The Home Improvement Thread

[Taco Loco]

New lazy boy furniture delivered; top grain leather couch and 2 custom fabric rocking/recliner chairs.

A lazy boy service guy is supposed to come back and add swivel bases to the chairs, so I can spin around and shoot squirrels out back when the French doors are open.

 

[Taco Loco]

Firepit is full of red lava rock. Used 16 bags at $3.50 a bag. DONE! Doesn't look too bad.. you can't really see it unless you go up to it.

View attachment 10837

Thought you were going to add glass?

 

[Silverback]

Fuck it.. you can't see the top of the fire pit unless you walk up the steps and look into it. Not worth the $$ IMO. Maybe if we start using the firepit more I'll look into it but for now this is a good solution.

 

[Taco Loco]

I guess you could always mix some glass in with the lava rock.

 

[Silverback]

Oh yeah, or remove an inch or two of lava rock. But I highly doubt I'll do it.

 

[tx_shooter]

Well sometimes being an adult sucks. Instead of ordering new upgraded shocks for my 4Runner I ended up ordering a new mixer cartridge for my shower because the old one went to crap and a new kitchen sink faucet because it also went to crap. At least the parts being replaced are 11 years old now. I cannot complain since they all were bought on sale and lasted this long. Hopefully the new parts last long enough for me to move out before they fail.

Plus this will make my sammich maker happy.

 

[Silverback]

Place on the way to work came up for sale. We met with realtor today to look it over. The thought was to move into it... renovate and then have wifes parents move onto property as well. Its older (50 years old), big lot (8.96 acres), tons of trees, 1 acre pond that needs a lot of love and some rain, 4000 sq ft shop with all concrete floors and a 4 post lift. House(s) on the property are the concern. Main house is this 50 year old 2 bedroom one bath stone home, lots of potential but man it would take some work! No central air, its a tri-level design, kitchen on lowest floor, living in middle, bedrooms and bath uptop. Its all in a flood plain... and its been flooded into the kitchen one time. (one? Really just one?).. super bad news for that home was that I saw black mold on ceiling. Second structure was a 2 bedroom bunkhouse. Cool area, its like a big gameroom area with 2 bedrooms off it. Downside, no bathroom or shower. Now if you are keeping track we have 4 bedrooms in two structures and only one bathroom and its on the upstairs and through the second bedroom to get to it. Just ideal right. 3rd house structure was a modular home that smells very very very badly. Its probably circa 1984 and nothing has been done since. Too bad, I really liked the property... houses just sucked.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/101-County-Road-129-Taylor-TX-76574/29528772_zpid/?fullpage=true

 

[tex]

Place on the way to work came up for sale. We met with realtor today to look it over. The thought was to move into it... renovate and then have wifes parents move onto property as well. Its older (50 years old), big lot (8.96 acres), tons of trees, 1 acre pond that needs a lot of love and some rain, 4000 sq ft shop with all concrete floors and a 4 post lift. House(s) on the property are the concern. Main house is this 50 year old 2 bedroom one bath stone home, lots of potential but man it would take some work! No central air, its a tri-level design, kitchen on lowest floor, living in middle, bedrooms and bath uptop. Its all in a flood plain... and its been flooded into the kitchen one time. (one? Really just one?).. super bad news for that home was that I saw black mold on ceiling. Second structure was a 2 bedroom bunkhouse. Cool area, its like a big gameroom area with 2 bedrooms off it. Downside, no bathroom or shower. Now if you are keeping track we have 4 bedrooms in two structures and only one bathroom and its on the upstairs and through the second bedroom to get to it. Just ideal right. 3rd house structure was a modular home that smells very very very badly. Its probably circa 1984 and nothing has been done since. Too bad, I really liked the property... houses just sucked.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/101-County-Road-129-Taylor-TX-76574/29528772_zpid/?fullpage=true

I dont see $600K there at all. Even if they left the old 944 porsche in the shop.

 

[Silverback]

I dont see $600K there at all. Even if they left the old 944 porsche in the shop.

Totally agree. Maybe.. maybe 375. Land is not cheap around there. They recently were selling 1 acre lots maybe 1/4 mile up the road for $125k. But they are not in a flood plain.

The old 944 needed a lot of love. It had been sitting for 7 years, almost as long as @Oswego tacoma. LOL. But it had a body kit and some super nice rims and tires on it.

Guy was a car guy, had a wall of trophy’s in the shop from car events. Probably 40 or more. But he passed 7 years ago and the wife had not done anything since. Shop was very nice though.

 

[Taco Loco]

Place on the way to work came up for sale. We met with realtor today to look it over. The thought was to move into it... renovate and then have wifes parents move onto property as well. Its older (50 years old), big lot (8.96 acres), tons of trees, 1 acre pond that needs a lot of love and some rain, 4000 sq ft shop with all concrete floors and a 4 post lift. House(s) on the property are the concern. Main house is this 50 year old 2 bedroom one bath stone home, lots of potential but man it would take some work! No central air, its a tri-level design, kitchen on lowest floor, living in middle, bedrooms and bath uptop. Its all in a flood plain... and its been flooded into the kitchen one time. (one? Really just one?).. super bad news for that home was that I saw black mold on ceiling. Second structure was a 2 bedroom bunkhouse. Cool area, its like a big gameroom area with 2 bedrooms off it. Downside, no bathroom or shower. Now if you are keeping track we have 4 bedrooms in two structures and only one bathroom and its on the upstairs and through the second bedroom to get to it. Just ideal right. 3rd house structure was a modular home that smells very very very badly. Its probably circa 1984 and nothing has been done since. Too bad, I really liked the property... houses just sucked.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/101-County-Road-129-Taylor-TX-76574/29528772_zpid/?fullpage=true

Weird...We looked at house/shop/barns on 8+ acres, few 150yr old live oaks, about 15min south of us yesterday. Lady from church is going to put it up for sale soon, around phase 2 of her new smaller house being built in town, and her husband died 4 yrs ago.

 

[Silverback]

As long as its not in a flood plain and the house(s) are not shit filled with black mold. Go for it!! So much we loved but more we can't live with in this one.

 

[Taco Loco]

As long as its not in a flood plain and the house(s) are not shit filled with black mold. Go for it!! So much we loved but more we can't live with in this one.

Far from being on flood plain.

I want more land... so Im going to pass on this one.

 

[Silverback]

Yeah, ideally I want more than 11 acres.. 15-20 would be perfect.

 

[fsbrain03]

Yeah, ideally I want more than 11 acres.. 15-20 would be perfect.

I’m the same. We’re hoping with all of the growth in this area, our value double in the next few years. Then start looking for 10-15 acres.

 

[tx_shooter]

Yeah, ideally I want more than 11 acres.. 15-20 would be perfect.

Same. We are starting to get our stuff together so we can be in position to purchase 15-20 acres in the next 2-4 years. Part of that plan is to start repairing the little things we have over looked in our current house (at 11 years old) and start putting back some down payment money. Today was the drippy kitchen sink faucet. The old faucet was a real pain in the dick to remove but the new one went in pretty easy. I hope to be gone way before this one needs to be replaced.

 

[Silverback]

Looks good!

 

[CowboyTaco]

Moving a wall so that we can convert a half bath into a full. Kind of aggravated that we didn't think of doing this sooner. Will be so nice having a full bath for the kids. Plumber is scheduled to start Monday. They will have to tunnel under the house and Jack hammer the foundation to tie in the plumbing. Going they can be all finished by next weekend.

View attachment 10755

Some bathroom updates:

The wall that was moved.

The door that was moved.

The door was essentially moved back to its original location before the previous homeowners moved it without permits.

Misc inside the bathroom pics.

I'm torn on whether or not I like the plumber. Original estimate to do the plumbing was around $4500. They scoped the toilet to determine exactly how far they would need to tunnel and everything seemed in line. Unfortunately, they encountered a cross beam in the foundation and had to tunnel around it (at least that is what they told my wife). The 15 foot tunnel turned into 30 feet and thus essentially doubled our project cost. It is also going very slow. I was hoping that they would have the tub finished yesterday and have been able to pour the concrete around the toilet and sing drain. Instead, they come back out today to do that part. Then I can put down flooring and they will have to come out yet again to do set the toilet an vanity.

Also, he had to add some wood in various places in order to mount the tub surround. I told him that "we can open the garage door and use the miter saw for any cuts. that should make life easier." Well, he just went out to the garage without telling me, didn't open the door and used whatever wood I had laying around. This pissed me off because now my garage is covered in saw dust (not the first, nor last time) and the door has saw dust in it too, so it's going to rain saw dust on whoever opens it next. He also ruined what I'm going to refer to as my "good wood" that I had THE RIGHT AMOUNT for another project that I'm already in the middle of completing (hence it already being on the miter saw). Now I have to go buy more of the expensive stuff. There was some junk 2x4 laying right under the saw that he could have used. I know a piece of pressure treated wood isn't that expensive, and is inconsequential in the cost of the bathroom upgrade; but it just pissed me off.

In other news, added like 15hp to my workbench. Who wants to come drink some beer?

My wife's first real job was working at this general store in NC. We stopped by when we were there last week and half the staff recognized her immediately and said that she wasn't old enough to be married and have children. I kind of miss the small town atmosphere.

 

[Oswego]

Totally agree. Maybe.. maybe 375. Land is not cheap around there. They recently were selling 1 acre lots maybe 1/4 mile up the road for $125k. But they are not in a flood plain.

The old 944 needed a lot of love. It had been sitting for 7 years, almost as long as @Oswego tacoma. LOL. But it had a body kit and some super nice rims and tires on it.

Guy was a car guy, had a wall of trophy’s in the shop from car events. Probably 40 or more. But he passed 7 years ago and the wife had not done anything since. Shop was very nice though.

hey now....

I bought my house 14-15 years ago in the boom for more $$ than I should of. Luckily it was a foreclosure so I didn't take the bath everyone else did when the bubble burst.

Basement was finished but had black mold all over it. Took me three months of working after work to remediate it all with the help of a friend. We gutted everything down to the cement and then burned it all in my fire pit. Turned out they finished the basement with wood furring strips into unpainted cement blocks. Once the gutters went bad the walls that are not sealed on the inside or outside wicked the water into it. Wish they sealed foundations in the 60's when they were building around here.

 

[Silverback]

So you may recall that I had some issues with the house they are building next door, they came and dug a small trench in my yard, breaking my sprinkler system. Construction Supervisor is a total D-bag. Anyhow, they said they fixed it. But the house didn't pass city approvals for the variances. So it sat and it sat. They had to redesign the back of it to comply with city regs. So about 2 weeks ago they start up again.. guess what... they broke my sprinkler again. I text and call construction supervisor.. he's a complete candy ass and won't answer. So I talked to the city manager and told him. He got it fixed right away. But they didn't glue the PVC.. just stuck it together and it came apart first time I used my sprinkler system. Another call to city inspector.. now its fixed. Anyhow today they come out to do some work around 5.. I am in the garage. I hear them next door and then I hear water running... like water running through the pipes in my garage. I walk out and some fuckhead is filling up a big bucket with my spigot. I say in these exact words "What the fuck do you think you are doing?" "Uhh.. just getting some water". (its like a 7 gallon huge bucket.. fuck them) I said "Well go fuck-off and get it someplace else and don't ever let me catch you over here again". I texted the pussy again and told him to have his guys bring there own fucking water and if I caught them again I was not going to just have words with whom I caught. Then I ordered a spigot lock for it.. but I am WFH tomorrow and I pray I catch some fuckhead.

 

[tx_shooter]

Sounds like a curb stomping is needed to show them the no trespassing rule.