Off-Topic Non knife related projects

jbarsquat

jbarsquat

Joined
Feb 22, 2017
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In the spirit of branching out from blades. John mentioned something in the whatever thread that made me want to start an off topic conversation. I know that most anyone that carries a knife also works with their hands. Sometimes not to make a living, but at least around the house.

So what are you guys working on around the house? Maybe helping a friend or family member with some home upgrades? Renovating or rehabbing a house or old shop? Let's see what you guys are doing to stay busy.
 
IMG_3078.JPG IMG_3082.JPG IMG_3083.JPG I already shared the fire pit I put in the backyard in the whatever thread. The next thing that had to be changed was this "door" to my laundry room. I got rid of the zebra curtain and promptly threw it in the trash. Tried to match the new door to the floor as best as I could with a stain called "oriental ginger".
 
Got a Menards gift card as a house warming present so it paid for most of the new door. It's very convenient because it's a tight corner where a normal door would just get in the way.
 
The door looks good. My wife is a fan of the "barn door". We've got one going from our bedroom into our bath and she wants to put a couple more in the basement (which is our current project, course I'm not doing the work).
 
That's a pretty cool looking door! Nice work.

After feeling like crap over the winter and other family issues, I am feeling better this year. We hadn't done any major projects for awhile. I've been bugging my wife for years to put in a retaining wall by our garage. I finally gave up asking, but surprisingly, this year she started bugging me about it. So we dove in and got right to work. Here's what it looked like before...

wall1.jpg


We dug the first part out by hand, then realized the rest wasn't going to be that easy. Luckily, my brother-in-law has a nice little Kabota that he let us use. Man, I think I know where all the ledge is in NH, in my yard, LOL. Also luckily, he was building a natural stone wall on his property, so he has taken much of the rocks from my excavation pile for his project.


wall3.jpg


And we're now up to this...


wall2.jpg


So, my original retaining wall has turned into the Hoover Dam project, LOL. Seriously though, we are moving on to stairs and walkways now. Still a lot of work to go, but it's starting to look like something. I did have to give my wife credit. Most of "her" projects involve me doing all the work, but she is right beside me on this one, busting her hump just like me.
 
She must be more in tune with the design stuff! I had no idea these existed until I walked past the display at the store
 
jbarsquat said:
That retaining wall looks like a decent chunk of work! Takes a lot of sweat to move that much dirt.
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Yeah, plus each block weighs 40lbs. Good work out, fer sure!
 
Pretty cool Door, very nice retaining wall, I've been meaning to put a porch on our back door, and re-do the retaining wall alongside the back of our house since we moved, might just be the kick in the pants I need to start working on it, for now I have a fence to rebuild, parts of it got taken out by a storm, and we just found a leak in one of our pipes, so I'll be plumping and dry walling next...oh, and I have to put electric and a floor in my wife's outside building we're turning into her office...so, yeah, should have some pictures soon of somethign :)

Thanks for sharing guys
 
Fantastic work, gents! Glenn, that earth work is no joke! Adding a bunch of 40lb stones to it makes it painful for me to look at.

I recently added a couple 14" static vents to my roof in an attempt to lower my attic temps (thus reducing my A/Cs work load), but they hardly made a difference. I guess a 40 year old house is just going to do its own thing until I take drastic measures.

Most of my non-knife related projects involve keeping my 15 year old car on the road. I've been chasing an electrical problem for over a year now, and I was fortunate to receive some wonderful help from a member last week. I continue to narrow down my list of potential problem points, but it seems like once every few months my car gets fed up with me.

I'm starting to deal with mechanical parts reaching the end of their lifespan now, too. Someone who has never driven a manual transmission would be totally lost in my car. The linkage knuckle that keeps everything nice and tight is fully worn. My gear lever moves around like it's in neutral no matter which gear I'm in. It's going to be a complete pain to replace, but fortunately, it only looks like it'll cost me $50 or so. I could use some new struts and springs, but that'll cost a bit more than I can shake right now and nothing is worn so bad that it's cause for concern. I just have the squeaky hoopty driving through the neighborhood at 6am.
 
Think I found our leak, I cursed at it for a while so I feel better now

IMG_20170826_124019.jpg
 
Had a fairly productive weekend. Since I am as white as can be, I burn pretty easy, so I put up a tarp over my work area, allowing me to work longer into the day. Got much of the major stair area in. Still pulling out rocks the size of Volkswagens...

wall4.jpg
 
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A couple photos of recent projects. Put a gutter up on the side of our house. You can see the water was splashing and causing issues, hopefully this helps (and is installed at least adequately).

The other project was removing the rusted out rockers from my WJ. Luckily my buddies uncle owns a body shop. This took longer than I expected but I'm happy with the results. Removed the old rockers and shoved in some 2x6 square metal tubing. Cut and welded up the ends of the tube for looks and let stuff fall off easier. Coated with bedliner after all was said and done.
 
Amazing what a gutter can take care of! Nice work on the jeep also.
 
Kalibr906 said:
The other project was removing the rusted out rockers from my WJ. Luckily my buddies uncle owns a body shop. This took longer than I expected but I'm happy with the results. Removed the old rockers and shoved in some 2x6 square metal tubing. Cut and welded up the ends of the tube for looks and let stuff fall off easier. Coated with bedliner after all was said and done.
Click to expand...

Good work on the Jeep! I'd say that looks better than the rockers looked new anyway.:thumbsup:
 
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