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FritzIam4IU

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On 2/20/2018 at 4:00 PM, rico said:

I got a good one for you Fritz from my remodel job.  When I bought the house, it had a spiral staircase.  Only way to get upstairs.  I ripped that puppy out and put in a conventional one.  Finally got the new stairs put in.  One thing I didn't take into account was my height.....I walked up them.  Then came down, cracked my coconut on the supporting beam.  Blood everywhere.........5 stitches later I got the chainsaw out and made the opening taller.

I never had anything that needed stitches, but I am so glad to be done gutting my house.  I did it all myself, and about every day I'd be bleeding somewhere.  So many little nicks and scrapes.

The worst I had was when I was removing the siding.  Tried to pop up a piece from underneath and didn't realize there was still a nail from the previous piece.  The head of the nail hit right next to the fingernail on my index finger and tore off that little chunk of skin next to the nail.  A few days later I accidentally hit that finger with a hammer.  Closest I've been to crying from pain in a long time.

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2 hours ago, Leathernecks said:

I never had anything that needed stitches, but I am so glad to be done gutting my house.  I did it all myself, and about every day I'd be bleeding somewhere.  So many little nicks and scrapes.

The worst I had was when I was removing the siding.  Tried to pop up a piece from underneath and didn't realize there was still a nail from the previous piece.  The head of the nail hit right next to the fingernail on my index finger and tore off that little chunk of skin next to the nail.  A few days later I accidentally hit that finger with a hammer.  Closest I've been to crying from pain in a long time.

"I don't use hammers very often......but when I do, I pick one that can really smash my finger!"-------World's most interesting carpenter

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6 hours ago, Leathernecks said:

I never had anything that needed stitches, but I am so glad to be done gutting my house.  I did it all myself, and about every day I'd be bleeding somewhere.  So many little nicks and scrapes.

The worst I had was when I was removing the siding.  Tried to pop up a piece from underneath and didn't realize there was still a nail from the previous piece.  The head of the nail hit right next to the fingernail on my index finger and tore off that little chunk of skin next to the nail.  A few days later I accidentally hit that finger with a hammer.  Closest I've been to crying from pain in a long time.

Have you finished with your house yet? Just curious to how yours is going. We are hoping to "finish" ours next month (fingers and toes crossed!!).

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On 2/26/2018 at 2:34 PM, FritzIam4IU said:

Have you finished with your house yet? Just curious to how yours is going. We are hoping to "finish" ours next month (fingers and toes crossed!!).

Unfortunately I don't have much time now.  I help coach baseball and our season has started.

I only have a couple more rooms to paint, just not sure what color.  My dad is going to make my kitchen cabinets, so that is going to be the next big step.  Love the savings in money, hate the waiting for them to be done!  Have all the floors picked out, so that should be easy.  Just need more time to work on things.

I should get finished this summer.  You're pretty close if you're only a month away!

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11 hours ago, Leathernecks said:

Unfortunately I don't have much time now.  I help coach baseball and our season has started.

I only have a couple more rooms to paint, just not sure what color.  My dad is going to make my kitchen cabinets, so that is going to be the next big step.  Love the savings in money, hate the waiting for them to be done!  Have all the floors picked out, so that should be easy.  Just need more time to work on things.

I should get finished this summer.  You're pretty close if you're only a month away!

Yep...there is never enough hours in day it seems. Keep posting your progress...I for one would like to know how your house turns out!

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5 hours ago, Leathernecks said:

Thanks!  When I get the time I'll try to post some before and during pictures too.

Sounds good. Would love to check out pics.

3 hours ago, jefftheref said:

Some great stories. Thank you for sharing. We bought another house last summer and completely remodeled the inside. Everything inside is done but the bathroom which I will do in the winter of 2018. Next up beginning this spring is new windows, exterior doors and siding. 

Have you done this before? Any good/crazy stories? Thanks for sharing and let us know how it turns out!

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1 minute ago, FritzIam4IU said:

Sounds good. Would love to check out pics.

Have you done this before? Any good/crazy stories? Thanks for sharing and let us know how it turns out!

Yes I have. This one will be by last one for sure. Probably the worst thing was when we were painting the basement I kept getting shocked when i trimmed around some outlets. After doing some investigation I found out there was a short behind the wet bar. The previous owner knew there was a short because when I hooked the ground up it blew the breaker. Instead of fixing it they unhooked the ground wire. I had to tear out the wet bar, cut open the drywall and rewire the outlets,  then refinish and repaint the drywall. 

We also completely redesigned the kitchen. Because the basement ceilings were dry walled I had to cut open the kitchen sub floor  to move the water and drain lines. The water pump was in the basement so I had to turn the water off numerous times so I could solder the new water lines. The day that I moved the water and plumbing lines carpet was installed in the basement. The next morning my wife was moving some stuff around in the basement and noticed the carpet is wet over by the pump room. Somehow water starting leaking out of the shut off valve and got some of the newly installed carpet wet. I just about had a heart attack. 

After I had moved the water and drain lines in the kitchen my wife was helping me reinstall the plywood subfloor. She was standing on the exposed floor joists,  lost her balance and stepped through the basement ceiling that was dry walled. Thankfully just her foot went through the ceiling. 
 

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2 hours ago, jefftheref said:

Yes I have. This one will be by last one for sure. Probably the worst thing was when we were painting the basement I kept getting shocked when i trimmed around some outlets. After doing some investigation I found out there was a short behind the wet bar. The previous owner knew there was a short because when I hooked the ground up it blew the breaker. Instead of fixing it they unhooked the ground wire. I had to tear out the wet bar, cut open the drywall and rewire the outlets,  then refinish and repaint the drywall. 

We also completely redesigned the kitchen. Because the basement ceilings were dry walled I had to cut open the kitchen sub floor  to move the water and drain lines. The water pump was in the basement so I had to turn the water off numerous times so I could solder the new water lines. The day that I moved the water and plumbing lines carpet was installed in the basement. The next morning my wife was moving some stuff around in the basement and noticed the carpet is wet over by the pump room. Somehow water starting leaking out of the shut off valve and got some of the newly installed carpet wet. I just about had a heart attack. 

After I had moved the water and drain lines in the kitchen my wife was helping me reinstall the plywood subfloor. She was standing on the exposed floor joists,  lost her balance and stepped through the basement ceiling that was dry walled. Thankfully just her foot went through the ceiling. 
 

Yep...sounds like our previous owners as well ha. I'm not sure if we would ever do this again. At most we would do it once more if we found something that really intrigued us, but we only plan on moving once more...and we are leaning towards a house that doesn't need "too much" work...but we'll see. Good luck with finishing your home and that really sucked about the carpet by the way.

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I had forgot this story until I ran into an old friend last night.

My friend was remodeling his basement.  Putting up walls in it and what not.  There were 5 of us there to help him with the project(and to drink free beer!).  I had my nail guns with me.  His young nephew, I am guessing about 9, was infatuated with my spike driver.  Any time somebody laid it down he was picking it.  All of the sudden we heard a shriek.  The little fella shot his hand right to a 2x4.  So we are there and we go this kid hootin' and hollerin' running around with a board stuck to his hand!  We got a hold of him and used a circular saw to cut the board down so he could fit in a vehicle.  He was fine was he got to the hospital and they removed the nail.  And he never touched that nail gun again.

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1 hour ago, rico said:

I had forgot this story until I ran into an old friend last night.

My friend was remodeling his basement.  Putting up walls in it and what not.  There were 5 of us there to help him with the project(and to drink free beer!).  I had my nail guns with me.  His young nephew, I am guessing about 9, was infatuated with my spike driver.  Any time somebody laid it down he was picking it.  All of the sudden we heard a shriek.  The little fella shot his hand right to a 2x4.  So we are there and we go this kid hootin' and hollerin' running around with a board stuck to his hand!  We got a hold of him and used a circular saw to cut the board down so he could fit in a vehicle.  He was fine was he got to the hospital and they removed the nail.  And he never touched that nail gun again.

That is crazy. I get worried because my kids like to get a little too close for my liking sometimes while I am working and I feel like I am constantly keeping one eye on them! I'm glad he was ok...I am sure he never wanted to handle nail gun that again!!

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4 minutes ago, FritzIam4IU said:

That is crazy. I get worried because my kids like to get a little too close for my liking sometimes while I am working and I feel like I am constantly keeping one eye on them! I'm glad he was ok...I am sure he never wanted to handle nail gun that again!!

Curiosity will get the cat!!!!!!!

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On 3/1/2018 at 1:22 PM, rico said:

I had forgot this story until I ran into an old friend last night.

My friend was remodeling his basement.  Putting up walls in it and what not.  There were 5 of us there to help him with the project(and to drink free beer!).  I had my nail guns with me.  His young nephew, I am guessing about 9, was infatuated with my spike driver.  Any time somebody laid it down he was picking it.  All of the sudden we heard a shriek.  The little fella shot his hand right to a 2x4.  So we are there and we go this kid hootin' and hollerin' running around with a board stuck to his hand!  We got a hold of him and used a circular saw to cut the board down so he could fit in a vehicle.  He was fine was he got to the hospital and they removed the nail.  And he never touched that nail gun again.

I not only lived at Colonial Crest but was a maintenance man for a summer.  We had built about 100 patio dividers and I put the nail gun down on my foot so I could lift it up for the next board...grabbed the the gun by the trigger and bam, stuck my foot to a 2x4.  Didn't hit anything important but it was embarrassing to have a nurse give me a safety lecture on nail guns.  Fortunately they just took me in the back of a truck so we didn't have to cut the board.

Being a poor married couple, my wife and I have fixed up plenty of places.  The sad thing is now that I have pretty good skills, I refuse to use them , like drywall...especially drywall.  I hate sanding drywall. I will pay someone else to do it everyday. I still make some pretty nice furniture and book shelves when the mood strikes.

Along those same lines...every summer my dad would have a summer project for me to do to keep me out of trouble.  Paint the house, make a putting green, mow neighbors yards, etc.  Also he would get 3-4 dump trucks of mulch and I would have to mulch everything..trees, bushes, flower beds, everything.  It was to keep me out of trouble and to teach me how to do stuff.  But after doing all this stuff and learning how to do it I was so sick of it I didn't want to do it when I had my own house!  I still don't do mulch.  I use river rock.

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31 minutes ago, Colonialcrester said:

I not only lived at Colonial Crest but was a maintenance man for a summer.  We had built about 100 patio dividers and I put the nail gun down on my foot so I could lift it up for the next board...grabbed the the gun by the trigger and bam, stuck my foot to a 2x4.  Didn't hit anything important but it was embarrassing to have a nurse give me a safety lecture on nail guns.  Fortunately they just took me in the back of a truck so we didn't have to cut the board.

Being a poor married couple, my wife and I have fixed up plenty of places.  The sad thing is now that I have pretty good skills, I refuse to use them , like drywall...especially drywall.  I hate sanding drywall. I will pay someone else to do it everyday. I still make some pretty nice furniture and book shelves when the mood strikes.

Along those same lines...every summer my dad would have a summer project for me to do to keep me out of trouble.  Paint the house, make a putting green, mow neighbors yards, etc.  Also he would get 3-4 dump trucks of mulch and I would have to mulch everything..trees, bushes, flower beds, everything.  It was to keep me out of trouble and to teach me how to do stuff.  But after doing all this stuff and learning how to do it I was so sick of it I didn't want to do it when I had my own house!  I still don't do mulch.  I use river rock.

LOL.....those nail guns are dangerous!!!!!!!!

Yeah, I don't do too much anymore myself.  But I do like to wood work.

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8 hours ago, Colonialcrester said:

I not only lived at Colonial Crest but was a maintenance man for a summer.  We had built about 100 patio dividers and I put the nail gun down on my foot so I could lift it up for the next board...grabbed the the gun by the trigger and bam, stuck my foot to a 2x4.  Didn't hit anything important but it was embarrassing to have a nurse give me a safety lecture on nail guns.  Fortunately they just took me in the back of a truck so we didn't have to cut the board.

Being a poor married couple, my wife and I have fixed up plenty of places.  The sad thing is now that I have pretty good skills, I refuse to use them , like drywall...especially drywall.  I hate sanding drywall. I will pay someone else to do it everyday. I still make some pretty nice furniture and book shelves when the mood strikes.

Along those same lines...every summer my dad would have a summer project for me to do to keep me out of trouble.  Paint the house, make a putting green, mow neighbors yards, etc.  Also he would get 3-4 dump trucks of mulch and I would have to mulch everything..trees, bushes, flower beds, everything.  It was to keep me out of trouble and to teach me how to do stuff.  But after doing all this stuff and learning how to do it I was so sick of it I didn't want to do it when I had my own house!  I still don't do mulch.  I use river rock.

I wish I had the skills to make really good furniture. And yes, sanding drywall sucks bad!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

About 10 years ago I had a very large tree fall on my roof. Punctured the roof and there were leaves in my master bedroom.

As it was a 50s ranch, it needed to be brought up to code when doing the repairs.  It needed the entire roof replaced. I hired a contractor. After framing and sheathing the roof, I fired them as they were going way to slow. Some days they wouldn't even show up. I ended up finishing myself with the help of my father-in-law. I did have the roof shingles, gutters, and drywall done professionally. Ended up with new flooring, windows, doors, siding, and insulation. My crowning achievement was tongue and groove planked ceiling over about a 1000 sq feet of the main floor. I was staining those boards for days. 

It turned out great. I learned a ton about all facets of construction. The only area I really don't like is plumbing. Luckily no injuries along the way other than minor scrapes. 

One thing I remember about those few months was how much Bud Light I drank. 

I most recently put my skills to use in building a pergola type structure from scratch for a hanging swing at our MI lakehouse last summer.

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3 minutes ago, Reacher said:

About 10 years ago I had a very large tree fall on my roof. Punctured the roof and there were leaves in my master bedroom.

As it was a 50s ranch, it needed to be brought up to code when doing the repairs.  It needed the entire roof replaced. I hired a contractor. After framing and sheathing the roof, I fired them as they were going way to slow. Some days they wouldn't even show up. I ended up finishing myself with the help of my father-in-law. I did have the roof shingles, gutters, and drywall done professionally. Ended up with new flooring, windows, doors, siding, and insulation. My crowning achievement was tongue and groove planked ceiling over about a 1000 sq feet of the main floor. I was staining those boards for days. 

It turned out great. I learned a ton about all facets of construction. The only area I really don't like is plumbing. Luckily no injuries along the way other than minor scrapes. 

One thing I remember about those few months was how much Bud Light I drank. 

I most recently put my skills to use in building a pergola type structure from scratch for a hanging swing at our MI lakehouse last summer.

I love the Bud Light comment.  When I needed a job done in a hurry.  I would get my buddies and buy a keg!!!!!!!!  Wondrous!!!!!!

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Just now, rico said:

I love the Bud Light comment.  When I needed a job done in a hurry.  I would get my buddies and buy a keg!!!!!!!!  Wondrous!!!!!!

Ironically, I've never been much of a drinker. 2-3 per week on average. That excludes IU basketball games when I usually have a couple and construction projects! 

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1 minute ago, Reacher said:

Ironically, I've never been much of a drinker. 2-3 per week on average. That excludes IU basketball games when I usually have a couple and construction projects! 

Want a project done in a hurry?  Free beer and eats!  Works everytime.

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  • 3 weeks later...

So just a quick update on progress...the house is just about done. We just need to touch up some small things and clean up and it is essentially finished. We finished deck railing, bathrooms had new tiling, including subway tile all the way around bath/shower, power washed house, mulched outside, etc.

Crazy thing now is that it will be on the market ASAP as we found a house we really like that we have an accepted offer on that is contingent on this one selling. The new house is mostly cosmetic changes so shouldn't be nearly as bad. The worst thing we saw looking at it is it needs all new flooring, new kitchen cabinets/counters, bathroom vanity, and blinds...but not nearly as much work. We honestly didn't have another major renovation in us right now.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Another quick update....the house went on the market on a Friday, we had six showings that Fri/Sat with an offer Monday morning. Countered offer and it was accepted that Wednesday, so now we are going through the fun process of home inspections/appraisals, etc for both houses.

I did say we were trying to find a house that was "near" move in ready but home inspection found the geothermal unit had issues, needed two new water heaters, a new water softener, new kids bathtub, and there was no return air intake in the house! The return air intake is crazy because the house was built in 2000 and has over 4000 sq feet finished, including basement and bonus room over the garage! Our inspector has been doing this for 30 years and that is the first time he remembers coming across this ha.

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1 hour ago, FritzIam4IU said:

Another quick update....the house went on the market on a Friday, we had six showings that Fri/Sat with an offer Monday morning. Countered offer and it was accepted that Wednesday, so now we are going through the fun process of home inspections/appraisals, etc for both houses.

I did say we were trying to find a house that was "near" move in ready but home inspection found the geothermal unit had issues, needed two new water heaters, a new water softener, new kids bathtub, and there was no return air intake in the house! The return air intake is crazy because the house was built in 2000 and has over 4000 sq feet finished, including basement and bonus room over the garage! Our inspector has been doing this for 30 years and that is the first time he remembers coming across this ha.

Where is the geothermal getting it's water supply from?

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So I rehab houses for a living, and I've also done some extensive renovations on the two previous houses we lived in (I pretty much flipped them, too really).  I feel like I've pretty much seen it all at this point. 

The last house we lived in that we fixed up and sold had a toilet that was loose in the master bath, so I knew I was going to have to replace that section of subfloor.  When I went to fix it after pulling the toilet and taking up the tile floor, I literally fell through the subfloor, and the rot went under the tub, so that came out, and then the laundry was on the other side of the wall that the tub was on.  Apparently, they hadn't cemented the sewer pvc pipe in the wall, and there was a bunch of mold.  So, essentially fixing a loose toilet became tearing one and a half rooms down to studs and joists, and performing major structural work to the joists as well.

It's hard for me to watch the HGTV shows because of how far removed from reality they are (though I watch them sometimes as I like to see the end product and need to stay up to date on the newest trends being pushed).  For one, all of the flipping shows fail to mention that nearly 8% of your sales price is going to be eaten up by closing costs, which, on some of those expensive houses, can turn a slim profit into a deficit.  But....the worst thing is how dramatized they make "obstacles" they run into.  They absolutely know about most of that stuff before they've torn one cabinet down, and don't even get me started on how scared they make the homeowners on random mundane diy mistakes.  Also, if I see one more "pro" use a table saw without a fence while having someone pull the board through while they put their fingers inches from the blade, I'm going to have a nervous breakdown.

Home inspectors need to be chosen carefully.  For liability and insurance reasons, they have to call out EVERY little thing they find, and they can't really give guidance, they can just present the "facts" that they've found.  If they do give guidance, they open themselves to litigation.  In my experience, some are really good, but most have no idea what they're talking about.  For instance,  I had an inspector call as a major defect that white wires were used as hots and the meter was too far from the box, which totally ignored the fact that in 240v circuits whites are the second hot leg (I mean, come on, it's not only a standard industry practice but explicitly listed in the code), and older houses were built with different codes that grandfathered in such things as distance between the meter and box.  An average person doesn't need to know these things, but an inspector should.  They also tend to create (usually in first time homebuyers who couldn't turn off the water to a toilet if their life depended on it) anxiety through the fact that they have to call out so much but can't really comment on it beyond "it's not right."  I'm not saying it's their fault, either, it's just kind of the tough reality of the situation and how easy it is to get sued in real estate.

Geothermal (at least what we would call geothermal) works by using water cycled down pipes into the Earth and back to the unit to normalize the temperature, making it more efficient.  It's essentially a heat pump, only instead of using the extreme cold or hot outside air, it uses the 54 degree temperature of the Earth.  Anyone who has had a normal heat pump (unless you had the best they build) knows it's pretty inefficient, especially when it's really cold outside.  It's interesting stuff, but almost prohibitively expensive upfront, as two wells need to drilled anywhere from 50-400 feet, and that ain't cheap.

Here's some more detail: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_heating

 

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