Home Improvement

You don't know the layout of my house. Yes, it was still technically a 3rd bedroom, but I had my washer and dryer sitting in the closet. That took up all of the closet space, making it not a closet at all.

I was asked to take the washer and dryer downstairs in order to open that closet back up so that it could be used as a "bedroom" once more. It wasn't a big issue. I purchased my house for $205k, then invested another $50k (at least) in the 7 years that I've owned the place. I'd like to get as much as possible back out of it for selling, but as it stands, Kitchen and Bathrooms are the only important things in the housing market. Unfortunately, those were the two placed that I neglected while doing EVERYTHING else in the house. They're older, but not old by any stretch of the imagination. They just aren't as "new" as the rest of the house has become.

What sucks is that I replaced the 25 year old HVAC unit 7 years ago with something new and high efficiency, added a water softener, replaced all windows with new vinyl high effeciency, put on a new roof, installed a new deck, replaced the old appliences... everything. And none of that seems to really matter as far as selling a house is concerned. The "buzz words" are definitely crown, granite, renovated... other bullshit. All of the work that I did to my place that made me happy to live there doesn't have as much "wow" factor as a new kitchen counter does. But what can I say, women are fucking stupid.

This also doesn't include the new siding, hot water heater, shelving in basement and flooring the attic for storage. Hell, the new cedar deck I built 3 years ago, or the shed I designed and built myself... it doesn't get people in the door. All of this was important to me when I did it, but doesn't help sell the house. It might help if people come out to look at the property, but they aren't important enough to get people in the door in the first place. Stupid people that only care about buzz words really do ruin everything, and they deserve the hunks of shit that they get as a result. All of the other townhouses in my development have been selling cheap lately. People don't tend to invest money into these properties, where as I did. The "highest selling place" sold last year. Was put on the market for $217k, and sold for $205k also. I'm going to put mine up for $240k, but that's exceptionally overpriced for the neighborhood, regardless of it being the "best house on the block". I care about where I live and the time and effort I put into the property shows just this. But again, that doesn't get people in the front door to begin with. But ultimately, I'm fine with that. I'm still going to put in new granite counter tops in my kitchen. I have a "new" offer of $1300 for them, which is incredible.

I just hate that buzzwords dictate the housing market, but I can only assume that those people deserve those shitty houses that look pretty, but are poorly built trash. I'll take a well built house that needs work over something that looks immaculate but was constructed poorly any day of the week. Especially because I'm capable of doing the work to make it into a home run for myself. Not to just renovate and sell to someone else.

Picasso_sl said:

Would it be faster with a lighter hose?

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Possibly. I found with mine that when I used a heavy hose, it would move...kinda. It moves with a bit of a "hitch" motion as the gears catch and turn the wheels and it seemed like with a heavy hose, every 2nd or 3rd gear turn would "slip" the gears and not move the tractor. Once I put a lighter hose on it, the gears never slipped and it moved at a decent clip.

It still puts down a TON of water though. I'd guess that it takes roughly 60-90 mins to travel a 100' hose, even on the quickest speed

Lighter hose won't make it faster. Higher water pressure would. But mine have an adjustable gear ratio, you sure yours doesn't? Take that sucker apart and have a look. Also, if you adjust the spray pattern to a smaller spray, it might speed it up, too.

I would think the weight of the house is actually going to be a significant factor. The little tractor thing can only have so much tractive force. When I think about some of the hoses I have, several settle into a wound shape and are fairly difficult to unwind compared to say those little black felty-plastic lightweight hoses.

Erronius_sl said:

This sounds like a question for Eomer.

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In my experience, few water services have a pressure regulator. It's a maintenance head ache and a potential source of liability for the utility. Code here states that water pressure is to be between 30-80 psi. Most services fall in the middle of that range.

The exception would be really hilly places. Obviously the pressure at the bottom of the hills will be higher. But I would think utilities would design the distribution system to avoid excessive pressures. There was one neighborhood in Fort McMurray that consistently had 100+ psi pressures for whatever reason, so the municipality mandated PRVs. That came after numerous floods from failed toilet valves etc.

fucking fuckity fuck.

Well, the deck outside our master bedroom has a railing. The railing has posts. The posts were put through the deck. No flashing was used. The headers over my garage doors have been wet since 1977. In fact, they no longer exist. There is complete lack of wood in the centre of my garage doors. I have a support wall built inside the garage now, and all the rotten wood is removed. I have to completely rebuild that wall. I think I'm going to be able to save the brick facade, but everything behind that will be new.

What a fucking pain in the ass. I spent more than 1,000$ in lumber alone today. grumble grumble.

Erronius_sl said:

There's a place that sells $5 bowls of cereal next door to his lumberyard.

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Pine beetle infested 2x4's for $20 each?

Bluestain lumber obviously $25/bdft. The fungus that adds value lol.

Picasso_sl said:

How did you spend 1k in lumber, i just built a 12x24 deck 5 ft in the air for 1200.

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All the lumber/drywall and sundries needed to replace an entire wall that has two garage doors, is 12 feet high, and needs a new everything? The only thing on the wall I'm not replacing are facade bricks and the garage doors. Plus I'm doing it all with treated lumber and PVC.

So a cool thing is that everything that's going to be exposed to the elements is PVC, so there is no chance of future rot. Cool stuff.

Sorry, header is pressure treated wood. The stuff outside the door is paint ready PVC.

I want to build myself a computer/work desk (anchored to the wall). What kind of wood would you recommend? I'm thinking birch but am not entirely certain.

It's going to be about 8 feet long, 32 inches deep on the 'lower' shelf and 24 inches on the upper shelf (about 3 feet higher). I want something that I don't really have to finish/maintain. I have the 2x4 frames ready to go but haven't been able to decide on a type of wood for the desk itself.