Home "Improvement"

[Tom the Golf Nut]

13 minutes ago, tony@CIC said:

Or there's sod 

Or if it doesn't grow well, it could turn into my third artificial turf putting green. 

[Kenny B]

1 hour ago, Tom the Golf Nut said:

My two year project list was completed in 3 months.

Convert the attached two car garage into a man cave. (Golf Simulator, Movie area and Pool Table area. 

Power wash the entire pool deck, Pergola, Pergola area and bar area.

Strip the paint and repair the existing Pergola. Then re-stain. 

Put in a Pool House

Build a bar area out by the pool and build the bar. 

Build a real grass putting green. Built but waiting on the grass to fill in but it's coming along. 

What's left.................  Play a lot of golf, what else.  

I'm sure there is more to do... you just haven't thought about it enough.  You still have 21 months!!  

[GaryF]

2 hours ago, cksurfdude said:

 

 

Sounds crazy but growing a healthy, thick lawn can be a multi-year process....

Gotta have just the right amount of watering, the right types and amounts of fertilizer at the right times (I use a service for that!) and weed/bug killer, aeration twice a year ...

But if you like the look of a nice green lawn it's worth it!

Not crazy at all.  I’ve had a home in central florida since 1980 and in Ga for 5 years now.  Two totally different environments, grasses, pests, etc.  Ive always loved the look of a nice lawn, so when 2004 hurricane Charlie took down our large oaks that the city originally planted, I asked them not to replace as I wanted a nice lawn - and it has looked great ever since even though my daughter and her family took over the house.  Have been through many lawn services for the fertilizing, etc.  Have fired a lot of them too!

For many years,I cut my lawn every Saturday morning.  After coming home from a biz trip, I went to our storage room to get the mower and it was gone.  My wife then told me - oh, I forgot to tell you - I sold the mower and hired a service to cut the grass.  When we built in GA, we had our landscape company cut the lawn but every time they came, they’d have new crew and we’d have to instruct them what to do/not do.  After 2 years, I fired them.  A week after firing them, they showed up and started cutting lol.   I bought an EGO and every 2 1/2 months the savings pays for the mower. 

[revkev]

We are in a do it yourself portion of our remodel - painting the dining room, kitchen and Penny’s bedroom and back porch new door and screens. New flooring for the front of the house will be installed this week. I will get sone pics of that once it’s installed.

 

I’m very busy at work do my contribution to this has been furniture moving and paying for it. Lots of adult child labor for the painting. It’s also helpful to have an electrician certified AC guy in the family.

 

 

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

Not really the house itself but finished adding some deck lights and we got a nice propane fire table for the deck. Super cool

[russtopherb]

30 minutes ago, Lacassem said:

Not really the house itself but finished adding some deck lights and we got a nice propane fire table for the deck. Super cool

Nice! I opened up our gazebo last week and added some new lights I bought at Target on Dec 26th for like, 90% off.

We got a fire table to replace our rusted out pit last summer and it was a great choice. 

[sirchunksalot]

32 minutes ago, Lacassem said:

Not really the house itself but finished adding some deck lights and we got a nice propane fire table for the deck. Super cool

That looks so good, Mark. I love the lights and that fire table looks like a great place for family and friends to sit around and enjoy each other's company. 

[revkev]

Dining room and Penny’s room are just about completed.  Next up is a new handicap van - ours is toast - that’s going to cause a pause on our renovation project.  
 

I will say that the carpet in Penny’s room makes transfers much easier. Psychologically it removes the fear of accidentally dropping her. I think she is less tense - easier to get into the lift or to left manually for certain, 

[tony@CIC]

1 hour ago, russtopherb said:

Nice! I opened up our gazebo last week and added some new lights I bought at Target on Dec 26th for like, 90% off.

We got a fire table to replace our rusted out pit last summer and it was a great choice. 

Love those propane tables. Wish we could have one - but our Lanai is covered so can't do an open flame. 

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

3 hours ago, russtopherb said:

Nice! I opened up our gazebo last week and added some new lights I bought at Target on Dec 26th for like, 90% off.

We got a fire table to replace our rusted out pit last summer and it was a great choice. 

Got both but the tables so awesome when I really don’t want to go to bed smelling like smoke lol. It’s so nice to sit at night bring the summer nights!

 

3 hours ago, sirchunksalot said:

That looks so good, Mark. I love the lights and that fire table looks like a great place for family and friends to sit around and enjoy each other's company. 

Every day is a party! Drinks, family and friends as much as possible.

[tony@CIC]

A bit of background info, based on a recent energy audit, I decided to upgrade to a wifi setback thermostat. The added advantage is that I could see the temp in our Florida condo when we're away. It came in last Friday - a T9 'Honeywell' which had a high rating from Consumer Reports. 

Changing thermostats - simple enough project - right? NOOOOOO. The disaster started with my call to what is now Residio not Honeywell - guess they sold the company and didn't bother changing the label on the product.  I couldn't get the thermostat to 'talk' to my phone. A half hour on the phone with the tech guy after which he told me he's unfamiliar with iOS - so they'll do a 'remote' link. WHAAAAAT you're a phone tech and you're unfamiliar with iPhones? 

Ok - guess that feature will have to wait. BUT WAIT - it's pumping out heat even though it's set up for cooling. Did I mention it's 93 out and the heat index is 99. I'm sweating bullets - so I told my wife I'm calling our HVAC guy just in case I can't figure it out. That was Friday late afternoon - earliest they can get out is Sunday am. Never did figure it out - many accolades to my very understanding wife who persevered through the heat. 

The very competent HVAC guy started playing around with the thermostat  - he's familiar with Honeywell stats but not this T-9.  He's here for over an hour , but he also did some PM work since we're leaving for a few months. The set-up was more guess work for him because while 'Honeywell' had 6 pages (no lie) on how to connect 8 wires. There were no - let me repeat NO instructions on set-up for a heat pump. 

[Rickp]

14 minutes ago, tony@CIC said:

A bit of background info, based on a recent energy audit, I decided to upgrade to a wifi setback thermostat. The added advantage is that I could see the temp in our Florida condo when we're away. It came in last Friday - a T9 'Honeywell' which had a high rating from Consumer Reports. 

Changing thermostats - simple enough project - right? NOOOOOO. The disaster started with my call to what is now Residio not Honeywell - guess they sold the company and didn't bother changing the label on the product.  I couldn't get the thermostat to 'talk' to my phone. A half hour on the phone with the tech guy after which he told me he's unfamiliar with iOS - so they'll do a 'remote' link. WHAAAAAT you're a phone tech and you're unfamiliar with iPhones? 

Ok - guess that feature will have to wait. BUT WAIT - it's pumping out heat even though it's set up for cooling. Did I mention it's 93 out and the heat index is 99. I'm sweating bullets - so I told my wife I'm calling our HVAC guy just in case I can't figure it out. That was Friday late afternoon - earliest they can get out is Sunday am. Never did figure it out - many accolades to my very understanding wife who persevered through the heat. 

The very competent HVAC guy started playing around with the thermostat  - he's familiar with Honeywell stats but not this T-9.  He's here for over an hour , but he also did some PM work since we're leaving for a few months. The set-up was more guess work for him because while 'Honeywell' had 6 pages (no lie) on how to connect 8 wires. There were no - let me repeat NO instructions on set-up for a heat pump. 

Honeywell was a really good company years ago.

[MattF]

14 hours ago, tony@CIC said:

A bit of background info, based on a recent energy audit, I decided to upgrade to a wifi setback thermostat. The added advantage is that I could see the temp in our Florida condo when we're away. It came in last Friday - a T9 'Honeywell' which had a high rating from Consumer Reports. 

Changing thermostats - simple enough project - right? NOOOOOO. The disaster started with my call to what is now Residio not Honeywell - guess they sold the company and didn't bother changing the label on the product.  I couldn't get the thermostat to 'talk' to my phone. A half hour on the phone with the tech guy after which he told me he's unfamiliar with iOS - so they'll do a 'remote' link. WHAAAAAT you're a phone tech and you're unfamiliar with iPhones? 

Ok - guess that feature will have to wait. BUT WAIT - it's pumping out heat even though it's set up for cooling. Did I mention it's 93 out and the heat index is 99. I'm sweating bullets - so I told my wife I'm calling our HVAC guy just in case I can't figure it out. That was Friday late afternoon - earliest they can get out is Sunday am. Never did figure it out - many accolades to my very understanding wife who persevered through the heat. 

The very competent HVAC guy started playing around with the thermostat  - he's familiar with Honeywell stats but not this T-9.  He's here for over an hour , but he also did some PM work since we're leaving for a few months. The set-up was more guess work for him because while 'Honeywell' had 6 pages (no lie) on how to connect 8 wires. There were no - let me repeat NO instructions on set-up for a heat pump. 

For what you want, I would have gone with a Nest or an Ecobee.

[skraeling]

This fall ive committed to actually doing some landscaping in the front... Im already not looking forward to the amount of work this will require.

Full retaining wall raised thingy and burying downspout tubes... the whole bit.

Neighbor just did his and it looks amazing.  Now it SHOULD look good as hes a damn general contractor anyway.

Me?  Ima bumble **** my way through this and probably take twice as long.

[Rickp]

1 hour ago, skraeling said:

This fall ive committed to actually doing some landscaping in the front... Im already not looking forward to the amount of work this will require.

Full retaining wall raised thingy and burying downspout tubes... the whole bit.

Neighbor just did his and it looks amazing.  Now it SHOULD look good as hes a damn general contractor anyway.

Me?  Ima bumble **** my way through this and probably take twice as long.

I do my own also, not fun but it’s usually worth the time/trouble.

[tony@CIC]

This is more like 'home fix it vs. home improvement. 

When we arrived at our Ohio condo a week ago we were greeted by this problem. We're about 60 yds directly left of the green on #1. Someone had a really bad shank. Didn't leave a note or ball. I could have found better use of $350. like maybe a new 3 wood. 

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

5 minutes ago, tony@CIC said:

This is more like 'home fix it vs. home improvement. 

When we arrived at our Ohio condo a week ago we were greeted by this problem. We're about 60 yds directly left of the green on #1. Someone had a really bad shank. Didn't leave a note or ball. I could have found better use of $350. like maybe a new 3 wood. 

When you are not in the condo during the off season does the condo group go through houses to check on this type of stuff or nah? Hopefully no critters inside!

[tony@CIC]

1 hour ago, Lacassem said:

When you are not in the condo during the off season does the condo group go through houses to check on this type of stuff or nah? Hopefully no critters inside!

We have both a guy that walks through our condo once a month and neighbors next door that live there year round. They gave us a heads-up on the breakage. Fortunately it's double glazed glass and only the outside was broken, so no pests inside. 

[Mr Orange]

My fun project last week. Did not go as planned. Replacing our sidelights and front

went to install the front door and they milled the hinges wrong so now I’m waiting on a new door. Project taking forever

[MaxEntropy]

Starting last summer, my wife and were trying to find a company to work on a pretty big hardscape project we had in mind. It was a struggle to find a contractor that had the time to even give us a quote, much less be able to commit to doing the work. Earlier this year, I was complaining about it to a friend that used to own his own concrete business and he gave me a phone number and said, "Call this guy - I used to subcontract with him on any concrete work he needed. He is a good guy, and they do good work." Here are a couple aerial photos of before....

In general, there is a lot of overgrown garbage going on. Our biggest concern was the collapsing retaining wall and the amount of erosion that has taken place (the soil and mulch used to reach the gray brick behind the wall and below the furnace vent), but until this year, it was all covered in ivy, so it was harder to notice how bad of shape things were in. Something killed a bunch of the ivy over the winter, so it stuck out like a sore thumb. The path leading to the front door was also very uneven due to roots that have pushed it around. Over the years, we have had around a dozen trees taken out of the front yard, a couple of which were too close to the path.

Our secondary concern was getting the old parking pad replaced (and enlarged) to match whatever we ended up doing in front of the house and doing some type of a path up the left side of the house to get to the back yard. We liked the proposal and once we got over the sticker shock, we decided to pull the trigger. I won't bore everyone with the daily updates, I'll just move on to the (nearly) finished product:

As of Tuesday evening, everything is done, including the repairs and reseeding of the yard - good thing the weather is starting to be more appropriate for growing grass.

Our goal in the next year or 2 is to connect the path up the side of the house to a patio that will match the parking pad where we can put a pergola, some furniture, and a gas-burning fire pit. Of course, we also want to have our kitchen redone, so we'll see which project actually comes next.

In case anyone is curious, all the images were taken with a DJI Mini2 drone my lovely wife got me for Christmas last year. Images are downsized, but it has 4K native resolution. I had originally asked for it to take to golf courses, but the booting process and GPS acquisition take longer than I would like and would totally interrupt the flow of a round and slow things down. I have toyed with the idea of using an older phone as the dedicated controller that I can leave connected, but since the phone is quite a bit older, the drone software has been a little flaky when I've tried it. I do not need the software to crash mid-flight and have no clue what the drone itself would do if that happened. I have no interest in finding out.

[MattF]

16 hours ago, MaxEntropy said:

Starting last summer, my wife and were trying to find a company to work on a pretty big hardscape project we had in mind. It was a struggle to find a contractor that had the time to even give us a quote, much less be able to commit to doing the work. Earlier this year, I was complaining about it to a friend that used to own his own concrete business and he gave me a phone number and said, "Call this guy - I used to subcontract with him on any concrete work he needed. He is a good guy, and they do good work." Here are a couple aerial photos of before....

In general, there is a lot of overgrown garbage going on. Our biggest concern was the collapsing retaining wall and the amount of erosion that has taken place (the soil and mulch used to reach the gray brick behind the wall and below the furnace vent), but until this year, it was all covered in ivy, so it was harder to notice how bad of shape things were in. Something killed a bunch of the ivy over the winter, so it stuck out like a sore thumb. The path leading to the front door was also very uneven due to roots that have pushed it around. Over the years, we have had around a dozen trees taken out of the front yard, a couple of which were too close to the path.

Our secondary concern was getting the old parking pad replaced (and enlarged) to match whatever we ended up doing in front of the house and doing some type of a path up the left side of the house to get to the back yard. We liked the proposal and once we got over the sticker shock, we decided to pull the trigger. I won't bore everyone with the daily updates, I'll just move on to the (nearly) finished product:

As of Tuesday evening, everything is done, including the repairs and reseeding of the yard - good thing the weather is starting to be more appropriate for growing grass.

Our goal in the next year or 2 is to connect the path up the side of the house to a patio that will match the parking pad where we can put a pergola, some furniture, and a gas-burning fire pit. Of course, we also want to have our kitchen redone, so we'll see which project actually comes next.

In case anyone is curious, all the images were taken with a DJI Mini2 drone my lovely wife got me for Christmas last year. Images are downsized, but it has 4K native resolution. I had originally asked for it to take to golf courses, but the booting process and GPS acquisition take longer than I would like and would totally interrupt the flow of a round and slow things down. I have toyed with the idea of using an older phone as the dedicated controller that I can leave connected, but since the phone is quite a bit older, the drone software has been a little flaky when I've tried it. I do not need the software to crash mid-flight and have no clue what the drone itself would do if that happened. I have no interest in finding out.

Having seen the old in person, that looks fantastic mate.

[PrismFlopper]

Jeez where do i even start. 
-need to tear sown half the deck and build a patio to replace the pool area.(thank god that pool collapsed it was my dreaded nightmare every year.

-rip up trees in the yard cause the concord vines have just taken over.

-finish the bathroom that never got finished cause, the kitchen cabinets NEEDED to be done according to the wife.

-clean the solar panels which cover the roof and nowhere to securely stand to do it (havent figured this one out yet)

-prume the tree in the yard cause its destroyed my front yard

-redo the driveway but theres always cars in it and thats expensive

-organize the basement that i already organized but got water and that got all messed up

I dont even think this is half but this is giving me a headache to think about

 

 

[stevehernes]

On 5/13/2023 at 1:54 PM, GolfSpy_SHARK said:

Not really the house itself but finished adding some deck lights and we got a nice propane fire table for the deck. Super cool

Awesome table! Was it very difficult to install it? My next table will be a small coffee table  from the picture underneath ( click here to see more of their items). I think it looks very stylish and unique at the same time. Plus, its compact size makes it perfect for smaller spaces without sacrificing on style.

Edited March 3 by stevehernes

[Another Steve]

Long, but humorous… at least I can laugh about it now.
 

The valve in the shower faucet to regulate the hot/cold water mix died, so only hot or only cold. Went to replace it and determined that the shut-off valves for the shower were stuck half way open.  Now I gotta shut the main water supply off in the basement. Locate the valve and as luck would have it whomever installed the valve and water meter 30 or more years ago put the valve on the house side of the meter and not inbound before the meter. (remember this for future reference)

 

So I buy the replacement water mix valve, two ball valves and various adapters and compression fittings to make the repairs. Shut the water off and make the repairs. When I turn the water back on the bottom of the water meter blows out.

 

Now Wy-Lee Coyote from Acme plumbing services directs you to recall the previous statement that THE SHUT OFF VALVE IS ON THE HOUSE SIDE OF THE WATER METER! It is 7:50pm on a Saturday night and my basement has a river running through it.

Mutha-@&$?@$!!!!!

So I call the Municipal Water Authority emergency line and sit through an unavoidable 5 minute recording of how to pay you bill online in two languages before getting the option of choosing 2 to continue in English and then 2 for residential, then 2 for emergency (why always 2?), then another unavoidable “use our automated system to pay your bill” monologue, then press 1 to continue in English, then press 1 to report an emergency, then press 2 for residential, then press 1 to request emergency shut -off! Took at least 10 minutes to reach a human to request the shut-off.
 

She Took my info and said their on call service tech would call me to schedule a shut-off. An hour later I get the call… hallelujah! ……. they will be there in 30 minutes! At least the river in the basement is flowing pretty much directly to the floor drain. 

 

so…. Water off at curb, show a picture of water spewing out the bottom of the meter….. she says “I can replace that for you”. (Finally something going our way).
 

Meter is behind clothes washer so shut water geed valves and disconnect hoses before moving it for better access. 30 minutes later the new meter is in. We slowly turn the water back on at the curb and then open the valve up to the house. 
 

Success you say????? Not so fast Mr Coyote…. Reconnect the water feeds to the  clothes washer and the cold water feed valve is now squirting a stream of water out from around the valve stem! 
 

Muta-@&$&&@!!!!

 

Close cold water valve again. At least it doesn’t leak when fully shut off…… we will do our laundry in hot water for the near future. You see, I have a few more localized shut-off valve replacement jobs to do and figure that I will do them all at once. As a result of the stuck valves in the shower I checked all of the sinks and toilets and found a couple others that were no longer working…..

 

I love my old house!

[silver & black]

On 5/4/2023 at 3:08 PM, cksurfdude said:

 

 

Sounds crazy but growing a healthy, thick lawn can be a multi-year process....

Gotta have just the right amount of watering, the right types and amounts of fertilizer at the right times (I use a service for that!) and weed/bug killer, aeration twice a year ...

But if you like the look of a nice green lawn it's worth it!

I'm probably the odd guy on here... I hate lawn work... all of it. I love when my lawn turns brown in July and August so I don't have to mow every other day. 

[ParFore74x]

37 minutes ago, silver & black said:

I'm probably the odd guy on here... I hate lawn work... all of it. I love when my lawn turns brown in July and August so I don't have to mow every other day. 

I’m with you there. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the look of a nice lawn but I’m not willing to put forth the time, effort, and money to keep it going. I tell myself every year that I want to change my ways but I’m pretty good at talking myself out of it when spring gets here. 

[silver & black]

2 minutes ago, ParFore74x said:

I’m with you there. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the look of a nice lawn but I’m not willing to put forth the time, effort, and money to keep it going. I tell myself every year that I want to change my ways but I’m pretty good at talking myself out of it when spring gets here. 

Me too...lol. It only takes a couple of weeks of mowing what seems like at least every other day in the Spring to kill any  thought of actually caring about my lawn. Then, there is the matter of mulch, tree and shrub trimming....................... I'd starve as a Landscaper... 

[ParFore74x]

3 hours ago, silver & black said:

Me too...lol. It only takes a couple of weeks of mowing what seems like at least every other day in the Spring to kill any  thought of actually caring about my lawn. Then, there is the matter of mulch, tree and shrub trimming....................... I'd starve as a Landscaper... 

That sums it up perfectly for me as well. Takes me forever to get a landscaping project done at home, never enough motivation to just get after it. 

[tony@CIC]

Well it finally got to be that time - remodeling the guest bathroom in our Florida condo. As background, we bought the condo in 2020 from its original owner (actually from his family) and hasn't been updated since it was originally built in 1992. Typically, I do all of the remodeling with the last project being the kitchen. However, two lessons learned from that project: removing tile, especially from a concrete floor is a miserable job, two; I'd rather be golfing. However, there are things I can easily do between rounds, like demo. So let the project begin and hopefully no big surprises! 

We knew the old vanity was not only out of date and way too low but surprised that the particle board had warped and, in some places, started to disintegrate from moisture (leaky faucet?). 

A hammer made quick work of the manmade stone countertop and cabinet. But the huge 3X5' mirror was a challenge. We got it into the back of our small suv but it did break on the way to the county dump. We knew we had wallpaper but didn't realize it was painted over and oh by the way that was put on top of another layer of wallpaper. I was good - I kept all of the swear words under my breadth as I was removing decades of old wallpaper from UNPRIMED walls which came off with some of the drywall paper

! 

At the same time, we (she) decided we needed to upgrade the fixtures, including those in the shower. That in itself was a separate journey trying to get an upgrade to the existing shower faucet - of which there is only one model available that looks like the old one. Think - new rough in valve plus the rest of the assembly. Since it had to be done in concert with the tile guy (he's replacing the old drywall in the shower with cement board - yeah they used drywall in back of the shower tile ) - I decided to farm that project out as well. 

More updates coming next week - stay tuned folks. 

[skraeling]

oof.

The saga:

hvac system is ~27 years old.

hvac system decided it didnt want to light the burners.  ok no biggies 200.00 and a service call (yeah... flame sensors gone wonky).

thats fixed.

system now goes... cool thats fine and all... uhhh yeah ima not shut off the squirrel cage (main blower fan) OH and also the draft inducer motor.... ok fine whatever.

Diagnosis the solenoids or whatever they are called (several beers deep right now)... decided yeah naw we gonna stick and fail randomly. new circuit board was quoted at ~800.00

queue me shelling out 10k for a new system.  It was inevitable so just ripped the bandaid off.  I knew it was going to happen at some point so just said naw... yep.. kill it with fire.