What home improvement work did you do today?

It shocks me how many so-called "contractors" don't understand the basic principles of building a proper shower pan, with liner up the walls, constructed so all water redirects to the drain. The last couple showers we had people knock out had low spots in one corner or something equally stupid.

 

building some trails at a friend's place.

tree stump jump



and some sheetrock

Edit to add...

We've since cut some of the camber out of the turn leading up to the ramp so you can roll it faster. Pretty fun for 2 over 50yr olds.

 

I'll take some bike trails over here when you are all done Looking very nice, you guys will be having some fun!

 

I'll spare everyone from having to see the gross before picture...but here's what I'm in the middle of. When we bought our current house I knew this shower would be a project. This weekend the wife and kids are away visiting the grandparents so I'm tackling it. This is just after several hours of cutting, scraping, scrubbing, grinding, etc. to get the old caulk removed and some of the grout as well. Some of those black spots are voids where the grout was removed, rather than mold.


Tomorrow will be the day for heavy duty industrial strength chemicals. If I can get it thoroughly clean I'll finally be re-grouting, re-caulking, re-sealing the tile, etc. If not...I may be shopping for new tile in the near future.

 

I like your humor.
LMFAO!!!

 

Plumber called me this morning and gave me an hours notice that he was on his way. My contractor friend had just told me how they use Kreg jigs to put up stringers (to hang the shower valve and neck thingy on). Past Joel hooked me up - I must have bought one on clearance at Lowes 12 or so years ago. Never opened it up until today...



Got the stringers up for the plumber.



So my wife ran into an old lady who's grandfather or some relative who used to own our house. She said that above the stairway, there was a landing that had a window that overlooked the front door. A ghost of a young special needs girl could be seen looking out of it. I figured she was full of shit but when I removed the bottom shiplap for the plumber, I realized the wall was added. So my wife is all excited now.

Anyboo, plumber did his job and had a bit of a scare when the tankless water heater sensed that the pipes needed more hot water or something and sent it all up to the bathroom. I heard a "whoosh" downstairs and then saw him hauling ass to get his shop vac.

He did a great job though.



I went ahead and shored up the support under the floor... at least I think I did that.



I thought he'd just hook up the pipes and shit and I'd install the valve - I calculated that because of the additional shiplap I'd probably need to add another inch. I was pretty happy when he came downstairs and asked me if I had any one-inch scrap wood (Past Joel kept scraps).



He didn't center the shower spout so I moved it over an inch...

The shower base calls for a 1/4 of wiggle room next to the walls. I didn't think about it when I measured where the drain was and screwed up. Most installs would be you put the pan down next to the studs and then add 1/4 inch shims above. My idea was to remove the bottom pieces of shiplap and put a piece of mold proof drywall (I had a scrap piece) in its place. I put it in the test it out and it gives me a perfect 1/4 inch.



And this is where it stands. Going to cut a little more drywall around the perimeter of where I want to put the shower, lightly sand the paint in the room, then put a couple of coats of mold proof primer on. Hoping to start laying GoBoard next week.

 

Nothing at home this weekend buuut,visiting my Mom in NH so the laundry list is fairly small.
Going to flush/descale the combi tankless unit, replace hot&cold feeds for the clothes washer with braided SS hoses, cut down a shit load of saplings, fix a kitchen cabinet hinge, hang 1'X10' shelf in a closet ,fix a grab bar in the shower and God only knows what else comes to her mind

Have a great Memorial day weekend Boyz,remember the one's who gave all for us to enjoy our freedoms

 

I continued my shower repair project with some pretty strong chemical cleaning today, so while the fumes were being aired out I focused my attention on the kitchen. Our butcher block countertops are never used for any cutting, so I decided to refinish them with something more permanent than the wax I had used in the past. Cleaned them up, sanded down to bare wood, then put on some one-coat poly. Should protect them a bit better from the occasional spills they're subjected to.




Haven't done the counters next to the stove or the sink yet, waiting until these are fully cured so I have a place to put all the stuff that's on those other counters.

 

Waterlox is, hands-down, the best sealant you’re gonna find for butcher block. It’s what we had on ours for quite a while but we do cut on the block, so we sanded it off and just oil it now. But highly recommend. Not even red wine would soak into the wood.

 

In another episode of "what in the bugs life..."

I took the fam to a farmers market and spent too much on random things again. My wife will be trying duck eggs for the first time here soon... then we invited our neighbors (two who have no one and two who are always helping us) over for dinner tomorrow. So we prepped the back porch and got to cleaning. I also got my extension cord up that was used to run my camper for the last year... I was snipping wire ties when I damn near interrupted this guys lunch...

 

So how'd it squish?

 

I took the pic, verified it was a good guy and went around him.... t was a good jump scare though!

 

Yeah, I bet!

 

Those are the good guys. Wolf spider. Looks like he’s eating a Florida Giant Katydid? That wing doesn’t quite look right though. Looks more like the back-end of a mantis.

 

I love watching spiders
When they aren’t crawling on me (or a threat of doing so)

 

I call them leaf bugs but not 100% sure. I'll look up the first thing you posted. It's definitely not a mantis.

I don't care for them but if they are not in my porch or home I try to leave them alone. I typically only kill the ones on my water station because there are too many to move and I don't have time to verify each one. Plus the banana spiders are there and that's a nope for me.

But typically I just get my jump scare and move on lol

 

So at first look I thought it was a huntsman. Now I'm thinking it's a white banded fishing spider. Not a spider guy so using lens for initial looks

And the big is in fact a katydid. Didn't know them by that name!

 

That deck spindle @ 1.5" really lets you know how big that boy is. We have wolf spiders, but their legs aren't nearly as beefy as that guy.
Our population gets somewhat culled up here in MI, but I just discovered that some have "anti-freeze" qualities to their blood!
Amazing hahaha

 

Yeah he is not on lf the smaller ones for sure lol. He gave me a good startle as I was just moving along cutting zip ties and almost grabbed him. I haven't seen one like him in recollection, but this property has brought on a whole slew of new insects and birds for me to see compared to usual.

I was shocked when I was in Michigan and saw the bugs up there. I assumed with the snow y'all would have hardly any....which in fact... Is not the case lol. Guess we know why now

 

Definitely white banded fishing spider, my bad. Huntsman spiders aren’t super common and have way more gangly legs. Fishing spider and wolf spiders have similar body types in comparison. I saw the shield on the thorax and thought wolf.

Apparently the confusion is common with those guys. Wolf is Lycosidae (now that explains the Lycos search engine name from way back when - any internet veterans remember Lycos?!), Fishing is Pisauridae.

From Google’s AI output generated from search input on the differences:

“Dolomedes, is a genus of fishing spiders, which belong to the family Pisauridae. While Lycosidae (wolf spiders) and Pisauridae are closely related and both considered lycosoid families, Dolomedes can be distinguished from wolf spiders by their smaller posterior median eyes and two-row eye arrangement, as well as their aquatic adaptations…”