Home Improvement: My grandpa still has all the recieps from his home he built in the 50s |
- My grandpa still has all the recieps from his home he built in the 50s
- This may be common knowledge to a lot of people, but I didn't even consider it. Occasionally check the screws that hold ceiling fan blades to the blade arms.
- Oh, the joys of buying a new home
- What is this pipe and what do I do with it?
- Contractor pulled his offer after I asked for changes, was I unreasonable?
- Girlfriend put a command strip on the wall under a flat object leaving no option to peel it off.
- Got a quote for front entry doors at $8500(size 72"x80")
- Contractor expectations
- Landscaper walked off my project. Advice appreciated.
- Need help identifying trim on my stairs
- Can I safely mount a pull-up bar in my basement on the floor joists?
- So confused - windows and doors
- Remove Cabinet Stile
- Dog chewed baseboard! Help!
- Builders quotes came back for my extension project and I can’t believe it...
- How do I protect myself?
- Does anyone know what this type of door handle is called? Do I need to replace it with the same type of door knob or can I somehow install a standard door knob?
- New range hood, distance between two studs is 60cm
- Stud where I want to put my outlet
- thanks to everyone for their input with contract quartz remnant issue
- Toenail studs?
- How to lift a water heater
- I’m looking for a 72” alcove bathtub with a long bathing basin, does anyone know a good one that won’t bankrupt you?
- Ethernet wall jack stopped working after new router installed
| My grandpa still has all the recieps from his home he built in the 50s Posted: 01 Oct 2020 09:26 AM PDT Thought you might get a kick out of this. My grandpa passed a while ago, and as the family was cleaning the house, t9hey can across this box that contained all the building material receipts for when he built this house. 1957-58 Thought you guys might get a kick out of seeing the prices. The album contains just a few images of the several hundred receipts. Updated album with more "totals:. From what I can figure, total value of construction is [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 01 Oct 2020 05:31 PM PDT My fan had started making a very annoying ticking noise. I was thinking big...maybe a bad ceiling box or such. No. Just went in and tightened all the screws that hold the blades to the blade arms. Back to blissful silence. [link] [comments] |
| Oh, the joys of buying a new home Posted: 01 Oct 2020 07:18 PM PDT Closed on our new house today. Been getting excited for a month now, making lists of what to do, picking out new carpet, buying paint. Endless discussions about what we're going to do, when, and how. The house has had renters for the last six years, and honestly, it hasn't been taken care of very good. And now that it's empty and we're finally getting into without anybody else around...oh boy. So. Much. Work. To. Do. We got the keys last night, wife went in to clean all day. After six hours of cleaning, she got the upstairs bathroom and the kitchen done. Get the rest tomorrow, start ripping up carpet and painting over the weekend. Hopefully, by next Wednesday, paint and carpet will be done. Two big projects knocked off the list. Found out while cleaning, that the previous tenants had left some burn marks on the counter. Been wondering why they kept their power towel holder in the middle of the counter. Oh, and when you turn on the faucet in the kitchen, it sounds like a motor is running? Next big project will be replacing the vanities in the bathroom. The one downstairs has mold in it, and behind it. Going to rip out the downstairs vanity, get the mold taken care of, and take the vanity from upstairs, and put it downstairs. We won't be using the downstairs bathroom a ton, so figured if we are buying a new vanity, it should be upstairs where we will use it. Wife wants new baseboards, new door trim, and new doors. The doors are brown, which are just ugly. Oh, and the closet doors in the bedrooms? Gone. People were using curtains to hide them. Whatever, doesn't bug me. Wife wants to put doors on them. And the master closet needs to be redone, not enough rods to hang up clothes. The house has a wood buring stove downstairs. Thought about taking it out, since it'll give us more living space down there. But, figured we would give it a winter or two, see how much it warms up the house, and how much we use it. Found out yesterday that our home owners insurance company added a $30 surcharge to our policy because of the stove. Something about it not being in code, that it needs to be 18 inches from the wall and 18 inches above the ground. Its nowhere close to those numbers, and if it was, would really make the living area crammed. Might just end up taking it out next summer. Tried to open the garage from the inside today...took us ten minutes to find the button. Turns out, it's right next to the garage door. Never seen a opener that close to the door. Aren't they usually towards the back of the garage? I wonder how hard that would be to change. And, and we were left one garage door opener for our cars...and it doesn't work. Found a drill box on a shelf in the garage...its empty...but stuck to the shelf...also found a Dish receiver...don't use Dish. No idea what to do with it. At least they took the toilet they had sitting outside. Speaking of the home insurance, we were told that we were almost denied because of the shed in the back. Sure, the plywood is falling over, but its withstood an earthquake, and hurricane force winds this year. The only thing that saved us is being a long term customer with the insurance company (we've been with them seven years. Walked in the shed...and the renters left a ton of junk. Opened up a drawer in a chest of drawers, it's filled with clothes and mouse poop. Didn't dare open up the other drawers. Thought about having our agent tell their agent that we wanted the junk taken care of. Then we found an old Playstation one. It powers on, hopefully it still plays. And found some nice barstools and a patio table. Told our agent that if the seller will pay us, we'll take everything to the dump. Seller agreed to pay us $40. Hopefully we'll find another treasure or two. Wife was there for six hours cleaning today. I came after work, was there for five minutes, and found a mouse downstairs. Bastard ran upstairs and scared the crap out of me. Ran to Walmart, got some glue traps. Hopefully we'll find him caught tomorrow. Walked out to the garage and saw a giant spider. Wife said if she had seen either one, she would have stopped cleaning and never came back. Got a week to get as much done as possible before we have to start moving out of our current house. The people buying it have been so patient and good to let us stay as long as we need to. Might try to do something nice for them when they move in. TL;DR...Home ownership is a blast! [link] [comments] |
| What is this pipe and what do I do with it? Posted: 01 Oct 2020 09:14 AM PDT Hey everybody! So I'm doing a little demolition on some countertops and I wanted to get rid of the bar that was there. I got the counters and bar off without much issue, but now there's this pipe I don't know what it's for, I assume drainage from the sink? I need him to be about a foot shorter but while I'm not afraid of carpentry, I'm terrified of plumbing. Can I cut him shorter and put him back together? What's he even for? Thank you! (Edits: formatting and grammar) [link] [comments] |
| Contractor pulled his offer after I asked for changes, was I unreasonable? Posted: 01 Oct 2020 11:52 AM PDT Trying to get a remodel done. Cost was estimated $7000. They wanted $4000 upfront. Contract specified the work mostly correct but I wanted more specifics. The contact also said that "time was not of the essence", and that I was liable for any liens for subcontractors and materialmen they hired. I messaged them back specifically saying we want the contract to specify what satisfactory "Completion" was. Additionally we'd like to hold final payment until all subcontractors and material providers provide written waivers/releases/or receipts of payment in full. Finally we'd like a liability waiver for injuries that occur on the property during work on the house. I didn't feel those requests were outlandish but they said that was the first time in 40 years they'd ever had such a request. Did I go too far? Edit: the cost was mostly demo, install and material disposal. I was expected to purchase cabinets and countertops separately (~$10,000) [link] [comments] |
| Girlfriend put a command strip on the wall under a flat object leaving no option to peel it off. Posted: 01 Oct 2020 08:36 AM PDT So the title says it all and I now need to fix this mess, how do I repair this? [link] [comments] |
| Got a quote for front entry doors at $8500(size 72"x80") Posted: 01 Oct 2020 09:19 AM PDT The price is a lot higher than I expected but it's my first quote. I looked on homedepot.com and found some doors for a little bit over a thousand bucks that basically looked the same as the quoted door. The door company says their door is made of higher quality material etc. Just hoping anyone can steer me in the right direction as I do want something good since it's the front door. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 01 Oct 2020 07:40 PM PDT We bought a house about a month and a half ago. We have contractors at the house currently doing some work before we move in. Laying down LVP, full interior paint job, new baseboards, new trim in some places. Well we have been checking and it's supposed to be done next week. They haven't even fully painted a room and it looks terrible. I've reached out to the head contractor and he says it will be fixed. It's the worst paint job I've ever seen and looks like it's been completely rushed. There is paint on my shower, toilet, tile, granite countertop vanity, etc. according to friends I am overreacting and shouldn't be checking daily. They even painted our bedroom wrong. Is this normal?? I know renovations are messy but geez! [link] [comments] |
| Landscaper walked off my project. Advice appreciated. Posted: 01 Oct 2020 12:25 PM PDT I recently had two separate landscapers working on my large yard renovation. Both guys were only available a for 2 or three days a week so they agreed to make it a group effort. One would work on the back while the front was excavated then get after it to finish before winter. Both hired with handshake deals for time and materials. One guy got his jobs (retaining wall and excavation) done and the other just sent me a final invoice without completing anything. He started irrigation, a stone patio and a stone walkway. He left me with open trenches with pipes laying in them and less than half of the patio and walkway. I needed to tear out the stone work since it would have been a mess to tie in what was done to a finished product. The final invoice is not a ton of money but it really pisses me off to make him 100% while I have to demo and pay someone else to replace his stone work. The irrigation won't get in in time to drop sod this year so I'm stuck with a mud pit til spring. My gut is to pay him but subtract 25% of total invoices for the headache, delays and overages. He cost me $2000 in replacement cost. I'd be withholding $500, mostly to prove a point. Any advice? [link] [comments] |
| Need help identifying trim on my stairs Posted: 01 Oct 2020 08:27 PM PDT I'm finishing my basement and I want to match the trim on my stairs. It's 3/8 inch thick and at least 9 inches wide, but probably wider. Is it just plywood? [link] [comments] |
| Can I safely mount a pull-up bar in my basement on the floor joists? Posted: 01 Oct 2020 10:08 AM PDT I'm afraid of damaging the structure, or worse, having the floor cave in on top of me. Photo of the ideal mounting location here: https://i.imgur.com/LJxdj2X.jpg Thanks in advance. I'm a new homeowner and pretty clueless. [link] [comments] |
| So confused - windows and doors Posted: 01 Oct 2020 07:38 PM PDT We recently bought and moved into a house built in 1943 - best guess is that we have windows ranging from 43 to the 80's with the basement ones boarded up. Out of the 8 designed to be opened up only 3 do. The two exterior doors are the flimsiest wood doors I've ever seen. Needless to say new windows and doors are on the list. The more online research I do and "experts" I talk to the more confused I am. I want to know what real people with real world budgets have to offer! Along with the two picture windows and the 8 "operable" windows we will be adding at least 1, maybe 2 egress windows to the basement and unboarding the remaining window. Exterior doors have to be steel and one needs a doggy door. Oh an not a single door or window is the same size as any other door or window. The local premier window and door place came and I'm still recovering from that bid. We have a another company coming out soon as well a general contractor who was recommended. Are places like Lowes/Home Depot worth checking out? Are their steel doors really as horrible as the premier places make them out to be? Is a general contractor fine or do we need a window specialist? Name brand windows or reputable local company? I know costs vary from place to place and we are getting multiple quotes. We are inEastern WA for reference. Looking and thankful any help, suggestions, tips or questions to ask! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 01 Oct 2020 07:37 PM PDT We just moved into our house a few months ago and some of our cabinets are driving us crazy. They are double upper cabinets but have a vertical stile down the middle. This would be fine, but they are kind of awkwardly sized for what we want to put in them resulting in cups that barely don't fit on one shelf or plates with lots of space around them. So anyway. We want to know if there is any reason why we couldn't or shouldn't remove this and just get longer shelves to go in the cabinets? What would be the best tool to use to cleanly cut them out? More details and pictures in the album. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 01 Oct 2020 11:22 PM PDT Hi everyone. My dog chewed the baseboard in my house and my dad is going ballistic, thinking he needs to replace the baseboards throughout the entire house. Can someone help me find a baseboard match to avoid this? I already told him we could use wood filler etc. but he doesn't want to do that. Please help! Baseboard and chewed baseboard Thank you!! (the images are linked) [link] [comments] |
| Builders quotes came back for my extension project and I can’t believe it... Posted: 01 Oct 2020 11:18 PM PDT Hi all, I'm relatively new to the world of home improvements. I'm a girl in my 20s and was left a house in a will. Since I no longer need to save for a home... I thought why not make it a beautiful home? It's in need of some renovations and it has a really shoddy kitchen which is a side extension which needs redoing - and I'm hoping to have it open plan. I have also planned for a family bathroom directly above this new kitchen as the current one is smaller than the average en suite. So the footings for this extension will have to be deeper, adding cost. I hired an architect last June to draw me some plans, and he has been pretty bad. I had a simple plan and I'm already $10K out of pocket for his work- he quoted me $3K but kept adding more for 'revisions' even though those revisions were only necessary because he didn't draw the plans as I asked the first time around - I think he just went wild creatively a few times. Well my builders quotes have come back, finally, and it's literally enough to buy another home with. I told the architect my budget and it's double that. One of the builders have quoted $17K for INTERNAL doors - I literally have not specified any door changes whatsoever. My quote is near on $160K. I'm waiting for a few more companies to quote... but my god, is this normal? I don't know if I'm just way in over my head or if this is legit how much it would cost or not. I don't live in a major city or anywhere near one that might command this kind of price... and I was not made aware by my architect that I'd be looking at this kind of cost. I know some supplies have increased in price since the pandemic but, surely not like this? If I spent this much on the reno (which I can't afford anyway) it wouldn't add value to the home due to the ceiling price in the area. Any help would be amazing - I've got no clue! TLDR; My extension project quotes are coming in and they're double the budget I set my architect. Wondering what to do now. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 01 Oct 2020 05:13 PM PDT Nearing a commitment with a contractor for a full interior renovation, roof, windows and deck in NJ. Cost will likely exceed $250k when all is said a done. As a homeowner what do I need to be considering and how can I protect myself? Timing will be a big concern as I'll be carrying two mortgages during construction. Financially I'll be draining a bulk of the war chest to have this work done so I'll be sensitive to substantive pricing adjustments. Other considerations? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 01 Oct 2020 07:18 PM PDT Link to pictures of the door handles and the new door handles I picked up from Home Depot: http://imgur.com/gallery/6xybNVU EDIT: Thanks for the quick responses! I now know these are mortise lock sets. The reason I wanted to replace the existing door handles is because the latching component barely stays latched. The doors will open if they're barely touched. Even the change in air pressure from someone opening the front door (on the floor below) will cause the doors to unlatch and slip open. Does anyone know if there's a way to fix this/adjust the latch to prevent them from opening so easily? I'd rather fix what we have than replace all the hardware! I decided to replace all the door handles in my new house and made the rookie mistake of not looking at the doors before going to Home Depot and buying 20 door handles that don't seem compatible with my doors. I think the existing door handles are pretty old and Im trying to figure out if I can somehow replace them with the standard door handles I picked up from home depot or if I need to buy the same type of door handles that are on the doors now? Im not sure where I would find these or what I would search to look them up online.. If the door handles can't be replaced with the standard ones from Home Depot, what options do I have for new door handles, short of replacing all of the doors in the house? The biggest problem I see is the size of the hole that was cut into the door to accommodate the existing lock body and I'm not sure how I would attach the new latch/faceplate as the cutout in the door is too deep. I thought about moving the positioning of the door handle and cutting a new hole for it but I'm not sure how I would cover/fill the hole in the door that would be left behind from the previous door handle? I'm hoping the awesome handymen/contractors on this sub can help me out with some ideas or tips to replace these door handles without replacing the whole door - thanks! [link] [comments] |
| New range hood, distance between two studs is 60cm Posted: 01 Oct 2020 10:53 PM PDT But the width of the hook is 30cm. What can I do? How can I install the new range hood? The old one was nailed to only one stud by three screws in a line. :( [link] [comments] |
| Stud where I want to put my outlet Posted: 01 Oct 2020 03:07 PM PDT So I recently built a mantel and now I want to put an outlet on the wall right above the end of it. Problem is my stud finder is reading a stud there. I'm more than likely out of luck here right? I could cut an outlet sized hole into the outlet, but I'm obviously weary about doing that sort of thing. And I can't really move the outlet away from the stud since the whole point of this outlet was to be as low profile as possible. [link] [comments] |
| thanks to everyone for their input with contract quartz remnant issue Posted: 01 Oct 2020 10:37 PM PDT This sub gave me some good insights on how to approach my contractor who refused to give me my left over quartz remnant. He ended up delivering it to me free thankfully since he did promise me in the beginning. Now I have 36"x78" remnant with 2 laminated edges. I am going to use this for a dining table extension, but I totally underestimated the weight of this thing. It won't even budge when I try to move it myself. My plan was to frame a table bottom with 4 legs with aprons with some cross 2x4 (or 2x3) for center support, 1/2 plywood on top. Now I am getting a bit worried whether the support will be strong enough. Usually for islands I see a full structure with overhang support, not so much freestanding table type support. If I use 4x4 or 3x3 legs at 30" height with 1x3 apron and 2x3 center beam, would this be strong enough to hold the 200+ lbs counter top + plywood? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 01 Oct 2020 04:37 PM PDT One of the wall frames for a treehouse will have branches through it and I need to assemble it in place. Can I put the bottom of the frame down, stand the studs on top of it, and toenail them in? Top can be nailed as normal. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 01 Oct 2020 11:17 AM PDT We're talking 40 gallon gas heater. They average about 150 lbs. I've done my homework and made a plan. The only thing I'm not sure about is how to lift the water heater. I'll make sure it's empty, of course. I've got to lift the old one down from a stand about 24 inches high, then lift the new one up. It goes in a tight corner, so that makes it awkward. I'll have a helper with a strong back. I think I'll keep the new heater in the box, if that helps. Do I just lift, with a helper? Or is there some trick of the trade I should know? I thought about balancing the heater on a floor jack, but I don't think they lift high enough. I thought about a block and tackle, but the ceiling is too low. Thanks in advance [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 01 Oct 2020 06:46 PM PDT Long story short, my family is building a house. My dad and I are both 6'3 so we were looking for a long bathtub we might actually be able to sort of fit in, but they need to be alcove, not drop in. I've come up with not a lot, at least actually in stock anywhere. Our current tubs have a basin of about 45" and that's way too short. [link] [comments] |
| Ethernet wall jack stopped working after new router installed Posted: 01 Oct 2020 10:32 PM PDT Today I had fibre optic internet installed into my house. Before he left he checked the tv box and my own router were connected and working but I didn't check the Ethernet box behind my basement tv. Tonight I tried to watch Netflix on the Apple TV box and low and behold this jack isn't working. I have isolated the issue by moving the ports between the different spots on the router and even went as far as using the Ethernet directly into the laptop to make sure all ports work. My question is could the installation guy have accidentally done something to mess that one jack up? He didn't even have to touch it he just unplugged the other end of the cable to the old router and plugged into the new one. I have never wired Ethernet before so I have zero experience. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! [link] [comments] |
| You are subscribed to email updates from The Hivemind Improving Homes. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
No comments:
Post a Comment