# First Home, Many Projects



## Dinggus

I'm 22yrs old, and my wife and I just bought a house. It was built in 1977, all brick. Has a nice front and back yard, and so far the wife and I are painted all the rooms. Here is a list:

Painting:
[x] Living Room - Navy Blue / White Crown Molding / Lime Green accents (ex: candle holders/picture frames)
[x] Master Bedroom - Hot Pink / _White Crown Molding (Unfinished)_ / Black accents
[x] My Man Cave - Red / _White Crown Molding (Unfinished)_ / White & Black accents
Friend's Room - San Diego Charger Blue (that's what he calls it)
Kitchen - Light Brown / White Crown Molding / Brown Accents

Frontyard:
Expand the driveway - Only 1 car port, would like to have a wide driveway to park cars without a hassle
Solar Panel Lights - The small ones just to light up the drive way / walk way
White Picket Fence (Maybe)
2 car garage - I've never seen a 2 car garage in NC, and I'd like one if possible.

Backyard:
Privacy Fence - Would have to talk to neighbors, and don't know if I'd DIY on that one, ha.
Porch
Outside Bar
Solar Panel Lights

Inside:
Our kitchen area is like a small rectangle, and it doesn't make sense, the sink and dishwasher are across the room from each other, so the wife and I are thinking about knocking out the wall that separates the kitchen and dinning room, then expanding the kitchen cabinets and moving the dishwasher next to the sink and what not. She also wants like a breakfast counter type deal. We're having a Home Depot guy come Sunday morning to give us an estimate on how much it would cost.

---

*Master Bedroom:*


























*Man Cave:*
Here is my unfinished Man Cave that the wife help paint and setup. Forgive me for the iPhone pictures, can't find my camera still.

Entrance:









I'll probably have a workout machine in the corner:









Can't really put anything in that corner:









This is where the 32" that is on the floor will be mounted:









This is the new 27" iMac that I just bought:









This is where my couch is going:


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## Dinggus

*Man Cave Update:*



















Still need to hang up some photo's/poster's and get a nice small couch or futon for the room.

*Living Room:*
_Before_

















_After_

























We're either looking to get a sectional, or just the second piece to this couch to fill it up more.


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## no1hustler

Looking good. its amazing what a little paint can do. What games do you play on the 360? Ever hear of theadultgamer.com?


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## Dinggus

I just play MW2. Sometimes I play Left4Dead2, and my friend got me to download Monday Night Combat. But, I just play MW2 most of the time.

No, I've never heard of the forums, what's it about?


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## no1hustler

Dinggus said:


> I just play MW2. Sometimes I play Left4Dead2, and my friend got me to download Monday Night Combat. But, I just play MW2 most of the time.
> 
> No, I've never heard of the forums, what's it about?


It is a 21+ gaming forum. We are a bunch of adults that got fed up with screaming 12 year olds and glitchers. We have plenty of members on the site with all three of those mentioned games. Sign up and come out and play sometime. We aren't very competitive, we just play to have a good time.


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## Dinggus

So, how do you avoid the 12yr olds?


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## no1hustler

Dinggus said:


> So, how do you avoid the 12yr olds?


Haha, well we can't avoid them entirely but a lot of times we can get enough members to play so its only our group.


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## Dinggus

Sounds good, I'm one of those guys who likes to talk **** to piss everyone else off.


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## epson

Is that paintball gear I see?


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## Dinggus

Where?


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## epson

I see a something on the floor that looks like a back pack or something with a pod on it? I was just asking…


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## Dinggus

I have paintball gear that is about 6 years old. The stuff you see is army equipment.


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## epson

Aha ok, Well that explains it then…


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## Dinggus

So, first month living in my new home, and my electricity bill is $268! The A/C only kicks on when the house is hotter than 80ish degree's. What are some things I can do to keep this electricity bill down?


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## nyerinfl

Dinggus said:


> So, first month living in my new home, and my electricity bill is $268! The A/C only kicks on when the house is hotter than 80ish degree's. What are some things I can do to keep this electricity bill down?


1. Lower the temperature setting on your water heater.
2. Compact florescent light bulbs.
3. Turn lights off when not in use.
4. Proper insulation.
5. More energy effecient air conditioner.


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## Dinggus

1. How?
2. Those are the energy saving ones?
3. Already do.
4. How do I know? The house was built in 1977.
5. I'm not sure if I have one, all I know is the thermostat is an old one that has a little adjuster leveler on the side, ha!


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## no1hustler

Dinggus said:


> 1. How?
> 2. Those are the energy saving ones?
> 3. Already do.
> 4. How do I know? The house was built in 1977.
> 5. I'm not sure if I have one, all I know is the thermostat is an old one that has a little adjuster leveler on the side, ha!


1. Real easy: http://www.ehow.com/how_4435452_adjust-temperature-electric-water-heater.html
2.Yes, the funny looking ones.
3. You can also plug things into power strips and just turn them completely off when you aren't using them. That will stop the "phantom" power loss.


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## Dinggus

Thanks, I was thinking about going that route, only thing I'd need to be actually plugged in the living room is the DVR. My Man Cave would just need modem, router, and computer to be plugged in. Everything else in my house could just use a power strip.

The light bulbs I bought are like twist looking ones. I did have a question about 4 light bulb fan, if I only have 1 screwed in, would the 3 empty ones still draw power?


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## no1hustler

Dinggus said:


> Thanks, I was thinking about going that route, only thing I'd need to be actually plugged in the living room is the DVR. My Man Cave would just need modem, router, and computer to be plugged in. Everything else in my house could just use a power strip.
> 
> The light bulbs I bought are like twist looking ones. I did have a question about 4 light bulb fan, if I only have 1 screwed in, would the 3 empty ones still draw power?


It will not.


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## Dinggus

I was just making sure. Also would an outlet controlled by a light switch draw power if it's not switched on? And if I upgrade my thermostat to a new one would that help as well for my electricity bill? This is what I have.


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## no1hustler

Dinggus said:


> I was just making sure. Also would an outlet controlled by a light switch draw power if it's not switched on? And if I upgrade my thermostat to a new one would that help as well for my electricity bill? This is what I have.



The outlet will not draw power if the switch is off. The circuit is not complete until it is turned on. 

You can save power if you install a programmable thermostat. That way you can set it so it turns the the heat/AC when you aren't actually home. They are pretty cheap and easy to install.


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## Dinggus

Thanks for the answer, is there a way I can hook up another outlet to a switch? I like that idea of being about to cut power on or off.

So a thermostat advantage is only to time?


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## no1hustler

Dinggus said:


> Thanks for the answer, is there a way I can hook up another outlet to a switch? I like that idea of being about to cut power on or off.
> 
> So a thermostat advantage is only to time?


You can probably hook up another outlet to a switch or add another switch but I can't comment on it much more than that. I have very limited knowledge on running wires. 

I believe that is one of the biggest advantages with a new thermostat. Perhaps newer models can check room temperatures better. I know mine isn't very accurate and I'll be changing mine out before it gets too cold.


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## Dinggus

Okay thanks! Well supposedly our house is 97 degree's very time.


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## Dinggus

I also want to look at getting products that are Energy Star Qualified, correct?

http://www.lowes.com/pd_225410-3742... 4294867585_4294937087_?Ns=p_product_rating|0

Or would this be fine, even thought it's not Energy Star Qualified.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_39500-74493-RTH6300B1005_4294821951_4294937087?productId=3134443&Ns=p_product_rating|0&pl=1&currentURL=/pl_Programmable%2BThermostats_4294821951_4294937087_?Ns=p_product_rating|0


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## Dinggus

Well, I'm still replying in hopes people help. I ended up buying this:

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs...langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=202024248

The home depot clerk told me the wires will be labeled, and just remember what their label was and connect it to the new thermostat. Here's the issue, there are no labels on mine. The instructions say ignore wire colors, there should be a identification next to the terminal screw which I do not see.

*Edit:* Guess there are 2 face plates to the mount, removed it and now I got it to work!'


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## no1hustler

Looks good. I'd say anything you get would be an improvement over your old one.


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## Dinggus

Yeah. It's nice, I'm using the energystar setting what they recommend for summer. Once I'm done working on my truck
I plan on checking out my water heater to see how old it is.


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## gma2rjc

My heat bill was $131 a month, year round on the budget plan with the gas company.

I did the following and lowered it to $61 a month, year round. 

1. Sealed the attic and added cellulose insulation from R-19 to about R-58.
2. Sealed the seams on all exposed heat ducts and furnace.
3. Replaced several older windows. Still have 5 to go.
4. Replaced drafty front door.
5. Gaskets on all electrical outlets in walls.
6. Sealed and insulated rim joists in basement.
7. Installed a draft blocker in the dryer vent to keep cold air from coming in. That made a huge difference. There used to be cold air flowing in from the dryer vent.
8. Still have to insulate the heat ducts that have been sealed.

There are more things, but I can't think of them right now.

I won't use CFL bulbs in my house, but I noticed a drop in my electric bill when I plugged all of of my computer stuff into a power strip and turn the power to it off every night and when I'm not using it during the day.

During the colder months, I turn the dial down a little bit in my refrigerator.

The navy blue paint on your walls looks great.


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## Dinggus

$61! I'm hoping that most of the bill was due to a turn-on fee since it was my first bill.

1. How do I know if my attic is sealed and if I need insulation? The wife said when she looked up there, it was insulated, but when we first moved in, the house would get up to like 97 degrees.
2. What do you use to seal these heat ducts?
3. I've been told my windows are the energystar ones, double layered?








4. Couldn't I just buy the weatherstrips?
5. What's a gasket?
6. Don't have a basement.
7. Where did you get this draft blocker?
8. Heat ducts are the air vents?

Why won't you use the CFL bulbs? I plan on buying this:

I think I'll find it very useful, in the living room all I need on is the DVR so our shows record. In my Man Cave, all I need on is my internet and computer. The xbox, TV, printer, paper shredder can be plugged into this.










Thanks, I we like them as well. Once we fill the living room up some more, I'll take some updated photo's.


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## gma2rjc

I lived in my house for over 11 years before I even stood on a ladder to look up in the attic.

I always thought it had enough insulation because I didn't have any bare spots on the roof after we got a heavy snow. Wrong.

There were batts of R-19 fiberglass insulation up there. I could write 2 pages about all the stuff I had to do up there to get it ready to insulate, but I'll spare you most of the details. :wink:

What you need to do is find out what the recommended R-factor is for your attic in whatever part of the country you live in. Here, in Michigan, it's R-48 (I'm pretty sure).

Well, first of all, do you have batts of insulation or cellulose?

If you have batts, you can take some cans of Great Stuff foam up there, lift the batts (wear a mask, long pants, long sleeves) and seal any gaps you find. Such as, around wires where they come up into the attic. 

You also need to seal around where there are light fixtures in the ceiling of the rooms below. But you can't just cover those with the foam. Depending on what kind of fixture it is, there is a proper way to cover it. For example, there are a couple different kinds of recessed lighting fixtures. Some get too hot to just cover them up. Some don't. Do a search about it on this forum. There are quite a few threads that talk about it and in some of those threads, a few of the guys posted some very helpful links that will help you understand what you're doing before you go up there.

Another thing about your attic is that you need to have good ventilation. Make sure the soffits aren't blocked and that you have enough venting for the hot air to escape. This is something you'll want to do a search for on this forum for too. You can also start a new thread with it in the proper forum so the right guys will see it and they'll answer your questions. I personally only know about all of this from doing tons of research and asking a lot of questions when I was working in my attic.

When I was up there, I lifted every batt to see what was under it. I'm really glad I did too. Under one of them was the bathroom ceiling fan vent. It was supposed to have been vented to the outside, through the roof. Instead, there was nothing hooked up to it at all. There was just the metal box and blackened insulation around it. I disposed of the black insulation, vented it properly and sealed the box really well so heat wouldn't escape out of the bathroom and around the outside of the metal box. I also sprayed foam around the pvc pipes.

There are probably more things than what I mentioned. Oh, before you climb all the way up there, look around for hornet nests, bats, and rodent droppings. If you find any of those, you'll have to deal with them before you get started, obviously.

If you get up there and find that you have blown-in cellulose, I don't know how you would go about sealing everything. You would just have to move the insulation around I guess. I'm not sure of the proper procedure for that. But I read about a guy who went in his attic with a garden rake and moved the blown-in insulation around so he could seal everything. Where there's a will, there's a way.

You can do this though. I'm a woman and when I went up there I was 45 yrs. old and had ZERO experience. But researching and asking questions is the key.

Once I got the attic properly sealed and _before_ I had the insulation blown-in, I noticed a big difference in the main part of the house, in that, there were no more drafts going along my floors. 

About your other questions:

You mentioned that your house was 97° when you moved in. My house was very warm on the upper floor when we had the central air on. The basement was too cold. I found out that during the summer, heat radiates down from the attic, through the unsealed gaps and uninsulated attic hatch lid. And if there's not enough insulation up there, it radiates down through the drywall on the ceiling.

To seal the heat ducts, which are the metal tubes that lead from your furnace to the heat registers in each room. Are yours in your attic since you don't have a basement?

If you have access to them, find the seam where two pieces of duct are fitted together. Dust them off, at least where the tape will be. Then wipe with a damp cloth to get it clean. When it's dry, use metal tape, NOT duct tape, and wrap it around the duct, over the seams. You can get that tape in the heating and cooling dept. at your local hardware, Home Depot, etc. I think I paid about $15 a roll. 

When you're done with that, wrap insulation around the vents. They sell a special insulation for this. It's not as thick as the regular insulation.

The draft blocker I got at Lowe's in the heating and cooling dept. You put it inline in a vertical section of your dryer vent. Just make sure that it's facing the right way. it should open up when the dryer is on and close when it's not. It should keep a lot of the cold air from coming in through the dryer. 

Before I put that in, cold air flowed out of my dryer when I opened it and the floor around the dryer was always so cold in the winter. Not anymore!

If your windows are in good shape and you don't feel a draft coming in around them, I'm not sure why you'd need the weather stripping. 

If you ever have the trim around your windows and exterior doors off, grab a can of Great Stuff (for windows and doors) and spray it in the gaps around the windows. It works a lot better than the pink insulation that might be in there now. That's something I still have to do with my windows and one door.

As far as the CFL bulbs go, I won't use them because they have mercury in them and I'm afraid of the kids breaking one of them. Also, there are a bunch of them that were made in China that catch fire. Google 'CFL bulbs catching on fire'. They're not all like that, but I'm not taking any chances. 

I like the power strip you're buying. Especially the remote for it. 

With all the stuff I told you about what to do in the attic, remember that every attic is different and if you reach a point where you're not sure of what to do, stop. Ask questions here on the forum or research it until you're confident as to what to do next. I had to do that quite a few times. 

And when you ask questions, post a couple pictures so people know what you're talking about. You'll get a lot more help that way.

I hope that when you get up there, you'll find that everything has already been sealed and there's plenty of insulation. *fingers crossed*.


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## Dinggus

Thanks for that awesome post! I think I'll climb into the attic with the wife and take pictures and post them up, that way I can get the most help on what to do. Only issue, the wife said there's nothing we could stand on to walk except the beams.


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## gma2rjc

:laughing: Wellllll.... walking on the joists up there isn't really a big deal. I mean, it can be. If you... you know..... don't watch where you're walking. You'll do fine though. Just be extra careful. After a while you'll be able to walk around really well up there.

Someone told me to lay OSB or plywood across the trusses and walk on those. But because of the way my trusses were built, I wasn't able to do that. 

The hardest part is walking up there if the peak isn't very high. Mine is about 5'2" or so under the peak. I couldn't stand up straight, even in the center.

I did really well walking on the trusses until my very last trip up there. I was all done and calling it quits for the night. Instead of making two or three trips to carry everything back to the attic hatch, I carried as much as I could all at once in one arm. The other arm was almost empty as I needed it to hold on the the vertical boards as I walked across the trusses.

I got a couple bays from the hatch and lost my balance. My foot stepped on the drywall below and I heard a crack just before I lifted it back up and allowed myself to fall forward onto my shoulder against a board on the next truss over. I never put my full weight on the drywall, so my foot didn't go through it. Whew!

I went downstairs and tried to find the part of the ceiling where my foot caused that cracking sound. It was in the hallway and it looks like a fine pencil mark about 3 feet long.

That was in about January of 2009. 

About a month ago, my husband yelled for me to come look at the ceiling in the hallway. "What is that?" he said. :whistling2:


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## Dinggus

Ha, nice. My wife and I were also looking at getting a few tubular skylights. They said its just as bright as 3 light bulbs, so the wife and I were thinking about putting 4 in the living room, kitchen, and my man cave. That way we don't need to use lights.

But like I said, I should have pictures tomorrow of what our attic looks like.


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## Dinggus

Well here are the pictures, had the wife take the photos while I was at work. To my surprise, guess there is no insulation? Also, are the nails suppose to be showing like that, lol.


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## no1hustler

You have insulation, that powder stuff between the rafters is cellulose insulation. Also, those nails through the roofing sheathing is normal.


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## Dinggus

Should I remove it and put in the block kind? Also shouldn't it be on the walls of the roofs and ceilings?


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## Dinggus

What kind of insulation is better? Blown-in or just the one you cut to the shape and lay down? Also, where can I buy insulation at? Home Depot was advertising $0.99/sq ft. for blown-in.

http://www.simplyinsulate.com/savings/

North Carolina for Existing Wood-Framed Houses (I fall under 3), I would need between R30 and R60?


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## gma2rjc

When I was researching it, I found out that cellulose is better than fiberglass. Fiberglass loses some R-value when the temperatures drop real low. That's what I read anyway. 

I didn't do what I'm about to suggest, but I wish I had.

If you can afford it, you can have a company come to your house and professionally spray foam in your attic. The foam acts as a vapor barrier and it leaves no gaps or spaces where air can escape from your living space.

One video I saw said to do the spray foam and then have cellulose put in on top of that. Adding the insulation didn't make any sense to me, but there could be a reason for it.

There is another kind of insulation too. It's called Roxul. They just started selling it in the U.S. not too long ago. It's awesome. 

www.roxul.com 

There should be a spot on their website that tells you if a store in your area sells it.

If you go with the cellulose, you can rent a machine at Home Depot or Lowe's. One of the two lets you use it for free if you spend a certain amount on insulation. At least that was the case 2 years ago.

Barb


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## Dinggus

Cellulose the one you blow in?


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## gma2rjc

Yes, cellulose is the blow-in.

I planned on doing that myself, but after having about 5 insulation companies come to my house to give me estimates, I found out that I'd only save a couple hundred dollars doing it myself. 

That's a lot of money, but I was told that the cellulose they can buy is better than what I could get at Home Depot. It also has more boric acid in it - which keeps bugs and animals out of your attic. And it's safe for humans. Boric acid is what they put in a baby's eyes when they're first born. But if you're going to blow the insulation in yourself, you'll want to wear some kind of mask over you mouth and nose while you're up in the attic.

Here are some insulation websites I found on this forum and saved:

I haven't checked them in a while, so a few of them might not work.



http://bct.nrc.umass.edu/index.php/publications/by-title/cellulose-insulation-a-smart-choice/


http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/insulation.html


http://www.cellulose.org/userdocs/T.../ConsumerUpdate02-InsulationEffectiveness.pdf


http://oikos.com/esb/38/floorinsulation.html


http://www.simplesavings.coop/simplesavings/SIMPLESAVINGS knee walls.pdf


http://www.insulating-products.com/pdfs/Installation_FAQ.pdf


http://oikos.com/library/insulating_framed_walls/index.html


http://www.familyhandyman.com/DIY-P...Energy-Efficiency/how-to-seal-attic-air-leaks


http://www.enersavesystems.com/pdf/Economic-Thickness-of-Thermal-Insulation.pdf

http://www.enersavesystems.com/pdf/Economic-Thickness-of-Thermal-Insulation.pdf




Barb


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## cocobolo

Good morning Dinggus:

It seems to me like you have found the biggest part of your electrical consumption problem.

Yes, it's true you have _some_ insulation in your attic, but it doesn't look like any too much to me. Some of the spots look practically empty. The evidence is in both your outrageous electric bill and the heat which very likely comes from your attic. Not good.

You have already had an incredible reply to many of your questions from Barb, and she is speaking from personal experience, which is always the best kind.

When you have an existing building - as you do - I would say your best bet is to use blown in cellulose insulation. However, before you do that, I think I must agree with what Barb says about locating and sealing up any gaps which you may have in the attic ceiling. It is quite incredible how much air will move through the smallest of gaps. And the sad fact is that all that air - which moves through 24/7, is taking the heat out with it. No point in trying to heat North Carolina, is there?

In Barb's case, she had no vapour barrier in place, and it is quite possible that you don't either. Please excuse my Canadian spellings from time to time!

If you do have such a barrier, then all you need to do is to locate any holes and plug them up. Either with tape or some sort of foam perhaps. It would depend on where and what the leak is. If you have a poly vapour barrier, tape will work in most places, except where you have a pipe penetration of some sort, then foam will work. Make sure that if you want to use foam that the pipe in question doesn't get hot, as in the case of a B vent from a gas furnace.

I believe there is a special sealant for that - check with Barb. That's not a question I have any personal experience with.

I would suggest as a first step that you go up in to the attic with a roll of tape and a couple of cans of spray foam.

Systematically go over the entire attic area - it won't be a pleasant job - and fix every leak you can find.

You will need to push the insulation out of the way as you go in order not to miss anything. Take your camera with you.

For a 22 year old you're certainly tackling a pretty major project. I wish you well!

Welcome to the world of DIY.


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## Hurriken

Most of GMA2RJC's post could have been written by me. I have been going through the same thing here in Chicago. If I could add? Fayetteville, NC has a fairly mild winter climate but extreme heat in the summer if I remember correctly, I've been there a few times, love the pine tree forests. I noticed in the first thermostat pic on Sept 9th you had it set for 70 degrees. Is it that cool already? I hate to sound like mom but here goes. We keep ours at 65 during the winter. We wear warm clothes, slippers, and use blankets when were watching TV. I like to think we have saved a lot of money doing that! In the summer does it really have to feel like a meat locker in the house? Turn the heater and AC down when you leave or go to bed. Our house was terrible but I had neither the time, money, or know how to fix it. I finally realized an hour here and there adds up, it wasn't as expensive as we expected...except the furnace (ours had a cracked manifold) and you can learn anything using the internet or library. 

On the internet I found so much conflicting information about attic insulation it made my head spin. The problem is that every region does things a bit differently. What I finally did was to go to several home improvement store in the area, found someone that seemed to know what they are talking about , and asked questions about local insulation. I took notes, compared them and formed my own plan. 

If you decide to add more insulation don't remove the old stuff. It does not go bad unless it gets wet. Yours looks fine to me. Do what the others suggested, checked light fixtures for gaps and make sure bathroom fans are hooked up right. Our attic door is a piece of drywall. It had nothing on it. Insulating that made a big difference. 

BTW, did you save the biege paint? You can fix that wall around the thermostat pretty quick with some wall putty and some sandpaper.


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## Dinggus

Thank you Barb! How much did it cost? A friend and I are going to go into the attic and look for seals and what not. What kind of type and foam do you suggest? I'm going to try to do as much as I can, being in the Army keeps my life pretty busy.

The first thermostat was just a picture I found online, but it is the same one. Winter isn't that bad here, it's rare if it snows but it does get cold. Summer is extremely hot. The wife and I rarely used the heater, we bought a heated blanket for the winter. As for bathroom fans, we don't have any. As for the paint, no the previous owners didn't leave any. We're still deciding what to paint our hallways.


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## cocobolo

Note to Hurriken, without quoting the whole post...In case you had the idea I was suggesting that he actually remove the existing insulation, that wasn't my intention. :no:

There is hardly any insulation there if you look at the pictures. But he will need to _temporarily_ move it out of the way to check for any potential leaks.

By all means keep everything that is there, no point in wasting any of it.


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## Dinggus

So just remove it and do want I have to then put it back?


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## cocobolo

Dinggus said:


> So just remove it and do want I have to then put it back?


Dinggus, the only reason you are going to move it at all is to look and see if you have any potential leaks. It looks to me like it is loose insulation, so get yourself a mask and gloves on and just move it out of the way as you go up and down each cavity between the trusses up there.

You can tell after awhile where the leaks are likely to be. Around any intrusion into the ceiling and maybe around the perimeter. You should be able to see the drywall joints as well, good idea to make sure there are no leaks there too.

Once you get started it won't take you long.


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## Dinggus

Okay. What kind of foam would I use to seal things? I seen some in a can at home depot just don't remember the name.


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## cocobolo

I think the most common one where you are is Great Stuff. You could always ask when you're at the store if there is anything more suitable.


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## steveel

First bill? It might be for more than 30 days, might have a hookup fee, might have a security deposit.... are you sure that's just one month's worth of juice?

First project... try to do as little as possible for one year to get the feel for the place before doing "discretionary" improvements. Meanwhile just fix what really must be fixed. That way if you find a problem in winter that did not show in summer or vice versa you haven't tied your money up in, say, kitchen updates you could survive without for a little while. You also have lots of time to mull over ideas.

To reduce the AC bill try to reduce the sun on the windows by providing shade OUTSIDE the glass. Consider awnings for a real improvmeent later.


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## gma2rjc

Yep. Keep what you have. When you're all done sealing everything up, you can spread it back out. 

The foam I used is called "Great Stuff". It's in a red can. 

Cocobolo mentioned sealing around a hot pipe, like a B vent from your furnace or a gas water heater. Great Stuff also makes foam for 'high heat'. I'm not sure of the purpose of that stuff. I set some of it on fire out in the back yard one time (I wondered if it really was fire resistant). It burned just as easily as the regular Great Stuff. I have pictures of it here on the forum somewhere. Maybe in the How-To forum in the 'How to Fireblock' thread.

A moderator here, AtlanticWBConstruction, told me to look at Home Depot in the department that sells wood stoves for caulk that is meant for high temperatures, like you'd get with a woodstove pipe. 

Don't expect to find it in the paint department with the other caulks and adhesives. At the time, there were two other kinds of caulk in that department that were supposed to be for high heat, but after reading the information, they weren't very good.

You asked how much it cost. I'm not sure if you meant for sealing the attic or for insulating.

I know I used at least 15 cans of Great Stuff. You have to watch out for what you're getting. Home Depot and Lowe's, in my area, sell two different size cans. If I remember right, Home Depot had the better price, but you'll want to compare prices yourself in your area.

Other than that, it seemed like I was always running to Lowe's for something else I needed up there. 

My attic needed more than sealing and insulating. I kept finding weird problems up there. So it may not be so expensive for you.

I believe I paid the insulation guy $925 to add 2 or 3 extra square vents onto the roof and add however many inches of insulation - 14 or 16". 

With you having such warm summers, you'll want to have a high R-value. Go higher than what is recommended for your area.

Your cost may be different, depending on the size of your attic and how much you want to add.

Hurriken mentioned insulating the lid of the hatch. That is one of the most important things to do. Mine is made of plywood. I stacked 2 pieces of 2" extruded foam board (blue stuff) on top of it, a few layers of Reflectix and one layer of some R-13 fiberglass insulation I had around the house. Im not sure if it's enough, but it's much better than it was. The insulation guy said he would have added the two layers of foam only. 

Another really important thing about the hatch, is the gasket that the lid rests on when the attic is closed. Mine had a gasket on it, but it wasn't in perfect shape and there was a gap in it at one of the corners. 

A new gasket is very cheap and well worth the couple minutes it takes to put it in. You'll find them in the same aisle as the rest of the weather proofing products.

On another note: Thank you for serving our country! 

Barb


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## gma2rjc

steveel said:


> First bill? It might be for more than 30 days, might have a hookup fee, might have a security deposit.... are you sure that's just one month's worth of juice?


You can contact your power company and ask them how much the bills for that house were up to (maybe more) 1 year past. 

With the little bit of insulation you have up there now, you're definitely going to save money by sealing and insulating. It's better to start saving right off the bat than to waste money on your electric bill until you get around to it.

Barb


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## Dinggus

My house is around 1400sqft. I'll grab a few cans of Great Foam and if I run out, just mark the area so I can come back to it when I get more.

Also, I'll go pick up a few cans of Great Stuff. A 16oz at Home Depot its $3.98 and a 12oz at Lowes its $3.88.

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053
^^^ This stuff for cracks?

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053
^^^ This stuff for pipes (PVC, eletrical, etc)?


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## cocobolo

I think you're on the right track there. The second Great Stuff product - the fireblock - looks like it is to prevent (or slow down) the spread of fire. 

You should find out if it would work around a hot exhaust pipe.

Do you have a gas furnace? Or gas water heater? Or is it all electric heat and hot water? 

If it's all electric, then you probably wouldn't have a B vent, which is the kind that gets warm. However, the B vent is double walled and does not get _that_ hot. Still and all, I would make sure any foam you use around something like that will tolerate high heat.


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## Dinggus

The water heater is electric heat and hot water (I believe). Friend and I will be going into the attic tomorrow.


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## cocobolo

Dinggus said:


> The water heater is electric heat and hot water (I believe). Friend and I will be going into the attic tomorrow.


Sounds like no B vent, so no hot pipes to worry about.

If you can take a couple of pieces of plywood up with you tomorrow, say about 26-28" x 12-18", you can lay those on the trusses to make it easier to work. Best if you have two each - one for your knees the other for your toes to land on.


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## Dinggus

Okay, thanks! We'll also need gloves and masks, right?


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## cocobolo

Dinggus said:


> Okay, thanks! We'll also need gloves and masks, right?


You betcha!


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## Hurriken

If you have an extra $20, get some knee pads. The crawling is tough on the knees and I find I can go faster with them.


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## Dinggus

Okay, I'll just use the Army issued ones.


----------



## steveel

More advice if useful, pardon the brevity that sounds like "do this do that". Take what makes sense to you, here's how I do it

If you need power up there and batteries won't do it you might try this:

string a wire tightly across the attic. Add shower hooks. Attach extension cord with a multi-plug end to shower hooks using twisties or zipties, but be careful not to twist or pull so hard you cut into cord insulation. Now cord will move with you down the main corridor without being underfoot or dragging in dusty insulation etc

I like a full respirator with HEPA particulate filters, or these
http://www.amazon.com/3M-8511-Particulate-Sanding-Respirator/dp/B0002YKBV2

Gloves

wear work clothes you won't mind trashing. Blowfoam is messy and
hard to clean. Hat or bandana to help keep it out of hair. Coffee can with v cut in plastic lid. When the tip of the foam gets glommed with insulation fibers, you stick it into the v to scrape off the glom, but keep the glom in the can so you don't stick your hand in it then scratch your ear (don't ask how I know this)

If you find lightweight stuff that looks like popcorn or gravel, stop and read about asbestos vermiculite 
http://www.google.com/search?q=verm...e+asbestos&gs_rfai=&pbx=1&fp=6f32b8af52b7e0b8

If you find rodent poop stop and read about hanta virus
http://www.google.com/search?q=hant...s=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Watch out for roofing nails in the boards above your head.

IF you find discolored insulation, what looks dirty close down to the ceiling, SEAL THAT SPOT! The dirt is what was filtered as your warm heated air left your living space and floated up to the sky thru the attic

This is the single biggest return-on-investment I have ever done for energy efficiency, and the first big project I try to do when I move. It's easy and VERY satisfying project, but it isn't that fun at the time. 

STAY ON THE JOISTS, don't fall thru

SteveEl


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## Dinggus

Friend and I hopped up into the attic, it was EXTREMELY hot, so the insulation must be doing its job. We didn't dig down the rows, we just followed the wires and found the holes they ran into weren't sealed, so we sealed them. I took a few pictures. I also ran into a black box, that had a air duct pipe hooked to it, well just connected, didn't seem to well connected, but I sealed around the box, and connected it best I could and sealed the hole. I couldn't tell if the outside air was coming in the pipe itself or the black box hole that it was connected to had the AC air coming out. I'll post pictures soon.


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## Dinggus

Here are the pictures like promised. Some of just a before and after foam, and the rest are just small holes and just showing you what I had to fill.










Here is that black box I was talking about.


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## no1hustler

The black box is probably the exhaust fan in your bathroom.


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## Dinggus

Might be, I couldn't tell if I was above our second bathroom or not.


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## Dinggus

Well got my electricity bill, it is now $101! I don't know if getting a new thermostat helped or what. I doubt the new Belkin adapter and foaming holes in the attic helped, since I just did those.


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## cocobolo

Well, that's a heck of a lot better. Now by the time you get all the improvements done you should have it down to $60 or so.

You might as well have the $500 a year in your pocket as the utility company! :thumbsup:


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## Dinggus

Now I just want to work on exterior looks. I'm looking at getting a wooden bench swing, building a deck, expanding my storage shed.


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## no1hustler

Post some pics of the outside!!


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## Dinggus

I was thinking putting a double wooden seater in front of my living room windows (left, first windows), build a deck in the back from where the patio roof starts to about where the dryer vent is near the gate, replace the sliding glass door with patio doors, extend the shed to about a size and a half or two sizes bigger than it originally is so I can start my future motorcycle in it. I also want gutters since the neighbor told us it floods on his and our front pourches.










We have a 40"-42" inch TV, but I'm debating to get a 73" to fill the living room or get a projector and have a screen drop down when we want to watch TV. Which route should I go?










See the wall to the left? We want to either take it completely out to open the kitchen to dining room or just cut a huge opening in and make like a bar top counter out of it. That way it can be an open environment when we have people over. It's also Marie and the dishwasher is on the far right side of the sink, next to the door opening (can't see it in the picture), so we want the dishwasher next to the sink, and put the fridge where te dishwasher is.


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## ehoez

Dinggus said:


> So, first month living in my new home, and my electricity bill is $268! The A/C only kicks on when the house is hotter than 80ish degree's. What are some things I can do to keep this electricity bill down?



are you in NC?

whats your price per KWh? (should be on your bill)

how many Kwh's did you use..

and yes, lower the temp on the water heater (is it gas or elec)?


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## ehoez

i like the dark blue paint. but did it make the room look smaler afterwards?

or are you happy with it?

i want that same color, but i dont want the room to look smaller.


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## Dinggus

Yes, I live in NC. The $264.75 bill (our first for the house) I used 658KWh and I paid $55.41 for 22 days. This month is $107.19, I used 800KWh and paid $68.13 for 30 days. I can't seem to find out what I'm paying per KWh. Mine is electric, I'm trying to see how old it is, and also trying to figure out how to lower it. I see a knob that had <- O and S -> on it. But, while looking at the water heater, I seen the hose exit for the dryer.










I'm kind of curious how dirty it is inside, and if it's even sealed off. Can anyone tell me what to look for or where I can get that dryer hose door cover?

As for the dark blue, we love it. We're still looking for ways to fill the room up, thinking about getting a new couch like a sectional, possible brown. Wife says the tan looks dirty when it's not. Also thinking about getting a projector or just a 73"inch TV. Maybe the people of DIY Chatroom can help me decide! The room doesn't feel smaller, feels empty, but thats because all we have is a couch and TV, ha.


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## Dinggus

Tonight was the first night we turned on our heater and we smelt gas, is that uncommon? It goes away, but, my wife was just curious. Also, this month's electricity bill is $84.60!


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## no1hustler

You smelled gas? Most heaters will smell funny when you first turn them on for the year. Do you have natural gas, oil or propane? Natural gas is oderless so I believe they put a sulfur smell in it so its smells like rotten eggs. You can smell propane. Oil has a completely different smell. If you think you have a gas leak, you need to get out and call someone. Don't turn on any switches either do do anything that can cause a spark.


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## RST

What he said!!! ^^^^ Most utility companies will send out someone at no cost to inspect potential leaks.

You should also call an HVAC company to "service" (basically clean and inspect) the furnace and replace the filter. Should be $70-$100 if nothing's broken. This will give you peace of mind and your furnace will run more efficiently, saving you utility dollars. It's a good idea to have the service done every year in the northern U.S. - maybe every other year in your area.

RST


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## Dinggus

Maybe it was just a weird smell. I was just searching online and everyone was calling it gas smell. It did go away, so I'm just making sure it was because of first time turning it on. I'm on natural gas, I believe since I don't have a propane tank for sure. Does anyone know any good sites for nice small house projects? House still looks plain to us inside and outside.


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## no1hustler

thisoldhouse.com is one of my favorites. I also have a subscription for their magazine.


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## Dinggus

no1hustler said:


> thisoldhouse.com is one of my favorites. I also have a subscription for their magazine.


Thank you, I'll look into it.


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## Dinggus

Awesome website no1hustler, thank you!

Has anyone ever installed Ethernet ports throughout the house? I'm just wondering because I would like to hook up my TV to the internet, but my internet is in my man cave.


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## TuscolaMatt

Dinggus said:


> Awesome website no1hustler, thank you!
> 
> Has anyone ever installed Ethernet ports throughout the house? I'm just wondering because I would like to hook up my TV to the internet, but my internet is in my man cave.


You can use powerline type adapters (I use THIS one)

They're not cheap - but they have plenty of throughput and will save trying to physically wire it all up through your attic...


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## Dinggus

TuscolaMatt said:


> You can use powerline type adapters (I use THIS one)
> 
> They're not cheap - but they have plenty of throughput and will save trying to physically wire it all up through your attic...


Thanks, I'll look into it. I was thinking of just wiring it under the house, would that work?


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## TuscolaMatt

if you can find a way to route ethernet cable - then I'd say that would be the best way...


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## Dinggus

TuscolaMatt said:


> if you can find a way to route ethernet cable - then I'd say that would be the best way...


Do you know of a howto?


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## TuscolaMatt

the professional way would be to install a couple ethernet receptacles (Lowes might have these) - one in the living room and one in the man cave. wiring these using a standard ethernet cable is fairly straight forward... You would then just run a jumper from your router to the new wall receptacle and then in the living room plug the tv into it's own receptacle...


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## Dinggus

Like this?


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## TuscolaMatt

Yup - that would work just jiffy (assuming your TV is internet capable of course). Plugging into the remote box (on the tv end) would be the same as plugging it into the router... :thumbup:


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## Dinggus

I'll be buying an AppleTV first generation put Boxee on it. That way I can cancel TimeWarner Cable since they are expensive and I can get my TV shows for free!


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## Dinggus

I'll be putting the smart house networking aside right now. Got a huge problem, we have 2 puppies that are almost house trained, but it seems their piss has ate away the glue under our plastic tiles and are lifting up, so now I have a new project and would like to lay down wooden floors, how would I do so?


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## TuscolaMatt

I ordered solid bamboo florring from Ifloors.com - this has been the greatest flooring I've ever had. I've got pictures of my livingroom remodel here:
http://www.polarsoft.net/remodel/

It hasn't been updated in quite a while...I'll have to add more pics soon. Anyway, you can see the flooring about 3/4 of the way down. After shipping, I paid around $2 a sqf...


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## Dinggus

Looks good and thanks for the site! The wife and I are deciding to use the same flooring that we have in the kitchen, it's Pergo Cherry Plank and they sell it at Home Depot and ifloors.com, which one do you think would be a better price (I get a 3% back for using my credit card when going to Home Depot)

Here is what it looks like:









We plan on doing the whole hall way and living room, living just the bedrooms with carpet and bathroom with laminate tiles. This should be a simple DIY job, right? Just stick these together and hit them together with a rubber mallet?


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## TuscolaMatt

Hmm, from what I can see that's a laminate. I didn't see it on IFloors. It looks like it's about 2.60 a sf? The reason I went with bamboo was durability. It's tougher than any hardwoods, and it's not a laminate - it's solid. Check out reviews of solid bamboo vs anything else if you think there's a chance you'd consider this route. Also, it's cheaper. So, two problems going this route - it won't match what you've already put down. And, this stuff needs to be glued down and would be quite a bit more work to do than a floating floor. So, I guess it all depends on what you want to spend vs durability vs matching vs work. IE:

Bamboo: cheaper, stronger, doesn't match, tougher to lay
Cherry: more expensive, not as durable, does match, easy to lay

The floor I put down was my first - so I have no doubt you'd be fine if you did a little research on laying it before diving in... :yes:

Otherwise - go with the cherry. :yes:


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## Dinggus

Can bamboo come in multiple colors?


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## TuscolaMatt

you can get it "carbonized" I think it's called. Different darker shades. You can see what they look like at ifloors....


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## Dinggus

How do you get measurements on how many sq ft is needed?


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## TuscolaMatt

I normally use a tape measure 

Just multiply the room dimensions and add a little more, maybe 5%(some will be lost/trash on the ends)


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## Dinggus

Okay thank you for the help. Unfortunately, every time I want to try and do a project, a family emergency happens.


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## Dinggus

While I was gone, I was coming up with a few more projects. Now here's the hard part, which project do I start to work on first?

- Replace carpet with wood in living room.
- Cut opening/remove wall in kitchen and dining room to open it up more.
- Backyard deck

They are all costly projects. I think removing the wall in the kitchen would be the least expensive, just removing the wall.


----------



## RST

*My Thoughts*

We recently had our real estate agent out to show him all the stuff we did in the past year and get some guidance on future projects. Ideas like a family room renovation, master bath redo, finishing the garage, landscaping the yard, rewire, replace the furnace, and more. They all sounded fine to him, but he reminded us that in the end, kitchens, baths, and front yards (not backyards) sell houses. So we are prioritizing the front yard (cheap and easy but big impact), the kitchen (because we use it the most), the bath (because it's a bath) and postponing the others. Though I do plan some work on the family room because I can't stand its current state, but just some minor work. Likewise, I might insulate the garage ceiling so I can use it in January but I'll leave the walls and floor alone. We don't plan to move soon, but one never knows. Maybe next year I get laid off. Maybe we have another kid. Maybe I get hit by a bus. Life happens.

So -- I suggest the kitchen first, living room second, deck last. But if you really desire a deck and you never use your living room, then maybe do the deck second.

RST


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## Dinggus

Thanks for the advice, I plan to keep the house, but being in the Army, I can't promise I will. Any HowTo's on removing a wall?


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## RST

Sorry, I don't have experience with that.


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## Dinggus

It's okay, my dad said it's easier than I think. Said just take off all the dry wall, and then figure out if it's holding the ceiling up, if it isn't, take the wood down.


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## no1hustler

I'd find out if the wall is load bearing before I do anything. Why mess with redoing drywall if you don't have to?

After you decide if you can do it, us a BFH to take down the wall.


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## Dinggus

How do I find out? What is BFH?


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## RST

The easiest way to tell is to ask an architect or engineer. :laughing: 

Seriously now - my layman's understanding is that load bearing walls are generally perpendicular to the ceiling joists while non-loading bearing (aka partition) walls are generally parallel to the ceiling joists. Load bearing walls should always be 2 x 4 or greater while partition can be smaller. If you try to cut through a stud on a load bearing wall your saw may bind up.

If the wall is load bearing the steps for removal are trickier... that's not to say it can't be done, because it is done... but I would recommend calling a professional or someone who knows what he/she is doing.

Robert

P.S. Re BFH, I'm guessing B stands for big and H stands for hammer, you can probably guess what F stands for... :whistling2:


----------



## Dinggus

Thanks. Well, guess whenever I go to Lowes I'll ask for professional help.


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## Dinggus

Well, while I was doing a family emergency, I took part of black friday online and was able to grab 8 wooden faux blinds for $120 off JCPenney. Here is what my man cave looked like before and after.


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## Dinggus

Can someone help me figure out what's wrong with my furnace? I've been told it's connected together with my AC unit, it has been blowing warm air, not blows just cold air.


----------



## DangerMouse

Dinggus said:


> Thanks. Well, guess whenever I go to Lowes I'll ask for professional help.


Oh man, you're killing me here.....

Head on over to the HVAC section and ask the guys there about your furnace, if you haven't already.

DM


----------



## Dinggus

DangerMouse said:


> Oh man, you're killing me here.....
> 
> Head on over to the HVAC section and ask the guys there about your furnace, if you haven't already.
> 
> DM


No I haven't, friend and I determined it was electrical issue since all the wires are corroded. I'll be looking into buying a new HVAC after tax season.


----------



## Dinggus

HVAC was fixed, called my realtor and only had to pay $60 for it to be fixed. They said my thermostat wasn't giving power to the unit, and then the breaker box outside for the unit was inoperable.

An oppertunity came up which allowed me to make some good tax free money and put a nice down payment to the house along with getting some projects completed, I volunteered to deploy and should be leaving very shortly. So, while I'm gone, I'll be doing research on the projects that my wife and I would like to have done to the house.

1: Wooden floors in living room + Hallway
2: Projector Home Theater in Living room
3: Backyard Deck
4: Front yard fencing (for the dogs)
5: Bigger backyard shed
6: Remodel kitchen

Everything will be DIY except for the kitchen remodeling. As for the projector home theater, does anyone recommend a good projector? We never use the living room, so it'll be mainly for movies when friends come over. We'll most likely get an 80" white screen and we'll need HDMI for Boxee or AppleTV (which ever one we get).


----------



## gma2rjc

I'm looking forward to seeing pictures of your progress when you get back home and back to work on the house.

Thank you for serving our country Dinggus.

Barb


----------



## Dinggus

Thanks. Well had since I have quiet some time to get stuff done, and have a new friend who does house renovation to his own house, he motivated me to take down the wall in my kitchen so I can open the kitchen and dining room up. Here are some pictures, then all I have is a question about 2 things.

Here is the wall:









Here is what it looks like now:









Are these support beams? They are just two 2x4's put together.








This is the end of the wall near the opening to the kitchen and dining room.









This is the roof.


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## DangerMouse

I'd guess interior wall, not load-bearing.

What's up above that ceiling? That should tell you.

DM


----------



## Dinggus

I think above the ceiling is just plywood to keep the insulation from falling down. I haven't removed the boards out yet, don't want the ceiling falling down.


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## DangerMouse

I meant in the attic or upper floor. Rafters? Trusses? 

DM


----------



## Dinggus

It's a non-functional attic, only thing up there is insulation.

Only picture I can show you of the attic is this:


----------



## Dinggus

Once I get the word that those two 2x4's at the end of the wall and ceiling are not support beams, I will be able to rip them down.


----------



## Dinggus

Got some advice from friends and dad, took the wall down.


----------



## Dinggus

Anyone here electricians? We have 1 switch in the dining room that controls the dining room light. Near the frig, there was 2 switches that controlled the dining room light and the kitchen light, and near the car port door, there was 1 switch that controlled the kitchen light. I removed the 2 switches near the frig and now my dining room light nor my kitchen lights turn on. Can someone tell me what the issue is and how to fix it?


----------



## RST

They are three-way switches. The pairs of switches don't work without each other. (Do a search online if you want to find out exactly how they work.) It may be possible to convert the remaining switches to standard switches, or you may have to run new wires. Ask over on electrical.

RST


----------



## Dinggus

Thanks, a friend said turn the breaker off, connect the wires and turn them back on and it should work.


----------



## Dinggus

That didn't work, this is what we're working with.


----------



## Dinggus

Did a little security feature to the house, so the wife is more comfortable about answering the door.


----------



## Dinggus

Got our kitchen lights working again, with DIY and a friend from back home helping me out, we finally got it! Now, we're looking at cabinetstogo.com and confused about what type of cabinets we are ordering, and how should we measure our kitchen in order to get the correct amount of cabinets.


----------



## Dinggus

Thanks! Went out and bought a bi-fold door to block the laundry/pantry room off from the kitchen, that way now when you walk in you don't see the laundry room unlike before we took down the wall, you'd just see the wall.










Can barely hear the washer/dryer now when the door is closed and you're in the kitchen. It's nice, and I'm starting to like these cheap add-on's to the house.

Tax money should be coming in on Friday, and planned on just going to Home Depot or Lowes and get someone to come out and measure the kitchen and help us order what we want. Wife and I don't know if we should just get cabinets already finished or just take our time and stain them to save some money. Any recommendations?


----------



## Scotch

I was in a similar situation and we chose to clean and repaint the cabinet hardware and sand and stain the cabinets themselves to save some bread. They turned out awesome and we save a boatload. 
On an unrelated note: with all the moisture in the laundry area it's best to have a door that has some venting quality to it that way you don't restrict air movement and possibly allow mold or any moisture damage to occur. Just a heads up.


----------



## TuscolaMatt

Dinggus said:


> Tax money should be coming in on Friday, and planned on just going to Home Depot or Lowes and get someone to come out and measure the kitchen and help us order what we want. Wife and I don't know if we should just get cabinets already finished or just take our time and stain them to save some money. Any recommendations?


I'd check to see if your existing cabinets are made of particle wood or not. If they are plywood - I'd suggest keeping them. If they are particle wood - I'd replace with plywood type. Plywood type are quite expensive but can support much more weight - like granite tops...


----------



## Dinggus

Scotch said:


> I was in a similar situation and we chose to clean and repaint the cabinet hardware and sand and stain the cabinets themselves to save some bread. They turned out awesome and we save a boatload.
> On an unrelated note: with all the moisture in the laundry area it's best to have a door that has some venting quality to it that way you don't restrict air movement and possibly allow mold or any moisture damage to occur. Just a heads up.


We talked about that, but, the cabinets look like they were made in the 70's, and the shelving they did wasn't smart, the wife wants the cabinets to be split into 2 sections since she can't reach the third. I'm sure we can relocate them how we want. I'll keep in mind and ask her again what she wants since it is her kitchen.

As for the laundry room, went in this morning and it wasn't muggy or anything, but I'll keep that in mid, thanks for the tip!



TuscolaMatt said:


> I'd check to see if your existing cabinets are made of particle wood or not. If they are plywood - I'd suggest keeping them. If they are particle wood - I'd replace with plywood type. Plywood type are quite expensive but can support much more weight - like granite tops...


I'm pretty sure there plywood, I know the wife wants cabinet doors with frosted windows and she wants espresso color, almost black but not. If I can convince her to just replace the cabinet doors, then it'll definitely save us in the long run. She also would love a tower cabinet, we seen one, opened it an it had like 4 rows inside that closed on each other kept thing very organized. I say it's her kitchen, but I'm the type of guy due to the military that likes barely any accessories out. Only thing I don't mind seeing out is the microwave and coffee maker. So we need organization and we both like slide out baskets and what not.


----------



## Dinggus

Anyone have advice for getting rid of odor smell? I finally got my flooring and would like to put it down this weekend. Thing is, dogs found a nice spot in the carpet they liked to piss on, and it seemed to soak into the wood. I was looking at KILZ 1 Gallon Oil-Based White Ultra Odorless Primer, then laying down my moisture barrier then lay down my floors.


----------



## Dinggus

Well, it's not finished but this is what my friend and I completed on Saturday and took a break and went back into it on today. Also, it's not perfect but I'm sure it saved me a few hundred dollars.










All that is left is getting the shoe molding, doorway separator, laminate filler (for small chipped areas), and then wife wants to put like a clear coating over it.

I'll take pictures when it's final and everything is arranged that way we want it.


----------



## Dinggus

Here's the living filled up:









Wife wants a new couch, alittle darker since this couch matches the flooring alittle. So I found this one for $500 off craigslist.









Wife and I also did alittle shopping at Lowes. We decided we might just build our own island to our liking. Since the dishwasher is going to go where the drawers are in our kitchen, we want to add it to the island, we came up with 2 things:








This one is alittle longer, it's 4.5ft, might be to long.

So we did this:








Just alittle bit shorter, only issue the wife see's is pots and pans being a pain to fit inside.

Also, we bought this thinking it wasn't going to be to much darker than the flooring, guess we were wrong.


----------



## Firefighter3244

Looking good, Looking forward to seeing more, as I'm about to close on my first home. Good luck on future projects!


----------



## Dinggus

I have some picture updates, the kitchen is being reorganized, got the upper cabinets stripped and stained and inside is painted. I tried getting as much as I could before I deployed but wasn't finished. 

Espresso stain with green paint inside:









But, we took a break from the kitchen. We reorganized it and I took pictures, just gotta find them right now.

We took a day before I deployed to make the front look better, and this is what we did:










I'll get my wife to email me the picture of the other side. We love it, the white crystal rocks make the front yard stand out some more. We're trying to get rid of everything that's the same color as the brick.


----------



## Dinggus

Here's the left over in the kitchen:









The cabinets under the window near the pantry cabinet is the same one we're going to put next to the microwave to have like a breakfast bar.

Here's the rest of the outside pictures:









I think it looks pretty good.


----------



## no1hustler

Ah man, how long is your deployment? Wish I were closer so I could help your wife finish it up.


----------



## Dinggus

I'll be gone for a year. I volunteered to make some bank.


----------



## Dinggus

Wife got some work done on the kitchen. She finally put clear coat on the cabinets that she's stained so far, she loves them. I'll upload the pictures when I get time from work. She also put the 1st coat of stain on the bottom cabinet's and putting a 2nd on tonight. Once these cabinet's are all arranged in order and stained, we're getting a cabinet door maker to make some doors for us, then I'm either deciding laminate counter tops since we're just going to rent the house out one day, or granite which we found for $18/sq ft.

We're also getting someone to build a deck for us, we decided we're going to with like a shaped deck, because we don't want a rectangular deck near our gate, it'll juts look weird. So, the part of that deck that it near the gate will be shaped.


----------



## Dinggus

Here are pictures as promised, upper cabinets have 2 clear coats, wife said she's going to add one more just to make sure it's good.










Here are the bottom, with just 1 coat.









Now some more project idea's, see the fan over the range, wife and I want to take out the lower part of the cabinet, and put in a mounted microwave that has a built in fan if needed. The wife did some more staining tonight, and putting a clear coat on tomorrow. Once that's done, buy another cabinet it finish off the breakfast bar, mount them to the wall, get a professional over to make the cabinet doors and that should be done. Then we're deciding to either do laminate or granite counter tops. The house will be rented if I PCS, so we don't know which route we should go. I'm thinking laminate due to being cheap, but buddy said the kitchen is small enough it wouldn't cost much to do granite.


----------



## coderguy

You seem to be making slow steady progress. The baby steps eventually add up though! Keep posting!


----------



## Dinggus

Thanks. Alot of this would be done, just currently deployed and the wife works, and sometimes she needs some motivation to get back to the project, lol.

But, once the wife says "Hey, I'm done staining and clear coat, and the bottom cabinets are secured to the wall" then it'll be time for the counter top, and cabinet doors.


----------



## Dinggus

Wife got some more work done, she said she's finally finished for the cabinets, and all I gotta do is give her money to get the other cabinet's we'll use for our little breakfast bar. Then she'll stain those, and the pantry as well. I have a few questions:

1. Our pantry cabinet is about 4-5 inches off the wall, what's the best way to mount it so it won't move? I was thinking of just having it screwed into another cabinet and it'll stay in place.
2. Wife want's to spray paint the stove, so what paint would be best for something like that?
3. Any help on how I can decide to either get laminate or granite? We'll be renting the house out if we move, so don't want something expensive if people won't be taking care of it.


----------



## Bosco55David

Good progress so far!


----------



## Dinggus

Thanks, I found a nice color for the countertop that I'd like, it's the same color green that's in the shelves and I could get granite for $29/sqft instead of Home Depot for $55/sqft for what they quoted me.


----------



## Dinggus

Due to change of career decisions and if we're just renting the house out, we decided we might just keep the floor the way it is, get laminate countertops for sure. The wife is buying on Tuesday another cabinet, paint, sheet of drywall, different backsplashs to see what we want (she thinks silver would be nice), schedule appointment to get countertops measured, and she's buying an over the range microwave.

Once that is all done, we already picked out a new range and refrigerator.


----------



## Dinggus

Here is some progress, wife bought that cabinet, and finish staining everything and clear coat. We're trying to figure out how to level the cabinets that we moved around, I told the wife to just start ripping up flooring, since I was going to get new wooden floors.










Once I talk to her again I'll get Home Depot to come out and do the measurements for counter top. We were going to go with granite, but seeing we're just going to rent the house out, we decided that laminate would be a cheaper route. Then I need to get someone to come see if they can make some custom doors and get a quote. We want frosted glass in the doors.


----------



## Dinggus

So, I'm slowly making a list of what I'm going to do when I get home for R&R.

1. First, finish the kitchen. 
- The overhead stove vent plug is ran into the wall, so I don't know what to do about that, because we want to cut the 2nd shelf and mount a microwave. 
- Remove flooring, add new flooring
- Patch up hole with dry wall, already got the drywall
- Secure bottom cabinets that we moved
- Counter tops - Can we get counter tops already if the cabinets are not mounted yet? Besides the backing that goes to the wall, I can easily do that once we figure everything out, wife just wants counter tops ASAP.
- Cabinet doors - I just want to be unfinished doors and stain them, wife wants to by stained ones, do they even sell stained cabinet doors? 
- Paint the stove and refrigerator black.

2. Tile carpet, this is just an idea, might replace all the rooms with tile carpet.
- Once I reenlist, I'll be renting the house out, so figured tile carpet is a good idea.

3. Change the laundry room around again.
- Hang up cabinets that I have in the storage.
- Buy front loading set

4. Deck
- Just a normal deck I suppose, with the corners at 45 degree's
- About 20x16ft. neighbor said it would only cost around $500.

5. Do some exterior designing
- Paint a few things
- Figure out why there are floors growing through the rocks we laid down, wife thinks a bag of seeds spilled in our bag of rocks at Home Depot.

I'm hoping to knock most of these projects out. They seem easy enough, especially since I'll have 15 days off, not needing to do anything but hang out at the house.

I decided I'm not going to try and smooth the walls or ceiling. But we are looking at DIY blogs and loving some ideas people come up with, such as paneling a wall which I did a terrible photoshop of, it's going to get redone and I'll share it with everyone.

But, the wife wanted to paint the hallway with a nice warm color, so we decided to get a nice medium gray.


----------



## Dinggus

Well, the Army is letting me reenlist so I get to move to another state when I get home, pretty excited. So, not trying to burn to much more money into the house before we rent it out. Still need to decide if I want to get carpet tiles or roll carpet, what do you guys prefer for renters?

I think the paint looks good, we'll be getting new laminate tile.


----------



## no1hustler

Paint looks nice. You nieghbor is crazy if he thinks the deck will only cost $500.


----------



## Dinggus

He said around, and that was if I was to do it myself.

As of right now the wife and I are trying to decide:

1. Wood flooring throughout the house, no carpet in the house anymore.
2. Wood flooring down the hall ways, and every room will have carpet tile.


----------



## Dinggus

The wife and I decided to get laminate flooring in living room, kitchen and hallway. I just ordered this:

http://www.homedepot.com/Flooring-L...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

Wife thinks it looks to yellow, so I ordered a case to see if she'll like it in person, if she doesn't then she can just return it. If she does, I'll order enough to do the areas we want and have it done when I come home.


----------



## Dinggus

Well, as we were training our dogs to not use the hallway as a toilet, wife said it started smelling after all these months, and lifted up the flooring to see the damage, and here it is:










So, for a temporary use, she bought some deodorizer paint and going over the area and then covering it up with a rug until I come home.

How do I replace it?


----------



## Dinggus

The wife did this today:


----------



## federer

is that stained mess from the pet peeing???!


----------



## Dinggus

Yes, we didn't know it was that bad.


----------



## Thadius856

Part of the stained mess is going to be from the glue in the lick-n-stick tiles.

In past years, the adhesives were thick, strong and (I believe) oil-based.

Now they're water-based and thinner. As a result, animal urine can easily re-liquify and thin the adhesive. Part of the discoloration is the adhesive soaking through the wood.

At some point, they would have started to float around like lilies on a pond.


----------



## Dinggus

I'm going to replace the flooring, shouldn't be to hard.


----------



## Thadius856

Not too difficult.

Flooring still scares the bejebus out of me, mostly because the material cost causes a little sticker shock.


----------



## Dinggus

It's expensive for a board?


----------



## Thadius856

Board? Like... sheeting to repair the subflooring?

Not really. You'll need a circular saw, some skill and a whole lot of balls. You pretty much locate the joists/stringers it sits on and cut down the center of them, then cut a new piece to fit in the hole and nail it back down. Don't use your best saw blade, because chances are you're going to find a nail or two. Also be sure to set the blade depth just enough to get through the subfloor to minimize damage to the stringers/joists.

Unless you've got slab-on-grade. In which case I'm not sure what board you're referring too.


----------



## Thadius856

BTW... Air Force vs Army is Nov 5 on Versus.

I hope you get to see it on the Army's equivalent of AFN over there.

I'm sure we'll get stomped, but then again, I thought Navy was going to roll right over us too.


----------



## Dinggus

Thadius856 said:


> Board? Like... sheeting to repair the subflooring?
> 
> Not really. You'll need a circular saw, some skill and a whole lot of balls. You pretty much locate the joists/stringers it sits on and cut down the center of them, then cut a new piece to fit in the hole and nail it back down. Don't use your best saw blade, because chances are you're going to find a nail or two. Also be sure to set the blade depth just enough to get through the subfloor to minimize damage to the stringers/joists.
> 
> Unless you've got slab-on-grade. In which case I'm not sure what board you're referring too.


Yeah just a sheet to repair the floor. Should I just remove the soiled spot, or the whole sheet?

Wife tried to pry it up yesterday, but she couldn't. I told her just get a sledge hammer and smash in between nails, lol. But she said she'll wait for me to come home.



Thadius856 said:


> BTW... Air Force vs Army is Nov 5 on Versus.
> 
> I hope you get to see it on the Army's equivalent of AFN over there.
> 
> I'm sure we'll get stomped, but then again, I thought Navy was going to roll right over us too.


I don't really watch football, but I've heard the Army sucks.


----------



## Thadius856

Either method for removal works. I tend to prefer sawing the damaged portion and using a long pry bar. The advantage to smashing it to bits is that it will fit in a standard curbside trash bin for disposal, but the disadvantage being that you'll have to retrieve the bits from the crawlspace or you'll be attracting rodents, termites, etc.

If it's not warped or damaged, you might be able to spray it (carefully!) with a mixture of bleach and water to neutralize the odor. I'm sure there's commercial products, probably marketed under the Kaboom! brand name, that would also do the trick. The only problem is that you'll have to wait for the wood to dry out before you can cover it back up.

Edit: Just finished the taping and first coat of mud. It wasn't nearly as hard as I'd expected from all the "OMGWTFHELP!!11!" posts on the web.


----------



## shumakerscott

Whoa there! Do not smash it out with a hammer. You will need to cut it out so that you have a straight edge to match up to. That was bad advice. dorf dude...


----------



## Thadius856

He would have a straight edge where the sheet ended, mid-joist.


----------



## Dinggus

Thadius856 said:


> Either method for removal works. I tend to prefer sawing the damaged portion and using a long pry bar. The advantage to smashing it to bits is that it will fit in a standard curbside trash bin for disposal, but the disadvantage being that you'll have to retrieve the bits from the crawlspace or you'll be attracting rodents, termites, etc.
> 
> If it's not warped or damaged, you might be able to spray it (carefully!) with a mixture of bleach and water to neutralize the odor. I'm sure there's commercial products, probably marketed under the Kaboom! brand name, that would also do the trick. The only problem is that you'll have to wait for the wood to dry out before you can cover it back up.
> 
> Edit: Just finished the taping and first coat of mud. It wasn't nearly as hard as I'd expected from all the "OMGWTFHELP!!11!" posts on the web.


It's warped, wife said it's like bubbled up, and the dog pissed on the carpet same spot. He's house trained, just when I left he's been giving the wife attitude, plus I'm assuming since that spot smells like piss, he'll keep pissing there until it's fixed.

Glad to hear the mudding went good. Don't you have to sand it after mudding?



shumakerscott said:


> Whoa there! Do not smash it out with a hammer. You will need to cut it out so that you have a straight edge to match up to. That was bad advice. dorf dude...


I'll cut it, lol.


----------



## Thadius856

Opinions are varied as to whether to sand between each coat or only after the last coat. Not sure which direction I'll go yet.

Will be doing some more research before I press forward. I want to make sure the stuff's completely dry, so at least 12 hours between coats since I had to fill in so many large gaps.

On the bright side, those large gap fills are also drying from the back side where they air from inside the walls is. lol


----------



## Dinggus

Keep up the good work.

Wife got the 3 boxes of flooring, she said they look good and agreed that's the flooring we're going with. I go to homedepot.com to order a few hundred sq ft, put it in my check out cart and they tell me it is no unavailable online. So guess we're back to looking for more flooring, unless Home Depot can help a deployed soldier out.


----------



## Snav

Smashing it just isn't possible, I'm afraid - it's more rugged than that, even with serious water damage. It takes an immense amount of rot to render subflooring weak and inferior and hand-breakable or sledge able . . . my kitchen's subfloor was like this in spots but most of it was still hard to do.

I also go with scoring it in narrow strips with a circ saw that's shallow-set and then prying up the layers - one layer at a time.

If I were you I'd locate the outtermost joists that are clear of the water damage and carefully expose them on center (or close to it) so you have a partially exposed joist as a support for new flooring. New sheets of flooring must have support around all edges or they will fail and sag in the future - especially if you're doing something like an entry way where water is tracked in.

To expose the joists as a lip for support: remove the area between them (both layers) and once you have an open cavity locate the joists - and with a ruler mark *on the top* of the existing floor where the joists are - pencil in a line to mark the edge of the joist and then draw a more solid line 1/2" in from that . . . then score at this new cut and remove this remaining section to reveal only part of the joist.

This will give you a lip of adequate support so you can drop in new sub flooring and room enough on your partially exposed joist to screw or nail your flooring down. Your remaining flooring will still be supported adequately as well.


----------



## Dinggus

So when I remove the part that's damaged, just put up a few middle support joints?

Also, I was playing with the shopping cart, I am able to order 23 more cases of flooring, anymore over that the website said they were out of stock. So, if it goes through, I'll have 26 cases of laminate flooring to cover around 620sq ft. I'm assuming my kitchen is aroudn 400 sqft, and my living room is 220sq ft and the hallway I have no clue. So, I should have enough to do living room and hallway, as of now.

I did have a question about underlayment, I bought the cheap foam stuff, got my laminate flooring laid down before I deployed, and noticed that it makes high pitched noises when you walk on it, especially if the dog walks on it and the living room had an echo to it.

So, if I order this 3 in 1 underlayment which one of the reviewers suggested, would the help reduce noise from walking/dog nails and the echo?
http://www.homedepot.com/Flooring-L...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053


----------



## shumakerscott

Dinggus said:


> So when I remove the part that's damaged, just put up a few middle support joints?
> 
> Also, I was playing with the shopping cart, I am able to order 23 more cases of flooring, anymore over that the website said they were out of stock. So, if it goes through, I'll have 26 cases of laminate flooring to cover around 620sq ft. I'm assuming my kitchen is aroudn 400 sqft, and my living room is 220sq ft and the hallway I have no clue. So, I should have enough to do living room and hallway, as of now.
> 
> I did have a question about underlayment, I bought the cheap foam stuff, got my laminate flooring laid down before I deployed, and noticed that it makes high pitched noises when you walk on it, especially if the dog walks on it and the living room had an echo to it
> _Laminate will always have a clicky sound to it, dogs claws for sure. Better underlayment can help but not get rid of it completely. Nature of the beast, Laminate is loud._


----------



## Dinggus

shumakerscott said:


> Dinggus said:
> 
> 
> 
> So when I remove the part that's damaged, just put up a few middle support joints?
> 
> Also, I was playing with the shopping cart, I am able to order 23 more cases of flooring, anymore over that the website said they were out of stock. So, if it goes through, I'll have 26 cases of laminate flooring to cover around 620sq ft. I'm assuming my kitchen is aroudn 400 sqft, and my living room is 220sq ft and the hallway I have no clue. So, I should have enough to do living room and hallway, as of now.
> 
> I did have a question about underlayment, I bought the cheap foam stuff, got my laminate flooring laid down before I deployed, and noticed that it makes high pitched noises when you walk on it, especially if the dog walks on it and the living room had an echo to it
> 
> 
> 
> _Laminate will always have a clicky sound to it, dogs claws for sure. Better underlayment can help but not get rid of it completely. Nature of the beast, Laminate is loud._
Click to expand...

There laminate in the kitchen and it's not loud at all when the dogs walk on it, yes theres a click, but not like the living room click. The underlayment in the kitchen was like extra padding. So I'm assuming that 3 in 1 underlayment will be good.


----------



## RetiredSoldier

Looks like your living in my old neighborhood. 
LaGrange area, off of Reily Rd. I used to live on Sable Drive. 
Did alot of remodeling to that house too.


----------



## Dinggus

I have no clue where that area is, lol.


----------



## RetiredSoldier

Dinggus said:


> I have no clue where that area is, lol.


The neighborhood to the left as you leave Reily Rd gate. You may remember there was a tornado through there earlier this year. Lots of damage to the homes near Reily Rd. 
BTW, I just noticed you are deployed.... stay safe and make it home soldier!


----------



## Dinggus

I know the area you're talking about. I was actually on block leave in Florida when the tornado hit. Apparently where I live, which is next to Hope Mills they didn't see rain or even know a tornado hit, lol.

I'll definitely make it home safe. Thanks for your service.


----------



## RetiredSoldier

Dinggus said:


> I know the area you're talking about. I was actually on block leave in Florida when the tornado hit. Apparently where I live, which is next to Hope Mills they didn't see rain or even know a tornado hit, lol.
> 
> I'll definitely make it home safe. Thanks for your service.


Strange... I have family in Fla and went there for leave many times. My relatives are in the Pensacola area.
If you say Pensacola, then that's just too much.

Thanks for YOUR service.


----------



## Dinggus

No, I was down in Orlando. My brother is in Pensacola for AIT in the Navy.


----------



## Thadius856

Well... well... new developments?


----------



## Dinggus

I bought around 600 sqft of new flooring, doing wood flooring from living room to kitchen to hallway. Won't be put in until I get home, I most likely won't be putting it in, lol.


----------



## Dinggus

Can anyone recommend me a good underlayment for laminate flooring?


----------



## shumakerscott

Dinggus said:


> Can anyone recommend me a good underlayment for laminate flooring?


I used cork, worked ok. dorf dude...


----------



## Thadius856

When I think of cork, the sound of it squeaking as it comes out of a wine bottle comes to mind.

Would it be safe to say it doesn't do that as an underlayment?


----------



## Dinggus

HomeDepot floor specialist recommended:

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs...talogId=10053&productId=100093264&R=100093264

Now, do subflooring's need like a vapor barrier or anything? Just incase water gets spilt on the floor or something? Can't have my subflooring getting ruined.


----------



## Thadius856

I have no idea, but I usually got out of my way to do the exact opposite of what the Big Box employees recommend.

I've one every gotten one knowledgeable associate at HD, compared to three that were extremely helpful today at Ace.


----------



## shumakerscott

Here's a link for cork.
http://www.amazon.com/AcoustiCORK-Floating-Laminate-Flooring-Underlayment/dp/B002Q7BX10


----------



## Dinggus

Thadius856 said:


> I have no idea, but I usually got out of my way to do the exact opposite of what the Big Box employees recommend.
> 
> I've one every gotten one knowledgeable associate at HD, compared to three that were extremely helpful today at Ace.


The associates around here are pretty helpful.



shumakerscott said:


> Here's a link for cork.
> http://www.amazon.com/AcoustiCORK-Floating-Laminate-Flooring-Underlayment/dp/B002Q7BX10


Thanks, I'll look into it. Does it get stapled down or just lay it down?


----------



## Dinggus

Came home for R&R and the wife was able to get our new flooring installed for $150 to do the living room and part of the hall way, and I must say I will never buy flooring from Lumber Liquidators again. The new flooring is from HomeDepot, around the same price and it seems like it's better quality, there's definitely no echo and it looks good.

The guy was able to replace where the dogs decided to destroy with their urine.

Now, I was able to convince myself we might as well buy brand new cabinets, because it looks like ours is just custom built or just extremely old. Our main cabinet is all in one, and right now Home Depot is having 20% off on cabinets, plus my 10% for military, so I should only spend around $850 on new cabinets. The wife and I also decided we'd paint them instead of staining them. So my question is, whats the best way to mount base and wall cabinets? I'd love to get this done ASAP before I leave, so all the wife needs to do is order the counter top.


----------



## Thadius856

Best way? Don't know.

Mine were mounted on two furring strips that were bolted to the studs, then space between the back of the last cabinet was covered with a piece of moulding.

I'll be replacing them with customs later this year, so I'm interested to hear the best mounting method as well.


----------



## Dinggus

I've seen people just screw in 2x4's under the cabinets and then remove the old ones.

Like what JohnSC did:


----------



## NaviCat

Looks awesome!! Just make sure you use the energy-efficient light bulbs wherever you can. They will make a bigger difference than most people realize... also, it looks like your thermostat is set at about 80 degrees? Is that why the ac kicks on when its over 80 degrees? Lastly, I noticed that you plan to potentially add a fence in you front yard... some areas have rules about the size or placement of fences.. before you put one up you may want to check with local ordinances and permit requirements


----------



## Dinggus

Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately my kitchen still looks normal, I was using that photo above as an example on how I think you're suppose to hang cabinets.


----------



## Dinggus

Trying not to have to replace my whole laundry room dry wall, and I watched to patch that hole I accidently made, so I cut a square out:









Did I do it right?


----------



## Thadius856

Bottom looks great.

Clean up the vertical cuts with a razor knife. You want a straight line, more or less.

Putting the new piece in will be a lot easier if you square up the top cut a little more.

Edit: What's screwed into the other side of the wall? I don't see any anchors... if it's at all heavy, it might end up on the floor soon.


----------



## Dinggus

The other side is just a board, nothing heavy.


----------



## Dinggus

Still haven't touched the drywall yet, working on getting rid of most of this adhesive. My neighbor questioned why get rid of it if I'm just screwing down a backer board, I told him same question I asked, I was just told to.

So while waiting for the adhesive to soak the remover, I went and did this:










I like sunlight, that way the wife doesn't think she needs to use lights in the morning! I asked how about we frost the window and she said that she'd like that idea because sometimes she spooks herself out thinking someone is watching her from the crack of the shade.

Probably one of the easiest DIY things I've done, I always thought tinting was hard. I just sprayed solution on the window and film, place on window, trim into place, squeegee out solution, got a hair dryer which helped get rid of most the bubbles.


----------



## dayid

Dinggus said:


> Trying not to have to replace my whole laundry room dry wall, and I watched to patch that hole I accidently made, so I cut a square out:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Did I do it right?


I find it's easiest to patch the drywall if you can access the studs, and if your open area is straight. Using a razor to score the square/rectangular area that you'd like to pull of (just through the paper). Then when you knock back the drywall if it "blows out" it will be on the backside not the visible area. It looks like you're close to the studs, so if you cut away 1/2-way on the stud then you can re-nail the new piece in place before you tape and mud. You'll also want to peel back the paper on the existing drywall so that when you tape in the new piece you don't have a rise for the tape.


----------



## Dinggus

Repaired it, all the adhesive is off my flooring. Went to lay down the backer board and found out I gotta remove all the bottom molding and door molding, is there anything around that? The door molding seems the hardest to take off.


----------



## Dinggus

Well here's an issue. This metal piece, how do I work around it? My uncle said just move the tiles 1/4" from it and just grout from it.










This isn't 1/4", just something my buddy and I were looking at.









I hate myself for even trying to do something like this! Definitely regretting this project.


----------



## no1hustler

I have a feeling if you grout between the tile and that threshold, the grout will end up cracking. I'm guessing that the threshold will move ever so slightly which will disturb the grout. I'm sorry, but I don't have a solution.


----------



## shumakerscott

Don't grout it calk it with silicone.


----------



## Dinggus

Okay, should I lay it a spacer away, or just laid it like in the second photo and chalk that? I'm a beginner with tile.


----------



## Thadius856

I would have removed it, tiled to the midpoint of the doorway, then installed a new threshold over the top.

Course, I haven't even finished my own transitions, so I'm in no place to talk...


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## Dinggus

That's what we wanted to do, but it was one whole piece, we would have had to remove the side frame just to lift it up. It's fine though, we would have been done a few hours ago, but we've taken like a 2-3hr break around 1pm. Ran to home depot, friend let me borrow his wet saw. We didn't start the project until around 9-10am. Only have 3-4 more tiles to cut, tomorrow I'll grout. Here are some progress pictures.










We needed weight to level some of the tiles out.


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## Dinggus

Finish product. I put the grout down this morning, seems like it's hard enough to seal, but I'll wait a few more hours.










Wife and I are getting paint for the baseboards, I'll install them and she can paint them.


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## Dinggus

Finish product. I put the grout down this morning, seems like it's hard enough to seal, but I'll wait a few more hours.










Wife and I are getting paint for the baseboards, I'll install them and she can paint them.


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## Thadius856

Very nice.

Don't forget door casing. Looks like that came off too.


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## Dinggus

Door casing never came off. I will be putting chalk down there.


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## Thadius856

In the last picture, I can't see any. Unless it's just really thin and stop at the base board?


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## Dinggus

It drops down, I couldn't raise it up without damaging it or the door wouldn't close.


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## Thadius856

...think we're talking about two different things...

I meant this stuff:


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## Dinggus

Oh yeah, that's all being nailed in tonight. Waiting for sealant to dry.


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## Thadius856

Ahhh. Good idea.

When it does dry, mop the floor with a fairly wet mop.

Any grout that changes color isn't sealed well enough.


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## Dinggus

Thanks for the tip. The sealant was turning pink near the corners, didn't sweep good enough, lol.


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## Dinggus

Bought the paint for the base boards and walls. Hung the cabinets tonight and the wife will have to paint and lay caulking on the base boards.










All in all, we're very pleased. I have one more thing I'd like to add to it. But, I leave tomorrow and won't be back for another few months. So her main focus will be the kitchen now.


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## Dinggus

I told my wife we should get all new cabinets, she said she's afraid since we have custom cabinets no new cabinets would fit properly. Is this true?

HomeDepot wants $13,500 just to reface our cabinets!


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## Thadius856

$13,500 is nutso. You could get a very good amount of new cabs for that price.

I have factory spec'd cabs, and they don't fit perfectly on one wall. I also lose a bit of space because of that and reduced storage.

Consider resurfacing yourself if you hate them. Sanding and painting is time consuming but not too expensive.


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## Ironlight

Dinggus said:


> I told my wife we should get all new cabinets, she said she's afraid since we have custom cabinets no new cabinets would fit properly. Is this true?
> 
> HomeDepot wants $13,500 just to reface our cabinets!


That depends on the layout of your kitchen. Most pre-made cabinets come in lots of different sizes...12", 15", 18", 24", 36"....that allow you to configure a kitchen with a fairly minimal loss of usable space. If you end up with a space of 2"-3" along a run, you just find a good place to put in a spacer insert.

I suggest you look around in your area for a discount cabinet wholesaler. You'll get a better deal than from HD and generally they have more expertise when it comes to layout and design options and solutions. For example in the DC area there is one called "Cabinet Discounters" that I visited. Quite a few lines of name-brand cabinets, from budget all the way to top of the line. A good place to visit to understand the spectrum of what's out there.

I ultimately went with IKEA for our cabinets, having used them before. They are your least expensive option and are generally better than the cheapest lines from the other manufacturers. Then again, you have to put them together yourself which is a pretty mind-numbing task.


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## Dinggus

Thadius856, we already stained them. We just need custom made doors and that's it. But it's being a pain.

Ironlight, I looked at Ikea cabinets, they were going to cost us a few thousand. I picked out all the cabinets we needed and it was around $1k at Home Depot unfinished of course.


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## Dinggus

Wife caulked and painted the laundry room. Once I she gets our iMac back, I'll get pictures.

Anyone know anything about hanging new interior doors? We have just plain flat doors, I'd like to replace them with this:

http://www.homedepot.com/Doors-Wind...&langId=-1&storeId=10051&superSkuId=202964933

All I have to do is match up the hinges correct?


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## Thadius856

More or less, yes. You linked a 24" door. Typically only closet doors are 24", so be sure to measure every door. Typical interior doors are 28" or 30", and exterior doors 36".

I have solid doors as well, in poor shape, and want to replace with 4- or 6-panel myself (though maybe not the exact door you linked), so I sincerely hope it's that easy. Had hoped to use our tax refund to do this very project, but it's coming to us smaller than we expected.

Be sure to buy ones with the mortises (edit: typo) pre-cut for the hinges, and note the size and shape of the mortises (edit: typo) (squared corners, slightly rounded, very rounded) and slap on new hinges while you're at it.


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## Ironlight

I would actually not get doors pre-rabbeted for hinges because I would want to preserve the spacing of the existing hinges. Filling in old rabbeted cuts is a pain and takes a lot of work to make it look good, particularly if the old and new hinge placements overlap which they usually do.

It's pretty easy if you have a router, and not much harder if you don't. Just use a chisel.


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## Thadius856

If you do mortise your own doors, use extra caution with the lower-cost doors you linked. It's easy to punch holes in hollow fiberboard doors while trying to mortise them.


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## Dinggus

Thanks for the heads up, I was just linking the door as an example.

Would I want to get a prehung door then?


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## Dinggus

Here are somewhat better photo's of the color. Wife said the pictures don't show the true color.


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## Thadius856

Nice! 

I'm pretty sure I have that exact same washing machine, and maybe dryer (can't see enough to tell).

The photo was to show the color of the tile or the wall?


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## Dinggus

The wall, and the wife wanted to show that the caulk were on the baseboards.


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## Thadius856

Ahhh! You got a real handy one there.


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## Dinggus

She's more handy than I am, and very creative. But, she has to do majority of my unfinished work since I'm deployed and then moving ASAP once I get back.


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## Dinggus

We're getting a quote in a few days on new cabinet doors. They will be unfinished so the wife will stain them and add knobs already. They'll come with frost glass. Will be alot cheaper than actually refacing the cabinets. I think I just tried tackling a bigger DIY project than I could handle since it was my first. The tile was easy, remodeling a kitchen for a first timer is not, ha.


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## shumakerscott

Dinggus said:


> We're getting a quote in a few days on new cabinet doors. They will be unfinished so the wife will stain them and add knobs already. They'll come with frost glass. Will be alot cheaper than actually refacing the cabinets. I think I just tried tackling a bigger DIY project than I could handle since it was my first. The tile was easy, remodeling a kitchen for a first timer is not, ha.


Some project's turn out bigger than anticipated that's for sure. Cost way more and take 4 times as much time. Don't give up There is light at the end of the tunnel. dorf dude...


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## Dinggus

Thanks for the support! It's almost done really.

1. Mount base cabinets
2. Cabinet Doors
3. Patch up ceiling
4. Counter Top
5. Flooring

The wife would mount the base cabinets, but since our cabinets are older than the new ones I just bought, they don't have the same height.


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## Dinggus

So, cabinet doors are being made, $1200 which isn't bad at all. All top cabinets will have frosted glass in them.


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## Thadius856

$1200 doesn't sound bad at all. Sounds like you got quite the deal.

Hope it all works out. I'm still toying with the idea of trying to design, plan, draft, build, finish and install my own cabs. Still stuck on the design phase. :laughing:

What's killing me is that I have a galley-style kitchen, and I want to be able to put the fridge at the back wall, but then I lose a ton of space and have to deal with two blind corner cabs.


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## Dinggus

Just buy new cabinets?


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## SER56

Looks Good! The paint makes a big difference


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## Dinggus

Yes it does, thanks!


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## Thadius856

Dinggus said:


> Just buy new cabinets?


Nah. Too expensive. Gotta make use of a shop full of woodworking tools.


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## Dinggus

Did this a few days ago.










Going to start working on the flooring today.


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## Dinggus

I just noticed I haven't taken new pictures of anything, but here are ones that have been on my phone for awhile.

Finished the hall way 2 weeks ago, now just waiting to do the kitchen.









This wife and her mom did this 2 weeks before I got home from my deployment.









I also bought my first motorcycle, so I'm sure that is going to take up a lot of my time now. Also, I'm moving so now I gotta definitely finish so I can rent the house out.

As for weeds go, any way to like "dissolve" them? I used round up and they all died, but I am to lazy to pick them, ha!


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## Thadius856

Hmmm. Any specific reason you didn't remove the baseboard and tile up to just short of the drywall? All those gaps would have covered without then need for base cap.


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## Dinggus

Truthfully, the guy who did the living room and part of the hall way did it this way, so I had to follow suite. I don't know why he did it that way, but all I know is he was going to put shoe molding all around. When the wife gets back from her vacation, the guy is suppose to come help with the kitchen and maybe I can find out why he did it that way.

I do know my kitchen is the same way, shoe molding all around.


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## dayid

Dinggus said:


> As for weeds go, any way to like "dissolve" them? I used round up and they all died, but I am to lazy to pick them, ha!


Propane weed burners are always available :thumbup:


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## Dinggus

Awesome! Ever used one?


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## Thadius856

Used one once. The biggest inconvenience was that the one I was used, you had to hand-carry a propane tank in one hand. Don't know if that's the norm, but it was a pain for me. Probably not too great for safety either.

They're no fun to use on a hot day, and shouldn't be used near wood fences, siding etc. For me, that leaves about 2 sq ft in the middle of my driveway I could use it on. Also very good for melting icy walkways, but we don't freeze over here most years. Also really good for de-weeding parking lots.


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## Dinggus

I'd never use one for my house, lol.


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## Dinggus

After I went cruising on my bike, I got home around 6pm and started working on the kitchen and I got this much done.









Then after work, I passed out around 6pm from exhaustion and got this done when I started at 7pm, got it done around 9pm.










After cleaning up my mess, I ripped up the other half of the flooring. I'd like it to be done before Wednesday so I can surprise my wife and show her that she needs to be this productive when I'm deployed, lol.

Being deployed for 1 year, she hired a friend at work to do the living room laminate, and then 15 days before I got home, her mom and her finally worked on the kitchen. Just think how much she could have got done if she was as productive as I!


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## Thadius856

Very nice. Love the color. Gets kinda washed out in the picture, but I know that feeling with most cameras.

Good work. Don't forget the t-moulding.


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## Dinggus

Thanks, I feel I did a better job than the guy she hired. Only reason I did the hallway was to try and match what he did. T-Molding will go on once I finish.

I can't decide if I want white horse shoe or the same color as the floor.


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## Thadius856

Horse shoe? Not sure what that is.

I have 10 sticks of this stuff waiting for install. All of my stuff was installed under the base, but the floor is a little wavy in places so this is to hide some small (1/8") gaps between the bottom of the base and the flooring in some places.

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc...gId=10053&langId=-1&keyword=base+cap+moulding

Of course, they only carry pine in stock at my local store (at several times the price), so I had to have these shipped. The 10 sticks passed the $45 threshold for free shipping.


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## Dinggus

Sorry, the shoe molding. Like I said, I'm exhausted, first day of work after 30 days of leave, lol.


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## Dinggus

Got some more work done today. Started around 7:30pm and ended at 9:45pm, had to stop using the table saw at 9pm though, otherwise I'd be done. My objective is to have the floor finished (not including shoe molding), but just have the floor down by the time she gets home tomorrow.


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## Dinggus

Granite counter tops are in! Came out to be around $2300, which was $700 cheaper than what HomeDepot wanted to charge me for laminate counter tops.


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## Thadius856

Looks awesome man! Good job on that kitchen.


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## Dinggus

Thanks, we're now just trying to hurry up and finish since the house is on the rental market. I'm moving so we're working on closing on our second house which we can't do unless we have a renter in this house.

The second house we're trying to get isn't even completed, but will be by the end of August. Wife already selected the tile colors and carpet colors and we're just waiting on the word from the mortgage company. This house we're not even going to need to remodel so it's going to be nice to take a break.


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## Thadius856

Definitely cool.

We're considering site building our next house with my father as the GC. That's probably at least 5 years out tho.


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## Dinggus

Yeah I want to build a house one day.

Just an update, we got a renter for our house, once I get a copy of the lease and deposit check then I can start closing on our new house.


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## Dinggus

Guess I'll update this thread and close it, since I'm now renting it out and upgraded to this!


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## toastandjam

Dinggus said:


> Guess I'll update this thread and close it, since I'm now renting it out and upgraded to this!


Nice....doesn't look like Fayetteville :thumbup:


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## Dinggus

Closest thing this house compares to are the houses in Raleigh. But, I ended up moving a few hours from NC.


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## Fishinbo

A splash of colors is all it takes to liven it all up! Good job.


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