The Home Improvement Thread

balakay

balakay

BabyMax
Went this morning and picked out all the materials for the bathroom remodel. Then came home and started the real demo. Taking it down to the studs, then I'll put in all new electrical and insulation, and frame the new half wall between the toilet and shower. That's the plan for this week. Going to be a slow remodel but taking care of everything ourselves except the tile work. I hate doing tile and don't care to learn. Plus we're putting 4'x8' porcelain tile slabs in the shower and they're too expensive for me to gamble on. I have not ripped out what's shown in the picture and decided pulling sheetrock out by hand fucking sucks so I ordered an M12 oscillating tool to cut it out. It will be here Tuesday so I guess tomorrow will be attic work for the new electrical while I wait on it. Have a tile guy coming this week to quote the shower work and floor.


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tx_shooter

tx_shooter

It is not a war crime the first time.
Staff member
After almost 18 years of service the original dryer in my house has stopped working. Repair cost estimate is more than half the cost of a new unit so we are replacing it. I price shopped the regular places against the NEX Online and found no difference. So Homely Depot will be delivering the new GE dryer on Thursday. I probably should have replaced it last year when it started taking two cycles to dry a load of jeans and towels.
 
AlienXtx

AlienXtx

Nignog
tx_shooter said:
After almost 18 years of service the original dryer in my house has stopped working. Repair cost estimate is more than half the cost of a new unit so we are replacing it. I price shopped the regular places against the NEX Online and found no difference. So Homely Depot will be delivering the new GE dryer on Thursday. I probably should have replaced it last year when it started taking two cycles to dry a load of jeans and towels.
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I just bought a new washer/dryer a few weeks ago. Went with Speed Queens.
 
AlienXtx

AlienXtx

Nignog
Silverback

Silverback

Lima Gulf Bravo Foxtrot Juliet Bravo
Can't inspect what they can't see!
 
Anathollo

Anathollo

Armorall is my choice of lube
Staff member
balakay said:
Hey look, a wire connection in an open wall! Who needs j-boxes?!?!? Oh and rubbing on a metal bracket for extra spiciness. That cheap ass electrical tape will keep us safe though!


View attachment 64692
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I found a bunch of those in my house when doing the remodel.
 
balakay

balakay

BabyMax
Have a guy coming tomorrow to look at our shower and give me a quote on redoing it. We're going to add a half wall with glass, a glass door, and a bench as well as a couple of niches. The valve shares a wall with the hall coat closet so I'll be putting an access panel in there with shut off valves for future maintenance needs. Progress is slow but I only have about two hours a day to work on it during the week.
 
balakay

balakay

BabyMax
Contractor just left. Sending me an itemized quote this afternoon for the job. I'm going to demo the shower and floor tile. He'll lay the new bathroom floor, durock, waterproofing, shower walls, shower floor, add a pony wall with glass above it, add a glass door, add a bench, move the faucet to the pony wall, add a 30" niche, and move the toilet over about 4" so my shoulder isn't up against the pony wall when I'm taking a dump.
 
balakay

balakay

BabyMax
After a couple of weeks of projects and breakdowns/callins at work, I finally got to spend most of yesterday and today working on finishing demo on the bathroom now that we've decided to do the shower. Everything is out except the shower pan and toilet. My cousin is coming over this week to help me get the plumbing rerouted and I'm hoping to be putting up insulation and sheetrock on Sunday. And hopefully the following week I can get the contractor out to build out the shower.
 
tex

tex

That's Mr Asshole to you
I finally got around to ripping out the boxwoods, nandina, and monkey grass from the flowerbed. Broke up the soil, pulled out the grass that has crept in, put in some edging, new plants, and new mulch.
 
balakay

balakay

BabyMax
tex said:
I finally got around to ripping out the boxwoods, nandina, and monkey grass from the flowerbed. Broke up the soil, pulled out the grass that has crept in, put in some edging, new plants, and new mulch.
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Good luck with the monekeygrass. Been trying to get rid of that shit since we bought the house 2.5 years ago. It just keeps coming back. Swear my mother in law is coming over and planting more everytime we pull some up.
 
balakay

balakay

BabyMax
Finally some time away from work when it's not raining. Got some new blades put on the zero turn. The old ones were still in great shape but were leaving weird patterns. Turns out they were each about 3/8" shorter than the new ones so they were leaving a line between them. New ones have full coverage and I have only had to make one pass to get the yard mowed. Have a half ounce of Celsius WG to spray tonight once the dogs are in for the night. Have a company coming out this week to see what it will take to get the sprinklers going again. Not going to go back with irrigation in the backyard yet (probably never, honestly) but want to get the front yard system going again.

Don't ask about the bathroom disaster. We ended up spending most of the budget for that on termite treatment and damage repair. No signs of new activity but there was previous damage and wanted to make sure everything was good to go before we start covering the walls back up. It's good now but motivation was killed and my wife told me to to wait a bit before we worry about doing anything else with it. She likes the guest bathroom better than the master anyway because it's twice the size and has a vanity she can sit at and a tub. Next 6 weeks at work is going to be super busy with management changes and people being out so once I get through that I'll hop back on it and knock it out. In the meantime I'll do little things I can do in a couple hours here and there like replace the window, the door, etc. Termites was the one thing I hadn't thought about possibly running into and I had no plan to tackle it once it came up.
 
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tx_shooter

tx_shooter

It is not a war crime the first time.
Staff member
Brought home a new-to-me generator today. A friend bought it for his house and then came into some money so he bought a full house generator instead. This will work for this house at 9500w peak and 7500w running. Now I need to make sure I have the right cables to connect it and then back feed the panel.

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Anathollo

Anathollo

Armorall is my choice of lube
Staff member
balakay said:
Finally some time away from work when it's not raining. Got some new blades put on the zero turn. The old ones were still in great shape but were leaving weird patterns. Turns out they were each about 3/8" shorter than the new ones so they were leaving a line between them. New ones have full coverage and I have only had to make one pass to get the yard mowed. Have a half ounce of Celsius WG to spray tonight once the dogs are in for the night. Have a company coming out this week to see what it will take to get the sprinklers going again. Not going to go back with irrigation in the backyard yet (probably never, honestly) but want to get the front yard system going again.

Don't ask about the bathroom disaster. We ended up spending most of the budget for that on termite treatment and damage repair. No signs of new activity but there was previous damage and wanted to make sure everything was good to go before we start covering the walls back up. It's good now but motivation was killed and my wife told me to to wait a bit before we worry about doing anything else with it. She likes the guest bathroom better than the master anyway because it's twice the size and has a vanity she can sit at and a tub. Next 6 weeks at work is going to be super busy with management changes and people being out so once I get through that I'll hop back on it and knock it out. In the meantime I'll do little things I can do in a couple hours here and there like replace the window, the door, etc. Termites was the one thing I hadn't thought about possibly running into and I had no plan to tackle it once it came up.
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That sucks about the termites. I just found a termite colony in two downstairs walls. It's fucking frustrating because I have no plants or trees anywhere around the house. They're coming out Friday to kill the colony and spray for fire ants. I also can't seem to get rid of the fire ants as well since I poison one mound and they move 5' over and start a new colony in a day or two.

Then to add to the termites & ants, we have a couple of stray cats coming around all of a sudden and now I have fleas in my yard. I managed to trap one of em and gave em a nice nap before dropping it off to Davy Jones pet rescue. That sucker was covered head to toe in fleas. Those two cats ran off our friendly possum & babies that used to come around nightly and my girls were attached too. They are mean fuckers.
 
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balakay

balakay

BabyMax
Anathollo said:
That sucks about the termites. I just found a termite colony in two downstairs walls. It's fucking frustrating because I have no plants or trees anywhere around the house. They're coming out Friday to kill the colony and spray for fire ants. I also can't seem to get rid of the fire ants as well since I poison one mound and they move 5' over and start a new colony in a day or two.

Then to add to the termites & ants, we have a couple of stray cats coming around all of a sudden and now I have fleas in my yard. I managed to trap one of em and gave em a nice nap before dropping it off to Davy Jones pet rescue. That sucker was covered head to toe in fleas. Those two cats ran off our friendly possum & babies that used to come around nightly and my girls were attached too. They are mean fuckers.
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When I did the termite treatment, I had to sign up for quarterly treatment and maintenance of the bait stations to maintain the "warranty". So I added on general pest control as well. They put out a granular pest control and sprayed all soffits, doors, windows, etc and I haven't seen a bug since. Well not a live one anyway. They will also do any interior pest control if I request it when they come each quarter. And they said they'll foam any walls for termites as needed as we remodel the rest of the house as long as I can line opening the walls up with my quarterly appointments. Anything I need done that doesn't line up with my appointments will have to pay a service call charge but won't actually have to pay for the service.
 
Anathollo

Anathollo

Armorall is my choice of lube
Staff member
balakay said:
When I did the termite treatment, I had to sign up for quarterly treatment and maintenance of the bait stations to maintain the "warranty". So I added on general pest control as well. They put out a granular pest control and sprayed all soffits, doors, windows, etc and I haven't seen a bug since. Well not a live one anyway. They will also do any interior pest control if I request it when they come each quarter. And they said they'll foam any walls for termites as needed as we remodel the rest of the house as long as I can line opening the walls up with my quarterly appointments. Anything I need done that doesn't line up with my appointments will have to pay a service call charge but won't actually have to pay for the service.
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Yeah I've added the yearly inspection on mine as well. If the ant treatment works out, I'll have them come yearly to spray for those.
 
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