🏡 Better Homes Brag / Complain About a DIY Project Thread

FESTER665

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Now you've got my interest piqued. Combined with that silly attic fan, it would literally be a matter of just cutting a hole in my ceiling and buying one of these contraptions.

:unsure::obama:

Thats my thought especially since I already have a hole for the attic stairs that I will need to frame in anyway. Its right next to the hallway light as well so power will be a piece of cake too. :dunno:

Thinking about this model:
 

Lord Tin Foilhat

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Anyone ever owned a house with a whole house fan? Im moving my stairs to get into the attic from the hallway in the house into the garage and planned on just framing and insulating the hole and covering it with drywall to finish the hallway ceiling, but now am curious if I might be better off installing a whole house fan where the attic stairs were?

Theyre not expensive by any stretch, and I figure it might be nice to be able to pull air through the house at times.

:unsure::unsure::unsure::unsure:
do it if you can. I agree they are awesome for really bringing in the outside air
 
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OffshoreDrilling

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Well of course when it is 90% humidity you wouldnt use it, but like was mentioned when its low 70's outside with 40% humidity and you're running the AC to get the temp down to 74 degrees because the sun has been heating the house all day it might be nice to pull fresh air through the entire house and have it feel cool instead of running the AC the entire time.
Except every surface in your house absorbs the humidity. It takes hours to remove that moisture when you kick AC on.
 

OffshoreDrilling

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2 speed nicely sealing and insulated boy.
 

Stink Star

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Well of course when it is 90% humidity you wouldnt use it, but like was mentioned when its low 70's outside with 40% humidity and you're running the AC to get the temp down to 74 degrees because the sun has been heating the house all day it might be nice to pull fresh air through the entire house and have it feel cool instead of running the AC the entire time.
Why would your house ever get up to 74* though? If you just run your AC the whole time it would never need to get “down” to any temp. Plus you can use an energy recovery ventilator to exchange the air in your house a few times an hour and you won’t have to heat/cool/humidify or dehumidify any of it.

what you’re talking about is the equivalent of a girl hopping in a car and turning the AC on full blast and deciding she’s too cold, then turning the fan off, then getting too hot, then turning it back on full blast again over and over and over. I’m talking like turning the car on automatic climate control and setting the temp and letting it do it’s thing. And honestly if it costs me $10 more a month I don’t care because I’m not sacrificing comfort. But with my solar setup I have been paying $7-9 a month for a few years now keeping the house at whatever temperature I want.
 
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Stink Star

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If you want outside air, this is what you need.
Air gets preconditioned to similar temp and humidity as the air going out.

5E2D5259-A164-4E45-B095-055D5968EA2C.jpeg
 
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FESTER665

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If you want outside air, this is what you need.
Air gets preconditioned to similar temp and humidity as the air going out.

View attachment 100261

I live in a 910 square foot ranch in Streamwood, no room for exchangers and its not like my house is wrapped tight like a drum where you would need an exchanger.
 

FESTER665

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Chester Copperpot

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I've got more holes and leaks in my house than a fucking net. Some doorjambs you can see bright daylight through them, like my french doors where the two doors meet and the seal doesn't go all the way to the floor.

Pretty much over trying to seal this house up.
 

FESTER665

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I've got more holes and leaks in my house than a fucking net. Some doorjambs you can see bright daylight through them, like my french doors where the two doors meet and the seal doesn't go all the way to the floor.

Pretty much over trying to seal this house up.

I have two rooms spray foamed so those rooms are good, been slowly trying to make my way around the house but am starting to get over it as well.

Was honestly just thinking this would be great on those days when its low 70's outside and low humidity to open up all the windows and crank the whole house fan on and get some good air flow to keep the house nice and comfortable.
 

Stink Star

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I've got more holes and leaks in my house than a fucking net. Some doorjambs you can see bright daylight through them, like my french doors where the two doors meet and the seal doesn't go all the way to the floor.

Pretty much over trying to seal this house up.

fucking French doors don’t belong on any exterior entry ever, unless you’re living in Hawaii or LA or something. Dumbest idea ever
 
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Chester Copperpot

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fucking French doors don’t belong on any exterior entry ever, unless you’re living in Hawaii or LA or something. Dumbest idea ever
Blame the dumbfuck POs. They purposefully removed and closed up the hole of a sliding glass door with windows and put french doors into the 3-season room. So if you want to go outside, you HAVE to go through the 3-season room. Going to be replacing both with sliders.
 

Jon01

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I've been going through the carburetors off of the tractors and my Scout which have all been sitting down at the farm for 20-40 years without being used.
The Scout has an old Carter AFB I bought back in the mid 90's, the Fords a Marvel Schebler side draft and the duplex came off of the Deere.
They were fucking nasty before - as you can imagine carburetors off of 65-70 year old tractors would be.
See below for a pic of one. This one was the best by far, it was off of the newer 8N that didn't get used much as it had a loader on it for a long time.

PXL_20210911_220941378.jpg


I ordered the kits from https://www.yesterdaystractors.com along with a bunch of other BS.

After some thought about what a few dozen cans of carburetor cleaner would do to my hands I ordered one of these bad boys:

I added a gallon of Simple Green and a couple gallons of water to the cleaner, let it heat up until the solution was ~70*C and started running parts through it.
I let them sit in it with the cleaner running for about an hour each and they came out very nice.
All of the sediment and varnish/gum is came out nicely and the passages were spotless.

PXL_20210911_220956438.jpg

I bought the ultrasonic cleaner on a whim, figuring if it works great if not I'll send it back to Amazon. After using it here I will definitely be hanging on to it, it works amazing.
 
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smug

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Hand dug drain tile for the gutters in the back yard with pop up caps and some what of a French drain so that the water isn’t just sitting in the pipe all winter long. Raised the A/C unit about 8 inches and then back filled the north east corner of the house. The ground had sank a lot and it was shaped like a funnel up the foundation of the house. My sump pump runs a lot when it rains and have had the pit almost overflow
 
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Pewter-Camaro

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image.jpg

Got wood?? this is a future DIY project… still figuring out what to do with the hall and bathroom that is also finished off in an outhouse theme… lol. Also interesting to figure out what to do with a few hundred feet of cedar boards. I’ve pulled some sections off in the bathroom to use for various projects. Smells sooo good to cut.
 

Chester Copperpot

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Whelp. The finished product, 4' shadow box. Might stain it to match the 3 season room (red oak-ish), might leave it raw, I haven't decided yet. It’s an eerie feeling leaving the back door to the house open and letting the dogs run about on their own accord and then they just come prancing back inside on their own. Also cut down the dead tree in the middle of my back yard so now it totally opened up the yard and I realize how fucking big it is. :rofl:

Neighbor with the pool in the first pic was talking to Megan yesterday before I got home and she exclaimed "he did a great job, now I have to convince my hubby to do the same style fence and replace this silly picket fence that's been repaired a million times."

View attachment 102868

View attachment 102867
 

Shawn1112

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Same, I need to do at least the entire back fence line with a 6 foot privacy fence, would really like to do the entire yard but the one set of neighbors are great and they like to play with my dog through the fence. :bowrofl:
If your wrapping the entire yard, then 100% do a privacy fence. About 17yrs ago we did a wood privacy fence only on 1 side of the yard as the kid next door used to throw shit at our rottie. Me, my dad and a buddy installed that fence and it lasted longer than I thought considering we drank the whole time we installed it.. We didnt wrap the back side or other side for similar reasons. We got along with those neighbors. 3-4 years ago I hired a company to wrap the whole yard in a vinyl privacy fence. What a fucking difference, night and day and its like we now have our own little resort if that makes sense.
 
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