Advice The Home Improvement/Automation Thread

Yeah, it's supposed to be really well designed stuff. There's even a company that specializes in custom fronts, where you just buy the IKEA boxes.
I've got a friend who put Ikea cabinets all through his basement renovation, they're all acceptable quality (they come with euro hinges, soft close, full extension drawer slides by default). The melamine carcasses of the drawers don't even bother me that much.

The faces are pretty nice too.

If I weren't doing the job myself, I would buy Ikea cabinetry.
 
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biggest prob with particleboard is shitty securing mechanisms. Particleboard destroys itself when it wobbles/moves.

Ikea is good at securing mechanisms that lock the particle board together to avoid movement.

Second biggest prob with either mdf or particle board is the surface coat. Ikea is also really good at that.
 
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WIfe's first day off for the summer. "Damn it Ed, stop looking at jobs, you are supposed to take the summer off and fix a bunch of stuff so we can sell this f'n place!!" "Yes ma'am".
1. Remove existing deck and it's 4 steps down to the ground with a smaller "poop deck"(say 6'X 16) that then step down 3 steps to a slightly raised patio.
2. Tie the above to the basement walkout, which is on the end of the house. The deck is on the back. SO I need to gracefully step a person down 6'-7 of elevation in the back, but more like 10' in the front. NOTHING has ever been done to that area - it IS shit. Previous owner couldn't come up with a plan and we have never used the walkout. But someone else might want to. I think I have something nice in mind.
3. Before doing 1 & 2, cut down two 12-14" sycamores, rent tractor with backhoe, dig holes for some red maples to replace the sycamores and do some other land scrapping. Regravel park of the driveway with limestone for looks
4. Painting and cosmetic's. Maybe redo the wood floors and kitchen countertops. Replace all the existing kitchen hardware.
 
WIfe's first day off for the summer. "Damn it Ed, stop looking at jobs, you are supposed to take the summer off and fix a bunch of stuff so we can sell this f'n place!!" "Yes ma'am".
1. Remove existing deck and it's 4 steps down to the ground with a smaller "poop deck"(say 6'X 16) that then step down 3 steps to a slightly raised patio.
2. Tie the above to the basement walkout, which is on the end of the house. The deck is on the back. SO I need to gracefully step a person down 6'-7 of elevation in the back, but more like 10' in the front. NOTHING has ever been done to that area - it IS shit. Previous owner couldn't come up with a plan and we have never used the walkout. But someone else might want to. I think I have something nice in mind.
3. Before doing 1 & 2, cut down two 12-14" sycamores, rent tractor with backhoe, dig holes for some red maples to replace the sycamores and do some other land scrapping. Regravel park of the driveway with limestone for looks
4. Painting and cosmetic's. Maybe redo the wood floors and kitchen countertops. Replace all the existing kitchen hardware.
Does this even matter right now in the sellers market? Here in Maine, there's so little inventory of houses, that you can sell above asking price for a literal dump. Buyers are desperate. Probably won't be changing for a year if not longer. Still fairly low mortgage interest rates. Jobs are easy to come by (everyone is hiring).
 
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Does this even matter right now in the sellers market? Here in Maine, there's so little inventory of houses, that you can sell above asking price for a literal dump. Buyers are desperate. Probably won't be changing for a year if not longer. Still fairly low mortgage interest rates. Jobs are easy to come by (everyone is hiring).
It does matter - I think :rolleyes:. Not selling this year, market may be tight AF when we want to do it. I bought for $340 18 years ago, neighbor(built this house and his almost identical house) just accepted $629k! My house is much better located - I'm on a nice plateau with a walkout to the side, he's down in the f'n hole where that walkout slopes too. Really dumb but someone else bought his "end of street" advantage. Soooooooo, yes, I think these items will push the value for another $100k or allow it to sell in whatever market we are faced with. Interest rates won't matter - whatever we walk away with in equity is all we buy. Not having another payment. Already had that shit over my head for over 35 years. :lol: If it was up to me the next place would be something weird and different like an old church we convert to a house. GUy in town here has a house that has an ancient, non-functional gas station on the front - that'd be kinda cool other than assholes messing with the pump. :) WHo knows on any of this. :cool:
 
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Spent about 8 hours yesterday doing a very late spring cleaning. Buncha limbs down off my big tree, did all the "topiary" work, in as much that my bushes are now square shaped, did the whole property weedwacking, etc.

One of the limbs that came off the big tree was 115 years old, and it was just a limb from higher up in the tree. Whole tree might be even older than i thought it was.

Best investment I ever made was a 20cuft glass-reinforced plastic garden cart. What woulda been 15ish loads to the brush pile with the wheelbarrow was only two with the cart
 
Went ahead and virtualized home assistant in proxmox. NUC I had it in was a bit overkill and I'm gonna make it an opnsense box too
 
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This is cool. Dude built himself a wooden pool last year. Reddit engineers fileted him for mistakes. Based on their suggestions, he built a new one.


That's fucking awesome and funny AF! IF I wasn't hoping to move in the next year, I'd consider that :)

Natural wood exterior ;)
 
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replaced water pressure regulator. old one was leaking and water pressure was at 90 psi.
View attachment 14460

View attachment 14461
That's some AWESOME pressure. City water(?). Glad to see YOU left the tape off - it's essentially a coupling.
Keanu Reeves Reaction GIF
 
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IIRC you're on well. Be sure you have a massive air tank to assist. AT is cheap, pump replacement not so much so. I doubled our tank size when the original went. Like the Andre The Giant of R2D2s.
Yeah, pressure comes from the 30gallon pressure tank, but ive actually also got a constant pressure valve in place that just turns on the well pump when water is being used and functionally bypasses the pressure tank. Apparently its better to put back-pressure on the pump when water use occurs and it increases its efficiency than it is to "cycle" refill the tank.

The theory at least is that you have water-draw events far less often your tank needs to refill.


Anything above about 4 gallons a minute, I actually dont need the valve, since that seems to be the maximum refill rate my pump can do so if water is flowing out at that rate, the pump is on refilling at that rate. I think my pump is probably gonna die on me at some point in the next 10 years, because it should be pushing far more than 4 gallons a minute, its only 168 feet down.
 
Yeah, pressure comes from the 30gallon pressure tank, but ive actually also got a constant pressure valve in place that just turns on the well pump when water is being used and functionally bypasses the pressure tank. Apparently its better to put back-pressure on the pump when water use occurs and it increases its efficiency than it is to "cycle" refill the tank.

The theory at least is that you have water-draw events far less often your tank needs to refill.


Anything above about 4 gallons a minute, I actually dont need the valve, since that seems to be the maximum refill rate my pump can do so if water is flowing out at that rate, the pump is on refilling at that rate. I think my pump is probably gonna die on me at some point in the next 10 years, because it should be pushing far more than 4 gallons a minute, its only 168 feet down.
Everybodies situation is a little different, I'm using high/low switches, the tank is 86 gallon. Takes 4-5 toilet flushes to trigger an ON period. With the sprinklers on it does cycle a little but constant pressure wouldn't help much as 2 mobile sprinklers or an in-ground zone will set it running constantly. I have it setup for about 22 lbs of swing, roughly 67 to 45. Pumping from about 275' - I bless the retard I bought from for paying for the etra 125'. to get to the 3rd aquafire. The cleanerish one, with few minerals to boot. 9/1million, untreated.

I watched a video, dude claims the constant comes on only 20 times a day but senses <5 lb of pressure drop and kicks on. I feel I'd be triggering it that many times a day by myself, without the sprinkler other high use items going. The controller costs >10 times what a conventional hi/low costs. To say nothing of the myriad of internal parts to go. Wasn't getting it for here.
 
After autocross last weekend, I realized I need to buy some Ryobi shit.

Specifically these:

The first, because autocross season is HOT, and the second because tire pressures take quite a bit of fiddling.
 
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After autocross last weekend, I realized I need to buy some Ryobi shit.

Specifically these:

The first, because autocross season is HOT, and the second because tire pressures take quite a bit of fiddling.
Ok, that first one is pretty damn cool.
 
After autocross last weekend, I realized I need to buy some Ryobi shit.

Specifically these:

The first, because autocross season is HOT, and the second because tire pressures take quite a bit of fiddling.
Shoulda got the dual inflator