What home improvement work did you do today?

Don't want to jinx anything but the wife and I are in the process of selling ours and buying a house in the country. Guess you could consider it an improvement.

 

Ours are just starting to send new growth...it'll be a month before we see blooms.

 

I have a fairly big project on the horizon. My home was built in the '50s and renovated before we purchased it. It was the previous owners' first time flipping a house. They did pretty well on everything except the main bathroom. It has an ugly beige faux-marble-looking composite covering the lower half of the wall and all three walls of the bath. Underneath it is apparently the home's original PINK tile set into a some sort of framing that involves rebar.

Yes, rebar. That's what the previous owners said. That apparently went beyond the scope of their renovating efforts. They didn't want to deal with it, and they decided to cover it up with this beige cover.

I want to renovate/modernize the bathroom myself. My concern is that there could be moisture behind this cover. Plus, it's super ugly. We have a total of 2.5 baths, so I'm not worried about not having access for a long time.

How would you tackle this? Any special considerations given that there is rebar behind the tile that is behind this ugly composite?

Thanks in advance.

 

If you've got the bathroom capacity to take it out of commission for a while, and you are positive you want the cover crap gone, then I'd tear it out and then start to assess. It's hard to know really what you're going to be dealing with until you actually get in and see what you've got. I doubt it's "rebar" so much as wire mesh fabric and plaster, like they use for stucco.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fu8E99r7VRs

 

As long as it's after I'm back from the lake on the August long weekend.

You sure you guys all fit in a first gen?

 

Yeah, I need to just get in there and start tearing things out. They were pretty adamant about it being actual rebar and more of a headache than the mesh one would typically expect.

Worst case scenario, I’d have to cut it all out with an angle grinder.

 

Starting on the backyard, terrible brickwork back there and the existing concrete walkway pulled away from the house about 3 inches. Plan is a combo of concrete and turf. I did get those cypress stumps out using a come along, actually worked out pretty well.

 

Are those stamped bricks or just the landscaping ones?

 

Just regular red bricks. Who knows how long they have been there, only bought the house year and a half ago.

 

I was gonna say, if they are stamped and old you might be able sell them. People collect them, I guess. You still might be able to sell them if you aren't going to repurpose. Clean solid bricks are a great find.

 

Today, I got the tub and faucet in. Good new is the faucet can spray all the way across the room...10 feet. Ask me how I know.

 

Sweet - if you get up to pee in the middle of the night and are unaware that you missed the toilet, you can blame the new faucet.

 

Why didn’t I think of that? Haha

John

 

With a tree for your vertical support, I'd say you're good.

 

I just put them on CL and got 7 hits within an hour and one of the guys came and picked them all up. I personally don't like brick and just wanted them gone.

 

Crazy, huh? One man's trash...

 

Ain't that the truth

 

I didn't do it myself but home improvement nonetheless. My tundra driveway lol

 

my neighborhood has a Facebook group that anyone in the neighborhood wanting to get rid of something posts it in the group. Everything is always picked up immediately. People will post it with the address then Leave it at the end of the driveway. I posted an old grill, put it at the end of the driveway and it was gone in 20 minutes

 

Finally broke ground for the new home. Just a hole in the ground.

 

Is your new home on a mountain? If so , I'm jealous.

 

In our old neighborhood, I put out toilets and they were gone before I got back in the house. We did have the opposite experience once though. My mother-in-law and special needs bro-in-law were living next door to use (her oldest son bought the house for them). They had some pretty shitty furniture that we put out to the curb. Cars would slow down and when they got a good look at it, gun it like if they didn't haul ass out of there we were gonna load it up in the vehicle.

 

Nice!

 

I’m on a hill near the foothill mountains. I am at the end of a culdesac on the down ward slope of the hill my back of the property has no immediate neighbor behind. Down in the valley maybe 1/3 mile is another home (ranch farm) that we cannot see. We had to pay a premium for the lot. Walking / driving in the neighborhood we get views of the north central cascades, i.e. Glacier peak. I would like to have view lot but they were going to the bigger multistory homes. We are moving to get one level living, but we will have a daylight basement as we still have hobbies. Oh yeah, we will have a 2 car plus RV garage. I’ll be able to get my Tundra in the garage! (Finally).

 

Agreed, please continue to show the progress!

 

Ok, I will do it but will try not to over post.

 

My wife wanted a board and batten wall for our sons room so I put this up.

 

Installed some new closet doors in the bedroom.

 

Got the garage more organized and cleaned out more, enough to get wifey’s car inside finally. Got the downspout near my fence gate redirected so I could use a dispersion plate on it and not interfere with the gate. Got the camper picked up and situated in its spot. Eventually I’ll make some paver parking pads for it Also got the inflatable hot tub back up and rocking. Nothing like chillin under the stars in the hot tub!

 

We own that same hot tub; when my wife bought it, I thought it was dumb - UNTIL I used it. BEST $300 we've ever spent.

Question - do y'all leave it out when it's < 40 degrees or do you drain it like recommendations say?