The Home Ownership Thread

[ChrisGold]

Two days of working on refinishing the deck. Can probably get it done tomorrow if I am motivated. The deck floor took about 20 minutes so far, and is 80% done, but all of the light posts, rails, seating, grill step-up, etc... take forever.

 

[texas_jack]

And now for a subject everyone loves. Cable service.

We have Comcast which sucks ass and is expensive. The only other option in our area is DirecTV. Any opinions? It's certainly cheaper for more channels and NFL package. But it's a dish on your roof. I don't care about aesthetics but we have pretty severe weather here in the Chicagoland area.

 

[texas_jack]



Two days of working on refinishing the deck. Can probably get it done tomorrow if I am motivated. The deck floor took about 20 minutes so far, and is 80% done, but all of the light posts, rails, seating, grill step-up, etc... take forever.

What product did you use?

 

[ChrisGold]



What product did you use?

I used Sherwin Williams Super Deck, Semi-Transparent Oil based stain. Color is Yankee Barn.

 

[Piobaire]

Got my quotes for our fireplace install. Yeah, the whole thing is going to run about 20k.

 

[ChrisGold]



Got my quotes for our fireplace install. Yeah, the whole thing is going to run about 20k.

Ouch. On one hand it will be the focal point, but on the other hand 20K handles a lot of other projects. Do they need to bring the gas line over as part of the project or is it already there?

 

[Piobaire]

It's already there.

 

[brokencycle]

You have expensive tastes. Or contractors think you're a rich, sucker.

 

[itsstillmatt]



Got my quotes for our fireplace install. Yeah, the whole thing is going to run about 20k.

That's not bad at all.

 

[Piobaire]



That's not bad at all.

When you look at the numbers all broken out it all makes sense but then you add them up and ouch.

 

[itsstillmatt]

Good work is not inexpensive.

 

[Piobaire]

Agreed. And a focal point is probably the exact worse place to even consider less than excellent work. My friend that builds high end custom homes arranged for the worker that is doing all the framing, drywall, tile, etc. and a local company that sells the fireplaces also does the installation. It all breaks out rationally but that final number, even though I sort of expected it, still hurts a bit. Then again, our aborted wine installation was going to be even more, so I figure I'm up about 20k for going with a second wine cabinet.

 

[Piobaire]

So just had a little thing happen tonight. The garage door behind which our cars sit jumped completely out of the tracks and jammed about 1/3 open. Could not move the damn thing and trying to force it just bent the tracks on the side that was not popped out. Thankfully there is such a thing as 24/7 garage door repairmen. $180 bucks later and I had my garage door working again. Really, on a Saturday night? I was not upset to pay that.

 

[nootje]

Thought you guys might enjoy this, at least I did through the process. Coffee machine is a la pavoni Stradivari, which was very due for a calcium cleanup and new rubbers..

Taking it apart:

Soaking in vinegar overnight to get out the gunk, in the picture are the chrome group head, bronze piston and scree. With some assorted bits:

Now this is pretty much the only type of puzzle I will consider doing. On the other hand, it's Sunday morning and I can't get coffee until it's finished:

And we're done! The machine needs to get broken in a bit again, as the crema is still a bit thin due to the cleanup. But no leaks and I have my coffee, two hours well spend:

 

[js4design]

Our bathroom sink's drain has been getting progressively slower, and last Friday the drain slowed to a crawl. On Saturday I emptied out all the junk in the cabinet, drained and removed the p-trap, cleaned the trap, then spent 45 minutes feeding a snake down the drain pipe, with no results. Frustrated I threw in the towel for the day, and came back to it this evening. I'd read up on what the next steps might be, but figured I should try plugging the overflow and using a plunger, even though it looked doubtful. After approximately 20 seconds of work, the drain is clear and flowing like new. Very glad it was such an easy fix but about all the time I wasted on Saturday.