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Re: Just purchased first house.... [907Tri] [ In reply to ]
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Don’t rely on an inspection report or what anyone said- check and test your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.
Have fun remodeling, the first time is usually for practice so you know why you really want for the next time!
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Re: Just purchased first house.... [907Tri] [ In reply to ]
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Based on your projects

Buy a good quality mid or rear line tiller if you know you will continue gardening, the thing only gets used 1-2 times a year but it tills the dirt nice and you won't wrestle it like a front line tiller.

Fire pit, depends what you want, I have had cheapo metal ones crack or rust on me every few years. My father in law welded us a high quality one so hopefully this one lasts a bit longer.

Deck, if you can afford it, go with the non-wood trex stuff but remember its not maintenance free and will need power washing every other year or so. If you get wood, have fun staining it every other year.
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Re: Just purchased first house.... [talking head] [ In reply to ]
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talking head wrote:
Have fun remodeling, the first time is usually for practice so you know why you really want for the next time!

a year into our first home purchase, this is the truest thing in this thread... haha.
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Re: Just purchased first house.... [907Tri] [ In reply to ]
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Don't over complicate things. With the deck, make sure you don't get a design that is very complicated. Simple designs take less time, but more importantly they are more forgiving aesthetically. You can find very ornate options out there, but there is a solid chance you'll get very frustrated with tight tolerance levels. Just because an expert on youTube can knock it out by eye balling it, does not mean that you can.

Always buy more wood and screws than you think you need. It sucks to run out when you're on a roll, and you can return unused lumber and unopened boxes of screws.

For anything cordless, make sure you have two batteries so one can be charging.

Measure twice and cut once, and then measure what you just cut.
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Re: Just purchased first house.... [DavHamm] [ In reply to ]
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DavHamm wrote:
Amstel wrote:
After completing a ton of home projects (hardwood, tiling, deck building, moulding, etc) I have concluded that it's best to pay someone else to do it.


Depends on your income. I would not have gotten most of the things I did done around my house, if I had to wait till I had enough money to pay someone to do it. Especially early on. Now I did just finish a major kitchen overhaul and I wrote the check. Now I did the bathroom refresh on that job cause they wanted $2500 to put in a cabinet and counter top (included the cabnet and counter top) yes they would have put in a nicer one then I did, but I spent $180 at Menards and about 1 hr putting it in.

I make good money, but there are a lot of things I could never bring myself to pay full retail for. There is a ton of things I have around my house that I just never would have pulled the trigger on. I would have just let good enough be good enough.

Off the top of my head - flagstone patio, fully fenced yard, pergola, fire pit garden, hardwood floors, upgraded trim, insulated and OSB'd garage, large dog kennel, brick apron in front of the garage, most of my landscaping, ... That doesn't even touch on things like painting the house top to bottom and maintenance items.

Other than the advice already given there are a couple rules I follow. Be patient and do it right. My wife laughs because when I started the last round of flooring I said the one thing I didn't want is someone to say, "I see YOU did your floors". The other rule is when doing something that takes care is that you have to stop when you are tired. That is when you make mistakes and decide to let quality slip.

Everything takes three times as long as you hoped, that is just something to get used to.

I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.
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Re: Just purchased first house.... [907Tri] [ In reply to ]
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As a furniture builder, the table is your most ambitious project. You cannot just go to a big box store and buy quality lumber for this. You will also need some knowledge of joinery. And a sizable investment in tools. Just milling, gluing and flattening the table top will be a challenge for a novice wooodworker.
Start looking at how to make rabbets, dadoes, mortise and tenon joints at a minimum. Drawboring techniques would also be useful, as well as breadboard ends for a table. Good finishing is a whole other discussion.
Message me when you have a design and I can give you more advice.

Jim
"In dog beers, I've only had one"
http://www.shakercolonial.com/
Creating custom made furnishing to your requirements
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