What home improvement work did you do today?

Very simple, but I got a cargo carrier today since I got the sequoia now. Decided to mount it on the wall right behind where I park so it's not on the ground in the way. Can't wait to build my shop tho!

 

Hung a cabinet for my paint and chemicals. Had to christen it with a @ToyoMafia slap of course.

 

Luv it

 

Just finished design on my next project, going to turn a 1950's garage into a living space. Removing that chimney is going to be fun.

 

Oh yeah. Bought a new shovel today too.

 

Is that the same motor as the civic or the ridgeline?

 

Ridgeline i believe. My Honda HRN 216 lawnmower has the Civic motor.

 

Funny looking shovel. I doubt it would make a dent in the caliche around here.

 

Sheesh, I bought the biggest snow thrower that would fit in my garage. I think it could spit that one out.

 

What's that thing? Some fancy kind of post hole digger?
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Sarcasm from the deep south, I have seen one ONCE, 48 years old.

 

Power washed the deck. All day project for 1350 square foot ipe deck. Next week after it dries I will apply new stain.

 

Took about 65 gallons of old paint to the recycle center. And worked on organizing my basement some more.

 

About 4 days into building a shed/shop/storage in the back yard. 1st wall went up this morning.

 

I’m not doing the work but I’m watching as they wrap up the patio around the pool.

 

This porch has been an eye sore since we moved in 4 years ago but I haven't done anything with it yet. I plan to rip it out in a few months-1year and pour a full length concrete porch. It had ugly carpet on it and it started to fray and rip on the stair tops recently so I pulled it off. After the carpet was gone the glue was still there so I had to scrap some, tried to use a concrete grinder as well but without much success and then read that acetone works well to dissolve the glue so I tried that. After an anaphylactic response to probably the glue/acetone (but I still don't know) I ended up in the ER until my lips and tongue swelling went down. No Fun. Picked up some 'light gray' textured concrete porch paint and put the first coat on yesterday. It's more like 'blue steel' than gray but I guess it's better than it was. Hopefully it will only be temporary.
Here's a short timelapse of the carpet and glue removal for those that are bored. I spaced about setting up the camera for the rest of it though.
https://youtu.be/yHIJsjn0hrY

 

Dang, sorry to hear you ended up in the ER, but it looks 1000x better now! Well done.

 

haha, yeah it was an eventful night but thanks. I have hated that porch every time I look at but always told myself it will be removed 'soon' so I've neglected to do anything about it. I will throw another coat on today and then repaint the wrought iron railing. I don't have a date on starting our remodel but I'm thinking by the 1st of the year it will be gone lol.

 

Good call on the second coat. Those things kinda look like crap when the paint flakes off on high traffic areas. That should last till you rip it out.

 

yeah, I really couldn't find a good product that didn't flake after a while no matter how expensive the cost was. I'll see how much paint I have after 2 coats and do 3 if I can.

 

I hooked up my neighbors washer/dryer combo for him and pushed it into place. He did a little remodel of his bathroom and made a little area for it but the problem is that he didn't think about having to hook the fucker up. His friend was over there Friday trying to do it and they asked for my help but everything, from the cord, to the vent hose, to the water connectors were too short. I told him we could hook them up but whomever ended up doing it would be living behind it.

Anyway, he ordered longer stuff and it came in so I took care of it for him and I only cut myself on the stupid Whirlpool (fishing the wires in) once. So that was a win.

 

Ended up buying a gallon of the dark gray as the ‘light gray’ was too blue. I still don’t like it but I guess it looks better haha.

Also found these while mowing the backyard…voles?

 

From having vole problems about 3 years ago I think moles. But i don't remember having dirt piles. Voles don't tunnel on their own, they use mole tunnels. Moles eat larvae that you don't want. Voles eat mostly roots and bulbs that you do want.

My wife plants the flower gardens, when we had vole problems there were some gorgeous flowers that were about 6 feet tall. We would sit on the back porch and watch them shudder and drop about 2 inches. At one point she said ,that was a lot of money that just fell down.
I asked how much.
She asked do you really want to know?
I said no.
She planted local native plants the next year and we haven't had voles since.

But you could have ground bees/wasps/hornets. The cure for that is gasoline down the hole followed by a match. After dark.

 

"But you could have ground bees/wasps/hornets. The cure for that is gasoline down the hole followed by a match. After dark."

if you choose to go this way could you make a youtube video of your escapades? I would really like to see how that works out....

 

Well they appear to be moles and it sounds like all the ‘mole traps’ are lethal by their names, harpoon, impaling, choker, pitfall, or scissor-jawed. But I will be setting a GoPro on the trap tomorrow if I can get out to get one in town. So stay tuned.
On a side note, freaking FedEx guys! UPS drivers were kind enough to place packages on the ground next to the porch…but leave it to FedEx to piss me off

 

Got water and power to the shed!


Picked up a MrCool ductless unit from Costco so that's next I think. The more I look at the instructions the more I think I want to insulate and drywall first. I really don't want to move the condenser unit once it's in place.

Got a buddy who's willing to help with the dry wall (not going to finish it it out with mud) but I'm really confused what insulation to use, which one is easiest to install. Any suggestions?

 

I'd consider mineral wool. Less sound transmission than fiberglass and it's tolerant for moisture.

 

Thanks, now I just gotta figure out how much I need. I'm going with 3/8" drywall, don't want to spend any more money on this than I have to.

 

In fairness, he probably slung it from his vehicle at a high rate of speed.

 

Continuation from7465. A Framing error was caught by the inspector last week, I did not get details but it basically stopped any more work except painting the exterior. I got a voice mail update yesterday stating that the fix was minor and done, and re-inspection was to happen today. If that passes, then they can start insulation. We decided to get the optional bathroom and bedroom finished In basement so I think that is what caused the hiccup. There was not another model built this way till ours. I originally wanted a rough plumbing to be done for the plumbing but the builder would not do it. Oh well. They painted the outside but screwed up the door color. So I hope they could get some more paint soon and repaint. I guess the extra coat will not hurt. More delays….. we were to have been completed 6 days ago. I have a bad feeling they will have more delays with the interior. So far I’m glad we did not move out of our present house last spring. Only one photo as it was extremely muddy and I was taking photos of the crawl space framing to see if I could get the framing error.