The Home Renovation Thread

Those white tubes in the picture are 4" corrugated drainage pipe wrapped in a cloth sock with foam rock-shaped filler between the sock and pipe. They cost about $40/10 ft, compared to maybe $10 for equivalent pipe/sock/drainage stone. The $40 ones are worth every penny. I laid 160 feet of them in twenty minutes two years ago. If I had done it the old-fashioned way, it probably would have been five hours and two chiropractor visits. Highly recommended option.

Thats all they use here now. The old way with the gravel must have been a huge hassle.
 
Those white tubes in the picture are 4" corrugated drainage pipe wrapped in a cloth sock with foam rock-shaped filler between the sock and pipe. They cost about $40/10 ft, compared to maybe $10 for equivalent pipe/sock/drainage stone. The $40 ones are worth every penny. I laid 160 feet of them in twenty minutes two years ago. If I had done it the old-fashioned way, it probably would have been five hours and two chiropractor visits. Highly recommended option.
I kept going back and forth on those when putting in a French drain this summer. I read very good things about them. However, I ultimately did it the old fashioned way.
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Outside of the house is done. All trim replaced and a change of colour. It’s a bit darker than we agreed on, but I think the missus made a good choice with this colour.
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After
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Master bedroom bathroom remodel. A planned project that came a little sooner than planned (water collecting in the subfloor). The configuration was a corner shower stall (pan configuration), storage cabinets, and toilet in a 6x6 room. Then a vanity and sink in a corner of the master bedroom.

We're redoing the 6x6 space now and then will do the vanity as a phase 2. My wife is a certified custom cabinet maker and already has the design figured out for the vanity.

We've got the tear out done and gutted it, including the subfloor. Found a broken pipe to the drain under the house that thankfully hadn't leaked appreciably...but it would. The subfloor was actually in good shape, so the leak must have been recent. But we needed to redo the subfloor due to our plans.

We decided to expand the shower to a 3x6 configuration with a bench at the far end and a single pane of glass running the first 4 feet with the remainder for entry/exit. We'll tile the walls from just beyond the glass, around the 6 feet at the back and the entire 6 feet on the wall by the shower entrance. So no long term problem with splash from the shower. We're tiling the floor as well with a contrasting mid-grey textured tile called waterfall. 1x1 tiles will be split in half. There will be no curb to step over for the ultimate in safety. The tile size accommodates sloping the floor toward a 24-inch linear drain located just inside the outer 6 foot wall. That's why the subfloor had to come up, so we could then build a sloped floor and create a membrane for the entire room. The floor tile will cover the entire 6x6 room. We've selected a Hans Grohe shower head and hand held that will both be on the back wall with the hand held on the bench side. The new toilet will be a Toto Ultramax II.

Most of the hard work is done. We've done the rough mudding and will tile this week. Once we finish I'll post pictures of the finished product.
 
Man, you know THP is slow coming off an event weekend when I wander in here. Now all I can think about is work. Dangit slow Sunday nights!!

Fun projects guys.
 
Looks like we are all on schedule for the kitchen to start being installed at the back end of next week - when the builder arrived this morning, the plan for this week is to strip off the paper and skirting boards from the dining room area today, the plumber is coming tomorrow to temporarily take a radiator off the wall, put the last of the pipework in for the other radiator that we needed to decide on and the pipe for the outside tap, and then the extension will be boarded on Wednesday and the plasterers will be doing their thing on Thursday and Friday

New patio doors were installed on Saturday, so it is all sealed and water-tight now and we can definitely tell the difference in the temperature - whilst the big hole in the wall was just boards it was pretty cold in there, but it is noticeable now that the doors are in. It is still cool due to the size of the space and the fact it is still back to the brickwork, but nothing like as cold as it was

I need to go and order the tiles for the new bathroom next weekend, which is just a small room created by blocking up an old cupboard area in the kitchen and creating a new door in the hallway but is almost forgotten about in the grand scheme of work going on in the dining/kitchen area
 
Today is finishing removing the roof sheathing, I pray to god I finish it today :ROFLMAO:

4 layers of shingles, yes 4, on this little 400 sq/ft building is crazy. More than that, the decking up there has to go as it’s been abused the past 30 years.

Hoping I’m replacing bad framing by Wednesday and shoreing up the trusses before framing out windows and doors.
 
Even with Trex on the way, I’ve managed to stumble my way into a couple other projects. Planning to replace the wire shelf in the laundry room with cabinets and turn the sliding door closet into a bench/coat closet mud room type thing. Next is putting a closet organizer in the master.
 
She shed is down alllllllll the way to studs and trusses. Finally. Four layers of shingles and their decision to not just nail the roof sheathing in was a week long b*tch.

Anywho. Jacks are ready to be put into place so I can replace the sections of floor sill’s with some dry rot, as well as lay the sill that will be filling in the former garage door. Need to get that done and then frame the windows and doors, and hopefully get sheathing all on and taped before rain next week.
 
With kitchen completely done the Master bath is getting done now. Its a couple of weeks away as we are waiting for shower glass to be made and then we finally get that room back.

The gym is nearly complete as well and @GolferGal can add her finishing touches to it as the Tempo Studio arrived. Been a long time coming, but the house is finally going to be done soon....at least for now.
 
Dreams of a Halloween party have moved up my deck timeline. Hoping to schedule delivery this week and then work incredibly hard to get things done by Halloween afternoon. So much for golf next weekend :cautious:
 
Driveway and back patio remodel is finally on the home stretch. I went overboard on this, making the slabs about 5 inches think and then going back and filling all the grooves with concrete by hand. Trying to make it maintenance free. Regrading the lawn and new grass next week, hopefully.

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Got about 16 feet of floor plate replaced this weekend, tomorrow will be building a new corner post and replacing studs in that section. From there move to the garage door opening and replacing those sections of plate and modding that end to fit the new French Doors the doc wanted. Hopefully by weeks end I’m sheathing and then installing windows and doors.
 
Glad it’s getting dark earlier. I can only work for about 90 minutes! Still going to be sore.
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One window framed in, need to frame in the other side which didn’t have to be replaced and then move to working on the French door framing. Got the header built for that today.
 
Driveway and back patio remodel is finally on the home stretch. I went overboard on this, making the slabs about 5 inches think and then going back and filling all the grooves with concrete by hand. Trying to make it maintenance free. Regrading the lawn and new grass next week, hopefully.

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This looks awesome! (y)
 
Thankfully it looks like the weather has pushed back and it means I get a few more days to finish up framing before anything significant rolls in.

Finally hitting that comfortable point which means pace will pick up.

This is seriously therapeutic.
 
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This is seriously therapeutic.

You're so right. After a day of flying spreadsheets and sitting in meetings, there's a lot of release to be had in fixing or building something, even if it's just mowing the lawn:
  • you see the results immediately
  • there are obvious endpoints
  • the physical exertion is a release on its own
  • no difficult people are involved, with the possible occasional exception of my home space supervisor
 
Y'all are doing some awesome work!
 
We have just conducted the 6th and final phase of our new house regeneration. Getting the master en-suite done. Reading some of the stuff in here, I’m insanely jealous of the handyman skills some of you posses. My skills are definitely more suited to project management LOL.
 
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Day 2. I’m a machine. A rusty, broken machine. Taking Trex delivery tomorrow!
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The new extension and existing dining room have all been plastered, just waiting for it to dry now

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Kitchen - Plaster.jpg

Kitchen is being delivered on Saturday, decorator is due Friday (I think) to start painting before the kitchen is installed, so hopefully another couple of weeks and we should be about done in terms of the kitchen

There are still a few jobs to be completed outside, one of the builders lads has put the guttering up this morning and is sorting out some of the small jobs as he is here on his own today - there is a step to be done outside the patio doors, the drainpipe for the new sink needs finishing and the hole filled in where they connected to the outside drain, and finish bricking up the outside of the old doorway that led out to the garden

Inside, it needs the kitchen fitting, electrics for the appliances and cupboard lights, lights for the kitchen and dining room to be fitted, and the new downstairs toilet needs tiling and then the toilet can be installed in there as well

Hopefully the worst of the dust is behind us now.....
 
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