Project Home Renovation

[WRXtranceformed]

What the heck I can't believe that old deck wasn't lagged into the house at all! Good call on ripping that liability down. Any reason you chose wood decking instead of composite? Also smart move on those hurricane ties; I had our deck reinforced with them last year because apparently builders down here never used them. Our deck was lagged into the house but most of it was only held in by nails as well

[Ryan T]

What the heck I can't believe that old deck wasn't lagged into the house at all! Good call on ripping that liability down. Any reason you chose wood decking instead of composite?

Cost was the main reason we didn't go with composite decking. It's nice but it's more money than I wanted to sink into a deck.

[Ryan T]

So the deck itself is finally done. Were still going to put some lattice work on the outside and put some chipped brick underneath it to deal with some water drainage we get due to the natural slope on our lot, but the hard part is over. We made the rail 42" tall because I like the extra security of that height. We also put 2"x8" boards all the way across the top of the handrail to provide room to rest your arms on, put a drink on or sit a plate on if needed. We left about 3" between the deck floor and the bottom rail of the bannister to allow room to sweep or use the leaf blower to blow debris off the deck. We also put in a gate so we can let our dogs out on the porch and not have to watch them.

[Senor_Taylor]

Are you going to stain it?

[Ryan T]

Yes, we will stain it in about 6 weeks. Treated wood comes from the mill pretty wet with chemicals so it takes 6 weeks to 2 months for the wood to dry out enough to soak in any stain. We are thinking about a deep red/cherry looking stain.

[Senor_Taylor]

Oh, I didn't know that. Sounds like it'll be the same color as the deck at my parent's house. It's a good color.

[Ryan T]

Well it's been about a year since we've done anything major besides a ceiling fan, vanities, toilets, lighting and little things. As some of you remember, and anyone can see by going back to page 1, our basement is 70s tastic with cheap wood paneling and dark brown shag carpet. We finally had all we could take of it and decided to drywall the whole basement. Turned out to be quite the undertaking. Moved all the furniture, pool table, safe, etc into the garage. When we were pulling off the trim around the corners, ceiling and floor we noticed a lot of ants and debris. Pulled back a sheet of paneling and found a small to medium sized infestation of house ants. Quick call to the exterminator, to make sure they weren't termites, and a few hundred dollars later we are ready to drywall.

We decided to leave the old paneling in place since it was flat, sturdy, and relatively thick and strong. This allowed us to use 3/8" drywall instead of 1/2". It goes up pretty fast on the flat walls but it becomes tedious when you do the steps, around doors, windows, pillars and especially enclosing the duct work for the air conditioner. I had to remove two baseboard heaters as well. They were 220V and after some exploring we discovered that they were wired into the plug for the dryer. Kinda rigged in there so I'm glad to get that out.

About halfway up:





Walls done and first layer of mud on:



Pillars done an 2 layers of mud on:



Hopefully by Monday we will be able to sand everything again, touch up a few spots if needed, and start priming by the middle of the week. We left the carpet down to catch all the extra mud, dust, etc so we can roll it up and take it out. Once we get all the mudding done and prime/paint the new drywall we will put down some new carpet in there.

[JPolen01]

Looks like good progress. Good idea on dry walling over the paneling. That's what I have my shop do when we are updating the office trailers. They came from the factory with wood paneling so they just install vinyl wall covers over the wood. Much easier than removing it.

Dry wall sucks so much. You're a better man than I for tackling that much of it.

[Ryan T]

So obviously I forgot to update this after we got the room painted and carpeted. Finished the drywall and paint back in April. In mid-may we had the carpet installed. The only thing I know about installing carpet is it's worth paying someone else to install carpet, so we bought it from Lowe's. They came the first time and had 200sq.ft too little carpet so we had to wait almost two weeks to get it done. After that we got a major case of the "fuck its" and left it alone for most of the summer months. Last week we got tired of looking at it and I went and bought all the trim for the doors and baseboard for the walls. Got up early this morning and started on it. We were done with the baseboard and door trim by 2pm and I kinda regret not doing it a long time ago. Pretty happy with it and at least it's done now. BTW, I despise coping saws and coping corners.

[Jake]

Wow, that's quite the transformation! Looks so much better

[HAULN-SS]

having just installed 1100 sf of hardwood flooring, I think I can chime in and say indeed fuck all flooring installs. I could have had it done for 2.50/sf and should have.

[JPolen01]

having just installed 1100 sf of hardwood flooring, I think I can chime in and say indeed fuck all flooring installs. I could have had it done for 2.50/sf and should have.

Pretty much what happened when we got our floors done except I made the right decision before blowing an entire weekend on the install. I think we paid just under $2/sf and it was 100% worth it. 3 installers were here for almost 10 hours. Would have easily taken me and my buddy a full weekend.