Home Improvement Today?

6 to one, half dozen to another. If you are going to put concrete forms in, I'd just use sonotubes to bring it to grade, and back fill when done. Would save the grief of cleaning up from the holes and regrading.

 

Garage door should always be open when running engines. Code here calls for the garage floor to be below the the adjoining floor of the house.

 

Reliabilt? Part number on the Lowe’s receipt doesn’t come up on their website. I’ll stop by Lowe’s tomorrow and see what they say.

 

I might not be following you , are you putting pads in for posts and backfilling around them or trying to use the concrete to retain the fill you intend to add ?

 

https://youtu.be/8k5oAaXINX8

 

The floors look amazing! Looking forward to more progress pics.

 

It's a jeld-wen door. Im not sure how likely you're to find in a store though. I'm sure you could find online, possibly has the word astragal in the name since that is what it attaches to. If not, HD carries the foam pads like in your pic, might not be white though. You can put one a little lower on each panel to fill the gap if you're seeing daylight

 

I have a new respect for any professional mudders and drywall installers.

 

Any recommendations for places to look to get some telescoping aluminum tubing like in this photo? I can order online, but if you know of a "Chain" store that has them, I would much rather see them in person. Lowes and Home Depot did not.

Doesn’t have to have holes but has to be able to support decent weight (100ish pounds) across it. 4 feet or so telescoping to 6.5 or 7

 

Some of them that I know use a lot of drugs to get thru the day lol

 

It's honestly things like that this that makes me wish I worked in a trade that would be actually beneficial to my friends. I consider myself a very handy homeowner and help all my neighbors with simple DIY projects (lighting, hanging TVs, woodworking projects etc) but a trade that is generally expensive is something sometimes I wish I was in. We had our basement walls spray foamed, I follow the kid on facebook that owns the company and he posts videos of his work all the time. I was telling my wife that if I were in that line of work, I would do my very best to help friends/family get spray foam in their homes at cost if possible. I'm a big fan of projects and really get a lot of joy out of helping friends and family with things.

 

It's not all that great. I do computer support for a living and there is no end of help my family, friends of family, 3rd cousins twice removed, and random people on the street need. It was cool when I started this career, being the guy who can fix any computer. Thing is people don't value the help you provide because "it only takes you a minute." What they don't see are the hours of work learning how to do it so quickly. And, once you start no good deed goes unpunished, help that 3rd cousin and before you know it his friend is calling. Now I only provide support for a very limited group of the people closest to me.

 

Holy Shite! Deck estimate outta this world! Forgive the long winded approach to get to my outrage/question.

My GF moved in with me some time ago. I have been steadily/slowly remodeling the old house I bought (1959 house, I'm the 2nd owner and it was never remodeled), trying to pay cash for everything as I went along. I've done as much of the work I can, with the help of my Dad. Kitchen, guest bath, iving room, etc. The only things left to do in the house when she moved in was remodel our bedroom and finish the master bath that I had started. We have a screen porch that we found out recently needs significant repair due to rain damage, so that's on the list now, as well as a deck extension.

She doesn't do well with chaos, unfinished projects, etc, so I've tried to speed things up. Master bath has been completed, but when I transitioned into a new work position my time has evaporated. 7am to 5:30pm weekdays and other commitments doesn't leave a lot of time. So, I agreed to hire a contractor to finish a few big projects; our bedroom (strip to studs, new window, insulation, drywall, wood flooring), fix rot in screen porch joist and flooring, extend our deck by 12x14 ft.

I had a contractor recommended by a friend come by earlier this week to get a bid on those 3 jobs. Last night I got the estimate for the deck and just about shit myself. The only thing I can think of is this isn't a big enough job and he doesn't really want it. In the attached picture we want to extend the deck off the screen porch by a 12x14 rectangle, 1 stair (top of deck is about 10-12 inches above ground), redwood. His bid was $14,500.00. I haven't seen the estimates for the other jobs but I can tell you there is no way in hell I'd pay that for the deck. It works out to about $85/s.f.

I did a quick rough tally of the materials cost if I sourced my redwood from a redwood dealer here in town, along with PT joists, piers, SS screws, etc and came up with $1000.00, +/-. Am I alone in thinking that bid is a "I don't want the job(s) so I'll throw a crazy number out there"?

 

I bet that felt good to finally seal up, knowing all that money on AC and heat wasn't being blown away. All I could afford right now was a couple bags of insulation to add over the garage but it didn't do squat. I'll save the idea for when I finally buy my own place.

 

Stopped by Lowe’s and I talked to the right person. He gave me the seal I needed from the display model!

 

I believe it takes a certain type of person to labor that hard and also take that much care to do it right the first go around. I tried to rush the job since no one really cares about aesthetics in this case and I'm still on day 4 now and hoping to finally paint/seal today. I clearly need better friends!

 

Yep, I believe it. And I haven't even finished sanding yet!

 

Yeah, I learned that lesson after the 1st application. I used the pre mix tub that someone at HD recommended. Used the whole thing in 1 day and waited 2 days for it to fully dry. Bought the quickset 20 after and still have to wait longer (but can do multiple applications per day) since I had some big gaps to fill. Learned it's much better to do small applications and build up, rather than try to fill it all on the 1st go around. Now I know.

Mudding my work is just about done but my problem is with the prior sheetrock that was installed. It's years old, without taped edges, and unsealed (this place is in a very wet environment). As much as I hate this, I am learning so much for when I will consider buying and remodeling my own place.

 

Feel like a tear down and completely new home would've been a better deal overall! Is anything original gonna be left when you guys are done?

 

House is legal non conforming in siting , can't rebuild it if you tore it down