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Thread: Home projects take 3x as long and cost twice as much as you planned

  1. #1
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    Default Home projects take 3x as long and cost twice as much as you planned

    I decided to fix up my garage after seeing how nice a couple of my pals have theirs done up. It's a fairly big space 19' x 32' with 12' ceilings but I figured I could knock it out in two weekends and for a couple hundred bucks in paint and some inexpensive flooring. We built the house 14 years ago and the garage was basic unpainted drywall with a poor tape job on it, so I figured I would do it right and make it look like a car showroom. How long could it take? I worked 12 and a half hours in there today (third all-day spent so far) and I'm only about 1/3 the way done. EGADS. I decided at first to have inside-the-house quality tape joints and corners. This plan was abandoned after the first day when my wife came out and says to me "At the rate you are going Michelangelo, you won't finish this in 2014, and possibly not even in 2015 It's a G A R A G E , not the Sistine Chapel - don't worry if you can see the taped joints, just paint over them". She's right you know...

    When did paint get so expensive? I haven't done a home improvement project in a few years - and I was stunned at the cost of paint and how much bare drywall is sucking up of both the primer/sealer and the paint itself. So far my paint bill is about $ 400 and I might need to get some more. And I've got $ 150 worth of base and edge molding that i thought would cost about forty bucks....which it didn't. The the floor I have picked out is going to be two grand....sheesh. But when i'm done, its going to look GREAT. Since I'm closed at the store tomorrow, I'll be able to get in there another 12 hours tomorrow and hopefully will be halfway done by end of the day.

    Oh yeah, its a lot more tiring to go up and down a 10' stepladder all day long to paint the ceiling when you're 60 years old than it is when you're 35!
    Duane Collie
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    My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.

  2. #2
    Join Date
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    Default Re: Home projects take 3x as long and cost twice as much as you planned

    And you're lucky nothing has gone wrong. Usually home improvement projects involve 3 or more trips to the store to buy parts, buy more materials, buy more parts, return the wrong parts, replace the new parts you break while installing without first reading any directions, return excess materials, go to the internet to see if there are any how to blogs or videos available. This all assumes you do not injure yourself using the new tool you purchased for the job.

    On day two you admire the progress or lack there of and start to question the wisdom of your decision to start such an undertaking. With luck you have enough material to bypass the previous days interruptions at the supply store but you do ask your wife to make a quick trip to CVS for some cold packs and a heating pad ( you're never sure which to use) but you realize your body will need some attention by the end of the day. By the end of day two, again assuming no injuries from the ladder, the power tools, the awkward positions your body has endured for many hours you retire to a hot shower, a handful of aspirin, an easy chair and the cold/hot pads your wife pickup up at CVS.

    Day three starts with a numbing pain in one or more joints, a screaming lower back, muscles aching, a blister here or there and multiple scrapes and bruises suggesting you played a Sunday NFL game rather than that easy, quick, home improvement adventure. You don't even attempt to get out of bed but call to your wife for stronger pain relievers and the phone number of your doctor/chiropractor, vowing you will never undertake such folly again.........until next time.
    Last edited by cuse69; 08-04-2014 at 05:34 AM.

  3. #3
    hglaber Guest

    Default Re: Home projects take 3x as long and cost twice as much as you planned

    I decided to paint the shed a few weeks ago. Pretty shrewd planning - if I paint it now, before it starts to flake and peel, it'll be, what, a four hour job? Probably won't even need 2 coats.

    Let me just hit the few cracks with a scraper...

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    The I open the paint and start to apply it and... I bought 2 gallons of semi-gloss. Town is 20 miles away. So now I have a very shiny shed.

    Took two days.

    And two coats.

    And I skipped the back side.

  4. #4
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    Default Re: Home projects take 3x as long and cost twice as much as you planned

    Congratulations, you can claim shiny is the latest decorating trend and hope no one notices the shabby chic back.
    Last edited by cuse69; 08-04-2014 at 02:19 PM.

  5. #5
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    Default Re: Home projects take 3x as long and cost twice as much as you planned

    Last year our oven stopped working properly and, after an attempt to fix the problem with the cheap solution (major disassembly to replace a fuse) failed, I decided it was far better to buy a new range than to spend half of the price of a new range replacing an expensive control unit (basically, the bulk of the electronics) on a 15-year-old one that was showing its age in a number of other ways. Given that I have a downdraft ventilation system and no room to add ventilation behind the range, my choices were pretty much to replace the range with a new one of the same model or to install a new venting system. So I ordered the current version of the range.

    The new range was slightly wider than the old one. Just wide enough that there was no way on this planet it was going to fit into the space cut into the countertop without that space being increased by 1/2 inch. The cabinets weren't a problem, so it was a matter of cutting the counter back a bit. Oh... did I mention that the counters are granite?

    I called a granite place that advertised that it could perform the needed service. "Sorry, we don't do that any more". I reached out through various people who know contractors. Nothing. I found a contractor who had a granite guy who would make the cut for $200, but he wanted to come by and watch the work being performed at a cost of another $75 per hour. Um... yeah. So I purchased a dry blade at Home Depot, got my circular saw, made a rudimentary dust shield, and made an... adequate cut. It's a bit ugly when you slide out the range -- I had to make the cut (of course) on the side that required me to support and stabilize the saw over the cut-out, as opposed to being able to rest it on the counter while cutting, so it's not the smooth, clean cut that a professional might have made -- but you see nothing wrong when the range is in place.

    Yay! I can slide in the range!

    Oops... one small problem. the new range is also closer to the ground than the old one, and the contractors who installed the old range did a very clumsy, half-(posterior)ed job of installing the vent motor such that it wasn't possible to slide the range into place. I could tilt it and drop it over the old vent motor, and after I hit the top of the exhaust pipe with a hammer a couple of times (yeah... crude, but necessary) it sat on the floor. But I couldn't connect the old vent motor to the stove from that position. So... next task, fix the exhaust vent.

    When I had the range pulled out, I could see that the vent wasn't installed in the proper location even for the old range. Also, it should have been positioned such that the vent went down through the floor, into the basement, and then vented out the wall from beneath. Some things you can't realistically fix -- you have to work around past mistakes unless you want to invest in masonry repair -- so I figure out what I will need to position the new vent motor such that it fits under the oven (slightly out of the position that the installation instructions define) without preventing the oven from sliding in and out of position. I also notice that, of all things, the idiots who installed the vent had used a dryer vent on the outside of the house, rather than using an approved vent cover -- not even close to up to code --- so I track down the proper vent cover.

    When I had all of my parts together, I slid out the oven, unscrewed the motor from the floor, removed the old vent pipe, removed a piece of sheet metal that the original installers had placed over the wall behind the oven, and discovered.... this:
    Click image for larger version. 

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    Yes, that is exactly how things looked when I removed the metal covering. As you can see, the original installer hammered a hole through the drywall and found a drain pipe. Rather than finding a way to properly install the vent, the installer then hammered another hole to the right of the drain pipe, pulled out all of the insulation from the opening in the wall, and put the vent through the wall in the wrong location. Without replacing the insulation, the installer then cut a piece of metal to cover the giant hole, attached it loosely with sheet metal screws, and called it a day. what you can't really tell from that picture is that rather than cutting a hole through the brick on the outside of the wall with an appropriate saw, the installer also accomplished that by hammer, resulting in a jagged, oversized hole that he decided didn't need to be properly sealed on the outside. If this work weren't three feet off the ground on the outside wall, it is difficult to imagine it not becoming an access point for rodents. And yes, we used to get a winter draft from under the range... I had wondered what was going on, but... no further explanation required..
    Last edited by aaron; 08-13-2014 at 12:54 PM.

  6. #6
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    Default Re: Home projects take 3x as long and cost twice as much as you planned

    I love it, Aaron! I find the same shoddy workmanship in the 'luxury' home we bought new in 2000, and it makes me nuts. I should have known when the builder spelled out that we would be considered "trespassing on the property" if we came to look at the house while it was under construction. Of course, there were no English-speaking workers that built our house so not sure it would have made any difference. I tend to like things squared-away and done right, so it irks me to no end to see crappy work that is covered up by drywall, paint and caulk.

    Our original GE Profile Downdraft failed at its 9th year, so we replaced it with a top-of-the-line Thermadore downdraft unit that was quite costly. I was assured this was 'the best'. After just 23 months the bearing failed in the blower motor - it was squealing like a pig....and out of warranty. Thermadore Inc was unresponsive to my requests on they replace the motor but glad to sell me a new one so I took the unit apart to replace the motor and discovered they had the motor hanging un-supported at the fan - of course its going to fail - all the weight of the motor was on the main bearing. I buttoned it all up and told my wife not to run the unit any more than absolutely necessary due to the poor engineering of this 'premium' product, but she did so anyways and now 2 years later the motor bearing is failing again. They can make it all look pretty on the outside, but if they don't have good build on the inside its not worth a hoot.
    Duane Collie
    Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
    My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.

  7. #7
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    Default Re: Home projects take 3x as long and cost twice as much as you planned

    Still painting my garage. One thing I will NEVER do again is paint 710 s.f. of bare drywall ceiling that is 12 feet off the floor with a roller. What a job! The light is at the end of the tunnel though....about 4 more hours of painting left and the new floor arrives late this week (Racedeck). 14 gallons of paint and primer used so far, quite a bit more than I anticipated. This is going to be my garage floor pattern (for those of you into this sort of thing), It's a 3-bay garage....the red accents key to my red Snap-On toolboxes.

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    Duane Collie
    Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
    My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.

  8. #8
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    Default Re: Home projects take 3x as long and cost twice as much as you planned

    The reds should be 2x2 rather than 1x2. This would center the accent reds and give a little more pop. Just my opinion. Looks like a great flooring.

  9. #9
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    Default Re: Home projects take 3x as long and cost twice as much as you planned

    I just finished painting my garage at 8:30 a.m. this morning (I've been getting up at 5:30 a.m. every morning and working for three hours before coming to work). Fourteen gallons of paint used, two paint brushes, Lots of roller covers, and a 5 gallon bucket of of drywall compound. Took about 90 hours to do it so far working in all my spare time. But its done and waiting on the floor - which just arrived about 20 minutes ago. 600 lb worth in the back of my pickup truck. I'll start on it tonight....

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    Duane Collie
    Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
    My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.

  10. #10
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    Default Re: Home projects take 3x as long and cost twice as much as you planned

    Whooo-Hoooo! My garage is done! This took a lot of work, far more than I planned, and I know that I will NEVER-EVER tape/mud/sand/prime/paint another 600 + s.f. ceiling that is 12 feet off the floor. That was hard.

    Here's two shots, before (working on my BMW motorcycle) and after showing the first bay. Now its almost too pretty to do an engine teardown on the premises...

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    Duane Collie
    Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
    My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.

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