Home Improvement
Shitty. I moved an old farmhouse to a new site last spring, dug in sewer tank, pump out, and cistern, and never got to doing anything on it until recently. I have a seacan full of materials but didn't get the house insulated before winter hit, so I can only work when it isn't bitterly cold out and I have some time.
We're getting a couple weeks coming up hovering around freezing, so I might be able to get something useful done. Maybe get some windows in and enclose the crawlspace.
My home couldn't possibly be improved any further!
Finally got my new dryer vent installed!
Back story: The old vent was broken and letting air into the house. We bought a new vent several years ago, and painted it to better match the siding, and then it sat in the garage. That is, until last week, when we had a nice day, and I had time and inspiration to finally do it. It took like 20 minutes to install. Not sure why I kept putting it off.
The laundry room definitely doesn't feel as cold as it used to! Success!
Not going nearly as fast as I hoped. But we will get there.
34 cm from the floor dug out
Concrete slab got placed
10k L water pit and 2.5k L septic pit installed and hooked up
Bathroom we completely drywalled and routed all of the electrical and water (not hooked up yet). Man doing drywall plasters to brick is the worst ever. You have 1, 15 minute chance to get it completely level and plumb and you can't pull it back out if you push it in too deep otherwise it won't stick. I never want to do it again. Luckily we are having the rest of the house plastered.
Toilet, shower wall, bath, etc... Are all ready in the next room to install when the shower wall is waterproofed with a rubber layer and the drywall is completely sanded where there won't be tiles.
Half of the routing for the upstairs radiators is ready, but the contractor that promised to install the 2 temperature mixing system before winter break delayed by a month and a half...
But it is going!
I ran Ethernet from the basement to the first floor office and living room over the holiday break. That was one of my main goals for my first house.
The next project will probably be figuring out how to properly insulate the garage. It's attached to the house via an uninsulated shitty door and that's a problem when the garage is 38°F and I want the house to stay around 68°F.
I've done the ethernet thing in two houses now. The first one was a single floor model, so it was relatively easy to run the wires through the attic to the rooms I wanted.
Our current house is two stories, and I wanted it in my office on the second floor and at a closet along the way for an access point. That was a bit harder!
I might need to run it to my wife's office at some point. That one might be harder based on where she'll need it, compared to the stairs.
Insulate the garage because the door to the garage from the house is uninsulated?
Consider deeply how you can insulate the garage ceiling/roof and whether you'll lose storage doing it.
Also, assuming you'll be in the walls... Outlets may need to be GFCI - code would say.
And since your list probably isn't long enough, are you planning on 30a+ outlet for an EV in the future?
Just got my late, not-so-great furnace and AC replaced with a new cold-climate heatpump setup, and in the process moved the indoor equipment from a too-tight niche in the main floor of the house into the basement where it really should have been to start with. Now I need to frame up a wall where the furnace access panel used to be, properly tie in the return ductwork, and (eventually, need to relocate some other utilities first) add a linen cabinet in the vacated space. Next big stage in the huge-slow-moving basement Reno I'm in the middle of is to get the 60-year-old galvanized steel water supply line replaced, and then I can start inside plumbing work.
My family has been helping organize my basement for the last week and a half. The new racking I ordered for the tubs should be arrive in a couple days, and at this point I’m starting to think about paint colors for the walls.
I’ve also had three electricians out this week to give me quotes on replacing the breaker box and upgrading my electrical service to 200 amps; I got the first quote yesterday and it was $6,700 (including running a circuit 20 feet and adding a couple outlets in a half-finished storage room), which seems pretty steep. Hopefully the others aren’t as high.
We had the panel upgrade done at our previous house, along with a transfer switch and 30 amp outlet installed for our trailer, and I want to say that was like $3000. This was probably 10 or 12 years ago, so I wouldn't expect to get that price now, but over double seems pretty hefty.
$3k-$5k is what I was expecting; I did price things out when I moved in two years ago and the estimate I got then was around $3k. I suspect the firm I got the quote from pushes higher prices for their financing options, since those were listed front and center on the price sheet they gave me.
I'm in year two of planning to replace the windows, this month it's been a dying relative and an upcoming dental surgery that's put it off.
I get older, and the to-do list only grows in length. Condolences about your relative.
I figure it's not a factor of my age, it's a factor of the house's age.
You see some old houses they say something like "This house was built in 1840 by Mister Plutis Astercock for his family" and they mean he knocked some trees over, sawed it into boards and nailed it together with his own hands. Just...right there in town. Down the street from the post office. Try that now and they'll broadcast your evisceration on PBS. I'm a trained carpenter god dammit there are five families living in houses I built. No, now the only place you're allowed to build your own house with your own hands is out in the cousinfucks.
There's no reason you couldn't still do that, as long as you pull the necessary permits and your work can pass inspection. Most jurisdictions make specific exemptions in the contractor licensing rules for homeowners working on their own properties.
and your work can pass inspection
And we get into the red tape that makes it functionally impossible. Fuck everything about it.
hard disagree. The residential building code isn't terribly hard to adhere to -- especially in new construction -- and nearly every bit of it is written with the health and safety of building occupants in mind. I'd much rather deal with a bit of bureaucratic oversight to be sure my house and/or my neighbor's house doesn't collapse in a stiff breeze, or blow up from a gas leak, or kill all its occupants in a fire, or turn into a heap of rot after the first heavy rain, etc., etc. You might have the skills and ethics required to do the job right without somebody looking over your shoulder, but not everybody does, and I'd venture at least half the big home building firms would cut every corner they could in the absence of code enforcement.
Oh I'm all for building safety standards. I'm not willing to deal with legislation that requires adherence to proprietary standards created by for-profit companies that cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars a copy because graft.
I have to tackle the last floor from insulation / electrical / heating to finish.
Then find how to get the whole documentation for the new electrical installation since the initial company that did most of the work went under do that I can have it surveyed. And 4 more windows openings to re-finish since the walls are now ~20cm wider.
And then 2025 should be the year we do our exteriors :)
Finishing up my laundry room overhaul this weekend, hopefully. It was nothing major - just adding a closet to store the vacuum and mop, etc.
did you include a power outlet?
There was one already. It was previously a cubby where the washer and dryer were, so theres 240v and 120v outlets.
Took out the old kitchen and the ceiling in that room, redid the plumbing and electrical work, am now installing the new ceiling. New kitchen arrives in a week, so everything should be ready by then.
Found some mold on the carpet in the corner of my son's room. I guess the faucet outside had a small leak, and there was a bookshelf on top of where it showed on the house. Really easy fix all things considered. Barely any mold.
Will try to diagnose why one of our radiators isn't working.
Steam radiator?
Yes indeed. New England home built 1930. Will try to get it done before seeing Nosferatu in theaters tomorrow.
If you haven't checked it already, the vent valve on the radiator might be closed or worn out.
You might also have a radiator that's getting hotter more quickly than the rest. You can adjust it's vent valve to vent air more slowly (or replace the valve with a slower one) to give your colder radiators more time to warm up before the thermostat stops calling for heat.