Home Buyin/Maintenance Thread - Where most of us are 30ish but act 47. Oh, and fuck home inspectors

Discussion in 'The Mainboard' started by Swim Cantore, May 4, 2015.

  1. Doug

    Doug Skeptical Doug-o
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    Will have my work bench, cabinets above the bench and tall stand up cabinet installed tonight. Finally feeling like home.

    It's been hard to do small projects without the majority of my tools.
     
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  2. Long Ball Larry

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    $1k at Lowes last night. Ouch.
    Bathroom lights, towel bar/toilet roller, faucets for the sinks, shower/bath faucets, for both bathrooms. Walked in all care free, threw some LEDs in the cart. At checkout, the bulbs were the last item and I almost was like, "we don't need those".
     
  3. Lip

    Lip Well-Known Member
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    Nah, he's small time so he doesn't have his own devoted warranty number. I pulled out the user guides and it looks like they bought it at Sears so I guess I'm calling them.
     
  4. bertwing

    bertwing check out the nametag grandma
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    Dishwasher stopped working last night

    Fuck my ass
     
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  5. buy_dont_lease

    buy_dont_lease Ha ha ha. What a story, Mark.
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    RoyalShocker
     
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  6. High Cotton

    High Cotton Where does this fall in our Christian walk?
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    Mine isn't draining, will be checking the drains tonight for blockage.
     
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  7. bertwing

    bertwing check out the nametag grandma
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    Zero water is getting to mine. No idea how this happens. It's just running dry
     
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  8. je ne suis pas ici

    je ne suis pas ici Well-Known Member
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    do you have to pay for 1. landscaping plans, i.e. hey as apart of our estimate we'd put X here and Y there and Rocks here etc? and 2. i cant tell if its worth me destroying my back and getting like 300 bucks of big ass rocks and burying/doing it myself or have a landscaping company do it themselves.
     
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  9. Doug

    Doug Skeptical Doug-o
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    Could be as simple as something as the inlet valve.... google the model number, may be an easy / cheap fix.
     
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  10. lechnerd

    lechnerd They say Monaco is a sunny place for shady people
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    Made a day out of adjusting the sprinklers because the deck has thrown everything off in my backyard. What a bitch. This is one of the few projects that I've seriously considered paying someone to come out and do, while in the middle of doing it myself.

    I must have made 10 trips to Lowes today alone. I'm on a first name basis with everyone there now.

    It would've been faster to buy one of everything in the sprinkler aisle and then a 2nd trip to return what I didn't use.

    To make things worse, my Rachio can only be controlled by phone and thats the last thing you want to touch with wet/muddy hands.

    I don't think anything was worse than intently concentrating on one sprinkler then suddenly getting side-swiped with cold water from another sprinkler.

    I hope those never need adjusting again.
     
  11. Room 15

    Room 15 Mi equipo esta Los Tigres
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    Home Depot would've made sure you had the right stuff after the 2nd trip.
     
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  12. ~ taylor ~

    ~ taylor ~ Well-Known Member
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    I hung the curtains. I guess it is a 10' ceiling. Oh well, only one trip to Lowes to replace the curtain rod my wife bought with something that actually works and I'll be able to sleep past 5:45am tomorrow. Saturday I'll trim the hedges and mow the lawn. I haven't mowed a lawn in 20+ years, but I assume it will come back to me.
     
  13. lechnerd

    lechnerd They say Monaco is a sunny place for shady people
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    Make sure you add a fuel stabilizer to the gas.
     
  14. ~ taylor ~

    ~ taylor ~ Well-Known Member
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    Oh, the lawn mower mowed some lawn as recently as 6 weeks ago. And the hedge trimmer I'm borrowing is electric.
     
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  15. Russellin4885

    Russellin4885 Well-Known Member
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    Just ran into problems with my lawnmower and the culprit was shitty ethanol gas. Just fyi but gas with ethanol can start to go bad within a month. I found a place close by that sales ethanol free gas and going to be using that from now on. Tired of dealing with small engine problems from ethanol.
     
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  16. ~ taylor ~

    ~ taylor ~ Well-Known Member
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    This reminds me that I need to buy a gas can and put some gas in it.
     
  17. Doug

    Doug Skeptical Doug-o
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    How hard is it to stain concrete on a back patio?


    How hard is it to paint / stain concrete in the garage?
     
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  18. ~ taylor ~

    ~ taylor ~ Well-Known Member
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    Is this rhetorical?
     
  19. Doug

    Doug Skeptical Doug-o
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    No? I've never done either... I believe they are two different processes, since staining you have to acid wash, and probably a lot more prep work? Painting or is more an epoxy in the garage a different process? I definitely want to stain the back patio at some point, and either stain or paint the garage at some point.
     
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  20. ~ taylor ~

    ~ taylor ~ Well-Known Member
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    Haha, I thought you meant the result of staining/painting wood on the concrete surfaces of a patio or garage. We definitely accidently stained some patio when we stained my sister's wood deck in May.

    Somebody in here stained their concrete patio not too long ago - it seems pretty time consuming, if not terrible complex.
     
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  21. High Cotton

    High Cotton Where does this fall in our Christian walk?
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    JuanB4AU Stained/refinished/epoxy his garage recently.

    Staining concrete involves muratic acid I believe.
     
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  22. Russellin4885

    Russellin4885 Well-Known Member
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    Seeding my front yard this weekend with some compadre zoysia. Went by the landscape place to pick up 2 yards of compost to till in. For those that haven't been to any landscape place they usually have full size bulldozers that they fill your trailer up with whatever you are getting. You can't see what they have till they start dumping. By the time I got over to where the bulldozer was he already had a load and was ready to dump in my trailer, I didn't see what pile he grabbed from. He started dumping it and I quickly realized it isn't compost. Guy behind me was getting topsoil and the dude got confused and put it into my trailer. Topsoil aint going to work so we had to grab two shovels and empty the trailer on this nice 95 degree day so that I could get the compost that I needed. Fun way to spend my lunch hour. He was super apologetic and I get that mistakes happen so I didn't give him a hard time or anything but that was not fun.
     
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  23. London Humphreys

    London Humphreys The next Julian Edelman, obviously.
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    Finished little deck project. Bought sofa, tv, and two oscillating fans to keep bugs down. Also hammock chair.

    [​IMG]


    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
    Have glare stopper en route for tv.
     
    #5573 London Humphreys, Jul 8, 2016
    Last edited: Jul 8, 2016
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  24. Juan

    Juan All you got for me is Lite Beer...
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    Glad to see those wires and tv found a home. Everything looks great!
     
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  25. ohbluefan

    ohbluefan Well-Known Member
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    Nothing pisses me off more than doors and cabinets. Replacing old hardware on both, the hinge holes on the door are stripped out and my replacement cabinets hinges are off a hair. Back to lowes tomorrow.
     
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  26. GoodForAnother

    GoodForAnother I’d rather be down the allotment
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    Sprinklers are a pain but it's a quick learning curve. I've become pretty proficient at it. It seems like I'm fixing something with mine every month or so, to the point that I finally just picked up several sprinkler heads, some risers and some other miscellaneous supplies the last time I worked on it and now keep a little inventory in my shed ready to go.

    Still beats manually watering the yard.
     
  27. GoodForAnother

    GoodForAnother I’d rather be down the allotment
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    Screw hole locations have changed on hinges over the years. I had the same problem in my laundry room and half bath. Never did find ones that worked. My temporary solution was to hit the old brass hinges with some brushed nickel finish spray paint and reuse them. After my kitchen gets painted in a couple weeks I'm gonna have to figure out a better solution.
     
  28. ohbluefan

    ohbluefan Well-Known Member
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    That's what I'm running into, I'm sure the old ones are from at least the 70's probably later. I found I can make the ones with the little spring things work but then the face doesn't sit flush against the cabinet opening. I bent the shit out of a few of them getting them off so I'm going to find a permanent solution. The part that really pisses me off is we took them off to paint them white and they're going to need a lot of touching up now.
     
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  29. texasraider

    texasraider thanks
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    r u my dad
     
  30. lechnerd

    lechnerd They say Monaco is a sunny place for shady people
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    Not sure exactly what you are referring to but I laid epoxy down in the garage:


    and did an acid stain on my concrete patio:



    I was pretty scared to do both projects because I had never done them before and they are fairly permanent so if you fuck up its not coming undone without some major work.

    The epoxy wasn't too bad. The most painful part was clearing out the garage. Next I power washed the floor (mine was fairly new so it was clean but if you have oil stains you will want to use a degreaser). Next I taped off the edges. Then I poured the acid (I used a kit similar to: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003B3CD3..._m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=H6SXHYD0SPST0W3PRQ09 and it came with all the supplies including the acid). The acid "etches" the concrete making it a perfect surface for the epoxy to adhere to. After a day I started painting on the epoxy with a paint roller brush, threw on some flakes and let it dry. The epoxy is very durable and all stains wipe right up. In retrospect I wish I would've gone with the tan color but I'm fairly pleased.

    The acid stain was even easier. I removed everything, power washed the concrete, then WHILE it was wet I poured the acid (used: https://www.amazon.com/VIVID-Acid-Stain-Coffee-Medium/dp/B00EEHXNKO) in swirl patterns on the concrete. After 4 hours I threw down a layer of Ammonia to neutralize the acid, washed everything away and then put on two coats of clear sealant after the concrete had dried. IMO the colors are a crap shoot. I hate not knowing what I'm getting so this project was frustrating in that sense.

    I had zero experience with both projects and my handyness level is 3/10 and I got them done with minimal problems. There are numerous youtube videos which will help to build confidence.

    Good luck, let me know if you have any questions.
     
  31. London Humphreys

    London Humphreys The next Julian Edelman, obviously.
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    Just glad I got a raise at work so I could afford a bigger tv. It was touch and go there for a minute.
     
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  32. London Humphreys

    London Humphreys The next Julian Edelman, obviously.
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    Hey dump, it's a Roku tv so I can watch you drop that three in POWESHOW's eye in style.
     
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  33. GoodForAnother

    GoodForAnother I’d rather be down the allotment
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    Yes
     
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  34. GRG

    GRG Herbie Hancock
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    It doesn't necessarily go bad but it burns way to hot for any small engine, will clog up your carburetor in a heart beat and it will make all your plastic gas lines very brittle and they will crack and break. Don't ever use ethanol in small engines. My dad fixes small engines on his free time, I've never paid for any yard equipment, he pulls it out of the dumpster and fixes them, then sells them.
     
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  35. GoodForAnother

    GoodForAnother I’d rather be down the allotment
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    My Honda says it's designed to run on 10% ethanol and has run great on regular gas for two years now
     
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  36. tigr2ndbase

    tigr2ndbase Well-Known Member
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    Wanted to share this tip for those that didn't know. I hate dirty/pet hair baseboards. The best way to clean them is with a bounce sheet after you've used it in the dryer. Picks everything right up. After about the third time doing it, most dirt or hair doesn't stick to the boards so it makes cleaning that much easier. Also, finally got my tv hung on the patio. Will post pics later.
     
  37. MORBO!

    MORBO! Hello, Tiny Man. I WILL DESTROY YOU!!!!
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    I use one of those giant janitor push brooms that looks like a shaggy dog. P sweet
     
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  38. fish

    fish Impossible, Germany
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    Garage door opener crapped out this morning. It's an old Genie from the late 80's. I've worked on it previously replacing limit switches, greasing the screw. Pretty sure the circuit board is toast and there are no replacement boards available. New opener will probably run a couple hundred, got a quote for 380 installed.

    Not sure if I'm gonna do it myself or pay the man. Any of you guys install one before?
     
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  39. lechnerd

    lechnerd They say Monaco is a sunny place for shady people
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    You should do it yourself: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=automatic+garage+door+opener+installation+

    :twocents:
     
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  40. GoodForAnother

    GoodForAnother I’d rather be down the allotment
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    They aren't that hard. I'd do it myself then spend the savings on a good wifi connected one.
     
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  41. fish

    fish Impossible, Germany
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    You guys are right. The man will get none of my money.
     
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  42. NDfanPSUgrad

    NDfanPSUgrad Well-Known Member
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    So the local fire department was supposed to burn A massive pile of tree tops that I had on my lot but the township said no way. Now I'm stuck hauling most of it away. Just put in 8 hours of back breaking work and my forearms are cramping bad from the chainsaw use.

    Someone please tell me the best way to ease forearm cramps. ..medicine, ice, what?
     
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  43. texasraider

    texasraider thanks
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    Epsom salt
     
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  44. Doc Louis

    Doc Louis Well-Known Member
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    Pavers are easier and if you chip one, real easy to replace.

    That said, staining/stenciling concrete can come out looking awesome.
     
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  45. je ne suis pas ici

    je ne suis pas ici Well-Known Member
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    Yeah so that was user doug and not user swim. Idk what voodoo tmb youre usin but i got my deck restained last summer and my porch is fine
     
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  46. Festus McBadass

    Festus McBadass Cool ass dog and 5 star recruit
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    I loathed installing my own garage door openers
     
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  47. GoodForAnother

    GoodForAnother I’d rather be down the allotment
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    Oh shit maybe it is hard :ohshit:
     
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  48. fish

    fish Impossible, Germany
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    I will let you know how it goes.
     
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  49. Festus McBadass

    Festus McBadass Cool ass dog and 5 star recruit
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    Godspeed
     
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  50. fish

    fish Impossible, Germany
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    What was the biggest hiccup for you? I'm replacing an old system so it shouldn't be that bad. Plus, the new ones have programmable limit switches. Going with a 3/4 HP belt drive unit (have a one piece wooden door) so it should have plenty of power.
     
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