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The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures

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I went on to Lowe's site and bought a shed kit, a 10 x 12 x 7 Gambrel-roofed shed. They send all the wood pre-cut, the nails, etc., too. I figure there's about a $500 premium paid for them to take care of the cutting. I need a flat place to set it, and didn't just want to put down a pad of landscaping rock, so I've started building a wooden base (all green treated/pressure treated). First, I placed down the 4x4 posts, and set them in concrete. They're about 0.5" off square, when measuring the one hypotenuse, but the other is almost dead-on balls accurate. I still have to set the 2x6 joists, and then the plywood flooring over them. I'm starting to think that I should have just paid a guy to put down a concrete pad back when I had my driveway replaced in July. Getting the posts to square was a much bigger task than I expected, and I was expecting easy. The shed kit comes on two weeks from today, so then we'll see how well I can follow instructions.

And yes, the posts are all in 3" from the 10'x12' dimensions to account for the width of the 2x6 joist wrapping. I thinked before I done.

How is the shed sided? Typically, you want the siding (and/or sheathing under it) to start lower than the outside edge of the floor decking to prevent water intrusion, even if it's treated. In other words, is their 10 x 12 dimension an outside-of-siding measurement?
 
How is the shed sided? Typically, you want the siding (and/or sheathing under it) to start lower than the outside edge of the floor decking to prevent water intrusion, even if it's treated. In other words, is their 10 x 12 dimension an outside-of-siding measurement?

Per the site:

Actual Exterior Width 10.19'
Actual Exterior Length 12.23'

Actual Interior Width 10'
Actual Exterior Length 12'
 
What kind of siding? I'm guessing it's in sheet form, like T1-11.

They call it "engineered wood", but it's pretty much the newer-age particle board. I think it'll be okay because I am raising it off the ground.
 
They call it "engineered wood", but it's pretty much the newer-age particle board. I think it'll be okay because I am raising it off the ground.

Yup. When you get your kit, come here with similar questions. You probably have carpenter friends, but if not, I'd be happy to share what limited knowledge I have, including private message.
 
I went on to Lowe's site and bought a shed kit, a 10 x 12 x 7 Gambrel-roofed shed. They send all the wood pre-cut, the nails, etc., too. I figure there's about a $500 premium paid for them to take care of the cutting. I need a flat place to set it, and didn't just want to put down a pad of landscaping rock, so I've started building a wooden base (all green treated/pressure treated). First, I placed down the 4x4 posts, and set them in concrete. They're about 0.5" off square, when measuring the one hypotenuse, but the other is almost dead-on balls accurate. I still have to set the 2x6 joists, and then the plywood flooring over them. I'm starting to think that I should have just paid a guy to put down a concrete pad back when I had my driveway replaced in July. Getting the posts to square was a much bigger task than I expected, and I was expecting easy. The shed kit comes on two weeks from today, so then we'll see how well I can follow instructions.

And yes, the posts are all in 3" from the 10'x12' dimensions to account for the width of the 2x6 joist wrapping. I thinked before I done.

Completely expected by most everybody except me - I messed up setting the 4x4 posts when pouring the concrete, but I've been mostly able to figure out how to fix it all. Almost. All things considered, I'm pretty happy with the results. The hypotenuse of my 10' x 12' base is 187.446". My two C-value measurements ended up at 187.25" and 187.75".

Just to make this easier for me to write:
Stud A = SE corner stud
Stud B = NE corner stud
Stud C = NW corner stud and
Stud D = SW corner stud.

In order to get to that point, I had to cut out about 1/2" off the eastern side of Stud A, and add a 1/2"-thick shim to the eastern side of Stud B, and another 5/8"-thick shim to the southern side of Stud A. Stud D is at the high point of the land, so it was used to set the level for all other studs.

All of that took way more time than it ever should have. I spent about 8 hours yesterday and then 2 hours tonight doing this. It's frustrating to think how long it took me to come to that point. Amateur Hour. Now I have the much simpler process of setting the joists on the interior of the base and then the plywood floor. I can't decide, or maybe I have. I don't know.
 
Bought a fairly cheap fire pit at menards (TERLETS! BENCHES! SOFT BENCHES!) this week. Last night we had our first fire. A few notes:

1. Why in the hell did we not do this earlier?
2. Surprised at how much I liked this cheapo fire pit. Good design, won’t last most likely. But just a bandaid until we can get our permanent one put in ground next spring.
3. Buckthorn burns amazingly well with little ash. Very satisfying to see it burn. Nice smell too. We had an overstock of thick logs for it as I didn’t know what it looked like and didn’t expect it to be planted intentionally. Well, I had four or five 15-20 tall specimens.
 
Fire pits are awesome but please don't use your now since you ill just be spreading your covid to the neighbors.
 
One of the old owners of our house put in a fire pit. We got our first use of it a couple weeks ago. It was great...until the fire department arrived. One of our neighbors called them because “we received a report that you were burning illegal things. We weren’t. Then they came back because they received another report that our pit was too close to a combustible structure, the shed base I built. It was. So our first fire in that pit is also our last.

All of that said, we have a neighbor who doesn’t like fires, has a printed copy of the fire code and will call the FD until they are able to contrive a reason for the FD to force us to extinguish our little fire. We’ve since put in a request to the fire marshal for a spot in our yard to put in a new pit, per the suggestion of the firefighters who had to keep coming to our house.

Also, our shed kit won’t arrive until “mid-November”, per the manufacturer. So that’s going to be fun for building it.
 
I’ve never had a sound system or speakers in my home. Got a Sonos Play 1 a few years ago as a work gift, and kind of ignored it.

bought a Sonos ONE a few weeks ago then got the Sonos one pair from Costco today and they really connect together nicely. For about $650 I basically have the entire house covered and it’s really good sound.
 
I hate my lawnmower sometimes.

Worked today for the bulk of leaf pickup. Had to get more gas. Came back, filled it up, and won’t run when I engage the blade. Take the whole thing apart. The choke isn’t engaging and the fuel throttle keeps bouncing back and forth. Clean out the carb, air filter, springs, etc. Blade engages, runs amazing. Wheel it back to the back yard and engage the blade and it dies. Then it won’t even turn over. It keeps getting shit in the carb.

I hate cleaning out the carb because even if I clamp off the fuel line, gas ends up all over my hands and they reek like shit for a couple days.
 
I hate my lawnmower sometimes.

Worked today for the bulk of leaf pickup. Had to get more gas. Came back, filled it up, and won’t run when I engage the blade. Take the whole thing apart. The choke isn’t engaging and the fuel throttle keeps bouncing back and forth. Clean out the carb, air filter, springs, etc. Blade engages, runs amazing. Wheel it back to the back yard and engage the blade and it dies. Then it won’t even turn over. It keeps getting **** in the carb.

I hate cleaning out the carb because even if I clamp off the fuel line, gas ends up all over my hands and they reek like **** for a couple days.

No latex or nitrile gloves? What kind of gas are you running. E10 sucks for small engines. Can you buy non ethanol gas?
 
I hate my lawnmower sometimes.

Worked today for the bulk of leaf pickup. Had to get more gas. Came back, filled it up, and won’t run when I engage the blade. Take the whole thing apart. The choke isn’t engaging and the fuel throttle keeps bouncing back and forth. Clean out the carb, air filter, springs, etc. Blade engages, runs amazing. Wheel it back to the back yard and engage the blade and it dies. Then it won’t even turn over. It keeps getting **** in the carb.

I hate cleaning out the carb because even if I clamp off the fuel line, gas ends up all over my hands and they reek like **** for a couple days.

I bought ego electric years ago and have never looked back.
 
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