Insert Tab A into Slot B

The directions were so simple. Took two days and some serious muscling to get it installed, but I finally managed it and am having a 1554 to celebrate and maybe a Dead Guy, since I didn't fall off the roof in the process. I wanted to line my flue to improve the draft. Like so many things in this house, the previous owners did a half-job installing the fireplace insert, just stuck it in the fireplace and let the smoke pour into the ash pit.

15 feet of 8" flexible (semi) stainless steel flue liner in a 10.5" flue. Should be simple? Except the flue walls are not smooth and the joints between the sections are deep and the flex keeps flexing. But, it's in and I might just light a fire this evening as a test.

So, what "simple" job have you spent days working at?

Props to you! I don't think this would be a simple job at all... This is one where I'd be calling someone to do it for me and having the beer while I watch!

Installing new soffit board and insulation under a window seat. With 18" of working room along 8 foot.

Flanked by an evergreen barberry with 1.5" spikes.

Brutal.

So, what "simple" job have you spent days working at?

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Raising the upper cabinet above the sink. For some reason, the installer put it at the bottom of the rest of the taller cabinet. Then installed the valance at the top. Created a nifty shelf above, but hardly any room below for dish washing.

Then I found out the cabinet on the left was not plumb. So....took it down and decided to raise all of the cabinets to an 18" clearance above the counter.

Then I found out whoever installed them did not know you should put the screws THROUGH the backer board. Instead, they put them through the flimsy backing. Which required some repair to the cabinets as the force on the backing pulled the sides of the cabinets loose.

So from simply moving a cabinet up to removing all upper cabinets, repairing most, and reinstalling 1" higher.

Ah the joys of home-ownership. :rockin:

Nice work.

I spent far too long installing a new closet flange when I was remodeling my bathroom recently. I'm on a concrete slab and I just didn't have a powerful enough imact driver to get the tapcons in securely. I'd drill them in and they would seem secure and the concrete would just crumble around them when I tried to set the toilet. I was in fits but finally got it secure after the 4th or 5th attempt.

When I have to put bolts in concrete, I drill over-size and glue them in.

Just wired a three switch two light circuit into my upstairs hall/stairwell... 'this should take 2 hours'... WRONG. All day, full of insulation from crawling around in the attic, back to the store because I didn't have a 4-way switch in stock, etc. It is a trend for me because my basement (workshop/material storage) is a shat hole so I never really know what I have or where anything is.

I've been putting off all of these projects. I actually called a contractor to do a few things around here, but he never stopped by. I hate to bug him for the little things, but I am just tired of doing that crap.

I need to install a ridge vent in the roof, which is not a big deal. Remove top row of cap shingles, cut a space at the ridge with circular saw and nail vent and new shingles on cap.

Oh, then install soffit vents in the 3" wide soffit...

Oh, yeah, and I need to extend the overhang above the kitchen window.

And wire the upstairs in the garage so I can sort my car parts and work on my Mustang. Hmmm... I wonder which item will get done first.

Everything in my house takes longer than it should.

First project I did was to replace the bathroom faucet... That ended up being a total replumming of the entire house to the curb including six new faucets.

Next I had a cracked toilet. Subfloor had termite damage, tore that out. Support beams had termite damage, removed them. Well that sewer pipe looks a bit iffy. Now I've got a floor supported by beams garnered from a house being torn down locally that was built around the time mine was, a section of tile around the toilet mounting as I could not match the floors right any other way, and still no new toilet, as I want to wait to refinish the floor.

Moved the exhaust vents for the furnace and the water heater out of the chimney and to their own area, but need to rebuild the main chimney because it leaks.

Etc...

I recently got a new baby. Went to change out a simple pee'd up diaper. Turned out it was a lot more than pee. 6 butt wipes and a tube of diaper rash cream later and the new diaper was finally installed.

Domminigan said:

Everything in my house takes longer than it should.

First project I did was to replace the bathroom faucet... That ended up being a total replumming of the entire house to the curb including six new faucets.

Next I had a cracked toilet. Subfloor had termite damage, tore that out. Support beams had termite damage, removed them. Well that sewer pipe looks a bit iffy. Now I've got a floor supported by beams garnered from a house being torn down locally that was built around the time mine was, a section of tile around the toilet mounting as I could not match the floors right any other way, and still no new toilet, as I want to wait to refinish the floor.

Moved the exhaust vents for the furnace and the water heater out of the chimney and to their own area, but need to rebuild the main chimney because it leaks.

Etc...

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I wouldn't fix anything else ever again if I were you.

Domminigan said:

Everything in my house takes longer than it should.

First project I did was to replace the bathroom faucet... That ended up being a total replumming of the entire house to the curb including six new faucets.

Next I had a cracked toilet. Subfloor had termite damage, tore that out. Support beams had termite damage, removed them. Well that sewer pipe looks a bit iffy. Now I've got a floor supported by beams garnered from a house being torn down locally that was built around the time mine was, a section of tile around the toilet mounting as I could not match the floors right any other way, and still no new toilet, as I want to wait to refinish the floor.

Moved the exhaust vents for the furnace and the water heater out of the chimney and to their own area, but need to rebuild the main chimney because it leaks.

Etc...

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Hey I saw this movie:



Best of luck with that.

I have 2 pipes that need repalced. Copper, valves and torch have been sitting in the basement for 3-4 months nor probably, Just no motivation. Door to garage needs new jam and door, but still works. Bathroom about to need remodeled, but trying to get 2nd bath planned and installed before that so we have one to use. Bar build coming as well. For some reason I think the bar will get done before anything else.

Brew-Happy said:

Hey I saw this movie:

Best of luck with that.

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I am familiar with that movie:

menschmaschine said:

I recently got a new baby. Went to change out a simple pee'd up diaper. Turned out it was a lot more than pee. 6 butt wipes and a tube of diaper rash cream later and the new diaper was finally installed.

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Classic. Made me laugh.

Boerderij_Kabouter said:

I am familiar with that movie:

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I think the best part about this picture is that the walls are all out, and the door is still installed. Seems kinda pointless, but I've been there before.

None lately (although the swimming pool pump may change that), but my previous house in Ellicott City Md. was built in 1860 and nothing (I mean nothing) was square. When I replaced the kitchen counters I discovered this the hard way

jmendez29 said:

Classic. Made me laugh.



I think the best part about this picture is that the walls are all out, and the door is still installed. Seems kinda pointless, but I've been there before.

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I am more at odds with the ceiling fan still hanging. I mean, I know the fan doesn;t hang from the sheetrock but I'd expect it to come down before the rock is pulled.

And, are those shoes really pink, white, and turquoise?

Went to change out a wheel bearing assembly on SWMBOs explorer the other weekend. Supposed to be a 5 bolt 2 hour job. Took 3 freaking days and had to pull the steering knuckle off the car. fun fun.

CodeRage said:

Went to change out a wheel bearing assembly on SWMBOs explorer the other weekend. Supposed to be a 5 bolt 2 hour job. Took 3 freaking days and had to pull the steering knuckle off the car. fun fun.

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Real question is: How many BUSTED knuckles??? Never fails that I will bust a knuckle working on a car.

jmendez29 said:

I think the best part about this picture is that the walls are all out, and the door is still installed. Seems kinda pointless, but I've been there before.

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Yep, we didn't even realize the door was still there until we were cleaning up.

GilaMinumBeer said:

I am more at odds with the ceiling fan still hanging. I mean, I know the fan doesn;t hang from the sheetrock but I'd expect it to come down before the rock is pulled.

And, are those shoes really pink, white, and turquoise?

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The wiring all has to be redone, so I normally leave the lights up while we are working an until I have a chance to rewire. As a nice side note in this pic, the previous owner put in a false ceiling made out of 2x4s that was about 1.5" out of level across 10 feet. Epic.

The shoes are red white and blue with a healthy coating of plaster dust. pink would be awesome though.

Here are some other good ones, from the same rip out:

bottom of the steps:


looking down the hall:

Brew-Happy said:

Real question is: How many BUSTED knuckles??? Never fails that I will bust a knuckle working on a car.

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Heheh, I usually wear gloves now but I still got bit a couple of times. It isn't a project until you bleed on it .

CodeRage said:

Went to change out a wheel bearing assembly on SWMBOs explorer the other weekend. Supposed to be a 5 bolt 2 hour job. Took 3 freaking days and had to pull the steering knuckle off the car. fun fun.

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What the heck happened? I change the bearing assembly on my wife's Durango and it took about 2 hours pulling in, to pulling out. And that was with sitting there wondering why there was only 2 bolts holding it on, when there shodl have been 3...

Homercidal said:

What the heck happened? I change the bearing assembly on my wife's Durango and it took about 2 hours pulling in, to pulling out. And that was with sitting there wondering why there was only 2 bolts holding it on, when there shodl have been 3...

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It's 4wd and the transaxle and the way the knuckle was shaped you can't get a socket or wrench on the three bolts. So the knuckle had to come off.
Busting ball joints is a pain in the ass so that took a bit. Not to mention some one stuffed an over sized cotter pin into the bottom ball joint so it had to be broken off and drilled out. Then when removing that last bolt from the bearing assembly the head snapped off. It was all good because there were no threads in the knuckle. Had to go use a friends shop press to get the assembly out. who ever had done it before didn't clean out the race and used the bolts to draw it in. Cleaned it all up, the new hub assembly dropped in and had the car put together in an hour. Alignment was toed out because the old assembly wasn't seated flush to the knuckle. Made it fun to drive until we could get an alignment on it....

Well, my project went great. I am officially astonished at the improvement. My neighbor talked about installing a lining years ago and getting twice the heat from his wood. I'm probably getting at least that, plus I can damp the air inlet to the point that the insert is only 100F or so and the fire keeps going. Before I had to leave the dampers wide open or the fire would smother itself. One 5" stick of oak will burn all night and still have enough to get the fir started in the morning.

Also much, much easier to get the draft going. Two sheets of newspaper and away it goes.

The toughest part will be NOT burning wood while it is relatively warm. I cut based on having an emergency supply, not routine heating. I just might have to do a bit of chopping if there is a February clear spell.

My neighbor had a firebox installed in his fireplace and he can now keep his house at nearly 80 degrees all winter on a couple cords of wood. I totally want one of those.

I came home one Friday expecting to throw my hunting stuff in the truck and head to the woods for the weekend. Swmbo says "the kitchen sink is clogged and you need to fix it before you stay gone all weekend" bless! No draino so I grabbed a clothes hanger for a quick snake. Sink starts to drain and all of a sudden my feet are wet. WTF! yep the coat hanger went right through the bottom of the trap (or the layer of chrome paint that used to be a trap) sent her to the hardware store to get a replacement while i clean up and remove the trap. Then the pipe below is corroded through as well so I call swmbo and adjust the order and start to remove that pipe which is held on by a lock nut sitting on the floor of the cabinet. Finally get the lock nut loose (hammer and cold chisel) and hear a crash in the crawl space that lock nut was the only support for 25 feet of galvinized drain line which serviced the kitchen laundry room and part of a bathroom. Two days and a lot of cussing later I have basically a new drain system. I hate old houses.

Dude--- that is at the same time very sad and hilarious.

Mine isn't as dramatic: I went to replace a tile in the tub surround and discovered that all the drywall behind the entire surround was rotted, as well as several studs were damaged. This spiraled into a renovation of the entire bathroom.

New timing chain on my 83' toyota pickup... I can replace the motor in 4 hours, change a gasket in 2 hours, build an exhaust from header back with cat in 1 hour. But a timing chain,,, three weekends. . .