Home Improvement Today?

what's not working with it?

 

The 3 way was a tester fail. Works fine once I put a temp socket and bulb in. My tester just thought it was setting voltage? Maybe crappy switches? I’m using the old one till we are done painting.

 

if they're the digital dimmers/switches like the lutron maestro series, they need a bulb(some sort of resistive load) installed in order to go through the startup sequence to start working. otherwise they show voltage on all wires all the time.

but i have been having some recent issues with 1980-ish age switches getting brittle and the back housing breaking out of the switch from standard use/thermal cycling, which are causing grief as well.

 

really sort of angry at home depot this morning. went to try to file my 11% match receipt, and saw they published a 1306-page list of exclusions to the program. pretty much anything menards doesn't sell. so all dewalt and milwaukee stuff is now full price unless they choose to discount it.

sucks because i liked milwaukee's drill bits. time to find an alternative at menards...

 

I’ve been running the OG 3 way almond switches from 1980’s when it was built. No grounds and all slotted. I snapped off the metal bits so the drywall guys could install around the box and have a way to turn on/off lights. Ironically, we got one of the two windows in right when drywall started. It was pretty dark before that, the OG windows are north facing towards a covered porch.

my tester did go through the laundry by mistake so maybe it’s a little sensitive. Anyway, I figure use it to confirm the circuit is off but trust the brain to do the wiring correctly and use bulbs to confirm.

I’m close to having all circuits labeled. That will be so nice. And I ordered up some plastic covers since we plan to paint and I’ve been stalling on finish electrical out of fear that paint ruins my work. I really don’t like almond switches, even decora, they just look so yuk

 

Doing the floor in a small closet room, subfloor was so uneven had to overlay with 1/4 ply and lots of adhesive

 

I'm in the process of pouring some footings for a path and stairs that are in the style of the image below. The main path is about 20 feet long and is being mostly held up by some boulders that are 4 to 5 feet diameter plus smaller rocks and dirt. In other words, the path is on top of the boulders.

I have one more footing to pour, but one of these huge boulders is slightly in the way. There is a gap of about 1" below the 4x4 and I'd really like a nice flat surface for the wood to sit on. I have little concrete experience, I'm doing the job for my home without a permit so no one accept for you guys is going to tell me I'm doing it wrong. And before anyone says I don't really need concrete for this, the path has previously failed 2 time due to erosion so I'm trying to make it a little more permanent.

I'm not moving the entire boulder but I could cut a chunk of it out with a diamond wheel or drill into it with a rotary hammer. How should I fill this 1" uneven gap between the rock and the end of 4x4?


These are not my stairs, just a similar style to what I'm building.





@Pchop

 

do you mean the gap is between bottom of your 4x4 stair "stringer" and top of boulder ? ie you want to fill the gap so the 4x4 is bearing on an extension to the existing boulder ?

 

Yes exactly. However, I also want to stress that I'm open to any other recommendations.

 

is there a flat-ish surface on the top of the boulder already ?

 

Not at all. Multiple angles.

 

you could drill and grout in or epoxy in a 4x4 post saddle at the correct height and location to bear your stringer

 

Man it’s been a minute. This project is almost done, though. I decided to switch back to it while I wait for replacement parts on my stair build.

Bought a laser and leveled my cabinets


Made a few holes in the ceiling for some pot lights






Going across the cabinets I decided to make a little “power strip” if you will. The idea is to have some outlets inset into a small backsplash that matches the butcher block counter top that’s going to bridge over them. Using the laser again I installed 3 outlets + 1 inlet (I’ll explain)


So the inlet is kind of a funky idea I had. I bought a couple of monitors to mount to the wall and want everything to be invisible. That means an outlet for the monitors so they look like they’re floating, and organizing an I/O plate to make all of the I/O’s on my Mac Mini. I got one of those keystone I/O plates and put it together so every I/O on my Mac Mini is accounted for. That way when everything is all said and done I can mount the Mac mini under my desk and when I want to plug something into the Mac I can just plug into the I/O plate in my backsplash and it interfaces with the Mac.




The outlets and inlet above the cabinets are white because the back splash is going to match the desk top and floor — so it’ll be a stained white oak.





I installed some brace pieces for the counter top before I made holes for the brush plates to run my low voltage cables. They’ll be painted green/black.


Have you guys seen these hole saw brush plates? They’re pretty slick. You just use a 1 3/4” hole saw and the plate fits perfectly. I ran the I/O cables to the brush plate on the bottom, and from there I ran the HDMI outputs to the brush plate near the monitors. If you can imagine, the Mac Mini will go on a bracket under the desk next to that lower brush plate. Should make everything nearly invisible. Excuse the access hole I made… forgot there was a stud there. It’ll get covered by the little backsplash.


Then I found some small shaker-style crown molding at my hardwood dealer. I painted it up yesterday. I love this stuff! Should look nice in such a small office.


Then I dropped a million dollars on Baltic birch to make some basic drawer boxes.


Dear lord I need my shop set up.


it’s always a butt-pucker moment when you install new drawer boxes. The boxes have to be made to some odd specs when using under-mount drawer slides. Surprised I didn’t have to remake any!


Moved on to making some full-overlay shaker-style drawer fronts. First project with my domino joiner. I used a hand router to make a 1/4” dado in the stiles and rails. For the stiles I had to make a stop dado which was kind of a touch and go situation. Whatever I guess — seems easier than setting up a dado blade.





1/4” MDF panel slotted in nicely. There’s a 6x40 domino holding each piece together. They’re all glued up and waiting for paint this week.


So this week I just need to install my crown and drawer fronts and then finally go pick up my butcher block counter top and back splash. Cut those to size and install, then finish in place. Hope to be done this week and FINALLY move in.

 

Slogging through finish electrical today.

Old mailbox timer. Kind of a cool unit. Super loud though.



Threw in a half ass box and modernized so I don’t have to adjust for sunset/sunrise changes.



Inching my way forward with the label maker:



Got the sump pump hardwired before the mice could ruin my day:

 

AKA metric lol

 

42 mm = 21/32… I have that written down forever.

 

there is the method of charring the wood then chipping it out to conform to the rock base

 

Scrubbed the slab with Simple Green & a bristle brush this morning, let it dry a couple hours. Put the strip in place & marked the edges with a pencil. Threw down 2 tubes of Liquid Nails. Yes they’re different tubes, I had a different tube on hand already open but they both claim to bond to cement & rubber.


Got the rubber dam set down & put whatever I could find on it to add some weight. Walked the toddler down to the grocery store while the LN set up. Thankfully my condo is in a great complex so 0 concerns about leaving my garage open for an hour while we were gone.



Came back and loaded up his bubble machine, spent another hour chasing bubbles while the LN setup.


And hopefully this will keep the garage dry

 

Yea I wouldn't dare leave my garage open like that. Crackhead Randy would be so quick to go through all my shit