The New, Improved Home Improvement Thread

[Doohickie]

I suppose $.35 might buy a pitcher back in 1948...

[shrader]

21 hours ago, Doohickie said:

I suppose $.35 might buy a pitcher back in 1948...

We need old man PA to answer this one.

[Doohickie]

Well, the walls are closed up.  Need to sand and paint and then onto the cabinets.  Finally.

 

Edited March 17, 2023 by Doohickie

[Doohickie]

The canvas is ready...

[Doohickie]

I got a little further since I took those pictures, basically put up the mounting rails on the walls. I was going to start assembling cabinets yesterday but my wife is still looped from the combination of DST and her trip back east last week and went to bed at 8 pm. I might be able to get something put together today.

I took the time yesterday to inventory and stage the IKEA boxes in order of assembly, and set up my work area (a door laid across two sawhorses). I also made a list of a few more items I need to get from IKEA.

The kitchen sink we ordered from Lowe's was originally supposed to be here this week but it won't get here until April 21 at the earliest. I found an alternative, not exactly what I wanted style-wise but may be a better fit for the plumbing arrangement; I'll pick that up in the next few days.

[Marvin]

What do I need to do to get a home equity line of credit to finish fixing my house?

[shrader]

1 hour ago, Marvin said:

What do I need to do to get a home equity line of credit to finish fixing my house?

A kidney

[Doohickie]

31 minutes ago, shrader said:

A kidney

Well, techincally two.  You'll need one after you sell the other.

 

2 hours ago, Marvin said:

What do I need to do to get a home equity line of credit to finish fixing my house?

Talk to a bank and find out.  Or maybe go to one of those newfangled e-bank websites and see what they requrie.

Edited March 21, 2023 by Doohickie

[Pimlach]

2 hours ago, Marvin said:

What do I need to do to get a home equity line of credit to finish fixing my house?

You need equity in the home.  The amount you can borrow is a function of how much equity you have.  To determine that, they subtract what you own on the house from their appraised market value.  The remainder is the equity.

The interest rates are market driven.  Shop around. 

[Doohickie]

Mrs. Doohickie showing off her first new cabinet.  This monster, just the empty shell, weighs over 100 pounds:

I got a second one up as well.  I think they will go faster as we go.  The next two cabinets will require some modifications though, so those will take some time.

[shrader]

9 hours ago, Doohickie said:

Mrs. Doohickie showing off her first new cabinet.  This monster, just the empty shell, weighs over 100 pounds:

 

I apologize in advance, but I have to say it...

 

That's no way to speak about your wife.

[Doohickie]

Progress. I got the sink cabinet with the tricky water feeds installed.

 
Dishwasher is fully installed and will be functional as soon as I have a drain (...if I only had a drain!)

 

Edited March 27, 2023 by Doohickie

[Doohickie]

I got the corner cabinet and sink cabinet all figured out and joined together. The trim between them came out just the way I hoped and they're very solid now.

[Doohickie]

The microwave is back in place and working. All of the base cabinet frames are in, most of the wall cabinet frames are in.

I will probably get the rest the cabinets up and start putting in doors and drawers but the next big thing is getting the countertops done so I can install the sink. Once we get that point we'll have a fully functional kitchen again.

[BUFtoNCfan]

Looking good! I need to do it too!

[Happy Days]

I just watched an episode of home improvement tonight.

[BUFtoNCfan]

On 3/6/2023 at 1:01 AM, Scottysabres said:

Just got an estimate on my house for front door replacement, all windows in the house, siding tear off, re-insulate, re-side, soffit and gutter replacement. $85,000.....

Get another quote. I had a similar situation with widows, doors and siding. First bid $90,000. Second bid $28,000. Second bid awarded and did an outstanding job.

Edited March 28, 2023 by BUFtoNCfan
I’m an idiot

[Scottysabres]

25 minutes ago, BUFtoNCfan said:

Get another quote. I had a similar situation with widows, doors and siding. First bid $90,000. Second bid $28,000. Second bid awarded and did an outstanding job.

We ended up going with a split scenario. 21 Windows, 1 front door 38k from Renewal by Anderson. Windows are 3/8" per pane, double pane sealed argon gas with composite frame work warrantied for 15 yrs.

House is a 2 story colonial 4260sqft of siding, 4/4 siding white wood grain, with soffit and gutter replacement for 33k.

So, 3 estimates all at or around 100k for remove and replace 21 windows, 1 front door, siding, gutters. 2 estimates, 1 windows alone, 1 siding with gutters at 77.4k total. We went with the 2 estimate one, got the best windows available, 6 month lead time on those, so windows installed in Sept., siding scheduled for immediately following.

👍 

[Doohickie]

13 hours ago, BUFtoNCfan said:

Looking good! I need to do it too!

Putting the IKEA in is relatively straightforward.  Most of the work has been in demolishing and rebuilding the room.  Our home is 67 years old; a newer home might not need as much prep prior to putting the IKEA in.

Ran into a snag last night.  I did my own design for the sink cabinet and it turns out all the parts don't go together.  I have a couple of ways I can go forward but I've decided to wait until the sink is fully installed to decide, instead of guessing where the disposal and drain pipes will be. 

Edited March 28, 2023 by Doohickie

[BUFtoNCfan]

1 hour ago, Scottysabres said:

We ended up going with a split scenario. 21 Windows, 1 front door 38k from Renewal by Anderson. Windows are 3/8" per pane, double pane sealed argon gas with composite frame work warrantied for 15 yrs.

House is a 2 story colonial 4260sqft of siding, 4/4 siding white wood grain, with soffit and gutter replacement for 33k.

So, 3 estimates all at or around 100k for remove and replace 21 windows, 1 front door, siding, gutters. 2 estimates, 1 windows alone, 1 siding with gutters at 77.4k total. We went with the 2 estimate one, got the best windows available, 6 month lead time on those, so windows installed in Sept., siding scheduled for immediately following.

👍

I hate jobs like this because nobody is going to say “God I love your new widows and siding!” Do a bathroom or kitchen and everyone is loving it.  That’s what we did, plus a new furnace. Crap I will never get my money back when I sell. That being said my son moved to Buffalo, he’s in school and looking for a house. I’ve been gone too long to advise on neighborhoods. He’s looking in the city, but at the edges of Tonawanda, west Seneca, etc.. If anyone has insight in to the market I’m all ears. Most houses have new Vinyl floors, paint, and new furnace. Budget is $160,000. 

1 hour ago, Scottysabres said:

We ended up going with a split scenario. 21 Windows, 1 front door 38k from Renewal by Anderson. Windows are 3/8" per pane, double pane sealed argon gas with composite frame work warrantied for 15 yrs.

House is a 2 story colonial 4260sqft of siding, 4/4 siding white wood grain, with soffit and gutter replacement for 33k.

So, 3 estimates all at or around 100k for remove and replace 21 windows, 1 front door, siding, gutters. 2 estimates, 1 windows alone, 1 siding with gutters at 77.4k total. We went with the 2 estimate one, got the best windows available, 6 month lead time on those, so windows installed in Sept., siding scheduled for immediately following.

👍

You’re lucky, took us a year and a half to get in everything we needed. And windows leaked during heavy storms. Nightmare of a year.

[BUFtoNCfan]

1 hour ago, Doohickie said:

Putting the IKEA in is relatively straightforward.  Most of the work has been in demolishing and rebuilding the room.  Our home is 67 years old; a newer home might not need as much prep prior to putting the IKEA in.

Ran into a snag last night.  I did my own design for the sink cabinet and it turns out all the parts don't go together.  I have a couple of ways I can go forward but I've decided to wait until the sink is fully installed to decide, instead of guessing where the disposal and drain pipes will be. 

Seems like it’s always that way with a project. I remember years ago, my wife wanted a ceiling fan installed. I’m like, that’s a 15-20 minute job, no problem. Well I pulled the old light fixture expecting a black, white and ground. Well a nest of wires fell out and it got worse from there. Thank God for handy uncles.

[Doohickie]

I kind of knew that going into this project, but the amount of time it took me to get the remedial work done was greater than I expected.

Since we're putting new backsplash in I knew we had to replace some drywall but once the old cabinets were out I realized we needed to replace significantly more drywall that I planned for.  A lot of it is you just have to take the old stuff out and see what's left and what needs to be fixed/updated before you move on.

We had the house rewired when we moved in but I wanted to add some plugs on the countertops (the house only had two plugs and the electrician didn't add any more than that), and I also didn't like the way they wired the dishwasher/disposal circuit so I had to re-do that. 

In the picture below you can see the plug nestled in the wall but kind of hanging out:  That's for the dishwasher.  The metal clad wiring coming out from the box is for the disposal circuit which was run inside the cabinet (which is why it needed the metal cladding); the circuit goes to a switch and then to a plug that the disposal plugged into.  The switch was mounted on the front of the cabinet and we bumped it all the time while using the sink, turning the damned thing on when we didn't want to. 

Because the drywall is so brittle there the dishwasher plug box was never really mounted properly, so I had to replace that drywall.  Also, the outer insulation of the wire didn't quite reach all the way into the box so when I moved to switch up to the wall over the cabinet, I ran the circuit to the switch box and passed two wires out:  switched power for the disposal and unswitched power for the dishwasher.

[Pimlach]

On 2/25/2023 at 6:21 PM, shrader said:

My home improvement went off the rails today. I was replacing the fill valve and flapper in a toilet. I didn’t notice that the washer fell out of the connector to the water line. So when I turned that back on water was spraying everywhere. Then when I put the new flapper on, the plastic connection snapped and I had to run out and buy another one.  

Sorry to hear that.  Very common that plumbing takes a few trips to the store.  Plastic breaks and rubber gets old and leaks.  

[Porous Five Hole]

3 hours ago, BUFtoNCfan said:

I hate jobs like this because nobody is going to say “God I love your new widows and siding!”

My neighborhood is very walkable and the project took forever, so people noticed and appreciated the rehab we did. 

[shrader]

Just now, Porous Five Hole said:

My neighborhood is very walkable and the project took forever, so people noticed and appreciated the rehab we did. 

You could have kept the old door and gone for sabre colors.😁