Enough of COVID...what are you doing to the house?

[PrivatePilot]

My contractor buddy says if a toilet costs less than $500 don’t put it in your house , you’ll spend the next decade changing floats and fill valves

Meh, up until the bathroom reno upstairs the toilet in there was a $199 Home Depot special that we installed sometime probably around 2005.

Worked fine up until we removed it.

New toilet we replaced it with was $1200. That stupid thing better last at least as long, but I have my doubts given the complexity of it being a tankless model....a lot of solenoids and valves.

 

[Hardwrkr13]

Stash or trash? I've got to clean up the shop. All those little pieces of wood that will come in handy some day. The "I'll get around to it" projects. The pipe dreams. The "Might have it" drawers. The boards that I don't want to cut into because a smaller board would be less waste. Sigh. Some people have garbage. I have antique garbage.

Stash. As much as I want to get rid of every scrap piece (say 2ft or shorter) I keep finding times once or twice a month that I use a random piece. Anything smaller than my hand goes in the burn barrel.

 

[nobbie48]

Stash. As much as I want to get rid of every scrap piece (say 2ft or shorter) I keep finding times once or twice a month that I use a random piece. Anything smaller than my hand goes in the burn barrel.

Under a foot I run them through a jig and make shingle shims that I have little use for as well.

 

[mimico_polak]

Sis finished up her backyard reno. Holy crap it’s gorgeous.

Pool is 35x14 with an 8.5ft deep end. They installed a basketball court.

Pool house. Water temp at a nice 30C.

Didn’t ask the price but expect an easy 200-250k.

Now my wife wants a pool

 

[Hardwrkr13]

View attachment 56204
Completed this walk-in pantry today. Not that we need more storage, but my wife wanted to move small appliances from the kitchen into there and it was just a 5x5’ room not being used. Base cabinets, a stained top, some floating shelves and some crown moulding. I also ran some electricity into it from the plugs on the opposite side of the wall.

Couple months back I finished this walk-in pantry. Already had a single LED potlight inside with the switch rather inconveniently on the outside pantry on opposite side of door handle. Is there a way to make the interior light turn on/off when door is opened/closed? Motion or light sensor would be ideal, running a contact switch on the door itself would be a pain but not impossible (wading through the blown in insulation above it, bungalow). Preferably something plug/play with existing LED potlight (modern style, 2yrs old).

 

[GreyGhost]

Couple months back I finished this walk-in pantry. Already had a single LED potlight inside with the switch rather inconveniently on the outside on opposite side of door handle. Is there a way to make the interior light turn on/off when door is opened/closed? Motion or light sensor would be ideal, running a contact switch on the door itself would be a pain but not impossible (wading through the blown in insulation above it, bungalow)

Simple answer may be motion sensor light switch. Although if I read your description right, the light may be on quite often (but LED so meh). The house came with one in our mudroom and it's awesome. The only light in the house that is routinely off (family sucks at turning off lights). Setup for ~one minute on time after motion. You can pick a longer time. It may not fully extinguish an led though. I left an incandescent in the fixture to bleed off voltage when motion sensor is "off" or the LED's stay lit. Damn things draw so little power that they don't like to extinguish.

 

[Hardwrkr13]

Simple answer may be motion sensor light switch. Although if I read your description right, the light may be on quite often (but LED so meh). The house came with one in our mudroom and it's awesome. The only light in the house that is routinely off (family sucks at turning off lights). Setup for ~one minute on time after motion. You can pick a longer time. It may not fully extinguish an led though. I left an incandescent in the fixture to bleed off voltage when motion sensor is "off" or the LED's stay lit. Damn things draw so little power that they don't like to extinguish.

Edited post, switch is on outside of pantry in kitchen so motion here work work.

 

[DownUnder]

Edited post, switch is on outside of pantry in kitchen so motion here work work.

You would have to get into an automation hub, connected switch and I'd go motion rather then door contact, as sometimes a door may be left open.

 

[GreyGhost]

You would have to get into an automation hub, connected switch and I'd go motion rather then door contact, as sometimes a door may be left open.

Why so complicated?

If he wanted to add PIR inside the pantry, things get harder as he may need some 24V AC.

 

[DownUnder]

Why so complicated?

Seems switch on the outside of the pantry. So that solution would have the pantry light going on and off anytime someone is in the kitchen even when they don't go in.

 

[GreyGhost]

Seems switch on the outside of the pantry. So that solution would have the pantry light going on and off anytime someone is in the kitchen even when they don't go in.

Yup. What does LED pull, 7W? On for a minute or two? It is really hard to financially justify more than a few dollars for this problem. If he left the pantry light on for the rest of his life, it wouldn't cost him three figures.

 

[Hardwrkr13]

Spitballing here, the switch on the outside shares the wall of the pantry. Can I leave the switch there, left "on", and add in the motion switch inside the pantry on the other side of the wall, between it and the bulb? If the motion switch ends up not being reliable I could then just disconnect it.

 

[chingo]

You might want to google X10 automation, this company has numerous options and ideas at a cost effective price to help you automate virtually everything in your life.

 

[GreyGhost]

Spitballing here, the switch on the outside shares the wall of the pantry. Can I leave the switch there, left "on", and add in the motion switch inside the pantry on the other side of the wall, between it and the bulb? If the motion switch ends up not being reliable I could then just disconnect it.

Maybe? Presumably the wall isnt thick enough for back to back boxes. I havent seen a standalone wallmount 120v pir (they may exist, I just haven't seen one). If the wall on the inside has space for a box and if the current switch box has capacity for more wires you could add the pir switch to the inside and wire in series. Pay attention as this route has a high probability to violate code (box fill, mixing low voltage and high voltage in a box, box not properly secured, eire not secured within 12" of box, etc.).

 

[DownUnder]

You might want to google X10 automation, this company has numerous options and ideas at a cost effective price to help you automate virtually everything in your life.

X10 is oooold tech, thesedays most use zigbee and zwave. Wifi is popular too but I wouldn't recommend it as it puts undue strain on your router and network.

 

[Baggsy]

Had a motion sensor light in the powder room for a while, since nobody would turn the lights out after using it.
The problem is that you're demanding that the person using it, move around to turn them back on, if the timer and sensor aren't exactly right.
Since then, I've put a regular switch back and just turn it off when I see it.

Had one set correctly for the front door and it was awesome.

 

[backmarkerducati]

Couple months back I finished this walk-in pantry. Already had a single LED potlight inside with the switch rather inconveniently on the outside pantry on opposite side of door handle. Is there a way to make the interior light turn on/off when door is opened/closed? Motion or light sensor would be ideal, running a contact switch on the door itself would be a pain but not impossible (wading through the blown in insulation above it, bungalow). Preferably something plug/play with existing LED potlight (modern style, 2yrs old).

One option is to go low voltage, there are lots of options for pantry/cupboard door switches and the wiring can be surface mount but if done cleanly very discrete and hidden (or under trim...). Add an outlet on the feed to the existing switch inside the pantry if you don't have an outlet now inside to power the low voltage power supply. The existing light can be left in place as is.

You can add low voltage lights under each shelf if you want.... LED strips, spots, disco lights, or wherever your imagination takes you.

 

[jc100]

Flat roof developed 3 leaks successively over the past few weeks. Time to get it replaced as I currently have a tarp over it. Two quotes…both flat roof specialists, both rubber membrane roofs with slightly different approaches, one with insulation underneath, one with brand new plywood laid over existing plywood after the tar and gravel has been removed (contractor said no need for added insulation here since we already have some in ceiling space and insulation would raise the roof level upward towards existing window sills in case of snow build up). $10K difference between the two quotes! Went with the cheaper one (no added insulation), $20k Room under roof doesn’t suffer from any heat/cold issues.

2y work warranty, 10y materials. Membrane should last for 25 years. Will get brand new drains and a built up parapet around edge of roof and the membrane will be laid up under siding and flashing and an existing sloped roof halfway under the shingles to create a nice waterproof bowl.

Looking forward to not cleaning up plaster falling from the ceiling soon and looking forward to not having to clear up loose bitumen and crap on my deck that blows off the roof in storms.

 

[chingo]

X-10 maybe ooooooooold tech but it works, is easy to use and cost effective and each device set can stand alone if all you need is 1 application.

 

[Scuba Steve]

Flat roof developed 3 leaks successively over the past few weeks. Time to get it replaced as I currently have a tarp over it. Two quotes…both flat roof specialists, both rubber membrane roofs with slightly different approaches, one with insulation underneath, one with brand new plywood laid over existing plywood after the tar and gravel has been removed (contractor said no need for added insulation here since we already have some in ceiling space and insulation would raise the roof level upward towards existing window sills in case of snow build up). $10K difference between the two quotes! Went with the cheaper one (no added insulation), $20k Room under roof doesn’t suffer from any heat/cold issues.

2y work warranty, 10y materials. Membrane should last for 25 years. Will get brand new drains and a built up parapet around edge of roof and the membrane will be laid up under siding and flashing and an existing sloped roof halfway under the shingles to create a nice waterproof bowl.

Looking forward to not cleaning up plaster falling from the ceiling soon and looking forward to not having to clear up loose bitumen and crap on my deck that blows off the roof in storms.

Ugh flat roof I had a house with one once. Installed trusses on top and shingled so much better no more cracking ice booms all winter.