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The perpetual home improvement thread!


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The perpetual home improvement thread!
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Brad
Selfish Heathen
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Zone of Pain
 
2014-04-06, 17:53

...wherein we discuss all things Tim Taylor and Al "the flannel man" Borland? No! Wherein we discuss all things about improving your home!

It's a not-so-closely guarded secret that I bought and moved into my first house a few months ago. The "omg we have a house" honeymoon phase was short but sweet, and now my wife and I have a slowly but steadily growing list of things we'd like to do to make the house and property better suited to its new owners.

I'd like to shamelessly draw some inspiration from you guys, too.

So, aside from the typical upkeep, what are some things you've done to your home that you're proud of? Got any plans for the future? I know there have been a few scattered threads here and there on the subject, and I know we have at least one HGTV addict. I remember torifile built a sweet pergola in his back yard. What about the rest of you?

The quality of this board depends on the quality of the posts. The only way to guarantee thoughtful, informative discussion is to write thoughtful, informative posts. AppleNova is not a real-time chat forum. You have time to compose messages and edit them before and after posting.
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Brad
Selfish Heathen
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Zone of Pain
 
2014-04-06, 18:08

To get things started, my current project is a simple but lengthy one of cleaning up and renovating our yard space. We have a few pine/evergreens in the yard, and it looks like the previous owners decided to just pile up all the needles along the back and sides of the property under the trees for years. They're packed pretty densely and things are barely decomposing if at all. Worse, weeds and vines have grown through them, making raking impossible.

So! One back-breaking weekend later and we've bagged hundreds of feet of vines and some 40 bags of pine needles for the local yard waste pickup. Woo! Too bad this only accounts for about a quarter of the total mass of needles.


The quality of this board depends on the quality of the posts. The only way to guarantee thoughtful, informative discussion is to write thoughtful, informative posts. AppleNova is not a real-time chat forum. You have time to compose messages and edit them before and after posting.
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Windswept
On Pacific time
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Moderator's Pub
 
2014-04-06, 18:42

I'm glad you started this thread, mainly because I had intended to start a similar one, but kept forgetting the topic.

Actually, my topic would have been more along the lines of having members talk about all the problems they've had to deal with in keeping their house up and running and in good shape. Would stuff like that be okay here, or would you rather keep this thread for all the *nice* projects that people have for their houses, and none of the problems and disasters?

I had my house built by a builder who didn't really deal in custom homes, but I had a few *must haves*, and since the economy at the time was a bit lax, the builder was okay with the stuff I wanted done. I had to pay $400 for an architect to draw up plans to make the loft space overlooking the large living room into a double-sized space, 22-24' long, by eliminating a bedroom upstairs. I wanted the loft as a library, and that's what I got. They had to brace the entire house with extra cross-pieces of steel to make sure all the open spaces had adequate support.

The front and back yard were dirt, so I spent three months researching plants, shrubs and trees, and planning a landscape design diagram for the landscapers. I made sure I had lots of flowering shrubs, and I had the colors contrast from shrub to shrub as if my yard were a watercolor painting - hot pinks next to buttery yellows, with some orange cape honeysuckle and some light blue, possibly called cape plumbago, though I'd have to check on that last name.

So, you might want to put in some 5-gallon flowering shrubs, and they need to get maybe 6 hours of sunlight during the day in order to flower in the springtime. If they only get 2 hours, they might not ever flower. I also put in bowls for flowers, maybe one bowl every eight feet, with a drip line in the bowl. Lots of fantastic flowers in the bowls. Have fun.
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Ryan
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Promise Land of Trustafarians
 
2014-04-06, 19:00

I live in an apartment. What is this "improvement" you speak of?






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thegeriatric
geri to my friends
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Heaven
 
2014-04-06, 19:10

I think they mean either getting a new Mac, or upgrading your present one.
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turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2014-04-06, 19:31

This is the year that my wife and I might actually start doing real stuff around our house that isn't just maintenance or repair. We have been holding out for many reasons up to this point, her being weakened a huge factor. We are through this now and looking to get outside more too! This is a great opportunity!

Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it.
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Brad
Selfish Heathen
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Zone of Pain
 
2014-04-06, 20:17

Quote:
Originally Posted by Windswept View Post
Would stuff like that be okay here, or would you rather keep this thread for all the *nice* projects that people have for their houses, and none of the problems and disasters?
By all means! Home ownership isn't all rainbows and unicorns.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryan View Post
I live in an apartment. What is this "improvement" you speak of?
I know, right? It was pretty cozy in the zero-maintenance dorm/apartment lifestyle for the last decade for me too.

If it weren't for some shitty neighbors that broke this proverbial camel's back, I'd probably be in that old apartment now still, but despite burning cash like it's going out of fashion and popping Aleve each Sunday after working around the house, I'm realizing that it's better here than it ever was there.

Quote:
Originally Posted by turtle View Post
This is the year that my wife and I might actually start doing real stuff around our house that isn't just maintenance or repair. We have been holding out for many reasons up to this point, her being weakened a huge factor. We are through this now and looking to get outside more too! This is a great opportunity!
Excellent! Looking forward to some progress photos.

The quality of this board depends on the quality of the posts. The only way to guarantee thoughtful, informative discussion is to write thoughtful, informative posts. AppleNova is not a real-time chat forum. You have time to compose messages and edit them before and after posting.
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billybobsky
BANNED
I am worthless beyond hope.
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Inner Swabia. If you have to ask twice, don't.
 
2014-04-08, 10:40

At some point, many years ago now (I haven't been back to Charleston since 2010, and this was at least two years prior), I went home for a brief visit only to discover that a hurricane had killed a tree in my parent's yard, allowing vines to swamp it and then its neighboring tree; killing it as well. The entire mess was a 5 meter tall pile of crap that completely blocked the view of the house to the marsh behind. I practically yelled at my parents to promise me to not let the vines continue to spread (they were crawling towards another tree), but they laughed me off. Over the brief weekend I was there I cleared out about a ton of material (it was weighed to charge my parents for the disposal costs). At some point my mom told me to stop and that they would get someone else to finish the task and while they did, it took another six months before I got the phone call from my mom saying that the tree had just been removed. Parents...

Unfortunately, this habit of not being satisfied to just let things sit has gotten me more trouble than I expected. I tore out a significant fraction of the walls in the apartment I had in Philly because the cracking and peeling wallpaper hid cracking and crumbling plaster. I learned how to properly (at least for a moderately experience amateur) plaster new areas of the wall, creating curves and details that were identical to the original 19th century walls. I learned how to do this, but that was the only benefit. My apartment, until I moved out, was continuously covered in a thin layer of plaster dust. I was almost always in fear of my landlords entering my apartment for whatever trifling reason and discovering that some fraction of the walls were just simply not there. At some point I was unsatisfied with the painters/plasterers that the landlord hired in preparation to sell the building, and in the middle of their three days in my apartment, tore out what they had done and replaced it with my own efforts. It was an obsession, and I have had to make conscious efforts to accept that I am not responsible for minor repairs that the landlord does not want to handle. That no one notices the cracks the way that the resident does etc etc.

I worry about when I might own a house. If I am like this with property I am explicitly forbidden from improving...
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Windswept
On Pacific time
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Moderator's Pub
 
2014-05-16, 18:50

A few years back, a storm swept through my side of town and a microburst hit my neighborhood. I was up in a mountain cabin that I had rented, which was a five-hour drive back home. My neighbors called to tell me about the storm and said that both my skylights and a front window were broken by the softball-sized hailstones. I envisioned monsoon rain pouring into my house through the broken skylights, so I packed and left. I arrived home after midnight, called the insurance company, and they sent out a crew at 2:00 a.m. to cover the broken skylights with tarping.

I had to have the entire house painted, tiles on the roof replaced, replaced shattered skylights and windows, new shade screens, new wood for the gate, repainted front door, and probably some other things that I can't think of at the moment. But had I been at home, my car would have been destroyed by the hailstones, and at the time, it was almost brand new. There are still cars around town with deep hailstone dents on every skyward surface. I was so glad I was out-of-town and saved my new car from such devastation.

Anyway, this was just one event in the life of a homeowner. That same spring, I also had three huge trees removed because their roots had started to lift the sidewalk. I think it was around $3,000 for the tree removal, in addition to all the thousands caused by the storm. The insurance covered a lot of the storm damage, but not all. At least my insurance didn't go up, because it was a disaster-area type of event. Every house in my neighborhood had to have new roofs, except those with tile, as I had.
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Chinney
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Ottawa, ON
 
2014-05-17, 10:19

Learning to properly plaster a wall is a considerable skill, but it is quite in keeping with 'bobsky's character that he would put in all that work to do it for a place that he did not even own. Well done. I do not have anything similar to share, nor any home improvement after a disaster like Windswept, but I do feel qualified to post to a "Perpetual Home Improvement Thread" because we are perpetually home improving. We have a 100+ year old house that was in fairly rough (but livable) shape when we moved in 14 years ago, and we recognized the need for much work when we bought it. We have done quite a bit - albeit a lot of the reno projects we promised ourselves we would do we thought that we would do much earlier than we actually did them, and some remain in the 'planning stage', and some will probably have to wait for a future owner. Our latest project was to completely renovate the main, 2nd floor bathroom. It was not in great shape at all, so we gutted it and started over. The only thing that we kept was a huge clawfoot tub that was original to the house and was one of the things that had attracted us to it. By rearranging things, we also wanted to make room for a walk-in shower. We wanted the result not to look 'new' though, but like it had always been there. Here is a pic that gives a sense of the result, just finished a few days ago:



We had a contractor - I did not do any of the work myself, other than some very minor finishing bits. I am going to paint the front porch today though...

When there's an eel in the lake that's as long as a snake that's a moray.
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Windswept
On Pacific time
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Moderator's Pub
 
2014-05-19, 19:39

Wow, Chinney. Your house looks just like the homes that Nicole Curtis renovates on the program called Rehab Addict. I've seen her put that same bathroom tile down so many times. Her houses turn out so wonderfully that you just have to catch her shows so you can watch how it's all done from scratch.

If you have never seen her program, you should. It's on HGTV, but you'd have to check the HGTV schedule via google to see when it's broadcast in your area. I watch the episodes over and over again. It was fascinating to watch the one where they lifted the old, falling-apart, two-car garage up a few feet into the air so that new foundation structures could be put in underneath.

If you were to watch these programs often enough (especially over and over again, like I do ), you might be able to learn to do some of the tasks yourself. Every single thing she does would be needed for your house. Thanks for posting your bathroom. Looks like they did a great job.
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Windswept
On Pacific time
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Moderator's Pub
 
2014-05-19, 19:49

Lots of editing:

About the insurance coverage on my storm-damaged house:

They okayed painting the south and east sides of the house. I paid out-of-pocket to get the whole house painted.

The ruined shade screens were made from screening no longer manufactured, but the insurance company was only going to cover a few screens. Well, you can't have two different colors of screening covering the front windows showing toward the street, so I paid for all the additional shade screens that they didn't cover.

They were approving mediocre skylights, but I wanted really good ones that would probably never break in a similar storm, so I did research and ordered really great ones that were hurricane-rated! I also ordered electric black-out shades for inside the house on the skylights, to block out the sunlight in the heat of the summer. The shades have saved a fortune on the air-conditioning bill. I ordered solar-powered batteries on the electric shades, that are opened and closed by remote control.

So, all of this extra stuff, I paid for myself; but I was glad to do it since the insurance company declined to approve the upgrades. I've always believed in buying the best quality products that I could possibly afford, and I'm so glad to have those black-out shades. The savings they provide in the summer electric bill will eventually pay for all the quality-extras I ordered.

For those who *don't* live where sun is always shining (but who might in the future), harsh sunlight baking indoor surfaces rapidly and permanently fades out the colors on furniture upholstery, carpeting, drapery, any fabrics, and paintings. To keep light and heat off indoor surfaces, I have dual-pane windows with expensive indoor plantation shutters, removable shade screens attached over the windows outside. Then I've planted large shade trees in carefully-selected spots in the yard to keep summer sunlight off the house and the windows.

All of these measures help enormously in keeping down the air-conditioning bill, and keeping the sun from fading and destroying items inside the house. Wooden fencing (or wooden roofing shingles) shouldn't be used in sunny locales, because the wood dehydrates and deteriorates in short order. Brick or block walls should be used for fencing where possible in sunny climes. Or maybe metal fencing, like that around the White House grounds. I'm mentioning these things for those who might be in the market for buying a house in the next few years.

About the dual-pane windows: the ones I have aren't the specialized kind to keep out the sunlight, because my builder didn't offer those as an option when I had the house built. But my dual-panes *have* helped enormously with keeping out heat, dust, noise and burglars! I could go for weeks without dusting. It's great. And when burglars tried to break in a few years back, they broke one pane, but when they saw that there was a second pane to shatter, they gave up and left, fearing that the shattering noise of yet 'more' glass breaking would certainly alert the neighbors.

I *love* dual-pane windows, and the same glass is on my sliding glass doors too. I have 20 windows, two sliding glass doors and two skylights. The windows and trees are all placed with exposures allowing light and heat to come 'in' during the winter months, with a certain percentage of light and heat blocked 'out' in summer months. In winter, the sun comes pouring in all my south-facing windows, when the shutters and skylight shades can be opened, the outdoor shade screens removed, while the trees, divested of their leaves, block not a single ray of light. It's great.

...All carefully thought through in the months while I was picking which empty lot to buy in the subdivision, and which way to place the house so that the most windows would be facing south and the fewest facing north. (I don't like the quality of light from the north. It has a chilly blue-ness and gives me a dreadful twinge of S.A.D. - seasonal affective disorder.)

Last edited by Windswept : 2014-06-07 at 17:44.
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Chinney
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Ottawa, ON
 
2014-05-29, 21:43

Great long post Carol. Just seeing it today after a very busy period at work. Lots of good advice there (although not entirely applicable here in a more northern climate - heck, we don't even have air conditioning in our house - though most in our neighbourhood do). Anyway, taking care of a house is a worthwhile and satisfying thing.

When there's an eel in the lake that's as long as a snake that's a moray.
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torifile
Less than Stellar Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Durham, NC
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2014-05-29, 22:22

After building my pergola, I decided to tackle the berm we have in the backyard (the pergola is up on top). The hill is seemingly made of concrete. Or clay as hard as concrete. Same diff....

I decided to go with a retaining wall/raised flower bed sort of thing. 24' long x 3' high and about 4' deep.

30 6"x6"x8' yellow treated pine timbers. A crap ton of 10" galvanized screws. 18" and 48" rebar for the base.

3 tons of 67 gravel for drainage.

Getting the base level was hard and, as with all walls, very important. I had to buy a demolition hammer to dig enough to level them.

I learned about deadmen and put in 5 of them. I dropped one my foot. It hurt.

Now, I've got put that gravel in to make sure I get good drainage. After that I'm running a 75' dry creek bed (another 3 tons of stone) to a daylight drain. Hopefully, this'll solve most of our drainage problems. I'm not certain, but it seems like it'll work. Fingers crossed!

Yes, like the pergola, I'm building this myself (as in, no help from anyone else). It's hard work but there's nothing like doing it yourself, if it's safe to do alone.

If it's not red and showing substantial musculature, you're wearing it wrong.
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torifile
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Location: Durham, NC
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2014-06-01, 20:15

The currently in-progress wall:

P6010287.jpg by sbanawan, on Flickr
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Chinney
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: Ottawa, ON
 
2014-06-01, 22:33

You have much energy, my friend, and apparently skill as well. My hat is off to you.
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torifile
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2014-06-02, 09:40

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chinney View Post
You have much energy, my friend, and apparently skill as well. My hat is off to you.
Thanks! It's really about having the proper tools (and, believe me, by this point, I have *all* of them ) and patience to get things right. YouTube helps, too.

Brad: If you ever need to borrow any tools to help you on your projects, let me know.

If it's not red and showing substantial musculature, you're wearing it wrong.
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Windswept
On Pacific time
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Moderator's Pub
 
2014-06-08, 18:40

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chinney View Post
Anyway, taking care of a house is a worthwhile and satisfying thing.
Well, yes, it is. But finding the right people to do the work used to be fairly terrifying until sites like AngiesList appeared on the scene, where one can get suggestions for honest and reliable contractors.

After that terrible storm I mentioned above, I discovered that I had a leak from a window, with water dripping from the upper wooden framing of said window. I had no way to tell if the window itself was leaking, or if water was coming from an entrance point in the roof (under the tiles), down through the wall, and out the window frame. Roof leak or window leak? So I had to have two different companies check it out - roofing and glass.

A leak was found in a tear in the black tar paper that covers the roofing plywood, underneath the tiles. I managed to find a professional roofer who worked for a roofing company during the day, and did side jobs on the weekends for *much* better prices. So I had him and his roofer friend lift and stack all the tiles, put down a new water-barrier material, much better than tarpaper, over the whole roof, and then put all the tiles back down again, replacing any that were cracked.

Only cost me about $1,800 or so, instead of the $8,000 a roofing company would have charged. Not only took care of that window leak, but gave me virtually a new roof, good for the next few decades, due to the new water-barrier material laid down. They did a very good job.
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Brad
Selfish Heathen
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Zone of Pain
 
2014-06-08, 18:50

Quote:
Originally Posted by torifile View Post
I decided to go with a retaining wall/raised flower bed sort of thing. 24' long x 3' high and about 4' deep.

30 6"x6"x8' yellow treated pine timbers. A crap ton of 10" galvanized screws. 18" and 48" rebar for the base.

3 tons of 67 gravel for drainage.
That's a lot of hardware! Did you buy all of that from a local store like Lowes? Did you have it delivered, or did you pick it up? Do you have a truck?

I'm curious about the transport logistics because later this year I may find myself buying a bunch of tiles/stone to lay down in my back yard, either to create some walkways and/or to redo the half-unfinished raised flower/garden area that the previous owners left.

Quote:
Originally Posted by torifile View Post
Brad: If you ever need to borrow any tools to help you on your projects, let me know.
Thanks! Will do.

The quality of this board depends on the quality of the posts. The only way to guarantee thoughtful, informative discussion is to write thoughtful, informative posts. AppleNova is not a real-time chat forum. You have time to compose messages and edit them before and after posting.
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torifile
Less than Stellar Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Durham, NC
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2014-06-08, 23:08

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brad View Post
That's a lot of hardware! Did you buy all of that from a local store like Lowes? Did you have it delivered, or did you pick it up? Do you have a truck?

I'm curious about the transport logistics because later this year I may find myself buying a bunch of tiles/stone to lay down in my back yard, either to create some walkways and/or to redo the half-unfinished raised flower/garden area that the previous owners left.


Thanks! Will do.
I bought it all from Lowe's. I rented a trailer and pulled it with my Jeep. It took two trips. I could have done it in one but it was too heavy for the trailer.

Lowe's is about the same price as the lumber yard in Raleigh for pressure treated wood and much more convenient. I got the cedar for my pergola from the lumber yard.

For stone, I like the stone center on 55 or the rock shop on Hillsborough.

edited to clarify: I bought all the wood and various fasteners from Lowe's. The stone came (delivered) from the Stone Center.

Last edited by torifile : 2014-06-09 at 08:58.
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