Anybody I used to know still post around here??????
POSTED BY: 6ixStringJack
UPDATED: Thursday, May 23, 2024 14:59
VIEWED: 53454
PAGE 5 of 32
Thanks RionaEire,
I was surprised how happy I was to see how much he and my step-mom loved the house and it's potential.
In the end, it's a three bedroom 2 bathroom 2000sq/ft plus house that I purchased for just barely 1/3rd of what the previous owner bought it for in 2005.
Making it a livable house in the last month has been a full time job in itself, but i'm glad they didn't come until now....
When I first walked into this house, even on the first floor it smelled like 100 cats crapped all over the basement. Today, my Dad and Step-Mom came in and said they didn't smell anything, even in the basement, except for a faint smell of bleach. It's even stronger because they both don't smoke.
Today, there was at least 2000 pounds of drywall and insulation and shit removed from this house since little more than a month ago.
I thought I would use this experience to help my friends if they ever had the same experience, but I know now that I would tell them to get a professional if they had mold to remove.
I still smell mold in my house even though non-smokers can't smell anything. I wash my clothes and I smell mold on them when nobody else can. I'm MOLD CRAZY now.
I don't think I'll be happy until the scrubbing of studs/tracks are done and I seal it all in with Killz and mold/mildeew proof paint is applied.
Scrubbing with bleach, hydrogen peroxide and vinegar now before i paint it.
It might be all moot if i replace the wood with metal studs......
Later,
6
"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned."
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Goodwill, part two....
Seriously.... Goodwill is awesome. Even though the one by me seems to request some rediculous prices for TVs and furniture, the rest of the stuff is in line. I bought two in the box ceiling fixtures for my house that (even though the boxes were open) the hardware and units were still in the factory wrap. One was 3 bucks and the other was 5 bucks.
Here I was thinking that I was still paying too much for them, giving that it was Good will, but then the cashier was scratching off a ticket for me. I guess Wednesdays (at least at this goodwill) is scratch off day. She told me that I was her first 40% off customer for the day (which made me wish I had also lugged a few choice pieces of furniture that were obscenely priced otherwise). I also got my "I" in "GOODWILL" which I guess results in a gift certificate worth cash there if I spell it out.
In all, the two ceiling fixtures cost me 5.35 with tax. At Lowes they would have easily been over 35 bucks before tax, if not twice that.
I'm also ordering the dirt to fill the crater in my back yard from a previous pool tomorrow. Unfortunatly I need "11 yards", which means 11 cubic yards of dirt which also means it weighs 22,000 lbs. The guy told me that he would most assuredly ruin any lawn he had to drive over to get to where it has to go and that he would also probably destroy part of my driveway getting back there seeing as how the dirt alone weighs 22,000 lbs and the truck another 40,000 lbs.
Looks like it's getting dumped in the street and I'll have to invest in a few wheelbarrows and shovels and a lot of pizza and beer for the friends and my brother to help moving all that stuff 150 feet from where they're going to plant it.
Hope my township doesn't mind 11 tons of dirt on their street while we're working on it. Hopefully I can have it dropped late in the day on a Friday. ;)
P.S. I wanted to add a pic of the mold I delt with.... The smell is gone now and after 3000 lbs and 37 Hefty Contractor Bags I believe I've "remediated", this is a sample of what it looked like.
[IMG]
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Looks like a 
hippie painted it, doesn't it? 
"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned."
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Looks like it's getting dumped in the street and I'll have to invest in a few wheelbarrows and shovels and a lot of pizza and beer for the friends and my brother to help moving all that stuff 150 feet from where they're going to plant it.
Hope my township doesn't mind 11 tons of dirt on their street while we're working on it. Hopefully I can have it dropped late in the day on a Friday. ;)
*laughing hysterically*
-F
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I found a $350(priced it on the internet) Tiffany style chandelier for $20 last month at Goodwill 
I hope you had good air flow and masks and stuff on with the mold...That stuff can mess with ya more'n you think...
Our basement flooded with more than six inches of water three times this crazy spring (not a single problem the other three years!!) It's masonry block, so no mold, but you don't wanna see what a package of drop-ceiling tiles and a half dozen boxes of papers and stuff looks like in a flood...not pretty... one word...RUBBERMAID!
Looks good now...in fact better!
You might wanna look an equipment rental place for a backhoe for that dirt(or call around to construction companies, sometimes they're cheaper than you think, especially when you factor in a chiropracter...And I've learned to save the friends for when you have no other choice, less drama that way...But maybe you have drama-less friends...In which case-GODSPEED!
Just FYI, the beta site chat is the place for Do-It-Yerselfers...We frequently post what projects we got goin on, or just ramble incoherently 'till the fumes clear 
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Good find on the chandelier!
I've found a few, but I didn't really like them much and since I'll be doing a whole lot of rehabing everywhere I don't want to buy chandeliers or ceiling fans until I know what the motif will look like beforehand. Some people can take something as simple as a light fixture and build a room around it, but my mind doesn't work that way....
As far as the mold remediation goes, I had windows open and window fans blowing air out. I also cordoned off the entire basement from the rest of the house using poly-sheeting (not only is the stairwell wide open to the basement, but you can see into the basement from the first 2 1/2 feet of the kitchen through a decorative "grating"). I was also wearing an OSHA approved mask with mold cartridges, and heavy duty PVC gloves. I didn't bother with the tyvek suit though, and I've had no ill effects that I'm aware of on exposed skin because of it. Originally, I had bought two tyvek suits because I thought at most this job would only take 2 days, but I've spent more like 20 days down there and there was no way I was wearing a full tyvek suit in 95 degree weather with no A/C.
As for the pool, I don't mind doing the work manually. I enjoy a good workout. Looks like I may have all that dirt here first thing tomorrow morning..... Only problem is, there's a decent chance of showers later in the day. I may end up doing half of the work in the rain. Looks like it's suppposed to rain the next 4 days too, so I better hustle. No way I'm going to get friends or my brother out on a friday morning, so it looks like I'm on my own.
I bought a really cool "wagon" from Lowes though that carries up to 600 lbs and has a locking mechanism that will allow you to lift it up and dump the dirt on the spot. It's on 4 wheels so no worries of tipping over and also no worries of tearing up my good grass with a single wheel since the weight will be distributed to 4 wheels. It says that you should only use 300 lbs if you're going to use the dumping feature, but I figure I could probably go 4 or 5 hundred.
Even at 300 lbs, it would only take me seventy-four 130-foot trips...... That can't take too long, right?
I also splurged on a (fairly expensive) full-aluminum 30" digging shovel with a very wide lip that should make short work of that dirt compared to the cheaper counterparts I could have bought.
Oh.... I also got the last of the blinds installed today, so all of my windows are now covered
Also got those two ceiling fixtures installed from the last post and my digital randomized timers on my garage light and a livingroom light so it looks like people are here at random times even if they aren't :)
Moving along.............
~6
P.S. What is the web address of that DIY site? I missed it if you posted it.
"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned."
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Good call on the shovel, I broke two this year...but they were old anyhow...
Fireflyfans.net has an updated version that I think is called "beta" and the original is "alpha" so Haken could do some updated techno-magical stuff...I think if you search FF.net it will bring up both sites in the listing...For some reason my account times out after a minute on the old site, so I use the new site most of the time.
If the screen is red border, you are on the Beta site...The chat's are individual, and different people in both. I obsessively pop into beta chat couple times a day, if you get bored, feel free to babble a thought of the day, how you are feeling, ask questions, leave messages- ANYTHING GOES! I'm not trying to sound simplistic or trying to over-explain here, but others have asked as well...
I assumed the blue one will eventually go bye-bye when all bugs are worked out, I'm guessing it has to be more work to keep both runnin', but then what I know about programming could only fill up half of that >* little spec
And I have been known to plan a room around a single item...Also, to save money on paint, depending on if you are a paint snob- I go to hardware stores and Wal-mart to the return and mis-tints. You can usually get a five gallon bucket for half normal price...If it isn't the color you want, add any leftover paint you have, those little acryllic bottles are good, or find another mistint and have fun...My aunt is an interior decorater and she couldn't tell, so......
Painted my garage this summer for $40!
Glad to see you took extra precautions on the mold...We've got enough people flyin' around here without containment in their reactors 
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Hey Wishimay,
Yeah, I LOVE the shovel. You truly do get what you pay for when buying new.
Granted.... I'm just judging it on the look, feel and weight of it at this point. The dirt wasn't going to arrive until about 11AM and we were supposed to have rain mid-afternoon and for the next 4 days, so I re-scheduled for next Friday. The shovel is light as a feather though and seems to be indestructible.
I didn't know they updated the site. It's cool that a site with this much history about a show that's nearly a decade old might be getting a big technological update. I've never had a problem at the old site myself, but I'll have to check out the new one.
Soooo..... there's a DIY chat going on there?
Cool
Yeah...
Something told me you might be one of those people who could plan an entire room around one item. Dunno why.... :)
Honestly, and I may be generalizing, I think that's (largely) a female trait. The ability to see something they really like and be able to change everything else around it so it flows seamlessly with the surroundings.
I tend to compulsively plan out every minute detail with things from scratch until I have a grand plan, so if I were to buy things ahead of time they likely wouldn't mesh too well with the finished product. (Thank God for Goodwill and 5 bucks for two ceiling fixtures that might not be there a year from now, right?)
Actually, I'm kind of a paint snob. Not necessarily on color, mind you, but with my rehab experience I would only use Sherwin Williams or, even better, Benjamin Moore. Paint is one of the few things you really can't buy used or at Goodwill, so the "you get what you pay for" rule really holds here. The finish really stands the test of time and I also find that these two paint brands are the smoothest to spread on the walls with a roller.
(BTW.... when rolling I would ALWAYS recommend sheep/lambskin roller sleeves. They're quite a bit more pricey than the standard fare, but as long as you're not using oil based paints and you clean them properly they will outlast the others 10 times as long and I love the "orange peel" effect that a 3/4" nap or more leaves)
I could still probably use that advice though. I don't know if Sherwin Willams or Benjamin Moore accept returns though. Wal Mart will accept anything, being that they're trying to take over the world :)
I'd LOVE to be able to paint my garage... and my house too for that matter. Unfortunately, they're both covered with a baby blue vinyl siding now. It doesn't look terrible, and actually it's all in very great shape. I figure that once I got the interior done and it falls apart I'll replace it with much higher quality siding. For now though, it's completely serviceable.
As for the mold, as OCD as I believe myself to be I'm in no way a germaphobe. It was only at the behest of a few people I know who used to work in mold remediation that I at least did some research and ended up using the bare minimum protection for a job this size.
I'm cheap by nature, but it was worth about 150 bucks of preventative measures if it meant keeping me out of the hospital for having mold in my bloodstream. A big part of me thinks that's all propaganda to sell stuff... but for 150 bucks, I'll take the chance of getting ripped off over the alternative.
True or not..... Those mold stories are SCARY!
"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned."
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Ohhh, I did a bad thing today...
I boughta porch. No, really -a whole porch!...Was in our local chain store and a sign said they were getting rid of their demos so they could bring in new other products, and we've been talking about ridding ourselves of the filled concrete block disaster for a while(terrible idea those, always full of ants!)
Anyhow, it's all put together, and HUGE!...Talked him down $400 and free delivery, too! Oh, and we put it on their card and are getting a good rebate outta the deal!
So I guess we'll be suffering through our weekend as well...Better than suffering through a month of building it!
And I have it on good authority that the special paints they have for vinyl siding now work really really well...Justa thought.
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Wait..... you can paint vinyl???????
Gonna have to give this house a treatment if you can then. My house color screams "It's a boy!!!!!!"
I seriously don't know what they were thinking....
Good luck on the porch. I'm sure it will look much better if it fits well with your house.
My "porch" out back is a bunch of 1'x2' drab concrete blocks haphazardly thrown together without the proper base below so some are cracked and sinking and....... shit... I can't even imagine that it looked good when it was level and put in fresh on day one.
Again....... WHAT WERE THEY THINKING!!!!!
At least it looks a thousand times better now that I've removed 100lbs of weeds from the cracks between the bricks. (My poor bloody stumps for finger tips.....)
I envy your ability to put a wood porch in your back. It just wouldn't work well in the back at my place with my garage to house setting. I'll have to do something in stone, but I need to research the sweet spot between A) cheapest, B) best looking and C) lowest maintenance for my stone porch. (A guy can't work on his house 24/7 without a job forever, right?)
I've got a wicked idea in my head about how I want it to look, but the real trick is finding a way to keep it looking that way 20 years from now with minimal upkeep, right?
I hope you got it done this weekend. My guess is, it takes a lot longer than that. :)
I don't know about you, but when it comes to this house, I ALWAYS underestimate how long it's going to take me to do a job.
HAHA..... I thought I'd have the moldy basement removed and sealed in a week. Here we are 45 days later......
I'M SO EXCITED!!!!!
Finally moved a majority of my furnature into my place now that the mold has in essence been removed. My living room now looks better than any apartment than I've ever lived in with the hardwood floors and my bedroom by tomorrow night will have a king bed and a full bedroom set adorning it when I get everything into place. Hell... the room is so big that I could still make a 6'x6' dance square that Fez would be envious of....
My only desire would be to have access to the bathroom from the Master Bedroom on the 1st floor..... but I don't know if that would ever be possible given the small size of it unless I removed the closet from the secondary bedroom.
Not entirely sure my future kid(s) would approve
"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned."
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be sure to throw a few handsful of sand into the paint to keep if from getting slippery during wet weather
Ok keep looking at handsful and as I know it is in the dictionary I'm leaving it....but it looks weird
To love someone is to see a miracle invisible to others.
--Francois Mauriac
It's fuzzy-minded liberal thinking like that that gets you eaten.
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