What Home Improvement have you done...

[adrianp89]

Its individually addressable too, so once fully installed will probably have a couple lights on at night set to warm white for some accent lightning.

Where did you buy? How bad was install?

 

[seanmclean]

Where did you buy? How bad was install?

They're the permanent outdoor lights made by Govee, bought on Amazon. Install is super easy, 3M VHB adhesive and a few cable clips to provide extra security. Hiding the wiring is where it can get tricky, but luckily I have attic access available at all places where I need to pass a cable inside. Will just need to put a couple outlets in the attic and will be good to go. Will post some updates when I get the rest of the house done over the next few weeks.

Each control box can support up to 150' of lighting, due to my roof setup I'll need a couple of them. I had already bought a couple of their recessed lights, pic below - so just stuck with that brand to make it easy. I went back and forth on a true DIY setup for a while, but the cost/complexity vs buying this just didnt make sense.



Normally have them set to dimmed warm white to match the landscape lighting - which is currently a disaster, landscaping/hardscaping is in-progress lol.

 

[seanmclean]

Did a little work on the front landscaping today.

Forgot to take a before pic, luckily street view came by this spring



Will probably plant a large maiden grass in the spring.

 

[Ronnie]

The deck is finally done or at least 99% there. Still need to do some touch up and clean up but this is pretty much it. As designed and built the solar powered heating blankets due double duty and provide shade and there is a lot of storage space under the deck at the sides and back. I love everything about it but the cost.

 

[seanmclean]

Looks awesome, privacy screens are done well. Sometimes they just turn out looking like crap.

 

[Thermobrett]

Ripped out the entire downstairs floor and half bath, floated the floor where tile was and then installed new flooring. What a complete ass ache that project was…

 

[Ronnie]

Some night shots before I close it up until next season.

 

[John McLaughlin]

We did gut our hall bathroom. We took out the tub and installed tile and a shower with glass doors. We also replaced the old floor with tile a new vanity and mirror. Plus we replaced the carpet in the TV room

 

[Jim_in_Delaware]

Ripped out the entire downstairs floor and half bath, floated the floor where tile was and then installed new flooring. What a complete ass ache that project was…
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Kudos on the new flooring!

I like the rental machine for taking up the tile. Was this easier (with the machine) than the glued flooring?

Jim

 

[AlpharettaRK]

I built the shed 20 years ago and put a shake roof on it to match the house. Being in the woods it was very susceptible to moss that caused it to rot. When it came time to replace it I went with a metal roof to be like all the cool kids are doing now.
Cheers
Randy

 

[Jim_in_Delaware]

I built the shed 20 years ago and put a shake roof on it to match the house. Being in the woods it was very susceptible to moss that caused it to rot. When it came time to replace it I went with a metal roof to be like all the cool kids are doing now.
Cheers
Randy

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The shed looks great, doesn’t look like it 20 years old!

Building a shed is on my to do list, but, unfortunately, it is a very long list.

Jim

 

[Ronnie]

Here is some backyard home improvement I just did. I replaced the traditional smoker and bbq grill that came with the house with a flat top grill and a canopy. I’ve only used the flat top grill once but love it. Easier to clean and less utensils to clean up afterwards. It also cleans up quicker and just seems to cook better.
Whereas, I only used the smoker three times and the grill less than 10 times over a year and a half. I just don’t have the time to smoke meat for six, 12 or mores hours and cleaning the grills on the standard BBQ was always difficult.

Someone picked up the smoker all the wood chips and accessories from in-front of my home within an hour of me putting it out there. The three burner grill has been out there for a few days now so I may have pay someone to haul it away.

One negative of the flat top grill I bought is that it needs ac power for the controls (i found out after I brought the grill home) and I don’t have an outlet near the grill, so I turned this into a positive and bought a power inverter that allows me to use tool batteries to power it.

Once again, I love everything about it, except the prices.

 

[Ronnie]

Not directly home improvement but backyard/pool improvement. This is a solar powered electric skimmer that I just purchased. It replaces the bowl skimmer I have used as well as the the standard through wall skimmer that I bought but never installed (the latter would require me to modify /cut the recently constructed deck and cut a hole onto the side of the pool).

 

[AlpharettaRK]

I bought a BettaBot pool skimmer this summer and rate it awesome. In the summer we were plagued by zillions of ants flocking to the pool to die. Many of them weren’t quite dead and would bite making the pool almost unusable. SkimBot sucked them all up. We also have lots of trees and this Fall has been much easier with the skimmer grabbing leaves as they fall. My only complaint would be battery life. In the summer it ran 24/7 on the sun it got. Now that the days are shorter and the sun is behind trees much of the day it runs for about 8 hours. Which is almost enough to do its job. I am a little bit scheming to break it apart so I can add manual charger port.
cheers
Randy

 

[Ronnie]

More backyard improvement. Got an Intex inflatable spa (6 person supposedly but it seems perfect for just my wife and I, salt water system, 290 gallons of water) and two seats now just waiting on the snack and drink tray. We Used it for the first time last night and my wife loves it. Total cost about $1k and initial heating time was about 15 hours from 70 to 102 degrees with some help from the Sun. I’m not sure yet if I will keep it up all year or just the through the Winter.

 

[Thermobrett]

More backyard improvement. Got an Intex inflatable spa (6 person supposedly but it seems perfect for just my wife and I, salt water system, 290 gallons of water) and two seats now just waiting on the snack and drink tray. We Used it for the first time last night and my wife loves it. Total cost about $1k and initial heating time was about 15 hours from 70 to 102 degrees with some help from the Sun. I’m not sure yet if I will keep it up all year or just the through the Winter.
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70 to 102 @15 hrs seems very low. Since it’s inflated it’s an electric heater. Maybe it’s normal for that spa as I heat my 300 gallon spa with a gas heater at 250,000 BTU from 70 to 105 in 15 minutes. Is there an upgraded heater? Seems like you would want to leave it up year round to minimize the heat up time, but for $1k might be worth the set up and tear down. In any event, I love my spa year round, nothing better than cooking like a lobster and coming out of a saltwater spa. Relaxed and silky smooth

 

[Ronnie]

70 to 102 @15 hrs seems very low. Since it’s inflated it’s an electric heater. Maybe it’s normal for that spa as I heat my 300 gallon spa with a gas heater at 250,000 BTU from 70 to 105 in 15 minutes. Is there an upgraded heater? Seems like you would want to leave it up year round to minimize the heat up time, but for $1k might be worth the set up and tear down. In any event, I love my spa year round, nothing better than cooking like a lobster and coming out of a saltwater spa. Relaxed and silky smooth

15 hours is inline with the ranges I’ve seen on you tube. It takes up to twice as long in colder climates. I have another electric heater that I bought for my pool (only up to 5,000 gallons, bought when I had a 6,000 gallon pool, now I have 8,500 gallon pool) that I’m May hook up to the spa if I decide to keep it up all year long but we haven’t figured that out yet.

 

[Thermobrett]

15 hours is inline with the ranges I’ve seen on you tube. It takes up to twice as long in colder climates. I have another electric heater that I bought for my pool (only up to 5,000 gallons, bought when I had a 6,000 gallon pool, now I have 8,500 gallon pool) that I’m May hook up to the spa if I decide to keep it up all year long but we haven’t figured that out yet.

Definitely was not knocking the purchase so please do not take it that way. It’s probably close to me heating my entire pool. I’m envious of you for using a heated spa. Last week we saw upper 80s and I had to take down the hammock as it got hot to lay in. I’m waiting for the day I can crank the spa then hit the cold pool. That’s frost in Florida!

 

[seanmclean]

110V spas take a longer to heat up, that seems totally normal to me. My 220V spa will only heat 5 degrees/hr.

 

[Ronnie]

Recently completed the installation of a combination switch and outlet along with a bidet seat for the second floor.

I got a quote for a new outlet to be installed by my local ace hardware. Initially $300 (2 hours at $150 per) plus materials. When they found out it on the second floor the quote jumped to $600 (4 hours) plus materials. I completed this along with the install of the bidet in less than an hour for under $40 (plus $400 for the bidet the remote for which is huge compared to the bidet we bought last year. In all fairness last years model is double sided.

If you haven’t used one of these o highly recommend you consider it. Variable heated seat, water pressure, adjustable stream positioning back and forth, led light, deodorizer and air dryer, 2 memory slots, and last but not least, aerated stream and massage modes. Note the quick reference guide in the pick. We opted for a model without the enema mode. It is first come only served on the hot water though.

Don’t want to commit to the spend? Buy it from Costco knowing you can return it if you don’t like it. In the interim, you can prank your guests by taking the toilet paper out of the room.