What home improvement work did you do today?

That’s a good project for 58. Do it while you’re young. I was still running and did a half marathon with my son at 59. My running days are over (possible restart if I get blessings from cardiology doc). I had to repair French drain by my driveway a couple years ago, labor intensive and mainly rock removal to get at the sediment. You were blessed with good construction dirt. Some of the dirt they used around here had wood and large rocks and clay for dirt. At 74, I have to pace myself and but still do a lot of yard work.

 

I don't like traveling, but I do like being outside camping. We took our girls camping for the first couple times on our property and they loved it, so did my wife and I. Our main work season is when it is warm, and getting free in good weather is tough. So I added that all up, and decided lets go for it big time at home.

Got about 40% of the floor down, well besides a side storage room. Plan to try to finish it all tomorrow. Wasn't too bad, but a little bit of a learning curve on some things!

 

Had some madrone wood from a tree we cut down years ago needing a purpose. Wife wanted a shower bench so thought that would be a good use for it! Bench put together with countersunk deck screws:


Sanded and stained:


Nice Gloss Spar Urethane:


Finished product:


Not sure how it will fair in the shower haha, but will be an interesting experiment. I also stain/urethaned the bottom of the legs too.

 

I love a good workout, but this isnt as fun....

a little more each day

 

My bathroom hell.

Backstory:

As I mentioned, we had just gotten a home equity loan for our roof and gutters. Roofers decided they couldn't do the gutters for what they quoted us ($8k) because of the way our facia is slanted. LeafGuard came out to give us a quote and I knew I was in trouble as soon as the guy said what a nice truck and house I have. I told him they are both why I have no money - it's all in the house and truck. Didn't help because he quoted us $30k for new gutters. He was going to let me pay $100 a month or some shit until they are paid off though, so that was kind.

Got Austin Gutterman out here and the guy figured out how to do it all for just over $6k. That left a few thousand to use on retiling our master bath.

I never use the master shower - my wife and daughter do and I had no idea how much the grout had deteriorated until I stepped in it and water squished out. I started digging out the grout because I thought that might be the trick to replacing it and it was no bueno. In the corner, I could poke plastic with a stick.

Whomever put it in was a prick. It was a poured fiberglass pan and they poured over the weep holes in the drain so the water that got under the tiles and the grout was never able to drain. It apparently seeped through little holes and under the subfloor and out the ballon rafters. I have no clue why the bathroom didn't rot out.


Freaking gross shit.

The walls were tile > cement board > plastic > sheetrock > shiplap.



Sweaty glamor shot for @Fotnot


The fiberglass pan was absolutely stuck. There is no window that can open in there so I ended up buying a Bosch Dust Extractor, an angle grinder and an attachment that I could use to cut the fiberglass safely.



Worked great...



The curbs were a bitch and I could almost squeeze water out of the wood.



I learned the hard way that the best way to remove cement board that has thinset underneath it is to beat the shit out of the floor with a hammer (don't ask me how I figured that out). Apparently it breaks the bond with the thinset.

Picked up yet another tool - another Bosch grinder that is set up for grinding cement and hooks up to the grinder. I used it to grind the thinset and stuck cement board off of the subfloor.



So I pull up the subfloor under the shower and found more of a mess...

 

That is one hell of a job!

 

I wish I could say it's been fun. I have been able to acquire some bad ass tools though. After I get this one done and paid off, I'm probably going to have to redo the shower I use

 

A couple photos of the dogwood’s blossoms. These guys have flowers about 6 inches across. Still needing a couple more days to fully whiten, it decided to take the photos while the sun is out.

 

Looking good. Once you figure it out, it rolls quick
I like the stripper pole. It's girthy!

 

So hot!

 

It's nice that she can work around the girth of that pole and it'll give her some mental preparation of what she's soon to be dealing with...

 

Okay, so I have no interest in building my own custom pan. I talked to a local plumber and he said he could make me a deal on moving the drain and replacing the shower valve. I ordered a 42" Neo-Angle shower kit from Lowes that includes the pan and the glass.



Got it home, brought the pan upstairs and sat it down where it'll go. The drain is near the back on the pan and it put it dead center on a joist (I ordered it before I knew where the joist sat).

Custom glass isn't in the budget so I searched and searched - I found a company called KBRS (showerbase.com) that used to make surf boards and now makes shower pans. They have a stock shower pan that is the exact same size as the one that came with my kit but the drain is in the center of the pan and it's super light.

I pulled up to remove the old drain and found this mess:





We would get random sewage smells in the house when it was hot during the day and then cold at night... I'm assuming it was coming from this.

Got the rest of the floor up, vacuumed the shit, and bought a piece of plywood to cut and replace the few pieces that were there with one long piece. I also caught a "Sinus Infection and/or a Respiratory Infection" after I did that and was knocked off my ass for a week.

Also got another tool All my friends are virtual so I have to carry shit myself. I picked up a DeWalt Grabbo and it's freaking awesome. It'll be great for carrying the glass panels upstairs.





I pulled up and replaced the subfloor around the toilet. Towards the top right of the pic, you'll some slats from the original subfloor. Those are solid as hell - I did find a few that the previous guys must have cut so I removed those, added a support and replaced with plywood (I ran out of the new stuff so I cut it out of some of the flooring I removed).


Next is cutting the sheetrock where the shower will be (I'll be replacing with GoBoard).





The bathroom is about 8ft x 8ft. The ceiling is 10ft tall. Was going to bring the shower to the ceiling but decided it'd look too tall. There's a cabinet above the toilet so I'm going to end the tile at the same level as the cabinet.



I dry fit the KRBS shower base and the drain is perfect but it was out of level - I was resigned to having to put down some floor leveler and not excited about adding the extra weight to the floor. A few days later I decided to check it again and...



I can work with this I swear the house shifted for me.



Hole is cut for the drain and I cut some hatches in the wall for plumbing - I'm just waiting on the plumber to get out here so I can start figuring out how to put this all back together.

We've decided that since I'm replacing the floor, we might as well paint, replace the light fixtures and mirrors. At this rate it should be done by 2026...

 

I knew you'd like it

 

What a horrible job dude. And it appears as though you were coming Down a staircase... taking it to another level of pain in the ass. Leg day at the house huh? lol
Way to push through a shit sandwich and fix it

 

I’m a Bosch guy, sorry I do have two Milwaukee tape measures though

 

I feel your pain! I did a similar remodel, it definitely can be redone and look good. Bathrooms are the hardest room and most time consuming in my experience.

Ripped out the old 1960s shower and was left with a scary sight:


Took it down to the studs since it turned out there was no insulation in the exterior walls:


Redid the plumbing, especially the shower mixer with the wall open is the time to replace it:


Put in double PT subfloor which is likely way overkill, moved the drain for the shower as well (had access from below since was redoing that area too):


Cement board for the shower, green board and insulation for the walls:


Shiplap on the walls and drain pan installed:


Composite shower wall installed which I like since they are heavy duty, almost no seams to leak and simple:


Then since this is a very small bathroom did a quarter round shower:

 

Very nice!

 

Impressive.

 

Wow.... you guys have been crushing it!

We have a culligan chlorine system that I spent entirely too much money on and have never been truly happy with. We have had iron get through the system and into the home since day 1. I have called the sales guy on and off for months and still havent heard anything.

Welp, now our boy is bigger and taking baths in his bathroom, every time we go to use that tub we have to run the water for a bit to clear out iron residue. I decided to flush our hot water heater.. didnt work as planned, but I got all of this out



So I emailed Culligan and while typing this they responded. We will see how this goes....

But, system flushed, hot water heater flushed (kinda) and then some more working out...



and yes, I do consider this home improvement since I am cleaning up the area lol...

I am going to buy 2x4s this weekend to build my simple firewood stand to get the wood off the ground and ready for future use.

 

You're giving me anxiety on having to do mine eventually.

 

The wood work doubles as home and body improvement

Culligan around me is good, IF, you harass them to get them to show up. Otherwise I find they forget to drop off salt, and schedule the yearly maintenance on some of our stuff. I change basic filters and whatnot, but I really have no interest in messing with these types of things.

 

They are big for a reason. They just cannot get out of their own way sometimes. In this lifestyle I dont mind doing the mx, but I mostly do it because they charge more monthly than I paid for water back in the city. So, for me it is both cost savings and staying familiar with my system. I am most likely going to do a Home Depot water softener on it, but I want them to tell me what is up first. I dont trust them, but no one here will work on their stuff.

We will see.

And yes sir, I am loving the workout! Way more fun than the peloton.

 

my job is basically lawn mowing and building maintenance work, I have a lot of filters and things to keep track of. When I come home, I just don't want to. Like the carpenters house that is always torn apart

 

I get it.. I really do! If I still worked at my other job I wouldnt touch it either. I wfh now and have the time.

 

Get your self a small electric splitter. F that cave man axe splitting game. Or at least a bigger maul.

 

I have the electric one in my cart, but right now I am just using it as a work out. I am larger than I need to be so it is a good way to get some reps in, for now.....

 

I can understand this philosophy. Free gym time is always good. I split plus or minus 4 cords every fall coming into winter. So a splitter is a must for me.

 

We live very different lives my friend! you split for need, I am splitting to avoid hauling it all to the dump.

As i get through the manageable pieces I will do a rent/buy analysis and then split the larger ones.