What Did You Do To Your House Recently?

[krhodes1]

Looks nice...good job! I really did the single drain board sink. Are you now going sans microwave?

Thanks! Only thing left is paint, but I can't decide on a color. I really like the sink too, it was a bit of a splurge... I got a smaller microwave on a stainless steel cart - built a cabinet for above it for glasses and such. It's across the dining area from the kitchen area.

Coffee Cart by kevinr1916, on Flickr

[a]

Scored a Regency ceiling fan with a 4 light set up from Craigslist free stuff. I took it apart and replaced the single light fan in the front room. The old fan sans light will go into a wired fan box in the kitchen I had wired when I had an electrician in back in '02 when I last re-did the kitchen.

[e28Sean]

Installed an Idiot Bump in the garage, so the car is always perfectly positioned front to back.





It's positioned for the Mercedes, not tried to park the e28 in that spot yet...

[oldskool]

Renovated a 1990’s craphole I bought for 130k and just now sold for 199k. Not as easy as it looks on TV, but I suggest everyone do it once.

[Mike W.]

Renovated a 1990’s craphole I bought for 130k and just now sold for 199k. Not as easy as it looks on TV, but I suggest everyone do it once.

Pics or it didn't happen. Seriously though, hat's off to you.

[tschultz]

Painting my house exterior. May get a photo when I'm finished but over 20+ hours in and I have a long ways to go still. This project is taking away from my other car project time!

[a]

Am in cool down mode. Last 2 days spent fixing the dryer. 95 and super muggy Sinus headache. I worked on it in briefs, I'd worked in 10 15 minutes. That would drench me in sweat so I couldn't see straight.Crazed on store brand pseudoefedrine , I dismembered the poor thing. Removed the top , front and sides. I was following the interweb wisdom that told to check for a bad door switch , then a few thermo fuses I had a schemtic that identified colors and fuses Everything worked as it should with a continuity test. Back to more interweb,. Turns out 21st century dryers can be reset by turning the timer to off and pushing the start button. Had the drum out. Taking it out was the beginning of the put together cycle. Typical 2 steps forward 1 step back stuff. moves. Good tutorial for future work when about 20 $ of parts come in.

[Mike W.]

Scored a Regency ceiling fan with a 4 light set up from Craigslist free stuff. I took it apart and replaced the single light fan in the front room. The old fan sans light will go into a wired fan box in the kitchen I had wired when I had an electrician in back in '02 when I last re-did the kitchen.

Funny you should mention a ceiling fan. Just did one for our bedroom. A cluster as usual. Studfinder didn't show anything on the ceiling, so I bought a better one. Supposedly. New one still didn't show anything that made sense. 1st floor of a two story house. Turned out the ceiling joists weren't 2X10's, but some sort of engineered wood I beam. Thick plywood top and bottom with a OSB main web. 6" apart where I wanted the fan. A bit of repair work from where I tried to first cut out for the box, but not too bad and it works just in time for 112 yesterday. No wonder my upstairs floors squeak.

[Kenny Blankenship]

Hire a realtor.

What do I do with multiple sets of E12 6x14 turbines???

[a]

Engineered floor joists, Mike, The twenty' foot I beam 2x12s only weigh about 50 lbs, yet they are code for 20 foot spans . My father did the same span with paired douglas fir 2x12s The ceiling sheet rock should be screwed into 1x3 strapping run at right angles to the joists. . Least thats how my addition was done. here is my experience with the electrician's bulk fan boxes on a flimsy strut that fatigued and broke within 2 yrs. I replaced it with a steel 4" round box screwed to 2 1x3s laid across the joist. then you screw it all together with 1 1/2 sheet rock screws. I've done 4 fans that way and the install is pains taking , but is a rugged install.

[Mike W.]

Engineered floor joists, Mike, The twenty' foot I beam 2x12s only weigh about 50 lbs, yet they are code for 20 foot spans . My father did the same span with paired douglas fir 2x12s The ceiling sheet rock should be screwed into 1x3 strapping run at right angles to the joists. . Least thats how my addition was done. here is my experience with the electrician's bulk fan boxes on a flimsy strut that fatigued and broke within 2 yrs. I replaced it with a steel 4" round box screwed to 2 1x3s laid across the joist. then you screw it all together with 1 1/2 sheet rock screws. I've done 4 fans that way and the install is pains taking , but is a rugged install.

No 1X3's at right angles, the rock is just screwed into the I beam. Assuming the I beam flanges to be suitable for a 20 pound load, when split between two of them, I laid a shortie 2X4 on top of the I flange, screwed it at a 45 to the vertical webbing just to locate it, not to really support it, then the 4" round box to the 2X that is resting on the flanges.

If I'd known what I was going to be looking at before hand, time would have been cut in half if not less. I'm sure they're adequate, perhaps better, but I doubt it, but I just don't like working with them. Of course the biggest problem was the 6.5 inch spacing between those two studs, again, more for not expecting it than it really being a problem.

[a]

I've evolved my go to fasteners from bailing wire to duck tape to sheet rock screws.

[Mike W.]

I've evolved my go to fasteners from bailing wire to duck tape to sheet rock screws.

I keep them on hand, labeled in separate boxes, 1-1/8, 1-1/4, 1-5/8, 2", 2.5", 3", 3.75". Plus most of those sizes in galvy deck screws too.

[e28Sean]

Straightened up the garage a bit...


... and figured it was about time I put one of these out there. Just in case.

[Karl Grau]

... and figured it was about time I put one of these out there. Just in case.

Good call! Every garage should have a doorbell.

[e28Sean]

Good call! Every garage should have a doorbell.

You think you are funny... don’t you?

[tig]

Julie decided to replace the downstairs carpets with hardwoods, and to replace the upstairs carpets with new.



I decided to rip and and replace all the circa 1999-2002 electronics in the house. All my "do it yourself" stuff, including a panelized Lutron lighting system, and Crestron AV control is gone. It will all be replaced with Control4. Also upgrading all my speakers, receivers, and TVs.








We are doing both projects at the same time. Duh.

Leading up to this insanity we cleaned the house of 16 years of kids crap. I lost count of the dump and donation runs we made. House feels lighter, for sure. Kind of like an E28 with its interior stripped out.

It'll still be a few weeks before it's done. Assholes and elbows every day, all day. We can't live in the house right now because almost no lighting works (and there are no carpets). At least my garage is still functional, although I have to use a 7 foot stick to turn on and off the lights. We're staying in a hotel.

[vinceg101]

Good call! Every garage should have a doorbell.

You think you are funny... don’t you?

Chas is f*ing hilarious.

[vinceg101]

We can't live in the house right now because almost no lighting works (and there are no carpets). At least my garage is still functional, although I have to use a 7 foot stick to turn on and off the lights. We're staying in a hotel.

Ummm...

[tig]

We can't live in the house right now because almost no lighting works (and there are no carpets). At least my garage is still functional, although I have to use a 7 foot stick to turn on and off the lights. We're staying in a hotel.

Ummm...

Don't you fret. There is a plan A, B, and C.

[Mike W.]

Refinished the kitchen cabinets this week. My wife was out of town for a few days visiting one of her brothers, it's a somewhat dramatic family, so I decided it was time.

They weren't real bad, good stuff, oak, but 20 years old now and a little dull. Some cleaning, sanding and ~2 coats of lacquer and it's a nice change. Bright, clear, shinny, not dull and gray. I just brushed them, spraying would have been better but that's not always a realistic option. It's like the difference between a car that hasn't been washed in a week or two and one freshly washed and waxed. Looks good, I'm smiling.

Lacquer. It's a love/hate thing. Nothing IMO looks as good as lacquer. It holds up reasonably well. But off the wall on VOCs and I probably should have been wearing a respirator. Dries so fast it's hard to use, but dries fast so you can recoat and reinstall quick. I'm really surprised it's still legal here in Calif.

[e28Sean]

I just finished installing two new cameras. I now have video coverage of every ground level point of entry.

[Mike W.]

I just finished installing two new cameras. I now have video coverage of every ground level point of entry.

I've thought about putting cameras up but not really for security. The layout of the house and street means you can barely see any of it even if you go up to the front door. I'd like to see what's going on sometimes.

[e28Sean]

I've thought about putting cameras up but not really for security. The layout of the house and street means you can barely see any of it even if you go up to the front door. I'd like to see what's going on sometimes.

For me, it's about both security and just being able to keep an eye on the place when I'm out of town.

[glowell222]

New dryer, new mower, new sump pump, and refurbished the fire pit.

[tig]

My Control4 dealer/installer got our outdoor sound system working. ZMOG, I had no idea underground subwoofers were a thing, nor how great they sounded.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn_t9pqF5AM ... _copy_link

They also put some finishing touches on the racks in the equipment room including LED backlighting. Heh.




Yes, I have three racks in my raised-floor, drop-ceiling, glass fronted home equipment room. Don't you?

(In all seriousness, I'm blessed to have a job where I get to build and play with all these toys).

[Mike W.]

[vinceg101]

I saw all that going in. You should see the miles of cable behind all those racks.

indeed.


[It's not really all that out of the ordinary for the house we work on, but Charlie's is the coolest I've seen. I think I need to buy him a HAL-9000 interface panel to make it complete.
I think this is totally fitting, too bad it might not be as poignant as it would have been 6 months ago: https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/10/1710 ... -bay-doors]

[Mike W.]

It's not really all that out of the ordinary for the house we work on...

Really? What all do they run? From what I can see the right panel might be stereo, er music, but on a computer level how much can you need/use? Oh sure, a bunch of tera if you have a large video collection, but you don't need all that much hardware to run a bunch of hard drives. I guess it shows what I know. Or perhaps more what I don't know.

[vinceg101]

It's not really all that out of the ordinary for the house we work on...

Really? What all do they run? From what I can see the right panel might be stereo, er music, but on a computer level how much can you need/use? Oh sure, a bunch of tera if you have a large video collection, but you don't need all that much hardware to run a bunch of hard drives. I guess it shows what I know. Or perhaps more what I don't know.

You would be surprised. Once you start wiring up every room with multiple sources of audio, video, and in Charlie's case: smart home interface the hardware and wiring requirements start to stack up. Throw in a home theater, security interface, telephones, smoke & fire detection and remote off-site controls and yeah, your equipment closet starts looking like Charlie's.
Or this one from one of our recent projects; this was just A/V and doesn't include the theater which is a stand-alone system: