Re: Home and garden projects
 

We do the same. We like to "touch up" or redo our walls, woodwork, baseboards, etc. Our doors are often in need, for some reason.... So we tend to keep paint around a long time, both opened & unopened.

My neighbor used some (unopened) 20 year old paint a few months ago. A frugal New Englander!! :lol: He said it needed a lot of stirring, but was otherwise fine.

Re: Home and garden projects
 

The score so far this year: Pulaski 5 (nests destroyed) - Wasps 1 (sting against Pulaski)

It's been a bumper year for wasps - I "got" two ground nests a couple of weeks ago, and three more on the porch this evening. :thumbsup:

Re: Home and garden projects
 

Jeez, is there something that attracts them? I've not had any issues so far.

For the longest time I've had quite a phobia of all things flying and stinging.

I'm starting to get over it with bumble bees now i'm mowing the yard.

Re: Home and garden projects
 

Someone keeps mailing them to him. :sneaky:

Re: Home and garden projects
 

Not that I know of. In the UK it is said wasps favour areas surrounding a willow tree as that is their preferred source of cellulose for nest building, but I don't know if there is a similar "preferred tree" in the US. I certainly don't know of any willow trees in the area.
Why would anyone do that? It seems like hard work, especially when there are easier things to mail, such as cake. :nod:

Re: Home and garden projects
 

3D design software -

I'm planning a small kitchen remodel in my condo. The cabinet shop my contractor sent me to had a great software tool that rendered the design in 3D, giving me a great preview of the design. I asked what the software was; it was called 2020 Design; not cheap. I did some further research, and read about a program 'Sketchup' that is free. This is software that was bought by Google, then sold by Google to Trimble. Sketchup is apparently the package used on a popular HGTV show for 3D rendering (Fixer Upper). https://www.sketchup.com/ . There's a free version and a paid version ... so it's always going to be a question as to whether the free version is sufficient.

Anyone have experience with this package, and / or, any recommendations for a package that lets you enter measurements, object types, etc and then render in 3D?

Re: Home and garden projects
 

Sketch Up, not worth buying. The rendering is pretty shit, but you can do quite decent models, quite quickly. You can then import the files into Blender, which is a pretty decent, free, 3D package that'll do a better job of rendering out the images.

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/ They used to have a free version, not sure if they still do, but it's a CAD type program that's worth a look.

https://www.3ds.com/products-service...-cad-software/ This is a bit more of a traditional CAD program, but it's free if you're not using it for professional projects so it's worth a look.

Re: Home and garden projects
 

Just wanted to drop this link in here - I remembered it for another thread.
https://www.ifixit.com/

Re: Home and garden projects
 

Just noticed some extreme drill bits if you have a major job on.
40% more life in concrete and rebar than competitive carbide bits
Bosch Bulldog Xtreme 1/2 in. x 4 in. x 6 in. SDS-plus Carbide Rotary Hammer Drill Bit-HCFC2081 - The Home Depot

Re: Home and garden projects
 

Thanks for the great info! I'll hopefully find the time to explore all this shortly and report back!

Re: Home and garden projects
 

I used to work for a (different) subsidiary of Trimble so had the pro version of Sketchup to play with. I used it for mocking up tradeshow booths, mostly - that's pretty much all straight lines and standard lengths of prefab units, so easy enough for my limited skill set. Being a sort of strange hybrid of proprietary and public, there are loads of free libraries of stuff that other people have done, so you don't have to draw and render everything from scratch. You may find a kitchen model you can take apart and reconfigure to the shape of your space, for example.

I haven't played with Draftsight, but a lot of engineering design types swear by Dassault Systemes' 3D tool Solidworks, so if their free consumer-license version is cut from the same cloth it'll be good...

Re: Home and garden projects
 

Yard work continues here in my overgrown mess. Removing so many vines and weeds, but feeling like I get pretty much no where.

I'm starting to come to the realization that summer will just be about taking 100% overgrown down to about 90%, with the bulk of progress being made in the fall/winter.

At that time I'm also going to be removing beds that wrap part of the house that no one sees (why its there in the first place I have no idea) and replacing with sod.

Re: Home and garden projects
 

It's awesome! It's also really massive and hugely intimidating and hard to get into using if you're not familiar with solid modelling or the way other CAD type programs work. I didn't realise they did a freebie license these days. They used to cost tens of thousands when at uni...so we were a little more creative :o

Re: Home and garden projects
 

I've used Sketchup for professional work. There are thousands of often free extensions to render the work photo-realistically, you don't use the native render except for a rough look.
I use SketchUp, Solidworks (if I can't avoid it) and Alibre Design, as well as Keyshot for renders.

Steve

Re: Home and garden projects
 

Finally the rain let out here and the roofers have began tearing down the old 20yr old shingles and putting up new architectural ones. At last I don't need to climb into the attic at 11pm to stop the rain!