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Tell me that practically every single tool in your house was purpose-purchased. I can even tell you about buying a hand saw almost 30 years ago. Point to anything in the garage and I will tell you why I bought it.

It is impossible to justify filling a garage with tools, but when you do the per-project ROI it always woks out because doing it yourself saves you enough to justify the tool.

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On 4/2/2021 at 8:34 PM, ATXZJ said:

It's a POS reciprocating saw from harbor freight that I've been abusing for 15 years. 

Give it a try. I bought a tree & root specific blade from the despot for under $20. It went through all those roots and hit rocks, and stayed sharp. 

 

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwaukee-12-in-3-TPI-Pruning-Carbide-Teeth-Wood-Cutting-SAWZALL-Reciprocating-Saw-Blade-48-00-5233/313469090

OK, first of all...THANK YOU! I Home Depot was sold out so I bought a three pack of these blades on Amazon. Used one today, and DAYUMM! Literally 10 minutes per bush.

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popcorn ceilings are ruining my life. the good news is, we might have found the solution as we've almost completed ONE ROOM. so far, the process went:

  1. soak ceiling to prevent making a mess when scraping. cold water, hot water, water mixed with varying levels of vinegar, wait five minutes, wait 15 minutes, wait an hour, various levels of saturation. we tried EVERYTHING and it still makes a horrible, dusty mess.
  2. sand down imperfections with every technique and whiz-bang product on the market. still makes a bunch of dust.
  3. apply joint compound. sand down imperfections until you remove all the joint compound you just applied.
  4. rethink your life choices stretching back to age 6.
  5. apply a layer of soupy joint compound using a 3/4" nap roller. MONEY! this works.

at this point, we have learned that applying joint compound using a mid-thickness roller creates a nice texture if you do it carefully, one that does not require any additional treatment before primer and paint. Even better, it made us realize that we can skip steps 1–3 and only briefly dwell on 4. we can apply joint compound OVER the popcorn and basically bury it. Joint compound, rollers, primer and paint are a lot cheaper than paying a professional (multiple quotes for $5-10k) and we can do it at our own pace. it's also a helluva workout for the shoulders. some of the money we save goes to my bike parts and her whisky collection.

it's not so obvious as "don't look at the ceiling," which is what I would do if I had the option of making that decision, but it works.

Edited by mack_turtle
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On 4/25/2021 at 7:30 AM, AustinBike said:

Tell me that practically every single tool in your house was purpose-purchased. I can even tell you about buying a hand saw almost 30 years ago. Point to anything in the garage and I will tell you why I bought it.

It is impossible to justify filling a garage with tools, but when you do the per-project ROI it always woks out because doing it yourself saves you enough to justify the tool.

I don't like asking for help, and I'm too cheap to pay someone else to do something I can probably do. The despot charges $70 a day for that saw and I can buy for under $300. Made sense just to buy. Thankfully, I have a big garage with lots of storage.

Back in the 90s I used to own a business that built racecars etc. After closing it I thought I'd never need heavy tools again, but I was wrong. Before long I got into jeeps and had to buy everything for a second time. Sucked.

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On 4/25/2021 at 7:30 AM, AustinBike said:

Tell me that practically every single tool in your house was purpose-purchased. I can even tell you about buying a hand saw almost 30 years ago. Point to anything in the garage and I will tell you why I bought it.

It is impossible to justify filling a garage with tools, but when you do the per-project ROI it always woks out because doing it yourself saves you enough to justify the tool.

I'm almost always surprised how much I use the tool after the specific project is done. 

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20 minutes ago, notyal said:

I'm almost always surprised how much I use the tool after the specific project is done. 

Yeah, I was 55 years old when I finally got a vice for my workbench. Kept thinking I need one and always remembered the heavy duty one on my dad's workbench. Always had an issue because to get a good heavy one you're looking at ~$100 and for that kind of money I can figure a way around it. Then my brother-in-law was downsizing and begging us to help him clear out junk. He had a big old vise on one of his workbenches. Score! Have used it several times in the past year and wonder how I ever got by without one. Also bought a Dustbuster the other day because my wife just got a new car with a black interior. It has spend more time cleaning my workbench than her car in the short 2 weeks that it has hung on the wall.

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  • 2 weeks later...
7 hours ago, ATXZJ said:

screencapture-file-C-Users-PATTERSON-Pictures-old-house-1-webp-2021-05-05-09_16_35.jpg

When I bought my house in Richardson in 1998, it had wallpaper kind of like that, but to top it off the master bedroom had a top border section of different wallpaper:  black background with red roses.  Obviously older people lived there and that's to be expected.  The funny thing was neighbor introductions and a lady admitting to being the decorator and giving me her card.  I'm sure I made a face even if I tried not to.

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51 minutes ago, AustinBike said:

Please tell me that is not an ironing board in the top picture. 

Our 1920's place in Houston had an ironing board setup like that in the kitchen. Striped it, added shelves and it was a fantastic spice rack.

Edited by Mattlikesbikes
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We lost the "guest bedroom," aka place where I stage all my riding gear, for a month while we attempted to remove the popcorn ceiling, resurface and repaint it. finally finished last night. it looks marginally better. we spent a lot of money on tools and material and made a huge mess. the result was clearly done by amateurs. I probably inhaled a lot of stuff I should not have (the risk of asbestos is very low, thankfully). the experience has taught me this: if you don't like the look of your ceiling, either suck it up and abandon your house for two weeks while professionals do it to the tune of $10K+, or don't look up.

Edited by mack_turtle
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28 minutes ago, Mattlikesbikes said:

We didn't pay anywhere near that. we did have to pay them to paint too, but still came out pretty cheap. 

we got multiple quotes. the cheapest one was more like $5K and we got the impression that he was going to cut corners and do it in three days. we'd have to remove most of the furniture from the house and leave completely for three days. the more expensive ones said we'd have to leave the house for two weeks.

I looked into covering it with drywall and also skim-coating over it. I decided, F-it. I have better things to do with my time and with my money. I missed several perfect weather days when I could have ridden my bike because I was scraping a cieling.

Edited by mack_turtle
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