Exterous' home project thread

[Exterous]

Back in November we bought a house. Fairly new having been built in 2012 but close to the worst house in the neighborhood. Nothing bad structurally but everything was incredibly basic inside with really low grade fixtures. The yard was literally nothing but grass and concrete.

This is probably for the best as the few things they did do were done terribly. For example the backsplash:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2464823

Anyway most of the issues were things we could fix. So over the past several months, in between helping my mom out and our trips, we worked on our own house. Lots of new light fixtures and ceiling fans installed. Sadly I'm not always the best at before and after pictures

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I particularly like our new entry chandelier. They had this little dink 4 light fixture that looked dumb given the volume of the space


Nice new chandeliers tend to be expensive. While perusing a reuse center I saw a pretty nice looking 9 light fixture. One of the metal arms was broken at the top and it was missing one of the glass shrouds for the lights. I dug through the 'light shroud box' and found one that matched almost identically. Since the light was broken I got the whole thing for $40.

I took it home and used my absurdly amateurish welding skills to weld the arm back on. The bead looks like shit but I was pretty sure no one would be able to see it if I hung it correctly.

The glass shrouds were an awful yellow color. We thought we might be able to sand or rub the coloring off but my wife had the idea to try acetone first and it worked perfectly. Two treatments later and they were a nice frosted white color.





I will say that hanging this sucked. I tried to find someplace to do it for me since I don't have an A-frame ladder that would reach but the lowest quote I got was for $400 because of the 19' ceiling. I could rent a truck (hard to fit ladders in civics) and an A-frame for less than $100 so thats what I did.

My wife was kind enough to climb up a second ladder and hold the chandelier above her head while I did the wiring higher up. It took much longer than ususal because the ladder couldn't be placed in the optimal position due to walls and I had to give my wife some breaks holding the light. Probably took a very sweaty hour from getting the ladder out of the truck to putting the ladder back in the truck.

Once it was hung I can't even see my crappy weld even though I know where to look.

So about $130 for the light, LED bulbs (so I hopefully dont have to change them any time soon) and equipment rental

 

[iamwiz82]

I just built a house in Michigan and have about 20 of those exact acorn lights you took down over your island. Maybe the same builder.

 

[Exterous]

One of the first things I needed was a workbench. Found a power strip on craigslist for $5 and a metal husky pegboard on sale for $10. The pegboard is supposed to go with the husky workbench that is $150. Ha - no thanks. I put the top side mounting notch between the 2x4 and top shelf and ran a 2x4 below for support. That bottom 2x4 made a great place for my plug strip. I ran a set of 3 LED puck lights underneath the top shelf to a switch on the side of the workbench for added project lighting. I think the whole thing was probably $70 in materials

I'm not the most organized when working on a flurry of projects so its been a near constant disaster zone. Judge away:



The cords are running to my air compressor and the sanders due to a current project:



Was out with a friend (in his truck thankfully) and saw these by the side of the road. The wood was pretty scratched up and had some deep grooves on teh sides. It had also been poorly painted twice in mismatching red colors. One of the door lattices was coming apart.

But it was solid wood and we needed more furniture so in the truck they went.

The lattice was pretty easy to fix with a few small pins and wood glue. The dents and paint were another issue. Well, filling in the dents was fine but sanding enough to stain was going to take forever and I was having a difficult time getting the stain to match the patched areas. Maybe someone with better skills or more time could get it to work but we said 'fuck it' and went the paint route. Here they are ready for their first coat having been primed and lightly sanded by my wife:



Where was I during this? I have a much less fun project going on:

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[Exterous]

I just built a house in Michigan and have about 20 of those exact acorn lights you took down over your island. Maybe the same builder.

Very recently my friend called them 'tittie lights' and I don't think I'll ever be able to look at them the same way again. But they are pretty common, at least in SE MI, and I think they are only like $8 a light with contractor's discount

 

[Exterous]

Two coats of paint, more sanding and a coat of polyurethane later and the cabinets are done. There are still some faint paint brush marks we weren't able to avoid but the look a lot better. The insides are a silver color. Pretty good for about $35 total



While she was hard at work on those I was busy ripping up sod and ripping up more sod. Took forever which was great because it has been stupid hot outside. We had an appraisal scheduled for our refi and I wanted the landscaping done before then. It was quickly becoming clear that I was not going to make the deadline on my own.

So I looked around for a company that I could get to do some of the work - mainly the retaining wall, ripping up some of the sod, some of the plants, trees and topsoil.

With the understanding that we went with the lowest bidder who could do the job quickly it turned out well. I needed to be on top of what they were supposed to bring and plant where because they weren't the most organized but it got the job done.

Being the first time we've really hired anything out we also figured out that we are pretty particular about how things are done. They just kind of spray painted a line on the ground for the wall. I would have gotten out a measuring tape and string so everything was perfect.

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[Subyman]

I like the landscaping. "Titty" lights is what we call them too

 

[Exterous]

Our place and my mom's have been keeping us busy.
Additional projects completed:
More light fixtures
Added a garage door opener
Ran new coax line to family room
More painting

Shelves!


The shelves were important

Closet Last week

All those holes were from the very basic wire shelveing that was in the room. The light fixture was something we bought for another room but my wife didn't realize it was flush mount when she bought it.

Closet Today

Holes patched, room painted and closet system installed. The racks on the lower right section pull out for pants. There is a similar pull out rack for my wife's necklaces. All soft close drawers

With the last major project out of the way I've finally started making progress on my big To Do item my new Home Theater room. Water lines have been moved, tie rod holes patched and drylock painted on the concrete. Sound isolation clips should arrive Monday and then I'll be ready to start framing

 

[Exterous]

I like the landscaping. "Titty" lights is what we call them too

Long delayed thanks

 

[SLU Aequitas]

Posting for the home theater :awe:

Ex, sure you've thought of it, but definitely run conduit. Makes future upgrades much easier.

Also the avsforums has a dedicated theater sub which is an amazing resource.

 

[Exterous]

Posting for the home theater :awe:

Ex, sure you've thought of it, but definitely run conduit. Makes future upgrades much easier.

Also the avsforums has a dedicated theater sub which is an amazing resource.

Definitely planning on running conduit and browsing AVS forum has been costing me $ for years When I did my first one years ago I thought it would be a simple room. A couple of days later I was carting bags of sand and a roll of roofing felt down to my basement

 

[SLU Aequitas]

Definitely planning on running conduit and browsing AVS forum has been costing me $ for years When I did my first one years ago I thought it would be a simple room. A couple of days later I was carting bags of sand and a roll of roofing felt down to my basement

Yesssssssss! It's a dangerously addictive hobby and that forum is like laying out lines at a recovering coke head convention. Do you have a theater thread? Mine is like 95% there, it's functional though and I'm waiting on cabinets for the wet bar :'(.

Also, hugely rewarding for me was building my own speakers from diysg, great sound and it saved my budget.

Which I then turned and spent on larger subs

 

[Carson Dyle]

The landscaping looks nice, but that tree is way too close to the house. Why no trees in the yard?

I'm surprised that people still install those little chain locks on doors. Is that so you can open the door with the chain on and stick your nose through to ask someone "Who is it?" just before they kick the door in and break the chain like it wasn't there?

 

[Exterous]

Yesssssssss! It's a dangerously addictive hobby and that forum is like laying out lines at a recovering coke head convention. Do you have a theater thread? Mine is like 95% there, it's functional though and I'm waiting on cabinets for the wet bar :'(.

Here's the thread. Not much interest yet but then I'm not doing anything interesting yet. Do you have one?
http://www.avsforum.com/forum/19-de.../2509577-exterous-home-theater-round-2-a.html

The landscaping looks nice, but that tree is way too close to the house. Why no trees in the yard?

I'm surprised that people still install those little chain locks on doors. Is that so you can open the door with the chain on and stick your nose through to ask someone "Who is it?" just before they kick the door in and break the chain like it wasn't there?

The angle of the photos makes it seem closer than it is. Its about 13' away and supposedly its one of those types that has a less aggressive root structure and has smaller roots less likely to cause foundation issues. No idea how true that is but its a common tree in the area and all kinds of builders and landscapers have put it much closer to other houses so I guess we'll find out.

We plan on getting quite a few more trees and doing more work in the backyard but as a phase 2 type of thing maybe next year. That probably worked out for the best since we are in an official 'Moderate' drought for the year and edging towards the higher drought rankings.

Not sure about the chain. We never use it. Not sure if it would be easier to kick the door or smash the window on the side and unhook the chain by hand

 

[CraKaJaX]

Awesome work, Ex. Looks really good from the pics provided. This thread really makes me want to buy a house and start doing projects like this, but I certainly am not settling in NY and I certainly enjoy not having to do any maintenance at all when something breaks in my apartment.

Is that closet from Cali Closet? Homemade? Love the dark wood.

 

[Exterous]

Awesome work, Ex. Looks really good from the pics provided. This thread really makes me want to buy a house and start doing projects like this, but I certainly am not settling in NY and I certainly enjoy not having to do any maintenance at all when something breaks in my apartment.

Is that closet from Cali Closet? Homemade? Love the dark wood.

Thanks! For us its not too bad as we enjoy it to some extent but I know not everyone feels that way.

As for the closet, while I am not a fan of all of their stuff, Ikea actually makes a pretty nice closet system that's well built and has a lot of options.

 

[Exterous]

Slowly working on the basement. Lots of stuff keeps getting in the way. But I've moved three water lines (including the main line) over to fit in the soffit. No way I could avoid them entirely but its better than nothing. Moved some of the duct work to fit in the new soffits as well but I couldn't move all of them due to a lack of space available in between joists and the steel I-beams. Lots of fun services and shut off valvues to frame around...

Walls are starting to go up and are attached via an IB-3 clip to the floor joists to prevent vibrations from making it into the floor above - or at least reduce them. Also threw a poly sill seal gasket\insulation down because for $10 for the entire project - why not? No water issue signs in the basement but there was some effervescence so I decided it was worth it because there were some cracks on the edges between the floor and walls I had some issues Drylocking. Right now I'm at a partial stop because apparently I under estimated how many 2x4s I'll need and its difficult to fit them into a Civic.





I need to fit the wall between the I-beam and the duct work as there isn't room to move the duct work over or farther due to the services and I can't move it closer because of the stairs. (has to run to the right). So you can see from the section on the floor that I have a vertical 2x4 running the length of the wall section to attach the IB-3 clips to. This then drops down a bit before the actual header which will fit partially under the I-Beam. This also saves me a couple of inches in room width and allows for a less awkward Home Theater wall to staircase wall transition closer to where the picture was taken from

It was slightly wobbly at first but I put some nail plates on it and its pretty sturdy now

 

[Carson Dyle]

Why didn't you frame the little bump out in the corner? Just too complicated? Great place to put a body. Or several. Just saying.

 

[Exterous]

Why didn't you frame the little bump out in the corner? Just too complicated? Great place to put a body. Or several. Just saying.

Well I can hide the body in there and drywall over it and no one will be the wiser. Actually I was going to frame the bump out or do a built in but I ended up deciding to put the screen at that end of the room. The equipment rack will work the best on the other side given basement dimensions, walls, staircase etc. and I didn't want lights from the rack so close to the screen. I am planning for an acoustically transparent screen wall a couple of feet in front of the wall against the foundation. (My speakers will go behind the screen for better positioning). The 'false wall' will end up part way past the start of the bump out so it wouldn't be a symmetrical bump out and would look pretty odd I think

 

[SLU Aequitas]

Greetings from China, looking good Ex! FYI you could just use 16" OC to save a couple of 2x4's. supposedly the extra spacing helps with sound via adding a little more flex and fewer routes for sound to travel (i.e. through the 2x4s).

Additionally, speaking from experience, you need at least 32" and really 36" from your framed wall to your false wall for sub spacing. I highly recommend building your own subs (super easy, I think you were thinking about it), if so the Stonehenge design from DIYSG is one of the thinnest designs and works with that gap measurement.

 

[Exterous]

Greetings from China, looking good Ex! FYI you could just use 16" OC to save a couple of 2x4's. supposedly the extra spacing helps with sound via adding a little more flex and fewer routes for sound to travel (i.e. through the 2x4s).

Additionally, speaking from experience, you need at least 32" and really 36" from your framed wall to your false wall for sub spacing. I highly recommend building your own subs (super easy, I think you were thinking about it), if so the Stonehenge design from DIYSG is one of the thinnest designs and works with that gap measurement.

They're already 16" OC I forgot to account for the extra studs at the the ends of the walls for drywall and hadn't planned on the extra 2x4s along the staircase wall. The false wall dimensions are constrained by the desire for a stage in front of the wall, the door and the staircase landing which all need to fit in a set area as defined by the staircase. I need to re-read the code rules for staircase landings but there should be enough room for at least 32". I also need to make it so I can get back their fairly easily since there are a couple of water shut off valves that will be back there. Probably a hinged panel...

 

[SLU Aequitas]

Check out my build. I essentially ran 2x4 on the flat around the entire perimeter and built a field goal to hold my screen, which left just enough room on either side for me to slip through on either side. From there I built fabric panels for the sides and under the screen, you could magnet mount them or hinge them. I simply have them friction fit and pull the panel out when I need to get behind there.

 

[MongGrel]

Why didn't you frame the little bump out in the corner? Just too complicated? Great place to put a body. Or several. Just saying.

I would have used that myself, if nothing else it would make a nice little storage area without getting overly creative.

Maybe a few other things.

Um hmm, yeah read a few other things.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Well I can hide the body in there and drywall over it and no one will be the wiser. Actually I was going to frame the bump out or do a built in but I ended up deciding to put the screen at that end of the room. The equipment rack will work the best on the other side given basement dimensions, walls, staircase etc. and I didn't want lights from the rack so close to the screen. I am planning for an acoustically transparent screen wall a couple of feet in front of the wall against the foundation. (My speakers will go behind the screen for better positioning). The 'false wall' will end up part way past the start of the bump out so it wouldn't be a symmetrical bump out and would look pretty odd I think

I'm sure you gave it a lot of thought. My thinking is that it's a missed opportunity for a little added something to make the typical square room a little more interesting.

What do you gain by placing speakers behind a false wall? It's not ideal for acoustics to have the screen in front of and between the speakers. And there's no such thing as a truly acoustically transparent wall. Ideally, the speakers would be out in front, although maybe that doesn't seem as neat and home-theatery.

 

[Carson Dyle]

The angle of the photos makes it seem closer than it is. Its about 13' away and supposedly its one of those types that has a less aggressive root structure and has smaller roots less likely to cause foundation issues. No idea how true that is but its a common tree in the area and all kinds of builders and landscapers have put it much closer to other houses so I guess we'll find out.

My comment about the tree wasn't so much about the roots as the foliage. You'd hate to have to take it out in 10 or 15 or 20 years because it's growing into and bending away from the house.

What kind of tree is it? I've seen some poplars that grow very narrow, and there are others that just don't get very large. By the existing branches, it does look like something that doesn't spread very wide.

 

[Exterous]

I'm sure you gave it a lot of thought. My thinking is that it's a missed opportunity for a little added something to make the typical square room a little more interesting.

What do you gain by placing speakers behind a false wall? It's not ideal for acoustics to have the screen in front of and between the speakers. And there's no such thing as a truly acoustically transparent wall. Ideally, the speakers would be out in front, although maybe that doesn't seem as neat and home-theatery.

There will be soffits along the ceiling, acoustic panels on the wall, a stage, riser, eq rack so I don't think it will seem like a typical square room - at least to me. Framing it out would have complicated acoustic panel placement too.

As for the screen supposedly there are movie studios that use Seymor's AT screens for mastering and the Enlightor 4k has been measured by people on AVSForum and shows no noticeable degradation in acoustics. Large screens get in the way of proper LCR positioning (L&R too far apart and\or too close to the wall. C too low) so putting them behind an AT screen will allow for proper spacing which would more than make up for degradation if it exists.

My comment about the tree wasn't so much about the roots as the foliage. You'd hate to have to take it out in 10 or 15 or 20 years because it's growing into and bending away from the house.

What kind of tree is it? I've seen some poplars that grow very narrow, and there are others that just don't get very large. By the existing branches, it does look like something that doesn't spread very wide.

Honestly I don't remember but I do remember discussing and getting a tree with a smaller canopy. Its a minor consolation but most of our neighbors have trees much closer to their house so we'll just sell when they start to have issues