🏡 Better Homes Brag / Complain About a DIY Project Thread

Shawn1112

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Aug 4, 2010
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Streamwood
All I fucking wanted to do was paint this room. I take the outlet covers off and a couple blank covers and see a black wire, bare copper stripped end with a little electrical tape partially covering it in a metal box. Get the tester and it’s fucking live. I cut power and pull that out I start to pull out outlets, half of which were upside down, pull out switches. It’s a fucking train wreck. Switches installed with jumpers made of lamp cord and held together with duct tape. A light in the ceiling that was wired with what looked like stranded black speaker wire. I pulled new NM (romex) for the ceiling light, replaced 2 two gang boxes, all the switches, outlets, with new wire nuts and all properly installed. Now I can finally get to painting.

Old junk…
View attachment 106011

Nice and new…
View attachment 106012

so much for taking half the day to paint and work in the garage afterwards.
Sounds like my house in Streamwood and I'm sure FESTER665 BADAZZTEALCOBRA has seen that shit as well lol
 
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FESTER665

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Apr 13, 2008
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Streamwood
All I fucking wanted to do was paint this room. I take the outlet covers off and a couple blank covers and see a black wire, bare copper stripped end with a little electrical tape partially covering it in a metal box. Get the tester and it’s fucking live. I cut power and pull that out I start to pull out outlets, half of which were upside down, pull out switches. It’s a fucking train wreck. Switches installed with jumpers made of lamp cord and held together with duct tape. A light in the ceiling that was wired with what looked like stranded black speaker wire. I pulled new NM (romex) for the ceiling light, replaced 2 two gang boxes, all the switches, outlets, with new wire nuts and all properly installed. Now I can finally get to painting.

Old junk…
View attachment 106011

Nice and new…
View attachment 106012

so much for taking half the day to paint and work in the garage afterwards.

All that work and you put in those nasty ass switches? :s00ls:
 

Pewter-Camaro

TCG Elite Member
May 28, 2011
5,750
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South of Wisconsin.
All that work and you put in those nasty ass switches? :s00ls:

Lol.. well wife likes the standard switches so that is what goes in.

Ohh and now after I do all this wiring the wife wants me to split the fan and light switch and just get rid of the weird 2nd light in this room. seriously I mentioned that to her this morning and she said no. ?
 

Fish

From the quiet street
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Aug 3, 2007
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Hanover Park
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Lol.. well wife likes the standard switches so that is what goes in.

Ohh and now after I do all this wiring the wife wants me to split the fan and light switch and just get rid of the weird 2nd light in this room. seriously I mentioned that to her this morning and she said no. ?

Im slowly realizing that I have to just do things and let my wife see them. Then she understands and agrees. Otherwise my ideas are all shit, along with my existence and I have no idea WTF I am talking about.

Ok, maybe not that bad, but I still have to just do it and let her see my vision in order for her to agree. Worse case, she doesnt like it and Ill "fix it" after I tackle other things that need to happen and hopefully by then it will be too late and she forgets.
 
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SpeedSpeak2me

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Aug 27, 2018
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Jim
Im slowly realizing that I have to just do things and let my wife see them. Then she understands and agrees. Otherwise my ideas are all shit, along with my existence and I have no idea WTF I am talking about.

Ok, maybe not that bad, but I still have to just do it and let her see my vision in order for her to agree. Worse case, she doesnt like it and Ill "fix it" after I tackle other things that need to happen and hopefully by then it will be too late and she forgets.
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Same. So many times the g/f doesn't have the vision to predict how something will go, or look. I'll have to mock it up to show her it won't work, after she is adamant that "it'll be fine, it's how I used to do it."

Oh, you mean all those things in your condo I had to fix before you could sell it?
 

Pewter-Camaro

TCG Elite Member
May 28, 2011
5,750
10,967
South of Wisconsin.
Got this back up and running tonight. Early 80’s Radio Shack brand. Surprisingly is in super good shape. New belt on the turntable, cleaned the volume slider, couple new cassette belts and an overall cleaning. Wife had a few records she collected years ago and this was in the parent’s basement for years.

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Chris91LX

Addict
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Sep 2, 2008
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Crystal Lake
I've been getting creative the last couple years with copper to make presents. The LED lighted Christmas Tree, mushrooms and flower are new this year. Cactus was for my Dad in AZ, the rose was for my wife, the coat rack with the sea turtle, starfish and palm tree was for my Mom in FL. Having fun but it's a ton of work, especially the lighted stuff.

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GLADIATOR

aka STROKE-KING
TCG Premium
Mar 29, 2004
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New Lenox IL
Was reorganizing the basement since I pulled out all the Christmas stuff and found an old small Vizio TV just laying around. Replaced this non working ancient under the counter DVD/TV/Radio/7” screen with the Vizio in the kitchen. Hooked it up to our regular antenna outside and looks friggen perfect!!! Not bad for free.
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The Beast

TCG Elite Member
May 24, 2004
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South beach
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Go Go
Was reorganizing the basement since I pulled out all the Christmas stuff and found an old small Vizio TV just laying around. Replaced this non working ancient under the counter DVD/TV/Radio/7” screen with the Vizio in the kitchen. Hooked it up to our regular antenna outside and looks friggen perfect!!! Not bad for free.
View attachment 108099

The old under the counter 8 inch tv a hand me down from 1985?
 

Shawn1112

TCG Elite Member
TCG Premium
Aug 4, 2010
34,871
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Streamwood
Was reorganizing the basement since I pulled out all the Christmas stuff and found an old small Vizio TV just laying around. Replaced this non working ancient under the counter DVD/TV/Radio/7” screen with the Vizio in the kitchen. Hooked it up to our regular antenna outside and looks friggen perfect!!! Not bad for free.
View attachment 108099
Adjust your cabinets please. That shit is driving me crazy.
Upper corner cabinet is even with the cabinet to the right. But sits lower that the cabinet to the left and both doors on the cabinet to the left aren’t even with each other. I can walk you thru it or you can YouTube it.
 

SMRTSS1

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Jan 12, 2010
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Elgin
Put the baseboard trim on in the dining room and kitchen on Wednesday. Had to do it by hand since I didn’t want my son playing with the compressor and nail gun or a chop saw so I used a miter box with a hand saw and hammer and nails. What I don’t understand is I carry around an 80lbs ladder all day, tote around sections of telephone poles like they’re nothing and move a 60lbs cable lasher from one side of a pole to the other like it’s nothing but I spend a few hours on the floor doing trim molding and I’m sore as fuck for days. All I have left to do is caulk the gaps and nail holes and I’m really not looking forward to it.
 

boostedguy05

not well known
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Dec 18, 2010
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Put the baseboard trim on in the dining room and kitchen on Wednesday. Had to do it by hand since I didn’t want my son playing with the compressor and nail gun or a chop saw so I used a miter box with a hand saw and hammer and nails. What I don’t understand is I carry around an 80lbs ladder all day, tote around sections of telephone poles like they’re nothing and move a 60lbs cable lasher from one side of a pole to the other like it’s nothing but I spend a few hours on the floor doing trim molding and I’m sore as fuck for days. All I have left to do is caulk the gaps and nail holes and I’m really not looking forward to it.

Muscle confusion.
 

Kizzlebizz

Regular
Oct 26, 2020
494
1,780
I'm a moron. I've never done drywall or tile, but the shower had to be pulled so I'm doing it the hard way. Myself lol.

Standup tile shower to replace the fiberglass crap that was in there. I am forgoing the door right now for a curtain and I'll just do it at a later date.

Caught the Rona this week. It sucked miserably Thursday and now I'm back to about 70%, perfect excuse to take my time since I get comped at work to stay at home.

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SMRTSS1

TCG Elite Member
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Jan 12, 2010
5,139
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Elgin
Muscle confusion.

It must be. Odd though considering I use every muscle I have to keep myself from falling off a pole while transferring my weight and the equipment over from one side to the other. Something as easy as doing toe kick and quarter round molding, nope, I’m crippled for 2 days.

Next time I’m bringing the creeper in from the garage.
 

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