Home projects: 9/18/2023

[Dave Gray]

Anyone working on their living space lately?

I have been focused on air seals lately.  I added/swapped out the lower door seal on my front door (where I could see light coming through) and my inside door to my garage.  I somewhat recently had floors done and it affected the thresholds in those areas.  So, maybe that will help with air leaking out.

I also ordered a new seal to the bottom of my garage door (if I can ever get one that will fit).  I don't know if it shrunk or the previous guy mis-sized it, but it's not covering 8" and I bet there's a leak happening there.  ...unless he did it on purpose for drainage in floods or something.  We shall see.

[pondwater]

Yeah, unfortunately. All last week I was chipping old caulking out of the cracks of the master bathroom. Now I need to tape it off and recaulk it. Then the shower has solid walls that are dull as hell. I'm not sure if they're stone or man made cultured stone. I've read online that real stone isn't easily scratched and man made cultured stone is easily scratched. So I got up on an non visible top edge with a dull razor blade and butter knife and it scratched pretty easily and left a white indention. So I'll assume they are some type of cultured marble or corian or something.

So now to get them shiny, I need to buff them out with some combination of really high grit wet sandpaper, compound, polish, and wax. I'm still contemplating whether I should caulk the corner and floor edges first. Or try to shine up the walls before caulking everything. Then I need to replace the outward swinging hinge shower door. I'm not sure how complicated that is, maybe I'll pay someone to put the shower door in depending how much labor it costs.

Then the whole garage needs cleaning out of all the junk my parents had accumulated before they died. Lots of stuff in the house to get rid of also.

Then the yard needs regrading and some type of drain on the back patio. Then there's vegetation growing up through the rock yard, probably need to move all the rocks and put in new weed barrier fabric.

Plenty of other things need to be done. But I'm not sure how long I'm going to keep the place. Might just be better to sell the place "as is" before spending money doing a bunch of shit that new owners would probably come in and replace anyhow. Right now I'm just doing stuff that I think is within my capabilities. I have 2-3 projects going on at any one time that I work on 2-3 hours at a time a few times a week. Getting old is hell LOL

[Dave Gray]

Then the whole garage needs cleaning out of all the junk my parents had accumulated before they died. Lots of stuff in the house to get rid of also.

I remember my dad died kinda near the same time you had your loss.

I am so lucky I had siblings to help, because we all did different things.  My one brother and sister essentially cleaned out my parents house in a week.  It was brutal and they moved out a ton of stuff that they didn't get value for, but the alternativo was losing money from sitting on a house that wasn't selling.  We needed the cash to house my father.

It was 40 years worth of stuff and I even think that we had all been working towards that goal even when my parents still lived there.

I imagine it's a momumental task.  How far along is the project to clean stuff out?  Are you emotionally attached or busy or what?

[pondwater]

I remember my dad died kinda near the same time you had your loss.

I am so lucky I had siblings to help, because we all did different things.  My one brother and sister essentially cleaned out my parents house in a week.  It was brutal and they moved out a ton of stuff that they didn't get value for, but the alternativo was losing money from sitting on a house that wasn't selling.  We needed the cash to house my father.

It was 40 years worth of stuff and I even think that we had all been working towards that goal even when my parents still lived there.

I imagine it's a momumental task.  How far along is the project to clean stuff out?  Are you emotionally attached or busy or what?

When I first got here my brothers, a brother's wife, and a niece came by for a day and took the shit they wanted and made a couple trips to Goodwill to "appear" that they were trying to help. Which didn't even make a dent in cleaning out the house. Then when they got the stuff they wanted, they were gone.

My brother with the wife and kids said a couple times that he would be back to help clean stuff out when he was done getting his pool built and had time. But that was a couple years ago and haven't heard shit about it since.

The other brother always tells me he wants certain stuff and to hold on to it, but never comes to get anything. He's too cheap to rent a truck or Uhaul. He probably has several million dollars net worth and still gets up on Black Friday to stock up on cheap batteries at Lowes and unplugs his refrigerator if he leaves town for a day or two. It's weird shit man.

It's strange the stuff that old people keep. An old non working top opening freezer, old empty milk jugs, and other assorted junk. Now that it's getting cooler outside I suppose I can just start tossing shit. Since I don't have a truck, I guess I'll have to pay someone to haul away the larger stuff. There's a whole cabinet full of old pictures, slides, and a slide machine. I'm not really emotionally attached to any of it, but at the same time it's family history so I hate to throw it away.

I guess my brothers think I'm running a storage facility or something. Anyone here need some free shit LOL

 

[fyo]

I'm still contemplating whether I should caulk the corner and floor edges first. Or try to shine up the walls before caulking everything.

I cannot imagine a scenario where caulking the corners and edges first would make things easier for you. Any particular reason you are considering doing that first?

[pondwater]

I cannot imagine a scenario where caulking the corners and edges first would make things easier for you. Any particular reason you are considering doing that first?

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. At first it was just a caulking job, until it took a week to get all the 20 year old caulking out of the edges. Then I was looking at the walls and door and said, that looks like shit and I can't live with that anymore. So now it's turned a full shower refurbish. The only reason I was going to do the caulking first is because then the shower could be used and I could work on the walls and it wouldn't matter. I could clean and polish a wall a week while still using the shower.

But now after looking at it, it would be hard to polish the corners and edges without messing up the new caulk. So you're correct. I'm going to clean, polish, and wax the panels. Then caulk everything. Replacing the door will be last. Maybe I'll be done by the end of next month LMAO

It also needs to be painted all the way around above the solid walls. I'm not worried about that though. I can tape and visqueen the walls and floor later when I decide what color paint to use.