The Home Improvement Thread

[balakay]

Spent all my free time today (not much due to work and Mother's Day lunch) on the yard. Mowed, weed eated, edged, pulled weeds, trimmed trees, sprayed Celsius WG on a few problem areas, tilled up two new flower beds for the wife, filled in some holes and low areas. It's slowly starting to shape up. Still have one spot in the front between my driveway and front door walkway I need to till up and level and lay some sod on. My St Augustine got a fungus there the first year we had the house and I lost the whole patch and it never came back. Not going back with St Augustine though. Fuck that shit.

 

[balakay]

Finally got a couple days of no work call-ins. Got the garage clean enough to get the trailer and my wife's car in and cleared enough room to stick a beer fridge out there. Little bit of organizing left to do but goal was just to get everything into the garage for the time being. I'm off the next two days so the plan is to do some work on the trailer so I can register it Tuesday and to get the electrical done in the bathroom. My drywaller broke his hand so he's been out of commission for the last 6 weeks. He's good now so need to get the electrical wrapped up so we can start hanging sheetrock in the next week or so. Ordered the tile for the floor and shower but it's 3 weeks out. Should have ordered it already but oh well.

 

[Anathollo]

Swapped out some pool fittings for my moms Polaris pool sweeper.

Replaced this massive window because the seal failed after Hurricane Beryl. My youngest daughter was a great helper and I had a blast with her around.
Unfortunately the Hardie trim I got is too small because the window ended up coming in smaller than I expected. I had already got ~$200+ off this window due to a billing issue at McCoys, so I'm not gonna bitch about it being a couple inches shorter. It cost $2,200 in the first place so I'm not ordering another one (custom size, double paned hurricane rated window). So I'm going to pick up some wider trim pieces and cut it down to size.

 

[Anathollo]

Swapped out some pool fittings for my moms Polaris pool sweeper.

Replaced this massive window because the seal failed after Hurricane Beryl. My youngest daughter was a great helper and I had a blast with her around.
Unfortunately the Hardie trim I got is too small because the window ended up coming in smaller than I expected. I had already got ~$200+ off this window due to a billing issue at McCoys, so I'm not gonna bitch about it being a couple inches shorter. It cost $2,200 in the first place so I'm not ordering another one (custom size, double paned hurricane rated window). So I'm going to pick up some wider trim pieces and cut it down to size.
View attachment 65350

Well looks like I sealed it right. We've had one random squall blow through and there was no moisture or air coming through. It also rained most of last night and this morning and there was no water intrusion thankfully.

 

[Taco Loco]

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.

Look into this product, Termidor SC Termiticide/Insecticide, really good stuff for DIY treatments or prevention.

 

[Taco Loco]

This is the time of the year to add a cup or two of the green gobbler and hot water down the AC drip pipes, prevent water drain back ups and system shutdown.

 

[balakay]

Look into this product, Termidor SC Termiticide/Insecticide, really good stuff for DIY treatments or prevention.

View attachment 65442

This is what it was treated with.

 

[Taco Loco]

This is what it was treated with.

Good deal

 

[Taco Loco]

Farm Bureau has been great. They sent us a big ol check for the 3 roofs; house, shop and portable building. I'm using the same company who installed our new/old roof 10 months ago. I'm gonna get with roof company owner later today and work on a schedule. His crew is currently redoing my neighbors big ranch house. He was originally gonna move the crew over to ours next, but he asked if he could delay since another customers roof leaked after last week from storm damage.

 

[balakay]

My "quick mow before the 6 days of rain" turned into 4.5 hours cutting down two crape myrtles and some kind of decorative tree in the front flowerbed, pulling up landscape edging, marking out new front landscaping, removing all the dead weeds I sprayed with Celsius the last few weeks, and cleaning gutters in the hottest part of the day. Still have two more little tree things in the front flowerbed I want to cut down but my wife isn't sold on getting rid of them yet. Debating xeriscaping a section of our yard between the driveway and front walkway that died a couple years ago and I haven't been able to get it back without laying new sod. It's in bad shape and by the time I get it cut done and level enough to sod, I'd rather just throw rocks down and let my wife move her cactuses out there. once I get the roots up next weekend after the rain, I'll replace the two crape myrtles I took down with a couple of Vitex trees.

 

[balakay]

Also relocated a gecko, snake, and frog from our backyard

 

[Taco Loco]

My "quick mow before the 6 days of rain" turned into 4.5 hours cutting down two crape myrtles and some kind of decorative tree in the front flowerbed, pulling up landscape edging, marking out new front landscaping, removing all the dead weeds I sprayed with Celsius the last few weeks, and cleaning gutters in the hottest part of the day. Still have two more little tree things in the front flowerbed I want to cut down but my wife isn't sold on getting rid of them yet. Debating xeriscaping a section of our yard between the driveway and front walkway that died a couple years ago and I haven't been able to get it back without laying new sod. It's in bad shape and by the time I get it cut done and level enough to sod, I'd rather just throw rocks down and let my wife move her cactuses out there. once I get the roots up next weekend after the rain, I'll replace the two crape myrtles I took down with a couple of Vitex trees.

You will be fighting weeds through the rocks, then in tbe fall all the leaves. The rocks will increase heat around your house and reduces soil moisture. Get it back to grass, easier to mow/maintain in the long run.

 

[balakay]

It would make a great putting green but I can't get the wife on board with spending $2k on a green mower for a 270sqft section of grass

 

[Taco Loco]

It would make a great putting green but I can't get the wife on board with spending $2k on a green mower for a 270sqft section of grass

, look on CL, there are few folks selling rolls of artificial turf grass, from soccer and football fields for sub $200

I've been thinking of getting a roll and redoing the dog run, so the dogs don't have deal with stickers.

 

[balakay]

Found another snake today. This time inside the house. My wife somehow talked me out of burning the house down. Barricaded it in the bathroom because I don't fuck with snakes. I'll deal with spiders, mice, roaches, dead things the dogs bring in (mostly squirrels), etc. She deals with snakes. Don't know where it is now that she got home. Found a large gap around the toilet supply line coming out of the wall in that bathroom. Assuming it came from there and went back into it. Only place we could find that it could have gotten in. That gap is full of foam now. I'm sure it will show back up when I wake up at 3am to take a piss.

 

[Silverback]

I can send my kid over to take care of it. LOL

 

[Boomtacoma01]

I had forgotten about your fear of snakes . thanks for reminding the group..

 

[PSU Taco85]

I can send my kid over to take care of it. LOL

Story remind me of iron resurrect episodes, maybe someone playing a prank

 

[Silverback]

My co-worker showed me a video of him this morning. Last night he had to come back to the office to get his laptop, he had left it to finish a download. Anyhow, it was CCTV footage... shows him walking up through a hallway that is sort of a short hallway between the outside door and the inside door. As he opens the interior door he jumps back. A rattlesnake had been above the door... INSIDE the building, and it fell down in front of him. Had he been walking fast it probably would have landed on him! LOL

 

[SecretSquirrel]

Thoughts and will I ever find it cheaper?