The Super Official Homeowners Thread

[Beej]

Can anyone help me figure out how to close this gap from my storm door to the door frame?

When I installed my (Larson brand) storm door, the frame was 3 pieces: left, right, top. The opening was just a pinch too wide, sorta like yours. IIRC, there was no width adjustability.

Went to Lowe's and got a piece of trim called a 'stop' (sorta like this) and used it as a shim on each side before installing the side pieces. Closed the gap perfectly. I think mine was untreated pine and was a little worried about it being exposed to the weather but it's shielded well enough by the overhang.

Yeah you have to remove the door but your gap looks small enough that you might get away with doing only one side and can leave the door itself on there.

[HAULN-SS]

Usually that's a sign the door jamb itself is out of square (because of poor contractor install, not manufacture). it looks like that door was installed between two panels of a 3 panel front door..so its probably having to do with the jamb being out of whack on the main door

[JPolen01]

Does anyone need any smoke detectors? Bought 6 from a seller on Amazon. 3 of 6 ended up not being hard-wired to the house so I left those 3 alone. Of course the seller won't take returns. Here is my CL link: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://baltimore.craigslist.org/ele/6285846825.html">https://baltimore.craigslist.org/ele/6285846825.html</a><!-- m -->

And yes I plan to check out the door jamb this weekend if I have time. Pella sent me instructions on how to remove the trim and install shims so I might go that route. Might try some weather stripping first and try the easy way out.

[WRXtranceformed]

I bought my wife a B&D electric hedge trimmer so she could prune like a boss and after playing around with it yesterday I can say that it is one of the only fun parts of doing yard work.

If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up

[Apoc]

I have a regular one and one that's attached to a 6' pole... but you don't know fun until you get yourself a battery powered chainsaw. I actually used to hate mowing the lawn, but rather enjoy it with our new Prius powered motor.

[WRXtranceformed]

I have a regular one and one that's attached to a 6' pole... but you don't know fun until you get yourself a battery powered chainsaw. I actually used to hate mowing the lawn, but rather enjoy it with our new Prius powered motor.

Nice haha :lol: I don't have anything well established enough on our property to need a chainsaw yet, but maybe someday!

I was looking at some electric mowers at Lowe's the other day, could find one cheaper on Amazon most likely but I also really hate mowing. After this fall, I may end up paying someone to do it next spring / summer. Beyond some quick hits / edging with the weed eater and using the blower, it just isn't worth my time to mow the rest of the property and I really don't need more machinery filling up my garage. We'll see

[.RJ]

And, we're mostly done.

Some background - its a 3-level townhouse that was 'renovated' about 8-10 years ago - they did some really nice things, like the hardwood floors, adding a bathroom upstairs and in the basement - but every fixture, sink, appliance, toilet paper holder and everything was the cheapest shit you could get from home depot and none of it has aged well. I think at this point they're all gone.

The only setback was the contractor that I hired to install my tile & bathroom trim put a baseboard nail through a water pipe. No one's fault really but it meant taking out the sink cabinet, replacing a 2x2 square of drywall and repainting and that set me back a few days.

Here's the punch list -

- remove old shitty baseboard, install new (taller) baseboard & stained shoe molding on main level (I cant believe how much of a difference this made, I love it)
- removed chair rail on main level (also glad I did this)
- removed built in bookcase in living room which allowed me to move the tv to where the bookcase was and open up the floor quite a bit.
- all 3 upstairs bathrooms, remove pedestal sinks, new paint, new floors, new light fixtures, medicine cabinets, removed medicine cabinet in powder room and hung a mirror, install floated ikea sink cabinets and new bathroom hardware. I had to open up the wall in the long hall bathroom and reframe it for the new cabinets & lights, but, way better than the fucking pedestal sink in there before. I left the showers and tubs as they were, nothing really wrong with them, or at least, they dont bother me and could be changed later without undoing any of the stuff I already did.
- kitchen - new floors, refinished cabinets (stripped & painted), glass tile backsplash, new appliances, swapped out the island (black to white) and stools, new countertop, faucet & sink (the single sink is amazing)

I did all the demo and hired out the tile install, which was nice, and I also hired out a crew to come and paint all my baseboards and trim which was a huge life saver for me. They were awesome. The rest was on me, and took about 2 months to do the work. The only thing I wish I'd done different was instead of painting the cabinets was order new, pre-painted doors and then paint the frames because that one wasnt worth the time. That was a seriously time consuming project, it took me a full weekend to do all of the prep and get one coat of primer and then its about 2 hours to get a coat of paint on then wait 24 hours between coats. The previous owners went did a really shitty job staining the cabinets, way too dark with drips, spots and runs everywhere and I wasnt able to get through it all without tearing up the doors in the prep. I've already had to go back and re-paint over some chips that have come off, so after all the work I may end up replacing the doors down the road anyways with shaker-style doors.

I have 2 light fixtures to replace in the stair well and paint and nail in some trim for the toe kicks & 1/4 round where the tile meets the cabinet. Also need to get a flooring guy/company to come and either replace the carpet on my stairs or replace with hardwood. Not sure what will do, likely whatever is cheaper at this point :lol: I'd love to do... something with the stair railing but that's... another time.

And photos. Bonus shot of bike room, because I can go use those things again now that I'm done day laboring.

[ScottyB]

i love those two-tone kitchen cabinets.

so how did you learn how to do this? i want to do this stuff. youtube tutorials? because it looks awesome and our house needs updated sorely.

-10 points from Gryfindor for absence of Shrek soap

[.RJ]

Shrek soap :lol:

Most home stuff is EASY and the systems are usually designed and laid out simple. You arent building engines or gearboxes here. There's no secrets in contracting, there's a hundred youtube videos for every job, just get the right tools, have a plan, phone a friend, make some practice cuts and then get into it. Get it close enough and put some trim or caulk on it and paint it. If you can build a race car (hell, if you can change brake pads) you sure as shit can remodel a house, assuming you're not getting into shit like custom carpentry work. Seriously. Things get a little more complicated when you do stuff like tear down walls and change the floor layout, but its just a bunch of small problems to solve not decoding the matrix.

It doesnt hurt to have an eye on the $$ in vs. resale boost later, and what the rest of your neighborhood looks like either but that's part of making a plan. If you're not sure where to go some $ up front for an interior designer or architect can give you some vision and help you get started - I didnt do this, but having lived in the house for 6 years I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted out of this. I would have loved to rip out the kitchen and Leeroy Jenkins some walls but I would have never gotten that $ back, I dont think we'll be here another 5 years. Home materials are generally not expensive, depending on where you're looking, you're mostly paying for labor and experience when you hire out a contractor.

Plus you get to buy cool tools like a demo hammer to tear up a tile floor and a nail gun. PEW PEW PEW.

[.RJ]

I bought my wife a B&D electric hedge trimmer so she could prune like a boss

Get some laser hair removal on that :lol:

[JPolen01]

Shrek soap :lol:

Most home stuff is EASY and the systems are usually designed and laid out simple.

This is so true. I've learned so much from youtube and trial and error. My buddy, who is in industrial construction, and I have flipped a house and renovated a second for a rental property. He has construction experience in waste water management on an enormous scale. Think Baltimore City sewer system. He's learned a ton from reading books and youtube. The rest we just wing it and hope for the best :lol:

[JustinG]

Perks of home ownership.... Sunday night football in the backyard on a 12 ft inflatable screen.

[Apoc]

Got any pics of the final score?

[JPolen01]

Picture looks pretty good for a projector

[JustinG]

Color is bluer than it should be, but I haven't dicked around with the custom RGB settings. I'm happy with it for a $75 lightning deal.


This probably belongs in the useless tech thread, but I ordered a tripod for the projector to avoid the tv tray, 5 gallon bucket, and box the projector came in combo that held the projector last night.

Then just trying to figure out audio, I think some cheap 2.1 computer speakers may do the trick. But my Anker Bluetooth speaker auxed into the projector served well last night

And I'm happy I started Stafford over Eli.

[.RJ]

The rest we just wing it and hope for the best :lol:

As long as you're not into the load bearing walls, and you turned off your breaker and/or water, there's not much you cant botch that you cant easily undo/fix.

[Apoc]

Then just trying to figure out audio, I think some cheap 2.1 computer speakers may do the trick. But my Anker Bluetooth speaker auxed into the projector served well last night

We have a similar outdoor screen and use an old set of computer 2.1 - works well.

[JPolen01]

As long as you're not into the load bearing walls, and you turned off your breaker and/or water, there's not much you cant botch that you cant easily undo/fix.

Pretty much. So far the only thing we failed at was trying to level a concrete floor in a basement that was poured haphazardly by the previous owner. We ran a concrete grinder on it for a couple of hours and it really wasn't doing much at all. Maybe it needed a new blade? Was a home depot rental so.... :dunno: Ended up using bags of self-leveling cement to bring up the low spots. Didn't work great, but carpet was thrown down and it's good enough for a $1200/m rental.

[.RJ]

Yeah you cant fix concrete that way :lol:

[Apoc]

Forgot to post this update from awhile ago. The odd placement of things is because there is no railing on those steps, so we wanted to block them off from the kid.