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Home stuff 🏡 Home improvements

estromberg said:
Completely understand. There were many nights while I was doing the demo and prep for my kitchen remodel where I just looked at things previous owners had done with utter disgust. As an example, the old kitchen had 30" cabinets with a bulkhead above. I knew that I'd likely have some vent plumbing to deal with, but wasn't expecting the electrical issues. Rather than do things properly (electric ran through the attic to kitchen) and come all the way over to the wall and go down through the top plate, they cut the corner through the bulkhead. Saving approximately 14" of wire back when wire was pennies a foot. However, this meant I had to completely rewire the entire kitchen. 12g romex is a lot more than pennies a foot these days.
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I'm not following what you mean by "a bulkhead."
 
Doohickie said:
I'm not following what you mean by "a bulkhead."
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Also referred to as soffit. It's a boxed in section between the ceiling and the tops of 30" high cabinets.

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Moving into a new laptop saw these old pics from local improvement.

This patio made with shovel and wheelbarrow in Y2K. All CMU, most cores filled by wheelbarrow mixed concrete. Six inches of fall down length. Drain tile under low end and side.

Sand is 1/2 to 3/4 inch max, screeded off perimeter and those white PVC screed pipes, 1/3 length at a time.


Patio6.jpg
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We've been in our house for around six years. The family next door to us bought that house a couple of months before we moved in, but spent six or seven months afterwards gutting the interior and remodeling. And, the result of their efforts is incredibly nice. Now that they have a couple of small children, they want to move to the adjoining school district, so their house hit the market this morning...for roughly $150k above what they'll eventually get for it. Yeesh. It's not going to help that their realtor also listed a similar house on this block today for...wait for it...about a $150k lower asking price.
 
On the other hand, it could be part of a strategy. They may realize that they're not gonna get their price but with the direct comp at $150k less, assuming it's not as nice inside as your neighbor's house, with the direct comparison someone might think it's worth the extra... $70-80k....? that your neighbor will eventually get for the house.... as in they built in some bargaining room and the price of the other house is a baseline for comparison.
 
Bubba said:
We've been in our house for around six years. The family next door to us bought that house a couple of months before we moved in, but spent six or seven months afterwards gutting the interior and remodeling. And, the result of their efforts is incredibly nice. Now that they have a couple of small children, they want to move to the adjoining school district, so their house hit the market this morning...for roughly $150k above what they'll eventually get for it. Yeesh. It's not going to help that their realtor also listed a similar house on this block today for...wait for it...about a $150k lower asking price.
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Ugh. Appraisal is kind of like just some dude's opinion, man.
 
Bubba said:
We've been in our house for around six years. The family next door to us bought that house a couple of months before we moved in, but spent six or seven months afterwards gutting the interior and remodeling. And, the result of their efforts is incredibly nice. Now that they have a couple of small children, they want to move to the adjoining school district, so their house hit the market this morning...for roughly $150k above what they'll eventually get for it. Yeesh. It's not going to help that their realtor also listed a similar house on this block today for...wait for it...about a $150k lower asking price.
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Eleven days later, the house down the street is under contract, and the guys next door lowered their asking price this morning by $50k.
 
So here's a long story about a stove.

The thing that started our whole kitchen remodel is my wife got a new range: A GE Cafe (premium brand) double oven. After 5 months of premium brand ovening, the top oven stopped working; the range seemed to think the door was open when it wasn't. Call up Lowes (who we bought from), who sent out a service tech... from GE. The tech condemned the unit and got a replacement on order (same model).

GE service called me and asked several questions about the oven to make sure we got what we wanted. One question was, "Do you want the trim kit?" I thought she was talking about the Filler Kit, which fills any gaps around the range and costs about $100.
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I didn't need that so I said no.

Fast forward to delivery day for the new stove. The installer puts it in and leaves. I notice there's a visible gap at the rear of the range... and that it looks a little different than the old one. After looking around at what I can find online, I realize there is a rear trim piece "for all installations" that is not on my range.
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I put two and two together and realize this is the trim kit she was asking about. So I call GE customer service, explain the situation and they say they will send the trim kit. I'm still puzzled why they even asked whether or not I wanted a part required "for all installations" that was not separately ordered by me for the original installation; if it's a separate piece they just included it.

So I just got back from vacation and the "trim kit" was delivered while I was gone. I opened it up; it's one part: the trim. The "4 screws provided" were not, in fact, provided.

So back on the phone with GE customer service and after a brief conversation she tells me the screws have been ordered... but they are on back order until July 24.

I have to say that thus far I am not impressed with the GE premium brand experience.
 
Before I went on vacation I put the rails on the wall to hang the last batch of cabinets. While I was gone my son put the cabinet frames together and hung them, but had issues because the rails were just a bit too close together. So today I adjusted the rails and the cabinets are up, and the small countertop is on. Now they just need shelves, doors and drawers.

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Currently this is the backsplash tile my wife and I have picked out

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Before we pull the trigger I decided to look at the tile website and see what else they have. I like this one too:

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I think it makes the room look a little lighter/airier. My wife said either one is fine but we both have a concern about having to match if we switch kitchen colors. Currently our walls are painted thusly

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What would you do? Pick the tile that's neutral, colorwize? Or go with the blue?
 
Doohickie said:
Currently this is the backsplash tile my wife and I have picked out

View attachment 60510

Before we pull the trigger I decided to look at the tile website and see what else they have. I like this one too:

View attachment 60511

I think it makes the room look a little lighter/airier. My wife said either one is fine but we both have a concern about having to match if we switch kitchen colors. Currently our walls are painted thusly

View attachment 60512

What would you do? Pick the tile that's neutral, colorwize? Or go with the blue?
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I like the lighter color blue. Personally, I'd pick a smaller pattern. Not tiny, just smaller.
 
Gedunker said:
I just wonder if the current fashion tiles won't go the way of avocado appliances in a few years ...
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The tile that was there when we moved in was dated but it wasn't awful. It is interesting I think that while the backsplash and wallpaper were complementary colors, the countertop was anything but. From the real estate listing for our house:

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You wouldn't do tile like that today, but it didn't look awful. And yeah, if you're not going to change the tile, you make design/color decisions based on the existing pallet. In our case we kind of ignored the tile and keyed off the countertop, using a blue/gray paint pallet.

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With the new tile we kind of go that way a little further, but if someone wanted to tie into the butcherblock countertops they could go with tans/browns in the future. In fact, there is a brown-pallet version of the blue tile displayed above:

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I will be going to buy my tile shortly. I woke up late today; I was up until 2 am transforming the IKEA workshop back into my living/dining room. I finished that off this morning. Because there was so much stuff stacked together there as about 5 months of pet hair everywhere. I did a thorough sweep of the hardwood floor last night and was going to mop it this morning. By this morning I had to sweep again.
 
Got the junk man coming tomorrow morning. The cast-concrete electric fireplace that I couldn't give away is scheduled to leave my possession sometime between 8-10. If they can get it in the truck - it is anything but light weight. Some other stuff is going as well, but the stupid fireplace will make me happiest.
 
Maister said:
Everything goes the way of avocado appliances eventually.
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I was fortunate to visit Lisbon's tile museum, where blue was almost ubiquitous. The original name for tiles in Portugal was "azulejos", which means "blue things". In the beginning tiles were all blue. So much for your avocado obsolescence!
 

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I've got tile. I'm always dismayed by how much tile weighs. A box of 18 tiles is 37 pounds which means each 8 x 8 tile weighs TWO POUNDS. That's just crazy.

The walls have been primed (the mastic I'm using recommends using primer over gypsum boards). All the plugs and switches have "old work" electrical boxes so I undid the clamp wings and pulled them out of the wall; they will be flush to the tile surface. I will be tiling this weekend. I hope to have it done when my wife gets back from up north at the end of the week.
 
Our kitchen appliances are all about 30+ years old and looking a little worse for wear and all have at least one function not working but otherwise get the job done... until this weekend when our dishwasher finally died completely. After looking all summer and thinking about it, we finally bit the bullet today and ordered all new appliances. I'm very much looking forward to a much quieter dishwasher and no longer having a side-by-side fridge/freezer. I am not looking forward to seeing what is behind the fridge or in the little cracks between the oven and the counters.
 
New windows ordered. Went with a company that had a special, and Hubby still had some sticker shock. But we're replacing 1/2 the windows, all on one side of the house, and I'm getting the half-moon window tinted.

I'll post some photos once the windows arrive and get installed.

Next up: removing carpet, putting down new flooring, maybe some new bathroom tile.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
I am not looking forward to seeing what is behind the fridge or in the little cracks between the oven and the counters.
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It was interesting what we found when we bought our new refrigerator this spring. Nothing too horrible, but certainly a few interesting finds & all the dog hair.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
I am not looking forward to seeing what is behind the fridge or in the little cracks between the oven and the counters.
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As a former mover, I could tell some stories about finding all manner of things behind appliances, under beds, between sofa cushions, in closets. It pays to spend a few minutes checking ahead of the crew's arrival. :omg:
 
Salmissra said:
New windows ordered. Went with a company that had a special, and Hubby still had some sticker shock. But we're replacing 1/2 the windows, all on one side of the house, and I'm getting the half-moon window tinted.

I'll post some photos once the windows arrive and get installed.

Next up: removing carpet, putting down new flooring, maybe some new bathroom tile.
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Didn't use the company I told you about the the windows, did you?
 
WSU MUP Student said:
Our kitchen appliances are all about 30+ years old and looking a little worse for wear and all have at least one function not working but otherwise get the job done... until this weekend when our dishwasher finally died completely. After looking all summer and thinking about it, we finally bit the bullet today and ordered all new appliances. I'm very much looking forward to a much quieter dishwasher and no longer having a side-by-side fridge/freezer. I am not looking forward to seeing what is behind the fridge or in the little cracks between the oven and the counters.
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Today is the day our new appliances are set to be delivered! Woohoo!

Today is also the day I learned that "Standard Depth" and "Counter Depth" are not the same thing when talking about refrigerators. :facepalm:
 
Just replaced our LG washer and dryer (8 years) with a Speed Queen set. Supposed to be real commercial quality with 10,000 uses and 20+ years. We shall see. This is our fourth washer/dryer set in 24 years (married 26). New water heater (third in house in 20 years).
 
SlaveToTheGrind said:
Just replaced our LG washer and dryer (8 years) with a Speed Queen set. Supposed to be real commercial quality with 10,000 uses and 20+ years. We shall see. This is our fourth washer/dryer set in 24 years (married 26). New water heater (third in house in 20 years).
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You must count how many times you run the dishwasher and let us know when it finally needs some work 20 years later.
 
Thought the over the range microwave bit the bullet this morning. I unplugged it and plugged it in again and now it seems to be working again. What I would really like is a power range hood that exhausts outside.
 
kjel said:
Thought the over the range microwave bit the bullet this morning. I unplugged it and plugged it in again and now it seems to be working again. What I would really like is a power range hood that exhausts outside.
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The outside exhaust was a must-have for the house I'm about to start building. It was an add-on to vent but I think it's essential. Those non-vented hoods suck and do nothing to clear the air. I went with just a cooktop under the exhaust hood and then instead of a double wall oven it's one oven and one microwave. I love the look of it.

Kitchen.jpg
 
I'm probably going to have to cash in an underperforming IRA in order to bundle a kitchen + bath remodel at my house, since I can't get contractors to give me the time of day for just the bath remodel. Frustrating, but I don't know what else to do ...
 
MD Planner said:
The outside exhaust was a must-have for the house I'm about to start building. It was an add-on to vent but I think it's essential. Those non-vented hoods suck and do nothing to clear the air. I went with just a cooktop under the exhaust hood and then instead of a double wall oven it's one oven and one microwave. I love the look of it.

View attachment 60839
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100% Every house that I was a construction manager on had exterior exhaust in the kitchen because I insisted on it. The 100+ year old rowhome we gutted has an exterior vented exhaust, the beach house does not. The stove is unfortunately on the wall that has a huge vaulted ceiling and away from the exterior wall so there’s no economical way to deal with it.

We are thinking about building a new home in a couple of years. It will absolutely have this feature.
 
This install has turned into a total cluster f*ck.

Take down the old microwave to find that the tile backsplash actually goes all the way up behind the cabinet but thankfully we could re-jigger the existing bracket enough to make it work with the new microwave without having to get another crew who can drill into the tile.

Remove the old oven but the elbow for the gas connection is massive and at a totally different angle than what will work with the new oven. Oh... it's also slightly loose and has probably had a small gas leak for years. We lucked out that one of our installers is a pipefitter and can take care of that for us.

Then we move on to the dishwasher, which was the impetus for us finally buying new appliances in the first place - old dishwasher was probably close to 30-years-old and finally died completely about a week ago. First the shut off valve to the dishwasher turns and turns but doesn't do anything. I bought from Home Depot and their policy doesn't allow them to shut off at the main valve so the option is to leave the old dishwasher in place and then leave us the new dishwasher and call a plumber or a separate installer to come out. One of the guys in the crew says he's happy to handle it for us though... for a price. But he does refund our install, the price for the parts package, and the haul away fee and gives us a price actually about $50 cheaper (and still hauls away our old dishwasher. Fine, let's do it. Turn off the water to the whole house and then remove the old dishwasher only to find a big a55 hole in the slab under it that somebody covered with sheetrock, probably 20+ years ago to repair some damage from a leak or something. Luckily we had enough pieces of wood around that we could remove the sheetrock and build a level area from the wood that was flush with the rest of the flooring. Get the new dishwasher installed, turn back on the water, and go to run it and water is leaking out of the front panel and it's just beeping like crazy. FML!

Can't refuse delivery of the dishwasher because it's already installed. Do a few things and try to run it again and it appears to maybe now be working correctly? Who knows. Installers say the best bet is to call Home Depot within 48 hours and say I installed it since I didn't mind turning on/off the main water supply and that it's just not working correctly. Home Depot will likely just mark this one as defective and send out another... only problem is I'm going to run into the same issue with the faulty shut-off valve so I need to try to get the same installers or call them before the new one gets here and they'll pull the old one out for me and then come back and install the new one once it's delivered.

The hits keep coming though because just to be safe and make sure the counter depth fridge we plan to order will work, we pull out the old one to check the shut off valve.... and it's not there. Instead, we've got about 15' of copper pipe that, the best we can tell, is tucked away under the cabinetry running along the wall and making a couple 90º turns to a shut off valve under the sink (at least that shut off valve does appear to be working). So now once we get a new fridge I've got to call somebody out to try to pull a plastic or braided line through there somehow since the fitting on the copper line is so old it's unlikely to fit on the new fridge once it's remove from the old one. SMH

What a PITA.

And my wife wonders why I never bother with any sort of home improvement projects.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
This install has turned into a total cluster f*ck.

Take down the old microwave to find that the tile backsplash actually goes all the way up behind the cabinet but thankfully we could re-jigger the existing bracket enough to make it work with the new microwave without having to get another crew who can drill into the tile.

Remove the old oven but the elbow for the gas connection is massive and at a totally different angle than what will work with the new oven. Oh... it's also slightly loose and has probably had a small gas leak for years. We lucked out that one of our installers is a pipefitter and can take care of that for us.

Then we move on to the dishwasher, which was the impetus for us finally buying new appliances in the first place - old dishwasher was probably close to 30-years-old and finally died completely about a week ago. First the shut off valve to the dishwasher turns and turns but doesn't do anything. I bought from Home Depot and their policy doesn't allow them to shut off at the main valve so the option is to leave the old dishwasher in place and then leave us the new dishwasher and call a plumber or a separate installer to come out. One of the guys in the crew says he's happy to handle it for us though... for a price. But he does refund our install, the price for the parts package, and the haul away fee and gives us a price actually about $50 cheaper (and still hauls away our old dishwasher. Fine, let's do it. Turn off the water to the whole house and then remove the old dishwasher only to find a big a55 hole in the slab under it that somebody covered with sheetrock, probably 20+ years ago to repair some damage from a leak or something. Luckily we had enough pieces of wood around that we could remove the sheetrock and build a level area from the wood that was flush with the rest of the flooring. Get the new dishwasher installed, turn back on the water, and go to run it and water is leaking out of the front panel and it's just beeping like crazy. FML!

Can't refuse delivery of the dishwasher because it's already installed. Do a few things and try to run it again and it appears to maybe now be working correctly? Who knows. Installers say the best bet is to call Home Depot within 48 hours and say I installed it since I didn't mind turning on/off the main water supply and that it's just not working correctly. Home Depot will likely just mark this one as defective and send out another... only problem is I'm going to run into the same issue with the faulty shut-off valve so I need to try to get the same installers or call them before the new one gets here and they'll pull the old one out for me and then come back and install the new one once it's delivered.

The hits keep coming though because just to be safe and make sure the counter depth fridge we plan to order will work, we pull out the old one to check the shut off valve.... and it's not there. Instead, we've got about 15' of copper pipe that, the best we can tell, is tucked away under the cabinetry running along the wall and making a couple 90º turns to a shut off valve under the sink (at least that shut off valve does appear to be working). So now once we get a new fridge I've got to call somebody out to try to pull a plastic or braided line through there somehow since the fitting on the copper line is so old it's unlikely to fit on the new fridge once it's remove from the old one. SMH

What a PITA.

And my wife wonders why I never bother with any sort of home improvement projects.
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Just put a compression valve on the end of the existing water line behind the fridge and connect it with a length of stainless braided hose. Requires almost no tools and almost no know how. Cut pipe, slide on nut, slide on compression olive, put pipe in valve, tighten it down. Problem solved.

Additionally, does the dishwasher have it's own line and shut off? It isn't just tee'd off the hot water supply for the kitchen sink either with or without a shutoff valve? If you are going to have to turn the water off anyway, do yourself a favor and replace the shut off for the dishwasher with a quarter turn stop.
 
estromberg said:
Just put a compression valve on the end of the existing water line behind the fridge and connect it with a length of stainless braided hose. Requires almost no tools and almost no know how. Cut pipe, slide on nut, slide on compression olive, put pipe in valve, tighten it down. Problem solved.

Additionally, does the dishwasher have it's own line and shut off? It isn't just tee'd off the hot water supply for the kitchen sink either with or without a shutoff valve? If you are going to have to turn the water off anyway, do yourself a favor and replace the shut off for the dishwasher with a quarter turn stop.
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A buddy of mine mentioned the same thing about the water line for the fridge so that's what I'm going to try. The only hold up will be whether or not that water line actually works. The motor on the existing fridge water dispenser died years ago but the water was still functioning at that point so I have no reason to believe it isn't working anymore, but if it's not...

The dishwasher is run off the hot water from the sink but has its own shutoff valve. I guess neither myself nor the installers thought to turn off the water there instead of at the main line but it really doesn't matter one way or the other since the Home Depot policy would still require them to make sure the shutoff specifically for the dishwasher to be functioning before they install (though I guess they could have just said that the dishwasher didn't have its own dedicated shutoff and the one for the hot water supply was the only one. If I do end up needing to get somebody out to run a new line for the fridge, I am going to have them replace the valve for the dishwasher. Might as well take care of it just in case.

FWIW, we ran the dishwasher twice yesterday (once on the full normal setting and once on the quickest setting) and everything seems to be functioning correctly, so fingers crossed, we're in the clear.
 
I learned years ago to not buy appliances from the big box stores. Generally you are better off ordering from a local appliance store if you have one. Even though it may cost more, the installation usually goes much more smoothly as it's not subcontracted out and their installers can deal with a variety of issues.
 
kjel said:
I learned years ago to not buy appliances from the big box stores. Generally you are better off ordering from a local appliance store if you have one. Even though it may cost more, the installation usually goes much more smoothly as it's not subcontracted out and their installers can deal with a variety of issues.
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I was in a small appliance shop last week picking up a chord for a city project. A contractor was begging the owner to give him a price match on something from one of the big boxes. He couldn't because it was some sort of special pricing from the brand. The contractor was doing everything he could to not have to buy from the big box because of the issues he's had with them. The funny thing is the small appliance shop owner has a store that is a wreck and some of the worst customer service skills I've ever seen, but he does what he says he's going to do, delivers on time, and will take back a product if its defective.
 
I was a little worried about buying from a big box, primarily because of possible issues with the install, but we were able to get the best price by a long shot through Home Depot. We compared prices from HD, Lowes, Menards, ABC Warehouse (a local appliance chain with stores in a few states), and a couple local stores (we also tried getting a contractor out who claimed he could get us great prices and was highly recommended by a few people but he never got back to us... it seems that a lot of small home improvement contractors are still swamped, at least judging by the ones we've tried to get out this year to rebuild our front porch and re-do our front landscaping where we've had tons of delays and no-shows). ABC Warehouse had the best sticker prices but HD was willing to match it and include their extended warranty and a few other things. One of the local stores would price match on the appliances and the other wouldn't and was much more expensive for the same exact models. They were both considerably more expensive when we factored in delivery and installation. I also had $500 in Home Depot gift cards that I had accumulated so that factored into the decision as well (but I didn't count it as a 1:1 factor since I'd happily spend those gift cards on other purchases over time like light bulbs and lawn bags and whatever).

We live in what's supposed to be the (or one of the) wealthiest ZIP Codes in the state and whenever we deal with local shops or contractors we also feel they're adding an extra ZIP Code based tax onto any delivery fees or installation prices (we ran into this big time when pricing out some windows a couple winters ago) and it hasn't always been worth it in terms of service provided. And when we factored in the tot

All that said, I do sort of wish we had gone with one of the local shops. Our house was a rental from most of the '90s into the early '00s and the last time it saw many updates, especially to the kitchen, was back in the '90s when it first became a rental. The owners at the time used the cheapest materials and probably the cheapest labor and it shows. I should have expected there would be some problems behind everything and the local stores would have come out to check everything beforehand and been prepared for all that stuff. But in the end, we lucked out with the contract crew that HD sent out.

Also, we had some worries that the dishwasher was beeping uncontrollably and may have had a defective electrical panel but that seems to have been "user error" from when we were first testing it out. After actually reading the manual, it seems to make a big difference on this one that we select the cycle and options BEFORE we press start and then we need to close the door last within 4 seconds or else you get all sorts of alarms/beeps. It's sort of the reverse of our old one and I didn't think it really mattered what order you do things in. It also didn't like that our very first "test cycle" had no actual dishes in it. The things you learn when you actually read the operators manual! :rofl:
 
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