Home Improvement Today?

I had an electrical outlet installed in my garage. For some stupid reason the builder put one plug in the garage and no where near the garage doors. Now I can plug in my pressure washer or vacuum cleaner to clean out the cars.

 

electrical code only requires one outlet per garage stall, with older code versions(i'm seeing pre-2017 electric code) only requiring one outlet.

blame the people that built the house for accepting the minimum code, not the builder for doing it.

 

Looking real good. In general things seem to be more expensive in CT.

 

Tomorrow is going to be busy. Got a trailer full of lumber today...

 

I would agree, the northeast in general seems to be pricier than other areas of the country with some exceptions I’m sure. I’m in MA on the border to CT and we see similar pricing.

Did get a drywall quote this morning for 2300 to come in, hang 5-6 new sheets where we tore some old stuff out, tape and mud, then skim coat the entire room (walls and ceilings) for 2300 cash which I was happy with. He said he typically charges around 2.50 a square foot for these jobs. He’s done work for us before and we were very happy so I’ll take it. Before and after from the prior work.

 

Looks professional

 

Wrapped up this deck refresh project today (day 4). Replaced old punky cedar decking with PT. Added the blocking for the 2 perpendicular pieces. This allowed for zero butt joints as the deck is 32' long. Had to replace some deteriorated aluminum ledger flashing, had to sister up a few joists due to dry rot along top edge (mostly where the old butt joints were located) and had to reinforce some very poorly secured posts. Pulled about 1200 undersized SS nails. Oh, and used joist tape on deck and stairs.

Got a beautiful load of 16' PT deck boards from a local lumber supply company. Far superior than what's available/offered at the big box stores.

 

looks like a cool house on a nice piece of property! Enjoy the renovation.

 

Quite a manly job! Professional grade.

 

I replaced my sprinkler controller last year and have been curious about what kind of water savings I have between the old, dumb one and the new smart one. I was finally bored enough last night to dig into the numbers.

I did make some assumptions on some things but it should be close enough.

Parameters:
I have 8 zones, four with rotor heads, three with spray heads and one with drip.
I used 2 gallons/min for the rotors, .25/min for the spray and .5/hour for the drip.
Water rate is $5.70/1,000 gallons.

Result:
Each run of the system costs me $7.60
My old controller would have watered 15 times in June and 13 times so far in July.
My new controller watered 6 times in June and 6 times so far in July.
Water for the two months with the old controller would have cost $215.
Water for the two months with the new controller cost $92.
In just the last two months, I saved $123.
The new controller cost $130.

Verdict:
I should have replaced it sooner.

 

I forgot to update the thread here with my finished fence, back in March 2025. So here is one shot from the side house, fence goes all the way to the front sidewalk. 8 Posts, 7 panels, 4 are 4' and 3 are 6' in height. I put the copper colored post caps on to minimize rotting and I think they look good after all.

 

If duel fuel is an option go that route heat pumps are great down to about 25/30 degrees then gas kicks in.