I sign tomorrow morning at 7, excited an anxious to get to work on this house. Inside is pretty well taken care of, need to fix some electrical work and some doors that are in need of adjustment. But most of my work will be put in this summer putting gutters and downspouts on as well as doing some landscaping, and a little pool work.
Hey fellers, we are about to start building our new house and was hoping to get some thoughts on choices I am torn on. 1. What does the board think of tankless water heaters? The home's base price has a 50 gallon gas water heat built into the price, but given my household's showering and bath habits, we are either going to add another 50 gallon tank for a tankless system. Any thoughts? 2. Regarding kitchen counter tops. Does anyone on here have Silestone quartz counters? Have you been happy with them and happy with the choice over granite? The one issue that drives me crazy with quartz is the need for a seem in it. I also believe my wife has decided to have a different color island (one dark and one light). Does anyone on here have experience with doing a butcher block (hickory, cherry, beech, etc) or reclaimed wood counter top? Our island does not have a sink in it BTW. The pictures I have seen from the designer and on pintrest of dark counter tops with a wood island counter top look incredible. 3. Does anyone have elaborate home automation setup (Alarm, lights, music, home theater, etc)? I am looking at Control 4, Savant, and Home Control by URC. For anyone that has built recently. Anything you wish you had done or anything you did that was a total waste of money?
Jax Teller Did I see where you have a home theater business? Is it in the Birmingham area? I am completely fucking lost on what projector to get and what screen (material, size, aspect ratio) to get. I am looking for someone that can do the design, install, source the projector and screen, and be able to do some custom rack design. I am wanting to have the rack installed flush into the wall. I am terrible at trying to describe what I am thinking, but this is what I am thinking, but with a smoked glass door:
My parents and brother do. It's in north Alabama but they've went to Birmingham for jobs before (they did or are doing the cameras for window world down there now I think). PM me and I'll give you my brothers email and you can talk to him about what youre looking for.
Went pretty well, I think. Hardest part was moving the water softener which was an anchor. Best part was all of my nosy neighbors stopping and looking inside my garage being nosy about what was going on. Granted it was dark out side, I had a mask, gloves and safety goggles not to mention the smoke that would come off the ground with the acid. I'm sure it looked a little breaking bad. Should lay the epoxy down tonight.
Re: Water Heaters. The upfront cost of the tankless is going to be about 2x and may require upgrading your gas line and they require more ongoing maintenance. Where you'll make up for it, eventually, is on the reduced energy cost. Whether it is practical for you is also going to depend on the size of your house/number of bathrooms. If it can't keep up with your consumption, it is going to negatively effect the water pressure. I initially wanted to go with a tankless to save space and energy but we ended up with a high efficiency gas tank system because my plumber/contractor thought the tankless wouldn't be adequate to service our house. The gas tankless heats water almost as quickly as the tankless but it has much more in reserves so I never have to worry about flow. It also gets hot water to my faucet more quickly than a tankless could. Re: Mixed countertops, I haven't done it but that is my current plan if we ever remodel our kitchen. I'm a total sucker for Carrara Marble so I would do that for an island. Marble doesn't wear as well as other surfaces so I would do a different stone on the perimeter which I think would make the marble I do have stick out more. Houzz has some cool pictures with wood countertops having a similar effect. Spoiler Re: Home Automation We have a mismash of things. I strongly considered Control4 but ended up with something that will be more disjointed (maybe because the guy selling it didn't sell it well enough). For lights we are putting in Lutron Radio Ra2 that can control the lights from the remote switch on the wall, app on the phone, or the tv remote. You can set it up so the buttons on the wall keypad control individual lights, scenes, etc. At least the way the Control4 guy sold it to me, I didn't think their lighting seemed as flexible (very scene driven) and it was more expensive. The blinds in our master bedroom are Hunter Douglas and we have those on an app on our phone or handheld remote and they have automatic settings for a time of day to open and to close 15 minutes after sunset. Our home theater is all going to be running on an RTI system. They sell nationally but it is a local company and I felt better with the consultant pitching me that system rather than the Control 4. Our project (basement remodel) isn't done yet but we're currently in the painting phase so things should come together quickly and we'll be done in the next 2-3 weeks. I can give a lot more detail about how everything works and reviews at that time.
I was mostly congruent with rabid but differed in a few areas. We went tankless, haven't had any issues with consumption that was mentioned. It takes about 10 seconds to get hot water. I definitely save on energy and I got some nice rebates from various government/municipal agencies after it was put in. I love the thing. I have a pic of mine on the left wall of the garage above. Countertops...we went with granite, it's a safe play if we re-sell down the road and has a classic look that is hard to screw up. Definitely love the wood look though. Also have a mismatch for home automation. Didn't seem to be one universal that operated very well. Went with BSG for security. Lutron as well for the lights. Have a rachio for the sprinklers that I can communicate with through Alexa/Echo or via phone (still need to set this up). Next step will be getting automatic locks to control via phone. Our theater room is very elaborate and I have everything buried in the media closet making the theater room very clean. Living room sound system is via sonos and they have a great app via your phone. Things we would have done different? I wish I would have gone with a true custom build as opposed to a mass builder like I did because now we are spending a lot of money on all the DIY projects. We probably would've gone that route if there was another way we could get in the neighborhood and not use the builder we used (basically we had no choice if we wanted this particular neighborhood). Also I wish I would've been a little bit more of an asshole with them at times when they F'd up. Live and learn though, I'm happy where we are at the moment.
Going to start a deck on Monday, any big advice? When do I stain it? Do I need to wait or can I do it immediately?
everyone I know with Control4 either hates it and never uses it because it constantly fails and they don't know how to fix it and it's too expensive to get an expert to come fix it, or is an expert at fixing it and doesn't mind having to fix it all the time Disclaimer: I know 4 people with Control4, so small sample size etc
I put in a Trek deck last year and the lack of maintenance and consistent look is great. Depending on the type of wood and finish, I'd wait at least a month to stain it since the new wood won't absorb the stain that easily.
We're currently building a garage apartment and will be doing a butcher block island with granite countertops. I'll let you know how it goes. I'm planning to seal the butcher block with Waterlox instead of mineral oil since I don't plan on doing any food prep directly on the counter. One thing we're doing that I'd encourage is looking at geothermal HVAC. With the 30% federal credit and newly passed 25% state credit in SC, the payback period is reduced to around five years and would be less if we didn't size the loop to accommodate our future house as well.
Geothermal is the shit I would be all over it if we had enough rebates to make it worth it around here We put it in lots of large buildings we build cause the payoff is fast as shit at the scale of having a couple hundred loops
Sold house in Ponte Vedra & bought pre instruction home in Prosper, TX. All framed up & the roof is on now
I remember mentioning that our city was redoing our street but have I actually posted pics? This is a pic from my neighbor. Then, it rained and the street turned in to this: It got so bad that somebody had to get pulled out of the mud with a tow truck one afternoon as I was coming home from work.
Awesome. I've heard some great things about the zip system. Ours has that too. I'm hoping it helps with energy costs.
I have seen some people hating on it around the Internet. To be fair, it seems like no matter what automation I go with, they all have issues and are expensive as fuck to service.
I've only had one day where I had to park at the end of the street and walk. Otherwise, we are lucky to have AWD on both of our vehicles. We thought it was necessary for the snow in Minnesota. I didn't expect to need it in the suburbs, in May.
It's nice up there, I grew up out in the country a bit so I get the appeal. We picked the mid cities because it's the most convenient spot for both of our jobs.
Did a big storm in Prosper around 2010 or so. Nice homes but way too much vinyl for softball hail. I think I went to Maui on that storm.
There was a big one up that way and around Denton, Little Elm and Frisco as well two years ago I'm in fort smith
A little disappointed in the final product: I can see a lot of my paint strokes. Hopefully, things are still drying and that will subside. Also in a certain light I can tell the difference in color between the two separate gallons of epoxy I used. I made sure to mix the bases prior to activating them so I'm not sure how they could have a different color. In retrospect I wish I would have painted the step up where the fridge and freezer are, I will probably just move them forward so you can't see the bare concrete. All that said, I'm glad I did it, just wish I would have done a few things different.
All the storms in Texas means no one in Oklahoma to handle local stuff. I'm super busy in SW Oklahoma but I get to sleep in my own bed every night :)
Anybody here that built their house versus buying? I will likely be selling my house in the next year or 2, and am interested in building and having everything the way I like it versus buying one. Is it more expensive to build, or pretty comparable? My dad was a general contractor, mainly for residential beach homes (retired now), and I know how quickly building costs can escalate, so that has me a bit apprehensive.
Power washed the fence today preparing to stain it. Any links to stains you used? Any advice? Am i making a huge mistake staining vs. painting? The fence is only about a month old and I'd like to keep that new cedar look if possible.
Staining cedar is the way to go. I would get something that lets the natural color if the wood shine through. Most who let their decks/porches get away are just too lazy to keep them up (myself included in the past).
Ready Seal is what you want. More expensive up front, but if you keep up with it, you will only have to do minimal sanding and no stripping. Did my fence last year and it still looks awesome. I had to buy $600 worth to do the whole fence but it's worth it.
Anyone know how concrete counter tops compare in price to Granite or Quartz? My sister in law is moving into her place and the counter tops are butcher block but she likes the look of concrete. The contractor doesn't do them but was going to find someone who could do them for a price quote. Just want to make sure she isn't getting totally taken for a ride. Connor Norman
It's actually not bad at all. Good YouTube videos out there. Went with an InSinkerator from Home Depot and she purrs like a kitten still.
Concrete is maybe $5 or so cheaper per sq ft. Not a huge price difference because of the labor that goes into it.
are you 100% sure its broken? have you manually tried to spin it? this happened to me (thankfully my neighbor is a plumber).
I've done everything short of taking it completely out. There was something broke and spinning in it last time I used it then it just quit turning on completely.
Home inspection went well today. In talking to the inspector, it didn't sound like we had any big issues....a bit of a surprise considering the age of the home (1958)
I personally wouldn't get concrete. It's looks good, especially if you can dye it, but it can be a little more high maintenance. Have to make sure it is sealed correctly or could potentially stain. Can crack if it isn't installed correctly.
On the bottom of the disposal unit, there's a little hole where you can stick an allen wrench. Find one that fits and then crank it around a few times in both directions. You'd be surprised how many times that little trick fixes it.