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Home stuff šŸ” Home Improvement

AG74683 said:
The room has apparently been painted, and I guess I am some sort of wizard at patching walls. I haven't seen it yet but I understand that it is really nice.

A bunch of tiles fell of the wall in the guest bathroom the other night too I guess. I expected it to happen, they've been loose for a long time. I hate them anyway and planned on ripping them all off eventually.
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So it looks like the tile was attached directly to plywood presumably screwed directly to the wall studs. I'm not sure it's exterior grade, but I can't see any signs of mold or anything like that. When I do actually get around to redoing that bathroom I plan to take the plywood out and use concrete board instead.

How hard is a standard bathroom renovation? I need to replace:

Vanity (something smaller, the one in there is too big for such a small bathroom).
Bathtub surround (it's an old vinyl piece of junk. Tub is really nice though, enameled cast iron, I'll probably tile around the tub).
Floor (crappy outdated vinyl junk).
Wallpaper and wall tile (I'll probably either keep the entire thing as painted drywall rather than replace the tile).

I'd rather not hire a contractor and pay the premium to do all of this. It doesn't seem THAT hard, just time consuming.
 
AG74683 said:
It doesn't seem THAT hard, just time consuming.
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You just hit the proverbial nail on the head.

It's really not that hard and you can probably do it with what you have listed. If there was electrical or plumbing involved, that's another story. Remember (as with any project) you'll be making extra runs to Lowes/Home Depot. When I redid my bathroom, the hardest part was getting the tub upstairs.
 
The only difficulty I had in my remodel was the new cabinet was bigger than the old one so I had to shift some plumbing around to make it work.
 
Hubby and I are trying to get the house ready to put on the market. What a nightmare. So many little annoying projects that are turning into bigger projects.
 
dandy_warhol said:
Hubby and I are trying to get the house ready to put on the market. What a nightmare. So many little annoying projects that are turning into bigger projects.
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That was paralyzing for us. Right after we started to tackle the ~$35k of repairs/upgrades we figured we'd need to put the house on the market, we went to an open house and found some realtors who "know people" who like to buy houses "in the raw"- rental companies, flippers and the like, and ended up getting an offer of market value minus $35k. We were able to get the money out of the old house without doing the work which was awesome.
 
Pro tip - when pulling a nail out of a wall (that was inserted into a stud behind the drywall), do not stand directly in front of it in case it suddenly releases and the hammer you're using flies back into you forehead. Concussions suck.

dandy_warhol said:
Hubby and I are trying to get the house ready to put on the market. What a nightmare. So many little annoying projects that are turning into bigger projects.
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My sister and I are putting our late parents' house (our childhood home) on the market "as is" - all we're having done is cutting back some shrubs and pressure washing.
 
Bubba said:
My sister and I are putting our late parents' house (our childhood home) on the market "as is" - all we're having done is cutting back some shrubs and pressure washing.
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Did you talk to the realtor about how best to showcase the house?

The house we bought last year was in the same boat: same family owned it since 1962, finally convinced the dad to move into assisted living (mom was already in Alzheimer care). So now they're back together and she can get the treatment she needs. Anyway, the kids had a realtor come in. They painted the outside, removed carpets and refinished the hardwood floors. Then they had the house cleaned, top to bottom.

We could see things that needed to be done but the house looked really nice. I'm sure they basically just did what the realtor advised them to do.
 
Doohickie said:
Did you talk to the realtor about how best to showcase the house?
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The two items I mentioned were the only two firm suggestions she had. Overall the house and its systems are in great shape, and we're having it cleaned on a regular basis...it'll be a great deal for someone looking for a 3 br/2 ba house with a kitchen they can update.
 
It is now day eight since the contractor has been here or contacted use regarding the repairs to the exterior of our home. :cursing:
 
Yeah, I've found that home contractors are often like that. They overbook some, then try to squeeze everything in to ensure they're working. If you expected contact in the next couple of days and he's blowing you off, my guess is that bigger jobs are pushing yours out. Might be worth it to talk to other contractors.
 
An example of extreme home improvement in a hot neighhborhood in a hotter lifestyle city. This is the very first house I ever owned. It had 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, a 1 car garage, and around 850-875 ft2 of living area. Today, it has 5 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, a 2 car garage, and about 2,600 ft2 of living area.

Holy shit.

I spent months stripping paint off the woodwork. Looks like they painted it over. I should post some "before" pictures, when I sold the place.

At least the place is still standing. The surrounding neighborhood is teardown central.
 
What it looked like when we bought it in 2017

Before Trees.jpg



After 13 trees were removed (mostly black locusts) and a new roof and door...

After Trees.jpg


New landscaping and hardscaping completed this past week....

New Landscaping.jpg
 
^^^

The driveway will be paved sometime in the next 6 weeks.

More plants were added this weekend and we replanted about 100 daffodils that were removed from the far property line. We reduced the front lawn by a third and now have new and enlarged planting beds with 90% of the new plants being native perennials. The new tree in the middle of the yard is an Eastern redbud tree.

As soon as I get a nice weather weekend, I will be painting the front door and the trim around the boxed out windows.
 
kjel said:
^^^

The driveway will be paved sometime in the next 6 weeks.

More plants were added this weekend and we replanted about 100 daffodils that were removed from the far property line. We reduced the front lawn by a third and now have new and enlarged planting beds with 90% of the new plants being native perennials. The new tree in the middle of the yard is an Eastern redbud tree.

As soon as I get a nice weather weekend, I will be painting the front door and the trim around the boxed out windows.
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How many square feet is that home?
 
My 1940's home with all original plumbing and fixtures is having an increasingly hard time operating (constant sink and drain clogging). Plumbers have mentioned that the lines are heavily calcified and probably are getting close to needing replacement. We had already been talking about finally replacing all of the ungrounded braided electrical wire in the house.

We're at the point where we're trying to figure out if we continue to repair as we go or just gut the house and do the remodel we like. I'd like to remodel, but my bank account disagrees. I've told my wife, we need to watch the market and see how construction prices go this summer.
 
I wouldn't touch electrical work like that but if you're handy at all you can do the plumbing. I basically replumbed my 3,400 sq. ft. Colonial Revival 20 years ago and it not as bad as I thought it might be. Don't get me wrong, it was time consuming and difficult spaces at times but I got it done. Plus there are newer products now that make some of the connections much easier.
 
bureaucrat#3 said:
My 1940's home with all original plumbing and fixtures is having an increasingly hard time operating (constant sink and drain clogging). Plumbers have mentioned that the lines are heavily calcified and probably are getting close to needing replacement. We had already been talking about finally replacing all of the ungrounded braided electrical wire in the house.

We're at the point where we're trying to figure out if we continue to repair as we go or just gut the house and do the remodel we like. I'd like to remodel, but my bank account disagrees. I've told my wife, we need to watch the market and see how construction prices go this summer.
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Yeah, our 1956 has plugged a coupla times. Quick enough for a plumber to unclog but at some point we're going to have to get new drain pipes.
MD Planner said:
if you're handy at all you can do the plumbing.
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Oh hell no. We're on a crawl space. My claustrophobia would go into overdrive under there.
 
Doohickie said:
Yeah, our 1956 has plugged a coupla times. Quick enough for a plumber to unclog but at some point we're going to have to get new drain pipes.

Oh hell no. We're on a crawl space. My claustrophobia would go into overdrive under there.
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And all the creepy crawlies down there!
 
bureaucrat#3 said:
My 1940's home with all original plumbing and fixtures is having an increasingly hard time operating (constant sink and drain clogging). Plumbers have mentioned that the lines are heavily calcified and probably are getting close to needing replacement. We had already been talking about finally replacing all of the ungrounded braided electrical wire in the house.

We're at the point where we're trying to figure out if we continue to repair as we go or just gut the house and do the remodel we like. I'd like to remodel, but my bank account disagrees. I've told my wife, we need to watch the market and see how construction prices go this summer.
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Might be worth having drain system scoped. May need that all the way to street. May be practical/feasible to step it into outside first then inside. Supply lines if steel can skinny down to very low flow, and of course mains may be subject to lead depending.
 
I replaced my kitchen faucet (4 hole) this weekend. Not an especially hard job, aside from fitting a creaky old 62 year dad bod into a confined space. Pleased with the results.
 
I removed part of a wall for our ongoing kitchen remodel project. Ran into some electrical issues. Because. Of. Course. why you would place the switches on the interior wall instead of the outside wall (that is literally 8 inches away) makes no sense to me. Will be a royal pita to move them onto exterior wall involving multiple holes in the drywall, as they cannot be fished from inside the attic. Additionally, my house is full of 14/3 romex. Was there some sort of wire shortage in the late 60's? I sort of get the idea, but it seems like it causes more problems than it solves. Additionally, I have come to REALLY HATE blown in cellulose insulation on top of fiberglass. What a mess.
 
Since we were waiting for the moving truck anyway, we thought it would be a smart idea to investigate the kids'/ guest bathroom -- which had 1940s pinkish brown tiles underneath what we realized was basically a shower-stall-sticker (plastic shower panels attached with super strong double stick tape!). I was hoping the crappy sticker was somehow done for aesthetic reasons as we couldn't feel a hole behind it. Sadly, it was not for aesthetic reasons and there are some missing tiles on the long wall of the shower.

Yeah, that probably wasn't the best plan to uncover that this week...
 
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So over the weekend, we pulled out the soffit above the old cabinets and found a bit of wiring that will have to be rerouted (no bigs, was going to rework kitchen circuits anyway) and the kitchen sink vent runs through the soffit, because of course it does. So I will have to do a bit more plumbing, although it won't be bad. After we got most of the drywall down in the kitchen I found a few more distressing electrical issues. Abandoned circuits that just had some electrical tape on the end of the bare wire ends and left in the wall. I mean, come on. Could have at least screwed a wire nut onto the end first.

I'm really glad we went 39" cabinets with 3" crown molding at the top instead of 42" cabinets. Otherwise the sink vent reroute would be a major pita.
 
Having been in the new house 8 weeks now I'm really happy with a few decisions that were made that I know some people don't like but I think they're working out great. These are probably unpopular takes for some but this is what I did:

1. Really nice walk in shower but just using a curtain. I think having glass is just a huge PITA to clean plus it just always feels weird to be on display, if you're alone in the bathroom or not.
2. Put the shower controls on the opposite wall as the shower head. That way you never have water drip on your arm when you're turning it on.


Like it or not? Discuss :D
 
MD Planner said:
2. Put the shower controls on the opposite wall as the shower head. That way you never have water drip on your arm when you're turning it on.
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This would be good for my kid. Our water takes a bit to heat up and she almost always winds up with the water too hot. I then hear screams from the bathroom as she's in opposite corner trying to not get hit by either too hot or cold water but can't reach the controls. She's old enough where the life lesson of checking temp with old plumbing will start to sink in soon, but not there yet.
 
Doohickie said:
I took the whole week off. I spent today scraping popcorn off the ceiling.

View attachment 63737
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This turned into a job.

I got all the popcorn off. We had faux beams on the ceiling, decided to take those down too. They're basically a 2x4 attached to the ceiling with a box made out of 1x6s built around each one. And dozens, maybe hundreds, of nails in each beam. They're built like structural framing instead of just a decoration that simply has to hold up its own weight.

There are a few spots that have old water damage, particularly near the fireplace. The right thing to do is to replace those with new gypsum board, but I don't want to do the right thing. So in stripping the popcorn it pulled off the facing paper in a few spots and I simply covered it up with joint compound. First layer is on, looks pretty good. Need to add more joint compound to fill in some divots and then sand it to something approaching smooth. Then I'll cover with some Kilz and paint. I had a similar situation in the front living room (though not as extensive) and the stains were covered up fine and after a couple years haven't bled through.

If the stains bleed through in the family room, then I'll go through the trouble of replacing the affected gypsum board. But on a 9.5 foot ceiling I'd hire that out.

Once the ceiling is done, then I need to pull the paneling off the walls and repair the gypsum board as needed, plus update the electrical in the room which is not up to standard. Then paint the walls. Then tear up the worn Berber carpet and put new flooring down.... THEN I can do the original project that started all this- putting in some IKEA cabinets and shelves to give my wife more room for her cooking crap.
 
I'm replacing the tile floor in my primary en-suite. I took up the old tile that I couldn't find replacements for, and the mud floor underneath. When I put down 1/4" cement board for new tile base, I somehow now have two ridges in the floor. They aren't significant enough to use floor leveler, but I can't think of what I can otherwise do to get back to a level floor. When I dry-fit the tile, the ridges were noticeable ...

I haven't done any more work in there for a while because I'm stumped. I'd prefer not to tear it all out to start over, obviously ...
 
Had to replace a shower a few years ago and the footprint of the old shower did not match the footprint of the new shower. I had 2+ 12" tiles I needed but only had one remaining from the initial tile install. Looked around everywhere for matching tile and came across a few at a thrift store that were close but not quite a full 12". No worries, the area in need was between the shower and toilet so not very visible. Chipped out the partial old tile and happend to break another so off I go to find a match. Lowe's came close but had to do. First time doing tile. No the greatest job but again, where located it will not be noticed. The Mrs. wants to redo the bathroom anyway which is the the main floor bathroom.
 
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Gedunker said:
I'm replacing the tile floor in my primary en-suite. I took up the old tile that I couldn't find replacements for, and the mud floor underneath. When I put down 1/4" cement board for new tile base, I somehow now have two ridges in the floor. They aren't significant enough to use floor leveler, but I can't think of what I can otherwise do to get back to a level floor. When I dry-fit the tile, the ridges were noticeable ...

I haven't done any more work in there for a while because I'm stumped. I'd prefer not to tear it all out to start over, obviously ...
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Sand the ridges down on the cement board.


On my family room/mancave re-do, I've started looking at lighting and furniture/shelving. I'll be spending some money at Lowe's and IKEA. The whole point of the re-do is to put in some IKEA cabinets for my wife's kitchen overflow anyway.
 
Gedunker said:
I'm replacing the tile floor in my primary en-suite. I took up the old tile that I couldn't find replacements for, and the mud floor underneath. When I put down 1/4" cement board for new tile base, I somehow now have two ridges in the floor. They aren't significant enough to use floor leveler, but I can't think of what I can otherwise do to get back to a level floor. When I dry-fit the tile, the ridges were noticeable ...

I haven't done any more work in there for a while because I'm stumped. I'd prefer not to tear it all out to start over, obviously ...
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Are you using Hardibacker cement board? You might be able to sand out the ridges with a belt sander and or a angle grinder with a cement grinding cup. It'll be dusty and you certainly won't want to breathe that dust.
 
We moved into our place about 3 weeks ago.

So far I have done the following:
  • Removed the TV bracket from the master bedroom and patched the holes (We don't do TV's in bedrooms)
  • Raised the TV bracket in the family room to accommodate the new TV.
  • Replaced the 25+ year old leaking pool pump with a newer variable speed pump and cleaned up the plumbing mess from when they removed the water heater
  • Installed 2 smart thermostats.
  • Changed out several dimmer switches (caused the LED lights to flicker)
  • Re-routed coax cable for internet connection (It was in our kid's bedroom)
  • Mounted lower profile TV antenna on side of house.
  • Installed Security System with cameras.

This weekend:
  • Replace the valve cartage in the kids shower
  • Tac the coax cable for the antenna
  • Purchase MDF for shelving units (Lower cabinets ordered and will be here on the 20th) for the library/study
 
Just had a plumber (my usual contractor) come and set a toilet for me. I purchased the toilet and he took care of the rest. I was thinking $200. $444! He did camera the line without charge and fixed the burping sound from the sink when you flushed the old. But still...$444! I don't know how much science goes into a toilet set but next time, I will certainly look into that option.
 
SlaveToTheGrind said:
Just had a plumber (my usual contractor) come and set a toilet for me. I purchased the toilet and he took care of the rest. I was thinking $200. $444! He did camera the line without charge and fixed the burping sound from the sink when you flushed the old. But still...$444! I don't know how much science goes into a toilet set but next time, I will certainly look into that option.
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Toilets are made of china. Usually only interior devices need replacement unless wax ring at floor flange has failed. I set both mine, one in master suite addition 28 yrs ago. The other 15 yrs ago when I tiled the bath floor and discovered a hairline bowl crack that cannot be repaired. Otherwise labor and parts cost lots more these days.
 
SlaveToTheGrind said:
Just had a plumber (my usual contractor) come and set a toilet for me. I purchased the toilet and he took care of the rest. I was thinking $200. $444! He did camera the line without charge and fixed the burping sound from the sink when you flushed the old. But still...$444! I don't know how much science goes into a toilet set but next time, I will certainly look into that option.
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There is all sorts of debate on stuff like this. I have set probably a dozen toilets in my time. They are not hard to do. The biggest thing is to make sure that it is seated level and don't over-tighten the closet bolts because the China will crack.





Over the weekend, I did a couple of little things to our house. While there are a bunch of little things that need repairs, my biggest beef with my house is that it was built in the late 90's. Craftsmanship was not at an all time high at that time. Our bathroom is super cold because part of is in the overhang for our back porch and they likely didn't do that great of a job insulating it. The other is the windows suck. It would be better to pull them out and rebuild them. There are other parts like the door casings that are your typical builder-grade materials and such. My goal is to replace some of the millwork to give it a bit of character.
 
Doohickie said:
Once the ceiling is done, then I need to pull the paneling off the walls and repair the gypsum board as needed, plus update the electrical in the room which is not up to standard.
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Well the ceiling isn't done. I decided to see what was behind the paneling and.... hoo boy. I think a previous owner put up the paneling to hide the water damaged drywall. Oddly, I was able to get all the damaged drywall under the windows replaced by one single 4x8 piece of drywall. I expected the studs to be water damaged too but they weren't bad at all; didn't have to replace any studs.

It was a messy process; the walls were insulated with loose fill fiberglass. Some of it actually stayed in place so I just left it. Where it didn't I replaced it with roll insulation. Of course the studs in the wall follow no predictable pattern. They were spaced anywhere from 14 to 22 inches and every one was different (I think whoever did this just eyeballed the spacing). What the actual hell? So I had to put a roll of fiberglass for 16 inch spacing, then cut a long strip several inches wide to cover the rest of the space. Very bizarre.

When I got the rest of the house rewired I asked them to give me two good plugs in the family room as if it were a garage (I paid per square foot of house and was trying to keep the cost down). They gave me a good plug on either side of the door coming into the room, then connected the old (non-grounded) wiring to it for the rest of the plugs. I've pulled out all the non-code wiring and I'm running it properly... or closer to properly anyway. (Not doing anything purposefully wrong but I'm a DIYer, not a contractor.)

So the section of the room under the windows is done except for mudding and taping the drywall (I'll save that for last after I'm sure all the electrical is good).

Next weekend I guess, I'll replace the water damaged drywall above the windows and run the wiring for the light fixture. When we bought the house the were two 4-foot fluorescent fixtures with a valance in front of them which gave nice indirect light. Of course the wiring for them wasn't to code; in fact they used lamp cord. Scary. I'm replacing it with a track light fixture to get the indirect effect. Once I get all the wiring in, then I'll run the wire over to the "good plug" the electricians put in, verify everything works, then tape the drywall repairs, and get back to the ceiling.

When all this stuff is done, then I'll put the IKEA cabinets in that my wife wants to have extra storage for her cooking junk. I would have done this work eventually anyway, but her desire for extra storage space is what kicked it all off.
 
Doohickie said:
Well the ceiling isn't done. I decided to see what was behind the paneling and.... hoo boy. I think a previous owner put up the paneling to hide the water damaged drywall. Oddly, I was able to get all the damaged drywall under the windows replaced by one single 4x8 piece of drywall. I expected the studs to be water damaged too but they weren't bad at all; didn't have to replace any studs.

It was a messy process; the walls were insulated with loose fill fiberglass. Some of it actually stayed in place so I just left it. Where it didn't I replaced it with roll insulation. Of course the studs in the wall follow no predictable pattern. They were spaced anywhere from 14 to 22 inches and every one was different (I think whoever did this just eyeballed the spacing). What the actual hell? So I had to put a roll of fiberglass for 16 inch spacing, then cut a long strip several inches wide to cover the rest of the space. Very bizarre.

When I got the rest of the house rewired I asked them to give me two good plugs in the family room as if it were a garage (I paid per square foot of house and was trying to keep the cost down). They gave me a good plug on either side of the door coming into the room, then connected the old (non-grounded) wiring to it for the rest of the plugs. I've pulled out all the non-code wiring and I'm running it properly... or closer to properly anyway. (Not doing anything purposefully wrong but I'm a DIYer, not a contractor.)

So the section of the room under the windows is done except for mudding and taping the drywall (I'll save that for last after I'm sure all the electrical is good).

Next weekend I guess, I'll replace the water damaged drywall above the windows and run the wiring for the light fixture. When we bought the house the were two 4-foot fluorescent fixtures with a valance in front of them which gave nice indirect light. Of course the wiring for them wasn't to code; in fact they used lamp cord. Scary. I'm replacing it with a track light fixture to get the indirect effect. Once I get all the wiring in, then I'll run the wire over to the "good plug" the electricians put in, verify everything works, then tape the drywall repairs, and get back to the ceiling.

When all this stuff is done, then I'll put the IKEA cabinets in that my wife wants to have extra storage for her cooking junk. I would have done this work eventually anyway, but her desire for extra storage space is what kicked it all off.
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Codes are good for regulating ho-hum contractors and/or nutty home improvers. Hope no AL branch circuits.
 
fringe said:
Codes are good for regulating ho-hum contractors and/or nutty home improvers. Hope no AL branch circuits.
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We had one AL circuit coming out of the breaker box at home inspection which was an electric stove. We have a gas stove so it was not in use. We got a new breaker box and the AL is no longer connected/used.

It's obvious now the room was wired by an amateur and one with no concept of codes. I'm an amateur too but at least I've seen wiring done right (and to modern standards).
 
Doohickie said:
We had one AL circuit coming out of the breaker box at home inspection which was an electric stove. We have a gas stove so it was not in use. We got a new breaker box and the AL is no longer connected/used.

It's obvious now the room was wired by an amateur and one with no concept of codes. I'm an amateur too but at least I've seen wiring done right (and to modern standards).
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Single strand AL are the only ones outlawed. Big enough for a stove was likely multi, like a 8 or 10 gauge.

Nowadays we all get free lessons on you tube.
 
Doohickie said:
So the section of the room under the windows is done except for mudding and taping the drywall (I'll save that for last after I'm sure all the electrical is good).
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Got the section above the windows done this weekend including the wiring to the light over the windows. There's one more "biggish" section I want to replace drywall on, but no electrical there.

The last bit on this section will be removing enough of the drywall to run the new wiring over to the existing "good" plug, then verifying all the wiring is good and finish the wall and the ceiling on that side of the room.

Doing a bit every weekend... I'll get there eventually.
 
I've changed my tactics a bit. After reading the r/drywall subreddit, it seems like the popular wisdom is to avoid doing several small patches when you can put up a full sheet. The end result is not having to tape a bunch of little seams of odd shapes and sizes.

For instance my plan for the part to connect the wiring on the wall where I replaced most of the drywall was to do a "belt" a fraction of the way up on the adjacent wall (the plugs are about 2 feet off the ground). Instead I went all the way down to the base of the wall, saving that length of tape job for a slightly longer vertical seam (so less net seams to tape).

The electrical is all connected. My new lights look pretty nice. Now I need to finish the adjacent ceiling area (not replacing drywall, just redoing the surface.... if it doesn't pan out then I'll look at other options like hiring someone to replace one or two sheets in that corner, possibly redoing the whole thing with 1/4" drywall, or maybe hanging a false ceiling of some sort.

Once this iteration of the ceiling is done, then I'll tape and mud what I've done thus far on the walls and go from there.
 
Got some good work done on the ceiling. Primed the rough area with Zinsser B-I-N shellac based sealing primer. Awkward to work with since it's much thinner than latex paint, but the result looks pretty good. Used joint compound to fix a couple of cracks and skim coat the area. Sanded it a bit and need to fill the low spots some more. It's starting to look pretty good. A bit more skim coat to the uneven areas and it will be time to prime (probably another coat of B-I-N followed by a coat of KILZ water based) and paint. It seems like the B-I-N provides a pretty durable surface. Since it's kind of a glossy finish though I want to put a coat of flat on it before the ceiling white.
 
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