The Home Improvement Thread

[Oswego]

cleaned out my shed today after what better be the mast time I had to mow the grass. Getting tired of "winterizing" my mower (draining the gas).

Luckily about half of the Taco gas evaporated by now so today I bottled it all up.

Ill finish cleaning her out tomorrow after a run to the recycle center to drop off all the chemicals.

at least I got enough room made to get the snowblower it's old parking spot back

 

[Taco Loco]

Beautiful day, finally got my other garage painted and rebuilt a couple downspouts.
I’m thinking of doing a second coat underneath, hardi plank/soffit was not used and the wood soaked up a lot of paint. Trying to muster up some energy to head out to HD to get more paint.

 

[Silverback]

Nice work!

 

[Oswego]

looks much better. when you're done down there I could use some of that up here

 

[Silverback]

I need to paint all the trim on our house, including garage doors and downspouts/gutters. Not looking forward to it. Did you scrape the wood or anything, how about garage doors? Any prep? I just remember as a kid painting my grandparents house, had to scrape the whole damn thing (wooden siding) and I hated that so much. Now I would gladly do it again to spend more time with them. But when you are 12-14 it was torture.

 

[Silverback]

@Taco Loco My daughter walked in and I had the photo of your broken downspout on the screen. She was like "whats that?" I said "Scott is fixing his gutters". She goes "hmm.. so he has to show the whole world he is fixing his gutters"

 

[tx_shooter]

@Taco Loco My daughter walked in and I had the photo of your broken downspout on the screen. She was like "whats that?" I said "Scott is fixing his gutters". She goes "hmm.. so he has to show the whole world he is fixing his gutters"

Did you explain to her that he is retired now?

 

[Taco Loco]

I need to paint all the trim on our house, including garage doors and downspouts/gutters. Not looking forward to it. Did you scrape the wood or anything, how about garage doors? Any prep? I just remember as a kid painting my grandparents house, had to scrape the whole damn thing (wooden siding) and I hated that so much. Now I would gladly do it again to spend more time with them. But when you are 12-14 it was torture.

I sprayed all the painted areas with bleach and water using my backpack sprayer. I also used old towels and water and wiped down all paintable surfaces to include the garage doors, resealed most seams/corners with caulk, added atleast 12” of shield of paper or cardboard for over spray, never used a brush or scraper.

@Taco Loco My daughter walked in and I had the photo of your broken downspout on the screen. She was like "whats that?" I said "Scott is fixing his gutters". She goes "hmm.. so he has to show the whole world he is fixing his gutters"

That’s funny.

well between the house and garage, that was the most gutter work I have done, not something I enjoyed doing.

Most importantly you tell her I was quoted $6,500 to have the house and garage painted, $6,500 was just for painting. I have spent less than $900 for supplies and tools, to paint and fix gutters and I now own $350 paint sprayer and saved a bunch of money.

 

[Silverback]

I would have told her more but she walked away after she commented... I feel bad for her future husband.

 

[Taco Loco]

I would have told her more but she walked away after she commented... I feel bad for her future husband.

yup

 

[Oswego]

now that I'm not storing a kayak in the ceiling & I need to pack this thing full w/tools from my basement I decided to go vertical w/storage. Anyone under 6'2" should be fine

ended up with much more floor space just using some scrap wood I had left over from projects..yea I know a 4x4's flimsy and it's a little hokey but free wood is free wood. It's stronger than it looks. Got chain in the middle and both ends are tied back to the truss so it's a structural triangle

 

[balakay]

Spent the afternoon blowing insulation in the attic at my sister's house. Never doing that shit again. That's what I said last time I did it, too though.

 

[Silverback]

Good brother!

 

[Taco Loco]

Spent the afternoon blowing insulation in the attic at my sister's house. Never doing that shit again. That's what I said last time I did it, too though. View attachment 31100

I need to do this as well, probably need to do it before Spring gets here.

 

[Anathollo]

Spent the afternoon blowing insulation in the attic at my sister's house. Never doing that shit again. That's what I said last time I did it, too though. View attachment 31100

Hell yeah!

 

[balakay]

I need to do this as well, probably need to do it before Spring gets here.

This shit has gone up. When I did my house back in 2018, I think I paid like $3.50 a bag or something for the insulation. Enough to do my entire house was a couole hundred bucks. My dad paid for this because its his house (my sister is just renting it from him) and he paid almost $9 a bag for it. Enough to do the house was like $650 and the house is a few hundred sq ft smaller than mine.

 

[Taco Loco]

This shit has gone up. When I did my house back in 2018, I think I paid like $3.50 a bag or something for the insulation. Enough to do my entire house was a couole hundred bucks. My dad paid for this because its his house (my sister is just renting it from him) and he paid almost $9 a bag for it. Enough to do the house was like $650 and the house is a few hundred sq ft smaller than mine.

good to know, every so often the insulation bags show up deal of day for Home Depot, haven’t seen them appear in awhile.

 

[tx_shooter]

Sorry to hear prices are up - but a handful of my company's plants are insulation plants and one of them is a blower plant. High prices = good bonus hopefully. I will buy you a six pack if bonus is good.

 

[Oswego]

and it's official.... got my demo permit in the mail today. Figures it's in the 30's and raining

did my takeoff of materials today so I can start procuring them for the actual conconstruction part.

Think I'm going to demo my door and window on the one side (leave all framing) that I want to modify/move the openings/change the sizes of later on, cover the holes they used to be in with zip 7/16 for a weather/air barrier, then when I have construction approval re-frame for the new windows from the inside. Then I won't be technically modifying any structure except the sheathing and Ive gotten approval to replace that. Ive only got two weeks to get the outside buttoned up/weather tight and I'm doubtful I can get it "all done" by then due to my need for permit approval of the new framing. At least if I do it this way I can get code enforcement off my back for making everything weather tight. Ill run it by the inspector and building manager tomorrow. Should of thought of that initially...all Ive got approval to do is trim/sheathing/siding/gutters/soffits/fascia. Never told them I wanted to yank then cover the window/door specifically, but it was in my future summary of work. and this is why I'm not a super for a residential GC

 

[Taco Loco]

New-home construction charges on, as builders shift focus to multifamily projects