Home Improvement: Trying to clean my house after suffering from a long depression episode. I feel like I am at the end of my rope and need help. |
- Trying to clean my house after suffering from a long depression episode. I feel like I am at the end of my rope and need help.
- Can I roll paint onto a wall in a few spots without redoing the entire wall?
- Professional Painting - When Does It Become Worth It?
- Do I have to pay for hours a plumber spent fixing a leak his tools caused?
- Lazy Susan in cabinet. I hate it. Any better storage solutions?
- Stud finder recommendation
- Remodeled my guest bathroom, here's what I learned
- Mould under solid oak flooring - anything I can try before pulling the floor up entirely?
- Where do I find prestained 1/4in shoe molding for my cabinets during a floor remodel?
- Backyard shed planning - I’m a noob
- What is this fixture called and how do I find a shade/cover for it
- Help with closet doors?
- REMINDER: Last change to vote on our BestOf2020 Post
- Question about Mr. Cool DIY mini split
- two options to fix concrete foundation cracks with moisture
- Vampire power or not. ..
- Overwhelmed by how to go about with building cabinets
- Chimneys Removed a Year Ago, Now We’re Seeing Water Damage?
- My dad wants to put light polyurethane stain mix on top of dark wood to make it lighter, is that really how that works?
- Bathroom lighting
- Washer drain hose leaked all over the laminate floor and has left a residue in between the seams. how can I get this out?
- Circuit for Gas Tankless water heater
- Speed up new garage door
- Replaced light switch, now light only turns on when both switches are set.
| Posted: 08 Jan 2021 10:34 AM PST Hi people. I have recently come to and realised my house is an utter disaster. I need to clean everything right away, but the amount of work is making me panic as I don't have any cleaning or housekeeping skills. My indoor entrance way has these porous tiles that I don't know how to clean. I have tried using a bleach solution to clean them but besides making the dirt look only slightly less black it's not doing anything to it. I don't have any way of identifying what the material is that the flooring is made of, so I am terrified of damaging the tiling. The second major issue I have is my toilets have formed a very strong stain at the bottom, which doesn't come out with the basic stuff I've tried on Amazon. Again not knowing what the fuck the toilet is made of I feel hesitant to use any extreme measures I've found online. I tried dumping an entire bottle of the strongest toilet cleaner I could find down there and letting it sit but it didn't do barely anything. Thirdly the bedroom is carpeted and the carpet looks dirty and almost nasty. I have tried to vacuum it but that did nothing to fix the black patches on it. I don't have the money to hire a professional carpet cleaner. Is that the only way I can make the carpeting look semi decent? If you have any ideas how I can fix these issues then please please help. I can feel myself on the verge of giving up again and I just need to somehow push past this and get this house clean so I can get back on track. I have attached pictures of the issues I am facing. If this isn't the right sub for these questions then if someone could please send me in the right direction. [link] [comments] |
| Can I roll paint onto a wall in a few spots without redoing the entire wall? Posted: 08 Jan 2021 06:43 AM PST I just had my stairwell painted about a month ago. There's some streaks and marks from when the movers moved boxes and things up the stairs - not really noticeable but they stand out to me. I have the left over paint - can I just roll on in a few spots without doing the entire wall? [link] [comments] |
| Professional Painting - When Does It Become Worth It? Posted: 08 Jan 2021 07:34 PM PST How much did professional painting cost you? How much did you get done? Did they do the ceilings as well? What made it worth it for you? Our circumstances: We just bought our first home. For the month of February will have possession of both our home and current rental. Husband works a 9-5 and I stay home with our dog and 4 month old. I have painted places before, but I'm just average at painting (does the trick, definitely not flawless). My husband is horrible at it, bless his heart. The colors in the new place are atrocious, it's only 29 yrs old, but they repainted (by themselves) and it's a poorly painted (noticed a few spots on ceilings) nasty orange, pink and brown color. I'd like to lighten the place up as it doesn't get much sunlight, although it has plenty of windows. The three rooms we want to start with are the bedrooms as they are being re-carpeted mid Feb. I want to know if It's worth it to just get the place 'done right the first time'. And have the trims, ceilings and walls done professionally. I'm usually pretty determined to DIY, but with the babe I think it might be less stress and a better end result to just pay up. Thoughts? Questions? Thank you so much for reading all that! We're in the Okanagan Valley, BC, Canada. [link] [comments] |
| Do I have to pay for hours a plumber spent fixing a leak his tools caused? Posted: 08 Jan 2021 11:23 AM PST I'm a customer that got an invoice from my plumber today and I'd love some help figuring out whose responsibility this is? I had a plumber come out to install a customer hand turn valve at the city meter, since my house is old and doesn't have one. He did the install in around 2 hours, but when the utility company came out to turn the water on, there was a leak. In the notes on the invoice, the plumber states the leak was created by his back up wrench. It took several more hours, plus travel to get extra parts, to fix the leak. Now, I'm being charged for 6 hours of labor and the extra parts needed to fix the leak. Is this normal? This bill seems MASSIVELY high for what I thought would be a quick update to our house. [link] [comments] |
| Lazy Susan in cabinet. I hate it. Any better storage solutions? Posted: 08 Jan 2021 02:17 PM PST Hi. We have 2 corner cabinets with lazy susan. I can tolerate the one because we just keep blenders and stuff in them. But I HATE the one we use for pots and pans. What are some solutions you all can direct me towards? I'm not sure what to look for or what I need to be aware of. Here is one. The other is identical. https://imgur.com/a/WkT9gjX [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 08 Jan 2021 09:31 AM PST I'm hanging shelves for my wife this week and I'm getting ready to throw my stanley stud finder through the wall. It finds twice as many studs as there actually are and apparently there is AC power behind every square inch of my walls. I need a good homeowner unit, I only use it every few months but I need it to actually work. I also need one that differentiates between wood studs and human studs because this thing goes crazy every time it gets near me. Heh. [link] [comments] |
| Remodeled my guest bathroom, here's what I learned Posted: 08 Jan 2021 02:39 PM PST We have a guest bathroom that is all from the late 90's, with aging linoleum floors and a crappy old vanity. It's the only room in the house that hadn't had any updates. Work was slow in December, so we decided to remodel it. I'd previously done some smaller projects around the house, such as painting and installing appliances, but nothing this big. It was damn hard, but I like the final result. My tl;dr lessons learned are: Nothing will fit.Don't expect to go buy replacements of a vanity, cabinet, mirror, light fixture, or anything else and have them just fit. They won't. You're going to have to do cutting, patching, caulking, levelling and such to get it to work. You will discover weird surprises.Most complicated surprise: a few pipes routed under the old vanity, meaning the new vanity would need to clear them. Easy right, just find one with 4" clearance from the floor? Well published measurements are highly inconsistent, and although we ended up with one we are happy with, we can still see the pipes from a few angles in the adjoining room. Dumbest surprise: well our walls aren't perpendicular. But because 45+45=90, those fancy miter cuts on the trim are worthless. Wait even dumber surprise: bought $40 worth of color matched paint, so the new trim would match the door frames. Turns out the piece I brought was from inside the bathroom closet, which had different color trim. "Will you take back your paint you color matched for me"? Lol of course not. There were more. The bathroom was rich with discovery. The big stuff is easy, all of the finishing stuff will take 80% of your time.I guess I should have known this from painting, but all of the big stuff was done fast. Even the floor only took me a day. Getting the drywall to look right? Getting the wall cabinet levelled? Fixing paint I got on the ceiling? Re-doing caulk that looked wonky? Cutting new transition strips because the nail holes from the old ones were to busted out to hold them when I reattached? Getting that last drip to stop dripping from the p-trap? That shit took forever, and it wasn't the fun parts, either. Plan ahead for your needs.I am guessing I made 12 trips to hardware stores, maybe more. With some planning, this could have been avoided. Like what if we had lived an hour away from Home Depot, instead of 10 min? It would have been terrible. Write down a schedule.We got into situations where I didn't really want to move ahead without something finished (e.g. a new light fixture installed), but we didn't have the right materials to unblock that task. Could have been prevented with better planning and less impatience. As it is, I ended up doing some things out of order, which made life harder. For example, I did all of the drywall repair and painting after the new floor was installed, when I should have just done the floor after. Take the opportunity to add to your toolbox.I needed a jigsaw for the laminate flooring, and a table saw to rip 2x4's ("need" is questionable for the latter), and since we were saving so much money on the remodel, I just bought the tools. SummaryIn the end, despite its minor flaws here and there, it looks a ton better. And I built some valuable skills, became more confident with tools, and added to our home's value as well. I'd do it again, and I'd do it a lot better this time, and lower stress too. [link] [comments] |
| Mould under solid oak flooring - anything I can try before pulling the floor up entirely? Posted: 08 Jan 2021 09:13 PM PST Hi folks - photos here Hallway floor immediately outside a bathroom. Water from the bathroom floor has found its way under the boards outside the door. Flooring is solid oak. I've addressed the cause of the water and repaired / resealed, so that won't happen again. Question is, should I try anything to remove the mould before resorting to pulling up the boards to dry properly and treat? I'm guessing the underside of the boards is in much worse shape than the top, so I'd imagine they need to come up but wanted to check if there's anything else I might try first. Thank you. [link] [comments] |
| Where do I find prestained 1/4in shoe molding for my cabinets during a floor remodel? Posted: 08 Jan 2021 07:53 PM PST |
| Backyard shed planning - I’m a noob Posted: 08 Jan 2021 07:55 AM PST Long time lurker, first time poster. Little background on me. I'm in the Midwest. I have some experience with most construction tools, and I'm pretty handy. Biggest thing I've built was a wooden swing set for the kids, I've laid tile floor, I've hung doors, I've replaced toilets. I'm planning to add a storage shed to my backyard this coming summer. I'm planning on something 10x12 to 10x16 size, wooden construction, double doors on one side, pretty standard shed. While budgeting, I'm comparing a diy build costs vs pre-fabbed sheds from big-box stores, and a shed from a dealer of pre-built sheds that they deliver and "install". Pre builts are actually about the same price as my initial DIY budget, but I'm questioning the quality for dollar spent. Fist thing I noticed is they all seem to use those "plates" to hold the corners of joints together, they look like they're just nailed on. I have to assume if I did a DIY and used good quality screws to join the frame together, and those same kind of plates, I'd be a lot better off structurally? The rest of the fasteners look to be normal nails. If I DIY, screws would be better than nail, correct ? Second question is about footing. Pre fabbed recommend having blocks or a cement pad underneath, however the dealer told me I could just set it down in place on the wood joists and it would be fine... I don't believe him. The location I want to place the shed does seem to take a while to get dry after rains, so I'm planning to run a French drain out off to a lower part of the yard to draw moisture away. If I DIY, I'd probably plan to put posts in concrete piers and build the floor off that. If I buy a pre-fab, I don't want the expense of a concrete slab. I'm not sure cinder blocks would be a good stable base for that. Any thoughts or experience with getting dry, stable footing for a pre fabbed shed ? TIA [link] [comments] |
| What is this fixture called and how do I find a shade/cover for it Posted: 08 Jan 2021 06:52 PM PST I'm trying to "modernize" this fixture with a cover or shade but don't really know how to search for it [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 08 Jan 2021 07:22 AM PST Hey all. I bought a home, and all the closet doors in the house (4) were these sliding wood doors from the 70s. The width of the opening is about 47 inches and the height is 82 inches. Can't really replace with two standard 24 x 80 bifold doors without ripping. Is there an easier or better solution? A better door? [link] [comments] |
| REMINDER: Last change to vote on our BestOf2020 Post Posted: 08 Jan 2021 12:14 PM PST This is your last chance ot get your nomination and votes in for the Best of 2020 post. The post can be found here. Have a project that sticks out in your mind from the past year? Send a nomination for that post so the user can be recognized for their submission to our sub. Have a user that helped you out throughout the year? Either upvote them if they have been nominated, or nominate them as advisor of the year so they can be recognized for their help in making our community better. I've locked commenting on this post to avoid any confusion. Please submit all comments and upvote all posts in this thread. [link] [comments] |
| Question about Mr. Cool DIY mini split Posted: 08 Jan 2021 08:27 AM PST I am about to install a Mr. Cool DIY mini split. I cannot put the hole for the refrigerant line right where the template indicates, I need to run it about 4 feet to the left first at a slight incline. Is this possible or does it ruin everything? Thanks in advance. Edit: For more context I was trying to avoid drilling a 3.5 inch hole through 6-8 inches of solid reinforced concrete (the wall) by going through an already existing hole made for venting the space. I think the answer I am going to try is installing a condensate pump as it costs less than the concrete core drill bit and saves me from drilling through the concrete wall. [link] [comments] |
| two options to fix concrete foundation cracks with moisture Posted: 08 Jan 2021 09:55 PM PST Looking for advice on fixing two vertical cracks in the foundation wall in my crawl space. The house is 10 years old and we're hoping to move in the next couple of months. First quote is from Canadian Foundation Repair for $1100 with a 20 year warranty. No formal quote. Cookie cutter website and a hotmail address. Website is: https://waterproofingvictoria.ca/ To do both it will be roughly $1100 plus tax. Comes with a 20 year transferable warranty. We have some time next week to complete the repair. Second quote from Rigid Concrete is $1300 with five year warranty but with a much more detailed work detail. Website is: https://rigidconcrete.ca/ [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 08 Jan 2021 09:51 PM PST How much electricity does a home use when it's on 'idle' ? for context We recently got solar so I've been looking at the energy ready app often. It's seems as though from 12am to 12 pm , We use 8kwh of power which is slightly less than we use in one day ~18 kwh . In that the only stuff that's on is a fridge , tv on standby ,4 dusk to dawn led bulbs , a dyson fan , modem/ router, ring alarm and some smart switches ... Is the usage normal/online . I'm having a hard time figuring out if it's normal or not :) [link] [comments] |
| Overwhelmed by how to go about with building cabinets Posted: 08 Jan 2021 05:56 PM PST So my fiancé and I are doing a complete house renovation and I'm just stumped on what to do about the kitchen cabinets. Full custom is $18,000-$20,000 and gorgeous but way too out of our budget right now. At the same time I don't want some cheap ones from Home Depot that will need constant maintenance and get banged up easily. If someone knows of a place that does a mix of both semi-custom quality cabinets without the top of the line crazy luxury pieces/prices to do cabinet work, I would truly appreciate it. I feel like I don't know enough on where to even begin looking. Thanks so much anyone who can help. I'm ready to tear my hair out at this point. [link] [comments] |
| Chimneys Removed a Year Ago, Now We’re Seeing Water Damage? Posted: 08 Jan 2021 06:30 AM PST Hi all! I had two chimneys removed to the roofline last year. (Nothing was vented through them. Their flashing needed redone, they needed new caps and crowns, and also repointing, so we elected for removal.) Now I'm seeing growing water damage around where the chimneys used to be. The chimneys are "inside" the house, so no exposed brick inside or outside but obviously they're attached to my (entirely) decorative fireplaces that are still present. For that reason I don't tend to suspect it's moisture from exterior absorption. Does this sound as simple as improper shingle installation? Should I have small vents installed? I don't know what to tell a contractor basically, and I prefer not to leave the door wide open like that. House is from 1930 in Pittsburgh, PA. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 08 Jan 2021 07:37 AM PST I think he's going to need to sand down to the bare wood in order to get a lighter stain color after he made an initial mistake. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 08 Jan 2021 05:43 PM PST Hi everyone. Looking to put some color changing LEDs in my bathroom. However I don't have any outlets so I had seen an ceiling exhaust fan that could change to a blue light and play music via Bluetooth. Any idea where I can find this? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 08 Jan 2021 09:04 PM PST |
| Circuit for Gas Tankless water heater Posted: 08 Jan 2021 05:18 PM PST I'm rewiring my project house and read all the necessary code on how to do so. I know all circuits in the house need to be AFCI protected (except for the gas furnace circuit). However, the gas tankless water heater I bought says specifically not to have it AFCI or GFCI protected. I planned to have it in the mechanical room plugged into a duplex receptacle with the water softener. How do I comply with the NEC and the instructions without putting it on a dedicated circuit - it would be a waste since it only draws about 200W and I'm limited on space in my panel. Anybody have ideas or experience with this? Thanks [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 08 Jan 2021 09:03 PM PST Recently bought and installed the Genie 1.25 HP Quiet Belt Drive Garage Door Opener, Item # 1369261 from Costco. Love how it's working with one exception, speed. The door I replaced was two speed, fast up and normal down. I got spoiled. Does anyone know any method to bump up the speed a bit, I don't need orbital velocity, just a bit faster. [link] [comments] |
| Replaced light switch, now light only turns on when both switches are set. Posted: 08 Jan 2021 05:17 PM PST I have a stairwell light that has a switch upstairs and a switch downstairs. Previously the light would turn on When you flipped on either switch. I replaced the one downstairs to match some new paint we just put on and now the light will only come on when both switches are flipped a certain way. I suspect I got the wrong switch. Of note, out of all the switches on that wall this switch was the only one that required three wires. All the other ones were just two wires. Any ideas? [link] [comments] |
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