Home Improvements

But yes, i might end up with the fanciest utility room in town. I believe that things you use should be beautiful. I store extension cords and stuff in there, i will be in and out of that space.

Fair enough. I finished my garage for that reason, it doubles as my workshop. Concrete floors but it’s insulated and I did sheet rock, mud/tape/ and paint. And HVAC.

Spoken like a true actuary!!

She looks at her own shoes, others’ shoes, and the entire floor!

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Yes, I’m very extroverted for an actuary, and look at lots of people’s shoes, and at the floor.

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Kitchen, not yet grouted

Utility room, mostly grouted

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The general contractor didn’t order the kitchen grout in advance, assuming he could pick it up day-of. But it’s not a common color, so that didn’t work. It’s supposed to show up later this week.

Nice! Too bad about the grout, hopefully not too inconvenient. Jealous of the hot water heat, I miss having a boiler.

Yeah, there’s a push to go to heat pumps, but i looked into getting minisplits when i installed central AC, and the house is really badly set up for it. Lots of little rooms with lots of windows, without good places to put the indoor units. So I’m sticking with gas and hot water baseboard heating.

I can’t convert that to a heat pump, because the required temperature differential is too high. Heat pumps are good at heating air or water to 70 or 100F, but not for heating it to 180F, which is apparently the desired temp for the hot water in the baseboards.

The high velocity mini ducts i installed for AC would be terrible for heat. They create a significant draught, which is okay for AC, but not great for heat, and they are all on the ceiling.

I do plan to replace the boiler with something more efficient, but that’s not part of this project. One of the guys who came by to give me a quote commented that it was still in good shape, despite being 65 years old.

I’m annoyed that it will be a few more days before i get my stove back, but shit happens, and this isn’t too bad in the realm of what can go wrong with renovations.

I just pray that the utility guy who’s supposed to fix my range will actually show up this afternoon, despite the snow.

Bathroom #1 is being gutted today. apparently they found newspaper in the walls from 1970. Home was built in 1948 or so. Maybe 1970 was when they decided on using “insulation”.

Old houses are fun. Since you have AC, it’s likely suuuuper impractical to try adding mini splits. A
More efficient boiler would be on my five year plan I think.

Our house had a gravity fed hot air setup so we have (way oversized) ducts. I’ll be doing a heat pump with backup.

Yeah, a more efficient boiler, with integrated hot water, is in the plans.


Now with grout and appliances.

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Beautiful! I got behind on keeping up with this thread, and as I was reading, I was thinking: oh, I hope she goes with the darker grout!

It really looks fantastic!!

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Small improvement, our entry had a 1990s fixture. It was fine, not offensive, but not great. I found a… I guess maybe a neoclassical fixture for sale and I really liked it, I’ve never seen anything quite like it.

Anywho, today my son and I finally got it on the ceiling.

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Oh yeah. Nailed it.

I like the glass in your door, too.

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I guess this counts, I replaced the AC in our son’s room. Well, he got to help out a lot. His room is the attic, which I don’t think was finished originally. So the HVAC doesn’t go up there.

The old unit looked to be about 20 years old maybe. Wasn’t working well and it’s really not worth fixing an old window unit.

Got a new LG with a remote control, or he can use the app on his phone to adjust it. Uses about 25% less electricity than the old one, and it’s a lot quieter.

Schlepping a 100lb+ unit up to the third floor and installing it 7’ above the floor… should have done that shower beer tonight.

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Patio roof makeover. Wood slats to sheet metal


My friend up there way too comfortable sitting on the frame he built ten years ago

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Not the typical home improvement discussed here but it will improve my home. Hubby rented a giant dumpster to get rid of the junk accumulated in the shed and garage. He had always intended to take a load to the dump every month, and he did occasionally, but then he got rid of the truck so now he can’t.

Hopefully getting rid of stuff will make the house not feel so tiny.

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We were working on our garage, cleaning it up. Going through each cabinet (there are 17 or so), but life happened at around Cabinet #3, and we had to work on another house instead.

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