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Home stuff šŸ” Home Improvement

TOFB said:
I have been working for over a year on making a very poorly built sun room into something respectable. I would prefer having an open porch versus a room at all.
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I'm with you there, I hate seeing porches that have been enclosed.

The people in RT's house before us converted a garage to a play room but did a crap job and the HVAC isn't properly sized to heat/cool the space adequately. They also removed the door between the dining room and garage. The room is awkward and RT said she'd rather have a garage to store things in. Curiously they left the garage door in place, hopefully the tracks are still there under the drywall.
 
imaplanner said:
I meant tier off one of the wires/cables that has a neutral with a new cable. I donā€™t see how that would be a problem as long as its on the same circuit so you arenā€™t adding any load. It can be surprisingly easy, or I should say surprisingly less difficult than you think to run romex type wire/cable between existing receptacles.
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Not sure how he'll do it. I'm having an electrician come out and add a light in one of the soffits that is being repaired since it'll be down already. I'm gonna see how much the neutral line run will cost me while he's there. I'm not expecting it to be that much extra. I'm going to get a quote at the same time for extra kitchen receptacles and something for a garbage disposal too.

kjel said:
I'm with you there, I hate seeing porches that have been enclosed.
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Mine is a screen room. Easily the best option between full enclosure and open. I love it.
 
After years of complaining (by both of us) about our kitchen, my wife has finally decided that she's ready for us to look into new appliances and new flooring.

I think our house was a rental a few owners back (in the 1990s and early '00s) and that was the last time any significant remodeling was done. I'm pretty sure that the owners/landlords used the absolute cheapest materials and appliances all the way around. Our kitchen is very open and large with a lot of cabinet and counter space but the floors are some horrible stone tile that is impossible to keep clean and the appliances are functioning (for the most part) but undersized and things are slowly beginning to fail (they are probably close to 30 years old). However, our cabinetry is slowly falling apart (and my patching skills can only carry us so far), the countertops are some sort of awful thin granite tiles on top of plywood, and the backsplash is hideous. I'm hoping that once we pick out appliances and get quotes on flooring I might be able to convince my wife that now would be the time to bite the bullet and do the counters and cabinets as well.
 
Pro tip: no white tile floors

WSU MUP Student said:
After years of complaining (by both of us) about our kitchen, my wife has finally decided that she's ready for us to look into new appliances and new flooring.

I think our house was a rental a few owners back (in the 1990s and early '00s) and that was the last time any significant remodeling was done. I'm pretty sure that the owners/landlords used the absolute cheapest materials and appliances all the way around. Our kitchen is very open and large with a lot of cabinet and counter space but the floors are some horrible stone tile that is impossible to keep clean and the appliances are functioning (for the most part) but undersized and things are slowly beginning to fail (they are probably close to 30 years old). However, our cabinetry is slowly falling apart (and my patching skills can only carry us so far), the countertops are some sort of awful thin granite tiles on top of plywood, and the backsplash is hideous. I'm hoping that once we pick out appliances and get quotes on flooring I might be able to convince my wife that now would be the time to bite the bullet and do the counters and cabinets as well.
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When I was remodeling my current place (a long-vacant HUD house), I searched high and low for kitchen flooring the color of coffee splashes. Found it: white with light tan.

Look into IKEA cabinets which is what I did for my uppers.
 
Veloise said:
When I was remodeling my current place (a long-vacant HUD house), I searched high and low for kitchen flooring the color of coffee splashes. Found it: white with light tan.

Look into IKEA cabinets which is what I did for my uppers.
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I've been thinking about IKEA as well. I read up on their cabinetry a while back and they have really good reviews. Some friends of ours put in IKEA cabinets at their house a couple of years ago and have been very happy with them. They used IKEA because they were working with a small budget, in a small kitchen, and were willing to do everything themselves. Our kitchen is large and to go with a custom cabinet builder or even something from a kitchen and bath store would probably be exorbitantly expensive - IKEA would probably allow us to do the entire kitchen as long as we keep the same basic layout we currently have.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
I've been thinking about IKEA as well. I read up on their cabinetry a while back and they have really good reviews. Some friends of ours put in IKEA cabinets at their house a couple of years ago and have been very happy with them. They used IKEA because they were working with a small budget, in a small kitchen, and were willing to do everything themselves. Our kitchen is large and to go with a custom cabinet builder or even something from a kitchen and bath store would probably be exorbitantly expensive - IKEA would probably allow us to do the entire kitchen as long as we keep the same basic layout we currently have.
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Or change it. The website has an app that lets you design things virtually.

After my cabinets were all done, I realized how much I missed having a set of deep drawers for my bowls and colanders. Designed up a DIY island on my desktop, drove over and picked up the three-drawer cabinet and open shelving end piece, assembled.
 
Veloise said:
Or change it. The website has an app that lets you design things virtually.

After my cabinets were all done, I realized how much I missed having a set of deep drawers for my bowls and colanders. Designed up a DIY island on my desktop, drove over and picked up the three-drawer cabinet and open shelving end piece, assembled.
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We decided to head over to Ikea yesterday morning for breakfast and to take a closer look at the cabinetry. We loved the breakfast, but after getting up close and personal with the cabinets, we weren't quite as impressed. However, after looking at the prices of all the materials and looking at prices for th countertops, we will definitely keep them in mind for that.

We'd talked very generally about kitchen appliances and or a remodel just a bit in the past and it usually takes us a long time to make any decision to actually do anything but given the fact that my wife suggested we actually start looking at things must mean she is serious about making some changes. She has now set a goal of starting physical work on the kitchen in the fall after school starts back up so that gives us a few months to do the planning. Today she's calling her aunt who works for a lumber wholesaler that also sells cabinetry and stuff like that to get her advice.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
We decided to head over to Ikea yesterday morning for breakfast and to take a closer look at the cabinetry. We loved the breakfast, but after getting up close and personal with the cabinets, we weren't quite as impressed. However, after looking at the prices of all the materials and looking at prices for th countertops, we will definitely keep them in mind for that.
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I think kitchen cabinets are one of those few items where the additional cost for high dollar cabinets is worth it. Mine are all solid wood, hand made locally. Dunno how much they cost but one of the contractors I had in the house knew who made them and commented that they are high quality.

Still waiting on the my building guy to fix the soffits. Weather has delayed them, but at this point I'm not buying that excuse. They were supposed to be at the house at 10 am today, but rain is in the forecast all week so I doubt I'll see any progress.
 
Finally got the tile to do the back splash for my kitchen. I might try to get started with taking down all those 4" tiles this weekend.
 
Met with my former contractor for pricing to paint the interior of RT's house, lay down the new flooring, and take care of some miscellaneous repairs. Waiting on a price but it should be reasonable.

At my house the backyard needs a little TLC, the winter was harsh so some things are looking a little unkempt and raggedy. The common areas need repainting as well but there's no real hurry so I might just do a section at a time on the weekends.
 
My wife and I spent all of Saturday and several hours on Sunday painting our attached garage's interior. It was a big job.

We have an oversized 2-car garage (24'x24') with an 11 foot ceiling. It was about 1,350 sqft of surface area that needed two coats (partly due to the existing finish and we went with Ultra White color).

It was an ordeal, but it looks good now and really freshened it up...but it also reminds me why I very much dislike painting.
 
We've got an oversized garage too (I think it's 20 x 24, but with a loft). Luckily I don't feel the need to spruce it up ;) The family room (formerly the attached garage) is gonna need some attention in the near future I'm afraid. The ceiling lines up with the ceiling in the rest of the house, but it's four steps down so it's got a high ceiling.
 
Finally got the call, contractor will be starting on my house tomorrow at 9 AM. Goodbye refund check, I hardly knew you!
 
Got the kitchen back splash done. Lots of tile removal, dry wall repair and cleaning up afterwards. It sounds like one of the drywall patches didn't hold. I might have to redo that area.
 
Well crap. Looks like I need to have the roof flat portion of the house replaced. Rot has destroyed the roof deck.
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^ That sucks.


I went to the hardware store at lunch to try and find a replacement latch for our chain link fence. Our 2-year-old-daughter has figured out how to open the latch all on her own so I wanted to see if they had a locking version or something a bit more complicated that would work on our gate. No luck. I guess I'll see if I have space to move the existing latch up higher or just start putting an actual lock on it.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
^ That sucks.


I went to the hardware store at lunch to try and find a replacement latch for our chain link fence. Our 2-year-old-daughter has figured out how to open the latch all on her own so I wanted to see if they had a locking version or something a bit more complicated that would work on our gate. No luck. I guess I'll see if I have space to move the existing latch up higher or just start putting an actual lock on it.
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Doohickie said:
Put a carabiner on it.
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That's exactly what I did when I found out our dog figured out how to bump the latch with his nose and escape.
 
Doohickie said:
Put a carabiner on it.
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Perfect!

I knew there had to be a better solution that the ones I was picturing in my head! I didn't want to put in one of those metal rods because I didn't want to drill a hole into the concrete but I wanted something that didn't need a key or combination so my 7-year-old can open it up as she pleases. Currently I have a stick stuck through the hole on the latch where a lock would go but a carabiner will work perfectly!

Thank you!
 
I use them on my privacy fence. I put them on the inside; from the outside it acts just like a padlock, so my yard is secure. If I'm in and out of the yard during work or whatever, I can leave the carabiner off and the latch is good enough to hold the gate closed so the dogs don't get out.
 
Planit said:
That's exactly what I did when I found out our dog figured out how to bump the latch with his nose and escape.
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Years ago when I was but a boy my dog figured out how to do that. We put a stick in it because carabiners weren't a big thing and my dad was cheap. He would pull the stick and run. So we wired it shut. He learned to jump fences. To make it worse, every house in the neighborhood had the chain link flip up latch. So the dog would free all the dogs in the hood and have a good time.
 
dvdneal said:
Years ago when I was but a boy my dog figured out how to do that. We put a stick in it because carabiners weren't a big thing and my dad was cheap. He would pull the stick and run. So we wired it shut. He learned to jump fences. To make it worse, every house in the neighborhood had the chain link flip up latch. So the dog would free all the dogs in the hood and have a good time.
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That's cool if your dog is not a part of it.
 
Roofing guy came out yesterday. I'm just going to have the entire flat roof part replaced rather than try and have them put a band-aid on it. The rubber roof has shrunk over the years and water was getting underneath which caused the rot. Turns out there's no insulation under the flat roof that's over my screen porch, which is a problem because when you walk on it the roof flexes when it's not supposed to. They'll be putting insulation there as well as redoing all the plumbing vents and checking the flashing around my chimney. He's supposed to be getting a quote back within the next few days, but I'm assuming it'll be somewhere around 2,300 to 2,500 which sucks. The flat roof is around 300 square feet. The whole repair was supposed to be just around 1k. Oh well, downside to owning a house I suppose.

He also confirmed my fears that the rest of the roof (shingled) has just 3-5 years remaining before it needs to be replaced too.
 
If I recall from a picture you posted before your roof isn't that steep. You could save a lot of money by doing it yourself. If you don't need jacks and can walk on your roof, replacing shingles really isn't that hard of a job. Also, I'm a firm believer in taking off the shingles before putting on new ones.
 
AG74683 said:
Roofing guy came out yesterday. I'm just going to have the entire flat roof part replaced rather than try and have them put a band-aid on it. The rubber roof has shrunk over the years and water was getting underneath which caused the rot. Turns out there's no insulation under the flat roof that's over my screen porch, which is a problem because when you walk on it the roof flexes when it's not supposed to. They'll be putting insulation there as well as redoing all the plumbing vents and checking the flashing around my chimney. He's supposed to be getting a quote back within the next few days, but I'm assuming it'll be somewhere around 2,300 to 2,500 which sucks. The flat roof is around 300 square feet. The whole repair was supposed to be just around 1k. Oh well, downside to owning a house I suppose.

He also confirmed my fears that the rest of the roof (shingled) has just 3-5 years remaining before it needs to be replaced too.
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When we were house shopping, the first house we offered on had two sections of flat roof, one over a shed and one over a recently added second bathroom. They didn't roof those sections like flat roofs though, they just ran the shingles out from the main part of the house over the flat portions. You could tell it wasn't to code and no permits had been pulled (there were other issues in the house as well to indicate that). We ran away as fast as we could from that house.

I'm not up on all the rules and laws about permitting and occupancy and the like, but I believe that when we lived in Dearborn, MI, the city requires a new Certificate of Occupancy when a property changes hands- a city inspector has to come out and make sure the home is up to code (less any grandfathered items that conform to older code). So they won't make you re-do the plumbing to make it fully conform to current code, but they will require anti-siphon devices on your outdoor spigots. In Ft. Worth I don't think were was any CO involved with the sale of our house. We never saw a city inspector, there was no check to see if the house was fit for occupancy. That was up to us as the home buyers- caveat emptor- which is why a contracted home inspector is so important. Our inspector found the numerous code violations and it was up to us to decide if we wanted to go ahead with the sale (and subsequently occupy the house).
 
MD Planner said:
If I recall from a picture you posted before your roof isn't that steep. You could save a lot of money by doing it yourself. If you don't need jacks and can walk on your roof, replacing shingles really isn't that hard of a job. Also, I'm a firm believer in taking off the shingles before putting on new ones.
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The portion where I need the new roof is actually completely flat. It's over a sun room type thing and a screen porch. No shingles. I've got no clue how to install a flat roof myself (I think this one will be TPO rather than EPDM). I'm also worried about what is happening under the roof deck. I'd rather have the contractor do it than try and DIY this thing to be honest. Just doesn't seem worth the headache.
 
AG74683 said:
The portion where I need the new roof is actually completely flat. It's over a sun room type thing and a screen porch. No shingles. I've got no clue how to install a flat roof myself (I think this one will be TPO rather than EPDM). I'm also worried about what is happening under the roof deck. I'd rather have the contractor do it than try and DIY this thing to be honest. Just doesn't seem worth the headache.
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Plus you can blame the contractor when it leaks and not be mad at yourself.:h:
 
AG74683 said:
The portion where I need the new roof is actually completely flat. It's over a sun room type thing and a screen porch. No shingles. I've got no clue how to install a flat roof myself (I think this one will be TPO rather than EPDM). I'm also worried about what is happening under the roof deck. I'd rather have the contractor do it than try and DIY this thing to be honest. Just doesn't seem worth the headache.
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No, I get it. I would't do that part either. But the shingles themselves in a few years, that's a job you can do.
 
2450 for the roof. I'm impressed with myself that I managed to guess the amount so closely! All told for some soffit repair I'm now in around 3600 haha. Oh well, joys of owning a house.

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Not my house but the other day my daughter and I were playing in the backyard and looking all the way across the yard I could see a shimmering pool of water on the ground on the other side of the fence in the neighbors yard so I went over to check it out and that back corner of our yard was very wet and the neighbor's yard probably had 4" of water standing in the grass. The mulch around some flowers along the fence was keeping it from spilling over too much into our yard. I thought maybe they had a broken sprinkler head or something but nobody was home to alert them to it. By Sunday afternoon they had a pool of water probably 50' x 5' and at least a few inches deep and now it was finally starting to spill out into our driveway. They had just gotten home and I saw the wife outside and she said they too had just noticed it and it wasn't a broken sprinkler - it was some sort of problem with their sump pump so they had called a plumber.

The plumber came out Monday (when I got home Monday evening, the driveway was flooded and now water was just rolling down the street like a river) the wife said the plumber came out and the diagnosis was that somehow the builder had not properly set up their sump pump so the discharge was only going down a few inches into the ground where it was supposed to be a few feet down. We don't have a basement so I've never had to deal with anything like that but that doesn't sound right to me. The house is only a couple years old and I would think that if that were really the problem, this flooding issue would have shown up before? This just seemed like sooooo much water to show up over such a short time.

FWIW, when I got up to go running early this morning there was even more water in my yard now and the driveway had more in it as well. My only real concern (since it's not my house) is that if they don't get it taken care of, that standing water in the grass will be a perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
Not my house but the other day my daughter and I were playing in the backyard and looking all the way across the yard I could see a shimmering pool of water on the ground on the other side of the fence in the neighbors yard so I went over to check it out and that back corner of our yard was very wet and the neighbor's yard probably had 4" of water standing in the grass. The mulch around some flowers along the fence was keeping it from spilling over too much into our yard. I thought maybe they had a broken sprinkler head or something but nobody was home to alert them to it. By Sunday afternoon they had a pool of water probably 50' x 5' and at least a few inches deep and now it was finally starting to spill out into our driveway. They had just gotten home and I saw the wife outside and she said they too had just noticed it and it wasn't a broken sprinkler - it was some sort of problem with their sump pump so they had called a plumber.

The plumber came out Monday (when I got home Monday evening, the driveway was flooded and now water was just rolling down the street like a river) the wife said the plumber came out and the diagnosis was that somehow the builder had not properly set up their sump pump so the discharge was only going down a few inches into the ground where it was supposed to be a few feet down. We don't have a basement so I've never had to deal with anything like that but that doesn't sound right to me. The house is only a couple years old and I would think that if that were really the problem, this flooding issue would have shown up before? This just seemed like sooooo much water to show up over such a short time.

FWIW, when I got up to go running early this morning there was even more water in my yard now and the driveway had more in it as well. My only real concern (since it's not my house) is that if they don't get it taken care of, that standing water in the grass will be a perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes.
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It sounds like some issue with a water line, sprinkler supply, pipe, etc. That's a whole lot of water for a sump pump to put out unless there's a crazy storm or what not.
 
kjel said:
It sounds like some issue with a water line, sprinkler supply, pipe, etc. That's a whole lot of water for a sump pump to put out unless there's a crazy storm or what not.
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That's what I was thinking. As of this morning, the water is still just pouring out of their drain but they now have it temporarily rerouted through their yard so it isn't spilling over onto my driveway or swamping our backyards anymore.
 
^^Someone's going to have a hell of a water bill!

++
I started scraping glazing compound from some of my windows this weekend. A heat gun really helps soften up 50+ year old glazing compound. And because I'm worth it, I also bought a shop vac to make clean up that much easier. And it was easier and faster.

Anything that gets me to drinking a beer on a hot weekend afternoon is good with me.;)
 
My home improvement lately has to do with the garden. I got my wife several plants for Mothers Day and they need to get in the ground. I got some free irises from a neighbor and since they were "raw" (not potted) I prioritized them. They're in; we'll see how they do.

Additionally I got some other plants- roses, sage, verbena- and I want to get them in by the end of the weekend.

In clearing things out for them, I broke off a sprinkler head (where it attaches in the ground, not just replacing the head but some of the pipe as well) so I have a sprinkler guy coming over Friday to fix that. In the garage has a diagram of the sprinkler system with his name written on it so I figured since he put the system in I'd start with him.

Our city has a 2 days per week sprinkler policy; I can water on Thursdays and Sundays. I have the controller set to turn on at 1:30 am and then at 10 pm each of those days so the yard actually gets watered 4 times per week- Wednesday night, Thursday night, Saturday night and Sunday night.


Gardening is a lot more fun that unpacking.
 
Will be going down to RT's house this weekend to finish ripping out the old crappy floors and push the living room furniture into the converted garage (she is planning to turn it back into a garage at some point. I am sure the grass is super long too so I told her to find someone to cut the grass until it's all removed and the yard is xeriscaped.

My own house needs paint in the hallways and main floor. Since my little one will be visiting the DR in August for two weeks I may just do it myself since she'll be out of the way.
 
Awesome. Got the quote back for the contractor to repaint the interior of RTs house, install laminate flooring, and a long list of other repairs. I had budgeted $5,200 and the quote came in at $5,250.
 
I am finally making big strides in my 2 year sunroom project. As usual, no pictures of the before condition.
 
kjel said:
Awesome. Got the quote back for the contractor to repaint the interior of RTs house, install laminate flooring, and a long list of other repairs. I had budgeted $5,200 and the quote came in at $5,250.
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Go with White Tile Flooring. You won't regret it. ;)
 
Richmond Jake said:
Go with White Tile Flooring. You won't regret it. ;)
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As long as I am not the one cleaning it I don't care what color it is :D

We removed the remainder of the crappy flooring yesterday. Naturally it was hot and humid.
 
Roofers are coming out this morning as I understand it. We shall see, rain in the forecast again.

This weekend I plan on running a new outlet in my screen room. It can't be that hard right? :lmao:
 
Richmond Jake said:
Go with White Tile Flooring. You won't regret it. ;)
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:lmao:
In 2014 I bought a HUD house, and since I was already living in a finished-renovating house, I was able to completely fix up the new place.
When looking for kitchen linoleum, something that would go with the white Home Depot lower run and upper IKEA barely off-white cabinets, I kept thinking about the GD white tile floor.
Finally found exactly what I wanted: looks like it has a few coffee splashes on it.
 
The contractor's are going to be at RT's house starting Tuesday or Wednesday for 7 workdays. While a bit sad we don't get to spend Memorial Day down the shore at the house at least the new floors, paint, and repairs will be done in short order. RT just got a fat raise so I think the landscaping will get a little attention.
 
HOA granted me approval to build my deck today... I submitted a building permit application middle of last week and I have yet to hear back. I checked and if it was in my municipality it would have been issued in 3 days or less.

Needless to say there will be no building going on this weekend. I might be able to dig out the footings, but that's it.
 
Well the roof is done and I'm unimpressed. Honestly it looks like a pretty poor job, but I don't know enough about it to be able to tell. The edges are cut fairly ragged and overlap the flashing, there's more than a few bubbles in it and some heavy wrinkles, and it doesn't appear that they fixed the roof deck.
 
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