets and mirror frames navy. Specifically, I used Nuvo Oxford Blue Cabinet Paint from Giani Granite. I was originally going to go with black, but I asked my husband to pick what color he'd like to go with, which is how we ended up at navy. I'm so glad we did. It took only a quart of paint for both bathrooms and I still have quite a bit leftover. Here's the before and afters of both bathrooms: https://imgur.com/a/pF7JAR5 The before pictures are from years ago and you'll probably notice a lot more than just the cabinet paint has changed in there. I also replaced the showers with BathFitter tubs last year, but for the purposes of this post, I'm just showing off the DIY changes. [link] [comments] |
| A year and a half into our home and we finally planted some trees! Posted: 01 Jun 2020 06:23 AM PDT A friend's family owns a wholesale nursery and hooked us up with some trees. We got two sycamores, two Florida Flame maples and one riverbirch. Photos of our poor little loaded down pickup truck and my sweet husband with one of the sycamores. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 01 Jun 2020 06:05 PM PDT |
| Converted an ironing board cabinet into a spice cabinet Posted: 01 Jun 2020 01:00 PM PDT Repurposed ironing board cabinet Fun project to add a little bit of space to a pantry-less mid-century house. And anyways I'm now living in sweatpants, who needs an ironing board anymore! [link] [comments] |
| Looking for supposed irrigation system in yard, found this valve thing. Anyone know what it is? Posted: 01 Jun 2020 08:39 PM PDT |
| Posted: 01 Jun 2020 07:04 PM PDT If you've had this done, how bad was the damage to drywall, broken windows, things out of plumb, etc? It'd be interesting if you had pictures showing the extent of the damage. So I can brace myself for what to possibly expect. Our house is 100 years old. Even so, we've monitored it and it continues to settle. We've consulted with a structural engineer as well as a geotechnical engineer. We need to install an exterior perimeter drain at the footing of our foundation. Underpinning the foundation on one side was also suggested. Ramjack just came out and gave a bid for the foundation stuff. They said we could stabilize the house as is, or attempt to level it as well. Of course there is a price difference. I want to factor in the cost of potential interior repairs when considering the option to level. You know how these things start to add up. We will be talking to TerraFirma as well as some other smaller contractors soon. If anyone has any experience with either of these companies, or has faced similar problems, I would love to hear from you. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 01 Jun 2020 06:18 AM PDT I installed 7' x 16' worth of French cleats yesterday, then came back inside to find that a GFCI outlet had tripped and several outlets weren't working. The GFCI outlet doesn't reset, so I'm fairly sure that I screwed into a wire somewhere, but have no idea how to figure out which screw (or screws) was the culprit. I spent a lot of time locating and planning for the studs, pre-drilled and then drove all of the screws and they all seemed to make good contact. This is a new construction home so I have pictures of the framing and circuit runs before drywall was put up -- the album has my comments on where I think the affected areas are. I plan to contact an electrician, but don't mind opening up some drywall to take a look to at least make an initial diagnosis. How would you approach it? My gut tells me to take down the lowest French cleat (since they may be at the same level as the horizontal wire runs) and open up a hole in the drywall at each screw to assess...how large of a hole should I be opening up? And then, if I don't find anything wrong, I'll need to go vertical along the studs that have the yellow circuit? Also, should I be shutting off the breaker to this GFCI circuit now? Thanks! [link] [comments] |
| Am I paying too much to have a water softener installed? Posted: 01 Jun 2020 02:43 PM PDT Won't be undertaking this project myself. With that said I received a quote from a plumber to install a water softener for $800. The softner itself will be $400. Total will be $1200 Does this sound about right for NY? [link] [comments] |
| Kitchen Remodel - Are Cabinets Just Insanely Marked Up? Posted: 01 Jun 2020 02:35 PM PDT We've been shopping cabinets and the difference in price has been crazy. We went to Lowes and saw some pretty decent cabinets that came in around $3,400 for the 18' x 12' kitchen remodel we're doing. We also went to a cabinet surplus place after and we left there with a quote of almost $9,000 for cabinets that look the same and could have easily spent $30,000. Am I just not refined enough to notice the difference or what am I missing here? I don't want a cheap looking cabinet or some flakeboard junk that will fall apart in a year, but what am I missing or what should I be looking for? Anyone experience this? Any advice would be really appreciated! Thank you! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 01 Jun 2020 01:21 PM PDT I have some polybuteline pipe that the previous homeowner used to fix/ add some plumbing. I know that stuff has been discontinued and is at potential to blow at any time but I really don't want to replace it all just yet. I'm planning to add a shower to a half bath with PEX but if it means replacing all the polybuteline it might not be worth it. Basically, if I call in an inspector will they ignore the old plumbing work and just pay attention to what I am asking them to inspect? [link] [comments] |
| Suggestions on how to get rid of this sound? Posted: 01 Jun 2020 07:32 PM PDT I installed the shower pan setting it in Mortar. There are 9 circular feet underneath and that's where I put the clumps of mortar and the set it in it making sure to squeeze it down in the mortar. I waited a day and a half to test it and this is the sounds I'm left with. I'm thinking about using non expanding foam to fill in any open space, is this a good idea? [link] [comments] |
| Stiffening Floor With 48" On Center Flooring Posted: 01 Jun 2020 09:39 PM PDT I have a unique house that was built with 48" on center floor joists. There aren't many discussion threads on the internet about stiffening 48" OC flooring so I thought I would start one. The current floor is framed with 4x8 glulams that span 12 ft covered with 1 1/8" tongue and groove subfloor. While the house is safe from a structural standpoint (built early 80's), the floor has significant bounce that I would like to reduce. Most wiring and HVAC is below the existing joists so access is not an issue. The two main options I'm considering:
Image depicting the current framing and the two options: https://imgur.com/a/VbaHquC So which of these approaches would you do? Which one will result in the stiffer floor? [link] [comments] |
| Is $2,800 a lot for a Radon reduction system? Posted: 01 Jun 2020 11:04 AM PDT Just got a Radon test done. We were an average 5.5 on the test for 3 days. I think the highest it got was 11 at one point. The EPA minimum is 4 so we aren't that off. However today the company can back to explore options for a cure and they want to install a reduction system. The system will need to be installed by drilling through the concrete and putting a pipe to pump air out of the basement. The quote says $2,800. Any radon experience people here know if that's really high for what I have? Thanks. [link] [comments] |
| Does anyone have a better way to rip up subfloor that has hardy board stuccoed to it? Posted: 01 Jun 2020 01:11 PM PDT There are some images of what i've done so far. I have tried to use a hammer and chisel, pry bar, crow bar. It had worked in the rest of the house where there was tile and was much quicker than using a hammer drill. But when we got into this area we started having a lot more trouble with ripping it up. The guy who laid this stuff down was different and knew more about what he was doing than the guy who did the other tile. So I started using a hammer drill that I have and it started working much better. But there seems to be two layers of hardy board (unless its supposed to be like that?) and the first layer comes off much the same as the tile with the hammer drill. But the second layer is glued to the floor with some stucco or joint compound or something. I tried attaching images to show what it looks like, and the stages of floor as it come up. What I thought I could do was take a circular saw and just go right through the hardy board and sub floor and just replace the sub floor, since that's what we had to do for the rest of the house anyway. So the circular saw seemed to be doing great, and I was just going at it slowly, but then it started sparking and smoking. So I switched to a reciprocating saw and went at it from the bottom up. That completely ground down my blade. It's like the hardy board is just sanding all the teeth down to nothing. So what should I do that would be better than ruining a dozen blades? Use an angle grinder? take the hammer drill and carve a line for the reciprocating saw? Is there a tool that is made for this? Any suggestions or ideas would be super helpful, thanks. [link] [comments] |
| Who should I call to replace a tub? Posted: 01 Jun 2020 09:15 PM PDT Our upstairs bathtub shower started leaking down into the garage ceiling shortly after we bought the house. Long story short, I hired a general handyman to replace it with a fiberglass tub shower system. He did an awful job but we have lived with the problems. Now it is leaking in the garage again. I don't trust him to come back and fix it right, as he have failed to get it right the first 4 times. Now I want it all ripped out and just start from scratch. Who do I call? A plumber? Handyman? General contractor? [link] [comments] |
| How do you make a small brick paver bad? Posted: 01 Jun 2020 08:46 PM PDT The top picture, I got about 12 of these and want to make 1 like this for my garbage cans. What materials do I need? I want it to be level and not wobbly like the picture and how will it stay in place if no cement border like my driveway is? Thanks [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 01 Jun 2020 08:45 PM PDT |
| Replacing windows with drywall returns Posted: 01 Jun 2020 03:42 PM PDT Pictures: https://imgur.com/a/Ve7crrK Long backstory short: I decided to redo my window caulking today because it was cracked all the way around, went a bit overboard when I found minor water damage to the paint, and ripped out some drywall chunks. Got me wondering how I would replace this window myself if I chose to. Probably going to have a drywall guy fix up my mess, but I'm interested in replacing the window myself in the near future. After watching a handful of videos, I haven't seen anyone replace windows like mine. Most have a wooden jamb extension and trim and are taken off into the house. Mine look like they need to be taken off from outside the house because the drywall butts up against the edge of the vinyl window edge. I'm guessing I need to pull off the trim outside somehow and pull the window away, but that seems like the complete opposite of most of the videos I've watched. However, I don't want to get into a window replacement and find myself with a big hole in the wall, not knowing how I'm going to get a new window in. Can anyone point me to some kind of write-up or video about what I'm dealing with here? I'm not sure what my Google keywords should be. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 01 Jun 2020 01:45 PM PDT Hi all, I'm not much of an handyman and I'm looking for some help with some old vs new plank size. Looking to swap out some steps on my deck. Each step is 2 planks 5⅛" large x 1¼" thick and 3' long joined side by side. At the hardware store I couldn't find the same size. The closest I could find was planks 5½ large x 1" thick. Would that be good enough? Thanks ! [link] [comments] |
| Dust in Bedroom Despite Coway Airfilter Posted: 01 Jun 2020 02:59 PM PDT I bought a serious Coway Airfilter to keep dust out of my room and keep it running almost all the time. I live alone and my bedroom is on the small side. I live in an old Victorian House in San Francisco but it has been well maintained. I regularly replace the furnace filter with one that is anti-mite,bacterial, etc. and still get a lot of dust in my room. I'm good about replacing my Coway air filter. The air vent above my door has been painted over, and can only be opened or closed but cannot be removed for me to inspect. What's going on here? How can I prevent dust from accumulating so much? Could my air vent be the culprit? [link] [comments] |
| Would you pay $500 to have asbestos dust removed from a small portion of your carpet? Posted: 01 Jun 2020 02:50 PM PDT We have a layer of 2% chrysotile asbestos in every inch of the house. It's been a really stressful topic for me as I've had a family friend die from mesothelioma and I've always been paranoid about asbestos. I've already dealt with anxiety over realizing numerous bumps and scrapes exposing the layer had occurred in the years before I tested, almost all of which have been sealed and repaired. However, we recently moved a couch to clean behind it and realized 3 springs had broken, punctured through the couch and had slowly been scraping into the drywall and chrysotile layers. Probably for months. In an attempt to stop a complete panic attack my husband taped over the worst areas and we put the couch back and decided not to vacuum and stir anything up. It's been a couple of months and I can't let it go. I don't want to sit on the couch because I feel like the whole thing is contaminated. I've contacted an abatement company and they will seal off the area and vacuum, then do an air filtration and finally test the air and reassure me it's at a safe level. This will cost about $550. My husband thinks we should just vacuum it, although he also understands it may be worth the peace of mind for me. I'd like more opinions. The couch is going for sure, it's old enough we can easily part with it. But would you personally pay the $$ for the peace of mind? If not, how would you go about cleaning the area? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 01 Jun 2020 02:44 PM PDT Hey all, my paver patio from hell strikes again. I dug out my excavation, and it pissed rain and started to puddle in the pit. I vacuumed out as much of the water as possible and let it sit overnight. I was pressured to start compacting because it was rental equipment. I did a run over the wet clay and it just squeezed out and made a mess everywhere. I added a layer of fill with native soil to help absorb some moisture and compacted again. After laying some geotex I started with my first layer of gravel. I compacted that and was happy with how things were finally looking....until i walked out and realized a massive portion of my base is spongy. Did some research and it sounds like soil pumping? Is this shit ever going to solidify or am I going to have to dig this stupid thing up. Just looking out my back window puts me in a rage knowing I spent 14 hours of blood and sweat to have this shit acting like a trampoline. I need advice! [link] [comments] |
| Looking for some advice on the best deck stain to use for Canada/North US kind of climate. Posted: 01 Jun 2020 11:32 AM PDT I used a deck paint from Behr on my porch and after 2 years it's peeling all over and completely gone from high traffic areas even though it's rated for it. I'm wondering if an oil based stain would be better or if there is a good semi permanent or other option that would be more durable. Any advice on brands and types is appreciated. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 01 Jun 2020 07:41 PM PDT Is this where we talk drywall now? I cant seem to post on r/drywall anymore, and it's not refreshing for me. [link] [comments] |
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