The Home Improvement Thread

[Boomtacoma01]

 

[Oswego]

Looking good! Ill be ripping down soffits sooner than later up here. Good thing they used 2x6's back in the day. Sucks they didn't run all the 'crowns down' so when the wood warped it didn't cup upwards, hold water, and rot them out (I learned that the hard way over the years). I always cringe when I see people use 5/4 boards as decking.




I found some of the pics I took when I bought this pig. Before everyone freaks out this was something like the 20th house I bid on back in 2005. Market was smoking hot and I got outbid on the previous 20. House was a foreclosure because the crack heads living here with their three kids got caught robbing houses with their kids sitting out front in the get away car. They got busted & locked up. I got the house. Grandmother got the kids and I took her all the kids toys and clothes. Took me over three months after purchase to stay overnight here. No idea how they lived here but they must have been good at sucking down black mold cause this house was loaded.

 

[Oswego]

and my favorite - the good ol outside couch

 

[Boomtacoma01]

May have been some Meth Involved too .

That deck rot is a typical sweaty nutsack of Houston humidity/ rain issues. I was going to run the 5/4 instead of the 2x6. I just need it to last another 5-7 years. Like you not my forever home..

 

[Oswego]

May have been some Meth Involved too .

That deck rot is a typical sweaty nutsack of Houston humidity/ rain issues. I was going to run the 5/4 instead of the 2x6. I just need it to last another 5-7 years. Like you not my forever home..

Meth is across the street and down the street. Got one house that sells and one house that is the lab. Maybe this house was the major consumer so they moved closer to it

@ the 5/4....unless someone like us tries to buy it you'll be fine. I have a feeling 5/4 is the residential norm and 2x's are the commercial norm. Heck I know one guy who only uses steel for his deck beams.... but he also only works on McMansion's for the rich

Wood prices are horrible right now. I paid $32 per 4x8 sheet of 19/32 plywood a few weeks ago and thats insane. Need to replace 11 panels of fencing but refuse to pay double right now.

 

[Anathollo]

Meth is across the street and down the street. Got one house that sells and one house that is the lab. Maybe this house was the major consumer so they moved closer to it

@ the 5/4....unless someone like us tries to buy it you'll be fine. I have a feeling 5/4 is the residential norm and 2x's are the commercial norm. Heck I know one guy who only uses steel for his deck beams.... but he also only works on McMansion's for the rich

Wood prices are horrible right now. I paid $32 per 4x8 sheet of 19/32 plywood a few weeks ago and thats insane. Need to replace 11 panels of fencing but refuse to pay double right now.

My new neighbor across the street has a MASSIVE outdoor deck. The previous home owner was a DIY guy but he didn't know how to build correctly coming from Cali. So he just put in treated wood and never sealed it. Well the new homeowner was asking me about how to replace the decking as well as how much it would cost. I told him to wait a year until lumber prices went down as right now is not the time to be remodeling something (in Houston at least).

 

[balakay]

Yeah I need to redo my deck and shed (been saying it since I bought the house in 2018 and havent done it yet). Was looking at materials the other day and couldn't believe how much lumber has gone up.

 

[Oswego]

Costs are so high for wood if you are in your forever house now's the time to consider composite.

I wish I had the $$$ 16 years ago when I started renovation. Money spent on good materials is money saved it the long run.

For example this cheap ass put in non treated fencing 16 years ago then stained it multiple times as well as pressure washing it multiple times. Looked good for a couple years.

little different looking these days and the only reason it's not replaced yet it the pricing for treated.

My other three sides were all fenced in prior to my ownership by a few years. All of it is pressure treated. To this day none of it needed replacing. The fence I put in thats not treated is hammered to crap and falling down all the time.

 

[balakay]

Costs are so high for wood if you are in your forever house now's the time to consider composite.

I wish I had the $$$ 16 years ago when I started renovation. Money spent on good materials is money saved it the long run.

For example this cheap ass put in non treated fencing 16 years ago then stained it multiple times as well as pressure washing it multiple times. Looked good for a couple years.
View attachment 32264

little different looking these days and the only reason it's not replaced yet it the pricing for treated.
View attachment 32265

My other three sides were all fenced in prior to my ownership by a few years. All of it is pressure treated. To this day none of it needed replacing. The fence I put in thats not treated is hammered to crap and falling down all the time.

Nope, not forever house. 3 years or so until the fiance is out of school then we're out of here.

 

[Oswego]

that was my plan 16 years ago.

Just saying - be smarter than I was. I was 25 (young /dumb).

maybe have a plan b for staying longer than expected. I did not.

I never planned for the housing market to implode in 2008.

Bought in 2005 w/ 5 year plan to flip it.

After 08' it made no sense to 'me' to keep dumping any more $$ into it. That was completely wrong as well. Should of had everything ready to go so when this bubble rose again I was ready to sell and take advantage of it.

Now I'm just praying I can unload this turd before it explodes again

 

[Boomtacoma01]

With that being said, I may upgrade to a 2x6 over the 5/4 deck ...

 

[Oswego]

yea my initial budget did not include painting the interior twice, doing flooring twice, or replacing the fence twice

luckily it was all my labor so free. materials not so much

Looking back I spent more than vinyl once I replace it no matter how low wood costs go. Fencing would need to be 30% of it's cost prior to covid for me to not spend more and if you calc labor I'd exceed it no matter what

Hard to buy once cry once when you are young and trying to get established while not trying to go underwater in debt. That said - looking back - maybe I could of waited another year or two for the fence so I could of afforded vinyl. Maybe instead of building my wood deck for $3k a decade + ago I waited a little longer and got trex or put a slab in?

Back then I thought I was being smart. In hindsight I made some huge mistakes. Got myself in major debt, totally screwed my schedule over, and become a slave to the man due to that debt.

 

[Oswego]

Oh and carpet sucks - just saying. It's a horrible investment. My laminate is in great shape. Carpet all needs to be replaced now. Next house will have zero carpet. A throw rug on top to lessen echo is about all ill ever have from here on out.

 

[Silverback]

Yep, our whole house is hardwood or tile. I do have one room with carpet, the media room, but its super nice carpet and we rarely go in there. Stuff looks like new and its 6+ years old.

 

[Oswego]

I have one throw rug in my living room to keep the echo down. Basically my media room.

I had a few renters over the years that screwed it up + one big ass stain from a ditzy chick who spilled coffee in my bedroom, did a half ass job cleaning it up, then it attracted dirt, and she finally fessed up a month later when I was like "WTF is this" and she was only person other than me in there.

I also did my remodel room to room (worst idea ever) so while some were completely done and carpeted others were in demo phase and that dirt/dust always got tracked in.

As a contractor who ran their jobs very well at work - I ran my personal tasks into the ground. Shoemakers kid is shoe-less kinda moronic stuff

 

[Anathollo]

I also did my remodel room to room (worst idea ever) so while some were completely done and carpeted others were in demo phase and that dirt/dust always got tracked in.

As a contractor who ran their jobs very well at work - I ran my personal tasks into the ground. Shoemakers kid is shoe-less kinda moronic stuff

Same here last thing I want do when I get home is more construction work

 

[tx_shooter]

Exactly the reason my "tech" at home has suffered for years. This is one of the reasons yesterday I finally replaced my 41" Vizio TV with a proper 65" Samsung LED. Of course I overlooked the detail of the size of my current TV stand which means I am in the planning stage of a new stand / center solution. That is a conversation my sammich maker and I have been having already though.

 

[Silverback]

Daughter wanted LED lights around her room. I finally gave in. In our old house I put crown molding up and had it down from the ceiling about 2" or so... laid in a rope light all the way around. Put an outlet behind the crown and then had that outlet on a dimmer. It was super cool, walk in to check on the baby at 2AM and you can just make it barely bright enough to see. Anyhow, I wanted to do the same but with higher end LED's. Wife just said "Do it without the crown".. fine.. I did. I think it turned out pretty cool! Cool enough I want to do the same in the media room. Its controlled via a hardwired remote on the wire, a wireless remote or the phone app. She has the same brand lights under her bed so one app controls them all.
Link https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B083BDK69P

 

[tex]

Nice. I did something similar in Riley's game room. I put up shelves just above the door frame on 2 walls. mounted the lights on top of the shelf at the very back. Lights are controlled with a remote. Change color, dim and all that. He put some different Lego sets and Funko pops on the shelf so the light behind looks really cool.

 

[Silverback]

To mount these on the walls you are supposed to heat up the strip with a hair drying to make the glue stick better.. we had to do it. So to make it easier all the furniture had to be moved to the middle of the room. I want to do this to the media room but do not look forward to moving the furniture around in there. It's all heavy and awkward AF.

Also, she needs to correct her calendar on her dresser. I guess during the furniture movement it got messed up.