Home Improvement Today?

That is an AMAZING transformation, @FlyingWolfe!

 

Great transformation!

All your hard work is going to pay off, especially in the winter time.

 

Thanks! That was the driving force. Bulged L5-S1 disc that started back in January, couldnt load the woodstove and the furnace was kicking on literally every 5 minutes. Im building new (myself) next time. No more ‘this old house’. Place was dirt cheap near the lake and couldnt pass it up, but looks like a bunch of 5 year olds put it together. 1970s modular, thats what I get I guess.

 

I got myself a 70's built house. I starting to regret it. Eventually I have to remodel the whole house, and put everything up today's code.

Is the house a "flip house" or a keeper?

 

Keeping it for now, I don't flip houses. Place belonged to my dad's neighbor, was a total dump (20 cats, 2 packs of cigs a day, leaky plumbing and rotted joists) and the prior owner sold it to my dad for literally almost nothing to spite her kids. They were fighting over the property and they never visited or helped her in any way.
Place should've been bulldozed and rebuilt honestly but my dad likes projects and started fixing it while I was stationed in VA still, by the time I got out/home and bought the place off of him I didn't have the heart to mow it down. The entire inside was gutted to studs/joists and rewired, plumbed, framing fixed, sheetrocked, hardwooded, tiled. Looks great now, just needs the shit windows, siding, and insulation fixed. Halfway done. Just built a two-story garage/apartment next to it last year and am sick of building crap. Usually spend the summers hang gliding in NH, haven't had any time to do anything remotely fun the last two summers
My fault though, I do 99% of work myself because some of the shittiest work I've seen over the years was by 'contractors' and I trust nobody. State of Maine doesn't require a license. Any dingus can slap a sticker on their truck and call themselves one, unfortunately.

 

Has anyone heard of vapor barriers going up on the inside of the foundation wall?
So for my previous post about the puddle of standing water in my garage, we had a foundation guy come out for a free quote.
His plan is a gutter that goes inside the floors of the garage and connect to a sump pump that drains in the yard and vapor barriers on the interior.

My back yard is a negative slope fwiw.

 

If building yourself is you swinging a hammer and literally building it yourself, you will get a good product. I "built" my house, meaning I hired a builder to do it. Can you say worst experience ever? My mom in-law died of Alzheimers and I rather go through that again than "build" another house. At least with Alzheimers you get the blessing of death. I've already had to take out the first kitchen and install a new one. Every time my wife finds some new corner cut, or shitty install, she goes ballistic and calling the builder does as much good as yelling at a rock. (wastes your time and the rock don't care.) The location is good and I can fix anything, but that doesn't take away from the frustration of paying twice to get the dob done right.

 

Most recent customers before and after

 

Thank you sir

 

Looks good!

 

Its everywhere, unfortunately. Dipshits out to make a buck, pump a house out as fast as possible, then its the buyers problem after. Builders didnt even crown the god damned studs the same way, couldnt be bothered to take the extra 3 seconds to eye it.
And nails can eat a dick. I GRK everything. Aside from the sheathing and siding. Code enforcement manager complimented my garage saying it was in the ‘top ten nicest builds hes seen’ so that was nice. Ive had a dozen neighbors stop by and ask if I do contract work because they wanna hire me. I have a full time job already and dont even want to work on my own house, but i’ll take that as a compliment I guess?

 

Not today, but I recently overhauled the clothes dryer after it started squeaking on startup.
I had a feeling it was the drum roller as there are only a few things. Sure enough once torn down I found this guy...The top should look more like the bottom. Found a kit on Amazon with a new belt, rollers and drum sliders. Luckily my belt and sliders looked great. I replaced the belt anyway and put the sliders aside for the future. They required riveting to the frame and it wasn't needed yet so not going to replace them yet but the new rollers and the belt went on just fine. Turns out I was misaligning a vent so it took an extra tear down and reassembly to get right but overall not too much of a job

 

Yes, that is probably the best fix if you cant solve the problem by diverting bulk water (rain run off, or ground water) away from the building. The interior vapor barrier is a newer addition to the typical sump and drain they are installing. it will be a rigid material that goes along the interior wall and into the concrete slab to help move any water that is wicking through the walls down into the sump system. the best products are a dimpled plastic material that will still let air flow behind it to avoid mold growth. it should NOT be just plastic sheathing coming out of the slab and halfway up your walls.

 

...^^^... I blew out L5 - S1 in a helicopter crash a long time ago and it still bothers me. Be very careful lifting ... house looks fantastic ...

 

...^^^... Great looking deck. .......... What are the long pipes sticking above the roof on the left side ? They kinda look like high-efficiency HVAC PVC vents ... but up soo high ?

 

Long pipe on the left of the photo is the mount for his weather station

 

Nailed it (lol). Pretty much the same reasons I want to personally build my next home. It's amazing the amount of shit work you can find on a job site, even on $1,000,000+ homes.

I did some scarfs in the shop today, turned out pretty nice.


These will be purlins that run the full length of an exercise barn (whatever that is) with only 1 post near the middle besides the ones in the gable wall. Still needs finish as well.

 

...^^^... I am just curious .... what is a piece of lumber like that would cost .... big bucks, I would assume ...

It looks great .... I would love to work in a large wood working shop ... how long is that piece of lumber ?