Home "Improvement"

[TBT]

5 hours ago, hartrick11 said:

Finished! Now I roll putts while I grill, and my son loves running around on it and throwing golf balls in the cups (and his toys get 10% of the space haha).

Just picked up an old Spaulding TP Mills 3 on eBay for $15 to keep next to the grill as my putting green wand. Super pumped. 

Did you do it yourself or have somebody do it? I’ve been thinking about getting one done on the side of my house

[yungkory]

Does anyone have an electric mower? I'm assuming most of you have big lawns so you need gas, but that's not really a thing in Hawaii unless you're loaded. The house I bought has a yard that's too big to just use a weed whacker, but I don't really want to have to use gas and oil, out of pure laziness. Looking for some recommendations if anyone has any!

[GolfSpy_APH]

53 minutes ago, yungkory said:

Does anyone have an electric mower? I'm assuming most of you have big lawns so you need gas, but that's not really a thing in Hawaii unless you're loaded. The house I bought has a yard that's too big to just use a weed whacker, but I don't really want to have to use gas and oil, out of pure laziness. Looking for some recommendations if anyone has any!

They are really popular here in Switzerland... as well the roomba type. There are many different models that range in price from 150-400. We are looking at one for our smaller yard as well and there are so many options. I have also used the manual spinning ones before and don't mind them either depending on the size of your lawn. The main thing with the manual ones is to do it frequently so the grass doesn't get too long. Else it is a real pain and ends up taking 4 times longer. 

In other news we have completed our homemade bar (pictures to follow) and some homemade flower bed things... It was a fun Ikea project from Bed slats and other various pieces from there. 

[Chip Strokes]

5 hours ago, yungkory said:

Does anyone have an electric mower? I'm assuming most of you have big lawns so you need gas, but that's not really a thing in Hawaii unless you're loaded. The house I bought has a yard that's too big to just use a weed whacker, but I don't really want to have to use gas and oil, out of pure laziness. Looking for some recommendations if anyone has any!

i have a 21” deck from greenworks that served me really well living in new york. plenty of power to cut anything and with our small yard, the battery would last for two mows. 

it’s kind of useless now that we’re on several heavily wooded acres, but i actually used it the other day to clear out a corner of the yard that became overgrown with low lying weeds and it did a really good job. 

[MattF]

6 hours ago, yungkory said:

Does anyone have an electric mower? I'm assuming most of you have big lawns so you need gas, but that's not really a thing in Hawaii unless you're loaded. The house I bought has a yard that's too big to just use a weed whacker, but I don't really want to have to use gas and oil, out of pure laziness. Looking for some recommendations if anyone has any!

The Greenworks 60v or 80v are very popular, from what I read all over the place.

[bens197]

6 hours ago, yungkory said:

Does anyone have an electric mower? I'm assuming most of you have big lawns so you need gas, but that's not really a thing in Hawaii unless you're loaded. The house I bought has a yard that's too big to just use a weed whacker, but I don't really want to have to use gas and oil, out of pure laziness. Looking for some recommendations if anyone has any!

I do not but what I did buy a few years ago was a craftsman 18v battery powered string trimmer. 
 

This thing is the cats a**. The auto feed string with just the push of a button and enough juice to handle a .5 acre corner lot. When the string is all gone, I just pop in a new cartridge. 

[Shapotomous]

1 hour ago, bens197 said:

I do not but what I did buy a few years ago was a craftsman 18v battery powered string trimmer. 
 

This thing is the cats a**. The auto feed string with just the push of a button and enough juice to handle a .5 acre corner lot. When the string is all gone, I just pop in a new cartridge. 

Similar here....but with  Ryobi 40V trimmer.  I just got tired of messing with fouled carb's every other year.  The 60V or 80V variety would probably be better for a mower.

[bens197]

7 minutes ago, Shapotomous said:

Similar here....but with  Ryobi 40V trimmer.  I just got tired of messing with fouled carb's every other year.  The 60V or 80V variety would probably be better for a mower.

20v not 18…but you get the point…
 

Honestly, this thing starts every time and it’s a heck of a lot cleaner too. My brother has the blower and trimmer and swears by them. 

[Shapotomous]

1 minute ago, bens197 said:

20v not 18…but you get the point…
 

Honestly, this thing starts every time and it’s a heck of a lot cleaner too. My brother has the blower and trimmer and swears by them. 

I also have the pole saw and blower in the same Ryobi battery line and those are really convenient to have for quick small jobs where I would hate to get out the heavy duty extension cord for the electric blower or mess with the chain saw for an hour to get it running for a 10 minute clean up.

[Rickp]

12 hours ago, yungkory said:

Does anyone have an electric mower? I'm assuming most of you have big lawns so you need gas, but that's not really a thing in Hawaii unless you're loaded. The house I bought has a yard that's too big to just use a weed whacker, but I don't really want to have to use gas and oil, out of pure laziness. Looking for some recommendations if anyone has any!

We don’t have an electric mower but a couple neighbors do and it’s the EGO mowers.

They seem to be OK with them and they are Seniors and like to complain.

[tony@CIC]

5 hours ago, bens197 said:

20v not 18…but you get the point…
 

Honestly, this thing starts every time and it’s a heck of a lot cleaner too. My brother has the blower and trimmer and swears by them. 

I love my Ryobi tools - drill, circular saw, jig saw, lawn trimmers, etc. Even bought a power nailer a few months ago when I was redoing the trim in the house. 

[Rickp]

9 minutes ago, tony@CIC said:

I love my Ryobi tools - drill, circular saw, jig saw, lawn trimmers, etc. Even bought a power nailer a few months ago when I was redoing the trim in the house. 

I have all Ryobi power lawn tools also.  They’ve been good to me.  Had a battery go bad and they replaced it without making a Federal Case out of it.  

[yungkory]

2 hours ago, Rickp said:

We don’t have an electric mower but a couple neighbors do and it’s the EGO mowers.

They seem to be OK with them and they are Seniors and like to complain.

This was the brand I was looking at. I follow this guy who details cars and he uses their blower to dry his cars, and they share batteries so that would be cool to only have one brand of battery and chargers.

Thanks for the input everyone! Super helpful and I'm glad no one said they're hot garbage

[Tom the Golf Nut]

On 5/4/2021 at 9:58 PM, WaffleHouseTour said:

Very very sharp!

But to me, that gym looks like a great place for a simulator...

Yes, look at that celing height!

[MattF]

21 hours ago, Shapotomous said:

I just got tired of messing with fouled carb's every other year.

If they were 2 stroke, there's a very simple explanation for that. All 2 strokes NEED non-ethanol gas in the mix, otherwise they'll eventually foul the carbs.

[hartrick11]

On 5/15/2021 at 10:16 AM, TBT said:

Did you do it yourself or have somebody do it? I’ve been thinking about getting one done on the side of my house

I had someone do it. It cost me $4k and took 2.5 days. If I tried to do it solo, I would have taken months and done a middling job at best given my time constraints, lack of experience, and lack of specific tools

[yungkory]

Do houses ever let you stop spending money?

- Mower

- Washer/Dryer

- Shelves for the garage

- Closet system

- Solar water heater

 

[Chip Strokes]

6 minutes ago, yungkory said:

Do houses ever let you stop spending money?

 

[tony@CIC]

1 hour ago, yungkory said:

Do houses ever let you stop spending money?

- Mower

- Washer/Dryer

- Shelves for the garage

- Closet system

- Solar water heater

 

And then after all that the furnace or A/C breaks down...

[Rickp]

52 minutes ago, Chip Strokes said:

No never!  Our house is 7 years old and heat/air compressor replaced and refrigerator is starting to go!

[M. Parsons]

2 minutes ago, tony@CIC said:

And then after all the furnace or A/C breaks down...

Just got the A/C working again last week, thankfully we had some cool nights while it was down...the joys of homeownership.

[Rickp]

1 hour ago, yungkory said:

Do houses ever let you stop spending money?

- Mower

- Washer/Dryer

- Shelves for the garage

- Closet system

- Solar water heater

 

No never, planned obsolescence!

[Chip Strokes]

@yungkory we bought our house after it had been completely gut renovated. every piece of sheetrock and every system component is brand new.  and still...

in the two months we’ve been here we’ve had the hvac guy, plumber, well pump guy, painter, and electrician out to see us. 

welcome to the club, bro!

[yungkory]

6 minutes ago, Chip Strokes said:

@yungkory we bought our house after it had been completely gut renovated. every piece of sheetrock and every system component is brand new.  and still...

in the two months we’ve been here we’ve had the hvac guy, plumber, well pump guy, painter, and electrician out to see us. 

welcome to the club, bro!

Man, I totally get it. This house was reno'd within the last 2 years. Came into it thinking that it only needed a coat of paint inside, and we needed a new couch since the living room is bigger, and that has quickly turned into thousands of dollars in other stuff, with more on the way.

[tony@CIC]

1 minute ago, Chip Strokes said:

we bought our house after it had been completely gut renovated. every piece of sheetrock and every system component is brand new.  and still...

in the two months we’ve been here we’ve had the hvac guy, plumber, well pump guy, painter, and electrician out to see us. 

welcome to the club, bro!

That reminds me of our recent dryer repair. We have a 20 yr old dryer in our new to us Florida Condo and the drum belt broke. Indie appliance guy who worked for sears/whirlpool charged us $65. for the new belt install and told us wherever you do don't get rid of it until they stop making parts for it. He spends most of his time on new appliances. 

[Shapotomous]

2 hours ago, Chip Strokes said:

@yungkory we bought our house after it had been completely gut renovated. every piece of sheetrock and every system component is brand new.  and still...

in the two months we’ve been here we’ve had the hvac guy, plumber, well pump guy, painter, and electrician out to see us. 

welcome to the club, bro!

Don't forget the drywall guy!!   

Calling the well pump guy would have made me very nervous and I'd be imagining the worst case scenario of needing a new well drilled.   

[Chip Strokes]

3 minutes ago, Shapotomous said:

Don't forget the drywall guy!!   

Calling the well pump guy would have made me very nervous and I'd be imagining the worst case scenario of needing a new well drilled.   

haha oh i’ll never forget having to call the drywall guy

yeah man that wasn’t a fun call. wells are completely new to me. i’ve been on city water my whole life. luckily our water pressure issue was due to a dirty carbon filter. $400 and one hour later and all was good. although, he suggested a water softener for $1800...

[Shapotomous]

With the rain yesterday I moved to an inside project.  A friend of ours had asked me to put in some new stained baseboard and 1/4 round in their living room they have been painting for the last month.  I got all the pieces cut and laid out and my 30 yo craftsman brad nailer gave out halfway through the nailing.  I think its an o ring at the trigger.  But it doesn't owe me anything and instead of waiting for the repair kit to finish I used it's demise as an excuse to pick up a replacement.  After minimal interweb research I picked up an inexpensive Metabo last night.  If it only works for 15 years I will be happy with it.  I will fix the other because it can also shoot staples which is useful for a lot of projects.  

[tony@CIC]

On 5/24/2021 at 9:58 PM, Chip Strokes said:

haha oh i’ll never forget having to call the drywall guy

yeah man that wasn’t a fun call. wells are completely new to me. i’ve been on city water my whole life. luckily our water pressure issue was due to a dirty carbon filter. $400 and one hour later and all was good. although, he suggested a water softener for $1800...

Had to replace my water softener in florida - I was getting quotes from $1,500 to 3,000. Went to home Depot  and bought their highest capacity for about $700. Took me about an hour to install including moving the old one out. 

[Chip Strokes]

17 minutes ago, tony@CIC said:

Had to replace my water softener in florida - I was getting quotes from $1,500 to 3,000. Went to home Depot  and bought their highest capacity for about $700. Took me about an hour to install including moving the old one out. 

i’d attempt the job if we had an old water softener, but i don’t trust myself to do the initial installation.