Home Improvement Today?

^^^Congrats on the new home..

 

Thank you. Our first! And my first time putting brain information into hands on doing. Bit of a learning curve..

My baseboard is too tall for the miter saw, it hits the motor cover 75% into the cut. So I flip it over and reverse the angle and get as good as I can to finish. Did any small trimming by hand with a razor.

Anyways.. There's probably an easier way, but I have the bedroom 90% finished and it looks pretty good, corners need minimal caulking. I don't have an angle finder, and my first time, success enough for me.

 

Lmfao



Also fuck you.

 

You can cope the joints instead of inside mitering. All you'll need is a coping saw or a scroll blade on a jigsaw. You'll get a super tight joint every time.

Looks good BTW. Nice going.

 

I watched a video on that this morning before I left to that house to work. Might try that next go around!

Thanks. Did the best I could and it came out pretty good. Glad to be back at this home and not still working. Hopefully we move in this week.

 

Always nice seeing something get done. What all is left to do before you move in?

 

My Lee Valley automatic vac switch and cyclone lid should be here in 3 days...

 

Can you test run them for me .

 

you sunufabitch

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CNAPyyitvw

 

It was move in ready when we bought, but interior painted poorly in whatever was on sale (mint chip green, and a khaki/yellow color. Kitchen and half bath were green, as was upstairs bath. That was first to get repainted. Bedroom got painted from the yellow also, and the baseboard were pretty bad with age and lots of sloppy cuts and sloppy caulk work, so we just decided to replace since throughout the whole house it was all pretty bad with some spots worse than others.
I got overwhelmed by the list of to-do, so I am just doing the upstairs now and then after its all together the downstairs will be next. Bathroom has beat up and peeling linoleum so that's getting replaced with tile (FIL/MIL housewarming gift) and then I can trim it out also, it needs a tub scrubbing and a new curtain/rod. Then its ready to be used.

Kitchen is mostly cleaned up and almost ready for the cupboards and drawers to get filled. After those 3 things are ready to go we will finally move in. The second bedroom will be painted and re trimmed before the baby is due in July and then will be a nursery. I'll need to pull baseboard from the stair landing and the downstairs entirely and reinstall. Paint the walls and ceilings and that's all done. I need to pull the kitchen sink and reseal it to the countertop. I need to reinstall the faucet as a 3 hole setup and not a 1 hole base I'd done the first time. I need to remove old caulk and reseal bathroom sinks, and then its just a matter of cleaning, building a dining table and some floating shelves and getting our minimal furnishings in place so its almost a home.

It was a decent place before, hopefully will be a nice place when we're done. Not trying to remodel, just finished better. Paint and trim work.

Might post more pics as I go, this is my first time doing home stuff so it isn't much to see.

 

What kind of tub is it?

 

It took us the better part of a year to get our house in shape to move into, then another full year to remodel the old house to sell. The new house had an unfinished garage, with exposed rafters. Livermore gets pretty extreme weather compared to the rest of the Bay Area, 100º summers and close to freezing on winter nights, so something had to be done.

The stringers across the garage were 2"x6" on 48" centers, so a whole new system of 2"x8" x 24" ceiling joists were installed so we could put up the drywall. Strongbacks on top, insulation, and plywood deck made it worthy of storage for our years of junk. A new large window on the blank bedroom wall gives us early morning sunshine now, a great reason to get out of bed every day.

The old house got a total flip, everything stripped out including floor and ceiling, everything new, and new landscaping. Our broker staged it professionally, and put it up on the multiples. One open house weekend, All offers to be considered the following Wednesday. We entertained 6 offers, the least of which was beyond our wildest dreams! It worked out extremely well, selling to a cash buyer, closing escrow in 6 days. The best part of all this was the real estate market was at it's lowest from the banking crisis when we bought, and had snapped back in a big way when we sold the old house almost 2 years later.

The final piece of good news was the transfer of our old property tax base to the new house, a benefit afforded retirees here in California, to be used only once per family. After living in the old house since 1978, that old tax base would have been hard to give up considering the whopping property tax of the new house. Everything we did depended on being able to transfer that tax base, and very glad to say we did everything right!

 

Wow! That's a huge benefit. I didn't know it existed.

 

I believe its for those who are 55 and over

 

That's correct. One time only per couple or individual, at least one must be 55 or older, both transactions must be within two years before or after, and within the same County or between cooperating Counties. Not all Counties participate. It's a State Law, so if you qualify, you'll get it. Confirm with your own Tax Assessor, submit your request within the specified time period, wait for approval, then wait for refund of overpaid taxes. I'm still waiting for that, but expect my next tax bill to trigger the refund.

 

I understood that when he said it was for retirees.

 

Thats great Alan!

I'm not sure the exact build of the tub, but I'd assume it's porcelain over cast iron or similar. Built in 1981, all I know for sure is it isn't fiberglass, its porcelain and it has a cpl scratches in it I hope can be remedied.

 

James, I can give you my thoughts on your tub, based on my own experiences: As you know, I have rentals, and have older tubs with lots of history. One tub was just not good enough at all, and I was reluctant to rip out the nice tile of the surround, so I contracted with a tub refinisher. The first job was fantastic, no complaints, and lasted through 3 tenants, when the 4th tenant dropped a razor and nicked the surface badly. That's the thing about a total refinish, it is a two stage epoxy paint, and is easily damaged.

The second contractor I fired before he finished the job. I offered him half his fee to get the hell out and he accepted. When you are a property owner, you have a vulnerability to flakes, so you can't totally be an asshole to anyone.

Next contractor removed the previous junk and did the job right. Still, I wish I had ripped out the old tub and started fresh the first time around. The next time I have a total remodel in that apartment, I will do just that. In your case, if just a couple small chips or scratches, a touch up can work very well, but a whole complete refinish should be avoided.

 

I'll post pics later and get your opinion.