Home Improvement Thread 2: Electric Redo the Loo

Yeah wallpaper was big in the uk in the early 90s. I still have nightmares of helping my dad strip it off our hall, staircase and landing plus the wall was a mess, totally needed re plastering afterwards. A small downstairs bathroom is definitely not so much hassle!
I had a summer/weekend job as a teen for a local decorator. Me and a mate would get driven to council estates around manchester and dropped off with 1 wallpaper stripper and 1 bucket with a sponge/scraper. After fighting for the wallpaper stripper we would go house to house stripping layers of paper from the walls before someone else would put new sheets up the next day.

It. was. grim. A lot of the time the walls would be mouldy to the point where the paper just fell off with a bit of force, or the opposite end where it felt cemented to the walls. Even more of an awful task if you got stuck with the sponge/scraper.

Im not even going to mention how much we got an hour.......
 
I had a summer/weekend job as a teen for a local decorator. Me and a mate would get driven to council estates around manchester and dropped off with 1 wallpaper stripper and 1 bucket with a sponge/scraper. After fighting for the wallpaper stripper we would go house to house stripping layers of paper from the walls before someone else would put new sheets up the next day.

It. was. grim. A lot of the time the walls would be mouldy to the point where the paper just fell off with a bit of force, or the opposite end where it felt cemented to the walls. Even more of an awful task if you got stuck with the sponge/scraper.

Im not even going to mention how much we got an hour.......

Hahaha! I can imagine. It was shit enough even with the steam machine!

I did have a uni summer job back home in Mansfield working in an scrambled egg processing factory where my job was to rake the scrambled egg thin enough for it to pass through the flash freezer. And another where I worked in the B&Q door knob warehouse
where my job was to screw door knobs onto display boards for the stores. All the above for the majestic student minimum wage of the time, £4.20 an hour…

Anyway I digress!
 
Hahaha! I can imagine. It was shit enough even with the steam machine!

I did have a uni summer job back home in Mansfield working in an scrambled egg processing factory where my job was to rake the scrambled egg thin enough for it to pass through the flash freezer. And another where I worked in the B&Q door knob warehouse
where my job was to screw door knobs onto display boards for the stores. All the above for the majestic student minimum wage of the time, £4.20 an hour…

Anyway I digress!
Oh my god that scrambled egg job is absolutely appalling. I'm gagging just thinking about it.
 
Oh my god that scrambled egg job is absolutely appalling. I'm gagging just thinking about it.

absolute worst job I ever did, the things you do at 19 for beer money!

It did give me a little bit more appreciation for being in uni and I dicked about a little bit less and worked a little bit more in my second and third years!
 
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absolute worst job I ever did, the things you do at 19 for beer money!

It did give me a little bit more appreciation for being in uni and I dicked about a little bit less and worked a little bit more in my second and third years!
I worked in a bookshop when I was at uni - think I lucked out on that one!
 
Hahaha! I can imagine. It was shit enough even with the steam machine!

I did have a uni summer job back home in Mansfield working in an scrambled egg processing factory where my job was to rake the scrambled egg thin enough for it to pass through the flash freezer. And another where I worked in the B&Q door knob warehouse
where my job was to screw door knobs onto display boards for the stores. All the above for the majestic student minimum wage of the time, £4.20 an hour…

Anyway I digress!


Joe Mac highly qualified knob fiddler! When you want the job done right give him a call.
 
Went for a little drive today, ended up in ikea, ended up coming back with an outdoor sofa that I never realised I needed until then…

View attachment 139080
Went to IKEA the other week. Was surprised by how nice some of their new outdoor stuff was. We got a sun umbrella and some outdoor tables. Want to get something like this soon when we rebuild our screened in porch!
 
Went to IKEA the other week. Was surprised by how nice some of their new outdoor stuff was. We got a sun umbrella and some outdoor tables. Want to get something like this soon when we rebuild our screened in porch!

Yeah same. I’d had a wooden table and chairs that after 10 Irish winters were beginning to creak and groan. This was just too nice to turn away from and being plastic should wear a bit better over here!
 
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Still waiting on the full quote. But we have a big roof. 3000 sq ft. But no, I know there is no such thing as a 30 year shingle. 15/20 tops
we got fifty year warranty on ours, they won't last that long, but they get to replace them if they fail, so what do I care?
 
Trying to layout a setup in my basement is further proving that I hate the position of this damn support post.

The perfect wall for a TV / media setup and there a damn pole 2/3rds of the way into the view.

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Only having a house would get you up at 5:30 Am to dig 30’ of tench for sprinkler system. Gotta get it done before it reaches the 90s today.
 
Hey all.. first time lurker in this thread.. amazing projects here and thought I’d share mine.

My project started when our kitchen sink/dishwasher drain began to leak in/under our slab. Our kitchen is in the back of the house and the drain travelled the entire diagonal length of the house to the drainage field in the front. You can imagine the mess but here is a little taste. F8248555-5EF4-454A-8564-F03381CC7599.jpeg
This ran from one side of the house to the other, from the kitchen, through the living room, and into the bathroom.

We had been wanting to do a renovation to the kitchen for years and took the opportunity to refinance and renovate the bottom floor. Incidentally, we got $0 from our homeowners insurance..

Old Kitchen after the corner cabinet had to be removed to dig up pipe… and new kitchen:
5594029C-205F-43F9-BC38-B4767EC602F4.jpeg1214E982-A7E5-4FEF-89E1-312F035C4756.jpeg

We also replaced our existing staircase with a new one. Amazing the difference it made in our opinion.

Old stairs:
830BED28-2396-4FFA-AFB5-72F9878B6E2B.jpeg

New stairs:
EB435DC0-720D-4D87-8DBE-887A44E3996C.jpeg9315E5A0-EAFE-43C6-9183-EDE876093D3A.jpeg

We’re thrilled with the results. It was a long year and a half, glad we’re finally done.
 

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Hey all.. first time lurker in this thread.. amazing projects here and thought I’d share mine.

My project started when our kitchen sink/dishwasher drain began to leak in/under our slab. Our kitchen is in the back of the house and the drain travelled the entire diagonal length of the house to the drainage field in the front. You can imagine the mess but here is a little taste. View attachment 155268
This ran from one side of the house to the other, from the kitchen, through the living room, and into the bathroom.

We had been wanting to do a renovation to the kitchen for years and took the opportunity to refinance and renovate the bottom floor. Incidentally, we got $0 from our homeowners insurance..

Old Kitchen after the corner cabinet had to be removed to dig up pipe… and new kitchen:
View attachment 155271View attachment 155272

We also replaced our existing staircase with a new one. Amazing the difference it made in our opinion.

Old stairs:
View attachment 155275

New stairs:
View attachment 155284View attachment 155285

We’re thrilled with the results. It was a long year and a half, glad we’re finally done.
the before in both of those isn't really that bad but the after is so nice. Great job!
 
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