The Home Improvement Thread

[Ravvenn]

Thanks!

My contractors are giving me lessons. $20.00 per lesson and use of their tools for free. I think tile is easy, and I'm kind of a retard so I'm sure you can do it. I plan to do the glass/mosaic to my fireplace next Fall.

I wouldn't even take lessons for tiling (if that's what you meant). It's pretty simple, to be honest. Only problems are when you hit corners and need shit cut. At my old place, I just had my brother cut it for me. He used a saw that squirts water out of it!

Watch HGTV, I can do so much thanks to that show! Even watching the Home Buying shows are nice, albeit bullshit, I hate that bitch who thinks only seeing 3 houses is enough and always rips on first time buyers - it's the biggest investment of your life, don't settle! Those shows help you know what upgrades give the best ROI's.

[chaos]

I love watching HGTV, that's how I know I'm old now.

The home buying shows are alright, but I prefer the improvement shows. They have a huge program block on Saturdays. Something about Carter Oosterhouse just pisses me off, I can't watch him. But Don't Sweat It is a cool show. I've learned a lot just casually watching HGTV, but probably not enough to pull out a huge project with no assistance.

I've been buying books as they go on sale at Amazon and planning on hitting up the Home Depot classes, but I never manage to get around to them.

[Heylel Teomim]

One thing I really want to do, but I probably shouldn't, is put in a bar. On the one hand, I want one. On the other, I fully understand it's the sort of thing that's only of interest to a single 20-something and I probably won't get all of my money back out of it.

At least for now though, I'd love to do it. I've got two giant rooms in the basement to fill. The one with the fireplace is going to be a media room where I stick my big screen and home theatre stuff, and I'll run the wiring up to a central home PC for streaming stuff (also planning to do some minor home automation via something like X10). The other room I don't quite have a use for yet. Long term, I'd like to build myself a nice poker table and set up a game room (stocked with nerdier stuff like my gaming books as well ). There's a basement bathroom off that room, so there's already a drain if I wanted to put a sink in for a wet bar.

If I could do that, and then put a pass-through window in the wall between the two rooms to join the space together, I could have a pretty bitchin man cave

[aychamo_aycono]

Originally Posted by Heylel Teomim

I'm lucky in that a lot of what I'm planning is optional. There are no pressing matters in the home, the inspection came back totally clean. The hardwood in the living room is in great shape, the roof is less than 5 years old, everything runs right and there's no leaks.

The biggest problem is that it's just plain dated inside. For instance, here's what the living room looks like. Sorry for the quality, it was taken by the current owner and until I close I'm not able to get in and take better ones:

It's in great shape, it's just sorta tired looking. I actually don't even mind how dark the room is, I just feel like something needs to happen to those walls to modernize the room a bit. I'm just not sure where to start though. Hell, I don't even know what I *can* do with walls like that. They've got a ton of character, and I'm worried anything I do besides tearing it down completely and putting up sheetrock will end up looking bad.

Unless you remotely like that look, your best bet is to pull off all the paneling and put up sheetrock, just like you said. Pull out those built-ins on either side of the fireplace and get rid of that stone. It's a ton of shit, but you can make it look nice. Unless you like all that stone.

[Picasso]

Originally Posted by Heylel Teomim

One thing I really want to do, but I probably shouldn't, is put in a bar.

You are right, dont do it.

Just buy a movable one i know sears and sams have one and they look pretty plush.

Unless you have the plumbing extremely convenient, no.

[Heylel Teomim]

Originally Posted by aychamo_aycono

Unless you remotely like that look, your best bet is to pull off all the paneling and put up sheetrock, just like you said. Pull out those built-ins on either side of the fireplace and get rid of that stone. It's a ton of shit, but you can make it look nice. Unless you like all that stone.

I just worry that doing that much sheetrock is gonna be a real pain.

[Ravvenn]

Here's a couple of the fence. It's a fence, so I didn't try to take any good pics.


This is the new fence (it makes a L shape going back across the side yard):

Back


Front



You can't see it well, but this is the other side of the house. That side needs replaced, but I want to try and make friends with my neighbors to get them to do a halfsie first. Also shown in the picture, is the pool. The previous owners had it acid washed and the person who did it was a retard and hit the stone resulting in it being returned to it's original color (concrete). I plan to restain it, and I am wanting to do it myself as concrete stainers around here charge a goddamn fortune ($6.50 per square foot). Please excuse the bird poop on the waterfall, the swallows here have some issues with pooping in it. I bought an owl statue to scare them away but a real owl keeps trying to rape her and knocks her in the pool every week.



The furthest back fence is iron and I plan to keep it as we're backing a wildlife reserve and I don't want to obstruct the view. Here's a picture of it, you can see "Helga" my abused owl, too.



Here's a shot of the view we have, which is kind of rare. I feel lucky to have found this home that promises no-one can ever live behind us. Plus, I get to see deer (and have rabbits eat my herb garden, yay).


And for nerd laughs, here's a WoW map (it's by our office):

[Heylel Teomim]

You've got some truly gorgeous property there. I'm jealous >.<

[Xantium]

Originally Posted by Heylel Teomim

wood paneling

Here is what I did in my office. I took some joint compound and filled in all the cracks between the panels from a couple feet off the ground up, then I took some wallpaper liner and hung it, primed and painted again a couple of feet from the floor to the ceiling. Then I ran chair rail all the way around the room. Result? Wainscotting!

[Heylel Teomim]

Interesting result =)

In my case that's not feasible. It's difficult to tell from the pictures, but it's not exactly paneling in the living room. It's a cedar panel with strips of cedar on top, giving it a strong texture depth. It looks pretty cool, they just overdid it. The same pattern runs down the hallway at hip height, and covers the walls of one bedroom.

I may eventually just have to tackle it as a sheetrocking adventure it seems.

[Zarniwoop]

Originally Posted by Xantium

Wood paneling -> Wainscotting!

Another option would be to completely embrace the wood paneling and stonework by mounting some guns, antlers, and stuffed bison heads on the walls, and lay down some bearskin rugs. That room screams MAN LAIR, baby!

Edit: you'd be surprised at what you can get away with through painting, with the right surface prep. You could paint some or all of the paneling, and probably even the stonework if you really wanted to. Ripping it all out just to replace it with drywall is a lot of work - I guess it depends on how long you expect to be in the house.

[Heylel Teomim]

Staining was gonna be my first try. I'm thinking about trying to stain the wood a richer natural color so that it is set off from the floor a bit more. If it doesn't work, I can always try a paint after that, and if THAT doesn't work I'll just rip it down.

The tricky part will be the transition into the hallway, where the same woodwork is present.

[Koivu]

If you plan on tiling a bathroom, pro-tip (don't know how seriously meant ) from my dad's building industry buddies: Always start from the corner that's facing the seat. It's the only part of the tiling people will have a chance to pay attention to, on those rare occasions you're minding your business and you need something to concentrate to.

[Tuco]

Requiem will need to buy some more servers to handle all the bandwidth that will result from Ravvenn's contribution to this thread.

[Ravvenn]

Originally Posted by Tuco

Requiem will need to buy some more servers to handle all the bandwidth that will result from Ravvenn's contribution to this thread.

Pfft, don't pick on me. I grew up playing in dirt and catching crawdads for fun. I'd rather learn to build something that saves money and looks awesome than pay some asshole to do a half-assed job. I know deep down I could do cool stuff, but I need the proper tools and really, I doubt I'd ever get 'permission' to own a saw.

Where's your contributions, Mr. Wood Bumper?!

I'm going to get the white and orange stripes done today (so help me God) and hopefully the bottom trim, which I am thinking I may just replace since it's kind of cheap looking. Only problem is I have that full bedroom set boxed up in my entry way and have the guest bed being delivered today in addition to two mattress sets that I am positive will end up in my formal living room for 2 weeks if I don't speed up my decorating. I didn't even paint the guest room yet. I can't pick a 'theme'. I was going for some beachy cottage look like this one I put my mom up in a couple years back in Newport (Balboa Peninsula).

I need more local guildmates to paint for food!!


Xantium, did you paint your homemade wainscoting? I'd like that in white in my not-yet-started beachy guest room. I saw a room in a house I looked at (named Dolphin House) that had nice wainscoting and box beam ceilings (forgot the real name of it). I wanted to do this (pic below) to my formal dining room. I imagine it's better to pay someone, yeah?