Pulaski

chawkins99

Now that made my day.

anotherlimey

So delboy and rodders

Pulaski

So there I am mowing the yard on a Saturday evening, with just enough time to finish before it gets dark, when the front-right wheel makes a funny noise and goes very waggly - doesn't want to point the same way as the left wheel.

The bearings had failed, which had damaged part of the spindle (axle), and bent the part of the hub that supports the inner bearing. Last night I thought it was just the wheel and bearings, so I got a new wheel-tyre-beairng set from Lowe's, but I discovered the spindle problem when I went to fit the new wheel today.

Now I am waiting on the new spindle from Sears. It should arrive on Friday, so in time for a repair next weekend.

Steerpike

Paint storage - I'm doing up my condo in AZ. I found, in the storage closet there, old cans of paint with stickers on them dating them to 2005. Remarkably, the paints are still viable despite having been stored outdoors through 12+ AZ summers! However, the cans are not in good shape - rust around the rims, which is falling into the paint, dented lids with small air gaps, etc. It occurred to me to transfer the paint to something a) more appropriately sized (reduce the amount of air) and b) something with an airtight 'top'. So I started looking for containers; nothing has come to mind yet. How about repurposing some old household container ... glass jars, perhaps? I found this site by googling ... https://cheltenhamroad.wordpress.com...intable-label/ . Only thing that comes to mind is, will the paint suffer from 'UV exposure' by being in a glass container? I have actually used an old pickle jar already for this, and the only issue seems to be, getting the lid off was a challenge (paint around the rim caused the lid to stick).

ETA - I'm only using these very old paints for minor touch up; I could take the can to Home Depot and get a whole fresh quart or gallon for not much $ if I needed any more than a touch-up. Also, FYI, Home Depot will now sell you a 'sample' of paint in a small container for about $4, so if you are doing some touching up, you can always go in and buy one of those if you only need a bit.

zzrmark

UV exposure I'm not sure about, but presumably it won't be an issue as you have a storage closet to keep them in.

Painter's trick - in order to preserve the lifespan of your can of paint, put lid on securely after use and then turn can upside down so that paint gets on the lid, then turn back upright. Paint on underside of lid will effectively seal the can against air leaks. (Hence why you've found lids tricky to get off!)

Pulaski

I don't think UV will be an issue, as Zzrmark said, so long as you store the jars in a closet or cupboard. That said, using jars sounds like a good idea, which reminds me that I really should sort through the cans on the shelf in my garage, as I suspect that some have dried out and should be discarded. Certainly a good number are from way back when and I don't even know what they were used to paint in the first place.
First they delayed shipping the part for a week, now it is on indeterminate back order.

Meanwhile someone I know, entirely coincidentally asked if I would remove an old junked mower he has, which happens to be of the same brand, and take it to the scrap yard for him, so I will go and pick it up this weekend, and then see if I can cannibalize a spindle for my mower. If the spindle fits I will remove a few other parts to hold as spares before selling the rest for scrap.

Steerpike

Doing so may create a seal, but - may also render the can un-openable! With one can - luckily containing a paint I didn't need - I had to literally take a can opener to it as the lid was impossible to remove.

I've now transferred a few 'half cans' to quart mason jars (wide-mouth variety). I picked up 12 at Target for cheap. I can see some issues already. If you get paint around the top of the jar or the threads, the lids will be virtually un-removable, and also, the jars don't lend themselves to being stirred quite like a can ... of course that's partly because I filled the jars to within 1" of the top, to reduce air - but now if I need to use the paint I'll have a hard time stirring it. Maybe shaking will be the trick - but that will guaratee to coat the inside of the lid with paint ... anyway - the project continues ...

Maste

The whole house and garden is a project!

priming, painting, caulking, top coating, stripping and staining doors to name a few of the inside jobs.

The garden jobs are mostly mine to do, cutting down old bushes and digging up the roots so we can fix up the garden and make it look nice. Only problem is it's constantly too hot to do anything! Tomorrow is only supposed to be in the 70s in STL, so hopefully I can get a good bunch of the garden done.

Pulaski

You realize that with American houses, those tasks never end, right?
Don't worry, before you know it, it will be too cold in St Louis to do anything!

Maste

Oh I get that, but we have lots to do before we get to that regular maintenance stage!

I'll do the garden with 10 layers and my loppers and branch saw if it means I prove the OH wrong

Pulaski

If you don't have a Bahco bow saw, get one! (A 21" triangular one would be a good starter saw). Those things are like razors, and I have to be sawing a limb or tree more than 4" diameter before I bother to fetch my chainsaw. Literslly 5-6 strokes will go through most 3" limbs! Of course ladders and chainsaws don't mix, so when working up a ladder I use one of my 36" bow saws on limbs upto at least 6".

Steerpike

Kitchen remodel - lessons learned
Almost at the end of a kitchen remodel including new cabinets and new counter top. I paid a local contractor to do the work, and watched closely so I could learn. Here's some things I never thought would be issues ...

1) cabinet interiors. The base (lower) cabinets came with only 1 fixed inside shelf half way up, and it was only 'half depth' - so there's not a lot of shelf space inside. I was expecting at least 1 adjustable full depth shelf.
2) Cabinet colors. I went with 'white', as is the current fashion. I like the look of them, but the installers get their grubby hands all over them and leave marks.
3) quartz counter top. I paid for a full slab (roughly 61" x 126"), and assumed my main 'sink wall' would be a single piece (I needed only 106" x 26" for the sink piece) however due to one of the other pieces he needed to cut, he had to make the sink wall piece out of two sections, and thus, had to have a 'seam' or 'join'. He did a great job of it, but he chose to put it smack in the middle of the sink, which I think is not a good location especially due to lighting. Had I known a seam was going to be necessary I would have discussed alternate placements.
4) Toe-kick area. The toe kick area (set-back at the base of the cabinets) was not the same size as the cabinets we were replacing, and this caused problems with the flooring. In some cases, my flooring (tile) had been cut to fit the original cabinets so now I had voids in the tile. They pulled up old tiles, and set new tiles (I luckily had a number of spares) but the alignment and grout color does not match well. Also, pulling up old tile is a very messy business involving grinders and a lot of dust! My kitchen is open to the rest of the house and this created a real mess.
5) Spacers and sizing. My old cabinets were cheap, nasty, and very non-standard in terms of sizes. I did not pay close attention to the exact sizes of the new cabinets, and - even with liberal use of filler strips, etc - the alignments were different. As I understand it, cabinets come in sizes at 3" intervals. I wish I'd considered dropping down to a smaller cabinet in some cases and avoided some fillers.
6) Cabinet quality. I was eager to save money on this project, so went with very basic cabinets. I will pay closer attention next time to the various details before deciding on a cabinet 'grade'. Some of the surfaces on my new cabinets are not exactly perfect.
7) Delivery timing. At the last minute we discovered one cabinet was not delivered. The project was already underway so we could not wait. Basically, the project was 'finished' without this cabinet and they are going to come and retrofit it shortly - which means, more mess.
8) Plumbing. I had to insist that they install all new valves and supply lines on the pressure side. Apparently this crew didn't take that for granted the way I did.
9) Alignment. This project really highlighted the fact that my walls, floor, ceiling, etc are not square. There's only so much you can do with fillers and spacers. If I look closely, 'nothing' is exactly level or vertical or square ... which I presume was the case before but I never noticed!
10) Collateral damage. As always, the floor took a beating, my front door got dented, and the entire house was filled with dust. Thank goodness I have tiles and not hardwood floors ...
11) Counter edging. My installer 'mitered' the edges to give a 2" 'front'. This looks better than what I was expecting, which was a double-thickness strip.

Having said all that, it's nice to have new cabinets, and the quartz counter top is infinitely superior to the old 'formica' that preceded it! I love the hardness and shininess of the quartz.

Pulaski

Thank you for sharing all the details. I won't respond to every point, but I think some issues were foreseeable, such as the floor tile and toe-kick area - and you have identified one of fhe reasons why I always recommend tiling the floor (or indeed installing any other floor product) after the old cabinets have been removed. It is also very quick and easy to install tile, or anything else, when you don't have to fit it around the cabinets. It also makes the dish washer easier to install. .... The same applies in bathrooms - tile the floor before you install the bathtub, shower, and vanity.

Re point 9 - I am not at all surprised, houses are incredibly "not square", much more than people realise, which makes installing anything large an interesting challenge. I installed hardwood flooring for my in-laws through most of their home, from one side to the other, and down the hallway and into one bedroom, which they used as an office. The overall area was a contorted letter Y, so I started on one exterior wall at the foot of the Y in the dining room, and worked my way up the Y, so I never had a join to deal with - the hallway was where the Y forked a massive stretch to the right branch of the Y. I discovered that the hallway, which was about 20ft long, was about 1½" out of parallel with the exterior walls of the house, and as the original owner who had owned the house for the first 15 years had had carpet, I am certain they would never have known how far out of true the hallway was. .... The sides of the hallway were however parallel, more or less, so bedrooms on both side were equally distorted.

Steerpike

Following on from my 'cabinets' post, does anyone have any recommendations for cabinet door / drawer hardware installation techniques? Basically, I need to drill about 50 holes in total to accommodate the hardware (handles) and I need to ensure the holes are correctly placed. I saw a 'jig' or 'template' of sorts at Home Depot, I will probably buy one of those. I've chosen a 'two hole' handle unfortunately that doubles the number of holes needed

A simple piece of hardboard screwed to a 1x1 piece of wood comes to mind, which I would drill carefully with 'guide' holes, which would would then sit on top of each drawer and act as a guide. I'd still have to center this left/right, but that shouldn't be too difficult. For the doors, I could possibly use the same piece of wood oriented vertically but drill a second pair of guide holes closer to the edge.