The Home Improvement Thread

[Oswego]

Neihbor and i had a powwow. They weren't done. Supposed to be a dumpster coming. I'll not be holding my breath on that one. I cleaned it all up (pushed the shit farther into his yard). Just got 6 more screws/one panel to install when the baby birds leave their nest on the last post

Now I just gotta change out the pos 4x4 border and fill this bitch w weedblock and river rocks

 

[Oswego]

The smallest of 4 trees that died from the freeze. No problem for the orange.
View attachment 34965

Your poor trees take a beating. They native or foreign?

 

[Taco Loco]

Your poor trees take a beating. They native or foreign?

Native

Ongoing 20yr drought...


This April article shows how bad it was before these last recent rains, very dry winter, seems like the most moisture was when we got snow in mid February.

It’s going to take a lot of rain to dent Texas drought

In 2021, 75% of the Lone Star State is in drought.

spectrumlocalnews.com

 

[Oswego]

Yikes... 9" is allot just to get back to normal. I'm in a humid subtropical climate so we are usually pretty good water wise. Few seasonal droughts here and there but nothing like that.

Makes me want to go closer to the glaceris for sure.

 

[Taco Loco]

Yikes... 9" is allot just to get back to normal. I'm in a humid subtropical climate so we are usually pretty good water wise. Few seasonal droughts here and there but nothing like that.

Makes me want to go closer to the glaceris for sure.

Just need hurricane/tropical storms to hit further South Texas in the summer months.

 

[Silverback]

We had rain (lots of rain) in the weather forcast for about 10 days in a row. So far in the past 4 of those days we got a little bit of rain.. maybe 1/2 inch total. Now the rain is saying Saturday and Sunday.. we'll see.

 

[AlienXtx]

We had rain (lots of rain) in the weather forcast for about 10 days in a row. So far in the past 4 of those days we got a little bit of rain.. maybe 1/2 inch total. Now the rain is saying Saturday and Sunday.. we'll see.

Ditto, calling for 70-80% everyday for the past week and only rained Tuesday night

 

[Oswego]

View attachment 34970

Just need hurricane/tropical storms to hit further South Texas in the summer months.

Sounds like the whole state needs a permaculture makeover. I've watched guys reform deserts so it can be done.

Imo new construction of "developments" won't help unless they totally revamp current designs to hold water vs let it run off

Back in the day all the old houses here had sisterns for collection. Then we got fancy and dependent and everything turned to run off. Now they tax you on it for buisiness to get rid of

 

[tx_shooter]

They cannot catch what does not fall. A good portion of west Texas is on the border or part of the Upper Chihuahua desert. The size and expanse of the state across so many different climates makes it difficult to apply a single solution too.

 

[CowboyTaco]

Installed a Gladiator GearTrack in the garage.

 

[Oswego]

They cannot catch what does not fall. A good portion of west Texas is on the border or part of the Upper Chihuahua desert. The size and expanse of the state across so many different climates makes it difficult to apply a single solution

I got a good solution. Suceed and close the borders

The insane rate of population increase will spawn some new growing pains for sure.

But in all seriousness if we lost TX the rest of us would be screwed. Be blue for life till TX took over and won all of North America in WWIII

 

[Oswego]

I'm done for the day. Beer cracked.

Got my posts cut to height and the copper caps siliconed on and 3/5's of my rotten 4x4 borders replaced.

With the price of scrap and how many of these I have I almost thought of just removing them all for scrap $$

From no exposure - 17 years. Bird crap & tree rat musk really bronzes them good

 

[AlienXtx]

I'm done for the day. Beer cracked.

Got my posts cut to height and the copper caps siliconed on and 3/5's of my rotten 4x4 borders replaced.

With the price of scrap and how many of these I have I almost thought of just removing them all for scrap $$

From no exposure - 17 years. Bird crap & tree rat musk really bronzes them good
View attachment 34993

Next step?

 

[Taco Loco]

Started this morning, left with the main trunk and roots.

 

[Oswego]

I did end up having a beer w the new neihbor Friday.

Dang ac compressor wont kick on so I just powered everything off. My guess is shitty install or bad cap.

Better not be parts going bad on year 2.

I'll fuss with it later, but not for long. Its warranted and I need to get it on the record w them that I'm calling out all their poor craftsmanship from initial install to the inspector if they don't fix it on this service call. I was so pissed I wasn't going to give them the opportunity and was going to rat them out but now their crap install is prob causing issues so they will get one more shot.

 

[Anathollo]

Got a bunch more done this weekend.

I got the remaining tile up by my front door.

Took out the tile in the downstairs bathroom (it was barely mortared down and came up so easy).

I demoed the downstairs shower. This thing was leaking into the walls. They glued plastic sheets to the wall and then covered up the gaps with PVC trim and caulked it. Well the caulking failed years ago...

Cut out and threw away all of the ducting lines in the attic. It hurt to cut it out since the ducting still looked fine on the outside but as soon as I cut into it, I could see how nasty and dusty the lines were. I'm going to have my A/C guy come out and demo the upstairs furnace and outside fan. Its a 2014 R22 system and I'm going to replace everything since the house is gutted. I'm also changing the A/C return from a framed wall return (freaking nasty) to a ceiling return.

I climbed all over the attic and took out all the metal straps, old nails and anything sharp that can cut you.

I pulled out about 95% of the low voltage, alarm and coax line. It was a freaking rat's nest up there.

I demoed the kitchen and bathroom fur-downs so now these rooms feel way bigger. I have some good 2x4's from these fur-downs that I'm going to pull the nails out of to re-use on future walls. So that'll save me some money there.

While it was raining heavily this weekend, I discovered that the new deck they put in wasn't flashed properly against the house. So it looks like I might have to pull off the desk to re-flash it against the house now...But I'm not 100% certain that's what I'll have to do yet. I still need to demo the brick wall to get a better look at it. But there is boards against the house that I can stick my finger through.

And I discovered this gem while I was going through the attic Maybe the house was wired by an electrician who used to be a plumber?

 

[Taco Loco]

Only $97 now

 

[Oswego]

View attachment 35054

Only $97 now

If your buying sanded 3/4 panels for construction and buying them there in 4x8 sheets you deserve to pay $100 per panel imo

My same thickness exterior rated sheets for my house were $4 more per panel than 15 years prior when I last bought.

Everyone keeps panicking about inflation and they will cause it by hoarding and pessimism that drives the moronic speculators

 

[Oswego]

Got a bunch more done this weekend.

I got the remaining tile up by my front door.

Took out the tile in the downstairs bathroom (it was barely mortared down and came up so easy).

I demoed the downstairs shower. This thing was leaking into the walls. They glued plastic sheets to the wall and then covered up the gaps with PVC trim and caulked it. Well the caulking failed years ago...

Cut out and threw away all of the ducting lines in the attic. It hurt to cut it out since the ducting still looked fine on the outside but as soon as I cut into it, I could see how nasty and dusty the lines were. I'm going to have my A/C guy come out and demo the upstairs furnace and outside fan. Its a 2014 R22 system and I'm going to replace everything since the house is gutted. I'm also changing the A/C return from a framed wall return (freaking nasty) to a ceiling return.

I climbed all over the attic and took out all the metal straps, old nails and anything sharp that can cut you.

I pulled out about 95% of the low voltage, alarm and coax line. It was a freaking rat's nest up there.

I demoed the kitchen and bathroom fur-downs so now these rooms feel way bigger. I have some good 2x4's from these fur-downs that I'm going to pull the nails out of to re-use on future walls. So that'll save me some money there.

While it was raining heavily this weekend, I discovered that the new deck they put in wasn't flashed properly against the house. So it looks like I might have to pull off the desk to re-flash it against the house now...But I'm not 100% certain that's what I'll have to do yet. I still need to demo the brick wall to get a better look at it. But there is boards against the house that I can stick my finger through.

And I discovered this gem while I was going through the attic Maybe the house was wired by an electrician who used to be a plumber?

View attachment 35043

Shit like that is sad. My guess is nothing is 100%. Hopfully you run into one trade that did their work w pride and it hasn't been molested yet

 

[Anathollo]

If your buying sanded 3/4 panels for construction and buying them there in 4x8 sheets you deserve to pay $100 per panel imo

My same thickness exterior rated sheets for my house were $4 more per panel than 15 years prior when I last bought.

Everyone keeps panicking about inflation and they will cause it by hoarding and pessimism that drives the moronic speculators

View attachment 35054

Only $97 now

Worst part is they are predicting the prices to go up by next quarter, 7/1/2021. So if you absolutely need wood right now, then you need to buy it.