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Home and garden projects

Old Jun 1st 2018, 12:50 pm
  #1141  
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Default Re: Home and garden projects

We made and planted an 8' x 4' raised garden last year and at the end of the season cleared all the plants into the composter.

This year we have not planted anything in there except for some Thyme..... This is what it looks like now !
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Old Jun 1st 2018, 9:19 pm
  #1142  
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Default Re: Home and garden projects

Originally Posted by CeejaySmiff
We made and planted an 8' x 4' raised garden last year and at the end of the season cleared all the plants into the composter.

This year we have not planted anything in there except for some Thyme..... This is what it looks like now !
Nice garden! Wish mine would self-start like that! I have had lettuce that bolts, seeds, and comes back the following year, all without me doing anything to it, but never anything else. In your bed I see lettuce, lots & lots of tomatoes, and some kind of squash or rhubarb leaves (?)….
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Old Jun 3rd 2018, 9:48 pm
  #1143  
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Default Re: Home and garden projects

For the past three plus years I have been building a new house doing most of the work myself including taking a untouched jungle of a lot and cleaning it up largely by hand with a chainsaw and a small tractor I owned. It is built a lot like what I understand British houses are built with masonry walls and brick covering. I built this way and even filled all block cavities with steel rebar and poured cement to have a strong house. I even made my own kitchen cabinets and installed granite counter top. Here is a couple of photos of cabinets. I bought the doors and built everything. The counter granite was found on Craigslist for $350 and I have about $1800 total in the project. All the wood is hickory.
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Old Jun 3rd 2018, 9:54 pm
  #1144  
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Default Re: Home and garden projects

Originally Posted by ddsrph
For the past three plus years I have been building a new house doing most of the work myself including taking a untouched jungle of a lot and cleaning it up largely by hand with a chainsaw and a small tractor I owned. It is built a lot like what I understand British houses are built with masonry walls and brick covering. I built this way and even filled all block cavities with steel rebar and poured cement to have a strong house. I even made my own kitchen cabinets and installed granite counter top. Here is a couple of photos of cabinets. I bought the doors and built everything. The counter granite was found on Craigslist for $350 and I have about $1800 total in the project. All the wood is hickory.
WOW. What craftsmanship. Amazing.
Well done. Someday we'll embark on our home build.
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Old Jun 3rd 2018, 11:14 pm
  #1145  
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Default Re: Home and garden projects

Originally Posted by steveq
WOW. What craftsmanship. Amazing.
Well done. Someday we'll embark on our home build.
Steve
Thanks. When you build whether you do it yourself or contract out it would be wise to learn as much as possible about building techniques. I highly recommend doing as much as possible yourself. I wired, plumbed and even designed and installed the HVAC system. The house is insulated two to three times code by using some recycled polyiso insulation I bought for pennies on the dollar. With a 1 1/2 ton heat pump my heating and cooling (which includes lights and hot water)averages about $80 per month. I will have 150k in the house and garage including lot in a very nice lake development with many houses 500k to one million due largely to their size and lake front lots. Here is a couple photos of my smallest in subdivision but best built house and garage. Both are still unfinished but getting close.
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Old Jun 4th 2018, 1:40 pm
  #1146  
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Default Re: Home and garden projects

Originally Posted by WEBlue
Nice garden! Wish mine would self-start like that! I have had lettuce that bolts, seeds, and comes back the following year, all without me doing anything to it, but never anything else. In your bed I see lettuce, lots & lots of tomatoes, and some kind of squash or rhubarb leaves (?)….
We already thinned out half the tomato plants (last year we planted 4 varieties, currently no idea which are growing). Pretty sure the others are Zucchini... and maybe watermelon.

Watermelon was the big disappointment last year - the plant grew easily enough but the watermelons themselves never got any bigger than tennis balls.
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Old Jun 4th 2018, 3:39 pm
  #1147  
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This weekend - hurricane preparedness...
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Old Jun 12th 2018, 8:32 pm
  #1148  
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Default Re: Home and garden projects

I have a kitchen question...
We had a leak a week or so back and our entire downstairs flooring and kitchen is ruined. It has been removed and it now resembles a building site.

The kitchen units all had to be thrown away due to water damage as they sit directly on the floor. Back in Blighty I fitted our kitchen (I'm kinda handy) and the units sit on adjustable plastic legs rather than direct on the floor. This makes it easy to adjust their heights and level etc and protects the units in the event of a leak.

Is it just a regional thing or do all USA kitchens sit directly on the floor? Would there be a building code in effect for this?
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Old Jun 12th 2018, 8:50 pm
  #1149  
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Default Re: Home and garden projects


Originally Posted by Marc_ely
I have a kitchen question...
We had a leak a week or so back and our entire downstairs flooring and kitchen is ruined. It has been removed and it now resembles a building site.

The kitchen units all had to be thrown away due to water damage as they sit directly on the floor. Back in Blighty I fitted our kitchen (I'm kinda handy) and the units sit on adjustable plastic legs rather than direct on the floor. This makes it easy to adjust their heights and level etc and protects the units in the event of a leak.

Is it just a regional thing or do all USA kitchens sit directly on the floor? Would there be a building code in effect for this?
Are you talking about the appliances or the base cabinets? There is no code I am aware of but it seems like a lot of work and time may be better spent to ensure your plumbing is in good working order to avoid leaks. Those flexible connecting lines need to be replaced every few years and each supply needs a cutoff. It's also not a bad idea to have a plastic pan under the supply and drains to catch any drips. Usually one pan can cover both the sink supply lines and the sink drain. I just finished building my new house and made my own cabinets. You could probably fix yours in a similar manner. I bought these hickory doors made to my dimensions online at a company called "raw doors" for about $750 for entire kitchen and built the boxes and door frames.

Last edited by ddsrph; Jun 12th 2018 at 8:53 pm.
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Old Jun 12th 2018, 9:01 pm
  #1150  
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Default Re: Home and garden projects

I am talking about cabinet legs.
These are the sort of thing UK kitchen cabinets sit on:
https://smile.amazon.com/Desunia-Cab...s=cabinet+legs

The leak came from an installation error of a new fridge. The dickhead installer didn't tigthen the water line hose enough. It ruined the entire downstairs floor as it's all open plan.

Thanks for the tip on the cabinets.
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Old Jun 12th 2018, 9:30 pm
  #1151  
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Default Re: Home and garden projects

Originally Posted by Marc_ely
I am talking about cabinet legs.
These are the sort of thing UK kitchen cabinets sit on:
https://smile.amazon.com/Desunia-Cab...s=cabinet+legs

The leak came from an installation error of a new fridge. The dickhead installer didn't tigthen the water line hose enough. It ruined the entire downstairs floor as it's all open plan.

Thanks for the tip on the cabinets.
It would seem that raising the base cabinets offers a great opportunity for crud and mice to hide!
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Old Jun 12th 2018, 9:36 pm
  #1152  
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Default Re: Home and garden projects

Originally Posted by Marc_ely
I am talking about cabinet legs.
These are the sort of thing UK kitchen cabinets sit on:
https://smile.amazon.com/Desunia-Cab...s=cabinet+legs

The leak came from an installation error of a new fridge. The dickhead installer didn't tigthen the water line hose enough. It ruined the entire downstairs floor as it's all open plan.

Thanks for the tip on the cabinets.
Marc
Most base cabinets here are sitting on a frame made from two by sixes. This frame is set back about four inches from front of cabinets and the visible front portion is covered with tile or other decorative material. The cabinets are screwed to this frame and the entire cabinet/ frame unit is then screwed to wall. This locks in cabinets to allow rigid counter top such as granite and a tile Backsplash.
If a big company installed your frig they should help cover damages from poor installation.
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Old Jun 12th 2018, 10:50 pm
  #1153  
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Default Re: Home and garden projects

Originally Posted by Marc_ely
I have a kitchen question...
We had a leak a week or so back and our entire downstairs flooring and kitchen is ruined. It has been removed and it now resembles a building site.

The kitchen units all had to be thrown away due to water damage as they sit directly on the floor. Back in Blighty I fitted our kitchen (I'm kinda handy) and the units sit on adjustable plastic legs rather than direct on the floor. This makes it easy to adjust their heights and level etc and protects the units in the event of a leak.

Is it just a regional thing or do all USA kitchens sit directly on the floor? Would there be a building code in effect for this?
Certainly in the South kitchen base units sit on the floor, they are adjusted for discrepancies using wedges - a method which was dropped in the UK in the late sixties. My B-i-L told me some while back that there was a drive at the end of the last century to use the European style base units with adjustable legs but it never took off.
Kitchen cabinets, and banking, in the US are stuck resolutely in the 20th century.
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Old Jun 12th 2018, 11:14 pm
  #1154  
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Default Re: Home and garden projects

Originally Posted by ddsrph


Marc
Most base cabinets here are sitting on a frame made from two by sixes. This frame is set back about four inches from front of cabinets and the visible front portion is covered with tile or other decorative material. The cabinets are screwed to this frame and the entire cabinet/ frame unit is then screwed to wall. This locks in cabinets to allow rigid counter top such as granite and a tile Backsplash.
If a big company installed your frig they should help cover damages from poor installation.
That's posh, here they just screw the units together, once adjusted, and dump the stone counter on top - which the fitters then wedge when their not so flat countertop/your not so level units don't sit happily in unison.
I had to fit a couple of units along a six foot length of wall in a new build that set the new owners back over 1.5 million bucks and that wall was was out of true by an inch and a half - the counter fitters must have cussed when trying to fit the stone backsplash, filling an inch and a half gap at either end with caulk must have looked effing abysmal, nearly as abysmal as the bespoke staircase with the lower step sticking out past the wall by a generous foot.
Mind you, I have only fitted plywood base units here, chipboard crap obviously exists as my kitchen is and has that dog eared look where the corners start to open up but they have been installed in the method described above and are groaning under the weight of a 2" thick granite top!
Things might be different up North/out West although my B-i-L fits kitchens as far north as New Jersey and hasn't indicated anything different up there.
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Old Jun 13th 2018, 12:32 am
  #1155  
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Default Re: Home and garden projects

Originally Posted by zzrmark
That's posh, here they just screw the units together, once adjusted, and dump the stone counter on top - which the fitters then wedge when their not so flat countertop/your not so level units don't sit happily in unison.
I had to fit a couple of units along a six foot length of wall in a new build that set the new owners back over 1.5 million bucks and that wall was was out of true by an inch and a half - the counter fitters must have cussed when trying to fit the stone backsplash, filling an inch and a half gap at either end with caulk must have looked effing abysmal, nearly as abysmal as the bespoke staircase with the lower step sticking out past the wall by a generous foot.
Mind you, I have only fitted plywood base units here, chipboard crap obviously exists as my kitchen is and has that dog eared look where the corners start to open up but they have been installed in the method described above and are groaning under the weight of a 2" thick granite top!
Things might be different up North/out West although my B-i-L fits kitchens as far north as New Jersey and hasn't indicated anything different up there.
It required some planning during the sheet rock phase to avoid the problem you describe. Knowing where on the wall the base cabinets and counter top and Backsplash will go is used to run a string line across the stud wall and shim it straight then Sheetrock over the straight wall. Now when the cabinets are placed the wall is straight and no gaps. This of course requires attention to detail that most builders lack. The problems you describe is why I made my own cabinets for this house and my previous house. I see no advantage of plastic legs versus a well made base regardless of century. Like previously stated the legs provide a place for dirt to collect. A well made base covered with tile looks much better and if leveling is a problem you need to question the guy who built the floor.

Last edited by ddsrph; Jun 13th 2018 at 1:14 am.
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