What home improvement work did you do today?

Installed a new belt drive garage door opener today. Wasn't too bad at all. I had to replace a loud, old, slow screw drive unit. I'm happy with how quiet it is and the features. Nice upgrade for $150

 

Spent most of the day tackling this landscaping. Weeds were bad. Since house was being repaired, we didnt bother touching it (shingles kept getting dropped on them and workers trampling through them). Then after finishing that, went and wrapped up the playset so the kids can play on it. Got some open ends to add more onto it, but lumber is so damn high. I just had to get them something to replace theirs that got swept away.

Cutting grass tomorrow for first time this year hopefully

 

Yes. Looking at your in wall, they are two independent shower valves (not one feeding the second one). I would do the separate temp / flow on both of them. If your hot water temps are fairly consistent, you’ll set the temp on the valve and just about never mess with it again (except a little tweak if you or the Mrs prefers a different temp). Then when you take a shower, just turn the valve to full on, wait till the water from the head is warm and jump in.

Good thing about delta is the body on their shower valves are the same for a lot of different trims so you can sheets swap it out later if you want a different style.

 

Is that one of those Infinity Backyards I keep hearing about? Like an Infinity Pool? It just doesn't end.

 

Oh it ends...fortunately and unfortunately. We're on a lil over 2.5 acres, sometimes I'd love more, other times I want a lil less. But ultimately I'm happy with it

 

No way I’d deal with that much grass. I’ve got 5ac and only more about 1000 SF. All the rest is just natural woods

 

Thanks Casey! I'll get them ordered tonight...man those things are pricey. Can't wait for everything to come together.

 

I enjoy cutting grass like I enjoy washing the vehicles. I do have a pond in the back that takes up some of the lot, so it's not too bad.

 

No grass in our front yard - just lots of plants and bark dust (mostly plants). There’sa little bit of grass to the east and south of the parking area and a little under the trees to the north of the yard. Squiggly line is a creek originating to the NE.

 

I like the secluded setup....to an extent. Nice plot and could see the many perks of having that land with the house oriented such. Can I pluck a few trees and move them to my treeless yard?

 

Dunno how firs and alders will do in LA, and I think the freight might be a challenge. But you’re welcome to a few...

 

If you uproot, I'll make the drive

 

I had a few blow over...they’re about 80 feet tall but the roots are all intact. Actually have two bitter cherries that went over as well.

 

surprised they kept the root system with that kinda height. Geez

 

Thanks for all the info and advice. I appreciate it.
Will I be able to determine the drain size just by looking under the sink, or would I need to open the wall up to see the actual drain in the wall? Seems like thats the most important thing if a sink is gonna happen or not.

 

I’m a little late to update this but I got my new stairs in and new railing and custom baby gate up.

 

Looks great.

 

Hard to tell at the wall, but you might be able to determine it. The p-trap on a standard lav will be 1-1/4” but the actual drain line at the wall could either be 1-1/4” or 1-1/2” for the stub-out that the p-trap is connected to. If you look at the nut that the p-trap goes into and it is big enough to fit a 1-1/2” p-trap into (but is using a reducing washer for the 1-1/4” trap), then you know you’ve got a 1-1/2” drain pipe in the wall at least below the trap (which would give you the easiest method of modifying things). If the slip nut at the wall is 1-1/4” then you’d have to get the wall open to be sure.

Personally, I always plumb a lavatory with a 1-1/2” drain line coming from it, and only reduce at the actual sanitary tee (so the branch that the slip nut is on is 1-1/4” but the actual pipe main is 1-1/2”) but that’s not specifically required so your setup may not be that way...so I can’t say it would be safe to assume that’s what you have.

 

The drain should stub out from the wall under the sink then connect to the P trap. So you should be able to see and or measure what size you will need. It will probably be black ABS in between or next to your supply lines.

 

Replaced a leaky bathroom faucet. Also needed new lines, back to the store. But the shutoffs weren't working so back to the store for new ones. once everything was hooked up and not leaking the damn faucet wouldn't work. Back under the sink to start troubleshooting. disconnect hoses from faucet, plenty of water. WTF? Time to read the manual. There was an aerator wrench, I loosened the aerator and SUCCESS. Lowe's wanted 120.00 to install it. Would have been the best 120 i spent in a while.
My takeaway from this is "just because I have plumbers crack does not make me a plumber".

 

Stairs look great!

 

Prepping the house for painting ....each spring our house eaves turn into the neighborhood nesting zone. Wife stresses out about all the baby birds.... we usually need to try and save a few. Not no more.... sorry little birdies

 

Bedroom tile was finished on Friday except for the closet. He's coming back tomorrow to do the grout. Also, leveled out the shower pan since we are doing a curbless shower.

 

Signed a contract today for the pool to get started. We are chipping out the plaster and replacing it with mini pebble. New waterline tile will be going in as well. Also adding a dedicated suction line for the pool cleaner and adding an automatic water leveler. They'll start in about 2 weeks.

Horrible pics, but here is the mini pebble color and the waterline tile we chose. The 2 inch square blue tile will be accents on the steps.

 

Those damn free loaders

 

Started the water heater install. Had to move lines out of the way. Also had a leaky/bad shutoff coming in, so turned the water off at the street, replaced said valve and started new plumbing to pex. Wishing I got a little more done today, but had to go shopping first, and had a dinner date.

 

So I should plan our for our family vacation to Arizona in a month? Can you give me a little better timeframe? I have to get somebody lined up to watch the cat.

 

We have roof rats, Mexican free-tailed bats, and I just looked out this morning and saw a Norway rat off of our deck. I'm running a damn rodent refuge. Fortunately none of them have penetrated the living areas. I'm mostly worried about the rats - there's been a lot of construction with the old houses around us so I think it's driving them our way.

I have a plan to keep them out, I'm just waiting for the weather to cooperate. It's gonna be a long week.

 

Night vision and a pellet gun?

 

The rats are getting in under our deck, I think. I put hardware cloth around the house - 3 inches deep into the ground in an "L" shape for another 3 inches. But we had a deck put on and I think they dug under the steps where the deck touches the house. I'm going to add hardware cloth around the deck.

For the bats, since they are protected, I have to be careful. I have window screen that I'm going to hang above where they are coming out at and let it drape 2 ft down. This way they come out but can't figure out how to get back in. I need the weather to cooperate so I can get it done before they start having their pups in April. Otherwise, it will be me on a ladder on a metal roof in 100 degree heat in August trying to get rid of them.

My neighbor bought some bat houses and he's going to give me one - hopefully they'll move into that.