We've had all kinds of projects piling up and finally got around to making a list and scheduling our handy dude to come over and help us get through it.

What Handydude Mike and I did on Monday and Tuesday:



The nearly 20 year old gasketing on our three season room was failing, so we replaced all that and we put new polycarbonate roof panels in because the old ones were scratched, dirty, and generally carpy.

The old roof had a different batten system that was kinda clunky; this is much simpler and sleeker and it will be easier to blow leaves off.

I see the master bath window sill (pic was taken through that window) needs cleaning....that room gets painted next, so I'll clean it then...

Nice!

I hear you. Been stripping and brightening my deck this week. The fun never sets. Painter comes tomorrow to give estimate on some work.

I'd be glad to pay someone else to do it if I could find someone I trusted to do it right, but so far we are 0 for 2.

We were always DIYers (my better half and I built that screen room originally, for instance) but Mr WTG has some pretty bad osteoarthritis so we're very limited as to what we can take on these days. We're farming out pretty much all of our projects.

I had to help on the screen room because of the size of the panels and battens. Much easier to do with two people. I definitely felt it in the knees with all the up/down on ladders.

I know how hard it is to find people to do quality work. My mom found Mike almost 25 years ago when she wanted some painting done in the condo she bought in 1995. She asked at the paint store and they gave her his name and said he was good.

He wasn't just good, he was fantastic. He's worked on some very high-end projects on the north shore, including the home of a former head coach for the Chicago Bears and Jim Lovell's house. Yes, Mike actually got to hold a moon rock.

Mike started life as a painter, but then people kept asking him to do other work. He can do pretty much anything (remodel kitchens and baths, lay floors, build decks, build cabinets etc.). He's a stickler for detail and when he works he's as neat as a pin, probably a vestige of starting life as a painter. He covers everything in tarps and cleans up everything at the end of the day when he leaves (except the big remodeling stuff, of course).

I don't know what we would do without him....he's basically redoing some of the work that we've had done in the past by people who didn't really know what they were doing. You oughta see how the service door from the garage to the back yard was installled....oy....Mike will tackle that next week on a nice day. That and putting up the stainless steel gutter guards that I ordered from Costco last month. Plus a zillion other things. I think he'll be here for at least two or three weeks on at least a part time basis...he's 65 and starting to cut back a little on hours...likes to spend time with his grandson...

I have a great general contractor, but I would not ask him to do small jobs like this. We have a painter coming tomorrow so we will see how he is. He comes highly recommended.

Mike never made it to general contractor-size gigs. He used to work with his son and they did medium to largish projects like kitchens, baths, and such. At one point he tried to add another person or two but always ran into problems with controlling quality. He didn't want the hassle.

He and son Rich worked together for a long time but a couple of years ago Rich moved to Wisconsin so Mike works alone. That's part of the reason he's scaling back and not taking on the big projects. He has a faithful following and plenty of referrals, so he's as busy as he wants to be. We've latched on to him for now so we can keep him here for a while. We're seriously thinking about doing some work in our basement. I'm not into finished basements and you typically don't get your investment back in terms of increasing the price of the house but I think it would make our smallish house easier to sell if the basement space were more usable. I've been keeping an eye on local real estate listings and it seems that almost everyone has a finished basement.

New coach and front door lights were another small project earlier in the week, along with painting the trim around the overhead garage door. I had washed the siding and the door itself last week. The old lights were starting to show their age, with the paint starting to bubble and peel. There were also a couple of loose bricks on the front porch that he mortared back in place.





Now the whole entrance looks more well-maintained and inviting.

The work continues.

New stainless gutter guards doing their job. Pic taken through screen in window, so it's a little funky.



It's autumn, and the new composter is ready for action.



New service door on the garage. Need to clean up a little paint on the glass.



New paint and new floor in master bath. Color is Ben Moore Bar Harbor Beige - we love it. Floor is limestone-look click lock vinyl. Photo doesn't do it justice.

That vintage AM transistor radio on the counter in the corner was my dad's. Vintage early 60s. No portable Bluetooth speaker for Mr wtg!







Current project is the replacement of this 1960s vintage wrought iron railing from our second floor hallway. Forgot to get a pic while it was still installed.



Got a chuckle when Mike was taking out the brackets that held the old railing in place. Three-quarter inch screws into the oak bullnose were all that was keeping it in place.

Will post a pic of the finished product when it's done.

Next up: The Basement. Raising the suspended ceiling and installing flat panel LED fixtures. Probably leaving the concrete walls, but are deciding whether to install a Drilock plywood subfloor and click lock vinyl planks. We'll see.

Well aren't you ambitious!

My projects are cleaning up estate gardens and here and being delayed with wet wet and more wet coming. Ggggrrrrr...

I get started on my deferred maintenance yesterday with a trip to the gym.

Lol, Chas.


Good stuff, WTG!

It all looks really nice!

(You’re going to love the flat panel LEDs.)

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Miller:
It all looks really nice!

(You’re going to love the flat panel LEDs.)

We had a flat panel LED in our laundry room. The light was harsh, and it failed within three years. And, to replace it, the whole fixture had to be changed out. So we went with a traditional fixture with bulbs as the replacement.

Quirt - I know what you're saying about brightness and harshness. I think there are two things going on, namely the lumens and the color temperature.

The color temperature on the LED we are tinkering with is 4000K and is rated at 3400 lumen, which is pretty much equivalent to the cool white fluorescent bulbs we have there now. The fluorescents lose a lot of light into the suspended ceiling and some of the light is blocked by the cheap plastic lens in the ceiling grid.

Our remodeling guy wired an LED flat panel up to an extension cord and we tried it in a couple of locations in the basement. It's a ton of light, too much, especially when compared to our existing fixtures. We plan to put dimmers on them so I hope that will address the brightness issue.

As for color...I started looking around for fixtures in the 3000K range, and they do exist but don't seem to be as readily available as the 4000K. And the ones I found were a lot more expensive. edit: For the amount of time I spend in the basement, I'm ok with the whiter light of 4000K. If it were going in my kitchen, I wouldn't be compromising.

Steve - any suggestions as to brand? We were going to go with the most accessible product, which is the Eaton branded Metalux fixtures that HD carries. They're made by Cooper. They're not that expensive but you often get what you pay for.

any tips regarding brands to avoid, etc. would be greatly appreciated.

I hear what you're saying, wtg. And we have flat panels in the garage that seem to be working fine (although, because it's a garage, you can supplement with outdoor light by opening the door).