Home Improvement

[Clipper]

My latest recreation has been working on the house and out buildings. It has become a hobby by my own definition. To me a hobby is any leisure activity, that you enjoy participating in, and that relaxes you and gives you satisfaction. It seems that I have gotten back into the home improvement business. I guess it is not only a necessity, but a hobby.

I enjoy working with tools, working on projects that show results when you are finished. When we first bought this house, I remodeled a 9x12 bedroom into a large bathroom with 4 storage closets, a double vanity and a jacuzzi tub. I remodeled the old small bathroom into a laundry room and a half bath .The fun part of that job was busting up the old bathtub with a sledge hammer, haha.

Last summer I re-did the whole kitchen (Kathy and myself) stripped and refinished the upper cabinets, and replaced the lower cabinets, floors, subfloor, sink, and dishwasher.

This summer I have so far rebuilt the entire 24 x 20 carport, replaced all the guttering on the house, and put roof coating on all the metal roofing on the garage, carport and the 14 x 20 building in the back yard, that used to be a grocery store in the 1930's.

My next project is to put vinyl siding on that building. I had an estimate from a siding contractor for about $2300. I bought all the materials today for $632, and that will keep me busy for a couple of weeks, and save us over $1600.

As I said at the beginning of this thread. Anything that relaxes me, and gives me pleasure, I consider a hobby. Not only that, but taking on new projects means I get to buy new toys, haha. Tomorrow I will be off to the "toy department" at Sears to buy a laser level to use for the siding job. I light up when I go into a tool department, or wander the tool vendors booths at the flea markets. I am like a kid in a candy store, haha!

Anyone ever done vinyl siding? I am always open to suggestions. I have read up on it, watched others install it, and have all the tools I need to do it. Anyone knows any pointers that make it go easier, give me a holler. thanks! It might not sound like fun to many of you, but I am looking forward to getting into it. I guess that is what retirement is all about. Having time to do things like that. If I were still working, I would have to hire someone else to do it.

[Ralph]

Hehehe.......

I did this whole house by myself! Need any help just give me a call.

Easy peasy.

[dgriffin]

I spent the first twenty years in this old farmhouse doing not much but working on it. Early on, I did a lot myself, but as time went by I hired a lot out. Still, it was a great experience and I learned a lot. Trouble is, it's getting closer to being that time to go and it won't be easy since I created exactly what I wanted.

[wilum47]

When Mrs Wilum and I purchase our little 1923 fixer-upper, just for the two of us, that is exactly what it was and still is.

Of course the surprise package we received after 20 years of marriage really turned our little 1923 fixer-upper, just for the two of us, into a major emergency re-fabrication but Squirt92, my daughter, has come pretty efficient with power and hand tools aiding to the help.

We just finished re-doing all three down stairs floors since Memorial Day weekend.

Now to some finishing in the living room we did three years ago.

Oh well..............

[rickolney]

Yeah, I grew up with a shovel and hammer in my hands too!

We put the family room addition on my parent's house, followed by adding on a two stall attached garage. My Dad had his business building built, with a garage added to that and later on we built a separate garage to house their 26 foot Cobra RV. Meanwhile, the whole inside of the house was remodeled. I also helped put a new roof on three of those buildings.

Up north, we built the addition on the camp.





(Note: Ralph, feel free to resize these images if they are too big) thanks.

[frankcor]

That looks like a bit of heaven.

[JGRobinson]

I have a 180 YO monster that Ive been restoring for the last 6 years, this is my third house and toughest rebuild. Its slow going but things are getting much better, my wife is not threatening to Hotel up nearly as often as when we started.

I'm also a green builder, re-purpose, reuse and buy on clearance whenever possible! If I save green, it helps save me money and the planet at the same time.

A few years ago I gutted the kitchen and built all my new cabinets with the most pristine White Oak I salvaged from our Universities Library. It was gorgeous wood, old growth, not a knot in three truckloads. It started out piles of busted up lumber and now looks beautiful. Tons of work to re-mill and resurface, but I got a solid Oak kitchen for the cost of Melamine! In hindsight, I will never build kitchen cabinets again, they came out beautiful but boy what a nightmare to design and build to the Wife's high standards!

Most of the tradesmen on our campus know that any leftovers that are more than a couple feet long are mine! 90% of my projects include repurposed materials. I bet I've saved over 40% on materials generally and no one would be the wiser by looking at the finished product. I have an addition thats deck was built out of old Football Bleacher seats, 2 X 12 X 16', I paid $3.00 a piece for them from our Salvage Department and they looked as good as some of the new ones I have bought lately.

Tip 1, Home Depot and Lowes often have Clearance items for sale. Do not pay the price thats on the Item, Its no longer on their inventory and almost always will dicker. Ive bought hundreds of items that way and saved tens of thousands of dollars. Go to a manager, not a salesmen. I have bought so many items at 50% to 90% off retail, try it, you will be pleasantly surprised.

Tip 2, If you are a Veteran, ask for 10% off, they may require an ID card, DD214 or some kind of proof but they will give it to you if you ask!

Tip 3, Don't go to JC penny to try to save 25% off on a $9 t-shirt, go to Lowes or Home Depot at least once a week and wander around all the isles. Look for the yellow tags (not lower price, clearance). Look in the corners, least traveled areas and normal Clearance shelves. They stash stuff everywhere. If they have a bunch of something you want on clearance, either offer them something for all of them or wait a couple weeks until stock gets low and then make an offer on what you want.

The big box store are full of really nice people, get to know them, especially the retired tradesmen. At Lowes in Oneida, all the Managers and employees know my blue light shopping style so well that they will actually take me to the bargains and the dickering starts from there! A couple of them have even called me when they know they are blowing out something I would be interested in.

This may be a bit odd but I Love my wood....

[stoney]

"My latest recreation has been working on the house and out buildings."

Maybe you could start with indoor plumbing, Clip. It really is handy in the middle of the night... ;D

[stoney]

"This may be a bit odd but I Love my wood.... "

Typical man...

[Yee-HA I'm on a roll today!!! ]

[firstamendment]

A few tips on vinyl siding that I have learned. I have not done much but make sure to start your starter strip level or else the rest will not be level and straight either. Also, you can use galvanized roofing nails for the nail flange on the top of each siding panel but DO NOT hammer them in all the way. I found that out the hard way. Vinyl expands and contracts with temperature. If you hammer the nail flange in too snug, the vinyl panels will buckle and warp. I believe they recommend leaving the nails out by 1/8" or 1/4"?

DIY stuff is fun. I do not mind remodeling or improving items. I get pissed off when people break stuff then I HAVE to fix them. I have 3 more windows upstairs at home to replace. Right now its been a fight with the weather and with my wife to LET me use some of our money for what I want to do. Seeing all 3 windows are for our bedroom, I don't understand the issue.

[JGRobinson]

Thanks Stoney....

[bobbbiez]

Whenever any of you handy-dandy men get bored we can always use a helping hand here with this old farmhouse we just bought. I'm not too proud to ask for help. ;D

[JGRobinson]

Sounds like you have to work on your Huck Finn Fence painting party technique. Old houses need many handy hands...

[bobbbiez]

...........and that's the truth, the whole truth.

Right now I'm sitting here watching our front lawn being dug up because of a big old tree root doing through our main drain pipe and every things been backing up. And here I thought most of the big projects were all done.

[JGRobinson]

The underground holds more secrets and surprises than the above! Its rarely what we can see that surprises us, its what we cant. Sorry to hear, good luck unblocking!