Home Improvement: Closed June 3rd and got to work. Scraped popcorn, fixed screw pops and cracks, and repainted everything. Finally moved in |
- Closed June 3rd and got to work. Scraped popcorn, fixed screw pops and cracks, and repainted everything. Finally moved in
- For those who did a full home reno: did you deal with any negativity from others? Did you ever feel like you made a mistake? Please share your story.
- My Wine Barrel Water Feature
- Im a fat guy and want to get in shape. Will this hold my 100lb punching bag or will it cause damage to my house if i put it up?
- What are these bugs on my deck?
- Can anyone identify this sink? I really, really want it in my bus. Link in the post body.
- How to hang hurricane panels on cement fiber board siding?
- Moved in about a year ago, nothing has gone as planned. But we have a garden now
- What direction should plank flooring be laid in my home?
- Waverly Stone Foundation failing, what to do?
- Purchased 100 year old Bungalow kit house, plan to convert 2 bedrooms upstairs into master suite with added bathroom. What can we get away with doing ourselves without permits?
- Trying to wire home with ethernet
- Accidentally cut doorbell wire
- Meeting with GCs to discuss detached garage addition, what questions should I be prepared with?
- Recommendations for kitchen/bath improvements? (photos within)
- Too many frequent outages, questions about whole home generators.
- Stud finder is telling me one entire wall has electrical wires behind it.
- New window AC installation question.
- Covering holes in floor
- If you were to buy this home, what sticks out most to you in this kitchen that needs to be changed?
- Does this dryer hose need to be re-done?
- Any tips for installing a reinforced closet shelf and hanging bar?
- I have a Honda Accord... what’s the safest way to load my car with this broken up concrete so I can take it to the refuse center?
| Posted: 21 Jul 2020 05:30 PM PDT Scraped all the popcorn off. Luckily it was not painted. Primed with a crap PVA primer. I tried painting that and it wanted to peel off. Had to prime over the PVA, and I used Zinsser 123 latex for that, then painted over with finish paint. I watched a lot of Vancouver Carpenter on YouTube and The Idaho Painter for some ideas and instruction. I fixed most of the screw pops and cracks. Some of the walls were a total mess. Colors are Sherwin Williams: Olympus Gray in the bathrooms and closets, Latitude in the halls, kitchen, and living spaces, Morning Fog in the bedrooms. I used Valspar Signature for the walls, Valspar semi gloss for the trim, and Valspar ceiling paint. Bathrooms and closets are satin, the walls are eggshell, doors and trim are semi gloss. After tons of long days and several weeks I got all the painting done! Still a long list of updates and fixes to do, but we are moved in and loving the new space. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 21 Jul 2020 02:18 PM PDT We bought our house in January and we're DIYing a lot of the Reno, hiring when appropriate. It's a 2000 sq ft ranch with quite an open layout, so it's pretty straightforward, but we're doing it all. New master bathroom and kitchen. New flooring throughout. Ripped out wallpaper in the whole thing and need to repair and paint walls. Overhead lighting installed throughout. We know it's a lot, but we absolutely fell in love with the 11 acres it's on, and we had the savings to fund almost all of this work. We're taking it slow, not taking out any loans. And people (mainly family) are still negative about it, thinking we're in over our heads. Except that we know the scope of work, we know it's a lot of money, and we're willing to do it for a house we'll likely be in forever. It's just hard to have confidence in such a big project when others are so negative. It makes me feel like we made a mistake sometimes, even though we're in no way driving ourselves into debt or making stupid choices. Has anyone else ever dealt with this? Would love to hear others' stories. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 21 Jul 2020 06:37 AM PDT Hey all, new to this sub and wanted to show off my diy wine barrel water feature. I'm very happy with how it came out. Here is a link to a finished photo of it: https://i.imgur.com/Qi0r7JI.jpg I got the barrel from my local hardware store (Bunnings in Australia) for a decent price and it was a genuine wine barrel made of American Oak. It smelt so good when I cut the lid off it. This was the barrel when I bought it: http://imgur.com/a/xkprUTD I was worried the barrel might have been old and dried out making it not able to hold water but it's holding water perfectly fine. For those who may not know, barrels hold their liquid by the wood swelling and essentially sealing any holes themselves but if they're too old or dried out, it may never swell enough to seal. The first step was to cut the lid off the barrel, the wood was extremely tough and I broke pretty much all of my jigsaw blades cutting it off. Once the lid was off I gave it a vacuum inside and then I had to find a way to seal the bung hole in the barrel which is where there would have once been a tap. I decided to seal the bung hole with a custom tap which adds a really nice feature to the barrel. The tap is actually functional and allows to to drain the barrel down to the point of the bung hole. At first it leaked around my fitting so I drained the barrel and siliconed around the inside of the tap fixture, after this there were no more leaks. I purchased a real cast iron hand pump off eBay and ran my 19mm pipe from the water pump in the barrel up the cast iron pump and out of the nozzle. It was difficult to get the 19mm hose through the pump but eventually I got it through. I almost thought of going to buy a thinner pipe but the effect of the water flow might have changed because of the pressure difference. I also I installed an led light in the barrel and a reed grass plant. The pump was a 1000 litres per hour pump which I learnt was too aggressive for the distance it had to push the water so I also installed a secondary inline tap towards the top of the barrel so now I have full control over the flow without having to reach all the way down into the barrel full of water. I had to cut the plug off the water pump so that I didn't have to drill a huge hole in the barrel, so after I cut off the plug I ran it through a small hole in the barrel and then rewired a new plug on the end. I just siliconed any holes I made up and checked for leaks every day once it was full of water for a few days and all was good. It's very relaxing to look at and hear the water trickling. I love having it on at night when the lighting inside the barrel creates nice water reflections on the bricks of the house. We surrounded the water feature with some rusty pots and some plants. The plants are Birds of Paradise and another broadleaf plant I cannot remember the name of. The total cost of this project was under $400 AUD and all in all was pretty easy to put together. The parts list for the project is basically the following:
It only took around 3 days to build the feature but most of this time was waiting for silicone to dry and leaving it full of water for a full day to see if it leaked. I tried to think if there was anything I would have done differently with this project but to be honest, it has come up better than I expected. If anyone has any questions about the barrel water feature, just let me know :) Cheers [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 21 Jul 2020 04:01 PM PDT |
| What are these bugs on my deck? Posted: 21 Jul 2020 02:21 PM PDT I live in San Francisco and am replacing the decking on my deck. There are a bunch of these bugs on some of the joists. They don't look like pictures of termites that I've seen. Just curious if they're causing harm. [link] [comments] |
| Can anyone identify this sink? I really, really want it in my bus. Link in the post body. Posted: 21 Jul 2020 02:46 PM PDT |
| How to hang hurricane panels on cement fiber board siding? Posted: 21 Jul 2020 11:15 AM PDT I'm currently working on mounting hardware to hang metal hurricane panels on my house. I've hung all of the hardware on the sides of my house with stucco (with a lot of blood, sweat, and tears), and currently only have the front left. The front of the house has cement fiber board siding, and I'm wondering if there's anything special I need to do. I plan on mounting the panels directly to the wall using machine set screw anchors and sidewalk bolts. The structure of the house is CMU, and I am unsure how the cement fiber board is attached. Do I approach it the same way as the process for mounting them on to stucco, or is there something different I need to do? [link] [comments] |
| Moved in about a year ago, nothing has gone as planned. But we have a garden now Posted: 21 Jul 2020 03:26 PM PDT Just wanted to share with the group my experience. Had a house that we finished nearly everything on, just normal maintenance at that point. Unfortunately, wife wanted something different, so we bought a house with more land and a pool. I knew from the start it would be a lot of work just so far we have: -removed a load bearing wall We still have 2 bathroom remodels, new flooring through the whole house, new AC and ductwork, new french doors, 4 more windows, an entire kitchen, and build a patio. Later on also adding an additional room/bathroom. Despite the money pit this stupid house has been, my wife is overjoyed to have her new and improved garden. She went from a 5'x5' to a 20'x20' and we're going to make it bigger in the fall. Seeing her happiness about her garden makes these pending items a little smaller. Just wanted to give everyone a reminder to stop and enjoy the stuff you do and not just think of the next project. You can easily stress yourself out if you never stop. Here's a link to some of the pics and produce from her garden: https://imgur.com/gallery/Z5VDR32 Wherever you are, stay sane out there. [link] [comments] |
| What direction should plank flooring be laid in my home? Posted: 21 Jul 2020 02:43 PM PDT Sorry for floor plan quality, this was made in excel. But as you can see, my floor plan has a few directions. I am laying the same LVP throughout the house and would like to know which way it would flow best. I understand the planks should be laid parallel to the longest wall. But if each room is looked at individually, the living room and hallway be best if laid front to back, but the kitchen would be the best side to side. I am thinking I need to go side to side since that is the longest wall when looking at the house as a whole and the living room's focal point is the fireplace, although I have windows in the front and back. Any thoughts would be great. I do not know how to embed images. . . so here is a link :-) [link] [comments] |
| Waverly Stone Foundation failing, what to do? Posted: 21 Jul 2020 03:01 PM PDT Way outside my do-it-yourself knowledge or skill. Called three foundation companies with no luck. One said it is hard to get more Waverly stone to do any repairs. For those who don't know, this is a softer sandstone foundation. We did some reno to our basement two years ago and I'm sure the existing stone is drying (dried) out from its normal state for a hundred years. If you can see in the photo, there is a crumbling stone, some mortar is failing, and it has shifted to the right and down a bit, giving some stress cracks in the nearby porch. Here are two pics of the two corners really showing damage, not that easy to tell the problems without zooming in, tho: https://imgur.com/gallery/rWEilN2 You can see some previous patch jobs with cement (not me). I know when I got this house some advice online about not using cement with this kind of stone. But right now not finding anything useful about Waverly Stone foundations online. I'm scared I'm in for a big fix that won't easy to get a contractor, and won't match what I've got. More Waverly Stone pics https://imgur.com/a/WF2GIHB [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 21 Jul 2020 08:23 PM PDT Purchased 100 year old bungalow in excellent condition but only has 1 bathroom for 4 bedrooms. Upstairs has a strange layout with 2 bedrooms and a decent space at top of the steps used as small reading nook. Planning to gut the upstairs, add a bathroom, and build a master suite with an additional small office or guest bedroom. Still trying to figure out floorplan. Trying to figure out what we can DIY without permits in the state of Virginia. Also have Big old boiler and radiators, considering keeping radiators to save oak hardwood floors but remove boiler. Modern forced air heating installed but technically Boiler worked as of last inspection in 2010. Any advice on boiler work appreciated. [link] [comments] |
| Trying to wire home with ethernet Posted: 21 Jul 2020 09:51 AM PDT Recently bought a home but it doesn't have any ethernet ports in the wall except for the main fiber box that connects to the router. I need my office upstairs wired and a few more in the living room. I get through the bottom plate, but then hit something else. My spade goes all the way down, but that other support is stopping me from going further. I had an electrician come check and see what he could do and he said it's a purlin. As it was late in the day, I didn't want to risk further tearing of my walls and possible living room ceiling, so I said I'd try and come up with a solution later. What options do I have now? I just need a simple run going from living room, straight up through 2nd floor into the attic, then straight over above my office. Would it be easier to skip an interior run and instead run cabling outside of the house? It seems that's how the coax lines are run (which I don't need). [link] [comments] |
| Accidentally cut doorbell wire Posted: 21 Jul 2020 02:50 PM PDT Hi everyone - made a dumb mistake today. I was running some Ethernet cable in the house and accidentally cut my existing doorbell wire. I have a Nest Hello Doorbell camera and as soon as I cut the wire, I went to check it and sure enough it wasn't on. What are my options of fixing this? Should I just get some spare wire and splice it together with some electrical tape? There's not much slack, and thankfully I can reach the other end of the wire in the other room. I was also looking into crimpers, would that work? I also noticed that there's a blue wire and a yellow wire, and these days doorbell wires are red and white. My house was built in the 60s, and these wires look like they've been used since. What wire would I need? And would the blue wire mean red or white? Attached a picture. Thanks in advance! [link] [comments] |
| Meeting with GCs to discuss detached garage addition, what questions should I be prepared with? Posted: 21 Jul 2020 08:13 AM PDT This will be my first ever home addition and first time using a GC for any project. We've tried our best to select recommended/reputable builders that are local to our part of the city, but there must be a thousand things that I don't know to ask so any advice at all would be helpful. Thank you! [link] [comments] |
| Recommendations for kitchen/bath improvements? (photos within) Posted: 21 Jul 2020 02:42 PM PDT Looking to spruce up the kitchen and bathrooms in preparation for eventually sale. Looking for ideas and/or shoot down my plans & suggest alternatives. Thanks in advance! Kitchen: [Imgur](https://imgur.com/b1b5pk3) Kitchen isn't too bad but the blue-green paint was kinda slapped in by original owner. My thoughts here are DIY repainting the cabinets white and cover the blue-green with a blue backsplash. If it matters the walls immediately outside the kitchen are all a light grey with dark hardwood floor. Bathroom 1: [Imgur](https://i.imgur.com/qwc8Zfc.jpg) This just feels drab. Thoughts are replace vanity with a wall mounted IKEA type unit, perhaps a medicine cabinet mirror mounted over vanity... or a shiny gold accent mirror? I like the cabinet idea only for adding more storage. Shower tile is meh.. thoughts of replacing the tile with something more eye catching.. or going ham with one of those slide in glass shower door insert setups. Bathroom 2: [Imgur](https://i.imgur.com/WA5F8MX.jpg) Another boring bathroom. I want to keep the tub as I've been advised having at least one tub helps sell homes to potential child/pet parents. My thoughts here just to to replacing vanity & mirror with something modern and more stylish. [link] [comments] |
| Too many frequent outages, questions about whole home generators. Posted: 21 Jul 2020 09:20 PM PDT Question: What are my options for whole home generators to cover for random outages. (I use 30kwh in a day to peak of 80 kwh in a day during summer). Background: So I live in a home surrounded by a lot of trees so it's too often for my taste when I'm having multiple 8+hour outages in a year, sprinkled in with a few shorter outages. I was first thinking of something like the Tesla Powerwall, but then that looks like a huge expensive undertaking for something that isn't going to work well without solar anyway. So then I started looking into these whole home generators like Generac. I do have natural gas so it looks like a lot of headache with whole maintaining home power generators can be abated.. Where should I go to look for installers or brands? Is there an option that will seamlessly pick up if I have an outage? [link] [comments] |
| Stud finder is telling me one entire wall has electrical wires behind it. Posted: 21 Jul 2020 09:04 PM PDT Hey folks. I went to find a stud in one of my bedroom walls and my stud finder starts flashing it's red light, beeping and displaying "AC" with a lightning bolt beside it. It's happening all over the wall. I checked other walls and there's no warning. What could be causing this? [link] [comments] |
| New window AC installation question. Posted: 21 Jul 2020 08:57 PM PDT Hi everyone, I not to long ago installed a large window AC unit. After turning it on, it smells like a if you opened a package of shower curtains with that plastic smell. Is that normal? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 21 Jul 2020 06:40 PM PDT My boyfriend is doing work to his house and we found out that under the gross gross carpet is hardwood floors!! Bad news is that it looks like there used to be baseboard heat so there are holes in the floor where the pipes used to run. Is there a way to patch that? The hole is about the size of a golf ball. [link] [comments] |
| If you were to buy this home, what sticks out most to you in this kitchen that needs to be changed? Posted: 21 Jul 2020 08:49 AM PDT Other than needing to be cleaned and clutter removed. We can't afford any major overhauls. All of the appliances work. We're listing the house in a couple weeks and I'm hoping to find ways to make it look a little better. Thanks. [link] [comments] |
| Does this dryer hose need to be re-done? Posted: 21 Jul 2020 08:35 PM PDT Just moved into a new house with no washer or dryer, though there was an old vinyl dryer hose dangling from the connection to outside. Because it's vinyl, the delivery techs wouldn't hook up the dryer, though they did attach an aluminum flex hose (the rigid kind) to the dryer itself. I picked up a foil flex hose yesterday, forgetting there was an aluminum one back home. After trying to get the aluminum hose to reach the opening, it was about 6" short! I took off the aluminum hose and attached the foil hose instead, which reached (with some extra hose; notice the bend). I read that foil hoses are not ideal because they can't contain a fire inside; also, the extra material inside compresses the inner diameter and makes the dryer less energy efficient. The extra length introduces a small bend, and the hose is brushing up against a conduit containing the 220V to the dryer. Is my set-up okay? Or do I need to do it over with a rigid aluminum hose and some sort of extender? Thanks! [link] [comments] |
| Any tips for installing a reinforced closet shelf and hanging bar? Posted: 21 Jul 2020 08:13 PM PDT I've taken measurements of pretty much everything. Looks relatively simple, but wanted to know if there are any tricks or preferred methods that I'm not aware of. Like what screws to use, whether to join the horizontal supports at 45° angle, etc. Here are some pics of what I'm attempting to replicate: [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 21 Jul 2020 08:08 PM PDT Obviously it's gonna take multiple trips...lol [link] [comments] |
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