What did you work on Today; Home Edition

TurboMinivan

Still plays with cars
Location
Lehi, UT
Now I just need to wait for her reaction when she walks in the front door tonight. I hope she's happy.

Great success! Operation Cake Pop was a hit. She was nearly speechless when she walked in and saw the transformation. After the initial shock wore off, she spent the rest of the evening thanking me over and over.

(Cake Pop is the official name of the color shade in question. To save you some Googling, it is a light pink.)
 

Kevin B.

Not often wrong. Never quite right.
Moderator
Location
Stinkwater
Our lone bathroom has been a disaster since we moved into this house, and we recently had a water leak that made it a lot worse. I haven't been doing anything with it because I haven't had the time to do it myself or the money to pay a contractor.

I'm still broke, but I've got the next two weeks off? This was my yesterday. I hope to have the sink and tub out today and get working on the ceiling.

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Kevin B.

Not often wrong. Never quite right.
Moderator
Location
Stinkwater
What's the plan? Keep it as is but serviceable or a full redo? #godbless
I'm gutting it to the studs and joists :grimacing:, but it'll all go back together mostly like it was I hope? A couple small changes but nothing drastic.

I'm gonna spend some time fixing a previous owner's utter hack jobs of wiring and plumbing, and the wife decided she wants to tile the enclosure instead of just getting a surround, so that's gonna take a couple extra days. I've done a little drywall but the rest of this is new to me so I've been watching lots and lots of Youtube. The guy on Home Renovision DIY is my new hero.
 

Pike2350

Registered User
Location
Salt Lake City
I don't know why I do this..but I am sure most here can relate. Throwing another project into the mix of your 10 other half finished projects. :rolleyes:

The neighbor has asked about us doing something to keep the dirt from our planting bed contained. Over the years the rain, and sprinklers keep covering her driveway with our dirt. Originally we were just going to do some metal strip (1/8" stock) however the planter slopes towards her house quite a bit so I decided to extend a small retaining wall I built a few years ago. This was a spur of the moment thing. Spent Last night digging the trench to put the crushed granite in and started removing the blocks that made the old retaining wall that was going away. Laid the blocks I had removed after a run to Home Depot for the granite. Tonight did another run to HD and grabbed more granite and some new blocks....need about 10 more to complete.

Went from this to this first pic is pre retaining wall from a few years ago.
 

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Kevin B.

Not often wrong. Never quite right.
Moderator
Location
Stinkwater
In the process of tearing off all the drywall, I exposed this mess.

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That was just drywalled in, with water clearly getting in past the cracked caulk on the outside. How the drywall in the sill hadn't disintegrated yet is beyond me.

I don't know how you're supposed to install a window in brick, but I'm pretty sure this isn't the way, and wasn't the way 25+ years ago when some previous owner last remodeled this. I couldn't bear the thought of leaving that there, or even reinstalling that window, it has to go. Of course it's a non-standard size, and all the custom window makers I talked to were 4-6 weeks out, so off to Lowes I go. They had a basic window that was a couple inches too small in each direction and a bunch of lumber and I'm hoping that's all I need.


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A pair of 2x4s top and bottom ended up bringing that dimension exactly where I want it. 1x4s are too thick for the sides and shims don't quite cut it, but I think I can rip some slices off a 2x4 to fill that gap and give me something to fasten it to. The window is wide of the brick cavity by a couple mm and won't quite seat, I'm gonna massage the brick in the morning with the Wheel Of Death and the window should slide right in to where the old one sat. It's thick enough that I won't have to screw with brackets like the PO did, I should be able to fasten to the framing (I think? Fingers crossed!). Then some spray foam in the gaps and fresh caulk on the outside and I'll have a window again.

Did I mention I don't know how you're supposed to install a window in brick? This whole thing is going much slower than I wanted it to and about exactly as fast as I expected. :rofl:
 
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Stephen

Who Dares Wins
Moderator
This whole thing is going much slower than I wanted it to and about exactly as fast as I expected. :rofl:
I thought it'd take me three weeks to gut and remodel my bathroom, it took me three months. :grimacing:
Let me know if you need help or advice on anything. I knew about 12% of what I needed going in a learned a lot along the way. (I know nothing about putting windows into brick. @bobn though, he's done it a few times...)
 

Pike2350

Registered User
Location
Salt Lake City
I got to spend today patching concrete stairs at my rental that have fallen apart after this last winter.
 

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