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MrBlandAverage posted:What school did you go to? How did you get your job? Is there any way you could hook me up with an EE internship? The summer intern program is even easier, as it's all a lottery. Sumbit your resume and hope you get it! It's kinda impersonal, though. You don't so much apply for a specific position as you apply for "Electrical Engineer in southeast virginia", etc. http://jobsearch.usajobs.opm.gov/jo...d=&zip=&x=0&y=0 max4me posted:Very impressive. But after all the loving work would you ever move? ![]() BABY COME BACK! posted:Grover, do you plan on making some kind of "this is how much I saved doing all this back breaking work myself" comparison chart? ![]() grover fucked around with this message at Jan 22, 2007 around 16:41 |
# ? Jan 22, 2007 16:32 |
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PeaceFrog posted:I'm not afraid of the toilet. I am afraid of the pregnant woman who will be forced to use the basement bathroom. HA! I fear mine as well, although she's 14-years post-partum. Don't know if I'm ever going to get the bathroom remodeled. All we have is a throne in the unfinished baseent, partitioned with a sheet.
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# ? Jan 23, 2007 15:46 |
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Bad news on the funding front- I'd projected my tax return would be *just* enough to fund the rest of the addition, but neglected to consider that I filled out the correct # of deductions on my W-4 this time. So, I ended up with about $3k less than what I expected ![]() Got almost all the furnishings up in the bathroom, and making slow progress on the kitchen pulls. I bought the steel angle and strap I need to hang the air handler; it's bitchin cold in the garage right now, but I'll be working on the HVAC in there once it warms up a bit. Edit: we just filled the garage with a truck packed FULL of track from my in-law's storage unit so they can stop paying $500/month on it. Makes a lot of sense, but is going to hamper my putting up ductwork, lol grover fucked around with this message at Jan 27, 2007 around 17:21 |
# ? Jan 27, 2007 10:41 |
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Knock over a bank dude
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# ? Jan 27, 2007 10:53 |
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I haven't posted back lately, as we've been pretty lazy the past 3 weeks! It's been cold enough that I haven't wanted to do any HVAC work in the garage, and my wife hasn't wanted to do any painting. We did get the guest bedroom cleaned out and set up for guests, as my grandparents are coming to visit for easter, but only if we had the addition ready for them. Still need to put up a door and blinds, but that's just $100 and an evening's work.![]() ![]() grover fucked around with this message at Feb 18, 2007 around 13:46 |
# ? Feb 18, 2007 13:15 |
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I knew you naval engineers never had it in you to finish what you started! what are those holes in the ceiling? Elendil004 fucked around with this message at Feb 18, 2007 around 14:01 |
# ? Feb 18, 2007 13:20 |
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Few questionsgrover posted:What are those blue things on the floor? grover posted:Did you buy special laminate flooring made for bathrooms? I was under the impression most laminates aren't made for wet environments. Ive only ever used tile myself, and its especially easy when working on a nice new level floor. ps: have you noticed those prehung doors from homedepot/lowes never have the damn hinge screws in all the way. I ran into that problem a year or so ago when i hung a bunch. Error 404 NpH fucked around with this message at Feb 18, 2007 around 14:00 |
# ? Feb 18, 2007 13:56 |
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Error 404 NpH posted:What are those blue things on the floor? ![]() I didn't use special laminate for the bathroom or kitchen, just cheap laminate from home emporium, who specialize in overstock/closeout/cheap shit. I did some tests before I bought it, as I was worried that it was going to be really shitty stuff because it was so cheap (like 20% the cost of Pergo). So, I soaked the samples in a tray of water for a week, splashed them and even bought a box for $15 and set it up in the hallway right inside the door for 2 months. The surface is plastic and impervious to water. The seams are tight enough that the surface tension of water inhibits much absorbtion into the crack. If water DOES penetrate (as in the soaking test), it expands a bit but contracts back as it dries with no permanant damage. So, I'm content that it should last long enough to be worthwhile. Only cost me about $25 to do the whole bathroom floor, so it's not like we'd be out much money ![]() I haven't noticed any problems like that with the prehung doors. They may be cheap, but they seem to do that job OK. Once they're in place, it's hard to tell the difference. grover fucked around with this message at Feb 18, 2007 around 14:29 |
# ? Feb 18, 2007 14:26 |
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LOL, should have known you would put them through stress testing. I expected the seams to be shitty but if they held up to your tests they must be ok. As for the doors, I wasnt saying they were bad, just that the screws holding the hinge to the casing were always loose when we unpacked them. Unstrapping them and tightening the screws before attempting to hang them made the job alot easier. Its possible I may have just gotten stuck with a shitty batch that had been knocked around during shipping. Also I envy kids today, they get bad ass toys.
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# ? Feb 18, 2007 14:37 |
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lol... I even took photos, AND managed to find them. Here's the expansion after soaking the joint end in water for 12 hours. You can tell it expanded, but not a whole lot, and there was no puckering or blistering or delaminating, which was what I was mostly worried about.
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# ? Feb 18, 2007 14:50 |
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Wow grover, that is amazing work. My family just took 6 months to get our house ready to sell and it was a huge hassle, I couldn't imagine building a new addition from scratch. Good job!
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# ? Feb 18, 2007 15:01 |
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grover posted:lol... I even took photos, AND managed to find them. Here's the expansion after soaking the joint end in water for 12 hours. You can tell it expanded, but not a whole lot, and there was no puckering or blistering or delaminating, which was what I was mostly worried about. I love that stuff. I did a large room at my parents house and made a ton of mistakes along the way. When I did the second room I was ready for any obstacles and I did a great job I if do say so. So good that I want to rip up the big room and start over.
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# ? Feb 18, 2007 15:05 |
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Wow, I'm very impressed. Especially after my husband and I undertook the huge task of reflooring our living room, hallway and secnod bathroom this past week. We just took up carpet and laid down vinyl tile, which seems like no big deal after reading this thread. Now I feel quite lazy, in fact. We've been thinking of building on addition (single room) and reading this is quite inspiring. I love that cathedral ceiling. Good luck with the rest of your building, grover.
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# ? Feb 18, 2007 16:51 |
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Elendil004 posted:what are those holes in the ceiling? ![]() Circles are recessed lights and rectangles are HVAC ducts.
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# ? Feb 18, 2007 17:19 |
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grover posted:I didn't use special laminate for the bathroom or kitchen, just cheap laminate from home emporium, who specialize in overstock/closeout/cheap shit. I did some tests before I bought it, as I was worried that it was going to be really shitty stuff because it was so cheap (like 20% the cost of Pergo). So, I soaked the samples in a tray of water for a week, splashed them and even bought a box for $15 and set it up in the hallway right inside the door for 2 months. The surface is plastic and impervious to water. The seams are tight enough that the surface tension of water inhibits much absorbtion into the crack. If water DOES penetrate (as in the soaking test), it expands a bit but contracts back as it dries with no permanant damage. So, I'm content that it should last long enough to be worthwhile. Only cost me about $25 to do the whole bathroom floor, so it's not like we'd be out much money I was about to ask the same thing. Never seen 'wood' floors in a bathroom. But 25 bucks for some decent looking floor? Fuck me, I'm sold. What's the stuff called? My dad and I are going to be tearing up carpets in about two months. Then the entire downstairs will be wood laminate, except for the tile in the bathroom and the lino in the laundry room. It used to be almost entirely carpet. Big difference, and a good one. Also, nice choice on the quartz! Stone countertops make all the difference nowadays. We got granite, and we got 'em crazy cheap because my dad knows a guy who knows a guy sort of thing. Awesome work, man.
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# ? Feb 18, 2007 18:01 |
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BOrangeFury posted:I was about to ask the same thing. Never seen 'wood' floors in a bathroom. But 25 bucks for some decent looking floor? Fuck me, I'm sold. What's the stuff called?
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# ? Feb 18, 2007 19:21 |
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Also Lumber Liquidators has some laminates starting just under $1.00/sq.ft. One thing about laminates, you aren't putting glue or mortar underneath them, so you don't have the fudge factor to absorb gaps that you would for tile or vinyl flooring. If you have a low spot in your slab and put laminate over it, you'll have a spongy spot, like you're walking on a trampoline. Get the biggest, straightest, longest 2x4 you can, and make sure there's no significant low or high spots on your floor. Knock down the high spots and use floor leveling compound for the low spots. Trust me, I know from experience! ![]()
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# ? Feb 18, 2007 20:09 |
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Alright, progress today!! After months of worrying about this, pondering how the hell we were going to mount it, and how the hell we were going to lift this 100lb Air Handler 8' in the air, we finally did it. I carefully measured the stud locations in CAD and double-checked with the stud-finder to make sure the lag bolts were solid into wood, and meshed the locations of the supports against the placement of the air handler in relation to where we'd put in the duct and cables, as the cables are going to have to line up exactly with the holes in the air handler. We decided to fab up metal brackets instead of building something out of 2x4s. Last night, I whipped out the angle grinder and cut up some #14 1 1/4" angle and 1 1/4" flatbar and bent up flanges and then this morning I bolted it all up and leveled it out. I put a piece of plywood between them- not because we need any supports (the angle should be fine) but because I worry about the air handler slipping off the one if it vibrates over time- the plywood is insurance against that. In the end, no fancy rigging or jigs, we just set up the old portable workbench (first project ever when we lived in an apartment and all we had was a 4" trim saw) and used that to heft it up. As you can see, it's not really in there right, but it's UP and my wife cut her hands up pretty bad on the sheet metal as we lifted, SO, we treated her hands and I grabbed a beer and we'll worry about straighening it all out and getting it into place another day. PHEW, it's up, w00t!! Next, I have to start working on all the ductboard up there though, which is another new skill for me to learn... Prior to this, the kids and I put in 5 more receptacles in the kitchen in a sort of rube goldberg roundabount way to get the air handler in. See, in order to get the air handler up, we needed to set up the workbench. Which means we had to move the radial arm saw. Which means we have to move the coffee table that's sitting in the garage. Which means we have to move the sideboard that's also sitting in the garage. Which means we have to clear out space in the kitchen under the stairs for the sideboard. Which means moving the portable scaffolding with the tile saw, and finishing up the receptacles in the corner which I hadn't had a chance to get to since they'd been blocked and a low priority. The kids put up all the cover plates on and did a very good job, I think ![]() ANYHOW, been dreading this for a very long time, and I'm glad it's up and done! grover fucked around with this message at Feb 23, 2007 around 21:09 |
# ? Feb 23, 2007 21:02 |
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OK, first significant update in a while, as my wife and I have actually both been motivated to do stuff again ![]() My wife finished tiling the kitchen and is about 1/3 of the way through grouting it- I think she's doing a damned good job, too! I'm looking forward to being able to tear the plastic off our counters and clean some of this mess up: Kitchen, with tile all up and about 30% of it grouted. I've been working on the HVAC some more, too. First step was to connect the wiring- I got the #6 cable connected to the breaker and used a bit of smurf tube (plastic conduit) for protection. That part was clear enough- problem was the mess of control wires was daunting and I was confused as hell on how exactly I was supposed to hook up the two units, and where to connect the thermostat wires too, as the instructions for the air handler were completely silent, and there was no manual whatsoever to be found with the outside unit. Turns out, the instructions were inside the wiring compartment for the outside unit when I disassembled it to try to puzzle the connections together, and THEY had a complete wiring diagram, phew! Of course none of the colors matched between either unit and the thermostat. I'm pretty sure I worked it all out, though: Mess of wires in the air handler Mess of wires in the thermostat- none of the wire colors match the wiring diagram, and the termostat instructions aren't exactly clear and have some contradictions. I guess I'll see when we get everything done and fire it up... The outside unit at least came with instructions! Actually... I COULD fire it up right now, I suppose- the emergency heating element and blower fan are connected. Hmmm... might have to test that ![]() The return grill/filter is mounted here (temporarily at this point, it's not screwed in) and the termostat. I decided to go with fiberglass ductboard in the garage. I confirmed with the inspectors that the code requires only that penetrations through the garage fire walls be sheet metal, and allows ductboard to be used. And the nice thing about ductboard is that it's self insulating- even if I do everything perfectly with sheet metal, I still have to come back and wrap it all with duct insulation which costs about exactly what ductboard does. So, I ordered a $70 shiplap tool off ebay (I'll be selling it as soon as I'm done if anyone is interested!) and bought a $150 box of duct-board with 4x 4x10' sheets, and I'm off to the races! Fabricating 4x10' sheeds fiberglass ductboard into ducts. You can see the "shiplap" tool (gold with the black handle) that's used to make special L-shaped cuts in the fiberglass to fold up into strong and efficient joints. Leaning against the wall are two completed duct sections- one is folded into a completed 4' section of duct and one is unfolded. This photo shows the 12" takeoffs mounted to the 12" duct I roughed in 6 months ago, the air handler in its final position, and the ductboard fastened to the air handler unit. Ideally, I'd be screwing the distribution box into the flange from all 4 sides, but unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to. (You can see light through the grill in the wall, too, I haven't worked on the intake portion yet.) grover fucked around with this message at Mar 3, 2007 around 11:46 |
# ? Mar 3, 2007 11:27 |
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Fuck. Just got a letter informing me that my real estate assessment was increased 31% and they're going to charge me another $421/year now ![]() I should just be glad that's all it raised, since the value of my house has probably doubled, and they only raised the assessment 31%. grover fucked around with this message at Mar 3, 2007 around 12:33 |
# ? Mar 3, 2007 11:53 |
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Great job. I am impressed by the amount of time and effort you ad your wife did. IT probably would have been done in a month if you hired a Home Depot crew still. But... YOu can come over and build an add on to my house any day.
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# ? Mar 3, 2007 12:02 |
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I think you bought the exact same laminate I did for my living room. It was occasionally a pain getting the joints together, but in general it worked out OK. About what was expected for it being so cheap.![]()
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# ? Mar 3, 2007 12:13 |
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Well, I hooked up the air handler and the fan works ![]() Agent019 posted:Great job. I am impressed by the amount of time and effort you ad your wife did. IT probably would have been done in a month if you hired a Home Depot crew still.
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# ? Mar 3, 2007 15:04 |
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My wife finished grouting the tile in the kitchen and we have all the receptacles up and energized- we're both very happy with the way it turned out ![]() ![]() And I am officially a sheet metal worker! Code says it's illegal to penetrate garage walls with ductboard, and requires I use sheet metal for all penetrations. For $6 at Lowes, I bought a 24x36" sheet of #26 steel and formed it with some tin snipes, a pair of pliers and a scrap board into the adapter you see. It turned out well, I'm quite proud of my handiwork, as this was the first time I'd ever done sheet metal bending, and I didn't have any of the proper tools! ![]() Air handler with sheet metal intake shroud and ductboard distribution box. The next piece of duct is in the foreground. ![]() View from the house looking through what will be the filter/grille, through the sheet metal shroud and into the inside of the air handler. Notice my fine handiwork! After I took this photo, I sealed all seams and joints with UL181 tape, cut out a ductboard liner to insulate it (nailed it into place so it won't shift when the unit is turned on), and screwed on the grille. Edit: also today, I found out the sheet metal distributor near me doesn't stock the ductboard hangers (1.5" C-channel), so it was off to the big box. I thought I'd try Home Depot this time, since they rent tools and might have a brake- turns out they have a 10' brake, and charge $42 for 4 hours. There's no way I could fit that monster in the back of my camaro, so I asked the guy how much it would cost to just use it there in the store for a half hour and he said "knock yourself out!" and so I did ![]() grover fucked around with this message at Mar 8, 2007 around 21:23 |
# ? Mar 8, 2007 20:58 |
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Not a bad job with the air handler at all! I didnt see anything wrong with anything you did, cept maybe the sheet metal wasnt as pretty as it could be. If you need any help with the wiring or anything else, hit me up on AIM. I do HVAC for a living and generally use Rheem, which I see you've got. HVAC is not nearly as hard as you think, its just nobody knows how to do it.
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# ? Mar 8, 2007 21:09 |
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Dainan posted:Not a bad job with the air handler at all! I didnt see anything wrong with anything you did, cept maybe the sheet metal wasnt as pretty as it could be. If you need any help with the wiring or anything else, hit me up on AIM. I do HVAC for a living and generally use Rheem, which I see you've got. HVAC is not nearly as hard as you think, its just nobody knows how to do it. ![]() I do have a question- I have a Rheem split unit and a honeywell thermostat. Do I connect AH:W1 to Thermo:E, and AH:W2 to Thermo:W? It seems like it aught to be the other way around, but that's how the wiring diagram was showing it, so that's how I hooked it up. Also, there's a terminaled marked "O/B" on the thermostat- does that correlate to B (1st stage heat) on the air handler, which mine doesn't have? grover fucked around with this message at Mar 8, 2007 around 21:19 |
# ? Mar 8, 2007 21:16 |
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need any help? I live in virginia beach ![]()
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# ? Mar 8, 2007 21:40 |
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I've done more work this morning than I have in months, and it wasn't even on my own house, but my neighbor's! lol... Got him all hooked up for sewer! He's a plasterer and has a contractors' liscense; now that he's seen how easy it is to do this, he's talking about maybe hooking up other people in the neighborhood for some extra cash, and wanted me to help. I dunno if I really want to do that, but I'm thinking about it, I could sure use some extra money right now, gotta raise $4000 to finish the addition!![]() My neighbor helping me dig my pipe out a few months ago; I returned the favor this morning! Another plumber had put the cleanout in a few months ago- we smashed out the old cast iron pipe to the septic tank with a sledge hammer and hooked up. long run out to the street Closeup of the street cleanout. Look familiar Poor guy had his tank pumped about 2 days too soon- they are SOOO happy to finally be able to shit in their toilet again, lol... grover fucked around with this message at Mar 17, 2007 around 14:48 |
# ? Mar 17, 2007 14:44 |
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![]() I poured concrete! Mixed it up real ghetto, too, everything was either free or wastage- I had an old ripped up 94lb bag of portland cement I couldn't return, got a half bucket full of pea gravel from the front walk and a half bucket of sand from a 3-year old sand mount across the street and mixed it up in my wheelbarrow with a pickaxe. Even cut up some leftover rebar and put that in there, too. Turned our pretty good! The evaporator is about 200lbs, we'll probably move it tomorrow, and hopefully I can get someone with an EPA license to hook up the refrigerant lines and charge the system! The holes in the siding are for the condensate drain, the two copper refrigerant lines and the thermostat wire. The gray box is the electrical disconnect- I'll run watertight conduit from it to the evaporator. Condensation will drip from the air handler when the A/C is on; the condensate drain will just stick out about 2" from the siding and drip.
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# ? Mar 21, 2007 18:30 |
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grover posted:I had an old ripped up 94lb bag of portland cement I couldn't return AHA! So you're the guy that brings me a cart full of 4 month-old, water-logged building materials to the Home Depot return desk and makes me sort it all out! ![]() ![]() Really a tremendous job grover! I bet you can't wait until it's all done and you can sit back and have a beer looking at your job well done.
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# ? Mar 21, 2007 21:32 |
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Really cool 3D flash animation of wind loading at this link, it explains the concepts very well: http://www.pbcgov.com/pubsafety/eoc/HowTos/walls.htm We moved the condensor to the pad last night, but I ran into a problem with the whip- it's got 3/4" liquidtight fittings, but the condensor has 1 1/4" knock-outs! So, off to the big box to get ANOTHER adapter ![]() ![]() robo puppy posted:AHA! So you're the guy that brings me a cart full of 4 month-old, water-logged building materials to the Home Depot return desk and makes me sort it all out! ![]() ![]() Hey, I've got 3 pieces of rebar that have been sitting outside for 18 months, can I still return them without a reciept? grover fucked around with this message at Mar 23, 2007 around 13:40 |
# ? Mar 23, 2007 13:34 |
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I have air conditioning!! I don't have an EPA license to do R-22, so I couldn't legally finish the install. SO, being not very good at sweating copper anyhow, I decided to contract out this last little bit, though I did the electric and thermostat and condensate drain and pretty much everything else I could. At the last minute (as he was about ready to sweat in the last bit of 3/4" pipe), we realized the unit had to be raised about the FEMA flood plane level, which is even with the top of the concrete blocks... we were talking about building a wooden platform, but decided instead to heft it up on concrete blocks for the time being, and to come back later and brick around the block, which should look pretty nice ![]() Had some difficulties with the thermostat, though- namely, I lost the instruction manual! It's a complicated programmable one and has all these arcane codes to set up. It finally turned on right after the HVAC guy left, and I found the manual online about 5 minutes after that and got the programming set up. Cooled the addition from 82F to 72F in half an hour! Feels soooo nice ![]() grover fucked around with this message at Apr 6, 2007 around 16:06 |
# ? Mar 28, 2007 20:32 |
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Finally got around to doing the trim & weather seal around the garage doors! Since I'm a tad inexperienced, I had made the mistake of framing the door actually 7' high and 9' wide like the garage door instructions said, when I should REALLY have framed them 3" wider, to nail 2x6 pressure treat boards up inside it, so I wasn't able to do it the "normal" way. The siding guys refused to touch it and just put up trim flush around it. Here's how the door looked before, with just the bare studs and housewrap exposed:![]() "Before", with just bare exposed studs and housewrap." ![]() "Before", with just bare exposed studs and housewrap." I was going to just wrap them in white flashing for trim, when I happened upon hardiplank in the siding section- hardiplank is high-end concrete siding; it's quite literally concrete molded into a board, and ended up being absolutely PERFECT for this. So, instead of using green-treat 2x6s, I have my garage doors wrapped in concrete ![]() Garage door, with hardiplank trim & weather stripping. The weather stripping is plastic/rubbery stuff, and the doors came with 2x7' section and one 9' section. The side pieces are designed to slide, and the top is a little different. The door is designed to pull away from the top as it opens- the top piece is adjustable and sticks out a little further to make the seal. I couldn't just wrap the little triangular cutouts, and had to get fancy, which ended up being a real pain-in-the-ass: Detail, showing how I did the weather stripping around the triangular pieces. I haven't caulked or painted the hardiplank, yet- silicone will hide the joints. grover fucked around with this message at Apr 6, 2007 around 13:03 |
# ? Apr 6, 2007 11:56 |
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Yay, I was waiting for an update of this thread. It's looking great! Man, I wish I could build an addition to my place...too bad it's a small apartment :P
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# ? Apr 6, 2007 11:58 |
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blixa posted:Yay, I was waiting for an update of this thread. It's looking great! ![]() Here's the next project, new fence in the backyard. I've got the holes dug, but the quick-crete hasn't hardened up properly. I'm not sure what the problem is, I'm hoping I just didn't add enough water and the strength will slowly come over the next few weeks: ![]() grover fucked around with this message at Apr 6, 2007 around 15:36 |
# ? Apr 6, 2007 13:06 |
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grover posted:Here's the next project, new fence in the backyard. I've got the holes dug, but the quick-crete hasn't hardened up properly. I'm not sure what the problem is, I'm hoping I just didn't add enough water and the strength will slowly come over the next few weeks: What do you plan on doing with that tree/bush monstrosity that's creeping its way onto your house?
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# ? Apr 6, 2007 14:27 |
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Vander posted:What do you plan on doing with that tree/bush monstrosity that's creeping its way onto your house? ![]() ![]() Pear tree & future site of the addition, circa 2001, with the "ugly monstrisity" directly behind it. We had to cut down the pear tree to make room for the garage- was one of the hardest things I had to do. I console myself that some of the branches were rotting into the heartwood and it wasn't goign to last more than a few years anyhow, but was still heartbreaking ![]() grover fucked around with this message at Apr 6, 2007 around 15:38 |
# ? Apr 6, 2007 14:54 |
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Good work on the house. I've helped my Dad build a seperate 3 car garage when I was younger so I can sort of appreciate the work and your pride. There's nothing like being able to stand back and say "We did that!"
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# ? Apr 6, 2007 15:34 |
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absolutely fantastic stuff... I cant begin to imagine the pride (and probably some soreness too) you must feel when you look upon the fruits of your careful planning and hard work time life books should hire you for their next edition of their home improvement guides
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# ? Apr 6, 2007 15:45 |
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Thanks guys ![]() Got the new fence and gate up! We're going to get metal fence to go around the outside of the honeysuckle and connect back to the other fence- the honeysuckle will grow up into it, and should hide it and look pretty good ![]() grover fucked around with this message at Apr 6, 2007 around 20:06 |
# ? Apr 6, 2007 19:53 |