What Did You Do To Your House Recently?

[tig]

[quote="Karl Grau" post_id=1513847 time=1654906572 user_id=6677




[/quote]

Love that car.

[gwb72tii]

A friend and I built this in 3 days, a 200 sq ft “she shed”. It mirrors the design of our house and will also be, in essence, a potting shed. Still lots to do.
It turns out I have partially torn rotator cuff muscles from taking a high speed wipe out skiing about 5 years ago that was was aggravated after nailing rafters and things. I got a cortisone shot today for the first time.

[John in VA]

Nice! I've read of hubbies commandeering these & adding TVs,bars & shelves for their whiskeys - you might consider one to match!

[Mike W.]

A friend and I built this in 3 days, a 200 sq ft “she shed”. It mirrors the design of our house and will also be, in essence, a potting shed. Still lots to do.
It turns out I have partially torn rotator cuff muscles from taking a high speed wipe out skiing about 5 years ago that was was aggravated after nailing rafters and things. I got a cortisone shot today for the first time.

Looks good, but 3 days? Does that include forming and pouring the slab?

[gwb72tii]

no, not the slab. My ex-inlaw runs a concrete business and poured it when were in Spain.

[gwb72tii]

Nice! I've read of hubbies commandeering these & adding TVs,bars & shelves for their whiskeys - you might consider one to match!

in the interest if staying married I'm not sure that is going to happen!

[gadget73]

plumbed in the outdoor shower. It was installed years ago by a "professional" plumber with PEX. One year later the PEX turned to dust. Between that point and now the house had been re-sided and we got a proper enclosure thing for it. Finally got tired of looking at the parts, so I bought some copper and soldered up piping to it. Copper won't fail in the sun, and solder won't dry out and leak like an O-ring fitting will. Put drain elbows on it so it won't freeze in the winter too. Stainless hardware to hold the faucet to the wall of the enclosure, brass screws on the copper pipe straps so none of it should rust.

[gwb72tii]

added a front porch/deck (almost complete) to the she shed. Next will be a roof over the porch area.

Forgot to mention that I used a friend's Roto-hammer that drills holes in concrete to attach the deck to the foundation. I originally tried to drill the holes with my 20v drill and it was working, but slowly. The Roto-hammer drills holes in concrete like a regular drill into wood. The construction guys here know what I mean, pretty impressive technology.


Erected a post/beam today. Roof joists will come down off the wall on the same 3/12 angle of the roof and hang over the beam by about 18”

[gwb72tii]

started the roof over the front porch/deck

[gwb72tii]

Got the front porch roof completed, and the Hardie board siding with board and batten put on.
I feel guilty as I separated a muscle in my shoulder and actually cannot swing a hammer, so I help with my left hand and give instructions to my son-in-law who is about the hardest working person I know.

[gadget73]

waiting on someone else to do something. Had a roof done on the front part of the house about 6 months ago. Its a flat roof with drains. They built up the roof so its not basically a swimming pool up there, but for some reason instead of just pitching it a bit so it sheds off the front, they left the drains and formed low spots for water to collect in around them. There is now a gap between the drains and the roof material so the water runs in. Co was supposed to come fix it today, and its the first time we've gotten rain in weeks so of course they aren't fixing my roof. The roof leaks and it ruined the drywall in the front room. So far I've been able to catch it in buckets to keep it from ruining the carpet too. The roof warranty says it will cover any damage caused by failure in the roof but I just know its going to be like pulling teeth to get it fixed.

flat roofs are stupid and anyone that thinks otherwise should be forced to live with one.

[Mike W.]

No glamorous pictures, but in the past week or so

Christmas Lights, including the Santa in an Airplane blow up on the roof. Had it over a decade now, faded, and the wings are dropping and I think I'm going to pull his planes airworthness certificate at the end of this season.

The Dryer. Wife kept saying it wasn't drying anymore, thought the heating element was going out. It's electric, so the heating element either works or it doesn't. I replaced the cycling stat, it's a snap device, so finite life. No help. So I pulled it out and started ohming everything out. And everything checked good. I'd pulled the pipe apart a while ago when she first started complaining, and it was clear. Turned out the thimble at the end of the vent pipe was plugged. Cleared, problem solved.

Then the water heater. Noticed it wasn't quite as hot in the shower as it should be, but we've had cold weather. Next AM wife said we have a problem. Pilot wouldn't light. I just happened to have a spare gas valve assy, (long story) so in it went. Ignition, yes we do, here we go. Better not fail again as it appears to be NLA now with similar replacements pushing $200. New the whole thing was ~4 something.

Then working on the dryer, I had to manipulate the washer some. Cracked the end on the cold supply hose. Bosch washer, nice nylon braided hose, washers still nice and soft, but a crappy plastic end fitting that cracked. Not a big surprise, the hot went a couple of years ago.

I think that's all for this week.

[gadget73]

roof still isn't fixed. The repair has been re-scheduled several times now. At this point I'm not sure if the goal is to put me off until I give up, or because they just don't have any idea how to fix the problem.

[davintosh]

It's been a couple years since I last visited this thread; just spent the last hour catching up on everyone's home improvement projects, and I feel like a slouch!

Our "new" house is feeling more like home these days. We haven't done any major renovations, just little things here and there, like a gate at the top of the deck stairs to contain the grandkids and keep them where we want them. It works for now, but the eldest grandson is 3, and the twins are 2 1/2, so we expect that they'll master the baby locks by next summer!

The latest project was replacing the heater I installed in the workshop last year. I acquired this beast in a swap with a friend. It worked great, but is designed for a vertical vent, which I wasn't able to do because of the core floor and several inches of concrete above my workshop. I thought a short piece of upward-sloping pipe leading to a vertical chimney outside the wall would be enough; while it worked ok most of the time, using the heater with a south wind would cause some of the exhaust gasses to get pushed back into the shop and make the CO2 alarm go off. Because of that, I would only use it while I was in there rather than to keep it at a consistent temp.



This fall I broke down and replaced it with a modern heater that has a power venting system designed to vent the exhaust through the sidewall. I got it installed two weekends ago (no photos yet) and it works beautifully. I keep the thermostat at 50°F most of the time, and bump it up to 60 or so when I'm in there. And I'm finding that I'm in there a lot more this year than last, partly because it's more comfortable in there, but more because I actually am collecting some tools that make being in there more productive. I added a jointer and a thickness planer to the shop, which allow me to produce sawdust at a record rate. Not much more than sawdust, but that's something, right?

[krhodes1]

Thanks to Hurricane Ian, I got to replace the roof and front of the house soffit on my little winter shack in Florida. I did the soffit myself, and the roof cost more than the really nice 128i convertible that lives in the garage that I bought a couple years ago. Upgraded to metal though, shouldn't come off in the next big blow! The big silver-blue German is a result of the hurricane too. My mom's '01 Camry drowned, so I gave her the '04 Volvo V70 that was my grocery getter in FL and bought the big Benz to replace it. '14 E350 with 70K on it. Drives like a silk-wrapped bowling ball, is nowhere near as much fun as a BMW, but it makes a nice pair with the 128i.

IMG_0754 by kevinr1916, on Flickr

Sadly, my next-door neighbor lost three big live oaks that shaded my driveway all winter long. But at least I didn't have to cough up the $6K for the tree debris removal.

[gwb72tii]

Here is the nearly completed "she shed" with the fenced in garden area to keep deer out. Almost done, and I am ready to be done with this project.

[Mike W.]

Dodged a bullet. Got back from vacation Wednesday and Friday the wife says the A/C isn't blowing cold. I figured it's 111 outside, maybe it just doesn't feel like it. Nope, she was right, the condensing unit is silent. Checked the breaker first, no luck, it hadn't tripped. I'm thinking oh crap, it's 25 years old, a 5 ton unit, R22 so it will be a bit more work to convert, figure maybe 10K going off what neighbors have had done lately. But maybe I'll be lucky.

Went out the next day, opened up the fusible disconnect box and something didn't look right, kind of melted. Eventually got it apart and it looked much worse inside. How the fuses didn't blow I have no idea. Line side was crispy and burnt, load side could have been put in yesterday, guess someone didn't tighten the lugs. Oh well. Ace hardware to the rescue on a Saturday afternoon. New crappy disconnect, just like the original and I was out the door for under $60. Put everything together and it's running like it should again. Woo Hoo, just saved $10K.

[gadget73]

It regularly impresses me how f'd up something can be and still be at least somewhat functional.

[e28Sean]

Wow. Dodged a heck of a bullet there. Fire bad, okay! Fire bad!

[Mike W.]

Wow. Dodged a heck of a bullet there. Fire bad, okay! Fire bad!

Yeah, a steel box on a stucco wall FTW.

[south26]

Wow. Dodged a heck of a bullet there. Fire bad, okay! Fire bad!

Yeah, a steel box on a stucco wall FTW.

still liking your solor panels?


Andy

[Mike W.]

still liking your solor panels?


Andy

Very much so. Trying to be pragmatic and reasonable about rate increases I'd estimated a payback of 7-7.5 years. Looks like it's going to be more like 5.5 years, not counting the couple of hundred I get back every year since I oversized it a bit wanting to make sure I had it covered.

I have two regrets, one that I didn't do it earlier, and two that I didn't look into doing a heat pump for heat. Not sure it would have penciled out, but I should have at least investigated it.

[gadget73]

I also wish we'd done a heat pump when the AC got replaced. This happened right about the time the solar went on. I don't use much oil anyway, about 1 tank per year, but most of the oil furnace run time is spring and fall. Too cold to be without any heat, too warm for the pellet stove. Perfect for a heat pump though.

[south26]

I am still happy about the panels we put in. Being in Ohio, January and February they are a waste. During the summer they are great. So happy that I got the panels, with the rising cost of power the panels make summers a little cheaper. My neighbor has 300 or higher bills for electric, I have around 50. Since we do not get money back here for producing more electricity, then we use I went with 85% of my usage for the panels.



Andy

[Mike W.]

I am still happy about the panels we put in. Being in Ohio, January and February they are a waste. During the summer they are great. So happy that I got the panels, with the rising cost of power the panels make summers a little cheaper. My neighbor has 300 or higher bills for electric, I have around 50. Since we do not get money back here for producing more electricity, then we use I went with 85% of my usage for the panels.



Andy

I get a dip in production around November, December and January, but by February it's kicking out pretty good numbers again. It's really been surprisingly flat year round, much more than I expected. I talked with the guy who put them in, he's in the business for decades and he said it was very unpredictable about how much generation what time of year.

On oversizing I didn't care about getting paid, but in spite of what everyone told me, which is no degradation, I figure the panels and the inverter aren't going to put out more as they age and the planet keeps getting warmer so I wanted some headroom. Our local utility, PGE, which burned down half the state over the past few years was going to have to pay for upgrades, which ultimately is going to come from customers and I didn't want to have to pay for it. So I have a $10 a month electric bill year round.

[gwb72tii]

Does this qualify?

Started reaping the benefit of constructing a fenced 40'x40' vegetable/berry garden.
Boysenberries, blueberries and raspberries:

[Mike W.]

Does this qualify?

Started reaping the benefit of constructing a fenced 40'x40' vegetable/berry garden.
Boysenberries, blueberries and raspberries:

It qualifies as far as I'm concerned. I've been in places with wild Blackberries and they were always a delight to pick for breakfast, or whatever. Only problem was they tended to grow by the side of the road where they got dusty. Still good and tasty after a rinse.

[gadget73]

I am still happy about the panels we put in. Being in Ohio, January and February they are a waste. During the summer they are great. So happy that I got the panels, with the rising cost of power the panels make summers a little cheaper. My neighbor has 300 or higher bills for electric, I have around 50. Since we do not get money back here for producing more electricity, then we use I went with 85% of my usage for the panels.



Andy

do they at least do net billing so any you feed in gets taken off what you have to buy? I get that here, but any I feed in beyond what I have to buy is paid out at like 10% of the rate I have to buy it at so back-feeding the grid doesn't really have any benefit. Its nice that the spring and fall non-AC months offset the summer heat though.

I do wish we'd been able to buy the panels outright rather than the lease setup, but the lease is about $75 a month less than the power bill was almost 10 years ago, and the electric rates have gone up since then. My normal power bills are about $10 a month, which is basically just the charges to stay connected. For reasons I don't entirely understand, the credit we get spring/fall only covers power usage, it can't be applied to the other fees.

[gwb72tii]

Does this qualify?

Started reaping the benefit of constructing a fenced 40'x40' vegetable/berry garden.
Boysenberries, blueberries and raspberries:

It qualifies as far as I'm concerned. I've been in places with wild Blackberries and they were always a delight to pick for breakfast, or whatever. Only problem was they tended to grow by the side of the road where they got dusty. Still good and tasty after a rinse.

Blackberries up here grow everywhere. We go pick them and make a quick cobbler with vanilla ice cream. Hard to keep a constant weight in the summer in the great PNW.

[topher800]

still liking your solor panels?


Andy

I have two regrets, one that I didn't do it earlier, and two that I didn't look into doing a heat pump for heat. Not sure it would have penciled out, but I should have at least investigated it.

I am eyeing an upgrade in this vain. I want solar panels, battery pack, and heat pump. If you could only afford two of the three which would you get?

+2 for heat pump
- We don't have AC, but it's getting a little worse each summer. We have gone from two weeks of hot nights a year to five weeks over 30 years.
- We have another 100 years of forrest fires before things equalize, so house needs to be closed down during smoke events.

+1 for battery pack (vs generator):
- Xcel Energy (our power company) has started the blackouts pre-wind event. We were down for 48 hours this spring.

+1 for solar panels
- self sufficiency

p.s. Seems like solar w/o battery pack is a non-starter. You can't cover power outages (i.e. if the grid is down, your solar is down).