What home improvement work did you do today?

Damn. That's a shit load of panels. Bought or leased? How many kw?

 

Purchased solar for the federal rebate, dont get it if you lease. System is 40 panels producing up to 370 watts. Total system producing 14.8kw. Grid tied (for now)...hope to get inspected this week and turn sytem on next week

 

You do it on your phone - there should be an option to rotate it when you view it in your photo gallery.

 

That's awesome!
Any plans for storage?

 

Gonna wait a few years and see what battery pricing looks like. I have a generator now for power outages so we are good. I want to be off grid eventually but battery pricing is just too cost prohibitive.

 

So yesterday after finishing up the rafters and facia boards I was figuring out how many 4X8 sheets I would need to finish the roof when I received a call from the HOA. It appears that someone is complaining that I am being allowed to build something they were refused approval on. They are threating a law suit against the HOA. I have been asked to stop construction for now. The sad part is the neighbor directly behind me and most affected by this build is good with it.

So, now it has a lovely blue tarp for a roof as I will be away on business for about three weeks.

 

Did the HOA approve yours before you started? If so, fuhk ‘em - the lawsuit with the other neighbor is their problem, not yours. They’ll have to defend their logic, but if you’ve got all the required documents then really they’re on the hook if they change their minds too.

Now, if you didn’t follow their process or get approval first, then I guess you’re kinda stuck.

I’m our HOA president and I freaking hate HOAs

 

Nothing like nosey busy body neighbors. Since the pandemic and every one "works" from home its created a new breed of karens. I had some hoa snitches of my own when we putting our fence and neighbor complained and we were faced with ripping it out.

Ultimatley if you have hoa approval for your project and its allowed within your covenant you should be good.

 

I did get HOA approval first, but, it was for a tuff-shed, 10 X 12. Unfortunately with covid the factory was shut down for a while and when I got a new quote from them it was 2400 dollars more that the original. $6700 for a Tuff-shed. As you can see I am not building a tuff shed, but, it is still 8 X 10 and meets minimum offsets as well as current height restrictions. I did submit and addendum to show the new construction and received a verbal that I could proceed. We will have to wait and see what happens next.

 

Lesson #1: in a sue-happy world, get everything in writing.

Hope it works out. If you want the opinion of someone on the internet with no vested interest or authority, I think what you are building is 100x more architecturally pleasing and regionally appropriate than any Tuff Shed.

 

I do to, Nice thing is Karen is threatening to sue the HOA, not me. The other nice thing is the HOA board here is a pretty good bunch of common sense folks that are trying to keep the neighborhood livable against the busy bodies. I appreciate your comments concerning my structure. I wanted it to be something that would be easy to turn into an office or spare bedroom and have been trying to build it as much to code as possible. If the HOA wants me to tear it down, SWMBO would like to pour gas on it and burn it in place!

 

I'm going to extend my string lights from the side to the backyard. I need to support them with poles so I bought three, bigger than I thought, cedar posts from my cedar guy. Price was right ($40 for all three). I'll be spending the next few days, weather permitting, stripping the bark off of them and water sealing them. Hopefully they'll fit into the yard okay.

I'm also tired of seeing my neighbors yard so I think I'm going to rig up some kind of privacy partition on top of our fence (in the background of the pic). Haven't figured that one out yet.

 

If you want to make quick work out of stripping the bark off the cedar. Get a pressure washer and a rotating turbo nozzle. The best time to remove the bark is right after you cut the tree down. The sooner the better. It does make a good amount of mess but the results are always nice. Good luck with your project!

 

No better way than to send it out in a fiery blaze!

 

Simple little project to cover the closet that had no door when we bought the house

 

What a great build, it's going to look really rockin when you are finished!

On the pavers, I for one understand that statement maybe more than anyone! To that extent, when I had my paver 3 car parking area installed, I had a 3" pad of concrete poured, with rebar, that was under the area the pavers were going to be placed. Then the 1" of sand and then the pavers. That was around 12 maybe 15 years ago, and there has not been one bit of buckling, shifting or heaving! That extra concrete cost was way less than any future digging them up, and having them relaid!

The best part, my neighbor was a contractor, and had a job of redoing a larger paver project. The homeowner, since he wanted a fresher color, decided to toss all the old 4 years old pavers, and rather than pay excessive dump fees, the contractor neighbor just gave them to me! A little pressure washing on my part, baboom, great looking pavers!
So I paid for the concrete, labor, and the rest was FREE FREE FREE!

It still looks like a million bucks today!

 

Day 7, not in continuous days... Well I decided to lift the shed 1" off the concrete so the sheds base of galvanized steel will not leave rust stains on the slab. To that extent I bought 7 12' composite decking boards to set the shed on. I went to Home Depot, again. We then spent 20 minutes strapping them in the bed. They weren't going anywhere! So this makes the third load brought home by my truck. Each load makes me love this AC all the more!

 

I started debarking one of the cedar posts. I was going to power wash like @1UPPER recommended but had a bad day and needed to work out some aggression. I went at it with a metal putty knife to get under the bark and made some progress before it started to rain.

 

Not the most exciting update but I got two of them stripped and somehow dragged and lifted the 3rd (it seems to be as heavy as the other two combined) up onto the sawhorses. Nutterbutter was checking on me and keeping the other squirrels from bothering me while I worked (she's a bit of a badass). The third one is really sappy so I'll probably have to power wash that one. I need to hurry up, do it, and get the bark picked up before the lawn guy comes on Monday or I'm afraid he'll quit.

 

I've understood that you mow, aerate, then seed. Then no mowing for about 2-4 weeks depending on weather conditions.

 

yea, i was afraid of that

 

DAY 8 The building of my shed!

Well that day has arrived, at 9AM the truck hauling my shed kit arrived...


William & Mario, started offloading the kit all over the back yard....


On the pad I placed Composite decking boards on 2' centers to assemble the shed....


Then William started assembling the base....


Sadly the folks who loaded the trailer screwed up and instead of 7 10' metal 2X4's only loaded 4, with 3 8' pieces...sad sad sad!
I had an hour or so to chat and tell stories with the guys.
When the missing pieces finally arrived, they went to town..


After only 50 minutes I now am standing admiring 2/3rds of my new storage space...


Due to the screw up, at noon they had to leave to pick up another loaded trailer to start a second job. There is supposed to be another crew showing up around 4p to finish the roof, install the door & vents.
EDIT, I just got a call, Gerrard & helper are on their way to pick up where William & Mario left off!
Then the assembly process will be finished
At that point I will install the self stick floor tiles, and the interior lighting, add shelving, empty the garage into the shed. My workshop garage gets a remodel & same color paint as the shed!

So more pics and info later...

I get my Bridgeport mill next Thursday, yet another adventure!

 

That is looking nice. Are you building from plans you drew yourself or did you purchase a design? I am looking to build one of similar size and style.

 

Contractor removed the old stuff Wednesday, County inspection yesterday, up and running today. Need to figure out the replacement for the 90’s green tile. Anyone here installed cultured stone for a surround? Seems pretty straight forward but I think that before just about every project before I make 100 trips back to HD and use every curse word in the book.

 

the tile surface is too smooth for the stone to bond with thin set, have to take the tile out, or rough out the tile with diamond grinder or add backer board on top.
I'm planning to do my fireplace later with culture stone too...