Home Improvement Today?

Made some minor headway on the office.

Finally got my carcasses moved upstairs and laid down the first coat of paint. Took me forever to get to the paint stage seeing as I had about 200 holes to patch and retexture after I yanked the slat wall off. I went with Sherwin Williams Green Black. Mind the lap map marks -- it's just the first coat. Cabinets will be the same color, just needed to mock-up the fitment before I paint those.


I really wanted to recycle the whitewash floor element in the room somewhere, so I decided to make an extended window stool out of oak as a small detail. I started by yanking the old window jamb out... the rough jamb was pretty rough It hadn't seen the light of day since the 70's.



The old finished jamb was just held in by silicone and friction... I hadn't seen that before. Everyone I've watched do this type of work puts a nail or 100 for good luck.

To get the length of my stool I made these little jigs that help me visualize what some of my pieces will look like when they're finished. I ripped two pieces of pine -- one to the width of my window stop (the vertical jamb) and one to the width of my window side casing + 3/4". The 3/4" is how far my horn will extend past the side casing. I marked a 3/16" reveal line on the side of the window stop piece and tacked my casing + 3/4 piece onto the mark at 90 degrees. I made one for the left side and one for the right because, of course, my window sills just aren't the same depth on both sides lol.



The length of the stool is the distance between the ends of those two jigs. I just tacked them in with a single 1" brad nail each and ran my tape across them.

The stool was made out of a single piece of 3/4" S4S oak from HD... I was in a hurry so I didn't do anything fancy with milling. I took a 3/8" round-over bit in my router and made a bullnose on the front and side of my piece once I cut it to length. You just flip the board over after you round-over one side and do the other, then you get a perfect bullnose on 3/4" material. This would give me a nice horn when I'm done without having to make some other mitered end and whatnot. Then I notched-out where the stool/horn will wrap around the sill and cut it with my miter saw and table saw. She fits pretty damn nice!




All of the window trimmings other than my oak stool will be the same green black color as the walls when I'm done, but this is how it'll fit when I get my casing on.


I'll paint the window trim and finish my stool tonight. I'll attach all 4 sides of the sill using pocket holes and mount it in one piece. There's some screws in the sill that I'm using as shims, so it should be self-centering when I go to install it. Just mount and tack. Then I have to re-trim my closet since it was trimmed for a closet door and I need to extend the jamb to look good when I do the built-ins back there. It's getting there slowly but surely. I have to finish all of the trim, paint cabinets and install, build an 11' wall desk, and do some electrical. Then I'll probably call it good for a bit.

 

That did the trick thanks. Manual said 5 wraps. After reading your message I got the hot on the first try but had to go to 8 wraps on the cold side. Good thing I got a new roll of Teflon tape!

Yup that did the trick thanks!

Here are the old nipples, cold on bottom and hot on top:



Flushing is gonna be fun…

 

Good. I used to make oil/gas separators and they would say 6-8 full wraps plus dope, and this was for the oil field. I figured that would work for you without dope.

 

Try the distilled vinegar flush method first. If that doesn't work you might need to use a one time chemical like this...

$25 J.C. Whitlam FLOW32 Flow-Aide System Descaler ,32 ounces (1 quart) , White

https://www.amazon.com/J-C-Whitlam-...nkless+hot+water+heater+flush+,aps,98&sr=8-11

Also, I like blue monster teflon tape...

$6 Millrose 70660 Monster Roll PTFE Thread Seal Tape, 1/2" x 260", Blue

https://www.amazon.com/Millrose-706...t=&hvlocphy=9030002&hvtargid=pla-370262992477

 

2X on the Blue Monster tape, probably used 200 rolls of it, good product.

 

OK all cleaned up and back to my PC. Thanks to all who offered help with my ridiculous project. I ended up just replacing the nipples because the replacement bypass valve assembly that I got has a different size connection to the hot water heater. That sucks because the cold side was bad enough that I wanted to just replace it, but ended up chipping out a bunch of rust and junk that was built up right where the nipple was. It's much better now.

I've already got the flow-aide so I'm going to use that. From what I can tell by reading about it, I just have to be careful not to let it go for too long and flush really well with fresh water when I'm done.

Just added the blue tape to my Amazon cart. Thanks for the tip!

 

Trying to move an outlet in my basement and having a hell of a time. Hopefully someone has some tricks for me.

Basically I'm trying to lower an outlet two feet. There's not enough slack wire in the wall to make this happen. The whole purpose of moving the outlet is to hide it behind the TV so I don't want to make a connection there and still need a junction box and plate.

So that leads me to just run a new wire but that is where I run into trouble. It's a finished basement with ICF so the wiring behind the drywall runs through the styrofoam. Seems the wire from the outlet I'm moving runs to another outlet before running back to the panel. I can't see to pull the wire out. I assume it's been stapled in the joists somewhere. I've tried running a fish tape but of course it runs up the wall, to the ceiling, and then just gets lost in the joist spaces.

Any ideas to pull the old wire out and just use that to fish in a new, longer, wire? I can't figure it out without needing a few more holes in the wall and ceiling which I'm trying to avoid.

 

Ran into that issue last summer with the new house. Water was getting into an outdoor outlet and tripping the garage GFCI... Taking down the freezer. Moved the freezer and replaced the leaky outlet covers but I wish I'd gone for a cleaner one like that one picture that got linked here! Oh well..

 

AAAnnnnd that quote was 30 pages back. My bad. Haven't lurked here in awhile

 

We all do it now and then

 

You probably won't be able to pull the old wire out if it is stapled to the studs (and it should be).

Easiest thing is to use that box as a junction, put a blank plate on it, and run a new wire from the box to the new box.

Even if you run a new wire to the new box, you will have to find the other end of that wire and disconnect it - or you will have to leave the junction box.

Sounds to me like it's either cut several (or many) more holes to find/follow the wire, or just leave the junction box.

 

I know this is pretty much the answer. Mostly just writing to vent. Ha.

I'm already painting the wall that I'm relocating the plug on so no issues cutting more holes on that wall. Just trying to avoid cutting more in the ceiling.

 

It's 100% stapled to your studs, you'll never pull that wire out without cutting open the walls every few feet. You mention it's going behind a TV and you want to move the outlet down a couple feet. I assume you're going to be using this new outlet location for the TV power? Why not just convert the existing outlet to a recessed box made to go behind TV's?

$29 DATA COMM Electronic 45-0031-WH Recessed Low Voltage Media Wall Plate w/ Built-In Duplex Receptacle Outlet, Cable Management - Elevate Your Home Entertainment w/ Stylish White Panel

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004GZ89N0?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

 

This is what I'm trying to move. It's too high on the wall for the way we have our tv set up. You can see half of it behind the tv.

I was hoping since there aren't any real studs in the wall that it'd be free and easy but I assume it's stapled to the joists above. The next outlet it's connected too is only about 8ft away on the wall but there's still some staples there.

If only we had caught it when they were building our house we could have moved it a foot down and had no issues.

 

looks great

I think I actually prefer not doing a mitred return on the horns with stain grade work

I just never got what the big deal was about seeing end grain there

 

Move the TV up 4"

Seems like youre making a mountain out of a molehill here. You really gonna patch a bunch of drywall for one outlet?

 

Eh... Probably. Ha.

I don't want to raise the TV though... Otherwise it ends up too high which is the biggest pet peeve of mine.

Like I said... I'm painting the wall anyway so a couple patches is no big deal on the wall.

I can move the outlet down three inches with the wire in the wall.... Which is enough to bring it level with the top of the TV. I'd just like to lower it like a foot or so so you don't really even see it even while standing.

No big deal. This is the home "improvement" thread. Just trying to improve my home is all. Haha.

 

Yeah I mean if you ease it over I really don't see an issue with it. I plan to do the same thing on my staircase now that I'm familiar with rounding it over. We have an open side that's going to require some tread returns and I'll be damned if I'm going to make that many mitered returns.

Got my pre-assembly done after painting the side stops and the header + applying Rubio on the stool. First time using pocket holes in a window jamb . Man it made it so easy. It slotted in there so smooth now I want to re-do the whole house.




I'm going to let the Rubio cure-up a bit and then use some clear silicone to finish it. Looks really nice against the floors! Cabinets are drying and then I'll get the carcasses installed and finish trimming out the whole room. Not 100% what I'm going to do for a desk. Part of me wants to do butcher block. Part of me wants to ball-out and do a huge oak slab. Idk...

 

I'm with you on the too high TV thing.

Have you considered getting a larger one?