Home Projects (upkeep/repair/mods/cool sh*t/advice/question)

[Carpet_pissr]

Current plan:
1. use a couple of trail cameras outside around the house (I guess pointing toward the house, or maybe three: one pointing to back door, another pointing to front door, and then a third at another entrance)
2. Reset current floodlight with motion sensor (or better still replace with one that has a camera
3. Use a couple to three indoor cameras pointing at the doors and windows I guess
4. Trim bushes (good idea BH) around windows and doors, WAY back
5. Make sure all lights on extrerior are working and sufficient (replace with camera lights if possible.


MAN there are tons of trail cameras on Amazon though, my God.

Also, in case it wasn't clear, anytime I am mentioning cameras here, the footage will need to be reviewed either on the device (usually tiny 2" or 2.5" screens), or I guess I will need to buy some adapter so my Mom can remove the SD cards, and view the footage on her iPad. Almost all of the ones I am looking at use microSD, and one uses a regular sized SD card.

I suspect when all is said and done, maybe $400 total.

I am ALMOST considering going the celular data camera route, and just having her buy a data plan (if you have multiple cameras, surely you can use one data plan for all? Can't imagine you would buy a data plan for each one?!)

[RMC]

Current plan:
1. use a couple of trail cameras outside around the house (I guess pointing toward the house, or maybe three: one pointing to back door, another pointing to front door, and then a third at another entrance)
2. Reset current floodlight with motion sensor (or better still replace with one that has a camera
3. Use a couple to three indoor cameras pointing at the doors and windows I guess
4. Trim bushes (good idea BH) around windows and doors, WAY back
5. Make sure all lights on extrerior are working and sufficient (replace with camera lights if possible.


MAN there are tons of trail cameras on Amazon though, my God.

Also, in case it wasn't clear, anytime I am mentioning cameras here, the footage will need to be reviewed either on the device (usually tiny 2" or 2.5" screens), or I guess I will need to buy some adapter so my Mom can remove the SD cards, and view the footage on her iPad. Almost all of the ones I am looking at use microSD, and one uses a regular sized SD card.

I suspect when all is said and done, maybe $400 total.

I am ALMOST considering going the celular data camera route, and just having her buy a data plan (if you have multiple cameras, surely you can use one data plan for all? Can't imagine you would buy a data plan for each one?!)

If you are going to do a data plan, wouldn't it bne cheaper to just get internet, and then get the cheaper internet camera's? Not sure, but maybe run the numbers. Not sure how big the house is, but a cheap router, and then internet camera's. Although, it will take time to get internet installed if it is cable, but T-mobile home internet only costs like 35/month, and comes with a router as part of that cost. <shrug> Not sure where you live, so might not be an option, but most likely cheaper than a data plan.

[Blackhawk]

It would also let you buy some cheap smart plugs that you could control with your phone to turn interior lights on/off or program them for certain times.

[RMC]

It would also let you buy some cheap smart plugs that you could control with your phone to turn interior lights on/off or program them for certain times.

Good call, I do that now with Philips Hue lights, they are a little more expensive than a regular lightbulb, but turn any fixture into a "smart" fixture.

[Unagi]

or I guess I will need to buy some adapter so my Mom can remove the SD cards, and view the footage on her iPad.

[Blackhawk]

It would also let you buy some cheap smart plugs that you could control with your phone to turn interior lights on/off or program them for certain times.

Good call, I do that now with Philips Hue lights, they are a little more expensive than a regular lightbulb, but turn any fixture into a "smart" fixture.

Something like a Kasa Smart Plug work with anything that could be left 'on' when unpowered, and they're pretty cheap. I use them for the backlights for my TV and PCs, plus for the lights on the bird cages. The app also supports schedules. A four pack could run a bedroom lamp, a kitchen light, a bright living room light, and something else. They could then be set up on a schedule. Like having the bathroom light come on every 90 minutes for three minutes, the living room light come on at 5 and go off at 11:15, and the bedroom light come on at 11:00 and go off at 1. Once set up, it would be hands-free. I don't know if they do random times, but having them vary each one by ~15 minutes would probably work well.

[Carpet_pissr]

Gah, house was broken into for a third time, front door left open.

Someone mentioned a hotspot upthread...can you please speak more to that? I went to the TMobile site and tried to chat with someone who insisted I buy their $50/month home internet plan and didn't want to discuss any cheaper options (and I did enough research to know that her address is not even eligible for that - is it fiber or LTE?). I've never had home internet via a phone carrier before so I really have no idea how that works.

When I was looking at mobile hotspot options, I began to think that in this case, she doesn't need it to be mobile...so am I looking at the right thing?

All I need is a device that can be installed inside, with access to power, that can feed wifi to a few cameras and smart switches and maybe an alarm or something. I'm guessing 20-30GB a month tops. Is there a non-mobile device that will accomplish that one the relatively cheap? I just don't want to have to (I assume) pay for the "mobility" part when that is not necessary here.

Thanks to all for input so far!

[gilraen]

When I was looking at mobile hotspot options, I began to think that in this case, she doesn't need it to be mobile...so am I looking at the right thing?

All I need is a device that can be installed inside, with access to power, that can feed wifi to a few cameras and smart switches and maybe an alarm or something. I'm guessing 20-30GB a month tops. Is there a non-mobile device that will accomplish that one the relatively cheap? I just don't want to have to (I assume) pay for the "mobility" part when that is not necessary here.

You are not paying for the mobility part. You are paying for the part where the hotspot is acting like a wifi modem/router but getting its internet signal from the cell towers and not from a cable or DSL provider. So one way or another, you are paying for internet.

Don't try to "chat" with anyone, their job isn't to help you, it's to sell you stuff and charge you for the simplest tasks. Search the website yourself. You are looking at something like this: https://prepaid.t-mobile.com/plan-detai ... e-internet (cost of monthly plan plus the cost of the device). Alternately, if you login to your account page and go to "add a device", there are a couple of hotspot options that you can just add to your existing plan, and they'll use your existing data allowance. If there's no 5G/4G/LTE signal available where she lives, the hotspot will just use 3G/2G. Not sure if that's enough to power a video feed.

[em2nought]

I used to babysit an empty house for a friend, and I actually took a piece of plywood and placed it behind the front door and nailed it into the jack studs and king studs. I put screws directly into the jack studs right above the bottom pane of all the house's windows so no way was someone lifting one of those open. The garage door I drilled holes and put bolts in the track right above some of the rollers so nobody was raising that either. Sliders I dropped lumber into the inside tracks, but you really need to put screws sticking 1/2 inch down from the top of the track directly above the sliders so they can't just be lifted off the track either. The frame on sliders really needs pinned in the middle too, but that's a little dangerous if you accidentally hit the glass with your drill.

[RMC]

Gah, house was broken into for a third time, front door left open.

Someone mentioned a hotspot upthread...can you please speak more to that? I went to the TMobile site and tried to chat with someone who insisted I buy their $50/month home internet plan and didn't want to discuss any cheaper options (and I did enough research to know that her address is not even eligible for that - is it fiber or LTE?). I've never had home internet via a phone carrier before so I really have no idea how that works.

When I was looking at mobile hotspot options, I began to think that in this case, she doesn't need it to be mobile...so am I looking at the right thing?

All I need is a device that can be installed inside, with access to power, that can feed wifi to a few cameras and smart switches and maybe an alarm or something. I'm guessing 20-30GB a month tops. Is there a non-mobile device that will accomplish that one the relatively cheap? I just don't want to have to (I assume) pay for the "mobility" part when that is not necessary here.

Thanks to all for input so far!

So I have the Home Internet plan, which for me with auto pay, and my phone service through T-mobile is only 30/month. I get about 100 down, and 30 up. I have blink camera's and three teenage kids, and work from home and never have badnwidth issues. That comes with a router, that has a built in wifi network, so you can use that as your router/hotspot. The issue is you have to be close to a tower. Verizon has the same type of plan, but I was not close enough to those towers to get anything from them.

[Carpet_pissr]

Yeah, neither she nor I have T-Mobile. We are both on AT&T, so it would be $50/month IIRC, or gilraen’s suggestion of the prepaid which I like.

And I think that $50/month was the same deal where they checked your address to see if it was even possible.

[gilraen]

You mentioned T-Mobile so I assumed you had your cell phone through them. I'm sure AT&T has something similar where you buy a hotspot from them and add it to your mobile plan, or get a prepaid option. I don't know what kind of data allowances or discounts they have for existing customers, or if they require a separate hotspot data plan.

[LordMortis]

Fixed my faucet yesterday. Now the shut off valve going to my sink is leaking. :stick figure on fire running: When you are a homeowner, you really begin to understand why when you hire people to fix one thing, they always have to do more and charge more. The cold water shut off valve to the sink is part of a whole assembly that does not look like shut off valve I'm used to.

Edit: Tried fiddling with it more this morning based on internet consensus of tightening the nut leading to the shut off valve. Water pressure is worse and drip is worse. I was prepared to call a plumber but my dad wants to come over first. I hate working with water stuff. Water, gas, and electric are all known get someone else's for me. I should have just called the plumber first and skipped dad's input. As of now I'm only down, $15 but a day's work, pain, and exhaustion and my different problem is worse than the original.

[Carpet_pissr]

This is why I haven’t tackled a possibly similar issue myself. Kitchen sink water pressure is trash. Cold much worse than hot, but both not great.

Cleared out all the crap under sink and crawled up in there to see what I could see. Cold shutoff valve not working (turning it all the way to right/closed, does not stop water).

My theory is that the rubber gasket or bushing or whatever that’s inside the valve to seal it has failed or broken, and pieces of it are clogging the flow.

Replacing a shutoff valve does not look like a big deal (but figuring out the right kind is a bit of a pain), but my fridge water input is also so low that it’s making the tiniest of ice cubes, and water comes out of the door dispenser at a trickle.

Related? Possibly, but this just feels exactly like the kind of “simple” project I start on to fix, then it snowballs into a two weekend project with 6 trips to Home Depot.

Plumber.

If I was 90% sure that the low faucet flow was due to the failed shutoff valve, I would definitely do it myself, but I suspect other witchcraft is happening here, and I’m not “plumbing smart” enough to connect dots.

[LordMortis]

This is why I haven’t tackled a possibly similar issue myself. Kitchen sink water pressure is trash. Cold much worse than hot, but both not great.

Cleared out all the crap under sink and crawled up in there to see what I could see. Cold shutoff valve not working (turning it all the way to right/closed, does not stop water).

My theory is that the rubber gasket or bushing or whatever that’s inside the valve to seal it has failed or broken, and pieces of it are clogging the flow.

Replacing a shutoff valve does not look like a big deal (but figuring out the right kind is a bit of a pain), but my fridge water input is also so low that it’s making the tiniest of ice cubes, and water comes out of the door dispenser at a trickle.

Related? Possibly, but this just feels exactly like the kind of “simple” project I start on to fix, then it snowballs into a two weekend project with 6 trips to Home Depot.

Plumber.

If I was 90% sure that the low faucet flow was due to the failed shutoff valve, I would definitely do it myself, but I suspect other witchcraft is happening here, and I’m not “plumbing smart” enough to connect dots.

Turns out replacing the shut off valve was $10 but it was two person job and was slightly messy. Water pressure is still for crap. The faucet needs replacing, so I'm back to the original "replace the faucet" thunk, only I just saved the cost of the a plumber ruining and replacing a shut off valve, as would have and then charged me for had I called him first. Still, if I could go back in time, I'd likely be happier just paying them (I say that now, without having any context for the price of a plumber)

I'm going make sure the pipe leak is fixed and then it's back to worrying about the faucet, but not today. My dad is too old to work like he is doing and my two surgeries this year are screaming at me. No PT and no walk today.

With regard to plumbing smartness, I think I spend 30 minutes just staring at shutoff valves waiting for a Home Depot person called to show up before I just started opening boxes and looking inside to see of the valves matched close enough.

As far as I am concerned there are no simple projects only projects I am willing to concede to the idea fixing the other stuff that goes wrong and the once I am not. Nothing is ever as simple as it's supposed to be nor even as youtube makes it out to be. (And thank pancake for youtube)

Total cost, $25, probably 8 hours of combined labor between the two of us (Not worth much in terms of money but a bit in terms of stress), problem is unresolved.

Anyhoo, now I just have a pot under the sink again to make sure the new leak is no longer a new leak and then I can revisit the idea that I've gone from a leaky faucet to a faucet with no pressure.

[Carpet_pissr]

Lol I think I did the opposite.

Replaced my faucet first, thinking that was the issue, then realized the shutoff problem.

Waiiiit a minute. I would not have been able to replace my faucet without that shutoff valve functioning properly, so …?

[LordMortis]

Leak is still leaking though very slowly. Maybe 1/8 cup over 16 hours but way too much to not fix. Fortunately it's slow enough to not be a hot hot hot issue so I can take them time to get my head together and think/shop through a better solution. Not sure if I want to back and try resealing or just go directly to jail and get the plumber and new faucet. I think it can wait until Monday when I can contact professionals during normal business hours. I can also run up to Home Depot and see what their buy and have it installed pricing is like.

No scheduled commitments next week, so I'm in good shape to shop around.

[Carpet_pissr]

Nothing is ever as simple as it's supposed to be nor even as youtube makes it out to be.

Amen.

I have a neighbor who built an amazing shed (prob 12x15) from pouring a foundation, up to closed eaves with soffits.. etc. the works. I desperately need a new shed so I went over to ask him how he did it and he just said ‘just looked it up YouTube, how to build a shed, it was easy’ and I was like, “ok, man, whatever”.

One does not just build a shed like his Taj Mahal of sheds off YouTube w/o some kind of special magic.

That shed, and the way he “overbuilt it” (his words), would easily cost $10K, maybe more. Hell, he probably installed gutters on the thing. Probably has a bunker.

[Blackhawk]

People who demonstrate (whatever) on YouTube are people with years of expertise and experience. You can replicate their actions, but you won't be replicating their techniques. They probably also have much better quality tools and materials (even if it's just down to them knowing which lumber to pick.)

[Kraken]

Yeah, my DIY days are mostly behind me. Any given project will take me 3X as long as it should, involve multiple trips to the hardware store, and the outcome is likely to be of dubious quality.

[em2nought]

We finally got a few days of cooler weather for working outside. My cousin's central AC was acting up, her bill was $80 higher than normal, so yesterday I climbed under her house and cleaned out the drain line with my air compressor. Today I bought some cheap kneepads that I should have bought in the first place and climbed back under to disassemble the ductwork in front of the coil and then clean the coil. It had what I would call a sludge mixture of hair and what looked like mud in the coil. I used a cheap thin wire dog brush from $1.25 Tree. Used some coil cleaner on it and used a hose to get it as clean as I could. Cleaned out the drip pan too as that was really dirty and probably why the drain line was clogged. Sprayed so much water on it that I left it to dry tonight, and tomorrow I'm going to turn the power back on and see if the AC gets cool enough to turn itself off. I'm stiff and sore, need to lie down nice and flat on a hard surface for awhile.

[Kraken]

I got three bids and hired a painter to power-wash and paint our small back porch. Our realtor recommended it as a quick and reasonably cheap improvement to raise our sale value. The back porch looks sad and dingy compared to the shiny new front porch that we rebuilt last year.

After standing me up twice without texting me, someone finally did the wash and uncovered too much rotten wood to ignore, so now I need a new estimate for some carpentry. The dude who was supposed to come on Saturday stood me up without texting me. Granted, it was raining on one of those days and threatening rain on the other two, and one cannot do exterior painting in the rain...but weather is a weak excuse for not washing or evaluating. Instead of jumping on them first thing this morning I thought I wait to see if they'll initiate the next contact. Not today, they didn't.

I'm not liking this company at all. I still want their bid on the reconstruction, but tomorrow I'll invite the people who rebuilt our front porch last year to give me a quote, if they're so inclined. Unless the new company's bid is quite low, I'll pay them for the wash and cut them loose. And if they don't bill me for the wash, I won't feel obligated to leave negative reviews on Angi and Yelp.

But now after three weeks my quick-and-cheap paint job has turned into a repair project with no timeline or path forward, and it's gonna cost.

[Carpet_pissr]

someone finally did the wash and uncovered too much rotten wood to ignore, so now I need a new estimate for some carpentry.

But now after three weeks my quick-and-cheap paint job has turned into a repair project with no timeline or path forward, and it's gonna cost.

I just had a similar issue with my deck. The risers desperately needed repainting, but many of them were also obviously pulling away from the stringers. So I started poking and prodding, and then started pulling them apart (composite decking with the very annoying "hidden fasteners". Noticed that the stringers were completely rotten in the middle where the risers were attached (pressure treated wood, about 13 years old).

So my little paint job turned into multiple trips to HD, trying to cut new stringers with my small circular saw, upgrading that to a larger saw so I could cut larger lumber pieces, and buying several other tools I ended up needing that I didn't have.

Still cost less than hiring someone to completely rebuild the steps, but it took me forever (home maintenance weekend warrior and all that), and would have taken someone that does it all the time, about a day or two probably.

Only after all that did someone tell me you can freaking BUY, pre-cut stringers, even from HD or Lowe's?! How did I not look that up? Mine were NOT cut straight (first bc I tried to use my tiny circ saw, but also bc I'm a poor craftsman! ), and as a result, I had to shim a few, etc.

[Kraken]

Nothing on/in our 108-year-old house is straight or level. Standard "parts" (like your stringers) never fit.

Contractor is supposed to show up within the hour to assess the damage. I hope she doesn't stand me up. I just want to get this stupid job over with.

[Daehawk]

I cant let any inspector in my house or they'd condemn it and toss me out

[Kraken]

...and my quick-and-easy paint job has turned into $2,900 worth of reconstruction. That's to replace the rotten wooden railings with new plastic ones, replace the rotted post with a 4x4 and wrap it in plastic to match.

Oh, and they wanted an additional $900 to do the painting, so I'll paint it myself in the spring. That, at least, will be genuinely easy since all I'll need to do are the decking and trim. So yeah, my $950 paint job is going to cost $2,900 and won't include painting.

On the potential upside, this contractor is potentially interested in buying our house in a private sale. That would save us the cost and hassle of updating to make it market-ready, and eliminate realtor commissions. That could be a very good thing for everyone except our realtor.

[em2nought]

I cant let any inspector in my house or they'd condemn it and toss me out

Hopefully once you own the house outright you can put some of what you'd be spending on the mortgage otherwise into repairs. Start repairing things correctly and you might find you enjoy the work, who knows.

[Zarathud]

Better to get it fixed before you have to negotiate with a buyer to get the deal to close.

[Brian]

We had someone out a little over two weeks ago to do a remodel quote.

We are either going to remodel the downstairs bathroom or, if feasible, do the bathroom AND the kitchen

We need to add a shower to the downstairs bathroom and there are two possible solutions:

1. Leave the washer and dryer in the downstairs bathroom and move the wall between the bathroom/den and build the shower into that space, or

2. Move the washer and dryer from the bathroom up into the kitchen. That will eliminate the need to move the wall as we can then use the space previously occupied and put the shower there. Of course, we will then have to remodel the kitchen to accommodate the washer/dryer but we've always wanted to remodel the kitchen anyway.

I'm sure cost will prevent us from going with Option 2 but hey, I won't know for sure until we get a quote and unfortunately, in the two weeks plus, we haven't heard anything back.

Edit: Until today. We don't have a quote yet but at least he finally communicated something to us.
Says he should have the quote by EOD or first thing Monday.

Now I just have to brace my wallet for impact.

[Carpet_pissr]

On the potential upside, this contractor is potentially interested in buying our house in a private sale. That would save us the cost and hassle of updating to make it market-ready, and eliminate realtor commissions. That could be a very good thing for everyone except our realtor.

Whoa, that's huge! And if that goes through you won't have to do this work, correct?

[Kraken]

On the potential upside, this contractor is potentially interested in buying our house in a private sale. That would save us the cost and hassle of updating to make it market-ready, and eliminate realtor commissions. That could be a very good thing for everyone except our realtor.

Whoa, that's huge! And if that goes through you won't have to do this work, correct?

Heh, I already verbally agreed to it; they'll be here next weekend to build themselves a shiny new porch at my expense. But there is a ton of other work I won't have to do. I called this company specifically because she had mentioned being interested in buying when they rebuilt our front porch last year, so we have very good relations going into the deal, if deal there be.

[Daehawk]

snip

I like option 2.

[Brian]

snip

I like option 2.

As do I but I'm afraid it will be cost prohibitive.
Won't know until we get the quote tho.

[mori]

Builders, remodelers, roofers, etc, are so understaffed and overbooked it is impossible for them to keep up. My roof has been in queue for replacement for 5 months and just now getting staged for work. Middle of October in Minnesota where anything can happen, good luck. I wonder if there is a solution for this labor shortage? Are there any people willing to come to this country to work?

[Kraken]

Builders, remodelers, roofers, etc, are so understaffed and overbooked it is impossible for them to keep up. My roof has been in queue for replacement for 5 months and just now getting staged for work. Middle of October in Minnesota where anything can happen, good luck. I wonder if there is a solution for this labor shortage? Are there any people willing to come to this country to work?

I'll admit that I get frustrated working with contractors who don't speak English, and that describes most of them around here. Typically one owner/manager/leader who's your point of contact has at least rudimentary English, while the actual work crew only speaks Spanish or Portuguese.

[Carpet_pissr]

Builders, remodelers, roofers, etc, are so understaffed and overbooked it is impossible for them to keep up. My roof has been in queue for replacement for 5 months and just now getting staged for work. Middle of October in Minnesota where anything can happen, good luck. I wonder if there is a solution for this labor shortage? Are there any people willing to come to this country to work?

I'll admit that I get frustrated working with contractors who don't speak English, and that describes most of them around here. Typically one owner/manager/leader who's your point of contact has at least rudimentary English, while the actual work crew only speaks Spanish or Portuguese.

Portuguese? From Brazil, or Portugal? Interesting.

[Kraken]

I presume they're from Brazil. Spanish and Portuguese sound the same to me anyway.

[em2nought]

I presume they're from Brazil. Spanish and Portuguese sound the same to me anyway.

I've always thought Spanish sounded, um, smoother. Not sure what the right word should be melodious maybe?

Finished all the circular sawing I had left to do today. Close to putting my bathroom sink back in improved working order. Leftovers from the $40 butcher's block table donor are going to straighten the kitchen shelves that have a bow, make a cutting board for on top the washing machine, and create a top on a bookcase. All the cuts for those pieces are done. Just need a little random orbit sanding. Cuts came out great, no splintering at all. Used painters tape for all the cuts.

[em2nought]

Finally got around to fixing the drain line that they left slowly leaking on my new whole house AC since a year now. Seems to be fixed. I think it was leaking where the fitting screwed into the AC as they didn't bother to use Teflon tape or thread sealant so I did that, but I also primed and glued all the pipe connections since they didn't do that either. Even placed a valve in the line so that I can now blow out the whole drain line. That's for tomorrow, don't want to go messing around outside at night as somebody might take me for a criminal. Don't think the guy a few doors over is too bright so don't want to end up shot. Guy slams his doors so hard when he goes in or out he might actually be damaging them. I wonder if he owns or rents?

I put this off for so long just because you never know when you might make something worse. Say I cracked the AC when wrenching the fitting, now with Teflon and thread sealant, into the AC. That would have been really bad, but sometimes that kind of thing happens. I'm replacing my bathroom sink and the ancient valves worked to stop the water once, but now when I test fitted everything they don't quite stop the water so I've got to cut the water off tomorrow until I get the cabinet top rear edge sanded down enough to fit properly. Might take a bit of sanding since it's hardwood. I think I should have gone with the hand planer instead of the random orbit sander.

P.S. Good to know that you can use cpvc glue on pvc. Only noticed the cpvc label on the can after I'd glued the joins. Had to look it up on the internet.

[Isgrimnur]

Woke up yesterday to the water line to the fridge having turned itself into a spray mister.

Pull the fridge out with the wife’s help, turn off the valve, trip to Home Depot for a new line inside braided steel, and we’re back in business. Despite my MIL somehow being convinced that I don’t know enough about refrigeration and that I should call someone.