Own Place - Basic Improvements

[Dwight Schr-ute]

Yeah, I don't recommend putting any slippery tile in your bathroom.

Ugh. The rental we just left had the worst tile. Super glossy to the point that even a new pair of socks was a health hazard. We almost had to reconsider our "no shoes indoors" policy. Of course, the white carpet usurped such considerations.

[LVAllen]

Donut's chandelier is very nice. I like it.

How slippery is your new tile floor?

It's pretty glossy. It's also an 18" tile, so not a lot of grout joints to give your feet something to grab onto. Haven't seen what happens when you get it wet, but I don't think this is a tile for bathrooms. At least, not without an anti-slip rug.

I'm thinking about doing a DIY tile job in my kitchen. How hard was your tile job from a difficulty standpoint?

From a difficulty standpoint, it was more time-intensive then difficult skill-wise. The flooring store had weekly classes where they would teach you how to install your flooring. When it comes down to it, the hardest part is envisioning how to make your cuts to fit around the stair, etc. I made sure to have plenty of extra tile on hand, and ended up with just over a full box that I'll keep in the garage. For a kitchen, my biggest concern would be the dishwasher clearance space. If you tile underneath the DW, you have to make certain the increase in height doesn't screw with you being able to fit your DW underneath the counter. If you don't tile underneath the DW, you can't ever hope to be able to pul the DW out.

[Donuthole]

I like the "atom light fixture" in the background. What atom is it? 4 bulbs, right?
Looks like all the electrons are in one shell, which is pretty impressive. And "exciting"

Sorry. Only 3 bulbs.

[Walter Sobchak]

Only thing left to do is to switch out the gold chains

The sooner the better... yuck.

[BigFatMeanie]

Because I wanted the brackets metallic to match the small chains. Also, I built a window frame to put on my chandelier. Only thing left to do is to switch out the gold chains, which I'll do when I rent tall enough step ladder to hang a ceiling fan in the great room.

Might want to do it sooner rather than later. I noticed in the picture that the lowest link in the chain has opened up already. Hopefully it doesn't open completely and everything comes crashing down.

[falafel]

Might want to do it sooner rather than later. I noticed in the picture that the lowest link in the chain has opened up already. Hopefully it doesn't open completely and everything comes crashing down.

I'm guessing he opened that link himself and just didn't re-close it for some reason.

That chain isn't going to be so easy to replace, what with the height of the ceiling and the wire running through it. It will be like installing a new light fixture.

[Donuthole]

Own Place - Basic Improvements

I'm guessing he opened that link himself and just didn't re-close it for some reason.

That chain isn't going to be so easy to replace, what with the height of the ceiling and the wire running through it. It will be like installing a new light fixture.

yep. 20 foot ceilings, so it will be a chore. I left the link open because I had a ladder all lined up for the weekend after I made the chandelier. The ladder fell through, and I just never bothered to reclose the link. It's plenty strong, as the fixture is a lot lighter than it looks.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

After scrimping, saving, house-hunting, watching deals fall through, and hunting some more, we finally closed on our first home in December 2015. It's a 14 year-old house in Las Vegas. In the words of our inspector, "the owners weren't the neatest housekeepers in the world, but they didn't hurt the house." It's not a mansion. But it's our Own Place.

After painting the kid's rooms, installing new appliances, and stretching the upstairs carpet, we were left with two carpeted areas on the first floor: the front room:
[ATTACH]6579[/ATTACH]
(Yes, that ancient 300# TV came with the house)
And the first floor bedroom/TV room / play room:
[ATTACH]6580[/ATTACH]
(so did those odd-shaped shelf-thingies)

The first floor carpet was original to the house, stained and gross in every way imaginable. It had to go. So it did. We picked up tile for the front room and laminate for the bedroom. We got tile for its durability and because it's fairly easy to clean. Traditionally, we've tried to keep all food in the dining room, but with 4 kids, it seems like there's always something that's being spilled, smashed, colored, painted, dripped, or otherwise detrimental to carpet. So tile it was. Installation was a DIY.

After Grout:

[ATTACH]6582[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH]6583[/ATTACH]

The bedroom got the laminate treatment. We considered painting /staining the concrete, but realized that if we did that, our future upgrade choices would be limited unless we felt like grinding the paint off. For the next few years, we're going to use this mostly as a TV room while we use the dining room table as homework zones, so we expect there will be more bare feet in that room. So a floating laminate it was.
[ATTACH]6581[/ATTACH]

Anyway, these are our initial improvements. Eventually, we'll lay tile in the master bath (because it's currently carpeted, and carpets and bathrooms just don't work together), rip out a tree in the front and replace it with a peach tree, and a few other changes, but that can wait. For now, we're ready to move in and start living in our Own Place.

I have one of those monster Sony HD CRT TVs. I bought it back in 2005, it's 32 inches and weighs probably around 200 lbs. It's in our master bedroom.

You can buy an 32 inch LED for probably 2-3 hundred. I'm not sure why I haven't just done it yet.

That twist/shag carpet that got put in every house between 2000 and 2010 didn't hold up. When I built my house in 2008, I made sure I bypassed it and upgraded the carpet to tightly woven, patterned carpet (to the detriment of our light fixtures and the smoother finish on our stucco). It's held up quite well.

I kind of regret the stucco thing. People are still doing the smooth stucco 7 years later and it might be here to stay and it's probably something people look for when you're trying to resale the house. Carpet is kind of a tweener thing -- it's not as easy to replace as light fixtures or painting a room, but it's much, much easier to replace than changing the stucco finish on your house.

[falafel]

I kind of regret the stucco thing. People are still doing the smooth stucco 7 years later and it might be here to stay and it's probably something people look for when you're trying to resale the house. Carpet is kind of a tweener thing -- it's not as easy to replace as light fixtures or painting a room, but it's much, much easier to replace than changing the stucco finish on your house.

Stucco is the standard for desert living. It may be ugly, but its ugly on everyone's house.

[cougjunkie]

I have one of those monster Sony HD CRT TVs. I bought it back in 2005, it's 32 inches and weighs probably around 200 lbs. It's in our master bedroom.

You can buy an 32 inch LED for probably 2-3 hundred. I'm not sure why I haven't just done it yet.

That twist/shag carpet that got put in every house between 2000 and 2010 didn't hold up. When I built my house in 2008, I made sure I bypassed it and upgraded the carpet to tightly woven, patterned carpet (to the detriment of our light fixtures and the smoother finish on our stucco). It's held up quite well.

I kind of regret the stucco thing. People are still doing the smooth stucco 7 years later and it might be here to stay and it's probably something people look for when you're trying to resale the house. Carpet is kind of a tweener thing -- it's not as easy to replace as light fixtures or painting a room, but it's much, much easier to replace than changing the stucco finish on your house.

You can buy a 32 inch led for less than that these days.

[falafel]

You can buy a 32 inch led for less than that these days.

The real question is, why would you buy a 32 inch tv?

[All-American]

The real question is, why would you buy a 32 inch tv?

To watch football.

[old_gregg]

The real question is, why would you buy a 32 inch tv?

nice size for a bathroom

[Brian]

Sorry. Only 3 bulbs.

Hydrogen isotope. Nice.

Impressive shell packing of all those electrons.

[Brian]

nice size for a bathroom

I agree, Dragnet reruns look really nice on a 32 inch.