Home Improvement and terrible experiences thread

[chardog]

I'm keeping my house simple, NO AC! I acquired a unit from a demo'd house, but I'm going to sell it. Summer this year has been cold and I dont think I'll ever need it.

I kinda went through a huge renovation that cost ~50K.... and that's mostly materials. Most of the work done myself. Huge mistake was getting solid mahogany floors. Sure they look pretty, but soft as hell compared to laminate. Damn easy to scratch..... but the wife HAD TO HAVE IT....

 

[equus]

I'm keeping my house simple, NO AC! I acquired a unit from a demo'd house, but I'm going to sell it. Summer this year has been cold and I dont think I'll ever need it.

I kinda went through a huge renovation that cost ~50K.... and that's mostly materials. Most of the work done myself. Huge mistake was getting solid mahogany floors. Sure they look pretty, but soft as hell compared to laminate. Damn easy to scratch..... but the wife HAD TO HAVE IT....

this reminded me of a post Couch Jockey made about a year ago. i laughed so fucking hard at the misery and how hard wood comes into play......

Last week we got new carpet in the halls and bedrooms. I wanted hardwood but my wife wanted carpet. She played the,

 

[chardog]

being handy pays off tons though, I installed this myself (along with a few guys help):

before

after

The appliances are high end that I got for DIRT cheap on CL. I found out that high end appliances have a hard time selling because people buy these things for their mansions and upgrade to NEWER stuff. If they're wealthy enough for these items, they tend to buy them new and hard to find buyers. Also, their overly large sizes are hard for most average joe's to fit in their standard kitchens.

1200 CFM blower motor(roof mounted so it's super quiet) - $300
60" SS viking hood - $600
48" SS thermadore Cooktop - $500
24" wide cheapo SS oven - $100

money WELL spent. You can google the prices of these appliances and they're usually sky high. Sorry to get off topic

 

[equus]

being handy pays off tons though, I installed this myself (along with a few guys help):

before

after

The appliances are high end that I got for DIRT cheap on CL. I found out that high end appliances have a hard time selling because people buy these things for their mansions and upgrade to NEWER stuff. If they're wealthy enough for these items, they tend to buy them new and hard to find buyers. Also, their overly large sizes are hard for most average joe's to fit in their standard kitchens.

1200 CFM blower motor - $300
60" SS viking hood - $600
48" SS Cooktop - $500
24" wide cheapo SS oven - $100

money WELL spent. You can google the prices of these appliances and they're usually sky high. Sorry to get off topic

no no no. not off topic. i'll change the title.

that is an awesome kitchen my friend. amazing.

 

[chardog]

the kitchen cost me ~12 - 15K, but I hear that's a really good deal considering it's size.

quartz counter tops, cant recall the cabinets, granite sink that matches the counter tops, water filtration, redid the floors with porcelain wood looking planks with ditra underlayment. Had to redo some plumbing and replace a lot of the subfloor as well (did myself).

also, the kitchen opening was expanded to 56" or so, and that took a good amount of work replacing the 4x4 header with a 4x6 header for good measure.

 

[equus]

man i love that color as well...

 

[Scerpi]

being handy pays off tons though, I installed this myself (along with a few guys help):

before

after

The appliances are high end that I got for DIRT cheap on CL. I found out that high end appliances have a hard time selling because people buy these things for their mansions and upgrade to NEWER stuff. If they're wealthy enough for these items, they tend to buy them new and hard to find buyers. Also, their overly large sizes are hard for most average joe's to fit in their standard kitchens.

1200 CFM blower motor(roof mounted so it's super quiet) - $300
60" SS viking hood - $600
48" SS thermadore Cooktop - $500
24" wide cheapo SS oven - $100

money WELL spent. You can google the prices of these appliances and they're usually sky high. Sorry to get off topic

Holy Crap!! Your old kitchen!! The floral print on the cabinets! The wallpaper!

Incredible.

Your new kitchen looks great.

 

[DrBdan]

I missed the "before" part and thought "wow that's a new kitchen? looks like shit", lol. That looks fantastic Chardog, did you do everything yourself?

I'm just finishing up my first big reno, the main bathroom. It has taken forever.

 

[chardog]

Holy Crap!! Your old kitchen!! The floral print on the cabinets! The wallpaper!

Incredible.

Your new kitchen looks great.

thanks, it's been HELL

I missed the "before" part and thought "wow that's a new kitchen? looks like shit", lol. That looks fantastic Chardog, did you do everything yourself?

I'm just finishing up my first big reno, the main bathroom. It has taken forever.

I had a company go in and do my cabinets and countertops... thing is that they only deal with contractors, and I'm pretty much on the level of a contractor skill wise (4yrs construction and cabinetry).

so for the smaller things like subfloor, plumbing, fixtures, wall patch work, and electrical, I did myself. Laying down the tiles, I had a pro do the work, since I've never worked with fake wood planks, and generally not as good with the finer touches. I had to oversee a lot of the finer details to make the project come together. Since I work from home, I'm there pretty much the whole time giving instructions. A lot of small details the normal guys wont pick up on.

my wife painted the kitchen and chose the color scheme.

 

[LazyFatass]

Fuck me that's a nice cooktop for that price.

 

[chardog]

it's a super slick cooktop for sure. It's actually considered a "rangetop" by thermadore. It's an older model before the star burners (what the old owners probably upgraded to). The flame can go from ultra low (chocolate melting, off x seconds on x seconds automatically) to huge(boil water in no time). My wife happens to be a restaurant grade cook, so this works really well for her.

6 sealed burners and a grill. The grill is kinda useless because my wife cant handle a dirty grill, so we'll occasionally use it to grill squid or toast tortilla, or anything that's clean. Beats the socks off of any modern consumer cooktop easily. Guests are generally drawn to the cooktop and hood. Since there is a huge opening to the living room, people like to pool there to watch the food cook and/or chat.

As you can tell, I really take pride in my kitchen

 

[Scerpi]

We had a pretty good drought a few years back. People had foundation issues... Our pool started leaking. It was time to redo it anyways, so we went all out and redid the whole backayrd.


During

My wife loves her coffee mug pics...

 

[neverwas]

worst experience i've had as a home owner was having to give it to my ex wife.

 

[Poohbearsbong**]

holy piss, put the bong down

HA, It's wasn't down to me, I inspected everything before i left it, but i guess a seal failed after some time...

that's life

 

[chardog]

scerpi, I did the opposite years back, a pool coverup. pretty big on gardening, so pools arent my thing. Good work though.

 

[Gawd]

When we moved in i explained to my wife that i will not under any circumstances repair or rebuild anything. That's her job. She is the one who wants a house.

 

[Scerpi]

scerpi, I did the opposite years back, a pool coverup. pretty big on gardening, so pools arent my thing. Good work though.

If I didn't have a pool. I wouldn't be able to live here. The summer's are tough enough with one.

 

[BPA00]

The 2 worst things for me so far have been the a/c unit going out in August when it was over 100 degrees out... and the furnace going out in January when it was below 10 out... In both cases it was several days before I could get somebody out to fix/replace.

 

[equus]

HA, It's wasn't down to me, I inspected everything before i left it, but i guess a seal failed after some time...

that's life

i was referring to your post....

 

[osudude]

Chardog what brand of cabinets are those? I have some that are very similar if not identical but the contractor that installed them is being very coy about telling me where they came from. I need replacement parts.