Sucks. I'm 5 years in and will probably end up in that boat. Hell, I'm hoping to end up in that boat. Did you end up moving to VA?

8/24/2012 10:09:59 AM

I'm sure we'll be in the same boat as well whenever we decide to sell (hopefully not for quite awhile though) but I have loved having our own place and doing whatever we want to it. Whenever we get a new place down the road we will probably look to get a place we can completely gut and redo.

8/24/2012 10:31:39 AM

Anyone have recommendations for storage sheds builders/suppliers?

8/24/2012 2:10:29 PM

just created a thread for ^ http://thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=630402

8/24/2012 2:55:37 PM

Lesson learned - Paint your garage BEFORE you move in and accumulate all your toos/junk.

8/27/2012 4:59:44 PM

I've got a home ownership woe. I'm moving soon and couldn't sell this place without short selling so I'm going to turn it into an investment property. With the tax benefits I think I'll have enough money to pay for the place (including property management fees, no way I'm managing this myself).

It will blow to see this house get torn to pieces by renters, but I think I can detach myself from the property emotionally speaking and start treating it for what it's about to be.

As for recent woes, neither of the two types of paint I had in the kitchen matched what was on the walls (hmm, record keeping failure), I finally got the trim and shower heads updated in the hall and master bathrooms (including repairing leaky stem cartridges/swapping out O-rings/replacing all the parts with new ones), I have no idea if the fluorescent light fixture above the sink is even getting power, and I've got a lot of stuff to power wash before I start marketing this for renters. So, just normal stuff!

8/27/2012 5:44:11 PM

Nice. Not looking to leave my place any time soon, but it will probably come to that if I stay local. Where are you located?

8/27/2012 8:51:49 PM

The east side of Cary.

8/28/2012 9:41:59 PM

FML, flooring I'd picked out has a fake veneer on it. Painfully obvious in person, so looks like I'm going to have to drop a lot more than I had planned on flooring because I don't want something that'll look like laminate.

8/28/2012 10:01:50 PM

so that bamboo actually has a non-wood veneer on top? Or is it just that the handscraping made it look fake? My main complaint with the cheaper "handscraped" floors is that many are actually machine done and just too consistent which causes them to look cheap even though real handscraped can be really cool.

[Edited on August 28, 2012 at 10:26 PM. Reason : ]

8/28/2012 10:16:04 PM

Bingo, bamboo with a non-wood veneer. Didn't look horrible in the small sample, but when we install it in a huge living room that repeating grain pattern is going to be painfully obvious and ugly.

The "handscrapped" texture is so minimal I fear that once it's installed it'll look like cheap laminate that got wet. It's just barely wavy, and that's what happens to laminate so I'm afraid it'll look like a mess and I can't return it after it's installed so I'm not willing to try.

8/28/2012 10:26:34 PM

I think you've made a good, but frustrating-for-you, decision. You are definitely right that hardwoods tend to look very different in a whole room than they do in samples, even 2x2 board samples.

We are planning to do our first floor this fall and we've been looking at tons of hardwood over the past year probably. There were several that we LOVED on a sample and then we looked at a full room picture of that floor installed and it looked totally different and thus we decided about that. It's been frustrating but I think we have one picked out finally.

Good luck picking something else out :/

8/28/2012 10:32:57 PM

It's frustrating for me because this stuff is going to be installed next weekend and we were supposed to pick this up on Saturday. Nothing mentioned the veneer. Only when I saw the sample board did I realize it, because the ones they had on their wall of wood were close enough together I couldn't see the edge of the veneer. Now I have to try to get my money back from lumber liquidators and find something else acceptable. It's going to cost over a grand more to get something else, but in the end I don't think I'll be happy with this stuff. There go any vacation plans I had been hoping to make.

8/28/2012 10:45:04 PM

Is the wood you're picking up going to be in a climate controlled storage area? I thought you had to leave the wood in your house (or a similarly controlled area) so that it adapted to the temperature/moisture in your house to prevent problems after installation. Am I crazy (i.e. are the meds I took tonight making me bonkers) or have other people heard this?

8/29/2012 12:05:45 AM

The plan was to pick it up this weekend and install next weekend. It does need to be in the house a while before you install it, so we were going to go with a week to be safe. Hopefully prosource has some good prices and I can get everything done today.

8/29/2012 7:53:52 AM

Uh, you can remove the samples from the walls at lumber liquidators...

8/29/2012 8:36:32 AM

I wish the sales guy had told us that.

8/29/2012 8:52:09 AM

I just wasn't a fan of a lot of the stuff at lumber liquidators once we looked at it in person. We ended up looking at a bunch of local suppliers who had pricing that was just as good and carried all the major brands. We were also able to actually take home those 2'x2' wall samples to view them in our own house and lighting which was nice. We eliminated several that way that looked great in the store and in their full-room pictures but just did not work with the upholstery on the furniture or the other wood in the room or the paint color etc. once we got them home. It definitely helped.

8/29/2012 9:14:12 AM

^^

8/29/2012 9:52:11 AM

Quote :

"The plan was to pick it up this weekend and install next weekend. It does need to be in the house a while before you install it, so we were going to go with a week to be safe. Hopefully prosource has some good prices and I can get everything done today."

this time of the year you can reduce that a little.

8/29/2012 10:35:15 PM

Tonight's woe: Tub caulk. I think whoever did this packed the crack between the tile and the tub with caulk because it's nigh impossible to get out. Lots of swearing and stabby motions in the crack seems to be working wonders, though! Soon this bathroom will look less like the horrid, unkept thing that it is.

8/29/2012 10:53:32 PM

What's the problem exactly?

8/29/2012 10:54:45 PM

Just mold/mildew appearing behind the caulk needing regular replacement. I also intend to redo the grout prior to re-caulking to try to eliminate locations where water can seep through behind the tile.

8/29/2012 11:02:28 PM

I have home pre-ownership woes .

First my countertops were delayed, pushing many things back, including my expected closing date.
Then my loan officer tells me the USDA is 17 days behind on loan approvals, so now my closing date is way out of question.
Then my appliance store screws up my order.
Appliance store finally gets my order straight, but it's delayed their delivery by a week.
Then I find out the USDA thinks I have too much money saved up to use a USDA loan.

le sigh

8/30/2012 8:00:29 AM

^ We're closing today.

Didn't pick out anything for sure yesterday. I want to spend the cash and get something nicer for the floors and the SO just wants to keep what we've got that I don't like.

8/30/2012 9:03:18 AM

I have an odd problem. Anyone good with shower valve replacements? My probably hasnt been replaced in ~26 years and it snapped on me this morning. Here's to hoping this isn't expensive.

8/30/2012 11:03:28 AM

I've been doing this in my house actually. Got pix? I had to dismantle the handle/escutcheon (sp) plate, remove some sort of retention nut, then I was able to fiddle around with the stem cartridge and fix the guts of the thing. Each system is a little different depending on the brand of your system.

Also, when you say you broke it, what broke (more pics?)?

Also for my shower in the master bath and tubshower in the hall bath, I repaired/replaced all the trim/handle bits, replaced the stop that you turn the shower on with, replaced the interior/o-ring bits around the stem cartridge, got a new shower head, and got all-new name-brand replacement parts for the master shower cartridge/retention nut/collar/rubber boots/springs/o-rings for maybe $200. Depending on what you just broke you could be out a lot of money or maybe just $30 or something.

Don't try to take anything apart without turning the water off first, of course (unless you're just removing the handle).

8/30/2012 6:12:50 PM

Shitty cell-phone pictures here: http://imgur.com/a/ukSKr#BRXPy

The third picture shows you a bit of what broke off. The piece itself split down the middle so I am only holding half to show the threading. I also hate the single valve style in my house, but I'd rather have a fully functional shower over upgrading that at this point. I know I need to cut off the water, remove the retainer nut thing, and see what I've got underneath. The real problem is I have ABSOLUTELY no idea what kind of replacement valve cartridge (assuming that is what I need to buy) I need to buy as EVERYTHING I've read has told me how important it is to get the proper one for your hardware.

8/31/2012 7:54:11 AM

Pre-housebuying woe.

Somebody stole the new heat pump last week. Bank is taking forever to finish up some stuff with the city as well.

Oh well, we're only 4 months past our initial closing date at this point. What's another few weeks.

9/1/2012 2:10:22 PM

^^ Sorry for the late reply here, I imagine you wanted that fixed by now. Anyhoo, I think that's a mixet cartridge as that's what was at my dad's Avery Close rental (we replaced the cartridges in there to fix a slow leak).

http://plumbing.about.com/od/shower_and_tub/ss/Replace-A-Mixet-Shower-Cartridge.htm

http://www.lowes.com/pd_176089-72906-SLD1350+D_0__?productId=3131205&Ntt=mixet+cartridge&pl=1¤tURL=&facetInfo=

You could pick up a mixet trim kit while you're there and make it look NEW again. $cheap

Just make sure you shut off the water main before you remove that nut.

One more thing, if that nut is VERY hard to remove, hit the inside around the cartridge with penetrating lubricant like PB blaster or something equivalent. It shouldn't be too bad, but breaking that would suck.

[Edited on September 1, 2012 at 10:43 PM. Reason : qq]

9/1/2012 10:40:04 PM

Sweet jesus that looks like exactly what I need. Unfortunately I have to order online as none of the Lowes around here seem to carry the part. On to my second and very important question....

When I make this replacement/repair...if I happen to screw up horribly and need to make an emergency call to a plumber - who might you all recommend (around the Cary area). Hoping this won't be needed but I'd rather know who to call when needed than have to scramble after the fact.

9/2/2012 10:01:35 AM

if you pull that cartridge make sure the main water supply is off and water is drained

9/2/2012 3:01:49 PM

Plumbing project update - Was entirely unsuccessful at locating a water main shut off in my house. Luckily, my neighbor bought a shutoff "key" for use at the meter. I was able to shut off the water, replace the cartridge, and get it back on within 10 minutes. I did notice that the old one of these http://www.lowes.com/pd_126111-1366-31802_0__?productId=3433844&Ntt=mixet&pl=1¤tURL=&facetInfo= was cracked, so that'll need to be replaced, but thats easy.

Hooray for not using a professional

9/5/2012 10:13:09 AM

Good times! Glad your plumbing experience didn't end in sadness and a $600 plumbing bill.

I have to stay up for another 20 minutes or so to get the grout in the hall bath one more wipedown, then I'm going to sleep. I bet there's going to be some residue on it tomorrow that I get to scrape off. Eh, whatever, if there's caulk on the tub by Saturday night I'll be happy (because then I can move onto all the other projects awaiting me!).

9/6/2012 1:18:15 AM

Removed baseboard last night to start replacing flooring. Turns out the baseboard was nailed to the water main and the shut off valve is dead. Had to call the water company out and we'll be buying one of those shut off tools today. Probably going to put a splice in for now and an access panel and swap out the whole line and valve later so we can keep the other stuff on schedule and move in before our lease runs out.

9/6/2012 8:17:34 AM

Ouch that sucks. We're not going to remove the baseboards before putting down hardwood because it's just going to take too long and be too much rework when we can simply use a quarter-round to match the baseboard and gap off the board.

However, in your case it's probably good you are removing them simply for the fact that you found that

9/6/2012 9:10:36 AM

The messed up thing is that the flooring was original and the house was built in 92, so it has been that way for 20 years. We're putting in tile and have short baseboards, so it'd look funny if we lost another 3/4" of baseboard.

We're lucky we were both there and I had a box full of sham-wows we never use that I'd brought over, so we were able to contain the water until the guy got there to turn it off. Could have ended up being so much worse than it was. Plus it's inside a closet, so we can just put an access panel instead of fixing the drywall we ripped out trying to figure out what was going on.

9/6/2012 10:20:21 AM

gotcha. Our baseboards are shorter than what I would have put in as well (builders never scale baseboards correctly imo) but just from the cost if I have someone else do it or labor if I do it myself I can't bring myself to want to rip out all of the baseboards and then paint, cut, and install, new baseboards.

We're ripping out carpet, hardwood, and laminate to do it though so at least it will be installed on top the subfloor and not on top of another flooring so it won't eat into the existing exposed baseboard height too much.

Also, I know from experience in ripping out and replacing baseboards in one part of the house that the builder did a horrendous job of attaching the baseboards. They used almost exclusively 2 and 2 1/2" nails and LOTS of them to nail a standard small baseboard into the wall. /facepalm. It took a lot longer than anticipated to remove the existing baseboard and the nails.

[Edited on September 6, 2012 at 10:49 AM. Reason : ]

9/6/2012 10:44:15 AM

That's what we are dealing with, but we got a trim puller and it's made it so much easier. No way we would want to do this otherwise. We've spent a lot on tools, but everything is easier with them and we're doing so much to the house it's worth it. The orbital sander is making refinishing the cabinets take a fraction of the time it would otherwise.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16803000250&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-NA-_-NA

9/6/2012 12:37:55 PM

damn you progress energy give me my power meter so things can move along.

9/6/2012 3:48:04 PM

It's not often that the contractor who I hoped had the best price has the best price.

Got all of our quotes in on hardwood flooring installation today for the downstairs. The company who I had several great recommendations for and who I felt the best about in meeting with at our house came back with the best price.

Looks like we just need to set a date that works for us in the next couple months

9/6/2012 10:06:26 PM

Arg out of nowhere the guest bathroom toilet started perpetually running. I think something is up with the little rubber flapper thing in the base -- when I push it down the running water stops but it's a pain. Hopefully all I'll have to do is replace the flapper with a new one.

9/7/2012 9:01:22 AM

^^I love it when a plan comes together

9/7/2012 9:12:34 AM

haha yeah. I'm just happy because (at least for me) it seems like I usually am leaning toward a certain contractor due to good reviews and personal recommendations but then they end up being much higher than the others and it comes down to weighing risk of quality vs cost which is tough.

We're looking at a medium brown stained birch. I love walnut but it's just too expensive, especially with being a little softer too.

[Edited on September 7, 2012 at 9:56 AM. Reason : ]

9/7/2012 9:52:51 AM

Quote :

"Arg out of nowhere the guest bathroom toilet started perpetually running. I think something is up with the little rubber flapper thing in the base -- when I push it down the running water stops but it's a pain. Hopefully all I'll have to do is replace the flapper with a new one."

Does the chain have enough slack?
Maybe you can clean around it in case something is obstructing it.

9/7/2012 11:30:26 AM

The chain definitely has enough slack, if anything it is a little too long. The toilet has been fine for the past three years that I've lived in the house, it just out of the blue started this. I'm thinking that either the water has made the flapper brittle and it has become mishapen or there is some kind of mineral buildup around the exit pipe that is causing it to not seal properly. I'm gonna drain and examine it further before getting a new flapper though.

9/7/2012 11:32:57 AM

Word, I just those little pods in the back to try to keep the water clean otherwise random crap somehow ending up in there.

9/7/2012 12:07:02 PM

well, progress finally showed up on Friday and installed the power meter. now my garage door is still missing

9/10/2012 11:12:21 AM

has anyone installed a vapor barrier under their house? What did you use to attach the barrier to the foundation? (tape? sealant??)

9/10/2012 11:33:31 AM

I've got an interesting leak coming through the side of my house up next to my fireplace in the dining room on the first floor. Checked second floor and attic immediately above it and it's dry as a bone. Walked outside and there's a weird orange/yellow fungus on some of the wood on the outside of the house. Felt some of the wood planks and they are soft and/or rotten like they are a sponge filled with water. Got someone coming to look at it during lunch today. Not excited.

9/10/2012 11:57:59 AM