geezus, can stuff quit going wrong

my cable went out

I was interested in the breakers and the label, but that's pretty obviously a 200 amp and from weird part of the country (not SoCal) where the meter housing is usually separate. I was just going to suggest upgrading if they were moving a 100 amp service.

I don't think I ever posted in the micro forum. My main home has always been STTF, but I post in OOT a fair amount too.

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re: your plumbing and door problems: This is probably the type of thing that keeps me broke, but on the rare occasions we've damaged something I got someone to fix it and had it done by the next day at the latest.

If you remember, keep us posted on this. I assume Angie's list is a total scam and he pays a fee and bad rating might not stick around too long. I know the BBB is crap and constantly calls businesses - it's practically extortion.

I'm not too familiar with it, but my understanding is Angie's List charges subscribers and receives no money from the businesses it has ratings for.

Thanks. I might look into it.

I tried to help you achieve your goals (your blog). Hopefully, I understood your post.

Yeah I wouldn't trust her either.

I'm not sure I understood my post, but thanks!

I've been using Angie's list a lot lately. I understand the downside but I think in general it's a pretty good website.

You see pretty honest writeups in my opinion. If you take the time to read a lot of them you get a good overall feel for the contractor. The writeups are usually pretty consistent (good or bad).

Also, I've found (for me at least) I can get a better list than the phone book or google.

Also realize this is just a good place to start narrowing your search. It's not a replacement for getting bids and talking to prospective contractors.

I get emails from angie's list all the time urging me to submit a writeup for anyone I've clicked on. So far I've only used one other company and I did take the time to write up an honest assessment.

I have a few friends that use it as well and they have all been satisfied.

Taking everything into account, I'd say it's a pretty good thing.

It's been raining pretty steady here.

I have to say, even if the road has been a bit rocky it's nice to finally have a roof that doesn't leak and floors that aren't squishy and running downhill everywhere.

Yeah, the electric is relatively new. About 10 years ago I started this remodel project. I gutted the house and started fresh with plumbing and electric. I did all the electric work (and incoming plumbing) myself except installing the service panel. I did wire everything to the panel, though.

While waiting for the cable guy I decided to assess the sheetrock situation. Every single wall in every room is cracked somewhere. Including the tile walls in both bathrooms.

That troublesome area above the slab is the second bathroom. I can see daylight between the floor and the wall.

I just now figured out what you were talking about.

I will also be supporting zikzak.

Had to go to work for about 1/2 day so I didn't have a lot of time.

I can't really do much to the house right now because the foundation guys still have to pour 6 piers. It rained pretty hard here and the ground is still soaked (but the roof didn't leak!!!!!). So, no telling when they will finish up.

So, I decided to do a little painting. By the way, painting is definitely my least favorite house thing to do. I absolutely hate it. Anyways, I wanted to paint the fascia before I put the gutters up. And, I figured get started painting the garage as well since I'm going to re-paint it to match.

Needed a power washer to clean the garage, though. Up above the power washers were a lot of symbols indicating which power washer could do which job well. Things like pictures of a deck or a lawn chair or whatever you might clean. The picture of the house was red above the cheapest power washer (electric). I dunno, I had a cheap one before and it was fine. The ones they recommend for houses are all gas powered and I really don't want one of those. I bought the cheap one.

It did the job just fine.

I didn't wash all the garage - just the soffit and fascia. And, I painted the fascia on the house. Both, are probably gonna need 2 coats.

First time in a while I've accomplished what I wanted to accomplish for a day.

Here's a pic of the garage before I paint it.



Here's the front and the back of the house after the fascia has been painted.

Today couldn't have been any nicer weatherwise. Just a perfect day.

Apparently this giant bug thought so too. It kept buzzing me all day. Not sure what it was - bumblebee maybe.

Got a second coat on the house fascia. Got 2 coats on the garage fascia/soffit.





Kinda hard to tell in this pic, but that be rain gutters! I still gotta seal them but got them hung! (on the back - still got the front to go)

I was really nervous because I decided to slide the gutters under the drip edge. I sorta committed by screwing all the hangers in before I put the gutter up. But, it worked.

I've been sort of hating on the foundation guy just because I need to hate on someone about it.

When I talked to him last week, he indicated that I would need 8 more piers. Additionally, he added $640 worth of beam replacement for that garage area. This was all needed of course by my brain could only think "this is 50% MORE than the original estimate and I'm on a budget".

He called me this morning at work and said he had sent the new estimate to my home email address.

So, while I'm at the gym I'm obsessing over this and then it hit me. His original estimate had him sinking steel piers under the slab to hold the slab up. But, since the slab wasn't holding anything up, he isn't doing it. That was a pretty sizeable part of the estimate.

When I got home the estimate was not in my inbox so I called him to get him to send it to me and to discuss the fact that he didn't do the original slab work. Well, he took it off the estimate. The final bill came in about $900 more than the original estimate. I really can't complain about this at all. Considering the mess they had and the fact they had to jackhammer a bunch of slab and they did some nice carpentry work that he barely charged me for and some other things. Even if he did break my pipes.

Anyways, I'm not really hating on him anymore.

y u no post in pog anymore

'cause fixin' up yer house is more important than tunneling some dude's shroop.

It's much more peaceful over here.

Not much to report. It's the calm before the storm - literally and figuratively. A lot of rain is heading this way so I didn't want to get to far into anything. Just doing some prep work for the big siding tearoff.

Hardi siding and other "stuff" (flashing, house wrap, etc.) being delivered Monday. Dumpster comes Tuesday. Demolition starts Thursday.

So, I've been doing a little pre-tearoff work. I "finished" the gutter on the back of the house. I learned that gutter sealer sticks quite well to everything except gutter. Ended up just using silicon caulk. We'll see how good my job was this afternoon. One problem is the roofline isn't straight so the gutter comes out about 1/4" on one end. Bugging the hell out of me. I'll probably just screw it down tight against the fascia and caulk the screws. Or leave it and hope I can ignore it.

The deck is bolted to the house. Unfortunately, it is over the wood siding. I think the wood siding is so rotten that I can just get rid of the part that is above the deck joist and flash it properly. There will be some leftover rotten siding between the deck and the house but oh well. I really really really don't want to take the deck apart.

Here's a pic. And, here's a pic of the corner post of the deck. Remember, they raised the house and the deck went with it. Before anyone says anything, the vast majority of the deck sits on concrete piers, not those concrete blocks. I just couldn't dig a hole right there.

help

For some reason, I just can't hang a door properly.

Here's my french door. Notice at the top there is a big gap between the doors. The picture magnifies it, it's not as horrible as it looks - but still not right. It appears the left door isn't hung quite right. Needs to go out on the top? However....... It is dragging at the bottom and doesn't close smoothly. Not horribly but it bugs me. I could probably remove the weatherstripping but I don't want to. And, it drags on the floor a little. Possible the weatherstripping is just messed up.

Other than the drag, the doors close OK.

I just don't know how to fix this. If I bring the left top out some, I'll fix that gap but won't that make the bottom even stickier?

I think the right side is OK - maybe? I don't open that side.

Oh, and what appears to be wood rot isn't near as bad as it looks. The wood is fine, it's more of a stain really.

What am I doing wrong?

ugh

After closer inspection, some of that wood on the bottom of the door is rotten. That weatherstripping is shot.

I don't really want to buy a new door but this is the ideal time to do it.

Has anyone had any experience with those doors that have the blinds in between the glass? Seems like if something went wrong you are screwed, but I like the idea.

gutters did not pass the rain test

Water is coming down where I snipped the drip edge to put the hangers. That means water is hugging the shingles/fascia. Not really a problem - easily caulked. I'm glad now I slipped the gutters under the drip edge.

I think your door needs to go up on the left first so you have room to close the gap without the bottom dragging. Either the door or the floor isn't level. Maybe both. If you're replacing it, shim up the new one on that side. Yeah, that means you'll have a gap to fill/caulk/something on the bottom. Hopefully the header is high enough, too.

My father installed blinds-between-the-glass doors in the early 80's. They worked fine for about 15 years. Then they went to ****.

+1

Missing you in POG Bigger.

Man, you are one dedicated hard-working mutha ****er though. Very impressive!

Thanks JD! Glad you found this. I'll pop into POG from time to time. Might even get a game of WW in if I ever have time.

I went ahead and bought some new french doors. They didn't cost all that much considering. And, they will be able to ship it with my hardie delivery. And, since I'm getting some labor for the great siding tearoff, I'll have some help hanging them. And, the price wasn't horrible. I just figured why not. Got the ones with the blinds inside. The doors face west and the sun gets pretty brutal parts of the year.