SCHM1AN

It's like a fishing story The fish was THIS BIG (How much I think I can get done in a year) The fish was ACTUALLY *this big* (How much I actually get done in a year)

Apartments being built across the street from my house, starting next spring. Trying to decide if I want to sell now or wait until they're built and tenants are all settled in, then sell. If we sell now, the house will be as-is. If we wait, I'll have the basement rec room and office all finished, a master bedroom walk-in closet done, and the front and back entryways will have tile instead of linoleum floors. Currently, an eyesore of a building is across the street which houses a yoga studio and an overhead garage door company along with 2 townhome-style apartments. Here's the view from my driveway currently: Apartments are aimed at empty-nesters and will be considered "luxury" apartments. $1200 for a one-bedroom and $2000 for a two-bedroom. 40 units being built, and enough underground and surface parking spots that it shouldn't overflow onto the street. (View from my house above shows overflow from Yoga class every 2 hours of the day). The apartments will look like this when they're done What do you think? Should I stay or should I go?

We converted 90% of the house to LEDs after our first summer there when the incandescents just added to the miserable heat, causing our already-28-year-old AC unit to run even more. It seemed like a worthwhile investment just to keep the hours off of the AC unit, improve our comfort, and reduce our energy bill (even though bulbs are expensive). In the almost 2 years we've been in the house I think only 2 have burned out, but I just returned those back to Home Depot for new bulbs with fresh warranties (just make sure you keep the UPC code)

Lots of stuffs going on with our house... So my wife and I found out we're having a baby (yay!) so of course we had to paint the nursery and get some furniture That room used to be my office, and thus my office got moved downstairs into a dark and dingy corner... had to build some shelves for all of my text books We had some lights installed in the basement (city code won't allow me to install myself, so we had to call an electrician) BEFORE: AFTER: Also got some outlets installed in the ceiling so we can watch football on the weekends with our projector and soundbar setup Painting the baseboards Did some landscaping and added some tree rings in the front yard And lastly, ripped out all of the old dingy shelving in the cellar, painted the block walls, and installed some new shelving. Real brick flooring will be installed sometime soon

At Home Depot you can get the CREE 4" recessed LEDs for $20/ea. I have 6 of the 6" variety in my kitchen and they work great with a dimmer. No buzzing, no more heat pouring out of them, and great color at all but the lowest dim settings

Well continuing this saga, the rigid foam on the foundation walls did help to prevent all the cold air from penetrating the crawl space, but what cold air that did get into the crawl space made its way into our closets and thus our bedroom by way of a 3/4" hole drilled into the closet floor to allow the electrical wires to enter in. I pulled out the batted insulation, glued some more R-10 rigid foam between the joists to the rim joist and the sub floor, sealed all the gaps with expanding foam, then stapled Reflectix to the joists and taped the seams with metallic tape. Last night was the first night to make an evaluation, but it seemed to make a big difference. Tonight I plan on finishing a few more joists and also sealing and insulating the return air duct that runs through that crawlspace

No idea. Is there anything wrong with it?

With the onset of cold weather my wife and I found out why the previous owners sold the house in spring; the rooms farthest from the furnace just don't get enough heat and are subsequently cold. After some diagnosing and identifying which ducts were responsible for those rooms, I slapped some R-6 fiberglass & mylar around the ducts. Both of the rooms affected are bedrooms, and the bedroom on the first floor had an addition in the 70s for closets which were added onto the foundation with a small crawl space underneath. During my holiday break, I tackled both of these problems and vastly improved the comfort of our home. I'd say the bedroom is now 5 degrees below the rest of the house instead of 20 degrees below (yes, it was THAT bad). Once we got the bedroom temps up, we noticed that the closets were still cold even with the closet doors open, so I shimmied myself into the crawl space and glued some R-10 rigid foam to the foundation walls. Again, the difference is amazing! http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j224/icehawks11/image4.jpg http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j224/icehawks11/image5.jpg BEFORE: http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j224/icehawks11/image1.jpg http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j224/icehawks11/image2.jpg AFTER: http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j224/icehawks11/image3.jpg

Doing so with my basement cellar. Trying to figure out how much room I'll have for shelves after all the insulation, studs, and drywall are taken into account

The nerd's way of doing things:

Bought a 2011 Trek Cobia earlier this summer. Finally all settled into our new house and I might get the chance to check out some singletrack in a few weeks

Do you think a polycarbonate board will suffice or would you recommend splurging and getting a glass board? Keep in mind I only shoot around recreationally when friends are stopping by

Spent almost a full week in our new place and we're loving every minute. From the moment we got the keys and opened the door we felt at home. Not like moving into a new apartment where you get the weird out-of-place feeling- We truly feel home now. Have a few projects ahead of us, but the house is in great shape. I tell people it's build like a brick sh!t house since I can wake up hours before my wife on the weekends and not have to tip-toe around the house as to not create a stir First home improvement project was replacing the raggety basketball hoop. Next up will be sanding and re-painting the backboard

The family who owned our house before us did a great job remodeling. I just dug up these "before" pictures from the internet Before: After:

Anyone here need some new brake pads? I have a set of Hawk HP+ pads for sale and will discount them a bit for any cheeseheads that want them

Whiter means nothing. As stated before, it's all about the lumens.

Ben, no problem. The DWS are good for an all-season tire, but you also may want to check out the new Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3 tires. No word on how they do in the snow yet, though since they're so new. Franz, you've got a PM

I have a set of Blizzaks that are good for another 2 years if you'd like. The only reason I'm getting rid of them is because I sold my LGT and they won't fit the Forester

my friend's dad was a carpenter, so to deter his son from sleeping with any girls at college, his dad made him a box spring only big enough for him to sleep on, then found some tiny mattress which fit. He forgot that people can fit vertically too

You'd be surprised how small they look, but how much you can cram into them. You become pretty efficient at packaging in college as a result

I really want these, but I can't justify switching to 18s. Good luck selling these!

Welcome to the forum- I'm between Cedarburg and Sussex most of the time but I sold my LGT back in May. I'm typically driving a red 03 Impreza Outback Sport or a black 09 FXT.

Awesome job! Looks like something a guy could get used to having!

Thanks! There were 6 of us in total, 3 young guys and 3 older guys working from 8am - 7pm. The posts are indeed set in concrete about 2'-3' below ground, and we did cut around them with a jig saw which only took an extra 5 minutes per board. In the coming weeks, the owner of the house will be building stairs exiting between the two benches, and also from the white door on the right side of the picture.

Built a deck on the back of a friend's cabin this weekend http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/07/15/5arebema.jpg