Home Improvement Today?

yea my parents are paying around 12k a year in taxes, pretty wild. they live closer to NYC, near Poughkeepsie.
i pay about half of that in Florida lol

 

And here I was complaining when mine went up to $3000

 

That looks like my old stomping grounds. Where in Ny?

With the Micron plant adding thousands of jobs there over the next 10+ years those costs will only increase.

Last two years were less than 70” iirc. It’s not really a lot of snow because it’s constantly melting away, that being said I live in Florida now so not much to stand on here. My mom’s place still in CNY is about $4500/ year in combined school and property taxes for a home on 2 acres with 5 beds and 3 baths. It’s zestimate is $200k surrounded by $300-500k homes.

 

Mine went from $1200 to $1400 this year and l complained too, lol.

 

No shit, mine went up to $2800 and I pitched a flying fit.

 

3.59% here in Texas. We pay for not having an income tax in other ways.

 

There's got to be some offsetting factors. My brother was all like "wE dOn'T hAVe sTaTE INcOMe tAx." But his property tax, sales tax, car registration fees, etc, etc were all significantly more than what I pay. I think in the end we both pay about the same. (except he lives in a state that you could not pay me to live in lol)

 

And I dropped a nice pile of shit when my home owners went from $1,100 to $3,400 on my house in Fl.....

 

Mine is $3300, but I have flood insurance even though I'm not in a flood zone. Adding coverage for the solar panels was also pretty expensive, but worth it.

 

Yep, and I can't talk my wife into moving. Love the area/people/seasons, can't stand the "leadership". Anybody have a room for a newly divorced 40 - something roommate?

 

Framing our upstairs exterior walls , trusses arrive Friday

using my Proctor wall jacks , 2 of us lifting a 55' long , 9' high wall with 3 jacks





12' x 8' slider on left , window on right will be a window seat



Rear side 55' wall , framed and blocked in foreground , we'll sheet that in the morning and lift it then sheet the interior raked shear wall

 

Damn! Do you guys have Cadillac Garbage trucks or something?! We're sitting around 0.4% property tax rate out here

55' wall with what looks like 45' of windows! Damn that's gonna be nice

 

12' and 10' glass doors plus a couple windows

 

Shear before lift. I thought I was the only one that did that anymore. The first time I did it my boss just looked at me like I was crazy. A few cranks on the jack later and he was pretty impressed. All of our crews do it that way now. lol

 

you mean sheet it ? Yes we always try to sheet it while the wall is on the deck . Our rake walls were too tall to lift sheeted with the jacks I have so we opted to frame them and then sheet them standing

 

Rear 55' x 9' wall sheeted and raised this morning , we also sheeted the interior raked shear wall . Lined and braced the walls ready for our truss delivery tomorrow

We'll build the foreground exterior rake wall starting tomorrow

 

Project on my own house. Last year I tore off a 30+ year old 8' x 16' deck that was simply lagged right to the cedar shakes.
Fortunately/Amazingly there was no rot. I simply replaced the one row of shakes where the deck had been attached. The old deck went way beyond the dryer vent and there was a notch in the decking to accommodate it. I busted it one winter while shoveling snow and replaced it after removing the old deck. Finally getting around to building a smaller 8' x 8' porch/deck. Not doing railings as it's only 22" off the ground. Didn't attach this one to the house. A couple of weeks ago, I got the ground prepped by removing the sod, adding the pads, some landscape fabric and river stone. Between days on other jobs, I got it all framed up and the skirting installed. Letting things dry out for a couple days (it's going to be around 70 for a few days) before I put some joist tape on all the horizontal framing surfaces and the stair stringers. Those short PT 2x8's (just drying out) will be cut down for the risers. I like to use 2x material versus 1x as they get kicked by people cleaning shoes off. Just sturdier IMO. Then cedar decking. Planning to stain everything but the decking a solid gray to match the toe kick under the rear door. Cedar will be treated with a natural oil base treatment.






Old Deck:

 

Spring cleaning day. Cleaning out garage, washing windows, installing screens, etc. Also managed to get the risers cut and attached. Math worked out for a nice 5 7/8" rise with 10 1/4" tread. I calculated deck width so decking overhangs 1" with 1/8" spacing between boards. I hate seeing a narrower ripped piece of decking either in the middle or on one end. Stair tread overhang should be about the same. Top toe kick aligns with top skirt trim board for a clean even line for the decking to overhang. Math rules.

 

Todays project was to run wire for 2 outlets 88 inches off the floor for up coming custom cabinets going in 2 weeks from now. Tied both outlets into an 2 outlets next to the AC unit in the attic.

 

And got the joist tape on and layed out the decking and treads. Everything fits as planned. Just gotta put the screws to it tomorrow and then trim the end. I hit all the cut ends with some clear spray shellac.
After that, just a little clean up/evening out of the rocks around the base.