SOLVED! Post 2853 Leaking Injectors, Dealer Techs Rock! Extended Cranking after Engine Swap 3.4L 5vz

but then if you are ok with laminate countertops, you can always just buy one of these: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Hampton-...Countertop-in-Tumbled-Roca-483538T4/202060860

cut out the sink hole and call it a day

 

NO MORE LAMINATE! That's the only thing I'm sure of. I've had my fill of staring at a laminate vanity top.

Leaning towards concrete. Except for all the points you made are now hindering that plan. Damnit. I really don't want a high maintenance bathroom counter.

Might be IKEA time. Or tile. Or wood. Or a ready to go vanity/sink combo.

Clearly I've made good progress today on choosing.

 

Been reading about doing a concrete finish over a laminate counter. Bunch of people have blogs describing how to do it. Sounds easier than pouring one, plus I'm sure it'd be much less weight. And if it looks like crap after a while, wouldn't be a biggie to chuck it and start over, considering the investment to go that route would be so minimal. Whatcha think?

 

THE "MADE" VANITY TOPS ARE MADE OF MARBELLA

frickin caps lock

anyway Marbella is a powder they mix up like mayonnaise and they pour it into molds to make the sheets they need or anything else they want to make such as those one piece sink/vanity top combos for putting on top of vanities.

so look here:
http://www.homedepot.com/s/Vanity%20Top%20with%20double%20Basin?NCNI-5

double sink tops run around $600, but if you bought a tub surround and cut it the size you need, they cut the sink holes and put any sink you want on it or do under mount sinks and only spend like $200

 

How's my Tacoma peeps? Been super busy with fall garden harvest. 230 pints of various tomato products canned up! Builts some raised strawberry beds and have been battling the fall leaf raking to bat. Went fishing for a week in between all the chores.

Just got a letter from my home insurance company. They claim my roof needs replaced or I won't be renewed next year. I was planning on replacxing it in 2018. I guess I'm replacing it in 2016. I guess I need to watch my spending habits for a bit.

Anyways, hope this thread still has a heart beat. Kinda nice to have a place to just throw any old random shit in print.

 

go with a steel roof, it last a lifetime and you will never need another roof again. might even reduce insurance since it eliminates any chance of storm damaged shingles.

 

We have been researching those steel roofs. I like the looks of them.

 

been looking into this jen and it would appear what they use today is called "cultured" stone, same principle, they mix stone dust with epoxy gel to form into countertops and vanity sinks so you choose if you want "cultured" marble or "cultured" granite stone tops. its like 25% of the cost of slab granite or marble.

 

Hello all!!

@keakar , thanks for the vanity top advice! We wound up going with an IKEA sink. For what we spent, I think it will look pretty good. It's certainly not as nice as a solid granite or marble slab custom cut, but it'll do. I'm going to (attempt!) to do a really pretty marble mosaic backsplash. Or at least that's the plan. The IKEA vanity tops are not very deep (only 19 1/4"!!! standard is ~22-23") so we plan to build a 6" tall shelf behind the vanity top, that will be ~6" deep, to set stuff on. And it gives me a place to test out my novice tiling skills - the front face of the shelf will have the fancy marble tile mosaic that I like. We'll see how this turns out..........

Got the pocket door in. It's awesome!! Already feels so much bigger in there, just with that change. Eric just finished framing a false wall to contain the electrical switches and outlets on the inside of the pocket door. Also framed in a recessed cabinet in the upper portion of that false wall. Got the vanity light electrical moved over to where the new center of the wall is. Have to frame up a place to hang the giant mirror, then next weekend will be drywall. After that, it's time to attempt modifying our existing vanity cabinet to go from 31" wide to ~48" wide. Not sure how that will go. First, I'm going to experiment with various stains on some scrap oak. If I'm not happy with it, we might build new cabinet doors from pine, because I know I can stain that to look the way I want it to. But the good news on the cabinet is, you will only see the front of it - the back and both sides will be walled in. So even if we have to build something from scratch, it shouldn't cost much. This project is definitely the most ambitious home improvement we've ever done. We have zero experience at most every aspect of it. But it will be that much more satisfying if we can pull it off! Pretty sure we're doing those "wood look" tiles for the floor. They are pretty cool! Reasonable price too, especially in a small area....

@koditten , steel roof! Steel roof!! I didn't know insurance companies could do that?!?!? They can dictate when you have to replace your roof? Uh oh. I hope not! Are you going to hire someone or DIY it?

NOT looking forward to drywall. Anyone have any tips on doing drywall?

 

yes, watch someone else do it while you sit back and make suggestions

seriously, use screws not nails and buy this to do it: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Master-Mech...066296?hash=item1e9c770b78:g:uggAAOSwPgxVMtyl

you don't want these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-DEWALT-DW2014-Drywall-Screw-Setter-Bit-Tip/361299965943?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid=222007&algo=SIC.MBE&ao=1&asc=33430&meid=fa5b33d219c9485995792312d3cf3841&pid=100005&rk=5&rkt=6&mehot=fs&sd=201214941631

because they don't work as good since they aren't spring loaded so the screws are not always recessed enough

lastly, spackling is NOT the same as joint compound, spackling is much softer and will crack if used to fill the cracks, joint compound gets much harder and wont crack. make cracks and seams about 1/8" wide so you can get a good fill of compound in them and fill the whole crack, cover with tape or mesh then let dry 24 hours before coming over the top with another layer of compound then let that dry 24 hours before the final finish coat is applied. if its a small area spray on texture in a can works well. biggest mistake is rushing and not allowing full curing time because its still soft inside even though the surface is dry. don't slop it on, the less you put on the more you have to sand off and sanding is where all the dusty mess is so use a wide putty knife like 4" or 6" and wipe it smooth and even on each coat. if done right you may not need to sand at all and if there are minor lines sticking up left over from the edge of the putty knife, you can wipe them away with a damp towel after its dry.

 

this guy put the sheets touching which is wrong so put a screw or nail in the gap to get about an 1/8" crack to be able to fill with compound. the fill inside the gap gives it strength so its pushed out the back side and forms its own grip on both sheets holding itself in place from the back side and the front and not just laying on top surface which can cause it to crack on you.

don't press hard on the putty knife except when filling cracks, just use firm even pressure so you get a straight even swipe, you don't want the putty knife to bend or you create a rut in the surface so just enough pressure so it stays in flat contact with drywall at all times is whats needed.

here is a video demo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uFK8OGV2UM

 

Good to see this thread is still alive.

 

I'm with Karl. Let someone else do the DW finishing. There are certain jobs that I let pros handle. This is one of them.

 

Would be nice but not in the budget. The budget is basically zero. Remember, this started as an $80 pocket door project. All this other crap wasn't really in the plan. It just kinda happened, when we got carried away with demo

Besides, gotta learn sometime, right? If we wanna ever realize our dream of being house flippers!

Just got the shed all tidied up. Again. This project kinda blows because it's our only bathroom, so we haul all the tools and crap from the shed every Friday, then the bathroom turns into a construction zone all weekend. Then Monday, I take all the crap back out and clean up the disaster zone shed. Another prime example of why we need more outbuilding storage. It's funny, our house is teeny tiny and I am totally fine with that. It's the outbuilding storage (or lack of, I should say) that sucks. We have to put EVERYTHING away after a project before we can start anything else due to the limited space of only having the shed. Thank goodness it's big, but still, it's not nearly enough. The ultimate would be to have a big garage AND a basement AND some kind of shed or barn. So we can always have one space to make a bunch of sawdust, and not care about it getting all over everything. And one place to always take care of vehicles. That'd be so nice!!!!!!!!!!!

Gotta run, more work in the shed awaits! Cheers TW!

 

your not true flippers until your crapping in a bucket and doing dishes in the yard

that's true fun

and for the record, I was just joking about her watching eric do it, I do think this is an easy job for anyone to do.

its only worth paying someone to do it if your redoing the whole house, then they bring in a crew of Mexicans and 3 hours and a cloud of dust later, the whole house is done. they charge you the same amount of labor (a days labor for the whole crew) to do one room as they do for the whole house so you cant hire someone for a small drywall job without getting reamed over it.

 

I'd pay a lot of money to get that image out of my head.

Hilarious.

 

What Karl said, plus these tips:

If you want to speed up the taping part of a sheetrock job, use hot mud. It's powder you mix with water; it dries faster, so don't mix more than you can use. You can also mix it into sheetrock mud. Use fans to get air movement and speed drying.

If you use topping compound for the final coat, the sanding (or sponging) will be easier than if you use joint compound.

If you want a smooth finish, side light the wall when you are sanding. To get into corners, use the sanding sponges available in paint stores. I especially like the ones with a 45 degree edge.

Keep your work very clean and tidy so that you minimize the amount of sanding necessary.

This peep is heading to Death Valley in a week. In his Tacoma, naturally.

 

That's about all I can say to this entire post. You kill me Keakar!!

 

Damn, can't stop laughing now.

 

Sweet, thanks for the tips buddy!!

Have fun on your upcoming Taco adventures!! Jealous!! Sounds way more fun that drywalling!!