The Pandemic DIY Home Improvement Projects

I bought a house in Puerto Rico long ago and its electricals were DIY by somebody who did not realize that 'ground' and 'neutral' were different things. You could get shocked many places but never deadly. Only noticeable.

They don't 'code' there

 

Wouldja look at that. Dang.

We are supposed to slit each one before brining but I skipped that step.

Olives 'on the tree' are one of few fruits that birds etc. completely ignore. Taste one and you will know why

 

Little did I realize that Salamader_King was actually Olive_King.

 

My wife calls me the man with the 10 inch tool. No, no, it's a 10" crescent wrench. I can't remember when the last time was I hired someone else to do something on the property. Grinding stumps, painting the house, appliances, etc. It's fun and rewarding.

 

Do tell, I could use tips.

 

It's not hard. I rented a stump grinder from Home Depot for 24 hrs. I was able to get it home by 9am removed two 36" stumps including roots and return it by 7pm. This is the one they had for rental. It's loud and sort of tedious. You just start on one side and slowly swing it sideways to the opposite side. The machine will quickly tell you how much you can bite if it bogs down or not. Start high and get deeper and deeper as the top is removed plus roots. It helps to have someone pull the debris back as you go so you can see what you're doing.

We lost two trees from an ice storm so I used my Worx 15 amp 18" electric chainsaw to fall them and chop them up. The 18" bar was plenty big even on these large trees and it had lots of torque.

 

Nice. I had a house similar. I started taking cheap paneling off the wall. The first piece got halfway across the kitchen and stopped. I look behind it and the electrical outlet was screwed to the paneling, not the junction box, and followed the paneling with me. Two wires only, no ground. Needless to say, instead of only ripping out paneling I ended up ripping out the walls, cabinets, floor - everything and redoing from scratch.

 

Many years ago I discovered an online forum dealing with the NEC and its interpretation, and I signed up and dared to ask a question. They told me to go away and ask an electrician -- and those professionals don't always agree on how the NEC (a multi-thick-volume publication that gets revised every few years) applies to particular situations, and sometimes agree among themselves that an inspector's ruling was in error because he didn't take into account Paragraph X.Y subsection (p)(r)(2)(A) (or whatever).

 

Artificial grass installation .

Before:


During the process:


After:



Made the wife happy.

Happy wife, happy life.

 

DIY.

This was a 13'x40' area and in order to prepare the area it required the following:

• Level ground
• 3 inches (or more) of aggregate
• Plate tamper (to compact the aggregate)
• Border (I used the most cost effective pavers Lowe's had)
• Artificial grass
• Nails (that's how you lock down the turf)
• In fill (adds weight to the turf)
• Odorizer (helps if you have pets)
• Power broom ( for brushing up the blades of grass once you have the nails down, in fill and odorizer spread)

The amount of aggregate required was 9 tons, so that took a good bit of effort (and gave me a great workout).

The turf itself weighs ~400 pounds so I had to get creative once it was delivered (bought some carpet dollies from Harbor Freight that did the trick).

Not a complex DIY project, but the wife wanted that next to the prior COVID summertime addition:



The backyard for normal grass was a night mare, so this was a great long term solution.

 

Had to replace our 15-yr-old LG-manufactured over-the-range "Kenmore" microwave. It still worked fine, except that the handle broke off and no OEM or after-market replacement was available. We ordered a replacement Whirlpool one from Costco, but before it was delivered someone gave us an almost new Whirlpool one -- not quite as feature-rich, but free is better than $3xx, and we were able to cancel the Costco order.

Had to drill some new holes in the wall and in the cabinet for the screws and bolts. I assume that if the old one had been a Whirlpool, the replacement would have been a little more straightforward.

 

We have a similar microwave. There was a lower end model by same manufacturer: to open you gripped a protrusion and gave a yank, it opened. Not so on ours: you push a small panel, and internally levers, springs and latches go into motion, and eventually, the door opens. Except one of the plastic hinge points breaks, and then the entire thing is kaput. Twice I've torn it open, cobbled a fix with steel rod, little bits of wood, some plumbers strap hanger and a small diameter steel rod.

Oh, we have a dishwasher with similar problem: the latch, cheap plastic hinge point, breaks, dishwasher kaput. Except with this one I haven't figured out a way to cobble: have bought a $40~ CDN latch TWICE now. It comes with electronics which aren't need, the old ones are fine. Just the effing plastic hinge. There's an edict in our kitchen now: ONLY close the dishwasher completely when starting it up. Maybe that'll help.

 

Our microwave just had a handle to pull -- no pushbutton: protruding from the inner face of the door were "wavy" curved parts that engaged spring-loaded parts (rollers. I suppose) in the cabinet of the appliance, so to open the door we were merely getting those curved parts to ride over the rollers.

Planning to offer the old one on NextDoor or on eBay "for parts only" and "local pickup only."

 

The plumbing repair tips are awesome.
Yet I am surprised, no members of this forum installed the pandemic DIY improvement of a stripper pole, stereo and lighting LOL

 

Well at least no one has copped to it.

But in home entertainment improvements I bet were on some lists.

 

I'm not really limber enough.