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Home stuff šŸ” Home improvements

Well, I finally did it.

I ordered 6 yards of mulch to be delivered to my house tomorrow, even though I've been vocal about my dislike of the Mulch-Industrial complex.

Alas, we honestly did need it this year.
 
So we tore out a section of dilapidated privacy fence enclosing a 16' x 24' portion of the side yard. We're going to replace the fence with essentially the same but what to do with the side yard?

Currently, it's home to weeds and a firewood rack. Junior is advocating for an additional parking space (turns 16 this year), but given that his remaining years living here can probably be counted on the fingers of one hand, I'm thinking something else.

Additional garden area? Possible. but one drawback is the area barely gets 5-6 hours of sunlight per day. Sure, certain shade-tolerant plants could be grown there but quite honestly, I've already got sufficient area already dedicated to gardens.

A BEER GARDEN! Now we're talking. I could bring in a few yards of crushed stone to cover the area. Put in some lawn furniture like chairs, patio table with umbrella, and maybe an inexpensive fountain from the local garden center. Hmmm....maybe I could put my grill out there too. We could grill bratwurst, sit in the shade drinking beer, and read Kant. This idea has potential.
 
Maister said:
This idea has potential.
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Sounds cool, but be sure to run this conceptual idea past your local zoning enforcement guy.

You don't want to get an easily avoidable violation notice for something you didn't know you didn't know.
 
mendelman said:
Sounds cool, but be sure to run this conceptual idea past your local zoning enforcement guy.

You don't want to get an easily avoidable violation notice for something you didn't know you didn't know.
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The guy's a complete tool from what I hear. I'll work at night and on weekends and he'll never know or find out.
 
Maister said:
So we tore out a section of dilapidated privacy fence enclosing a 16' x 24' portion of the side yard. We're going to replace the fence with essentially the same but what to do with the side yard?

Currently, it's home to weeds and a firewood rack. Junior is advocating for an additional parking space (turns 16 this year), but given that his remaining years living here can probably be counted on the fingers of one hand, I'm thinking something else.

Additional garden area? Possible. but one drawback is the area barely gets 5-6 hours of sunlight per day. Sure, certain shade-tolerant plants could be grown there but quite honestly, I've already got sufficient area already dedicated to gardens.

A BEER GARDEN! Now we're talking. I could bring in a few yards of crushed stone to cover the area. Put in some lawn furniture like chairs, patio table with umbrella, and maybe an inexpensive fountain from the local garden center. Hmmm....maybe I could put my grill out there too. We could grill bratwurst, sit in the shade drinking beer, and read Kant. This idea has potential.
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Invite me over for the grand opening. I'll bring some fine Fort Worth beer.
 
Yesterday evening I noticed the furnace not igniting so I had somebody out to look at it this morning. It appears that my 35-year-old furnace, which was already a bit too small for our house, is on its last legs. We had to have the pressure switch adjusted each winter over the past couple of years and then today the blower motor wasn't working properly and the gas valve is shot. He was able to get it fired up by literally pounding on the valve but I guess it's time to finally replace it all and do the AC unit (that was installed in 1981) at the same time.

Oh well, they've had a good run! At least whatever we replace them with is bound to be much more efficient.
 
I guess I'm really shelling out the money - the HVAC folks just called to get a few specifics about where things are located so they can pull a permit for the work.

On the plus side, looking at some efficiency data, we should end up saving about 40% on our electric bill and 20% (a conservative estimate) on our gas bill month to month, and that's without even getting an actual "high efficiency" unit.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
I guess I'm really shelling out the money - the HVAC folks just called to get a few specifics about where things are located so they can pull a permit for the work.

On the plus side, looking at some efficiency data, we should end up saving about 40% on our electric bill and 20% (a conservative estimate) on our gas bill month to month, and that's without even getting an actual "high efficiency" unit.
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Your state or utility company also likely has rebates.

My 1650 SF rehabbed 3 story rowhome (ca. 1892) is more energy efficient than the 1983 beach house which installed central A/C in 1992 and is on it's last legs. We're going to move the furnace out of the crawl space under the house to the garage as well.
 
kjel said:
Your state or utility company also likely has rebates.
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I'll have to look into that...


They got to work on it yesterday but there were some problems with the measurements of the existing ductwork that the guy who gave us the quote took. So when the install tech got to work, the case and stuff he brought with him didn't fit (it was a tight squeeze in the corner of the garage where the furnace was to begin with) so they had to build out a new case and use a differently shaped coil. In the end, they weren't able to finish it up yesterday so we had no heat overnight. Of course it also dropped back down into the 30s last night! Oh well, I prefer the house to be cold overnight and we turned on the gas fireplaces this morning so it's really not too bad (it was down to 58Āŗ in the house when I left this morning, that was before my wife turned on the fireplaces).

Interestingly, when the guy moved the old furnace out we found that the chimney that's behind it (where the furnace now vets through) was actually for an incinerator. I couldn't see the door to it before and I figured there was a wood burning fireplace on the other side in the dining room at one point.

The tech says it's still pretty common to find them in houses a bit older than ours but he doesn't see them too much anymore in houses from about '55 or later (ours was built in '56). I wonder how many other houses in our neighborhood had them or if anybody still actually uses theirs?
 
Landscape replacement estimate approved. Now to wait to get shrubs.

Lots of landscapes need work after the Feb ice storm killed off non-native shrubs, plants, and trees. I'm also paying to have my ornamental trees trimmed back because their outer surface area died.

I'm paying him to do my spring flower planting this year, as well as the heavy lifting replacing the shrubs. His crew can get it all done in one day, while it would take me two weekends just to do the flowers.
 
To be honest, just about EVERYTHING in my yard is growing very well in the aftermath of the Texas freeze. The only thing in doubt was my live oak tree but it finally started sprouting a couple weeks ago.
 
Salmissra said:
Landscape replacement estimate approved. Now to wait to get shrubs.

Lots of landscapes need work after the Feb ice storm killed off non-native shrubs, plants, and trees. I'm also paying to have my ornamental trees trimmed back because their outer surface area died.

I'm paying him to do my spring flower planting this year, as well as the heavy lifting replacing the shrubs. His crew can get it all done in one day, while it would take me two weekends just to do the flowers.
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Sometimes that's money well spent. My husband was asking why I just don't buy a lawnmower and he can mow the lawn at the beach house. Me: because lawnmowers are expensive, we don't have a convenient place to store it, he half assess most home improvement/maintenance things, I have other things that I want to do on weekends, and the lawn care company comes with their big machines and in 30 minutes they mow, edge, and blow the whole yard. They came yesterday when he was home and he was like...yeah it'd take me 3x as long to do that you'd complain anyways.

We have a lot of landscaping we'd like to do after removing 17 trees in the past 2 years, but we also are having a new roof and siding installed as soon as we close on the refinance and also want to install 6 foot tall fencing to replace the 4' chain link that's in rough shape. I'd rather wait til all that's done to figure out the landscaping.
 
Doohickie said:
To be honest, just about EVERYTHING in my yard is growing very well in the aftermath of the Texas freeze. The only thing in doubt was my live oak tree but it finally started sprouting a couple weeks ago.
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My potted rosemary cones, dwarf nandinas, and potted wild garlic all bit the dust. My pansies not only survived, but are still thriving in the pots! The boxwoods and ligustrums need trimming but are alive. Random other individual shrubs are toast, but others are fine.

This guy will also trim the trees in the back, which survived just fine but needed trimming before the storm. We discovered that the small rosebush in the back (strange location but it's growing) seemed to like the cold - it's grown and bloomed a ton since the storm.
 
Yeah, roses are going crazy around here.

I have two hands and forearms that are all scratched up. For Mothers Day I weeded my wife's garden.

I laid down a weed barrier before mulching so hopefully it won't be as hard next time. The previous homeowner had a lot of ivy in this area which just climbs over everything. The only want to get it out is to reach into the rosebushes and pull the ivy vines out.

 
Had 15 yards of mulch delivered last Friday and spread about half of it on Mother's Day. I have a tractor with a loader, so that makes it go much quicker than if I had to load and wheelbarrow it everywhere. It's looking like 15 will be enough.

A couple of months ago, I replaced the water heater and installed a tankless and replumbed the basement, replacing all the old galvanized pipe with pex. There is still 1/2' galvanized in the walls to the fixtures, but all the rest is pex. While I was at it, I put in a laundry sink in the basement. I used a laundry/bar sink lift pump as the outlet to my septic in the lower basement is 3' up the wall (tri-level). All in all it was a nice project, pex is easy to work with.

One little thing that I did was put in hot and cold water to the outside hose bib, so that when we put in the hot tub eventually, I can fill it with hot soft water, as heating the water with gas is MUCH cheaper than the electric heater in the tub.

The water heater replacement was driven by needing to clear space for a new electric panel (current one is in our bedroom in the upper basement). An electrician is coming in a couple of weeks to install the new panel and service, then com ed will energize it and electrician can tie the new panel circuits into the existing circuits at the current panel and close it up. The existing panel will become a big junction box and I will have a new 200 amp service in a much more accessible location. I am planning to run 60 amps or so out to my pole barn to run a big air compressor and a welder. I will do that stuff myself though.

We will be doing a kitchen remodel later this year, which is what is driving all of these changes and improvements.
 
I had let a vine the previous owner planted (not English Ivy) take over a work area near where I store my trash cans. This weekend it was time to pay the piper and pull that up. I got about 80% of it before it kicked my butt. I hope to get the rest of it this weekend. Unless I stay after it for the rest of this year and perhaps early next, it'll come back. Let's just say I'm not a fan of any vines.
 
New garage man-door. New laundry room floor. Parkstrip overtaken by orchard grass (cannot be killed by conventional weapons - much like Keith Richards) so the grass is coming out via a sod cutter and will completely kill what is left and replant in the fall.
 
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estromberg said:
Had 15 yards of mulch delivered last Friday...
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Holy shnikes!

I had 6 yards delivered at the beginning of April and that was more than sufficient for the targeted areas of my 17,000 sqft yard.

250% more is nuts. A tractor is absolutely necessary, for realz. :cool:
 
estromberg said:
I have about 90k sq ft of yard.
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That's not a 'yard', that's acreage.
If you took half your property and created a one acre garden, you could plant ginseng. One acre's harvest of ginseng goes for around $50,000.
 
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Gedunker said:
I had let a vine the previous owner planted (not English Ivy) take over a work area near where I store my trash cans. This weekend it was time to pay the piper and pull that up. I got about 80% of it before it kicked my butt. I hope to get the rest of it this weekend. Unless I stay after it for the rest of this year and perhaps early next, it'll come back. Let's just say I'm not a fan of any vines.
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I have a large yard (60,000 sf) with an older home. It was a very nice home with great landscaping when it was built in the 40's and for many years. We bought it from an older couple wanting to downsize who bought it from a family that owned it for 40 plus years until the wife died in her mid-80s. I think the size of the house and yard got to be too much for both and while yard work was hired out, I think they didn't spend much time on the non-grassed areas.

I'm now trying to battle huge swaths of English Ivy that were planted all over the yard but got out of control. It's taken over and is climbing up trees over fences. Mixed in with that is a few strands of kudzu, carolina jasmine, a lot of poison ivy, and honeysuckle. I'd like to just spray everything and watch it die, but I've got a creek in the back, so that's a no-go. So right now it just a bunch of mechanical removal, solarization with tarps and trying to figure out what to replant.
 
bureaucrat#3 said:
I have a large yard (60,000 sf) with an older home. It was a very nice home with great landscaping when it was built in the 40's and for many years. We bought it from an older couple wanting to downsize who bought it from a family that owned it for 40 plus years until the wife died in her mid-80s. I think the size of the house and yard got to be too much for both and while yard work was hired out, I think they didn't spend much time on the non-grassed areas.

I'm now trying to battle huge swaths of English Ivy that were planted all over the yard but got out of control. It's taken over and is climbing up trees over fences. Mixed in with that is a few strands of kudzu, carolina jasmine, a lot of poison ivy, and honeysuckle. I'd like to just spray everything and watch it die, but I've got a creek in the back, so that's a no-go. So right now it just a bunch of mechanical removal, solarization with tarps and trying to figure out what to replant.
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We had English Ivy when I was married and living in one of our historic districts. Much, much smaller yard than yours, and thankfully no kudzu or poison ivy (to which I am extremely allergic). The little grippers on English Ivy that make it such a successful climber were especially difficult once they got hold of the bark of our old wild cherry tree. And it seemed I could never get rid of all of it, that some shred hid somewhere only to reemerge the next spring and start the fight all over again.

I don't envy you @bureaucrat#3
 
Gedunker said:
We had English Ivy when I was married and living in one of our historic districts. Much, much smaller yard than yours, and thankfully no kudzu or poison ivy (to which I am extremely allergic). The little grippers on English Ivy that make it such a successful climber were especially difficult once they got hold of the bark of our old wild cherry tree. And it seemed I could never get rid of all of it, that some shred hid somewhere only to reemerge the next spring and start the fight all over again.

I don't envy you @bureaucrat#3
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Thanks. I break out from poison ivy so I have to wear layers. The first couple of years I would take a machete and try to wedge it between the trees and ivy to pull it away. I've gotten lazy and just started weedeating a couple of feet of ivy away from the trunks of all my trees. Its looks bad, but much easier. It never goes away completely.
 
TOFB said:
Deconstructing a deck is harder than constructing one. And once the old nasty deck is gone, you still have to construct the new one.
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Our old deck was a wreck. No permit, no inspections. The former owner spanned 12' with 2x6s. :oops: Some joists were in hangers, others, not so much. I know the ex wife has no idea how hard I worked taking that damn thing down, doing most of it on my hands and knees.
 
TOFB said:
Deconstructing a deck is harder than constructing one. And once the old nasty deck is gone, you still have to construct the new one.
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This is where a chainsaw and a burn pile come in handy. I took down and rebuilt 2 decks a few years ago. It started out as just replacing the deck boards, but once I pulled up a few, I realized that I was going to have to completely rebuild it. The other one was largely new boards with some additional structural support, but not a complete rebuild.
 
I bought a couple of pots and some plants and did the sweaty work of potting everything this afternoon. The reddish pot has matching friends on the front porch that all came with the house. They are wired into the sprinkler system, so they are not easily relocated. The three new posts will live on the back patio for now.

PXL_20210522_200734760.jpg
 
I was waiting on my lawn crew to come redesign my flower beds this spring but they've been hit by a labor shortage and won't be able to get to it until the fall. I tried getting a couple other crews out to come give me an estimate but most aren't taking any new clients right now unless I'm doing a massive landscaping project with tons of hardscape or sprinklers or new large tree plantings, etc.

So I decided to tackle as much of as possible myself. I spent yesterday cleaning out the current beds, removing some shrubs completely, pulling as much of the groundcover up by the roots as I could, digging out bulbs to move elsewhere, etc Then raked out a bunch of the old mulch from the last time I put some down two summers ago and leveling the beds as best I could. I dumped about 10 wheelbarrow loads of old mulch in the back to make a little path through some flowers and ornamental grasses. My back and neck or sore today but I'm glad to have that work out of the way since it should make putting down the new mulch so much faster and easier.

I've got a load of new mulch coming on Thursday so I've got until then to re-edge the flower beds and buy some ferns and hosta for the shade side and to find a hydrangea that matches the empty spot in a line of them where I had a dead one last spring. I'm not going to do much on the sunnier side as a) I always tend to over do things with landscaping and after a year or two it looks like trash and b) we need to have our front porch rebuilt and that will happen sometime this summer or fall and that crew will probably have to tear out and replace a bunch of the landscaping on that side anyway (I'm also going to have them put in some ground lighting, a flagpole, and replace our decrepit looking lamppost with one on a shorter stone column).
 
Taking off today and tomorrow to re-build the deck. Broke the first piece of decking after carefully trimming it to fit around the posts. Going to be a long couple of days.
 
I borrowed the in-laws power washer and washed off my back patio and walkway yesterday. The patio is about 5.5 years old and we'd never washed it before. I didn't realize it was so dirty until after I actually washed it off. I also didn't realize that using the power washer would kick up so much dirt/mud (I guess I should have figured it would as all that crud would have to go somewhere) but I was really dirty afterwards. After I was done I hosed everything off to wash aways the stuff I loosened up and then this morning I swept once everything was dry. Now that it's all dried off I see a few spots that I missed so I'll have to go over the patio one more time before I take the power washer back. I should have taken before and after shots as it's amazing how much cleaner it looks.

Nerdy full disclosure: I enjoy watching Instagram videos of people power washing decks, siding, driveways, fences, etc.
 
Hink said:
View attachment 51628
I am putting in a garden for the Mrs. It is going well, but my forearms hurt... a lot. I still have the gates and fence to go and a lot more other odd jobs on it...
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Tell me what landscape material you used. Is that pea gravel? What base/substrate did you use, and what depth?
 
Got our first quote for Phase 2 house improvements. 16K for gorilla hair, pea gravel, native plants, and faux-grass. WTF?
 
The AC for upstairs (we have a dual zone system) suddenly got to the point that it couldn't keep up with cooling once the outside temps get to about 85 degrees - we've had this system for three years now, and this is the second or third time this same issue has happened - the system is a lemon (same type system for the downstairs and finished basement has never had a problem). So, we called the company that installed it Sunday morning - we have a maintenance plan with them that includes priority service within 24 hours, so our expectation was a repair guy would be out no later than Monday morning.

Yeah, riiiiiiiight...

Mrs. Bubba made the call. "We'll have a tech out Tuesday morning." Mrs. Bubba argued some before accepting Tuesday (I would have gone full Karen on them, but I digress - she's a nicer person than me).

Tuesday morning passes - no service. Mrs. Bubba calls again, gets in response "Well, we called and no one answered, so we rerouted the tech." Ah, no you did not call us; we have two cell phones and a home phone, and not a single one of them rang this morning. Turns out they had transposed two digits in my cell number (we've used this company for around 20 years, and I've had the same cell number on file with them for the past ~15 years - they could not figure out how to explain messing it up now). "We'll get someone out the Wednesday afternoon." Some arguing from Mrs. Bubba got that changed to Wednesday morning (again, she's much nicer than me).

Tech arrives this morning, wants to start with the furnace unit - it's in the attic. He goes up, does his thing, and starts to walk back to the door...and then he misses a rafter and sticks his leg through the ceiling (no injuries, thankfully). He calls it in, gets told to assure me they'll send someone out to repair it (which he tells me). He then goes to do his thing on the AC unit outside, comes back with "it's either a refrigerant leak or there's a clog somewhere in a line." Me: "Yeah, same thing happened last summer, and it was a clogged line." Him: "So, we'll start by adding refrigerant, and if that doesn't work, then we'll know it's a clogged line and there's a valve I'll have to change. The cost for the refrigerant will be..."

I cut him off right there. "I'm not paying anything. I have a maintenance plan, plus this is a three year old system with a ten year warranty. You guys per my maintenance agreement should have been here two days ago, and now you want to charge me to use refrigerant as a troubleshooting method? No."

Him: "I don't have a leak detector. I can go get one, or we can send someone else back out with it." Me: "Let's start there." Him: "Let me make a call."

Five minutes later: "They told me I can offer a discount on the refrigerant, and they said if you don't go for that that I should leave."

"Um, what? I want a supervisor to call me."

He calls back in to request that. "Gary is a very busy man, so if he doesn't call in a hour, you should call the office." He leaves.

Hour and a half passes - no call. I call the office: "This is Bubba, Gary da Supervisor was supposed to call me about y'alls collective incompetence. I'd like to speak to him now." Gary isn't at his desk. The very pleasant young woman I'm talking to promises to relay the message.

Another hour has passed. Still no call. May God have mercy on this dude's soul whenever I do get him on the phone...
 
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I would be pissed @Bubba and go full on Jersey on 'em. I would start with them installing a free, whole house air filter for you ...
 
Update 1: Two hours with no call from Gary. Mrs. Bubba is giving them a call now since I'm in a rage to the point of incoherence (actually, I'm on a deadline and need to do some work).
 
Update 2: No one knows where Gary is.

Seriously.

Mrs. Bubba did get a lot farther along than I did with someone else on getting some back out here to complete the AC repair and on setting a deadline for the ceiling repair. And, both their QA manager and their general manager have been informed of the saga...we'll see if either of those get in touch. Grrrrr.
 
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