Okay, make sure DW isn’t watching over your shoulder, guys, because we could all get in trouble if she ever finds this thread, LOL….
We are all supposed to be bad about working on our own places. In fact it’s become a kind of standard joke that you can tell the pro’s house by the uncompleted punch list items in it.
Today I finally got to one of those Personal Punch List items that’s been buggin’ me for at least two or three years. I’ve got a small timber-framed cabin down by the lake that has been sitting on wet ground for 40 years, and only three years ago did I first notice the thing had sagged to the point where the door wouldn’t open more than a third of the way without scraping the deck in front of it.
So, naturally I raised the door-sweep. When that didn’t work anymore, I squeezed into it only when I had to, and kept telling myself I’d have to dig it out and jack it up to put it on some concrete blocks….
I never did anything until today…because everytime I looked at the project, it grew in my imagination until I convinced myself I couldn’t deal with it just then: Let’s see, I’m gonna need a couple o’ steel beams, and a bunch of cribbing; I oughta rent a back-hoe to dig it out and handle the steel, maybe a couple of powered bottle jacks….
The job took me two and a half hours, start to finish. I dug it out with a spade and jacked it up with a bottle jack on a roof timber until I could get a trolley jack under the floor. Didn’t even have to buy a stick of wood.
Good grief….
Now all I gotta do is get to the rest of my punch list. Like the second floor mouldings. Like replacing the rotted joists and deck boards on the dock. Like….
So come on, guys–fess up. What projects around your place have you been creatively ignoring…and what ones have you actually done anything about?
Maybe we’ll put some good-natured pressure on each other and get a few of these things done….
Dinosaur
A day may come when the courage of men fails,when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship…
But it is not this day.
Replies
You gotta be pullin my leg...Oh please man...please..don't make me confess..what did i do to you , to make you , make me, fess up?
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Time, time, time look what's become of us..
Time is all we have, spend it wisely with fervor..dance for no reason, love with out plans and live without worries..we all can.
You're exempt. You don't need to say a word.
Actually, it's troublemakers like you that make the rest of us feel bad.
Go ahead, into your easy chair. Push back, enjoy that beer, and send us some more pictures.
Don
You asked for it.
I have a zillion pics of this ride Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Insert your favorite George Harrison song HERE.
Started painting the exterior trim on the house last Feb (16 mos ago). House is one story all brick, just 2 gables. About one more gallon should do it ...
I'm sorry, I thought you wanted it done the right way.
I'm not tellin' youse guys nuttin'!!
You think Mr Magoo got a raggin' with his 4-year unfinished project... I don't need to hear from all of you what my wife tells me on an all too regular basis.
Besides, I'm redesigning the homestead and maybe I'll get to post some progress pics later on. When I get shoes for the kids.
Last weekend I finally put up some special-order window blinds bought early this spring.
Figured I'd better gettum up before the heat sets in or.....
Drip edge on cabin roof over the porch.
Was going to add it in 1980, never got around to it, was DEFinitely going to add it 5 years ago when some soft spots in plywood were noted. Well, will replace the roof deck and roof in a few years, as there is now some rot. (see 10 year roof, GMBH, FHB Nov 1990). Oh well, been to Europe more often in last 5 years than to the cabin.
"A finished home is a listed home." Lisa L.
Shout out to Andy C. Namaste my friend.
http://www.hay98.com/
had a plumbing leak 2 ... maybe 3 years ago.
bath is right above the living room ...
so we cut the access holes ...
I actually got all the plumbing fixed ...
about a year ago I got so far on the ceiling work to have some scraps of drywall set on the front porch ...
maybe I'll get around to the actual patching tomorrow?
Jeff
Buck Construction
Artistry In Carpentry
Pittsburgh Pa
Wow and you ripped Magoo a new one for the slow siding.
my kitcern counter is a sheet of plywood. , bathroom tile is hardi board. electrical to shop is extention cord.
That all sound finnished . I think you are good to go.
good thing I didn't tell ya about the bath still needed chair rail and base!
and a marble threshold ... or maybe oak .... either would match.
plus ... the pedestal sink should really be mounted to the wall some day too ...
at least my neighbors can't see it.
Jeff Buck Construction
Artistry In Carpentry
Pittsburgh Pa
That is funny and all of this could have been avoided if only Magoo would have painted his tarpaper. We don' have enough space here and I don't have enough time to list what I have yet to do
hm.
Tell ya what.
I''ll let you know when I check off the next one.
SamT
Let me ask the wife. I must have mislaid my copy...
Welcome to the
Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
Excellence is its own reward!
Half of our house has plywood floor. Four bathrooms, zero completely finished. Started finishing the basement three and a half years ago. The year before I left my government job to be a self employed carpenter. I'm telling my kids maybe ready for this year. I'm going to reward myself with a big television for down there if there is hockey next year.
We moved in to this new house I built when our now nine year old twins were three months old.
I sure enjoy being a Dad though, there will be lots more time to work on the house when my girls want to spend time with their friends instead of me.
Have a good day
Cliffy
Sweet, just Sweetly phrased. Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Time, time, time look what's become of us..Time is all we have, spend it wisely with fervor..dance for no reason, love with out plans and live without worries..we all can.
I left two replacement Pellas without jamb extensions or casings in our bedroom and bathroom, for 6 years or so. Got it done when I put the house up for sale. Duh.
And I won't admit to the current ones for fear of being laughed off this board. ;)
I left two replacement Pellas without jamb extensions or casings in our bedroom and bathroom, for 6 years or so. Got it done when I put the house up for sale. Duh.
Oh crap, you just reminded me about the window for the basement bathroom I never built (uh, let's see, that's 10 years, ayup!) That nice hole in the concrete wall is plugged by a fixed pane of ¼" plate glass scrap I had lying around, painted black on the inside so you think the lights are out if you try to look in from the outside, and backed with a couple of old blankets, mover's mats, and some scrap melamine to hold it all in tight. Only leaks cold air when it blows hard outta the northwest, LOL; has to be -25 or worse before the plumbing in that wall freezes....
Figure that one can wait another summer.... But heck I can't do it in the winter....
So what I did today was another minor job. This one was a five-minute special I just never got around to. The Casablanca fan in the upstairs hallway--the one that brings up the warm air from the wood stove in the winter and the cool air from the basement in the summer--well, I broke a blade on it about 9 years ago and had epoxied it back together, but it's been outta balance ever since, so it wobbles. Can't run it on high speed; sounds like a rock-sifter in action and scares me switless anyway. Also, two outta three of the lightbulbs were dead; one I couldn't unscrew cause the socket came loose inside the fixture; the other the bulb twisted off its base and left the brass stuck in the socket.
So, today and for the last three or five days temps are in the high 20s or low 30s (that's close to 90 of those undersized degrees they use down south of the border). It'd really be nice to be able to kick that sucker up to warp speed and suck that nice cool, dry air outta my basement up in to the second storey, wouldn't it?? Ah, it's no big deal--I'll just get me some duct tape and a box of washers and balance the blades. Shoulda done it years ago. Five minute job...
Took me two hours while I climbed up and down and up and down and up and down that ladder.... Goldurn five-bladed penta-fan. Try and hang a weight on the opposite blade on that set up....
Planned ahead, too, so I had bought new light bulbs when I went down to the village for Guinness this am. So since I've got 'em, and since I was already up there with the ladder and the tools, I figure I might as well spend another five minutes and dig out those old bulbs and screw in some new ones. Be nice to be able to see the etchings on the walls of the upstairs hallway, since I just finished washing the glass in all the frames.
Took me another hour and a half as one of the fixtures came apart in my hands and I had to disassemble the entire friggin' light fixture plate and take it down to the shop...where at least it was nice and cool....
Wonder what I'm gonna do tomorrow....
Dinosaur
A day may come when the courage of men fails,when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship...
But it is not this day.
Have you seen the Home Depot ad with the unfinished projects in every room...fence posts but no fence, Andy Gump in the bathroom, etc., etc. Well, that was filmed at my house!
Read the Magoo thread...I was uncharacteristically silent on that one.
Been workin' on mine for four years and had to live with my wife and kids on the inside of the house. Since the inside still ain't done...well the siding ain't neither. It is 90% done on the three most visible sides. Heck it's even painted purdy on the front and first story on two more sides. Plan to finish painting those two sides this month though. Might even finish the siding later this summer (After flooring and trim are finished inside--have the final 25% of that stuff to finish off--at least I think it's 25%...maybe 35%).
Then there is the bathroom to install on the second floor.
Then I get to renovate the ballroom. I bet most of you haven't finish your ballrooms yet neither.
I justify taking so long because the scope of my project was so huge, it is so much better than the abondoned wreck I bought, it is at the end of a dead-end with uninhabited state, city, and railroad land on three sides. That neighbor on the forth side...oh well. I wish I could say progess is slow and steady, but it is more like spastic.
"Looks good from the front"
Before we bought our house I promised her a second floor bath right away, three years this month and nothing even started yet. There is SOME truth to "I don't want to start a project if I can't do it right", because of $$ or ideas( haven't got it perfectly laid out in my head yet). I guess the rest is not wanting to make sawdust at home when I do it everywhere else for 40-60 hrs/wk.
That's ton of blood on that siding man...I bet that left a mark. LOL Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Time, time, time look what's become of us..Time is all we have, spend it wisely with fervor..dance for no reason, love with out plans and live without worries..we all can.
I build stairs and install railing for food. When we moved into this house nine years ago I wanted to change the staircase and railings. I have made progress. The stairs are built and the rails are ready, It is all down at the shop waiting. Maybe this month.
Bear
I am not going to fess up to nothing! I didn't even see this thread and if by chance i did, i didn't get a chance to read it. Actually i never even new about this site!
That's my story and i will stick to it!
My punch list is so huge that I don't even know which piece of real estate to start with.
Let's see now
There is of course the "Civil War" house: all of it is on the list
This house here: need to finish up were I took out the wall this spring that I started more then 10 years ago. Paint the exterior. Build a deck in front of the sliding glass door. ............
The .765 acres that a neighbor put part of his driveway across: Build a fence along the property line, and clean up the lot.
The 18,000 sq ft building that we are trying to buy: clean our stuff out of it, fix the roof, rebuild one end of it completely, ..............
As they say: The mechanic drives the worst running car in the shop.
Time to get off of this machine and get something done. But what?
Dane
I will always be a beginner as I am always learning.
I couldn't even BEGIN to make a list. The truck needs the seatbelts installed. And the lights need fixed. And the hydraulics need work.Gotta get the combine running, as the wheat is almost ripe. Need to finish setting up the shop since we moved. I have caninets and lumer all over the basement.Gotta get the sewer working right at the old house. (That's worthy of a thread in itself) Backhoe will be there Monday morning.Need to finish and prime the drywall in the garage so I can get storage shelves and stuff set up. But only after I fix the damage from where my Son backed into the wall. Gotta get some landscaping done here at the new house. There's virtually zero chance DW will do anything about it, even though she has almost the whole freakin' summer off. One of the big trees in the side yard has split, and needs taken down.Got a roof to put on as soon as I can get around to it. And we need the money from the side work to pay for the sewer project.Other than that, I don't know what I'll do in my spare time all summer...
I'm not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I'm not dumb ... and I'm also not blonde. [Dolly Parton]
Sigh.
My wife is only arriving in town in 10 minutes - but she still needs to go though Customs. Maybe I can get a few things done.....
The back deck needs to be finished tearing off, the underground oil tank removed (Hey guys, can I borrow someone's Bobcat? and the kitchen extension shored up so I can put in a footing/foundation (Jim & Kathy Blodgett, want a weekend in Vancouver?) and the deck redone.
My son's bedroom is all finished except I have to plane the window jambs back so I can do the trim-out, everything else is finished, but !Hey! It's not my fault! He refuses to clean his room, and putting all that dust all over his bed is going to make him feel like a gerbil, so I better wait till he goes to camp (2nd year & counting).
My mantle need to have the painted finished stripping (95% done) and re-finished.
TV room needs the wall repaired & painted.
Oops, gotta got the the 'drome and pick up the DW. No time now .....Quality repairs for your home.
AaronR ConstructionVancouver, Canada
Dino, your post about the cabin door really hit home; why is it that a task that someone else wants me to do for them - which might take, say, half a day at their house - is so daunting when it's my own house that needs the work? When I'm at a job, I'm a compulsive "fixer". Yesterday I was at a client's house taking care of a quick punch list item on the patio, and I needed a paper towel to clean up some glue. The clients (a widow and her daughter) weren't home, so I went into the kitchen and found a roll on a dispenser, which was attached to the cabinet door under the sink. The dispenser was poorly installed, and pinched the roll so badly that when I tried to pull a sheet the whole door came loose at the bottom -"what th-". I looked and found that the lower "euro" hinge was missing one of those little stainless machine screws and the door had been resting like that for who knows how long. On a hunch, I pressed my face to the floor, and moments later saw something shiny under the stove a few feet away - it was the screw, probably missing for months. Feeling like a champ, I reinstalled the screw, then tightened the paper towel dispenser, which now rolls smoothly. Ahhh. I washed the dried glue off my hands (now... what did I come in here for?), then went to throw away the paper towels. I couldn't find a trash can in the kitchen, so I went to throw them In the toilet when I noticed that the seat was so loose, it almost came off in my hand (how do they LIVE like this?). Now I'm on my knees, tightening the nylon seat nuts which had somehow come almost all the way off (that's a long way!). I rewashed my hands in the bathroom, then dried them on a towel. The towel bar was about to fall off, but I had my 4 in 1 screwdriver so...
Later, I get home and decide to have a beer. The fridge door handle has to be used with caution, because IT'S missing a screw. Oh, I could fix it pretty easily, but what i really want to do is switch the hinges to the other side. I dont' want to do that, though, because I might relocate the fridge when I build the new cabinets. Can't build The cabinets 'till I'm ready to move the sink, which is a couple of inches off center from the window. Can't move the sink without moving the faucet (wall mount), and when I do that I'll want to change the galvy to copper. Might as well run new copper all the way to the street. Rent a trencher and... Oh, gotta fix the Buick first, it's right in the way... ahh, ferget it. where's my duct tape?