Home Ownership And You!

mrbiron

Jstas wrote: »

mrbiron wrote: »

This house is shaving years off your life by the minute.

Nice work. Sounds like you have a long way to go.

I don't mind doing this stuff, I just hate doing it when it's not in my plan and/or due to someone else's ineptitude.

Like, there's a spot in the office that has water damage on the ceiling and I know that if I open it up there will be a fresh new hell of Captain Halfassery awaiting me. So I've been slacking on moving forward with it.

Is there any real benefit to doing partial room demos, or do you gut each room and start fresh?

I only say that because I see your bathroom and only think, if that’s how the shower was done, what about the rest of the room? Then I’d be tearing it all out. The hard part about that statement is knowing you are flying solo which has been all of my remodel experiences, making bigger projects more time consuming.

I’m not offering services. Mass to NJ is too far for beer and pizza.

Tony M

Your experiences remind me of the movie "Money Pit" with Tom Hanks.

Your pictures also reminded me of many years of my life remodeling bathrooms, kitchens and other jobs. I just saw a bunch of my pol jobs looking for a picture of when I owned my Eames chair.

I didn't ever do a instant water heater job...but I did remodel the heck out of my home's plumbing 30 years ago. Moving the water heater some 25' to another room.

I feel for you with things being not square or plumb! That's a remodelers nightmare!!!

Fixing those slackers, or just guys with no experience building things. I've had a minimal of times where replacing stuff was super frustrating. This home of mine was still square and plumb 40 years later when I started to remodel it. I was soooo pleased! Remodeling jobs here went as well as could be expected. Rotten floor spots were easily replaced. Best part for me, cost to us was kept to a minimum. I've been doing things the past couple of months to get this house set for Nancy if something happens to me. My cottage space is still in my mind BIG TIME, but that's...

I'm glad YOU found out that buzzing sound's reason. It's a crying shame a home-owner uncovers an issue that the heater manufacturer should have solved way before and put in their power requirements section.

I've done about 5 or more of those bath surrounds and thank God the walls were all plumb and square. I became quite efficient after that first one. My surround only had 3 pieces to deal with. I guess I was lucky in that respect. They were all in one 30 apartment U-shaped building. I replaced a few kitchens cabinets too. Maybe 5 apartments of them too. Heck, maybe it was the same 5 or so together. It was a long time ago...

Reading your story, I almost felt every action you took since I've been there a few times except for your very bad framing issues.

Considering the hurdles you had to climb over, you did a GREAT JOB!

Jstas

motorstereo wrote: »

Don't despair........it's looking good what you've done so far and a vast improvement over "capt halfass's" craftsmanship. I can certainly relate. In my case of owning a 100+ year old house I look at these projects as a learning experience of ripping out someone else's lousy workmanship and doing it right. Heck when I first moved here 30+ years ago I couldn't sweat a joint, wire an outlet, or anything except the very basics.
There's nothing like the joy of tearing out rooms of horsehair plaster walls to teach a young fellow of what not to do in the building trade. You see some terrible workmanship from the old days when there were no building inspectors or codes. Thankfully now my learning process is complete, tuition has been paid and I'm even starting to remodel some of my less than stellar work from a couple decades ago. Good luck to you.

I appreciate the thoughts, I'm not despairing, though. This is the 3rd house I have done this level of work on. 4th if you count me holding flashlights and tools for my dad when I was a kid.

I knew what I was getting in to with an old house. I like the fact that it was built in 1925 and the property is older than NJ and even the U.S., not just the towns that are here. There's nothing particularly special about this house besides it being an old farm house but in 1925, it was literally in the middle of nowhere, 2 miles from the closest town. It's been sitting here through so much. Even the town finally reached it in the 70's when the development across the street was built.

I'm good with it. I'm pretty good at seeing what's an old house problem and what's a Captain Halfass problem. Like walls not being straight is an old house problem. Water damage to those walls because of improperly installed tile is a Captain Halfass problem. I can handle them both, I just don't like having to handle Captain Halfass' halfassery. Just like nobody likes having to cover for Captain Slackass at work, it's the same idea. Shouldn't have to be doing Captain Halfassery Remediation work, that's all.

It'll get there and it keeps me busy. But when we were looking at the house, I was being very critical with Jackie about it and she got upset because she thought I hated it. I did but at the same time, I felt like I needed to be here. Like the house knew I could help it and was asking me to help it. We've only been here 3 years on October 8th but it feels like a lifetime already. Like it's where we are supposed to be.

Jstas

mrbiron wrote: »

Jstas wrote: »

mrbiron wrote: »

This house is shaving years off your life by the minute.

Nice work. Sounds like you have a long way to go.

I don't mind doing this stuff, I just hate doing it when it's not in my plan and/or due to someone else's ineptitude.

Like, there's a spot in the office that has water damage on the ceiling and I know that if I open it up there will be a fresh new hell of Captain Halfassery awaiting me. So I've been slacking on moving forward with it.

Is there any real benefit to doing partial room demos, or do you gut each room and start fresh?

I only say that because I see your bathroom and only think, if that’s how the shower was done, what about the rest of the room? Then I’d be tearing it all out. The hard part about that statement is knowing you are flying solo which has been all of my remodel experiences, making bigger projects more time consuming.

I’m not offering services. Mass to NJ is too far for beer and pizza.

I have this argument with Jackie all the time. She wants to do a "spit and polish" and I hate the idea because it's more cost and time 'cause I have to do work that I'm just going to destroy. It's also half-assing it. All I want to do is go room by room and get it done and she can't focus on one task. I took on a ton of debt to get this place so I've been doing what I can while knocking down the debt. I'm almost done then I can start tackling the bigger projects like a kitchen remodel.

But the thing is, not every room needs to be torn out completely. I thought I was going to have to do that to the "parlor" room to get to the knob and tube electrical but we lucked out and everything in that room except the ceiling light was in the baseboards. The ceiling light was new enough electrical work that it's still good so it stays. I still have knob and tube to pull out but I have to tear down plaster that's been poorly repaired in the "foyer" and the dining room anyway so it's waiting for that. I also have to put a wall back up that a previous owner tore down to make an "open floor plan" but didn't upgrade the heating system from cast iron radiators. So down stairs gets pretty cold in the winter because the "open floor plan" broke the convection cycles for 3 radiators. So there's warm spots around the radiators and a massive cold area in the middle of the 1st floor.

But the kids rooms, I didn't have to destroy walls, I just fixed some cosmetic problems and trim, painted both and put new carpet in one of the rooms...which the kids destroyed already. Most of the bedrooms are A-OK structure wise and just need minor wall repairs and stuff like paint and flooring. Should I do the rooms completely? Yeah, probably but in all honesty, they weren't in bad shape and look to be original so I just cleaned them up and made them pretty. I'll likely fix the subfloors when I replace carpeting again for them but that's a few years away. The master needs to be rewired because some idiot, not sure if it was Captain Halfass or not, put every outlet, the ceiling fan/light, the closet light and the entire bathroom including the exhaust fan/light/heater unit on the same 15 amp circuit. I also need to get a wall unit AC system removed and a window put in. I'm not doing that, going to farm that out. Especially since right below it, I'm getting a window taken out. So I'll get them done at the same time.

But the bathroom we were just going to deal with until there was time and money to have someone come in and do it. Well, leaking water was more important so I did it as cheap as I could. It's a fix that I can live with if it ends up being more permanent than temporary while we tackle the bigger problems elsewhere. If I end up remodeling that bathroom completely, the electrical is already sorted, so's the water heater and most of the plumbing. None of that needs to be touched again for a very long time. The new exhaust fan/light/heater will be staying and the mirror I hung to replace the garbage that was there can be used elsewhere. All I'm really out is some time, 3 sheets of sheet rock, screws, mud and tape and a $150 tub surround. I'm just anal. If I left that end tile "good enough" it would have bothered me every morning I looked at it until I did it right. So I took the time to do it right, even if it's just temporary. Spent like $3500 on it but would only be out about $250 of that if I went and gutted that bathroom completely. But the rest of the bathroom, just needs the turrible tile removed, a better vanity that fits the room, that heater removed and possibly a new subfloor. It's a bunch of work but I don't think it needs to be gutted. Especially since all the electrical comes down from the attic, not through the wall studs. Or at least enough that I can rewire with a fish and some patience. Now, the living room below that? Yeah. Complete gut job and I'm putting the home theater from the old house in there and we're going to replace the fireplace with something new and appropriate for the house, not the cheap, $300 Amish Workshop deal that's there.

That bugs Jackie to no end, though. Doesn't understand why I can't just be good with good enough. But my attention to detail is the difference. The property was appraised by the tax assessor two years before we got it. We paid about 20% over what the tax appraisal was (over 30% less than Captain Halfass was asking too which was $50K over reasonable market value and had been reduced 6 times in the 9 months it was on the market). We just got shafted last year on the tax re-appraisal and the house is now valued at 40% more at the end of 2019 than what we paid for it in the middle of 2017. So that's actual value not the inflated values from the urban flight currently pushing values through the roof. Our home owners rate even went up because they did an assessment too and listed market value at a little over 50% more than we paid for it. The reason my agent told me was that the previous thresholds were too low to cover damage and restore the house to the current state. Current state has changed significantly. I mean, it was only like $210 more a year so it's not THAT much but he said he compared pictures from the purchase assessment to now and he couldn't believe how much I had done in 2.5 years. The re-appraisal from the insurance company was triggered by the tax assessment jumping so much. I haven't really done anything but restore what was neglected for 30 years by Captain Halfass. I haven't even gotten into what I WANT to do yet. But that's the point of doing this to this level myself as much as I can. Right now, the value has risen so much that we can invest significant amounts of money in the property and still see a return if we sold because I haggled him down so low and two separate appraisers backed up my assessments. I flat out told him that this property needed a special buyer and not special in a way like it'd be my masterpiece, my opus. Special in a way that I'm completely unhinged and willing to live in the mess while I clean it up.

I curse him every day but I haven't come back to him even though I probably can since I'm pretty sure he forged receipts for work he was contractually obligated to perform prior to the sale. Especially since I've had work done already that I have receipts for that say he had the work done.

Doing it by myself, like you said, I pick and choose what I can live with and what I think needs serious work. I knew a lot before I started here but I learned just as much as I'm going too.

I'm off next week and I'm planning on the following:
- patching the bathroom walls where the new vent fan and electrical switches were put in.
- finishing the drywall in the office and painting it
- digging a hole and pouring the concrete for a new mailbox post out front, adding conduit to it too so I can light it
- finishing the ceiling in the foyer (just paint)
- finishing the ceiling (filling the seams/nail holes in the crown molding, painting)
- fixing the framing around the last garage door I need to repair
- cutting the hinge and catch spots for real doors on the bathroom and walk-in in the master
- cutting the hinge and knob holes on the new doors
- painting what doors I can get to
- hanging whatever ever doors I get finished.

I got about 9 and a half days, a good chunk of it without the kids around, if I can keep myself motivated, I can get through all of that.

Jstas

Tony M wrote: »

Your experiences remind me of the movie "Money Pit" with Tom Hanks.

Your pictures also reminded me of many years of my life remodeling bathrooms, kitchens and other jobs. I just saw a bunch of my pol jobs looking for a picture of when I owned my Eames chair.

I didn't ever do a instant water heater job...but I did remodel the heck out of my home's plumbing 30 years ago. Moving the water heater some 25' to another room.

I feel for you with things being not square or plumb! That's a remodelers nightmare!!!

Fixing those slackers, or just guys with no experience building things. I've had a minimal of times where replacing stuff was super frustrating. This home of mine was still square and plumb 40 years later when I started to remodel it. I was soooo pleased! Remodeling jobs here went as well as could be expected. Rotten floor spots were easily replaced. Best part for me, cost to us was kept to a minimum. I've been doing things the past couple of months to get this house set for Nancy if something happens to me. My cottage space is still in my mind BIG TIME, but that's...

I'm glad YOU found out that buzzing sound's reason. It's a crying shame a home-owner uncovers an issue that the heater manufacturer should have solved way before and put in their power requirements section.

I've done about 5 or more of those bath surrounds and thank God the walls were all plumb and square. I became quite efficient after that first one. My surround only had 3 pieces to deal with. I guess I was lucky in that respect. They were all in one 30 apartment U-shaped building. I replaced a few kitchens cabinets too. Maybe 5 apartments of them too. Heck, maybe it was the same 5 or so together. It was a long time ago...

Reading your story, I almost felt every action you took since I've been there a few times except for your very bad framing issues.

Considering the hurdles you had to climb over, you did a GREAT JOB!

It's not a money pit. I mean, if I was paying some contractor to do it, sure, it's a money pit because I'd spend the value of the house on getting it straight. But because I'm willing to tackle this stuff myself, I pretty much just source materials and get to work.

Unlike many other people I know, though, I know my limits. When something is too much for me or beyond my skill sets, I hire someone. Like the trees I had cut down. 6 guys from the tree company showed up and took down 3 trees and shredded a massive brush pile in about 5 hours. It would have taken me a day to do one tree and probably would have hurt someone or caused significant damage if I did it myself. But getting a plumber to come in and rough in work for a sink, toilet and shower and leaving the finish work for me, that's like $450-$650 worth of work. If I paid them to do everything soup to nuts, $2500 in labor, easily. So being willing to take my time and push my skills a little bit at a time doing the finishing work on that rough in plumbing saves me significant costs and I usually end up learning something. There's value in that not only because I learned something but also, because I put it together, I have a good idea how to fix it when it breaks too. The value in that is immeasurable.

I also get to buy news tools!

People ask why I have so many tools. Because, I tried something you were scared of, did some research, figured out that I need that tool to make the job exponentially simpler/faster and got it. Now I have it. If it's something I'm not going to use more than once, I rent it. I can't tell you how many times in the past year with everyone stuck at home that I've been called by someone asking if I had a tool they could borrow. I think I told a friend once that I didn't have what he needed.

But the square or plumb stuff, that's an old house problem. Decades of settling, non-existent building standards at the time of construction and just inexperience is what gets you there. I'm not going to rip down walls and redo framing. That's not worth it. But I'm not above ripping down a few 2x4's to shim out a wall and get the finished product straight even though the wall is wavy. Laser levels are GREAT for that! It's just a ton of work and when you have impatient spouses asking what's taking so long, it's frustrating 'cause, y'know, I gotta work a job to pay for all of this too and when you want to go do things on weekends and I can't make noise after like 9 or 10 at night because y'all went to bed, you really tie my hands here. So lighten up and compromise here and understand I'm not going to that Halloween get-together for the kids where the parents are going to just hang out and drink while watching the kids beg. I'm going to stay home, turn up the tunes, grab a beer and get to gettin' 'er done.

And honestly, that bathroom, she wants a claw foot tub. It won't fit where the current tub is. But if I pull that closet out which is tight and barely useful, I'd need to move plumbing about 6-8 inches and she's got her claw foot tub, no problem. I don't even think I'd have to sure up the floor because the joists are 2x8's but they are actually 2 inches by 8 inches because the extension was built before dimensional lumber was standardized. They aren't even sanded, they are rough sawn joists. Doesn't seem like much but that extra girth on the dimensions adds rigidity and load bearing capabilities. I'd just have to find another place to put the linen closet but I have an idea on that too.

Willow

Don't know how you put up with it. We had our basement finished and it was the longest 4 weeks ever. Dirt, dust .... Yuck!!

Jstas

The basement at the old house took me 9 months to get straight because when I first pulled walls down, I found water problems so I had to fix the drainage in the yard first. No sense in putting new stuff up just to have it destroyed by seepage.

But I wasn't flush with cash so I was nickle and diming it. But when I got it done, it was really nice and completely worth it.

mrbiron

Nice job @Jstas!!
Keep up the good work. From one DIY”r to another, you’re doing great. The hardest part is making sure you, and only you, are happy with the outcome. Your better half will be happy either way.

Fortunately, for me, I bought a shiny new house last year, so my rehabs are limited to friends and family’s homes. Though I do restart framing in the basement after thanksgiving. I don’t do indoor work when it’s nice outside.

Jstas

Yeah, that's an issue for me too. I make a plan to do something inside for a weekend and the weekend shows up, the weather is better than expected and I go get something done outside while the weather is nice. She gets mad but it's one more thing off the list. The list keeps getting shorter and it's hard keeping ahead of the people who add stuff to the list when things get crossed off!

But honestly, those trees were holding up a bunch of stuff. The window replacements and removal of the wall AC unit on the side and fixing the screwed up porch enclosing too. It's drafty as hell because it wasn't insulated and gaps sealed up properly when it was enclosed. It's now the laundry room and it gets below freezing in there with water pipes running through the poorly insulated outside wall. Which is aggravating because all Captain Halfass had to do was put up actual sheathing outside before slinging siding up and then fill the wall cavity with fiberglass insulation and wrap the pipes he installed in insulation foam and everything would have been peachy but nooooooo! Why do it right?

He also never insulated the roof and the porch floor flexes like crazy 'cause he never blocked the joists. He had a front loader washing machine in there that wasn't counter balanced, it was designed for a slab floor that doesn't vibrate. But a counter balanced unit designed for a framed floor was $400 more and god-forbid he buy what he needed instead of what was cheapest. So the damn thing shook all kinds of stuff so there are cracks everywhere around it. I'm probably going to have to pull the floor up completely, put footings in and sister new joists in to rest on the footings then block all the joists together and hang insulation in the joist cavities with strapping. Then new subfloor and flooring. Then I get to tear the walls down, re-insulate and put in windows instead of those octagonal piles of garbage that are there now. I'm afraid to find out what's in the porch roof and under the floor, too.

I also have to get rid of the mishmash of phone, ethernet and coax cables over there. The AC units both need to be replaced as they are both quite old and on the old refrigerant so once they need service, they are probably getting canned and replaced with newer, more efficient units. I also have to clear that entire corner and it's going to get dug out like a foot and dropping and leveling gravel in so I can keep foilage from growing there. Put up a stockade fence around it too and the corner will be where a whole house emergency generator is going to go. I should be able to fit a 20kW unit in there.

I just keep thinking to myself...when it's done, it's going to look amazing!

Tony M

I'm glad you can do most of the work yourself! You and I have saved THOUSANDS of $$$$ that we can spend elsewhere.

My house has real 2X4s also. Real 2X8s too.
Solid houses we have!

You doing multiple houses makes me ache thinking about it at my age now.

I don't know if I could do to this house AGAIN what I did back then. Well....maybe but it sure would take 5 times the time or longer!...And a lot of sore muscle pain where before there wasn't any. Here's an example I just thought of;
I built the cottage in 3 months WHILE I was working 50 hours a week at a job.
It took 1 1/2 years to add a 3 wall addition onto it 10 years later and I was at home the whole time. I was near my wits end with neck pain and all but I did have some good meds but they only go so far as far as physical exertion goes. Hard crashes were common and body aches persisted. Mainly shoulder and neck areas. Oh , my hands too.
Handling the materials and hammering a thousand+ nails took its toll on them

Speaking of insulation..
This house had paper-thin insulation on a back addition. It had foil on one side and I think 1/4" fiberglass.

Other than this 9' addition on the back, I don't think anything else was done.

You mentioned buying tools when needed. I did too. I also bought things at yard-sales and church bazaars that I thought I might use. I installed a hexagon window in the main bath during the massive remodeling in the beginning. They were like 220.00 then. Well I saw a new one in the box at a yard sale a couple of years later for 20 or 30.00. I bought it, saved it for years and wouldn't you know, the original got water rot after 10 years or more. I didn't catch it. But all I had to do was swap it out one weekend.

Spare things for plumbing, carpentry, painting and electrical. I went out here to get a few things the past couple of months. I also have wood and plywood panels outside in a shed or under the side porch of the cottage that I frequently go pick from for projects that come up. I just picked 2 plywood sheets and painted one side of them yesterday. I'll paint the other sides today. They're to block our indoor "wild cat" from attacking my bedroom windows at 1AM.

But anyway...here's some of my hardware storage items. I almost needed to grab one of these Bathroom ceiling fans last week. The exhaust fan in our main bathroom stopped working. I looked on the web and saw all I might need to do is oil the bearings on the little motor.That did the trick! I just cleaned the squirrel cage a few weeks ago and the cleaner I used must've dissolved the little bit of grease that was left.

Low and behold, it got down into the 40's last week and I turned on the heater portion of this same ceiling unit and Buzzzzzz, it was frozen. I took the heater portion out of the unit and oiled it's bearings too. It has the same little motor too. It started spinning freely again now too. I would buy these spare bath fans for 5.00. I still want to put one up in our back bathroom but just haven't done it yet...



Like you're doing now, I worked sun-up to sun down to make a living and then week-ends were for us to remodel our house. My wife and step-daughter helped every step of the way in this houses remodel. Looking at all those old pictures in our photo albulms I mentioned above, I can't believe I had it in me.

I've slowed down a lot in the past 30 years, but I STILL have the will. My body aches almost every day "after I do something" that was so easy 30 years ago. But I KNOW movement is the key to living longer than if we didn't.

From what you mentioned you still want to do to your homestead next...

You're going to live a long life.

Sorry for my rant!

Jstas

Just bought 3000 twinkle lights on over 300 feet of wiring.

BTW, Lowe's is having a killer sale on Christmas decorations!

#shesabeautclark

Jstas

I just ordered 3 more strings 'cause the sale at Lowe's is just too good to pass up.

Also, I mis-read the box, the length of a single set is 124.4 feet so it's 622 total feet.

With the additional 3 strings, it's now 4800 lights on just under 1,000 feet.

Since each string pull .34 amps, all 8 strings can run off a single 15 amp, 120V circuit and pull less than 3 amps in total. 2.72 amps to be exact. 326.4 total watts. It's like running the halogen flood lights in the kitchen.

charley96

I hope you have a good staple gun to hang those things.

DaveHo

ken brydson

charley96 wrote: »

I hope you have a good staple gun to hang those things.

Knowing @Jstas it's either a Binford 2000 or some crap from Harbor Freight....














JK John....

Jstas

There's already hooks installed so no need for it. If anything I'll just string wire between the posts and hooks and wrap the lights around the wire or zip tie them to the wire. The rest will go along the railings.

And I have a Milwaukee 12V battery powered staple gun. Well, it's Jackie's but I got it for her for Christmas last year so she'd stop complaining about how beastly and heavy my 18v tools were. Also, so I didn't have to walk the length of 2 acres every time I needed to get a different tool from the garage. Her tools stay at the house because she doesn't like the "Empire of Dirt" that is the garages.

You forget to grab a screw driver or grab the wrong wrench around here and it takes 10-15 minutes to go back and get it depending on where you are in the yard. So various locations where the majority of work happens have their own sets of basic tools.

I also have an old Arrow manual staple gun and an even older Bostitch staple gun that was my grandfather's as well as a Porter Cable pneumatic tack/pin/stapler.

I'm pretty sure, at this point, only pros have more tools than I do.

That's really the only reason people talk to me anymore.

*ring ring*
Me: Hulloh?
Them: Yo, dude, you gots a left handed knibblin' pin trimmer? My ostrich buffer is busted and I need to fix it but I ain't payin' thirty bucks to rent a left handed knibblin' pin trimmer.
Me: You know you can friggin' BUY one at Horror Fraught for 9 bucks and it'll work long enough to fix your ostrich buffer at least twice, maybe more?
Them: Do you have one or not?
Me: I have 3, one's pneumatic, which one do you want?
Them: Whatever one works.
Me: Fine. You're gettin' the corded Horror Fraught one, arsewhole.
Them: I'll be over in twenty minutes
Me: BRING BEER!
Them Wha...??? *click....errrrrrrrrrrrrrr*

Jerkoffs. They never bring beer. Just empty hands.

txcoastal1

See...you've probably done what I have done over the years...
DIY affords you new tools to tackle the new DYI jobs. It's great being tooled up. Money up front pays in the long term.

mrbiron

txcoastal1 wrote: »

See...you've probably done what I have done over the years...
DIY affords you new tools to tackle the new DYI jobs. It's great being tooled up. Money up front pays in the long term.

That's the best. Convince your better half that the only way to change an old outlet cover is to buy a brandy new hammer drill with a potpourri of bits.

Want me to fix that screw pop? Well, i'll need to buy a table saw.

Works every, and i mean EVERY time.

txcoastal1

mrbiron wrote: »

txcoastal1 wrote: »

See...you've probably done what I have done over the years...
DIY affords you new tools to tackle the new DYI jobs. It's great being tooled up. Money up front pays in the long term.

That's the best. Convince your better half that the only way to change an old outlet cover is to buy a brandy new hammer drill with a potpourri of bits.

Want me to fix that screw pop? Well, i'll need to buy a table saw.

Works every, and i mean EVERY time.

LOL....doesn't quite work that way

But I did do 70% of the work when we remodeled our first house....she understood over the years when she pulls out that "honey wish and the honey do!!" list that it paid off

pitdogg2

I have cra p tools to loan out, they ain't gettin my good stuff but honestly the loan out tools work just fine as my dad acquired them at auctions buying boxes of stuff. You need a screwdriver let me know I have two five gallon buckets full of them. Miscellaneous foreign made wrenches yep same thing 5 gallon buckets full of them. I've got old Black & Decker tools you know the ones that we're made out of metal and not plastic they're not light but they work. had one friend give me a little grief about it he said Jesus that thing looks like it's 30 years old I said shut up that thing's 56 years old she works fine she's been dropped a thousand times she can get dropped again she'll work until you get done.

Jstas

I got most of my tools before I met Jackie and long after my ex-wife.

Well, except for the mechanics tools. Those I've had since I was 16. But the expensive power tools and such, I got most of them when I was refinishing my old house. Now, I go to do something here and Jackie asks me where I got that tool and how much it cost. But I've owned it for years now and it's paid for itself several times over already.

The garage isn't full of junk. Sure, some of it has yet to be assigned purposes but the vast majority of it was bought for a reason and it fulfilled that reason. Still doing it too, for most of it.

And I have a few of those chromed Black and Decker tools too. Some of the newer but still old pea green plastic tools as well.

The Chromed B&D circular saw and jigsaw will shock you when you use them, though. They have to be taken apart and cleaned up. Probably need new brushes.

lightman1

I want to pee in your pool John.

mrbiron

txcoastal1 wrote: »

mrbiron wrote: »

txcoastal1 wrote: »

See...you've probably done what I have done over the years...
DIY affords you new tools to tackle the new DYI jobs. It's great being tooled up. Money up front pays in the long term.

That's the best. Convince your better half that the only way to change an old outlet cover is to buy a brandy new hammer drill with a potpourri of bits.

Want me to fix that screw pop? Well, i'll need to buy a table saw.

Works every, and i mean EVERY time.

LOL....doesn't quite work that way

But I did do 70% of the work when we remodeled our first house....she understood over the years when she pulls out that "honey wish and the honey do!!" list that it paid off

That's the way it works in this household. You had better catch up...

I'm doing another patio next year which means, i may be buying harbor freight plate compactor. I can go at my own leisure making it cheaper than renting.

AND

For whatever reason, i think i need a planer when i go back to refinishing the basement.

Jstas

Yeah, there's large items that I could easily rent but given the size of the projects or the amount of work that needs to be done, it's actually cheaper to spend a few hundred bucks on something like a plate compactor.

I gotta do pavers and pack some areas I need to fix for erosion repair. I'm probably going to end up getting a plate compactor myself because to rent one from Home Depot, it's $88 a day for a 20" plate compactor. $350+ for a week.

So for what I need to do, I'm looking at two weekends worth of work so 2-3 days of rental each. If I manage to keep the rental to two days each time (means I have to have it back by a certain time on day 2 after picking it up on day 1) then I'm looking at about $352 of rental fees plus taxes and gas fees and stuff. So we'll say an even $375 for 4 days of rental. But if I end up keeping it for 6 total days, non-consecutive, that's $528 in rental fees plus taxes and gas fees and such.

A new one from Harbor Freight costs $599 and the only time I have to load it in and out of my truck is when I buy it at the store and I get it home. It goes on sale regularly for about $499.99 to $529.99 too. So it's cheaper to just buy a plate compactor and a hell of a lot less hassle.

This is the reason I'm getting a tow-behind backhoe. A big tractor is too much and won't fit where I need to go without cutting down trees. A treaded backhoe would be cool but they go used at $22K. I can rent one for the cheapest I found at $450 a day. They will deliver and pick it up, though. But with all the work I need to get done I'd need a week and a half of kicking my own **** just to get in under the rental period. But when all's said and done, I will have spent $3500-$4500 on rental fees and probably $250 on diesel for it.

If I get the Horror Fraught one, it's $3299.99 and if I get the HF credit card they give you 10% off your first purchase. So it'd be about $2970.00 which is less than the cost of renting a backhoe for a week, there's no time limit and I can work on my stuff at my own pace and not a death inducing 1 man construction marathon for 10 days. When I'm done with it, I can either keep it or I can sell it off for $1500-$2000 and recoup much of my original cost. And they will sell quickly too. I see them pop up on craigslist from time to time and they last only a couple days, sometimes a couple hours before someone snaps them up.

But a planer...now there's more than a single use for that! There's been many occasions where I was loading up the truck with boards and heading to my dad's house to use his Delta planer or his Grizzly edge jointer.

Also, if it's a tool that I know I'm going to beat like a red-headed step child, give it a hot supper and throw it in the corner then I'm A-OK with getting a Harbor Freight pile of poo. Mainly because it's often less than the cost of a tool rental and I'd have to buy two or three to equal the cost of one good one that I wouldn't want to abuse.

But sometimes, precision, durability and capability win out and for those tools that I know I'm going to use often on stuff where the details make the difference, I will spring for the good stuff at the cheapest price I can find. Hence the reason I have a Delta compound miter saw and a slew of Hilti, Fein, Milwaukee, Porter Cable, Makita, OLD Craftsman and DeWalt power tools. The Harbor Freight power tools I have are ones that get beat on regularly, like my belt sander and my corded pole saw. If they break I'm not out much. But I wouldn't have a problem doing something like sanding a bedroom floor with the HF belt sander. If I had the very nice Makita belt sander that HF copied for theirs, I would be reluctant to do that. But the HF one? I might get two and have belt sander drag races!

And no, you can't pee in my pool. I live in the woods, there's trees everywhere. Or you can go pee in the lake just beware, there's snapping turtles.

Milito

I've got a garage full of tools my son and son-in-law will get some day.

My son displayed no interest in learning how to use them growing up. He won't admit it to me now, but I know he wishes he had taken the time to learn how to use them as he owns a house in Austin that was built in the 50's and always needs something done to it.

Now my son-in-law is the one who would use them more as he has to use tools at his job. He has a degree in golf course management and he is in charge of the greens at a city golf course.

I agree about the Harbor Freight tools. I buy them if it's a tool I don't use much and buy the higher quality tools if it's something I use a lot.

Jstas

mrbiron wrote: »

txcoastal1 wrote: »

mrbiron wrote: »

txcoastal1 wrote: »

See...you've probably done what I have done over the years...
DIY affords you new tools to tackle the new DYI jobs. It's great being tooled up. Money up front pays in the long term.

That's the best. Convince your better half that the only way to change an old outlet cover is to buy a brandy new hammer drill with a potpourri of bits.

Want me to fix that screw pop? Well, i'll need to buy a table saw.

Works every, and i mean EVERY time.

LOL....doesn't quite work that way

But I did do 70% of the work when we remodeled our first house....she understood over the years when she pulls out that "honey wish and the honey do!!" list that it paid off

That's the way it works in this household. You had better catch up...

I'm doing another patio next year which means, i may be buying harbor freight plate compactor. I can go at my own leisure making it cheaper than renting.

AND

For whatever reason, i think i need a planer when i go back to refinishing the basement.

Humble suggestion for a patio paver pattern.

Jstas

Milito wrote: »

I've got a garage full of tools my son and son-in-law will get some day.

My son displayed no interest in learning how to use them growing up. He won't admit it to me now, but I know he wishes he had taken the time to learn how to use them as he owns a house in Austin that was built in the 50's and always needs something done to it.

Now my son-in-law is the one who would use them more as he has to use tools at his job. He has a degree in golf course management and he is in charge of the greens at a city golf course.

I agree about the Harbor Freight tools. I buy them if it's a tool I don't use much and buy the higher quality tools if it's something I use a lot.

Oh, don't get me started on the kids.

They say they want to help, when it's time to help, they don't want to do the hard, tedious stuff of planning for materials, measuring stuff, setting up tools and ensuring you're putting stuff together straight.

They just want to beat stuff with hammers and cut stuff up with saws.

mrbiron

Jstas wrote: »

mrbiron wrote: »

txcoastal1 wrote: »

mrbiron wrote: »

txcoastal1 wrote: »

See...you've probably done what I have done over the years...
DIY affords you new tools to tackle the new DYI jobs. It's great being tooled up. Money up front pays in the long term.

That's the best. Convince your better half that the only way to change an old outlet cover is to buy a brandy new hammer drill with a potpourri of bits.

Want me to fix that screw pop? Well, i'll need to buy a table saw.

Works every, and i mean EVERY time.

LOL....doesn't quite work that way

But I did do 70% of the work when we remodeled our first house....she understood over the years when she pulls out that "honey wish and the honey do!!" list that it paid off

That's the way it works in this household. You had better catch up...

I'm doing another patio next year which means, i may be buying harbor freight plate compactor. I can go at my own leisure making it cheaper than renting.

AND

For whatever reason, i think i need a planer when i go back to refinishing the basement.

Humble suggestion for a patio paver pattern.

Challenge accepted!

mhardy6647

our poor son, who, along with his newly-minted wife is a newly-minted homeowner in VA, is rapidly growing disenchanted with the minor, vexing details of... home ownership. I feel really bad for him/them, and I am too far away to be very helpful.

As an example, the garage door (remote) openers are operating intermittently. He's changed the batteries. He and I differ in our opinions of the likely root cause. He's thinking RFI (which is certainly possible) -- I am thinking the remotes themselves are wonky (e.g., pushbuttons worn and working intermittently).

Jstas

If the remotes are old and from the previous owner, they likely are worn and possibly corroded. If they have little IR lenses on them, if those are covered in shmutz that will interfere too.

But, honestly, I'd replace the openers or at least change codes on the openers. Who knows who the previous owners gave codes and remotes to.