What home improvement work did you do today?

It'll be fine. I'm assuming it's saying no since it's not pressure treated but if you're painting it anyway there's no issue.

 

Picked up the pine tongue and groove boards today from the lumber yard for the patio ceiling project. Next will be sanding them all down with 220 grit before applying prestain conditioner, stain, and polyurethane.

 

What kind of tree is that wood from? I’d use a hardwood if painted. My preference would be pressure treated or cedar tho.

 

With a diamond plate cover

 

After spending too much time purchasing material the past couple months I believe it's safe to say, that WASN'T cheap.

 

I stumbled into a clearance sale on fire brick last week, so I rebuilt our firepit. I just need to build a new spark screen.

 

Not sure how the prices compare with inflation, but I paid roughly $760 for the wood including tax. This was 38 boards 16' long and 6" wide so 304 square feet total. I plan to do the staining and polyurethane myself (sure hope I don't screw it up) and then just pay the contractor for running some electrical and installing the boards to save a little.

 

So both the piece with the X and the white board running horizontally are rotted out. There was no step flashing where the gutter meets the side.

Is it going to be possible for me to replace the board with the X without pulling the Hardie siding?

 

Cut the nails, should just slide out

 

Kind of depends on if it’s just a “siding” board over something else or if it’s framing. If it is just a siding board, cut or pull the nails (long slender reciprocating blade) and it should slip out. You may need to pull the gutter though (and I would anyway to inspect/asses what is going on at that intersection). If you replace the rotted face board with fiber cement (Hardie) you want to make sure it’s fully painted before the gutter goes back on, and I’d also add a secondary flashing behind the gutter endcap anyway.

 

It's definitely going to be a learning experience. My 81 year old neighbor is offering to help . He's exactly who I hope to be at that age. He's in good enough shape that he built an entire outbuilding last year.

From what I can see so far, it doesn't look like it ruined anything structural but I'll know later when Bill looks at it.

 

It’s only a fascia board, the structure is at the porch ceiling and wall. Fix the kickout flashing and prime all sides on fascia board.

 

Replaced my dead 7.5 year old Everbilt Home Deput sump Pump with a 1/3 hp rigid and thinking of ordering a Zoehler to keep on my shelf, because I hear they're the one to get. But I always wait to replace until it dies. And it always dies during off hours when there's more water in the ground so I end up doing the easy thing and driving 5 minutes to HD to buy something mediocre to get it running as fast as possible.

 

All this water damage occurred before I had new gutters installed. Previous owners didn't care.

This is what it looks like now. When it rains today I can no longer feel or see rain running down onto the boards below.

Would you change anything with this?

 

It should be install like a 2” higher, so it kick the water out to the gutter and should be inside the siding, you are relying on caulking to seal the kick out flashing to the wall at this point.

 

Can I ask about the under cabinet refrigerator? I have been looking to build a coffee bar and want to put a beverage refer under it, but, trying to find a refer that gets cold enough to keep beer, soda, and water has my head hurting. Most are designed to keep wine cool, not keep other drinks cold.

 

Tiled my "shed". I still need to grout, do the case moulding around the door, baseboards, finish up under the eaves, and install rain gutters. Just as an FYI, some of my buddies are telling me it is not a "Shed".

 

That, and if you can, try to slide some new flashing up behind the existing piece before you replace the board.

 

Anyone knowledgeable on AC thermostat wiring?

 

We bought one for sale from HD for $268 and it gets drinks very cold. Believe it’s set on 36° or so.

 

I know it’s color coded and I failed to push my “C” wire far enough into the retainer to make good contact. Spent 30 mins diagnosing an AC that wouldn’t come on just to check my Nest thermostat install from a week ago and find the loose wire. What kind of problem are you having?

 

Finished up the wood rot repair. This was a 3 beer job. It would have been 5 but I started while I was still on the clock at work.

I just need to sand, caulk and paint.

 

Scraped the top, threw down some weed block and then some rock. My back is sore. Rented a little dingo but it could only help so much. Didn’t really want grass and to have to run sprinkler line so I did rock instead.

 

Better be careful, I've heard dingos will eat your babyhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghCTZF61ey0

 

So I replaced my 13 year old wifi thermostat with a new Honeywell Home smart thermostat.

The old thermostat was wired:
C is brown
G is green
Y is yellow
W is white
RC is red
RH is jumper wire to RC

The new thermostat is wired:
C is brown
G is green
Y is yellow
W is white
R is red.

Looking at the jumper wire image, I moved the wire from RC to the R. If i understand correctly, R and RC on the new thermostat is the same as RC and RH on the old one. The 2nd pic is the old thermostat and the 3rd & 4th is the new one. Orange and blue and black are not used.

 

I updated the post. I think I have it wired correctly now.

 

Just finished a little fort for my kids. The platform is 5' up, chalkboard paint down below with a 8' climbing wall.

 

Hey Stacker, it's some off brand 2 drawer fridge I found on Amazon.

When I was in CO last September helping our neighbor build the fence between our properties I noticed they have one, and how awesome and convenient it was. Thought it would be perfect for the coffee bar as all the 500+ creamers and crap that my wife insists on having now live in the top drawer instead of hogging up our whole fridge. My beers live in the bottom drawer.

Having said that, they're not cheap but we love it.

 

So I live on a private dead end street. And people use my driveway to turn around when no one is home. The problem is there’s a lot of assholes they don’t care about other people property and those assholes end up driving on my lawn.





The bucket truck did some real damage.


So I finally got around to at least preventing it from happening.



There’s a big yellow pole that goes in there and locks in. It’s removable for when I need it to be.

This will at least make drivers pay attention to what they’re supposed to be doing.