New house, new renovation project :)

[Gabe]

popcorn ceiling ftw

haha ... .. yeah, it sucks, we're gonna do something about it ... it's the only room that has it, thank God!

 

[terry5357]

Rock wall

Man I love that stone wall across the front of the place. you are well on your way to having a really nice place. Keep that head of steam up!

 

[Premium08]

Fuck any textured ceiling. Id rather look at a smooth ceiling that isnt perfect than look at a perfect textured on.

 

[skwerl]

I've lived in houses with popcorn ceilings all my life and cannot understand the vile hatred. Looks fine to me, I won't change it if it's there.

 

[Gabe]

Man I love that stone wall across the front of the place. you are well on your way to having a really nice place. Keep that head of steam up!

Thanks Terry ... we're actually not quite sure if that stone wall will survive or not, ..... for now it will definitely be cut back a bit on the left, by the current paved driveway,since it will eventually be cut back anyway for the new wider driveway, and it's currently too close, almost getting hit when we back in.

Fuck any textured ceiling. Id rather look at a smooth ceiling that isnt perfect than look at a perfect textured on.

I've lived in houses with popcorn ceilings all my life and cannot understand the vile hatred. Looks fine to me, I won't change it if it's there.

It really doesn't bother me that much, but the GF hates it, and since almost half the ceiling will be new (the piece over the bathtub, anyway), I'm gonna look to see what's involved in removing the texture ...

 

[Shaggy]

popcorn ceiling ftw

Gotta love it!!

I've lived in houses with popcorn ceilings all my life and cannot understand the vile hatred. Looks fine to me, I won't change it if it's there.

The reason I wouldn't want it in my house is I grew up with it. My brother and I would throw balls at the popcorn ceiling and watch it snow. Would hate to have my kids doing it in my house.

 

[Gabe]

Looking at generators for my next big purchase.

My electrician mentioned a $2200 unit that does a good job, I looked it up and it turns out to be a GE 8k-watt unit, but rated at a loud 79 db of noise.

Next price-point up puts me at $2900-3000 and while there's still a GE unit available, it's still a loud unit at 75db.
Around $2900-2939 I find 2 Generac units, both 11k-watt, one 200-amp and one 50-amp.

The $2939 Generac 6438 is now the one I'm planning on buying, possibly as soon as this morning, with delivery to be scheduled later in the week.

Also want a snow blower, looking at a 28" Ariens for $1k

 

[Shotokan1509]

It really doesn't bother me that much, but the GF hates it, and since almost half the ceiling will be new (the piece over the bathtub, anyway), I'm gonna look to see what's involved in removing the texture ...

My ENTIRE house is some spackled ceiling design. I can put up with the look, its the ever having to paint or repair it thats horrible

Looking at generators for my next big purchase.

Also want a snow blower, looking at a 28" Ariens for $1k

Sounds like you're going big permanent with proper tie in to panel, nice. I am sure you are smart enough but always make sure you are not backfeeding the lines outside, not fun for the line crews trying to do storm repair on what is supposed to be a non energized line.

I want a snowblower but not sure that will happen this year, I am currently looking at chainsaws and my head is spinning

 

[GallopingFord]

A backup generator was one of the best investments my parents made. They use it probably 3-4 times a year since they live in a wooded suburb where power outages are normal.

 

[Drewskie]

Looks great Gabe, do ya'll have any problem with the railing on the deck being unstable and shaking?

 

[Gabe]

Sounds like you're going big permanent with proper tie in to panel, nice. I am sure you are smart enough but always make sure you are not backfeeding the lines outside, not fun for the line crews trying to do storm repair on what is supposed to be a non energized line.

I want a snowblower but not sure that will happen this year, I am currently looking at chainsaws and my head is spinning

I got a 16"-chain Jonsered CS2245 and I really like it.
Today I got my new snow blower.
Not the 28" Ariens that I thought I was gonna buy, but a 24" Husqvarna, with cast-iron throwing impeller, cast-iron transmission case, heated grips, LED headlight, and a few other cool features:

Looks great Gabe, do ya'll have any problem with the railing on the deck being unstable and shaking?

Thanks and no, it feels pretty solid ....

Today I had a guy come over to do an energy audit, he's from a company that specializes in making homes more energy-efficient.
Turns out I qualify for half-price labor on window replacements, and half-price on blowing in all new cellulose insulation in the attic, and doing some other work. Even new LED recessed lights, they're gonna charge to the electricity provider, and they pay for them since they reduce the strain on the electrical network by drawing less power

As far as to what actual work I did today, I removed the wood framing above the bath tub area where the soffit used to be, I removed most of the drywall from the right side of the tub, and all the insulation behind it.
I bought 3 new cement boards but no drywall for the ceiling, and no insulation, so tomorrow I'll be stopping at Home Depot again for that stuff.
But this is what it looks like now:

Never got to the generator. Home Depot was sold out, another local distributor was sold out, another fairly-local distributor was $150 more.

Going to another local distributor tomorrow to see what I can get done.


.

 

[Shotokan1509]

I'm actually considering husqvarna saw, possibly a 450.

Problem on blower is I may inherit our old school toro beast... Next year

 

[Gabe]

I'm actually considering husqvarna saw, possibly a 450.

Problem on blower is I may inherit our old school toro beast... Next year

Husqvarna and Jonsered are the same company, same product.
I went in looking to buy a Husq, left with a Jonsered.



Today I finished the removal of the drywall from the bath tub alcove, and got to installing the new insulation that I picked up this morning

I also bought 2 4'x8' moisture-resistant drywall panels, to be used where the bathroom and kitchen soffitts were.

Got the bathroom ceiling panel screwed in too

Today's progress in pics:

 

[Shotokan1509]

Think husq and craftsman due some swapping too on their tractors at least, I've seen cross compatible parts

 

[Gabe]

Today I started removing the popcorn texture/paint from the bathroom ceiling.
Turns out this sucks as much as anyone's ever said it does.
And turns out I hate it.
Making things worse is the high-gloss paint that is on there, so spraying it with water does almost nothing to soften it.
Anyway, got almost a third done today:

Then I got tired of that so I figured I'd go to the living room and try to remove the thinset left behind after removing the tiles from the floor section where a wood/pellet stove apparently used to sit.
This sucked too.
Ended up deciding to just replace the plywood sub-flooring, will mean about 3 panels will need to be replaced.
Started pulling up nails, then pulling up on one end of one of the panels, it fought me hard, to the point I said "fuck it for today" and I went outside to move more of the brush from the front yard to the large pile behind the driveway.

So, I used the truck for that, loaded it in front of the house then moved it to the driveway to unload the brush into the large pile there.

It's definitely come in handy to own a truck, glad I bought this thing

 

[terry5357]

Gonna harp on the rock wall in front again.....you get some good St. Augustine grass growing and that wall will look fantastic. I agree with removing a few feet to the right of the d/w, that could be bad on icy drive and sliding into those rocks I really dig your place though. I hate living in town, but trying to get out in the country in DF/W area would equal a 50 mile drive into work for my wife.....and she's a city girl anyway, so its suburbia for me

 

[Gabe]

Gonna harp on the rock wall in front again.....you get some good St. Augustine grass growing and that wall will look fantastic. I agree with removing a few feet to the right of the d/w, that could be bad on icy drive and sliding into those rocks I really dig your place though. I hate living in town, but trying to get out in the country in DF/W area would equal a 50 mile drive into work for my wife.....and she's a city girl anyway, so its suburbia for me

Lol ... yeah, not really sure what's gonna happen with that rock wall yet.
Today I started removing some of the rocks right next to the driveway.
Bought a 32-gal trash barrel, using it now to put all the small rocks from that wall in there, to be re-used as a bed for the new generator that I ordered this morning.

The wall as it currently sits (the 2 large rocks at the end are frozen in place and HUGE, so I'll need some help moving them):

Most of the work today was moving the brush pile from the front yard to the ever-growing pile behind the driveway.
Got all that finished today, and the brush pile is now quite huge, about 10-12 feet high and a good 30 feet wide:

And the front yard as it currently sits, the wood and the tree across it to be cut by the neighbor that's been coming by grabbing wood for firewood:

The front yard view from inside the house, first pic looking left, 2nd pic looking to right:

The inside work concentrated on removing the plywood sub-flooring panels with the leftover thinset on them.
Got one panel up, and another thin panel from next to the staircase.
Found that the plywood panels are interlocking with each other.
Was surprised to see that. I'm wondering if it would be OK to install new panels that don't interlock, that just have straight-cut edges.
Tomorrow morning I'm going to buy three new 4x8 plywood panels, hope to have the flooring all finished in the living room.

This is the way I left it today:

 

[skwerl]

Are you gonna cut those stumps down to the ground or are you saving them for something?

Looking good!

 

[Gabe]

Are you gonna cut those stumps down to the ground or are you saving them for something?

Looking good!

Lol ... that's a sore subject with me ... I hate those things, and I actually cut down one of the thinner ones from the right side of the house (can see it in one of the pics above laying on its side - there used to be 5 of them sticking up, now there's only 4).
I went back to one of the thick fuckers next to the driveway, and tried to make some more headway with it, but I think my chain needs a serious sharpening, it felt like it wasn't biting at all.
So I gave up for today. May change out the chain and try it tomorrow or Sunday, or Monday, or ........ blech ... I hate those things.

Lol

 

[skwerl]

Here's a couple items that may assist you with your chain sharpening. It takes most people a while to get the hang of it, and even longer to get the hang of keeping the chain out of the dirt. Once you hit dirt it will dull the chain instantly, pushing harder only makes it worse. Best solution is to stop and sharpen rather than fight a dull chain but it takes time for that to sink in with new saw users.