The Home Improvement Thread

Silverback

Lima Gulf Bravo Foxtrot Juliet Bravo
I ran it with some non-ethanol from QT so hopefully not. Got one more project for it today and then I'll run it dry.
 

tx_shooter

It is not a war crime the first time.
Staff member
Well damn, I was washing power washing my Tenere 700 and the handle on my 10 year old Ryobi electric power washer gave out. There was enough pressure to finish washing so that was a win. Now to compare prices and options.
 

balakay

BabyMax
I have been really happy that a petrol station two miles from my house started selling ethanol free fuel.
Yeah we finally got a station in Mansfield that has ethanol-free. Nice not having to carry my cans with me every time we go to my parents house to get it down there.
 

Taco Loco

Tired and Lazy, married to ‘The Laundry Fairy’
74* at night, 77* during the day.
House electric bill was $148, but the billing cycle includes days with the old roof.

Last months electric bill for the house $120.40!!
 

Anathollo

Armorall is my choice of lube
Staff member
I got a ton of work done this past weekend and now I am wore out. I came to work to take a break lol
I finished a bunch of little jobs or repairs around the house or yard so that feels really good to have that stuff taken care of.

Saturday- I vacuumed the majority of my garage and got a bunch of stuff put away. I threw away a ton of stuff as well. I am trying really hard to get rid of the "oh I'll need this later" mentality I am hard-wired with. Unless it's super expensive, I'm getting rid of excess material and stuff I don't use anymore. The ironic thing is I moved from a 1300 sqft house into a 2300 sqft house but I have way less storage space lol
I replaced two of these lights. I went ahead and siliconed all of the lights shut to hopefully prevent any future water ingress.
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Sunday- I got our new barstools assembled. I also replaced the battery in my robovac that cleans the garage.
I got two 3/8" air lines ran across the shop to my hose reels. My 75' hose reel is by the garage doors and my 40' hose reel is mounted over the work bench. I went this route simply for cost. I didn't want to spend $500+ on iron or Sch.80 PVC pipe & fittings at this point in time. I was also planning on putting an additional air pressure regulator on each hose reel but that would've been another $50 in fittings just to plumb those in and it's just not necessary for my setup. My large, dual chamber air regulator can handle both air lines as well and it's accessible to change the air pressure. The two 3/8" hose lines + a 100 count box of 1/2" 2-hole straps was like $60-$75 total. If I had to redo this setup though, I would use rubber hose lines instead of the Flexzilla lines as the rubber lines don't move as much. Lastly, I always depressurize the lines when I'm done. I switch off the main air supply valve from the compressor and then drain the air out of the lines so I'm not worried about one of these lines popping while I'm away from the house.
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My work bench hose reel end setup. It has the swivel connector with an air nozzle (I use this all the time) and the fancy QD connector.
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My neighbor and I are planning to rebuild our fence that got knocked over in the hurricane and then hopefully I'll be able to purchase/build a large shed so I can move a bunch of stuff out of my garage into it so I'll have way more garage floor space.
 

Anathollo

Armorall is my choice of lube
Staff member
I had a can of wood putty explode in my cabinet. This has never happened to me before and the garage is AC'd so it wasn't excessive heat that caused it to explode. Pretty weird that it happened and I'm glad it didn't shatter the glass window in the cabinet door.

20241006_111032.jpg
 

balakay

BabyMax
My neighbor and I are planning to rebuild our fence that got knocked over in the hurricane and then hopefully I'll be able to purchase/build a large shed so I can move a bunch of stuff out of my garage into it so I'll have way more garage floor space.
This is my plan. Have a new fence going up at the end of this month and having some brick pony walls removed from the front. Plans for spring are a new metal fence to replace the pony walls and building a shed behind my garage to get my mower and crap out of the garage. Found out that as long as it isn't over 120sq ft or more than 15ft high, I do not need a permit. I already have a pad started back there. I'd like to run power to it for some lights and a vent fan but that would require me to go ahead and ugrade the breaker panel which is on the list but I'm holding off as long as possible. maybe I'll just do a small solar setup.
 

Anathollo

Armorall is my choice of lube
Staff member
This is my plan. Have a new fence going up at the end of this month and having some brick pony walls removed from the front. Plans for spring are a new metal fence to replace the pony walls and building a shed behind my garage to get my mower and crap out of the garage. Found out that as long as it isn't over 120sq ft or more than 15ft high, I do not need a permit. I already have a pad started back there. I'd like to run power to it for some lights and a vent fan but that would require me to go ahead and ugrade the breaker panel which is on the list but I'm holding off as long as possible. maybe I'll just do a small solar setup.
Yeah I'm gonna build or buy a massive shed as my wife wants to store gardening stuff in there as well. I'm gonna trench over an electrical line to my junction box I put at my front gate and tie into that dedicated 20A circuit for lights and an electrical outlet for the shed. That dedicated 20A outlet only feeds my gate motor and an outdoor box for Christmas lights so I can add onto it and not worry about tripping the breaker.

But if you're just running a vent fan and some LED lights, do you really need to upgrade your breaker panel? Just curious as it probably wouldn't pull that much power (especially if you tie into a circuit that isn't used that much (guest room circuit or something like that)).
 
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balakay

BabyMax
Yeah I'm gonna build or buy a massive shed as my wife wants to store gardening stuff in there as well. I'm gonna trench over an electrical line to my junction box I put at my front gate and tie into that dedicated 20A circuit for lights and an electrical outlet for the shed. That dedicated 20A outlet only feeds my gate motor and an outdoor box for Christmas lights so I can add onto it and not worry about tripping the breaker.

But if you're just running a vent fan and some LED lights, do you really need to upgrade your breaker panel? Just curious as it probably wouldn't pull that much power (especially if you tie into a circuit that isn't used that much (guest room circuit or something like that)).

My panel is completely full and most have been changed out to split breakers to even fit the current circuits in the box. It just needs upgraded in general. Just putting off doing anything electrical until I can replace the panel. I'll add a generator connection and a 220v for the garage at the same time.
 

tx_shooter

It is not a war crime the first time.
Staff member
This is my plan. Have a new fence going up at the end of this month and having some brick pony walls removed from the front. Plans for spring are a new metal fence to replace the pony walls and building a shed behind my garage to get my mower and crap out of the garage. Found out that as long as it isn't over 120sq ft or more than 15ft high, I do not need a permit. I already have a pad started back there. I'd like to run power to it for some lights and a vent fan but that would require me to go ahead and ugrade the breaker panel which is on the list but I'm holding off as long as possible. maybe I'll just do a small solar setup.

Could you not put a moderately cheap solar panel and a car battery inside for power? There are plenty of solar exhaust fans for trailers and storage buildings. Then LED lights pull almost no power.
 

Silverback

Lima Gulf Bravo Foxtrot Juliet Bravo
My shed is solar powered.
 

Silverback

Lima Gulf Bravo Foxtrot Juliet Bravo
It does need a new battery at the moment though. But its a dual battery solar charge controller, one powers the lawn mowers battery, one the house battery. I have a light switch, one for interior lights and one for exterior work lights, a 400 watt inverter (big enough to run a battery charger) and it has a 20 watt panel on the roof. I have a 50 that I could add or use but so far the 20 is fine since its not used much. But right now the battery took a shit.
 

balakay

BabyMax
Could you not put a moderately cheap solar panel and a car battery inside for power? There are plenty of solar exhaust fans for trailers and storage buildings. Then LED lights pull almost no power.
Yeah that's the plan. I may go ahead and trench out a line for it to tie into the panel later on when I replace it. It's only going to be about 10 feet from my meter/panel.
 

balakay

BabyMax
Got the last two trees on the back fence line cut down today and nearly filled up the entire 16' trailer with limbs. Still need to dig up the sprinklers that are a long the fence line before next weekend. I'm going to get rid of all the sprinklers in the back yard and use those valves as the feed for soaker hoses around the foundation. The ones along the fence will probably be the only ones I pull up because they're above ground. All the rest are popups and are too low anyway so I'll likely just cover them and disconnect at the valves when I tie in the soaker hoses. Also have my SIL and BIL coming to take our 4x8 plastic tool shed next weekend while the front fence is removed. Too big to take through the gate currently without disassembling so next weekend is the perfect opportunity while the fence is down. Hauled some dirt around as well to make a pad for a new shed build at some point in the not-so-distant future.
 

balakay

BabyMax
Finally getting these little brick walls torn down today after wanting to do it for the last two years. Removed the lights from them this morning. They just ran Romex underground and then up through the concrete at the ends of the walls. Going to have the excavator flip them over and cut the wire underneath and then cap it until we figure out if we're going back with a metal fence here or not. They're tearing down the back fence today as well and setting the new galvanized posts. Then they'll be back tomorrow or Monday to put up the wood on the fence. Taking out the brick mailbox as well while they've got the mini-excavator here. So I'll need to replace that tomorrow as well I suppose.
PXL_20241026_123704033.jpg
 

Taco Loco

Tired and Lazy, married to ‘The Laundry Fairy’
Finally getting these little brick walls torn down today after wanting to do it for the last two years. Removed the lights from them this morning. They just ran Romex underground and then up through the concrete at the ends of the walls. Going to have the excavator flip them over and cut the wire underneath and then cap it until we figure out if we're going back with a metal fence here or not. They're tearing down the back fence today as well and setting the new galvanized posts. Then they'll be back tomorrow or Monday to put up the wood on the fence. Taking out the brick mailbox as well while they've got the mini-excavator here. So I'll need to replace that tomorrow as well I suppose. View attachment 63057
Galvenized fence post FTW.
Any plans on removing that oversized crape myrtle too? It has potential to cause foundation problems.
 

balakay

BabyMax
Galvenized fence post FTW.
Any plans on removing that oversized crape myrtle too? It has potential to cause foundation problems.
I was set to remove it but we had our foundation done last year and they said it hasn't caused any issues yet and doesn't appear to be at risk of doing any so my wife said it's staying. Definitely keeping an eye on it though. I'm just tired of cleaning all it's fucking flowers off the roof every couple of weeks as evidences by the photo I posted.
 
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