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UltraRed posted:Haha, I looked at that pic and the first thing I thought was "you have kids". Seriously, though, your wife is awesome for how much she's helped you with this. Most wouldn't do much more than fetching the tools or providing an extra set of hands, if that. ![]() We ran into a number of problems with the first couple treads- I ended up having to rabbit & dado two risers in order to make them fit without sticking out too far. The real problem is that @$#^$!@#% stair people only stock 11.25" and 11.5" stairs, assuming homeowners are ONLY putting in code-minimum 10" run stairs regardless of proper design formula that, in my case, worked out to 11" run. Interestingly enough, code requires 11" minimum for commercial applications, but we couldn't find ANY treads designed for that. (Code requires 10" stairs to have a .75-1.5" nosing; 11" stairs don't require any nosing) Needless to say, 11.25" treads on an 11" wide staircase gives a .25" nosing look rather dumb. Home Depot's treads were 11.5" wide, giving a half-inch nosing that still looks dumb, but was the best we could do. Unfortunately, that doesn't give much room for error... So, here's where are are tonight. The skirts are up along the wall, all the treads are assembled, and most are sanded and ready for final trim & install. We have 3 completely installed, waiting for final finishing: ![]() Steps 14, 15 & 16, glued and screwed in place. grover fucked around with this message at Oct 8, 2007 around 20:20 |
# ? Oct 8, 2007 20:00 |
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I guess treads are the tan-colored wood pieces on the top, and nosing is
how from the stair they stick out (towards you, as you're walking up
the stairs)? Why is there a code for how far the nosing should stick out on a 10" stair? I don't see how that would matter at all.
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# ? Oct 8, 2007 23:26 |
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King Nothing posted:I guess treads are the tan-colored wood pieces on the top, and nosing is how from the stair they stick out (towards you, as you're walking up the stairs)? Going up, you don't want your toes to catch, leading to tripping. Going down, if you have a 10" stair and a 2" nosing, you have an 8" effective stair.
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# ? Oct 9, 2007 14:54 |
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jackyl posted:Going up, you don't want your toes to catch, leading to tripping. Going down, if you have a 10" stair and a 2" nosing, you have an 8" effective stair. And it really is amazing the difference between 10 and 11" treads- it doesn't sound like much, but it's a BIG difference to walk on.
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# ? Oct 9, 2007 16:31 |
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But going down the steps, if they were all 12", and you have 2" of
nosing, doesn't that leave only 10" directly below your feet (with 2" of
the lower step effectively blocked by the upper step)? That wouldn't be
so bad, but say you had 4"... That's what I always assumed for the
requirements.
let it mellow fucked around with this message at Oct 9, 2007 around 17:00 |
# ? Oct 9, 2007 16:57 |
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grover posted:
I had a class that was heavy on the OSCA codes, and this was my favorite. Try walking up stairs and dragging one of your feet behind you. The little nose keeps you from losing your balance or getting your foot caught. OSCA - Letting gimps walk up stairs for over four decades!
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# ? Oct 9, 2007 17:03 |
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jackyl posted:But going down the steps, if they were all 12", and you have 2" of nosing, doesn't that leave only 10" directly below your feet (with 2" of the lower step effectively blocked by the upper step)? That wouldn't be so bad, but say you had 4"... That's what I always assumed for the requirements. Here are two quick sketches with stairs using the same 11.5" tread. One is the code minimum for residences (7.75" rise w/ 10" run) and the other is what I'm building in my house (6 11/16" rise w/11" run). In my case, the rise was dictated by the height of the 2nd floor- 8'3 + 14" I-joists + 3/4" sheathing. 15 stairs would have been a bit steep, so I went with 16. One of the books I have had a set of tables for the ideal run for each rise so as to be comfortable for most people- in this case, it worked out to close to 11" run for 6 11/16" rise. (Edit: oops, drew it at 8" rise on the left, but max is 7.75" IIRC. Oh well, you get the picture) grover fucked around with this message at Oct 10, 2007 around 16:26 |
# ? Oct 9, 2007 19:21 |
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Grover, people like you are a dying breed. I have several largish books
by LIFE on building additions, cabins, even motherfucking wooden BOATS
from the 1950's and I'd be afraid to attempt half of them. It's insane that DIY'ers are so few and far between these days. I haven't quite built a house...yet, but it amazes me that there is so much information with the web being what it is and despite this people still can't be bothered to learn how to even put together Ikea furniture. This thread is inspirational to say the least, and I'm glad that you decided to share your DIY project.
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# ? Oct 9, 2007 20:41 |
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fuckingtest posted:Grover, people like you are a dying breed. I have several largish books by LIFE on building additions, cabins, even motherfucking wooden BOATS from the 1950's and I'd be afraid to attempt half of them. One unfortunate reason may be how many locales place restrictions on what work you're allowed to do. I'm currently gutting and rehabbing an old city rowhome, and would love to do everything on my own. Unfortunately, the city requires permits for electrical, plumbing, and HVAC, and right there you've got a lot of the "meat" of your project. Due to the fact that I have a rehab loan (very similar to a new construction loan), the bank also requires me to have a General Contractor. So I really get to do almost nothing on my own. In instances where I've had to hire subcontractors on my own, I've had good experiences, but requiring one top-level GC to oversee them all is just a pain in the ass, and either is prohibitively expensive for the top-quality ones, or I end up spending just as much time harassing the mid-tier GC's that I can afford to do their job. Of all the headaches of the project, nothing has been worse than that requirement to have a GC. I spend lots of time researching what is going on, and usually end up spec'ing how things will be done myself anyways. All in all, it has still been an interesting experience. Perhaps I'll post my own thread sometime: "How I gutted and rebuilt a house, doing none of it DIY" Congrats to you, Grover....you're living my (sort-of) dream
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# ? Oct 9, 2007 21:56 |
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My congrats to your awesome addition, I love to see that kind of stuff.
It's the most rewarding work, and it's also the only way I could afford
to buy a bunch of land and have a house on it. I'm still in the middle
of building mine but here's the transformation from "Vacant Land For
Sale" to "Hey it looks like a house from the outside". Now we have to
work inside on all the guts.![]() end of winter ![]() end of spring, waiting for the land to dry out to dig ![]() steel is heavy and engineered floor joists are awesome ![]() got gaps? use a bigger hammer ![]() never build a house without the right tools ![]() now it's close to weatherproof, time to relax and get married and come back to work on the inside. I have never built a house before, I really have never built anything before save for a bookshelf or something. It's a lot to learn but as long as you have the ability to acquire the knowledge you can use it. I am fortunate to have a father in law who built his own house and a brother in law who built his own house as well to help me along the way. When I finish the house I plan on making a nice step by step on the computer, but thats a good 6 months away from now.
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# ? Oct 9, 2007 23:04 |
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why is life so awesome? seriously this thread just reminded me
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# ? Oct 9, 2007 23:50 |
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Grover, your addition looks beautiful. My parents made some additions to
their home about two years after I moved out to go to college (makes
sense that they need extra space for fewer people, right? ![]() ![]()
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# ? Oct 10, 2007 00:19 |
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I hope this hasn't been answered yet, so if it has I apologize. What are
you going to do with your pre-addition house after you're finished with
the addition? Are you going to spruce it up as well? Great work on a project I would be afraid or just plain lost at undertaking, Grover.
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# ? Oct 10, 2007 00:37 |
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clockworx posted:One unfortunate reason may be how many locales place restrictions on what work you're allowed to do. I'm currently gutting and rehabbing an old city rowhome, and would love to do everything on my own. Unfortunately, the city requires permits for electrical, plumbing, and HVAC, and right there you've got a lot of the "meat" of your project. The permit is part tax, part documentation, and part inspection fee. So, how it works is if you want to do electrical work, you pull an electrical permit, do the work, and then call for an inspection- then the inspector comes, tells you it's all wrong and to rip it out and try again. grover fucked around with this message at Oct 10, 2007 around 17:03 |
# ? Oct 10, 2007 16:52 |
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Mr Creosote posted:I hope this hasn't been answered yet, so if it has I apologize. What are you going to do with your pre-addition house after you're finished with the addition? Are you going to spruce it up as well? ![]() ![]() The house is connected by a very long hallway right now which makes it feel very large, but also provides a great amount of separation between the living spaces and sleeping spaces- we can make all the noise we want in the kitchen and family room without hearing anything in the bedrooms in the old part of the house; whereas before, it was awful- I couldn't so much as open the silverware drawer in the kitchen without waking my wife up. And the living room noise carried right into all the bedrooms. grover fucked around with this message at Oct 10, 2007 around 17:08 |
# ? Oct 10, 2007 17:04 |
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Got a lot done in the last few days! Here's how it looks today. Next big
hurdle is how to do the landing; gonna be tricky, but I think we have a
plan. I broke out the grinder I got for christmas last year, sharpened
my chisels, and cut out 3" of the nosing on the 8th tread to accept the
landing newel post. Still have a bunch more work to go. This is really a
PITA! Oh, the newels in the photo are just standing there, they're not trimmed or fastened, but they're stained- the whole staircase will be stained like that and varnished ![]() ![]() Almost all the treads & risers in place, along with the landing tread along the balcony grover fucked around with this message at Oct 13, 2007 around 20:46 |
# ? Oct 13, 2007 20:38 |
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We've been making steady progress on the stairs- today, we finally
finished the landing and got the last tread up (which we had to finish
the landing before we could do). The post in the picture has a big chunk
let out of it, as does the tread; fits exceptionally well, I think!
It's not fastened at this point- my wife is going to stain and varnish
all the oak before we fasten the newel posts and start putting up the
railing. The small circles drilled along the edge are for the iron
ballisturs. All treads complete! We used finish screws, set into the treads with a 1/4" fornster bit. Then used a 1/4" plug cutter to cut oak plugs to fill it. Turned out extremely well- most of the screws blend in perfectly, and the rest will likely disappear once stained. Can you see all 3 screws in this photo? I got the first bit of railing cut, drilled, and dry-assembled, too! First piece of railing, dry-assembled. And, in case anyone is wondering exactly how you connect pieces of railing in an over-the-post design so the connections are absolutely invisible, it's a real pain in the ass. Come final assembly, it will be glued with wood glue, final adjustments made, and the bolts tightened. The fancy fittings were made in china and shipped over; the railings were milled down the street from me. They're very close, but will need some sanding to match perfectly... Rail bolts
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# ? Oct 20, 2007 20:50 |
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I need some opinions- we mocked up the first section of balcony railing,
and 42" is just plain high. 42" is the minimum commercial height; in
homes, it's permitted to be 36". I've built everything else with these
stairs to conform to commercial requirements- 1" longer treads, 1' wider
treads, etc. 42" would certainly be safer as it represents the CG for
the 95th percentile male (coincidentally, I'm the 95th percentile male)
but would it look dumb? Does anyone have 42" railings in your homes, or
are they all 36"? I've seen photos both ways and I don't think it looks out of place at all.
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# ? Oct 21, 2007 11:50 |
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Most other CG features are nice in a home, but I can't quite get around
how wierd a 42" rail would look, though 36" always looks a bit low to
me. My personal take is somewhere in-between.
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# ? Oct 22, 2007 09:06 |
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grover posted:Permits and licensing are two different things- in my area, any homeowner can pull a permit to do ANY work on their own home, but no work in anyone else's home without a contractors license. And no advertising without a trade license. So far as I know, only licensed plumbers and electricians can pull permits here. I don't think homeowners are allowed to, though I may be wrong. Pulling my own permit and doing inspections would be fine by me.
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# ? Oct 22, 2007 09:10 |
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Awesome thread. I'd lost track of it back in Jan/Feb so it was a nice read to see the progress. My dad is a DIY-er but has slowed down on that as he's gotten older. But when he and my mother were first married he saved them a lot of money by making repairs and taking care of other things himself. He just had a patio cover added to the house and a fence installed, both contracted jobs, and afterward I helped him mix and pour concrete to extend the patio. Still, I wonder if he would have done it himself if he were his younger self (he hurt his back doing the concrete). I think I may have inherited some of that from him, since I usually get a nagging desire to pick up carpentry (I like Norm Abram ![]() Anyway, I echo everyone's sentiments Grover: your a dying breed, great work, etc.
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# ? Oct 22, 2007 10:01 |
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I gotta say, this is pretty motivating. Work was done on our bathroom
and I'm feeling like even more of a sucker for not having done it
myself, heh. That said, good thread!
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# ? Oct 22, 2007 11:34 |
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Thanks guys ![]() ![]() The angle of the dangle is the inverse of the square of the hypotenuse. Or something like that. Hard as hell to cut right. Honestly, the secret to attempting something like this is planning, planning, planning and patience. Maybe some more patience, too. The railing will be stained the same color as the stairs & newels. But first, we'll dismantle this all tomorrow and glue & reassemble it, then once it's up, put the rest of the screws in the newels to permanantly fix them into place. (The lower 2 are loose to allow connection of the railing.) Then, probably 2-3 days of sanding and 2 days of finish. ![]() Railing, 100% dry-fit in-place! Two of the iron balisturs are up, too, as I wanted to check and make sure we could fit them in after-the-fact *before* we glued the railing in place. The upper hole is ever-so-slightly overdrilled so that it slides up into the hole 1/8" too far, then drops down into the lower hole. They'll all get cut and glued in later. Still have to drill the ones along all the stairs. Those will be difficult... Oh, also, Home Depot called today and our carpet is in. With any luck, we'll be done-done with the stairs AND carpet by next weekend and moved on to trim ![]() grover fucked around with this message at Oct 26, 2007 around 13:04 |
# ? Oct 25, 2007 22:52 |
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awesome job! i just finished reading all 10 pages and i must say you
have a lot of skill and patience to pull off a project like this. i've
done some demo/remodel work with a buddy before, framing basements etc
but i couldn't imagine trying to build a house from scratch! kudos!
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# ? Oct 26, 2007 16:21 |
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I don't think i read this - how tall did you end up making the railing?
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# ? Oct 26, 2007 17:00 |
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MarshallX posted:I don't think i read this - how tall did you end up making the railing? grover fucked around with this message at Oct 26, 2007 around 23:30 |
# ? Oct 26, 2007 17:15 |
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Holy shit, great work. I remember reading the first couple of pages of
this thread when you first posted it, and then completely forgot about
it. Great to see that it's still coming along very well, building a
house is an incredibly involved project. (My parents are currently
involved in developing some small units for elderly people, and we built
our own house - though not at all in the sense that you did!)
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# ? Oct 26, 2007 23:26 |
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That railing looks incredible. I can't wait to see the finished product.
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# ? Nov 1, 2007 20:27 |
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We've been busy this week- got the railing stained and varnished, window
trim, door trim, base molding and carpet in! So, the new living room,
hallway and guest bedroom are pretty much completely done. I joke that
the last thing we still have to do is install the 73" plasma ![]() ![]() Railing, all stained & varnished. (We put the window trim on later this afternoon.) ![]() Carpet & trim in the living room & hallway ![]() Carpet, trim and railing with half the balisters dry-fit
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# ? Nov 2, 2007 21:12 |
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Is that paint used for the ceiling, or did you use some texture based
"design" to do that, got a better picture of the ceiling too? I saw one of the new houses that was built and they had this stoneish wall but it was some wacky form of paint that had grooves, cracks, basically has depth to it. It looked awesome and I wish A. What is it called, and B There are more of them around so I can steal the general design.
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# ? Nov 3, 2007 00:06 |
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I just spent an hour reading through this whole thread and was really
quite sad when I got to the end - I wanted it to be like the TLC shows,
dammit! From start to finish! Honestly, it's pretty incredible the amount of work and patience you've put into this. Can't imagine how annoying it must be to have the unfinished part of the house not technically finished for permanent inhabitance yet. If I may ask, how big is the land around your house? I'm guessing a good bit...one of the reasons projects like this don't happen in the suburb subdivisions.
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# ? Nov 3, 2007 01:12 |
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BlackRhino posted:Is that paint used for the ceiling, or did you use some texture based "design" to do that, got a better picture of the ceiling too? Sand Finish: ![]() There's also popcorn finish, where they blow these little balls of plaster all over the wall, and knock-down, where they do pretty much the same thing, but then flatten them all with the trowel. I like knock-down better, but the whole rest of our house was sand finish, so we stayed consistent. CrowT.Robot posted:I just spent an hour reading through this whole thread and was really quite sad when I got to the end - I wanted it to be like the TLC shows, dammit! From start to finish! ![]() Of course, then, there's the old kitchen which we still haven't touched- the new plan is to turn it into a new master bathroom, but that's time and energy we don't have right now. Maybe a few years down the road, we'll see. As for my neighborhood- we have a 1/4 acre lot on a 1950s era subdivision, the kind built on a grid where the houses are separated evenly, instead of smashed into wedge-shaped lots designed to minimize the cost of road construction and utility installation. None of the lots across the street are developed and are just covered with trees, so it feels country, but the developer that put in city sewer is planning on building several houses there in the near future. Honestly, the cost of buying a bigger house vs the cost of the addition was an absolute no-brainer, regardless of lot size! Our new house is comparable in size to all the new houses going in; maybe a slight bit bigger, but still comparable. ![]() grover fucked around with this message at Nov 3, 2007 around 07:51 |
# ? Nov 3, 2007 07:13 |
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ooh, the new living room and the stairs look fantastic! The recessed
lighting really helps, too. When are you moving the furniture in?
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# ? Nov 3, 2007 07:34 |
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squirrellypoo posted:ooh, the new living room and the stairs look fantastic! The recessed lighting really helps, too. When are you moving the furniture in? ![]() ![]()
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# ? Nov 3, 2007 07:39 |
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It looks incredible. I can't wait to see the finished product. This
thread really gets you thinking about how little people realize exactly
how much goes into putting something like this together.
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# ? Nov 3, 2007 07:55 |
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I'm always excited when I see this thread pop up on the first page
again. I love seeing the new pictures put up and reading about it. I've
never been so interested in someone else's house before, haha. Great work! It looks fantastic, and I wish that I had your dedication.
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# ? Nov 3, 2007 09:10 |
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Looks like a great project. I think we have very similar kitchens: We have an island going in too - quartz as well.
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# ? Nov 3, 2007 09:26 |
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Was busy again today, templating in CAD, marking, measuring, sitting
there with the level, and grinding, drilling, griding, drilling, etc.
The drill bit overheats with the first cut, so I've been drilling a
hole, measuring, marking, grinding the balister to length, repeat.![]() Got all the railing balisters dry-fitted ![]() Making progress on the stairs! Home Depot's restocking system sucks. When we bought the rest of the stairs, they only had 1 single-twist iron balister. I went back today, and they only had 38. Unfortunately, we need 46 ![]() On a side note, got the cable TV in the garage hooked up today so I could watch Penn State while working, heh.
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# ? Nov 3, 2007 22:17 |
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Grover, all I can say is you are the Man! Honestly, in the 10 years I've
been working in the construction industry as a roofer, handyman, truck
driver, project specialist, kitchen designer, pole barn designer,
estimator and now Helpdesk Specialist I have never seen a DIY'er put
forth so much effort and achieve such wonderful results. Looking over
all the detail that went into your remodel I have to admit that I am a
little envious - the largest project I've gotten to work on personally
was helping my best friend finish off his basement (I designed it using
his wife's guidelines and did the materials take-off too, so that was
cool). I think where you succeeded where so many other DIY'ers failed was the planning. I'd love to see all the designs and prints and notes and stacks of books and videos and website searches you used, because honestly it is preparation more than knowledge that brings about a successful conclusion. When working on my friend's basement it wasn't uncommon for us to stare at a wall for a couple hours and think through everything - the final result was worth it, though. Congratulations on a job well done!
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# ? Nov 9, 2007 17:59 |
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Goddamn that's thoroughly impressive work, grover. The closest I've ever come to anything like a DIY project is assembling the IKEA shelves I bought for my new apartment. I feel so insignificant.
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# ? Nov 9, 2007 18:36 |