DIY Home Improvement Thread..

[ixcuincle]

Moving soon and the prior tenants are gonna take their washer and dryer. Has anyone here ordered a new washer and dryer before? I heard bad things about Lowes and cancelled orders so kind of wary of the big chains (Lowes, HD)

[stoshuaj]

1 hour ago, PokerPacker said:

You know, I started considering that when I finally bought a house, I'd like a nice privacy fence, but realized it was probably expensive and not THAT private if your neighbors have two-story houses.  My new want is to use plants to create a wall of privacy.  Maybe get some cheap low fencing to keep people from wandering into your domain, but then a combination of trees and bushes (or maybe bamboo?) to really boost the privacy, plus give you some nature to look at.  Maybe even include something fruit-bearing to get something out of it.

please don’t use bamboo.  Yes, it will grow and do what you want BUT it will not stop growing, everywhere.  It’s invasive as hell and a huge problem.

27 minutes ago, ixcuincle said:

Moving soon and the prior tenants are gonna take their washer and dryer. Has anyone here ordered a new washer and dryer before? I heard bad things about Lowes and cancelled orders so kind of wary of the big chains (Lowes, HD)

Is it a rental?  If so, Craigslist is your friend if needed immediately or, I’ve gotten them in estate auctions and stashed them away.

Edited August 23, 2020 by stoshuaj

[PokerPacker]

2 minutes ago, stoshuaj said:

please don’t use bamboo.  Yes, it will grow and do what you want BUT it will not stop growing, everywhere.  It’s invasive as hell and a huge problem.

Yeah, I know I'd have to be very careful if using Bamboo, which is why it was only mentioned in parens.  There used to be a house in my neighborhood that had a bamboo forest in their front yard that provided excellent privacy from the road.  They tore it out a few years ago, though (new owner?).  Seemed like it was pretty well maintained until then, though.  I wonder how much work was put into it.

[EmirOfShmo]

20 minutes ago, ixcuincle said:

Moving soon and the prior tenants are gonna take their washer and dryer. Has anyone here ordered a new washer and dryer before? I heard bad things about Lowes and cancelled orders so kind of wary of the big chains (Lowes, HD)

Not sure where you are, but check these guys out (they bought the former Sears scratch & dent stores). I've bought several appliances - stove, washer(2), dryer(2), refrigerator - there over the years here in Richmond. Our washer went out 2 weeks ago but they didn't have one I wanted. I could have waited but...got vetoed. I ended up buying it a Lowes. 

 

Advice: research the cubic size you need for both washer & dryer; verify the height & width & depth for fit; high energy washers run for a long time; stay away from front load washers (mold & cleaning issues)

 

https://www.americanfreight.com/

[stoshuaj]

12 minutes ago, PokerPacker said:

Yeah, I know I'd have to be very careful if using Bamboo, which is why it was only mentioned in parens.  There used to be a house in my neighborhood that had a bamboo forest in their front yard that provided excellent privacy from the road.  They tore it out a few years ago, though (new owner?).  Seemed like it was pretty well maintained until then, though.  I wonder how much work was put into it.

The problem isn’t your yard, it’s the neighbor’s and the creek bed and the wood line, etc.

 

Im not a landscaper by trade but I’ve damn sure done my share of yards from Md to Fl while trying to minimize incasive crap. And the big box stores are not helping, at all.

 

What zone are you in?

Edited August 23, 2020 by stoshuaj

[PleaseBlitz]

46 minutes ago, ixcuincle said:

Moving soon and the prior tenants are gonna take their washer and dryer. Has anyone here ordered a new washer and dryer before? I heard bad things about Lowes and cancelled orders so kind of wary of the big chains (Lowes, HD)

I just recently ordered a new washer/dryer from Sears and a new dishwasher from BestBuy. No issues with either. 

[PokerPacker]

20 minutes ago, stoshuaj said:

The problem isn’t your yard, it’s the neighbor’s and the creek bed and the wood line, etc.

 

Im not a landscaper by trade but I’ve damn sure done my share of yards from Md to Fl while trying to minimize incasive crap. And the big box stores are not helping, at all.

 

What zone are you in?

This is all future-thought, and I'll doubtfully be living in this area when I actually buy a house given the absurd housing prices here to go along with not really having much interest in the type of jobs on offer here.

[ixcuincle]

Noticed a desk I recently purchased was starting to bend a little. I have a 2 monitor clamp in the back of the desk. I was noticing a bit of a bend but thought I was paranoid until I went to Lowe's today and got a level. The level indicated that yes, the wood on top is not straight.

 

Is there any way to stop the bend? It has 4 legs supporting it, so I was thinking maybe add a 5th leg. Can the wood be straightened out?

[steve09ru]

36 minutes ago, ixcuincle said:

Noticed a desk I recently purchased was starting to bend a little. I have a 2 monitor clamp in the back of the desk. I was noticing a bit of a bend but thought I was paranoid until I went to Lowe's today and got a level. The level indicated that yes, the wood on top is not straight.

 

Is there any way to stop the bend? It has 4 legs supporting it, so I was thinking maybe add a 5th leg. Can the wood be straightened out?

have a picture you can post?  a couple things you could potentially do

[steve09ru]

Don't have any full before pics but redid the kids bath and laundry room a few weeks ago.

 

Laundry room was a cream/beige color with wire shelving so I painted white, added and painted cabinet, stained and added the shelving on bottom and we connected a rod between the wall and cabinet for clothes to hang/dry.

 

Redid the flooring in the kids bath and painted grey:

 

 

old floors were vinyl:

[BatteredFanSyndrome]

I'm glad my wife doesn't look at these forums.  For an only child to a single mother, the only renovations that get done around my house come from a contractor.

[ixcuincle]

29 minutes ago, steve09ru said:

have a picture you can post?  a couple things you could potentially do

I'll post it later, but the wood bending is kind of slight. There are no cracks on the bottom of the wood, which is good, it's just bending a bit.

 

 

Edited September 1, 2020 by ixcuincle

[steve09ru]

1 hour ago, ixcuincle said:

I'll post it later, but the wood bending is kind of slight. There are no cracks on the bottom of the wood, which is good, it's just bending a bit.

 

 

you could go underneath it with a 2x4 and screw into the bottom of the table.  that would also keep it more sturdy and likely avoid it splitting down the middle.  may also add a 3rd leg once you do that to help with the weight.

[CousinsCowgirl84]

On 8/23/2020 at 3:11 PM, ixcuincle said:

Moving soon and the prior tenants are gonna take their washer and dryer. Has anyone here ordered a new washer and dryer before? I heard bad things about Lowes and cancelled orders so kind of wary of the big chains (Lowes, HD)

 

I got mine from Best Buy and everything went smooth, except I would bother paying them for the install... when thru installed it every thing worked, but to get it to fit properly I had to redo everything and also swap the dryer door around..

[purbeast]

I don't know if this is considered DIY, but the past month or so there have been some strange incidents in our neighborhood and with a newborn, my wife pressed me to get cameras and a security system.  We have been talking about doing it forever but with random people going into cars at night (unlocked cars not breaking windows) we decided to do it.

 

I ordered a Ring doorbell and 2 cameras and the security system.  Thankfully I only installed the doorbell after 2 weeks and then realized I did not like it.  

 

First I did not fully understand that it doesn't record 24/7 and it only records "events" when motion is detected.  Well it would record cars driving by our house in the street (and only catch like the 2nd half of it since it takes a bit to "turn on") and then it would completely miss deliveries.  Like it would not capture a UPS truck stopping infront of our house, the guy walking to our porch dropping a package off and him getting back in his car.  And this happened multiple times.  Then it missed me parking and walking into my house too.

 

So said screw that and returned all of the Ring stuff and got a Google Nest Hello camera. 

 

And it's MUCH better.  It records 24/7 and if you pay for Nest Aware (which I am going to) you can go back in time like 3 days or something to view anything at any time.  Without it looks like it still just records events, however since it's always recording you don't haver the problem of it "turning on" when something is already half way out of the camera view.  

 

It also detects people and knows the difference between a person walking and a car driving by, which is cool.  Oh and the picture is noticeably better and it's 4:3 giving a better view than the 16:9 one Ring did, and the Ring camera is big time fisheye on the edges.  Night vision on the Hello blows the Ring out of the water.  It's not even comparable.

 

So since I liked the google camera I went and ordered 2 cameras and their security system as well and will have that Thursday.

 

I also have installed locks on our gate because we think someone went into our backyard (first time in 8 years) the other day, but I think it was because they were trying to hide from the police.  But yeah, that doesn't make me feel great either way if they did come in our backyard.  Needless to say they will not be getting in their again since I put 2 locks on my gate, one at the top and bottom, since we rarely open it anyways.

 

We've lived in this house 8 years now and live on a dead end street but at the top, and we've never had any issues at all.  So this is a bit bizarre and I think there is more police presence now too because they know about it.  But these changes at least give us some peace of mind.

[China]

3 minutes ago, purbeast said:

I don't know if this is considered DIY, but the past month or so there have been some strange incidents in our neighborhood and with a newborn, my wife pressed me to get cameras and a security system.  We have been talking about doing it forever but with random people going into cars at night (unlocked cars not breaking windows) we decided to do it.

 

 

 

FYI:

 

 

[BatteredFanSyndrome]

I have the Arlo Pro HD cameras and have been pretty happy with them.  Wireless, just need to be charged every so often.  The only issue is the set we bought had two cameras, and now we want to add extras.  It's almost cheaper just to buy a whole new larger set than buying extra cameras.

[purbeast]

1 minute ago, China said:

 

FYI:

 

 

Yeah I'm not concerned about that.  That's going to happen with anything.  All I can do is be secure which I am.  

 

I also have no interest in having cameras inside my house.

[Elessar78]

On 8/23/2020 at 3:11 PM, ixcuincle said:

Moving soon and the prior tenants are gonna take their washer and dryer. Has anyone here ordered a new washer and dryer before? I heard bad things about Lowes and cancelled orders so kind of wary of the big chains (Lowes, HD)

I got my new dishwasher from Lowes. No problem with delivery and install, but they are still holding my rebate hostage. This was right before the lockdown. But they did gangbuster business during lockdown so I'm sure they can afford to give me my rebate.

 

Recently ordered an LG washer from Home Depot. Also pretty great experience. Long wait though, because of a lack of inventory.

 

I was just reading that SpeedQueen might be the way to go. No frills, but super reliable.

 

 

 

 

[purbeast]

3 hours ago, Elessar78 said:

I got my new dishwasher from Lowes. No problem with delivery and install, but they are still holding my rebate hostage. This was right before the lockdown. But they did gangbuster business during lockdown so I'm sure they can afford to give me my rebate.

 

Recently ordered an LG washer from Home Depot. Also pretty great experience. Long wait though, because of a lack of inventory.

 

I was just reading that SpeedQueen might be the way to go. No frills, but super reliable.

 

 

 

 

Which LG washer did you get and do you like it thus far?

I'm looking at an LG one myself since our old one keeps breaking down every few months and I'm tired of fixing it.

 

I also heard Speedqueen recommended but if I get a new washing machine, I am getting one that is larger than the 4.0cf one we have now, and the Speedqueens are smaller and have an agitator.

[PleaseBlitz]

6 hours ago, steve09ru said:

 

 

 

Were you concerned that people wouldn't know it was the laundry room and needed a big sign that says "LAUNDRY ROOM"?  😜

Edited September 1, 2020 by PleaseBlitz

[steve09ru]

2 hours ago, PleaseBlitz said:

 

Were you concerned that people wouldn't know it was the laundry room and needed a big sign that says "LAUNDRY ROOM"?  😜

Haha - Wife picks the decor- I just do everything else

[purbeast]

2 hours ago, PleaseBlitz said:

 

Were you concerned that people wouldn't know it was the laundry room and needed a big sign that says "LAUNDRY ROOM"?  😜

We have a huge mural painted KITCHEN in our kitchen so people know the room with the sink, stove, microwave, fridge, and dishwasher is the kitchen.

[Elessar78]

15 hours ago, purbeast said:

Which LG washer did you get and do you like it thus far?

I'm looking at an LG one myself since our old one keeps breaking down every few months and I'm tired of fixing it.

 

I also heard Speedqueen recommended but if I get a new washing machine, I am getting one that is larger than the 4.0cf one we have now, and the Speedqueens are smaller and have an agitator.

I love it so far. We have 5 people in our family and it has the largest capacity. Our laundry used to pile up, because we couldn't wash it fast enough. For example, this could handle, easily, 2 laundry baskets full (not heaping) our old one could only handle one basket worth of clothes. According to Consumer Reports for reliability LG is top 3. Miele is top 2 and I forget the top one (it could be speed queen). We paid $703 for it total with

 

Model # WT7300CW

[purbeast]

@Elessar78 Thanks that is the exact model I am looking at.  I'm looking at the darker colored one which is like $799 right now.  

 

Did you get the matching dryer too?  We are also looking at the dryer and if I get a new washer will probably just get both.  Our stuff came with the house and it's just old and on it's last legs.