What home improvement work did you do today?

Just saw this, some of those locations are pretty shocking. I don't know how young people are making rent and feeding themselves... (Disclaimer: I don't know the validity of the data/source)

https://infogram.com/map-rent-growth-1h7v4pdwz3v8j4k

 

It's been happening for a while. I've seen it near me. Over 3,000 new apartments have been built within 10-15 blocks of my house over the last 3 years. Somehow the price of a 1BR efficiency/studio @500sf has gone from $850-950 on average to over $1,200-$1,300. People aren't getting paid more, and I'm not sure who is moving into these places, but I can see them clogging the roads in the AM. I'm selfishly grateful, our house has tripled in value since 2010, but at the same time .... ugh. I'm just about done with the city, I'm not mad work forced me to move here, it'll pay dividends when we're out in a few years, but now growth is moving into what was a neighborhood nobody sane came into, ... ugh.

That said, I hoping to pop back in here after a few hours with pics of my newly-set stainless steel mailbox post.

("better-¾" is gonna whoop me if I don't get it done today, post has been sitting in our dining room for almost 2yrs now )

 

Post: Set. Just gotta give it another 30-45 to firm up while I build a new mailbox base to toss on it. Grateful to get this checked off my list, might even have enough time after to mow the yard today…

Day got a little derailed. Had to go to a memorial for our teenage daughter, one of her own friends took an unexpected exit a couple weeks back.

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Haha, 2 years!?!?
Back when I got started in trades an old fart told me a story. He built a beautiful jet-tub tiled in, was one corner tile short, left it for 10 years.
Said "if I go and fix it she will just find something else to bitch about"

 

Still battling to clean up and save the red tips from black spot. Spreading chips from chip drop (not finished), planted a few large shrubs/trees, pruned crape myrtles to bring their foliage down, and applied a fungicide and sprayed the red tips with tea tree oil mixture. Not as nice a 'privacy wall', but hopefully look even better when it fills back in a bit.
And did some more tool organizing in the garage!

 

Post set, box caddy fabbed up and mounted, box installed and cleaned. Finally get to check this fucker off the honey-do list.

I siliconed the hell out of it hoping all the dogs inevitably pissing on it don’t corrode the damn thing in short order.

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I'm not trying to add to your list....but no numbers or last name?

 

They're there, on the front lower edge. I conveniently edited those out before posting.

 

Yeah, I left the furniture field a couple of years ago. I was impressed that the company I worked for lowered the price post covered on one of their most popular pieces since they found a way to reduce manufacturing cost. What made me nothing short of angry was the third price hike in the next two years. On a budget call, (I was on more of those than I cared to be) it was disclosed the price increase was "because everyone else is" when the owner was challenged on why he was doing it.

I had a budget in mind for our new couch, and since I was going to finally spring for a Love Sac couch, I knew I was going to be spending some coin. I ended up with another brand I think I will like more... But it became clear prices hadnt dropped yet in this sector.

Also, PSA for anyone who cares about this stuff... The big name stores that say they make American furniture... they do. But it is the lowest end line possible and a category we call "paper." which basically means press board with a deco paper glued the top. All the real wood stuff is outsourced.

 

No pictures, yet... but when we bought the home the guest bath and some porch sockets didnt work. I hadnt gotten around to it today. I started flipping breakers and now know all my breakers are not marked or wrong. Anyway, I got the main GFCI working again in the guest bath, but the down stream socket still doesnt work. I replaced everything so it is either in the wall, or the deck outlets are on the same circuit. So, next up will be taking off all the sockets and trying the GFCI fully wired again. If it works, I will go down the rabbit hole of trying to find the issue. If not, I will call it a day on the bathroom lol...

PS, I hate electrical.

 

Sorry to hear that
Sad and crazy how often that seems to happen these days. It hit close to our house a couple times while my girls were in school or just out of it…

 

Spent my day with the house power killed and working through each breaker one-by-one to inventory every single light switch and outlet (and anything else) that it powered. We built this house 19 years ago, and I still can’t believe some of the things the electrician we hired did. But at least now I can confidently do with knowing which breaker it’s connected to.


And my next home or building I’ll be wiring myself. #plugsandlights

 

Did some painting on my repairs and refreshed the trim, not as picky this year....


One of the girls skipped egg day, so I brought out the sauce to let her know we ain't playin.


Kidding, I love those little yard tillers... but I did have BBQ chicken.
And the girls may be cannibals, just sayin

 

I'm doing the same thing while I have everything open for my kitchen remodel, so I feel your pain. Some of my homeruns are run in 14/3, which would be nice if they were run to two pole breakers. But instead, whoever wired my house figured it was a good idea to give one circuit it's own 20A breaker then have the other run off the bottom half of a two pole, while the other leg of the two pole feeds a completely different room. Gotta love it

 

We had a red tip wall in the back yard at the old place. Trimmed them down one year and broke out in all sorts of rashes. Little did I know there's something about them that I'm allergic to (older I get the more crap I have reaction to). Moved to the new house, they had some out back, cut them at the stump and gone.

 

Finally got around to demoing/salvaging whatever non-rotted wood from the shes and burned everything else.

Hung the daughters swing

And set posts to start framing the new chicken coop build.

 

Just paint in white KFC above their entrance

 

I was thinking Bob Evans….

 

Lol!

 

Can verify this. First time using muriatic acid I held my breath while pouring and thought I walked far enough away. Nope. Vapors hit my soul.

For build up media blasting works well but it’s going to cost. I’m working on scale buildup on my flagstone. I started out at 10:1 dilution, then 4:1 dilution now I’m at 2:1 dilution with acid to remove it.

 

I didn't technically do anything except pay the deposit, but we FINALLY got our building permit for the screened porch. We have waited over 10 weeks for this to process - our county is notoriously slow and ridiculously expensive, but this has been a bucket list item for my wife. We canceled our bucket list trip to Alaska (she was born there) that we had planned for this spring and repurposed the money to do the porch. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in January and has gone through the surgery and 1/4 of her chemo treatments so far. She will then have 5 weeks of radiation and then hormone therapy. She is an avid reader and I have a TV ready to install with a ceiling fan as well. Just have to locate some nice patio furniture now.....we will reschedule Alaska in the next year or two, but this will give her a space to enjoy while she is going through the treatment

 

Where did you find the stainless post?

 

Same shit in my house, in every house I’ve been in. Can’t trust sparkies to label their own work properly. My box looks identical with pencil and pen over it and marker over that. Just commenting to say, though: I’d maybe even go one step farther and get a label maker, and label each outlet with its panel and number, like, “B6” for single pole in panel B a lot six or “A8-9” for any dual pole. If you use small font on most label makers you can get the print small enough that when you cut down the label size, you can place it next to the outlet’s receptacle so it’s not gaudy. I guess you could also easily pop off the plate and write it in sharpie on the back side, but then what if a face plate gets swapped? Hell, that could happen with labeled plates too.

You know better than anyone, chickens will eat any. damn. thing. It should be no surprise here

I got a kick out of “skipped egg day”. And @KNABORES is Bob Evans nationwide? I agree, that or Sonny’s BBQ were the two that came to mind.

I got it from someone in Canuckistan, I’ll need a little bit to look that one up. It was long enough ago that I can’t remember OTOMH where I picked it up. I remember it was an absolute bitch to find and I was VERY happy with the product.

 

They are not. But there’s one in Branson Missouri we hit up every year

also: and you can get their mashed taters in the grocery store to heat and eat and they are legit.

 

We have a few up here, or had.
A bunch have closed.

 

They aight. Pretty decent for breakfast, kind of a cracker barrel mixed with ihop vibe. In a barn.

 

The better question is why did you need/want a stainless mailbox post.

 

I know we had them all over FL for some weird reason. They were everydamnwhere.

 

Check in your garage if the GFCI receptacle is tripped. All exterior receptacles are normally connected to the LOAD side of it. If it's tripped none of the receptacles will work. How many receptacles are in the bathroom? Where is the "down stream socket?" And how do you know it's downstream? Did you use a multimeter or ohmmeter to check?