Skwerl's new cabin

[skwerl]

Removed the rain gutter along the front of the house today. After getting a $900 quote to replace it, I decided to simply not have one there. No need for it and the runoff will water my shrubs evenly.

The oak tree we planted was shocked pretty hard but it's coming along nicely. Half the leaves turned brown but they are dropping, which is a very good sign. The brown leaves only fall off if there's new growth behind them pushing them off.

I also trimmed up the palm tree off the roof for the roofers. Waiting to find out my schedule day, supposed to be this coming week.

 

[skwerl]

Posted a 'curb alert' on Craigslist for my rain gutters. Some kid is already here to pick them up.

 

[skwerl]

Moved a large hibiscus and planted a bunch of azaleas today.

 

[sdleo29]

Looks awesome; been following this thread from the beginning

 

[AndrewNagle]

looking good

 

[skwerl]

Thanks, guys! Just finished some plant inventory figuring out how many of what I need to buy next week. Looks like another 200 plants plus a few trees. One of the drawbacks of having a big house, I guess. The front of the house is 78' wide.

 

[skwerl]

Bought more plants yesterday. I also got my bathroom vanity and medicine cabinets delivered. HD had a sale on some stuff not available in stores, just online. Ends up it's really nice stuff. They are made in China but they are all wood without any particleboard.

In the front bathroom I am still going to do the 18" wide x 84" tall pantry cabinet in the corner to use as a linen closet. Then the 60" vanity beside it. This bathroom is LONG! I put the medicine cabinet centered over the toilet.

Since the medicine cabinet was small enough to fit in my bathroom closet area, I bought a second one to put above the towel rack.

 

[Gabe]

Doing great Brian!
Place has certainly changed a lot!!

 

[skwerl]

One step at a time, I'm not setting any speed records.

Today I picked up the pantry cabinet to use as a linen closet. It's the same cabinet as I have in the kitchen. Of course it's such a large item that they usually get banged up long before you can buy it. The first one I bought this morning was broken almost in half when I opened the box. I took it back and this one had some scuffs and dings but they knocked a few dollars off.

I need to get the countertop and plumbing supplies all purchased before I move the new vanity in. Hopefully tomorrow.

 

[skwerl]

Fucking plumbing issues.

 

[stkjock]

Time to shorten the draw I guess

 

[skwerl]

I had to cut the vanity and put the 90 in the drain line, but that pointed it directly into the cold water line. The cold water line needs to turn 90 degrees to clear the drain line, and the hot water line needs to be shortened/turned to clear the drawer.

I can do it with SharkBite fittings but they are stupid expensive. Or I can try to connive a buddy to come over and solder the copper fittings because I've never done it. I'm not willing to shut off my water and cutting the lines without a quick, guaranteed method in place to get it buttoned up. Relying on my own inexperience could easily cost me a couple days without water.

I just looked and SharkBite fittings will cost me $8 each. I can be done with it for less than $20. Probably easier than getting somebody to solder the copper fittings for me.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/SharkBite-1-2-in-Brass-90-Degree-Push-to-Connect-Elbow-U248LFA/202270510

BTW, here's the new vanity in place.

 

[JEWC_Motorsports]

Brian, its super easy. Ive followed these directions before and it makes it super simple. I have faith you can handle it.


http://www.planitdiy.com/how-to/plumbing/how-to-sweat-copper-pipes-fittings/

 

[skwerl]

Thanks, James. I just found about 4' of leftover copper pipe from when we did all the plumbing work last year. I also have a torch, pipe cutter, solder, flux and a bunch of fittings. Think I may try a couple practice pieces first, and if I'm successful then I might try cutting the water lines and rerouting them.

 

[Gabe]

Youtube is your friend.
Lots of videos on there on how to solder copper pipes

 

[dark steed]

Yeah I don't solder much but when it's right I love to watch it suck that solder up into the joint. I mean liquid metal going straight up!
But I've used shark bite the last few times. Super easy and not a drop of water!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[skwerl]

I have never hated plumbing more in my life than I do right now. It's 2pm and I finally just finished replacing the outside hosebib at the far end of the house. First of all it is at the exact opposite end of the house from the water shutoff. I'm trying but I cannot for the life of me think of a single step that did not take at least 3 different attempts to complete. I must have walked a mile today going back and forth. Now my hip is screaming at me and I'm about to eat a bunch of painkillers.

The only upside is that after the copper pipe kinked on me, I was able to heat up the soldered joint and extract it, then replace it with a new piece of line. I actually soldered the fitting and it worked.

Now I have a huge hole in the side of my house to patch. But that is another day.

 

[Gabe]

Usually those things reach into the house and the connection is made on the other side of the wall.
I've replaced 2 of them already and they weren't hard to do.

 

[skwerl]

I assume you have a wood frame house? This one is concrete block, all the plumbing is run inside the block.

My biggest mistake was trying to fix it without making a huge hole in the wall. Most of my issues were due to not having enough room to use the proper tools. Once I made a big enough hole to solder in a new pipe and spin a pipe cutter it wasn't too bad.

 

[skwerl]

They started my roof today. Due to weather delays yesterday they started late, had to finish yesterday's job first. These were taken about 4pm today. These guys were animals, cranking it out through the hottest part of the day.