House Bros-What projects are you working on?

[Dave]

pickle pls come back to fb grope

[ajaxlepinski]

OMG! Dealing with contractors is a freeking nightmare...
The first contractor was great - did an excellent job on the kitchen and upstairs bathroom... unfortunately, he put a screw through a heating pipe in the 2nd floor bathroom, creating a slow leak. The slow leak took two months to soak through the insulation, sub floor and first floor sheet rock. When the leak finally saturated the 1st floor ceiling, mold had grown in the ceiling and in wall.
The insurance company sent a mold eradication team who ripped out the entire bathroom, half of an adjacent room and wood hallway floor. There was absolutely no need to open up the adjacent room and certainly no need to tear out the wood floor in the hallway... or the bathtub, toilet and sink fixtures! Talk about making work! And of course, the Insurance Inspector recommended a contractor to rebuild. What a scam!

We fired the contractors (who were recommended to do the restoration by the insurance company) after 5 days - they couldn't get the molding around the windows right! How hard is it to cut four, 45 degree angles??? Buhjeeebuz!!!

Then, we asked four new contractors for quotes to do the restoration and three weeks later, only one responded.
If anyone is looking for a secure job, go into the home improvement business... apparently, there is so much work to be had that you don't even have to bother giving quotes!

In the mean time, I can't put my current house on the market until I know when I'll be able to move to the new house.

[Loop Bizkit]

Nice work dude!

Last summer, I:

-Framed a partition in the basement to make a prepper room behind the TV wall
-Fixed the basement fireplace
-Painted the living room
-Added a bunch of wall/ceiling storage in the garage
-Refreshed the landscaping
-Built raised garden beds


This year, I'm still dragging my feet on:

-Rebuilding my deck
-Laying down "hardwood" laminate in my studio and bar areas
-Recarpeting the basement home theater
-Building a firepit and bench for the pondfront
-Laying down about 3 tons of river rock on my pond front.

I have all the flooring materials in my garage, as well as a lot of the stone....just zero time. Work's had me traveling a LOT this summer.

[rock flag and eagle]

Just moved into a new (used) home last week.
I dig that blue concrete finish, interested to see how yours turns out. My garage floor already has a coating, but i would eventually like to do the blue on mine.
I had to paint the entire interior since the old color was ugly, all vaulted ceilings so a pain in the ass. I had to fix some small things here and there, nothing big.

I am going to build a wall of "built ins" using Ikea billy bookcases. I want to put a back splash in the kitchen. Once it cools down, I need to put the rest of the pool fence in, it's already in the yard, I just need to install it. The sliding door has a lock up high to prevent the kids from being able to go out, I've also put an alarm on the door.
Also going to replace some dated light fixtures, I already have them I just need to find time to do it.
Don't have any big projects yet, right now its just get settled in, enjoy the pool and recoup after moving in 114° heat.

[Yarbicus]

I've got a mountain of cedar wood chips that need to moved to the backyard. 50+ year old back is NOT happy.

[Noah]

I cleaned a bunch of windows and opened up some of them to take out their mini blinds. Tired of those things. Drapes do the job better and let in more light when needed.

I also waxed my car, if that counts. I'm fucking lazy.

[GuitarBilly]

my next house project will be selling it I was going to do the backyard this summer but we're moving out in a few months so I won't even bother.

[GuitarBilly]

my next house project will be selling it I was going to do the backyard this summer but we're moving out in a few months so I won't even bother.

Nice haha. Still in Vegas or somewhere else?

Back to the East Coast. Trying to decide between NJ or PA...

[ajaxlepinski]

OMG! Dealing with contractors is a freeking nightmare...
The first contractor was great - did an excellent job on the kitchen and upstairs bathroom... unfortunately, he put a screw through a heating pipe in the 2nd floor bathroom, creating a slow leak. The slow leak took two months to soak through the insulation, sub floor and first floor sheet rock. When the leak finally saturated the 1st floor ceiling, mold had grown in the ceiling and in wall.
The insurance company sent a mold eradication team who ripped out the entire bathroom, half of an adjacent room and wood hallway floor. There was absolutely no need to open up the adjacent room and certainly no need to tear out the wood floor in the hallway... or the bathtub, toilet and sink fixtures! Talk about making work! And of course, the Insurance Inspector recommended a contractor to rebuild. What a scam!

We fired the contractors (who were recommended to do the restoration by the insurance company) after 5 days - they couldn't get the molding around the windows right! How hard is it to cut four, 45 degree angles??? Buhjeeebuz!!!

Then, we asked four new contractors for quotes to do the restoration and three weeks later, only one responded.
If anyone is looking for a secure job, go into the home improvement business... apparently, there is so much work to be had that you don't even have to bother giving quotes!

In the mean time, I can't put my current house on the market until I know when I'll be able to move to the new house.

Yeah this is why I do it all myself. Def not because I'm too poor to hire people to do it for me. Oh wait.

I'm ranting cause, it's pissing me off.
Dude, I hear you.... I do a lot of work myself too and I enjoy it, but when I do, it takes me four times as long as a good contractor. Right now, there's too much to do and I have that 9 to 5 job with 90 min commute. The first guy we hired was great... until he put a hole in the pipe.
Plus, I always have to make extra trips to home depot because I wind up buying the wrong size, wrong part, etc.
If we knew how long all this was going to take, even though I work slow, it could have been done by now.

[IndyWS6]

Dude - great progress on the garage.

My house is 50+ years old and I have been remodeling as I have the funds. I'm not going into debt for any of it, so I pick a major project or two each year and pay cash to tackle it. Two years ago, I replaced all of the windows. Last year, it was the roof, soffit, facia, gutters and downspouts. Since the roof was being replaced, I also had an unneeded chimney removed. It doesn't count as remodeling, but I also re-did my entire A/V home theater setup last year.

Right now I'm working through options to remodel the kitchen. I really don't want to rip & replace the cabinets so that's where I'm contemplating options. The current cabinets aren't fancy, but they are solid. I'm going to price having new doors and drawer fronts built. Wondering if I'll find that's more expensive than replacement. Then it will be countertops, vent hood, cooktop, back splashes and flooring...

[Marc G]

We just a pretty intensive remodel at home, new kitchen, added a powder room and storage space.... only have to do some minor plumbing when I get back from vacation to connect the dishwasher.

[Matt]

New windows are on their way to my house. My father (worked in construction his entire life) and I will be installing them. Then I have to start on some bathroom upgrades.

Pickle, are you throwing away that lumber? If so, I'll take it off your hands. I have a bunch of little projects and wood is always needed.

[IndyWS6]

Did the first application of degreaser last night. Directions said to mix 20-1, but I did 10-1. Poured it on, brushed it in, and then let it sit for half an hour. Hosed it off, and was pretty disappointed with what I saw. Didn't look like it had done anything. I started wondering if the acid stain was even going to be an option.

However, when I checked this morning, the floor and stains were noticeably reduced. Looks like it just needed to fully dry overnight. I'm going to do repeated applications over the course of this week, then hopefully the final TSP (trisodium phosphate) cleaning on Friday. I'm ordering the acid kit today, so hopefully can get rolling on that this weekend. More pics as I have them.

I would love to put an epoxy coating on my garage floor. The effort needed to move everything out to accomplish that is frightening

[Pepi]

I would be smashing my head on that trying to dive in Looks cool

[ajaxlepinski]

Hung a replacement bathroom door - what a total pain in the ass!

The house is old so, the whole frame was askew. Planed, rehung, planed, rehung, plained, rehung, planed, rehung, planed, rehung.
Put the hinges too far in so, the door hit the existing jambs and wouldn't close.
Instead of removing and repositioning the jams, I ground them down with a Dremel.
Next time, I'll take hinge position measurements from the old door.
Bought a door handle hole jig that worked great.
Two more doors to go!

[itchyfingers]

Pickle. Bro. It is lake season. You have a party boat. The fuck are you doing messing around with house projects right now?

[IndyWS6]

Hung a replacement bathroom door - what a total pain in the ass!

The house is old so, the whole frame was askew. Planed, rehung, planed, rehung, plained, rehung, planed, rehung, planed, rehung.
Put the hinges too far in so, the door hit the existing jambs and wouldn't close.
Instead of removing and repositioning the jams, I ground them down with a Dremel.
Next time, I'll take hinge position measurements from the old door.
Bought a door handle hole jig that worked great.
Two more doors to go!

All of the doors I put in had to be dremeled into place lol

One of my previous projects was removing and replacing ALL of the doors (entry, passage and closet, including the jambs), door casing and baseboard throughout the house. I am good at that kind of work, but my OCD makes me stupid slow at it. It looks great now, but I don't think I'll ever do that again

[HottKarl]

Ugh, we moved 3 years ago into a fairly new house thinking we'd do a couple things and be done with it.....but being the masochist I am (and having a work schedule that gives my 20 days off a month on avg) I have instead done these things:

1) Completely remodeled master bath.
2) New flooring through basement.
3) Repainted the entire interior and replaced baseboards.
4) All new doors throughout house.
5) New countertops/sink/faucet in kitchen.
6) Re-framed/new sheetrock in several areas to fix odd floor plan.
7) Built a huge new deck. We now have 3 stories of decks, now.
8) New carpet in the upstairs.
9) Remodeled main floor office into a ensuite complete with Murphy Bed and private bathroom.
9) Framed/sheetrocked/painted/new lights in unfinished room in basement for drums.
10) Just finishing up a basement bathroom remodel.

In the very near future, I plan to build retaining walls and tier off some flat space in my back yard as we live on a hill. Replace hardwoods on the main floor (they're bamboo, changing to fir). Reface kitchen cabinets. Tile kitchen floor. Build a few new furniture pieces.

Then I should be done.

[KCTigerChief]

Looks like copper petina. Nice bro!

[GuitarBilly]

This is really cool. I want my next house to have a basement and I am most definitely doing this finish on the floor.

[VTM]

Painting trim.

[rock flag and eagle]

It's looking pretty good

[VTM]

Did this for several hours. My knees and forearms feel like I sucked 200 dicks last night. Trust me, I would know.

Been there.

I spent some quality time with a wire brush this weekend too. Applied concrete etch to the massive oil stain in my garage.

[VTM]

Did this for several hours. My knees and forearms feel like I sucked 200 dicks last night. Trust me, I would know.

Been there.

I spent some quality time with a wire brush this weekend too. Applied concrete etch to the massive oil stain in my garage.

Is it coming up well? I was diluting the degreaser per the instructions, and it wasn't working worth a damn. Poured it straight on, let it sit, then brushed and we were golden.

For the most part, but the floor doesn't look the way it did before the oil was dripped there. I started with a sponge mop and dish soap. After it would dry I would sweep the floor and repeat until I was left with a stain. Then I put on a new mop head and repeated the process with the etch, which has to sit about 20 minutes then hit that with a wire brush.

I tried diluting the etch with water before applying but it didn't work, so I splashed some water on the floor and sprinkled the etch on top and let it sizzle.

In then end, most of the floor looks like an old floor but a big chunk in the middle looks like it chugged bleach.

[RyanDistortion]

Wow, dude. Really interesting what you did here! Lot of labor for some love. Hope it turns out great.