What have you done to your house today

Gabe

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Closed on our new house on Wednesday, pretty uneventful since they are renting back for the next 1.5 months.

That's awesome, congrats Cam!





I spent a few hours in the yard today, cutting up wood, taking brush to the local dump, and planting the last 3 of the 8 arborvitae trees we recently bought.
Love having a 4x4 truck with decent ground clearance and skid plates!
I can move around all over the back yard, run over brush, stumps, almost anything!

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Still lots of cleanup to do, but slowly and surely we're getting it done.
Left side of the yard is almost done, we still need to do around the tent and to the right of it:

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Shotokan1509

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Was just going to replace the deck stair treads but then the stringers broke apart... and they're custom size so had to make my own. Bit longer of a job than few hours for treads I was planning but what else is new with houses or cars haha
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Also went to plant flowers and found termites in this old stump so I ripped out all the roots I could and took a load of that and other smaller branches to dump
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Badd GT

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Nice job Shoto! Cuts on the stairs look professional! No overcuts where the riser cut meets the run and your bottom cuts sit really nice and bear evenly on the landing.
 

Shotokan1509

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Nice job Shoto! Cuts on the stairs look professional! No overcuts where the riser cut meets the run and your bottom cuts sit really nice and bear evenly on the landing.

It took a while to fit the first one.. I used the old ones as templates but then my exact measurements of each step I ended up with a variance (might have literally been the addition of the originals saw blade cuts across the 8ft). If I was working for a carpenter I'd be fired for how long it took, but for first time DIY'ing these I'm very happy how they came out. Only one tiny thing I would have done differently now that I know but it's zero functionality and hidden anyway so no big deal.
 

RazorbackMustang

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My wife wanted a "dog yard" to let our Shiba Inu out into instead of having to tie her up to a run attached to the deck. I've got the front privacy fence part built, the back picket part built, lattice attached to the deck. Tonight I'll start on the other set of stairs off the deck to let her into the "dog yard". Carpentry is a new thing for me and it's actually been kind of fun.
 

tjm73

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Not "to" my house, but at my house. I put this flag pole in Saturday and raised the flag Sunday while my 3 year old boy recited the pledge.

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Gabe

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The riding mower has been running like crap lately, so after a bunch of Google diagnosing, I figured it's time to clean the carb, and I also found an online owner's manual that had the specs for the valve clearance it needs, spark plug gap, and everything else I hadn't known until then.
So yesterday I reset the plug gap, took the carb off and cleaned the fuck out of it, cleaned all the grime off all the engine, installed a new see-through fuel filter, and cleaned all the linkages for the carb.
Mower now runs like a champ!
Also found out that it's a 1998, the engine is not original but it's a 1998-build also.

Happy carburetor after the douche it got

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GallopingFord

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Scheduled about 8 people to come by for estimates on work at our new house tomorrow.

Garage #1 Priority :)
-High Lift Garage Door Tracks w/ Jack Drive Motors (prepping for my four post lift)
-Painting Entire Garage
-Installing 4-6 more Fluorescent Lighting Fixtures.
-Epoxy Coated Flooring

*Full Home Interior Repaint
*Recessed Lighting in the Living Room and Master
*Crown Molding in Living Room
*Frameless Shower Doors
*Wall Mount Brackets in Living Room and Basement (and cord routing)
*Outside deck

I'm excited and counting down the days till move in. A little less than 30 days till its entirely ours. lol
 

tjm73

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Nice, you may have just meant it generically but I'd go LED.. I'm sick of flickering bulbs especially when it's really cold out.

I am looking to change mine over to LED because if it is less than 65 degrees some of mine won't even light up. Some come to life after 10-15 minutes. I like lights that turn on when you flip the switch. LED's also use less power and last a lot longer. Firm believer in LED's. Almost my whole house is converted. You have to be a smarter buyer though. YOou have to pay attention to the color range and the lumens.
 

GallopingFord

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Home mods ftw.

Nice, you may have just meant it generically but I'd go LED.. I'm sick of flickering bulbs especially when it's really cold out.

I never had a problem with them in my town home, but LED is something I always forget about - will ask the electrician what the difference is in the fixtures.
 

JimC

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Got the inspection reports for the house in Winston-Salem. No termites or other bugs so that is good.

On the inspection for the rest of the house though a couple of things. Sellers reported no water intrusion, and the inspector found evidence in the finished basement in one area (tiles loose and damage on the wall).

But the other thing that set my wife off is that he said that the HVAC is nearing its useful life, didn't find anything wrong with it. My wife was shocked. I said to her "the house was built in 2003 and the expected life of such things is about 20 years so we knew that". Her response: "I expected they would have replaced everything in 14 years". What? It isn't at the expected life expectancy yet and everything tested out fine.

I finally told her if that is going to be her stopping point then there was no sense looking at anything already built and we would have to build new to meet her expectation.
 

GallopingFord

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Got the inspection reports for the house in Winston-Salem. No termites or other bugs so that is good.

On the inspection for the rest of the house though a couple of things. Sellers reported no water intrusion, and the inspector found evidence in the finished basement in one area (tiles loose and damage on the wall).

But the other thing that set my wife off is that he said that the HVAC is nearing its useful life, didn't find anything wrong with it. My wife was shocked. I said to her "the house was built in 2003 and the expected life of such things is about 20 years so we knew that". Her response: "I expected they would have replaced everything in 14 years". What? It isn't at the expected life expectancy yet and everything tested out fine.

I finally told her if that is going to be her stopping point then there was no sense looking at anything already built and we would have to build new to meet her expectation.

Pretty much anything 10 years plus, all bets are off. Just a perk of being a home owner lol


Have you thought about tiles ?



https://www.swisstrax.com/garage/



I have had them for years and am very glad.


What if you spill something? Are they easy to take up? They do look nice.
 

Shotokan1509

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I am looking to change mine over to LED because if it is less than 65 degrees some of mine won't even light up. Some come to life after 10-15 minutes. I like lights that turn on when you flip the switch. LED's also use less power and last a lot longer. Firm believer in LED's. Almost my whole house is converted. You have to be a smarter buyer though. YOou have to pay attention to the color range and the lumens.

Yep not firing off is annoying in the cold, especially when I just need 5 minutes

Home mods ftw.



I never had a problem with them in my town home, but LED is something I always forget about - will ask the electrician what the difference is in the fixtures.

Probably a little more up front but more efficient and should last longer. Like TJM said though, be careful with the coloring... I have some "daylight" ones that I tried in the house and they are WAY too blue, freaked me out like I was in a hospital or laboratory or something but that may be better in the garage as long as you're not trying for color accurate photo's
 

tjm73

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But the other thing that set my wife off is that he said that the HVAC is nearing its useful life, didn't find anything wrong with it. My wife was shocked. I said to her "the house was built in 2003 and the expected life of such things is about 20 years so we knew that". Her response: "I expected they would have replaced everything in 14 years". What? It isn't at the expected life expectancy yet and everything tested out fine.

When we bought our house the AC worked fine and tested fine. Two summers later, we replaced the entire unit after it failed and the repair part was $1700. For another grand on top of that amount we got a new more efficient warrantied unit and a heat pump that significantly cut our propane usage in the fall and spring for heat. Our AC unit was 17 or 18 years old they said. It had a good run.

The bonus was our electric in addition to the propane went down. Electric slightly and propane by quite a bit. It was an unexpected expense but ended up begin a win-win.
 
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GallopingFord

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Probably a little more up front but more efficient and should last longer. Like TJM said though, be careful with the coloring... I have some "daylight" ones that I tried in the house and they are WAY too blue, freaked me out like I was in a hospital or laboratory or something but that may be better in the garage as long as you're not trying for color accurate photo's

I had the guy spec them out today with installation. We opted to get an estimate on 6 of them installed. He suggested the sealed ones that don't allow bugs to get into which I like.

Does $2000 installed sound reasonable? $1100 for 6 LED lights 48" long and $900 for install.

Also got quotes on the garage floor and garage tracking system which was in line with what I thought.
 

AndrewNagle

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Pretty much anything 10 years plus, all bets are off. Just a perk of being a home owner lol

What if you spill something? Are they easy to take up? They do look nice.

Clean up is super easy, i am sure some liquid make it underneath occasionally but epoxy concrete floor don't last for ever and if not perfectly will bubble up
 

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