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Here's a couple more before pics, but after I started taking some shit down.

And I cut in around the edges, 2 coats. And just applied the first rolled coat. Will apply the 2nd coat tomorrow and hopefully that'll be all she needs. The color is Benjamin Moore 1039 Stone House (eggshell).

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Nice, looks a lot brighter in there.

I should be happier the next time I pee.

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Fuck it this shit drys fast. Put the second/final coat on. Looks much better! Only thing I will have to do is take that light fixture off and paint where it was, no biggie.

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Looks good Brandon!

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Nice work! the new floor in there looks much better as well.

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thanks :) hopefully this weekend I'll be hanging the new light fixture, and this mini-project will be done!!

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I like!

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Alrighty well that mini project is basically done. Nothing compared to Kerry's ballin bathroom, but again my goal is to just make it nice, but on a budget since this is just a little townhouse. Someday when I get a real house, I'll try to step it up a little.

Anyhow here it is. Only thing missing is I'll be adding a picture to the big empty wall the TP holder is on at some point. Thanks to Mr and Mrs Brownman for helping me look around for a picture / knick knacks :)

Total cost:
Gallon of paint = $13 from Hirschfields(thanks to my uncle for letting me use his badass discount
Brushed Nickel light fixture = $29 from Menards
Brushed Nickel TP holder and Towel Ring = $20 from Menards
Towels and Rug = $40 from Target

So basically $100 bucks, and made one helluva difference I think. One thing I also may consider is my uncle does countertop refinishing. Apparently he's one of the few in the state that do it, as you have to get certified to do it down in AZ. So in the future I may have him refinish the counter top in a nicer finish.

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Oh man, that looks so much better.

I am now certain I will be happy with my pee pee out in your bathroom.

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Looks nice, good work!

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Nicely done B. Lots of earthy tones goin on in there, even your pewp will match! haha

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Since that room is done, on to the next project, which will be a little bit more involved.

Master Bedroom/Bath

Recently all the carpet in the entire house was replaced so that portion is already done. What's left in the Master Bedroom is painting the walls, doing the best I can to remove paint from the trim from the previous owner. And a new ceiling fan as you can tell the current one is kinda bleh...

Bathroom, the linoleum flooring will be removed and replaced with tile. Haven't decided yet if I'm going to tile up the walls like I did downstairs, but I'm leaning towards not. New light fixture. Paint. New shower curtain rail (got one of those curved one from Menards for $10). New Shower head. And for now that's probably it.

So once again, my goal here is to redo this all to increase the value of this place a little bit more, but on as small of a budget as possible since I don't see any good reasons to do anything fancy since this is just a townhouse.

Here's the before pics. What you can't see in the pics is that the paint on the walls is pretty bad. Like he just did one coat, and didn't even attempt to keep the paint off the trim.

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Demo complete. Time to go pick up some hardy backer and some tile :) Today is Sunday, and I can get some tile for, 88 cent, at Menaaard's, baybee!! :)

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Prepping for tile. Got 2 sheets of Hardibacker down and decided to call it quits for the day.

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Haha nice work!

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Damn, you are doing work on that shit.

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Nice work! Sounds like you have a good plan laid out for the house. keep us posted!

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Hardibacker is done with the exception of having to finish cutting the hole for the toilet, but the battery on my saw/drill died so I'll take care of the tomorrow. Took almost exactly 3 sheets. Just need to screw it all down and I'm ready for tile :)

\Did you catch my Thai Mai Shu reference :D

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Are you putting a layer of thin set between the backer and what is under it before screwing it?

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I count on my cousin and uncle for technical advice. I don't remember if we had done thinset between the cement board and the subfloor the last time. What do you usually do?

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You should always use a small notch trowel and put thinset between floor and hardiboard. If you dont the tile/grout "could" crack overtime. I would just to be safe.

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+1 ^ the class I took advised to put thinset between the floor and hardiboard to make sure its flat and there isnt a low spot for the tile to crack at after time.

I think they advised to put a barrier between subfloor and thinset as well. I think the basic standard was to use some tar paper (like roofing) and but the thin set on that. There are more expensive options, but not sure its worth it.

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So be it, I'll put thinset on the back of the hardibacker. thanks for the advice :)

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Yes I did baybee haha!

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This is prolly common knowledge, but when you put the thinset between the subfloor and hardiboard. Make sure the thinset is wet when you screw it down. The goal is to create no voids between the two layers.

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My garage is fairly modern, but the foundation of my house is from 1913. I have no idea when the current basement floor was cemented and the pipes under it were laid, but it was something I have been casually avoiding since we bought the place 5 years ago.

Last summer we had a few of our basement drains overflow after doing laundry or taking a shower. I snaked them myself and installed some backwater valves to keep the amount of overflow to a minimum. I treated the system with a few liquid plumber type products and it was fine for several months.

About a month ago the problem started to come back and we made due for a while, but after it backed up enough to flood the basement sink (next to the washer) I decided enough was enough and called up Auggie's drain cleaning. He came out and was like, 'uhh, you have no cleanouts' which answered a few questions I had been having--I had no idea how on earth he was gonna be able to clean out our pipes as I had tried everything!

http://www.scheides.com/albums/house...1705.sized.jpg

So after some investigative smashing and digging, I found our drain pipe to the city sewer about 3' under the floor near the water main coming from the city (facing the street).

http://www.scheides.com/albums/house...1701.sized.jpg

You can just make out the old-ass cleanout plug on the top of the pipe...I had a few other guys come in and they advised me that trying to open that would be trouble. It was basically at the edge of the foundation and if there was any problems at all it would turn into a massive PITA.

http://www.scheides.com/albums/house...1706.sized.jpg

So we opened up the hole a bit more and cleared away the pipe and a cleanout was installed a few feet away from the edge of the foundation. Unfortunately there was a problem...the floor had previously buckled a bit and the jackhammering didn't help things...the new hole was about 8" from a few buckle points/huge cracks.

http://www.scheides.com/albums/house...1709.sized.jpg

I made a tough decision but the jackhammer was let loose on cleaning up any buckles/big cracks in the floor.

At the same time we had a cleanout installed in the main stack...there is limestone foundation and wireframe lathe/cement wrapped up right next to the pipe. Some of it ha to be ripped out so I'm not sure quite how I'm going to fix this in the longterm.

http://www.scheides.com/albums/house...1707.sized.jpg

http://www.scheides.com/albums/house...1708.sized.jpg

Back came Auggie's and they cleaned out the main, the source of the problem. When the pipe was opened up under the floor, it literally flooded the trench that was dug around the pipe....ugh sooo gross! He found a ton of tree roots in the pipe and advised having him back in 12-18 months.

http://www.scheides.com/albums/house...1710.sized.jpg

I carried out all of the cement chunks by hand and I struck a deal to have the cement re-poured for not much more than it would have cost me to do it myself :)

http://www.scheides.com/albums/house...done.sized.jpg

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Nice! If you ever need a good plumber again, I used to work for one and can give you his name and number. He is kick azz.

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Hardibacker is down using thinset and hardi screws.

I have some joint compound that I'll put on the seams later this week.

Money spent so far for anyone who cares:
- 3 sheets of Hardibacker = $30
- Thinset = free (from friend)
- Hardi screws = free (left overs from prior project)
- 12x12 Tile (qty=60) = $60
- Grout & sealer = free (left overs from prior project)
- Curved shower curtain rod = $10
- Shower curtain = $10
- Paint = $30 (used brushes I already had, so no cost there)
- Shower Head = $20
- Towel/TP holders = $50
- Light Fixture = $50
- Toilet = $3 (old toilet, but needed new Johnny Wax Ring)
- Carpet/Tile L-Bracket Transition = $10

TOTAL = $273

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My brother had a very similar problem with his house (older house) where the roots were clogging up the main line to the city sewer. He had a plumber come out and try and drill it out, but was having all kinds of issues. So they put a camera down the hole and found that a previous plumber/homeowner, had snapped off the drilling bit in the pipe, and left it in there. So the new plumber had to get special tools (forgot exactly what had to happen to get it out) but it turned out to be a fuck of cluster.

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Started mocking up the tile to see how I want to lay it out. I think I like this pattern the best.

http://mitsustyle.com/forums/attachm...1&d=1301006742

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We're getting a new fence built on Weds/Thurs then on Friday we're getting this palm tree delivered/planted!

http://www.mitsustyle.com/photopost/...m/IMAG0009.jpg

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Bump!

As some of you know, I live in a townhouse. I share my driveway with a neighbor, and in the middle, there is a tree. Due to the association being behind on projects due to recent storm damage, when questioned about this tree, they told me it was very low on their priority list.

The tree was growing so out of control, one branch was hanging down so far that it just about started to scratch my car.

I decided to take matters into my own hands. I borrowed a friend's truck and chainsaw, and with the help of my neighbor, I went into lumberjack mode.

http://www.polishmafia.com/tree/tree1.jpg

About 1500 lbs of tree removed, plus multiple cuts, bruises, blisters and some blood...

http://www.polishmafia.com/tree/tree2.jpg

Its hard to see in the pictures, but the tree is very tall, and still looks very healthy. Its amazing how much brighter the driveway feels now.

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My bathroom project has been on the back-burner most of the summer. I went to town the last couple days though. All the tile is laid. Depending on how I feel tomorrow, I will either start grouting, or start painting.

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Looks good!

So how hard is it to cut tile for all that? It's one of the only things holding me back from jumping into a bathroom project.

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If you use a wet tile saw it is super easy.

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Yeah it's not so bad. It probably took me a total of 8 hours to cut all the tile that I did for that bathroom. Which is a little longer than normal, but it was tougher because half the tiles I had to cut were at an angle.

And yeah like Flop said, use a tile saw. There's usually someone that has one that you can borrow. I'm borrowing Kerry's right now.

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It's nothing as cool as a new bathroom, but I spent all last weekend cleaning up my house/garage.

Garage was first, I recycled 25 gallons of oil, I swear 10 of those are not mine, LOL. I got rid of the futon as it just became a place to set stuff and made a shelf instead. Mounted the last reminants of my evo8 on the wall, hung my skis and cleaned up all of the oil spills (there was a huge one in the corner) with oil dry.
http://www.scheides.com/albums/house...to_9.sized.jpg

I love my garage, that area alone is enough to do 2 engine swaps at the same time, but i still have this over along the other wall:
...hrm, I guess I don't have any pics of it but there's a 4'x16' workbench along the other side--enough to lay out all of the parts for a disassembled engine and work on any of them as needed.

So also built some shelves in the basement and cleaned up this little room behind my furnace to make my new storage/server/foosball room!
http://www.scheides.com/albums/house...o_12.sized.jpg

http://www.scheides.com/albums/house...o_11.sized.jpg

Beer fridge is still just around the corner :D

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Update on the bathroom.

Tile is done and grouted. Toilet installed. New curved shower curtain rod and curtain installed, makes it feel so much bigger inside!!. New Towel Rack, TP holder, and Hand Towel Ring installed. New light fixture (found it on Uber Sale at Menards) installed. Old mirror put back up. New shower head installed. Also just grabbed the old floor mats and towels from before and put them back in. It'd be nice to get new ones, but trying to stay on a tight budget here. Walls painted Hirshfields Stone House 1039 Super Spec.

That's it for now. What's left is:
- Seal Grout
- Reinstall doors (need to trim since tile sits higher than old floor)
- Reinstall Trim
- CLEAN

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I will have some before/after of my garage soon. I should finish up painting the trim soon. I recently decided that all of the garage was to be repainted. The previous owners had it white with pink trim, but they constantly smoked in there so the walls were yellow from the tar (could tell where they had pictures and stuff hanging on the wall. by the change in color), So i repainted the ceiling white, the walls grey and the trim and workbench black. Then i will be doing the garage floor a grey epoxy with a hi gloss clear over it. After that i need to get a beer fridge and deep freezer. :)
Pics as soon as i finish the trim painting, then another set after the epoxy, Just need to get this shit done before the winter gets too close.

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High gloss clear? Hows that going to work out in the winter when it's all wet?