Home Improvement Thread 2: Electric Redo the Loo

nolalady said:
I want to do either native plants or edible garden with mine. I'm in Louisiana, so everything grows here.

My husband saw that lawn dinosaur statues exist and now he wants to plant a bunch of jungle looking plants (again, I live in a subtropic zone so these types of plants do well here), so we can have a huge dino diorama on our lawn. Boring lawns are no fun.
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How do you find out what plants are native in LA. Here in CA there are number of organizations? I found out a couple of weekends ago that CA has the highest count of endemic (plants that you only find here) plants in the US. Apparently CA is a really special place for plants and no one even knows or cares for that matter.
 
Dtknuckles said:
How do you find out what plants are native in LA. Here in CA there are number of organizations? I found out a couple of weekends ago that CA has the highest count of endemic (plants that you only find here) plants in the US. Apparently CA is a really special place for plants and no one even knows or cares for that matter.
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I get most of my info from the LSU Ag center website. It's really an amazing reference for both native plants, as well as, plants that grow well here.
 
Tomorrow I’m gonna attempt to replace the wood slats in our backyard gate with a wood composite material. Should be good to go with a little patience. Home Depot wouldn’t cut the material for me as apparently their saw melts it.

So essentially I’ll be cutting a little over an inch off of the bottom and slicing 2 of the slats vertically for the far left and right openings, which are about a half inch narrower. Then I’ll drill a couple holes to fit the carriage bolts. Measure twice and cut once, as they say.

Anyone have tips on the wood cutting process? I’m going to buy a hand saw as well, but to be honest I’m struggling to think of a stable surface I can do the cutting on and maintain a steady hand.

Here’s the current fence and the material I’ll be replacing it with:

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With a properly sharp saw you can do this by hand on a pair of saw horses. You could using a sliding clamp to secure the pieces. I would use a Japanese pull saw. 10 slats would be fairly quick work I would think.
 
Melt Face Molly Drop said:
Tomorrow I’m gonna attempt to replace the wood slats in our backyard gate with a wood composite material. Should be good to go with a little patience. Home Depot wouldn’t cut the material for me as apparently their saw melts it.

So essentially I’ll be cutting a little over an inch off of the bottom and slicing 2 of the slats vertically for the far left and right openings, which are about a half inch narrower. Then I’ll drill a couple holes to fit the carriage bolts. Measure twice and cut once, as they say.

Anyone have tips on the wood cutting process? I’m going to buy a hand saw as well, but to be honest I’m struggling to think of a stable surface I can do the cutting on and maintain a steady hand.

Here’s the current fence and the material I’ll be replacing it with:

View attachment 15065View attachment 15066
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Very pleased with how it turned out overall. I spread out the work over 2 days due to the heat and what not, and I'm still sore as hell. Appreciate the tip on the japanese pull saw @debianlinux, big fan. Though I did start to tire on the last piece which started to get a little wavy, but oh well.

The old wood was rotted out and bolts rusted, so that took more time than anticipated to disassemble (spinning carriage bolts are my arch nemesis). Still have one last update to make to secure the lock latch, but I'm good with putting this one in the books.

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Melt Face Molly Drop said:
Very pleased with how it turned out overall. I spread out the work over 2 days due to the heat and what not, and I'm still sore as hell. Appreciate the tip on the japanese pull saw @debianlinux, big fan. Though I did start to tire on the last piece which started to get a little wavy, but oh well.

The old wood was rotted out and bolts rusted, so that took more time than anticipated to disassemble (spinning carriage bolts are my arch nemesis). Still have one last update to make to secure the lock latch, but I'm good with putting this one in the books.

View attachment 15326
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Now to put some plants in that gravel!
 
Spent all day yesterday snaking my downspout drain lines after some pretty horrific downpours causing some flooding. Managed to get one side of the house cleared pretty quick but the other side I spent 4 hours working on and never got through the blockage.

Got some quotes last year to fully replace them and I think for my peace of mind I might actually bite the bullet and have them do it. Tough to stomach the amount of money but I'm at my wits end with watching these drain lines constantly clog and cause water damage.
 
Baaaaaaarf. Now our AC/heat pump shit the bed.

Please tell me all your horror stories on brands and installation people so I can lose even more sleep agonizing over this decision.
 
folsom_lives said:
Baaaaaaarf. Now our AC/heat pump shit the bed.

Please tell me all your horror stories on brands and installation people so I can lose even more sleep agonizing over this decision.
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Ours broke...got a quote for 8K. It's been two summers with 100+ degree heat for about two months. We just accept that those are the cranky months. It seems that my 3 year couldn't care less.
 
Dtknuckles said:
Ours broke...got a quote for 8K. It's been two summers with 100+ degree heat for about two months. We just accept that those are the cranky months. It seems that my 3 year couldn't care less.
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Our quotes run the gamut from $7k to $13k. I just hate reading the reviews. It's an echo chamber. Also we can't really go without AC since our system is a heat pump. No AC means no heat come winter. We are kind of in a good position since we are in between heating and cooling seasons and can put the squeeze on installers who want to stay busy during the slow times.
 
folsom_lives said:
Our quotes run the gamut from $7k to $13k. I just hate reading the reviews. It's an echo chamber. Also we can't really go without AC since our system is a heat pump. No AC means no heat come winter. We are kind of in a good position since we are in between heating and cooling seasons and can put the squeeze on installers who want to stay busy during the slow times.
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They're quoting you for 7-13k for fixes or for a complete replacement? When we moved in, the previous owners had purchased 2 brand new units at 7.5k a pop. Outside of that, it's a crapshoot. I've had friends that had their units under warranty and found out that the people fixing it were fixing it "just enough" so they had to come back and squeeze more money out of the insurance company. It's a shady enterprise.

Are you on the NextDoor app? I've found there are plenty of people with horror stories about certain companies/contractors, and many with good experiences. Could draft up a post there.
 
Melt Face Molly Drop said:
They're quoting you for 7-13k for fixes or for a complete replacement? When we moved in, the previous owners had purchased 2 brand new units at 7.5k a pop. Outside of that, it's a crapshoot. I've had friends that had their units under warranty and found out that the people fixing it were fixing it "just enough" so they had to come back and squeeze more money out of the insurance company. It's a shady enterprise.

Are you on the NextDoor app? I've found there are plenty of people with horror stories about certain companies/contractors, and many with good experiences. Could draft up a post there.
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We are talking full replacement. We currently have a beat to hell 10 year old system which we've only "enjoyed" for 2 year. In that time we have had our home warranty people out at least 4 times to do all sorts of costly repairs (with nothing really coming out of our pocket). The latest is a blown interior coil which would cost $1400 out of pocket to replace leaving the exterior 10yo compressor as-is.

The good news for us is that we could take $1400 as a repair credit, essentially using the remaining monies from the home warranty to discount a new system.

I am "on" NextDoor only as a lark to read the old white ladies complain about noisy cars and teenagers walking down their sidewalks with headphones. I have looked at reviews on Angie's List but again I take those with a grain of salt. Most of the F reviews are just people not getting calls back for estimates... For real?
 
To do list for the weekend.

1. investigate outlets
2. level curtain rod that is about 1/2 off.
3. replace two sprinkler heads
4. replace leaking sprinkler valves
5. dig out organic material from new planting bed
6. move rocks across lawn
7. figure out how to take all the lava rocks out of the trash can you tried to sneak them into
8. where do i get cheap mulch
9. where do i get cheap dirt
10. where do i get cheap rocks
11. make a budget for new planting bed

I'll get maybe 3 done tops more if my kid doesn't interfere.
 
AC is getting installed Monday. Thank god. Hoping to see at least $30 a month less on our electric bill since our old unit was running at probably 50% efficiency.

I don't know a ton about warranties but we are taking a gamble on a relatively "new" company because the warranty was better and we are getting a similarly sized/spec'd unit for 2/3's of the cost of a comparable model. They have a lifetime compressor replacement guarantee with a 10 year full unit replacement if the compressor fails in the time frame. Plus a 10 year parts and labor warranty for anything else that goes wrong.

I've never been more excited to spend thousands of dollars but I'm tired of sweating my ass off in this 90+ heat. It also is making my wife and I look at our monthly spending a bit more closely and hopefully saving a but more for these unexpected expenses.
 
Melt Face Molly Drop said:
How's this work exactly, got caught by the trashman?
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I think he got wise because if filed it a little too much the last time. I was doing a little spying yesterday and noticed him doing something that looked like making a report. I don't want to have to pay to go to a landfill or have a pickup truck just to get rid of a bunch of rocks.
 
Dtknuckles said:
I think he got wise because if filed it a little too much the last time. I was doing a little spying yesterday and noticed him doing something that looked like making a report. I don't want to have to pay to go to a landfill or have a pickup truck just to get rid of a bunch of rocks.
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Interesting. I throw weeds and other crap in mine all the time. I know a lot of people will post on NextDoor saying free lava rock or river rock and ppl will come scoop it up and haul it away.
 
At long last, continued work on the basement this weekend. Framed more of the ceiling out and got all but a small section drywalled. Will finish that this week. Also gonna replace the light with LEDs I think.

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Started constructing the bar last night. My old man is up helping me, and he's kind enough to continue working today while I have to work the day job.

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Think I accidentally snipped a wire that activates my A/C fan while working on the basement UGHHHH

EDIT: Reattached the wires and that indeed was what it was.
 
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Picking out cabinet designs along with with bar tops and flooring! Mock up design below. The pole obviously made it a little more complicated. My design anxiety is going crazy right now!

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