Saturday Morning Home Repair Blog v8.1 - The Special Edition

Good morning and welcome to one of the longest running dKos blogs: Saturday Morning Home Repair, begun by claude eons ago, way back in 2006! This is v8.1, the 365th edition of SMHRB (Or "CCCLXV", as claude used to reckon numbers when the "doctor was in" his brand new adobe chicken coop/office - and don't forget the "5 cents, please"!) - it's the first diary of our 8th year here at DAILY KOS - we've served over 16 gazillion users (or something like that) - and THAT is a cause for celebration! Come join us, as we look back, forward, and around our little corner of the orange world, and don't forget the coffee, OK?

My name is CodeTalker, and I'm one of the Krewe - folks claude entrusted things to when he turned over the reins, along with the Amazing CJB, The Inimitable exlrrp ("glad to be alive"), the Godawful Punster Glen The Plumber, and our latest admin: youngster-in-training DeathDlr73. We do our best, but we couldn't do it without the help of a cadre of others, some of whom I will happily list. After that we have a really nice surprise, but you'll have to follow me over the KosKurl to find out what... so pull up a chair, grab your cuppa, and join us on this auspicious day, won't you?!!

Way back in 2006 claude had an idea - he wanted to share his extensive knowledge about DIY and home repair, based on many years as a contractor building homes and other buildings (and raising chickens). He began with a simple diary, about "exercising" GFCIs and circuit breakers - and SMHRB was born. And it took off - his 1st diary garnered nearly 100 comments and was an instant hit. The 1st comment was posted by MissAnneThrope, and she was soon followed by others whose names you might recognize: jainm, mint julep, badger, LOE, CJB, Unknown Quantity, Spud1, Frankenoid, boran2, Ed in Montana, smintheus, happy camper, Meteor Blades - and also some we don't hear much from anymore at SMHRB - Fabian, fabooj, akeitz, paddykraska, quaoar, DisNoir36, Borkitekt, playtonjr, among others. (We do miss you!)

Let's hear what some of those very people wanted to share today, in their own words:

Hello all,

I have been following SMHRB since the beginning. Living in rentals and having landlords that will pay for repairs as long as you find a good price or can DIY has kept me busy over the past years. You all have inspired me and taught me so much.

My Saturday morning routine goes something like this--wake up, make some strong coffee (mostly because of Friday night beer-thirty over-indulgence), turn on the computer, open DK and first I find SMHRB and read and req, then head over to SMGB  and do the same.

I want to thank you all for waking me up on Saturdays and getting me thinking about my next project, mostly dealing with "the stupid"!

I want to thank Claude (what a charmer!) for starting this DIY community. You all have inspired me to get off the computer and get stuff done, my to-do-list is long but slowly work and funds permitting, I am crossing projects off.

I appreciate all of you who contribute and even though I haven't commented lately, know that I am still reading.

Happy Anniversary with my best regards,

jainm

I moved in this house about 12 years ago. It needed a lot of work, but it needed a dog enclosure first. Like a good citizen I called "Dottie", call before you dig program. Someone came out and marked where the gas line was, in red, but no blue line for the water. So I called and was assured they had come out and everything was fine and I could start digging to my heart's content.

Off we went to rent a huge auger and went to work. Measured and marked where we needed the post to go. Bingo! First dig down we hit the jackpot! Water was spurting everywhere. Wouldn't you know we had punctured the water line. Went down to the street, cut the main and called the water company. They told me they don't come on the property and only mark the line by the road. Really? I'm not building a $#@ fence by the road.

It was kinda funny water spurting out of the ground like a Geyser. Would've been priceless to see our faces. I still giggle about it.

I'm not telling you what happened when I got on the roof for the first time in my life. Too embarrassing.

mint julep

Choosing this project for today’s diary was easy.  I first started asking questions about sagging floors back in 2009.  We wanted to refinish the basement, but there was an area around the stairwell where the sagging transferred all the way up to the top floor. The jackposts at work. We knew we could fix it, we just didn’t know how to start. We were sort of paralyzed.   We'd been "We coulding" and "what iffing" and "How 'bouting" in circles for months and months.  So - I came here and queried.   Beards were stroked. Pictures were provided.  Eyes were squinted.  Sage nodding commenced.   Out of the conversation came the advice to use jackposts.  That gave us the push we needed, and I think the results are pretty darned good.

Here are those very jackposts at work.  We spent weeks ratcheting them up an 1/8 of an inch at a time.

The finished project. Here is that area now.

The whole thing got its start because I came here for advice from the SMHRB crew.  I remember CodeTalker and playtonjr being especially instrumental, as was claude.  If you remember being a part of the jackpost/basement crew, take a bow in the thread, would you?

CJB

The 12-Minute Sidewalk Superintendent

Watching the conversion of two shipping containers into a real home (YouTube video) with curb appeal  is worth your attention for the next 12 minutes.  (The music's not too bad either. )  My interest is piqued because I live outside Detroit, a city now known for its physical decay and the social and economic abandonment that led to that decay.  The Detroit River links Lake Erie with Lake Huron.  Shipping containers come in on the lake freighters and many come in on freight trains.  Detroit is the final resting place for many of these steel boxes.

When blighted houses in the city are razed, new homes can be built economically by recycling shipping containers.  It would make housing  more affordable, more environmentally friendly, and more permanent.   We have a vigorous trucking transport business here and many construction workers, metal workers and skilled trades people seeking work. The video shows the roles these workers could play if a wholesale development of these homes was ever launched.   Keep your cutting torches on standby.

judyms9

I come to SMHRB for the three L’s.  The first one (as usual) was lust, for the pictures of adobe houses that Claude kept putting up.  I so want a Rumford fireplace in my house!  What kept me coming back was learning.  I’ve learned a lot, and shared a little.  Electricians of the future will appreciate that exlrrp and others taught me how much wire to leave in a box, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.  And all along the way, I’ve appreciated the laughter, whether it’s a series of dirty jokes or photos of exceptional stupidity in action.

boatgeek

Wow, 7 years in internet years is like 143! I will say, claude looks good for his age.

I’m a big fan of many of the community threads and series with SMHRB being the first into which I ventured. I was lead here by happy camper as I wondered aimlessly thru comment threads looking for trouble. And when I finally found my way here I was greeted by a group of DIY’ers who leave their politics at the shop door to talk of their latest project or offer guidance to those in need. Almost no question goes unanswered.

In the year since claude retired from posting, it has taken a team to fill his shoes. Not only does his head contain a wealth of knowledge, his life contains a wealth of experiences. I was lucky to meet claude at a couple get-togethers and could listen to him and his fellow Diggers gab for hours. More of claude and the Diggers’ adventures can be found here.

We’ve made it thru the first post-claude year and yet to have caused anybody to blow-up their house. A big thanks to claude for creating this community and his crew that has kept it going.

Glen The Plumber

Extreme planning, anyone? Once upon a time, not so long ago, I loved doing house projects, but I usually launched into them without enough preparation, planning, the right tools, and appropriate information.  Over the years of reading Saturday Morning Home Repair, I've found that the importance of those things has become internalized and I approach projects very differently than I used to.  It's not any one particular bit of advice or tip relating to a current problem that I recall, but SMHR has consistently shown me that I need to think through a project before I commit the crime of doing something stupid.  Thanks to everyone in this community for teaching me this lesson (and so amusingly sometimes). Although, I may have taken planning to an extreme sometimes as in this paper model of our flagstone walk.

Milly Watt

(Finally, bringing up the, well, you know...)

Sometimes things happen for a reason.

My tenants, who originally moved in 3 months after buying this foreclosure, gave notice and vacated the beginning of May. As a stay-at-home-Dad, the rental income represents 1/3 of our monthly income, so I had to get it renovated and re-rented ASAP. For a month and a half, I only slept a few hours a day, often working until 4 or 5 AM - a great idea if you're twenty, not so good at forty. Then I burnt out in spectacular fashion; it took a week to recover and get moving again.

The Door. During that week, heatwaves began pummeling the Northeast with absurd humidity levels. Even though I had meticulously inspected everything when I first started work, I was dismayed to find the humidity had warped every door to the point of not one of them closing anymore. After sanding, priming, painting, adjusting everything to perfection, this was an unwelcome surprise. Get out the hand planer...

...and take off the paint, primer, previous paint, and then door material until it all worked right again. Then it was just a sanding and repaint of the affected areas. The moral is this: if I hadn't burnt out, I would have been done before the heatwaves and never known the doors were that far out of whack. This would have led to a tenant complaint, which is the easiest way to withhold rent, and defeats the purpose of having a 2-family, not to mention the awful mess of planing down a door.

DeathDlr73

My reason for being here? In a word, YOU. And the chance to share what I've learned over the years, to help, to empower others and show them that they CAN fix things themselves. Plus, I never wanted to depend on others to fix anything I could fix myself. (I'm cheap, too.) I have done this kind of sharing for many years, long before I came to dKos - it's my nature to try and help, I guess. And this is a great place to do it - I've met so many wonderful and giving people here, and made some lifelong friends, too! Besides, you let me stay - how else can I repay you?

Best advice I can give? My 3-question approach to problem solving: 1. What is the REAL problem? 2. What do I want it to be instead? 3. How do I get from here to there?

Best FixIt tip I ever learned? Maybe this one: when replacing a screw, especially in softer materials like plastic or thin sheet metal, turn BACKWARDS gently at first, until you feel a soft "click" - that means the screw threads have caught the existing groove and you can now screw it in, knowing you won't be cutting new threads or stripping the hole out.

CodeTalker

(If any of you have something you want to share with the rest of the class - a project, a thank you, a memory, whatever - please post it as a comment below. After all, today is about you!)

Does anyone want an invite to join the group? Post a comment and someone will get to you.

We still need folks to write diaries about...well, almost anything, as long as you sign up with CJB!

I also wanted to remind everyone of claude's famous "rule" about SMHRB commenters: we all try to tip all comments in every diary; as well as one of mine: some of us try to come back long after a diary passes from the front page, just to check for stragglers asking late questions. Like GTP said, we try to answer ALL questions, so ask away!

There's also THIS important note:

Somebody suggested I add a link to the Daily Kos Work Bank. It's a place for people with skills to meet up with people who need them. It's a way for Kossacks who need work to meet Kossacks who need work done, from handyman to website builder. dhonig  

(Thanks for the tip, dhonig!)

Finally, I want to thank claude, the Krewe, the cadre, one and all. You make this place what it is - somewhere people can turn to for answers when things go wrong, where people are learning that YES, they can fix it themselves - with a little help, or maybe just some good advice. Without you, this would be a far more broken place, and I'm damn proud to stand with you, as we carry claude's vision forward one more year. John

(Special thanks to GTP for stepping in at the last minute to edit this diary, too!)