What home improvement work did you do today?

Thanks! Yeah, having tools organized is a requirement for me. A place for everything and everything in it's place. I do want to get a proper cabinet for my chemicals and stuff instead of that repurposed old bookshelf, but it'll work for now.

 

I got out of work a couple hours early and as soon as I got out of my truck I noticed an adjustable wrench in my garage floor. I picked it up and put it away. Then I organized that drawer, found a few adjustables that weren't gliding smoothly. So.....I ended up going thru every drawer of both of my tool chests and organizing and I lubed up everything that moved or hinged with some lithium grease. Also wiped down everything after. I found three, yes three 10mm sockets, one deep, huge score. I them emptied, vacuumed, cleaned my socket set case and put everything back in its proper spot. I threw a bunch of crap out as I went along too. I re purposed a couple boxes to keep all my impact sockets in one box, and all my 1/2 drive sockets, ratchets, trq wrench, and breaker bars into another box. This was so long overdue and very rewarding, especially lubing all the tools, no one but me will notice but that's okay.

 

Lol I can snap some pics of my boxes in a few. Maybe you'll be able to spot the PB blaster lithium grease dripping out of the bottom after lubing up everything

 

My fireplace installer got this 650 lb cast iron wood burner installed. The whole surround is wrapped with 1 1/4” thick stone. The fireplace surround is 12”wide and 5” thick. It’s a unique look and it took a lot of planning to get to this point. I had to coordinate with framers, mason for firebrick, stone fabrication, countertop installers for surround and my fireplace installer. This is for a master bedroom. The finishing details on this room are going to be over the top.
Now it’s all covered up so it doesn’t get chipped or damaged.

 

Go easy on me, still a long way to go in cleaning and organizing the tool chests. The garage is a disaster and a work in progress as far as trying to get it organized. I have a small 2'×2' workbench, air compressor, a 48" walk behind mower and 28" snowblower off to one side, where I have a 12 foot span of overloaded wire shelving that needs to be rearranged. Other side is smoker, detailing cart, 1985 250sx. And in the middle is a big blue truck lol. The toolboxes still need work, really I need new chests but that's not in the cards. Oh the black box between the 2 tool chest is my 15 year old craftsman socket set, you know what those look like, this one somehow still has every single piece to it.

It really is amazing how nice these tools move, slide, ratchet and whatnot after being cleaned and oiled up.

I put in eight cheap Amazon 4 foot LED light strips last winter and they are still going strong, they light the garage up wonderfully

 

That is absolutely beautiful! And a wood burner too. You don't see that in a bedroom often anymore. I'd imagine especially im Texas lol. What a great room that will be, can't wait to see more

 

That’s beautiful! It’ll spice up your love life too! Lol I installed a gas Woodstock unit in my master - best thing I ever did. Really unique look! It’s 48 degrees here now... at these temps I kick it in for an hour before bed. The soapstone stays warm for a couple hours... the romance lasts forever!

 

I installed the same ceiling fans in the living room and master bedroom. I installed a light kit under the fan. They are great fans, don't move overly fast but move a lot of air. Enjoy!

 

LOL! I installed an FPX44Elite wood burner thinking the same thing.
Apparently, is all I needed was the Tundra and a few drinks. (Last weekend at least) LMAO

 

Yeah baby!!

Looks good, not crazy neat like never touched. Well used.

 

Did someone say something about tools!

 

Got the floor plug in and the flooring down, next is throwing in a box in the ceiling for a fixture and drywall repair. Coming along nicely!

 

Today is easy stuff, mainly wrapping up projects before I return to work next week. First thing was to hang up the housewarming gift we got from the mother in law.

 

Final project is done...at least the final project for now. LOL

I used cut offs and leftovers from my workbench project to throw together a firewood storage shelter.

 

Today was the day to get the trench drains encased in concrete. The steel barn structure will start going up in 10 days.

 

I saw the previous woodstove posts and had to share ours. This was by far the most fun and involved home improvement project in our current house. It was finally completed about 18 months ago after 4 months of hard work by our wonderful mason (and obviously artist). His attention to detail was incredible throughout the whole job. My wife and I spent the previous year trying to decide if we should install a traditional fireplace or woodstove and where it would best fit. In the end, she was right and we went with a woodstove. I won on the decision to install rockwork behind it.


Here is a before photo of the unused space in our living area.
































And four months later it looked like this:

 

I'm going to try pulling back some roof tiles to find out where I've got water coming in. I didn't snap a before pic, but the previous owners had just painted over this mess



The plywood was dry rotted to hell and just crumbled in my hands. Unfortunately (in this case anyway, normally it's a good thing...) I have insulation blown in against the roof behind fabric, so I have no way to tell where it's coming in from inside.

Wish me luck.

 

Wasn't quite as bad as I had feared but not great. Hoping that I can clean up the old flashing seal and lay new stuff down right and be good to go.

 

I can’t tell by the photos you attached but is there a wall that the water is falling against? Like a chimney or something that rain water would run into on the roof? If so having a cricket installed will divert the water away from that area. Flashing is a very important detail that sometimes is missed or not done properly from the beginning. Post up some more pics from farther out if you can.

 

Can't tell if these turned out or not because it's another nice, sunny day here... There's a little bit of a cricket at the end of the valley, and the roofline itself has a little pitch to it. I'm thinking it might be overrunning the flashing at the end?


On a side note, it's kinda peaceful up here and my 3 year old can't climb a ladder... Maybe I'll hang out up here a while.

 

From what I can tell you have three different sloped roofs that are all pitching the run off water towards the area marked in red. This is not a good thing since the water is going to rush right towards the flashing on the short wall under the small overhang. Off to the side look at the area that I circled in blue with a blue arrow. It looks like you have a short L flashing against the edge of the walls.

I would also suggest removing some of the tiles around the end and edges near your metal valleys. You should get some chalk and number the roof tiles in places first and take some pictures. This way you know what area the cut roof tile go back in when your ready to reinstall them. I’ve dealt with concrete and tile roofs like this before. It’s often a wrong flashing detail, missing Valley or incorrectly installed moisture barrier that causes the leak.

 

Yeah the builder definitely didn't do a few things right, but it's AZ and all crash 'em up houses. I grew up doing roofing and all things carpentry with my dad, so I do know my way around this stuff a little, but always appreciate the help. Once I got everything cleaned up it was pretty obvious where the water was skipping around the flashing and into the separation in the sheeting. I think the rubberized self-adhesive barrier that I put down should do the trick for now. I guess I'll find out next year when it rains hard again...

 

Grass is sprouting and I laid the additionAl concrete the traeger is on for the back patio

 

What a beautiful view, what's growing in that field?

 

Just found out what the wife had on the agenda today.....off to Lowe’s for some paint supplies for both bathrooms. And here I thought I was going to have some time to play with my Toy!!! (That’s the Tundra, for those with the dirty minds- LOL)

Have a great day, all!

 

Having a bathroom completely gutted, everything is coming out and being replaced. I'm doing some work in it and I'm patching and painting one of the kids room. Blinds came off today and holes patched, so next up will be primer.

Bonus points for having my Tundra in the background?