Home improvement thread

[utekineir]

Business expense. :)

[g_berserk]

Does a new LED TV count as Home Improvement?
it surely has made me like that room more than I did before

[Sourkraut]

Originally Posted by nhbubba

I think bright white wainscoting from a chair rail down with a moderate blue wall above the rail would look the shit in a bathroom. I was pushing for this in ours, but in the end we decided that would be too much wainscoting in one house.

But someone should do this. ... with a nice pedestal sink... think about it.

My best friends also bought a house together and they did this exact thing in their bathroom... pedastal and all. I can grab some pics if you'd like when I'm over next time

Great improvements everyone! They look good. I can't wait until i re-do my entire kitchen

[nhbubba]

Originally Posted by Sourkraut

I can't wait until i can find the cash to re-do my entire kitchen

[clutch fool]

this thread is full of win. bob vila would be proud.

[timrocks311]

man i wish i had pics of everything we've done. bought a bit of a fixer upper a year and a half ago. every wall had white flower wall paper and white carpet in every room (except kitchens and baths).

so far we've:
-ripped down almost all the wall paper and repainted.
-ripped up carpets in living room, dining room and halls and restained hardwood floors underneath.
-completely remodeled the master and spare bathrooms.
-replaced all old doors, frames and trim in the hallway with new 6 panel doors.
-replaced front screen door, painted entry door and installed new hardware.
-replaced several ceiling fans, a chandelier and some outside lights.
-purchased new appliances for the entire house
-retiled fireplace
-installed wood blinds on the first floor to match the hardwood floors

current project is:
-finish stripping wallpaper in two spare bedrooms (last ones except the third floor/attic area), repaint, replace carpet, replace ceiling fans, replace closet doors

future projects on the horizon:
-remodel kitchen
-replace shelving in all closets
-fix up third floor room for a man cave

[Sourkraut]

Originally Posted by nhbubba

I think bright white wainscoting from a chair rail down with a moderate blue wall above the rail would look the shit in a bathroom. I was pushing for this in ours, but in the end we decided that would be too much wainscoting in one house.

But someone should do this. ... with a nice pedestal sink... think about it.

Stolen off my friends facebook:

[nhbubba]

That's what I'm talkin' about.. Looks good.

Tonight I plan to install the vanity, mock up the toilet and sink so I can measure to buy PVC bits and lines tomorrow. The drain on the new sink is about 1/2" too high to fit the existing trap. Figures.

[lounginfreak247]

Originally Posted by Sourkraut

Complete:

Nice! Any tips for building a pit like this? I was planning this as a spring project.

[Sourkraut]

Originally Posted by lounginfreak247

Nice! Any tips for building a pit like this? I was planning this as a spring project.

Do not go cheap if you want it to be nice! Normal mortar and bricks will not work. I learned the hard way when I had to tear apart and rebuild the interior of the pit.

For reference, the inside of that pit is 3'x3' feet, each wall is 1' wide. The reason I did that is because the blue stone top measures 1'x4', as you can see they're lined up to create 5' walls.

I laid a base of concrete for the whole pit excluding the 3'x3' center, so it looked like a square donut, with and empty center. In the center I dug down an additional 8". I put in 5" of stone and 3" of sand for drainage.

On top of the concrete foundation I put down, you build up your fire pit. Make sure to buy fire-resistant mortar and bricks, it's costly but it's necessary. I built the inside first and then layed the outside stone. All I did was made sure the outside stone created a wall 11" from the center of the pit so the blue stone top had a 1" over hang.

Over-all I paid waaaay too much for the fire pit but I absolutely love it. Just had a fire with a bunch of friends this past weekend, it's a blast!

Good luck and take some pics!

After I rebuilt the interior of the pit:

[Chris@RT]

I"m planning on doing concrete counters and possibly sink so i was going to make a bunch of various shaped molds to practice and slowly build a patio, i was planning on doing some sort of fire pit in the middle and that just further got me motivated. Discussing with a friend yesterday we have been throwing back and forth ideas on how to design it in a way you could use it as the heat source for a smoker... won't be right away but will post up if I end up doing it.

As of right now closing pushed to tuesday since the lawyer lost the title request and is closed tomorrow and friday..

[dorn101]

Originally Posted by Sourkraut

Shower tiled by none-other:

As a tile contractor, I'm curious what you set the tile over and what products were used? Looks very good

[nhbubba]

Originally Posted by Chris@RT

As of right now closing pushed to tuesday since the lawyer lost the title request and is closed tomorrow and friday..

Sucks man. This crap never can just go smooth, can it?

Concrete countertops huh? I hear bad things. We've been planning our kitchen for so long that we have gone through the "concrete, fuck-yeah" phase at least twice now.

I have to say, we got this composite countertop for the bathroom vanity... it stinks. Easily the biggest disappointment with the room so far. I shoulda paid for stone.

BTW: My 'data comm rack'.



Cat5e drops to both spare bedrooms, 2x to the home office and 3x to the living room. Cable modem, VoiP (Vonage) box, home router (cheapo running DD-WRT) and an 8-port GbE switch. Server is a cheap celeron in a free-after-rebate box with ~2.5TB of RAID1'd storage.

I rather desperately need a bigger switch... and two more drops run to the home-office/man-cave.

Under the shelf you find my off-season tire storage.

[Tempted2Speed]

Im so jealous of that fire pit. Ive always wnated one.

Wish I had before and after's of our house. We bought it looking like and smelling like crap. Stripped it down to nothing and spent more than a year remodeling inside and outside. The only things left that havent been changed out are 4 windows and the front door.

Price of the house shouldve gone up so much higher but economy hit and it only got a whole lot lower. Such a damn shame.

[Sourkraut]

Originally Posted by dorn101

As a tile contractor, I'm curious what you set the tile over and what products were used? Looks very good

That was the first thing I've ever tiled so I'm not sure if I did everything right but this is what I used:

-The Blue board (concrete drywall for the backing)
-Pre-mixed Premium thin-set
-Cheap tile from Lowes, haha
-Grout
-Sprayed it down once to seal it. I really should clean it and spray it again soon, it's been a while

Originally Posted by Tempted2Speed

Wish I had before and after's of our house. We bought it looking like and smelling like crap. Stripped it down to nothing and spent more than a year remodeling inside and outside. The only things left that havent been changed out are 4 windows and the front door.

Price of the house shouldve gone up so much higher but economy hit and it only got a whole lot lower. Such a damn shame.

Good for your for basically flipping your house! Stick with it for now, the market will turn around in your favor at some point (Hopefully sooner than later)

[dorn101]

Originally Posted by Sourkraut

That was the first thing I've ever tiled so I'm not sure if I did everything right but this is what I used:

-The Blue board (concrete drywall for the backing)
-Pre-mixed Premium thin-set
-Cheap tile from Lowes, haha
-Grout
-Sprayed it down once to seal it. I really should clean it and spray it again soon, it's been a while

You did it good enough, kinda. Since it's a tub surround and not a full tile shower the walls aren't getting as much water exposure. I'm assuming you used Densguard, which has a moisture barrier attached to the face of the board. How did you treat the joints and the screw-heads? I use a liquid waterproofing membrane to cover those areas, like this pic:
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...w=1103&bih=604Pre-mixed Premium thin-set
This is kinda an oxymoron since most(all) pre-mixed thin-sets are nothing close to "premium". The problem with the stuff outta the bucket is that it generally doesn't do too well in wet areas, it takes a long long time to fully cure, and if exposed to constant moisture it re-emulsifies(meaning it loses its "stickiness" and turns to goo). At a recent tile seminar I attended they had two 12"x12" porcelain tiles glued together with pre-mixed thin-set that were 5 months old, after pulling the tiles apart the glue was still wet, not cured at all. The two impervious surfaces didn't allow the glue to receive air and cure. Since you say the tile was cheap from Lowe's, it was likely ceramic which is more absorbent than porcelain, so you're okay there. The bags of powder thin-set are always the best to use for any tile project since there's nothing in cement to feed mold, and it's way cheaper, for future reference.

Sprayed it down once to seal it. I really should clean it and spray it again soon, it's been a while

I seal my jobs twice initially and then recommend to seal every 12 months. I'm also assuming you bought the spray sealer at Lowe's, the water-based stuff. That sealers not really that great, but it will work. Solvent-based sealers are a lot better, you really get what you pay for with sealers.

The best way to keep up with your tile shower is to dry it off after every use, and clean it regularly. It's very similar to a car, that if you clean it frequently, it will be easier to clean, than say once every month.

Sorry for the long post, I'm a tile nerd. If anyone has any tile questions feel free to ask me.

[nhbubba]

Originally Posted by dorn101

Sorry for the long post, I'm a tile nerd. If anyone has any tile questions feel free to ask me.

Dude, seriously, post often.

Sounds like full-tile showers are pretty maintenance intensive; with the annual resealing, etc. Outside of a full fiberglass shower, anything more usable and abusable?

[nhbubba]

[Sourkraut]

^Baller. That looks awesome!

Originally Posted by dorn101

Sorry for the long post, I'm a tile nerd. If anyone has any tile questions feel free to ask me.

Thanks for the response! Like I said, I've never done it before in my life so I kinda just went by what the internet said and the Lowe's employees (yeah, yeah, haha).

When you lay tile on a wall, what size trowel do you use? I think mine was 1/8"? Not sure if that's right, maybe 3/16"? It was small teeth. Is that a problem? I put some extra thin set on the back of the tile before I layed it to make sure it made full contact with the drywall.

Do you think I'm getting a lot of moisture back there? I'm always nervous when I look at it because it's been a while since I've "sealed" it. I woke up early this morning and showered, should I wait until later in the day tomorrow for it to dry out even more and then clean and seal it?

Thanks for the advice! I'm learning alot

[Cryptic1911]

We did a large addition to the house.. tore off a porch, added roughly a 30x48' two story addition. Has a 30x30 garage downstairs with ~13' ceilings, and a full open upstairs with vaulted ceilings. Haven't finished the inside yet, but we redid insulation in the old part of the house, brand new windows all around, new doors, siding, gutters, new 200 amp underground electrical, added a small porch, and moved the driveway. I won't post a bunch of pics here, but here's the link to the build thread on the vortex: http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?4464028

Here's what it looks like on the outside now:

[nhbubba]

Originally Posted by Sourkraut

^Baller. That looks awesome!

Thanks. We're pretty happy with how it came out. I'm mostly just happy its finished... well, mostly. Still need to finish installing the folding doors in front of the washer and dryer, prime and paint the window sashes, build and install shelving (or whatever else the missus dreams up) in the laundry area.... oh shit, it never ends, does it!

Originally Posted by Cryptic1911

We did a large addition to the house..

You forgot to mention the 4-post, drive-on lift!!!

Love that addition, love that thread. Good stuff!

[Notoriouswithag]

Im loving this thread, its giving me alot of ideas already for when I get my own place, also been taking alot of notes/ inspiration from the additions my parents have done on our house.

sourkraut Im loving the firepit, it definatley adds a nice elegant touch

Ill have to take pictures but Ive helped my dad with alot of things outside like our garden in the back/ patio/ stone walkway that runs around the side.

It might not look the best in the world but for the effort my dad and I put into it and the time and money its our little "corner of the earth" as he calls it and its our pride.