skywlker32 Posted March 3, 2020 Share Posted March 3, 2020 I finally got around to (well, got my father in-law to come help) putting the wiring in for a doorbell. The previous owners had put in a wireless system instead of including the wiring in the new doorway...because who doesn't like changing batteries? The sad thing is, there was a wired doorbell at one point because they left some of the wiring hanging (although that did make it easy to run the wire). I likely wouldn't have changed it if it weren't for the video doorbell that I am installing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theJ Posted March 3, 2020 Share Posted March 3, 2020 1 hour ago, skywlker32 said: I finally got around to (well, got my father in-law to come help) putting the wiring in for a doorbell. The previous owners had put in a wireless system instead of including the wiring in the new doorway...because who doesn't like changing batteries? The sad thing is, there was a wired doorbell at one point because they left some of the wiring hanging (although that did make it easy to run the wire). I likely wouldn't have changed it if it weren't for the video doorbell that I am installing. Change batteries every few months, or spend like 12 hours upfront doing the wiring...? You made the right choice, though i understand why people elect to go with the former. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skywlker32 Posted March 3, 2020 Share Posted March 3, 2020 (edited) 5 minutes ago, theJ said: Change batteries every few months, or spend like 12 hours upfront doing the wiring...? You made the right choice, though i understand why people elect to go with the former. Not even 12 hours. It was close to 3 at most including the Home Depot trip. Advantages of having a former electrician in the family. [edit] Side note. I thought the doorbell was broken because I didn't think to check whether it was wired or wireless. Edited March 3, 2020 by skywlker32 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theJ Posted March 3, 2020 Share Posted March 3, 2020 17 minutes ago, skywlker32 said: Not even 12 hours. It was close to 3 at most including the Home Depot trip. Advantages of having a former electrician in the family. [edit] Side note. I thought the doorbell was broken because I didn't think to check whether it was wired or wireless. Would have taken me 12 because i would have made holes in the walls all over. Electricians don't need to do that because they possess deep dark magic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tugboat Posted March 11, 2020 Share Posted March 11, 2020 (edited) On 03/03/2020 at 11:31 AM, theJ said: Would have taken me 12 because i would have made holes in the walls all over. Electricians don't need to do that because they possess deep dark magic. If you use the right spells, sometimes you can find holes in the walls already. That's always my first step to anything. Find holes. heh heh and put wires through them. I honestly think some electricians have actually been electrocuted too many times though. It's concerning. Bonus of hard wiring a doorbell, is that you get a nice chime when the power comes back on after a blackout or whatever. Edited March 11, 2020 by Tugboat 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tugboat Posted March 11, 2020 Share Posted March 11, 2020 My best home improvement thing lately tho, is that my parents finally got themselves a proper tractor for their big ol' acreage. And when they asked me to stop by and blow some snow, it was nice 'n easy. It was a big improvement, from having to muscle the things around on a lawn tractor with an aftermarket engine i think i posted in this thread about replacing, or at least when it was disassembled and in shattered pieces. Baby tractor just ripped through snow. Appropos yard maintenance equipment is good *** home equipment imo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MWil23 Posted March 23, 2020 Share Posted March 23, 2020 On 2/27/2020 at 10:10 AM, skywindO2 said: I'm interested in doing this in my kitchen and bathroom. Much smaller space than 1500sq feet since my condo is only 950. Let me know how it goes! Update buddy: It took me and a buddy 40 total hours to lay it all. It was a massive project. 3 12 hour days and a 2-4 hour day to finish it. It looks awesome but it’s time consuming. I saved $3K though doing it myself. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobbyPhil1781 Posted April 4, 2020 Share Posted April 4, 2020 I can't see this being too far-fetched on an idea and I'm sure it exists but my basic searching lead my nowhere so I'll ask here. Is there an app that you can use to take a picture of an existing room and remove stuff and add new stuff and change flooring and wall colors?? Wife and I are going to do our bathroom next year and she wants all those crazy floors you see on HGTV and I'd prefer to see how they look lol. I think one exists for wall colors but flooring may be more of a challenge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacReady Posted April 4, 2020 Share Posted April 4, 2020 Home Improvement during a pandemic is lots and lots of prep work for when I don't feel like a selfish idiot moron by going to Home Depot to get non-essential home improvement supplies. Since this all hit, here are a couple projects I've worked on: 1. Small patch of grass. I bought some seed before this all hit, but I need to borrow a tiller to do my whole yard. I did it last year, but the grass didn't take in the majority of my yard. I think it's because I sprayed some pretty serious weed killer that is supposed to make the soil unplantable for a full year. Didn't think it would actually keep grass from growing, but I think it did. So I decided to try a small patch. Probably a 5x10 area. I had some PVC pipe and fittings in my garage that I used to build an enclosure for the grass area to keep my dogs out of it. Then I took a day tilling it by hand with one of those manual tillers. Raked the hell out of it, then raked it some more, planted, raked over the seed a little bit, then put some mulched leaves that I sucked up earlier over the top of the seed to keep it in place and for fertilizer. That was on Monday. 2. Tore up my bedroom. Moved every single thing out of it, tore out the siding, tore out the door frame/trim, took off the window curtains... Completely gutted it. Sanded the doors (they were in bad shape), tore out the floor... It's completely and totally gutted. I had the paint for it, so I painted it. Looks great, and I have the new flooring for it which I'll probably install on my next day off, but I'll have to wait for a while before I go out to buy the floor and door trim. 3. Going to clean out my garage. I have some furniture still that the previous homeowners left that's not in great shape. I've been putting off tearing it down for way too long, so now I'll tear that down and completely clean the garage. It's detached and in rough shape. The electrical wiring is amateur and every time I leave for work I turn off the power to it because I'm afraid it's gonna start a fire, so I might tear out some of the electrical and cap off the wires. I plan on drywalling the ceiling of the garage, so I can always clean that out and organize all my yard tools. That's a full day project. 4. I can tear down my office the same way I did my bedroom. 5. From there I can basically just outline all my plans. Might do some more yard work, but it's rough. I'd been completing or working on a project each day off for a while now with a small break from January to March, but just as I got ready to get back to it the whole pandemic hit, so I'm feeling really anxious and restless trying to think up projects I can work on without going out to buy stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacReady Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 Does anybody have any experience with battery operated mowers? I do not have a big yard and was considering getting one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theJ Posted April 6, 2020 Share Posted April 6, 2020 16 hours ago, Outpost31 said: Does anybody have any experience with battery operated mowers? I do not have a big yard and was considering getting one. Friend of mine has one. He likes that it's quiet, and the whole thing is light enough to hang on the wall. He's never mentioned that it's not powerful enough for any particular task. I also imagine it's nice to not worry about oil and air filter changes, running out of gas, the spark plug getting gummed up, etc. However, if it breaks, you're probably less equipped to fix it. Also, batteries wear over time, and you can only cross your fingers that in 5 years the company you bought it from is still offering the same battery line. There are pros and cons. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shanedorf Posted April 6, 2020 Share Posted April 6, 2020 (edited) On 4/4/2020 at 6:49 AM, JTagg7754 said: I can't see this being too far-fetched on an idea and I'm sure it exists but my basic searching lead my nowhere so I'll ask here. Is there an app that you can use to take a picture of an existing room and remove stuff and add new stuff and change flooring and wall colors?? Wife and I are going to do our bathroom next year and she wants all those crazy floors you see on HGTV and I'd prefer to see how they look lol. I think one exists for wall colors but flooring may be more of a challenge Ive seen the wall colors version and I think Home Depot has one called Project Color. For the floors and furniture, not sure - but it seems like it would exist in the interior design world One thing we've done is look at real estate listings for nice homes in nice neighborhoods. You can look at so many well-done homes and many of them were professionally decorated and staged for the pictures. And some have all the latest trends on display Good place to see lots of ideas in action and with the real estate world all virtual now, its pretty handy and you aren't limited to your neighborhood Edited April 6, 2020 by Shanedorf 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobbyPhil1781 Posted April 6, 2020 Share Posted April 6, 2020 57 minutes ago, Shanedorf said: Ive seen the wall colors version and I think Home Depot has one called Project Color. For the floors and furniture, not sure - but it seems like it would exist in the interior design world One thing we've done is look at real estate listings for nice homes in nice neighborhoods. You can look at so many well-done homes and many of them were professionally decorated and staged for the pictures. And some have all the latest trends on display Good place to see lots of ideas in action and with the real estate world all virtual now, its pretty handy and you aren't limited to your neighborhood Thanks for the input. I've used the HD thing before and it is useful. I absolutely agree that you feel the design app would exist but I cannot find it anywhere! We watch a lot of HGTV and it seems to be where my wife gets her inspiration along w/ Pinterest. Sometimes things just dont' work in the space provided and I would love to see it beforehand but I'm guessing w/ the readily available resources we've listed, and the many we haven't, there's probably no need for what I'm looking for. I just get so nervous about the super busy floor tiles that are a thing these days...... really nervous lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeotheLion Posted April 6, 2020 Share Posted April 6, 2020 On 4/5/2020 at 1:13 PM, Outpost31 said: Does anybody have any experience with battery operated mowers? I do not have a big yard and was considering getting one. I have one. Has done 2 summers of weekly mowing. Overall I'm very pleased with it. Though the batteries are starting to wear a bit. My yard takes 35ish minutes to mow. The mower I have has 2 batteries which probably lasted for 60 minutes to start. Now a few years later and I'm getting about 45 minutes from them. So still enough to do my entire yard but I question if that won't be the case next year. I'd be tempted if it gets to that point to just get a 3rd battery to have charged and ready to replace. I think I bought the whole thing for $300. It's not as powerful as a gas mower but with a small yard I don't mind a little bit of workout. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dome Posted April 6, 2020 Share Posted April 6, 2020 If your lawn is in good shape already, I’d look at a reel mower too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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