Home Improvement - Undoing Previous Owners "Landlord" Specials

dxmnkd316 said:

Holy hell. I didn’t realize Romex got so expensive. Home Depot wants $65 for like 25 feet of 14/3. That’s insane.

There has to be a better price.

Edit: looks like this is some “premium” option. I have no effing idea why you’d want “premium” Romex outside of armored cable.

Edit 2: looks like I can get it closer to $1/ft or under if I get the standard jacket and buy 100’. Wife tells me I can’t get the 250 ft for $125. But I think I can convince her. Like, 2.5x for 20% more.

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wire prices are hitting covid levels. most wire is made here but raw materials are not. Thank tariffs for the increase in prices.

Nursery at 90%

Doing a stylized Polaris. Otherwise the stars need a second coat and I’ll (finally) be done. Extremely happy with the results.

Was going to run a new Romex cable to a laundry light switch so it has a neutral. Was not expecting the guy to have actually used wall clips when he finished the basement.

Glad I ran my new endoscope through the wall before I started trying to pull new wires.

I could just cut a hole in the drywall and patch it, but frankly, I don’t want to go through that effort. I also don’t have one of those extended bits that let you bore a new hole in the studs. Oh well.

I did, however, replace the shitty old light in the nursery with a fancy new Hue ceiling light. Makes the room look even better in terms of finish and probably doubled the total brightness in the room. Getting so close!


edit: needed a neutral because I wanted to install a smart switch that turns on with motion. Helpful when carrying full loads into a dark laundry room. I know I could use a “no neutral smart switch” but I don’t like how they operate. “Off” is basically extremely low, but not zero, amps so the lights appear as though they’re off. I’m sure this is perfectly fine but something doesn’t sit right with me about it.

I need to run new electrical, but I don’t know if I trust myself to DIY it. The original wires are still in the house, built in 1954. The braided nylon (or whatever material it is) covers can only last so long.

Oof. Yeah…. That’s a significantly larger job than a semifinished laundry rewire that’s like 20’ total.

dxmnkd316 said:

Was going to run a new Romex cable to a laundry light switch so it has a neutral. Was not expecting the guy to have actually used wall clips when he finished the basement.

Glad I ran my new endoscope through the wall before I started trying to pull new wires.

I could just cut a hole in the drywall and patch it, but frankly, I don’t want to go through that effort. I also don’t have one of those extended bits that let you bore a new hole in the studs. Oh well.

I did, however, replace the shitty old light in the nursery with a fancy new Hue ceiling light. Makes the room look even better in terms of finish and probably doubled the total brightness in the room. Getting so close!


edit: needed a neutral because I wanted to install a smart switch that turns on with motion. Helpful when carrying full loads into a dark laundry room. I know I could use a “no neutral smart switch” but I don’t like how they operate. “Off” is basically extremely low, but not zero, amps so the lights appear as though they’re off. I’m sure this is perfectly fine but something doesn’t sit right with me about it.

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New code says neutral at every switch but they used to make proximity switches that used to use the ground for the neutral. The amount of current is negligible until you have an office building full of them and code got changed( within the last few code cycles so not more than 6 yrs ago). They make proximity sensors that go on lights , leave the switch on all the time and you are good to go. Even easier, they now make light bulbs with them built in. https://www.amazon.com/Equivalent-A...ocphy=9002901&hvtargid=pla-2281435179258&th=1

walrus said:

New code says neutral at every switch but they used to make proximity switches that used to use the ground for the neutral. The amount of current is negligible until you have an office building full of them and code got changed( within the last few code cycles so not more than 6 yrs ago). They make proximity sensors that go on lights , leave the switch on all the time and you are good to go. Even easier, they now make light bulbs with them built in. https://www.amazon.com/Equivalent-A...ocphy=9002901&hvtargid=pla-2281435179258&th=1

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No ground either.

I'm awaiting a price quote on some landscaping.

• Add some french drainage to the side of my house where I'm getting a lot of water in the basement (100 year old home) and add a cistern
• Grade the area so it slopes away from the house
• Put down stone in this new area to keep biological material further away from the foundation
• Rebuild some existing flower/garden area on that side and back of the house as well as on a side of my garage. Pull out some stumps, take out a nice but way overgrown bush that's much much much too close to the house
• Replace the decrepit walkway edging in the front

It's a lot of work and I'm hoping it's "only" in the $5000-7000 range but I'm a bit nervous.

Swansong said:

I'm awaiting a price quote on some landscaping.

• Add some french drainage to the side of my house where I'm getting a lot of water in the basement (100 year old home) and add a cistern
• Grade the area so it slopes away from the house
• Put down stone in this new area to keep biological material further away from the foundation
• Rebuild some existing flower/garden area on that side and back of the house as well as on a side of my garage. Pull out some stumps, take out a nice but way overgrown bush that's much much much too close to the house
• Replace the decrepit walkway edging in the front

It's a lot of work and I'm hoping it's "only" in the $5000-7000 range but I'm a bit nervous.

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Hey, welcome back. Hope things are going well with you.

On the cost side, I think you’re low by half. Obviously depending on how big the drain and cistern are.

Our neighbor had one put it, but it was roughly 50’ long. That was 15k+ six years ago.

My wife and I had something both strange and funny happen to us recently.

We live in a very old Victorian style home, built sometime in the 1800's. Despite the fact that it is just the two of us rattling around in close to 5000 square feet of space, she insists on a constant stream of small "remodeling projects." I think she likes them because they frequently reveal things about the home that she didn't know before.

Her latest project is to redo an 8' doorway between what is the front room and what was probably some sort of "sitting room." She has never liked the woodwork around this doorway, so she hired a guy to create something she felt better fit the style of the home.

As he was tearing out the old frame, he discovered that the doorway actually had a pocket door, and furthermore, the pocket door was still hanging on the rail, hidden inside the wall all these years. As he was pulling it out to see what kind of shape it was in, he discovered a drivers license and a credit card, both of which expired more than 40 years ago.

The person identified on the card and license was a prior owner of the home. So, now the question is, was this some sort of weird time capsule, or if not, why were they in there?

Swansong said:

I'm awaiting a price quote on some landscaping.

• Add some french drainage to the side of my house where I'm getting a lot of water in the basement (100 year old home) and add a cistern
• Grade the area so it slopes away from the house
• Put down stone in this new area to keep biological material further away from the foundation
• Rebuild some existing flower/garden area on that side and back of the house as well as on a side of my garage. Pull out some stumps, take out a nice but way overgrown bush that's much much much too close to the house
• Replace the decrepit walkway edging in the front

It's a lot of work and I'm hoping it's "only" in the $5000-7000 range but I'm a bit nervous.

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1) Welcome back.
2) Speaking from the experience of being a former landscape employee, I think your estimate range is at least $5,000 low.

Thanks all. Just really trying to avoid doom scrolling and just stewing in the stupid insanity that is our country right now.