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The Kraken of TWC

Squid's Adventures In Home Renovation Part I

Rating: 4 votes, 3.50 average.
10 Comments
by
Squid
, April 08, 2015 at 04:53 PM (3426 Views)
From the title you can probably guess this will turn out to be a multi-part blog as I try to achieve a bit of catharsis through writing about this wonderful amazing eventful, lets stick with that so I can avoid the censor, experience in my life. My wife and I bought a new house last year just before summer, its an older place having been built in the late 50s but the location was perfect. We knew there were a couple of things we wanted to do, the cupboards in the bedrooms looked old and could do with some updating, the toilets were not water efficient, the windows were original, but were top of the line for the time so were still reasonably energy efficient and we knew that our attic didn't have great air circulation which would need to be addressed before the weather turned cold. All in all nothing too serious for a house that's 60+ years old.

I should probably preface this by saying that prior to starting I had little to no home improvement skills. I can change light bulbs, install a ceiling fan, and replace receptacles. I've also fixed our shower tap and replaced our kitchen sink tap, but that was about the extent of what I could do. I've done no major construction work. My tool kit consisted of a 12V drill and various screwdrivers and pliers, a measuring tap and a 7.5" circular saw, which was a present that I'd used exactly once while installing a shelving unit system into the master walk-in in our old house.

The first project was to add some shelving to our garage. Although the project itself was easy it proved too much for my decade old 12V drill and it promptly overheated when trying to put screws into 2x4s. I needed to buy a new drill to finish the project . . . that should have been my first clue that things weren't going to go according to plan.

Updated April 09, 2015 at 02:18 PM by Squid

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Life on TWC

Comments

  1. GrnEyedDvl's Avatar
    I feel your pain. I still have tons of stuff to do on the house I bought in 1994...
  2. Aikanár's Avatar
    Ah, home improvement. The joys and pain, mostly pain.
  3. Halie Satanus's Avatar
    [QUOTE]that should have been my first clue that things weren't going to go according to plan. [/QUOTE]

    Only if the plan [I]wasn't[/I] to find an excuse to buy bigger 'better' power tools...
  4. Sir Adrian's Avatar
    You can never have too many power tools.
  5. Squid's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Halie Satanus
    Only if the plan wasn't to find an excuse to buy bigger 'better' power tools...
    If the plan was to build my tool collection then it working perfectly. My tool collection has expanded remarkably well over the last year.
  6. Squid's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Doctor Shuu
    You can never have too many power tools.
    Well you can but that's only for a bit as you'll need to buy more power tools to build a place to store all the ones you have!!
  7. GrnEyedDvl's Avatar
    And then you need to buy tools to fix the other tools you have when they break!
  8. Augustus Lucifer's Avatar
    By the time you finish renovating your house it will be time to start re-renovating because IoT devices will be widespread and your counters won't be equipped to talk to your floor about the status of your garden gnome, which simply won't do.
  9. Loose Cannon's Avatar
    As someone who's main business is remodeling houses, I must admit I enjoy reading stories about remodeling from the homeowner /DIYer group. :) They help brighten my day.

    12V cordless drill? I think I have 2 out in the garage. They're so cute:laughter:. I hope that you've stepped up to something in the 18V-20V class. Lithium-ion. (that voltage difference is just a marketing gimick. those batteries are all 20V without a load). And I hope you're bought the right tool which is a DRIVER, not a drill. Drills are for drilling holes and drivers are for installing screws without holes.
    I reccommend Ryobi's ONE+ line for homeowners/DIYers/ beginners as they have the best combo of quality, various tools, price point, and warranty. Unless you just want to spend more money on Milwaukee , Bosch, or Makita.

    And unless you own a drywall lift and scaffolding you're not even near the point of having too many tools.
  10. Squid's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Loose Cannon
    As someone who's main business is remodeling houses, I must admit I enjoy reading stories about remodeling from the homeowner /DIYer group. They help brighten my day.

    12V cordless drill? I think I have 2 out in the garage. They're so cute. I hope that you've stepped up to something in the 18V-20V class. Lithium-ion. (that voltage difference is just a marketing gimick. those batteries are all 20V without a load). And I hope you're bought the right tool which is a DRIVER, not a drill. Drills are for drilling holes and drivers are for installing screws without holes.
    I reccommend Ryobi's ONE+ line for homeowners/DIYers/ beginners as they have the best combo of quality, various tools, price point, and warranty. Unless you just want to spend more money on Milwaukee , Bosch, or Makita.
    I went with both actually, I got an 18V Milwaukee Drill and and 18V Milwakee Driver. I'll have to admin that when I first got them I used the drill only as I couldn't seem to get the driver working for me, but now I use both and the driver has proved invaluable as the project has progressed.

    And unless you own a drywall lift and scaffolding you're not even near the point of having too many tools.
    A drywall lift likely isn't on the list of tools that will be purchased since we aren't doing drywall ceilings, at least partially because we know that at some point we going to need to rewire the main floor (it's still on non-grounded wiring except for the kitchen and master bath).