Author Archives: Tony

Finishing the Garage Part 2: Applying an Epoxy Floor Coating

Garage epoxy floor coating, part of my garage finishing project

After insulating and finishing the walls and ceiling, the next step on this garage finishing project was working on applying an epoxy floor coating.

To be honest, after doing the exact same job in my old garage (I did not document that project), I was not completely sure about doing it in this new one.

I did not have any issues with the epoxy bubbling or peeling, however, I did notice that after a few months, it did not look nice, it looked like an old floor, even right after being cleaned up.

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Finishing the Garage Part 1: Insulating and Drywalling Walls and Ceiling

Unfinished Garage Ceiling, the way it looked when I moved to the house

Unfinished garage ceiling, as it looked when I moved to the house

This is the first post of a series in which I will show you what I did to finish the Garage in my Second House. As the title suggests, this part includes finishing the garage walls and ceiling (insulation and drywall installation).

On my previous Laundry Room Storage Cabinets post, I mentioned that the lack of any Laundry Room Storage was one of the first few things I noticed when I went look at the property that ended up being my second house.

Not ten seconds later, when I opened the garage access door I noticed another one, the garage was completely unfinished, well, actually, one of the walls was finished, but the rest was completely unfinished!

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DIY Home Theater Installation

DIY Home Theater Setup

This is one of those projects you don’t even think too much about, I was looking for some kind of shelf to set my Receiver & DVD player. I came across at many different floating shelves online, but, they were either too small or way too expensive. On top of it, I wasn’t sure they were sturdy enough to support the receiver without settling or even worse, falling down at some point.

As a result, I decided to build my own floating shelf and complete a DIY home theater installation.

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Wood or Rock Mulch Around the House? For me, the answer is Rock

Wood or rock mulch around the house? For the second time, I went with rock.

House as it looked after completing the rock work

After settling and living at my second house for a couple of months, spring was rapidly approaching, for me, that meant answering the following question: wood or rock mulch around the house?

As you may have read before, when I decided to buy this house, I knew what I was getting into. I knew about everything that needed to be taken care of for it to look the way I wanted. It had potential, but it also needed a lot of work, yes, they were mostly cosmetic upgrades, but it was work nonetheless.

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Evening project: Installing some Laundry Room Storage Cabinets

Installed & Finished Wall Laundry Room Storage Cabinets

New laundry room storage cabinets

The day I went look at the property that ended up being my second house, there were a few things I noticed immediately. One of them was the lack of any kind of laundry room storage cabinets, shelves or similar to store any laundry supplies.

Why did I notice it right away you may ask? Because just a few weeks before that day I had worked on the exact same issue at my first house.

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My DIY Kitchen Remodeling Project – Part 2

DIY kitchen remodeling project completed

The new kitchen!

This post is a continuation of My DIY Kitchen Remodeling Project – Part 1.

As you learned on it, this kitchen remodeling project was basically a multi-project in which I pretty much used almost every skill I had learned on previous projects until then. On top of it, it also allowed me to learn a few new ones, like some basic carpentry and cabinet work and some electrical work.

As of the end of Part 1, I had removed some laminate and vinyl flooring, replaced it with new porcelain tile flooring, upgraded the lighting by replacing a fluorescent light fixture with some recessed lights, and custom built a new kitchen island using cabinets from Lowes.

It was time to move on to the next task!

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My DIY Kitchen Remodeling Project – Part 1

Builder grade kitchen, before starting my DIY kitchen remodeling project

Very builder grade kitchen

Having already completed a few projects in the garage, backyard, bathrooms and laundry room, I felt so empowered by the results and what I had been able to learn and accomplish that I decided to embark on the most ambitious of all my projects, to date, a DIY kitchen remodeling project.

This was basically a multi-project in which not only I was able to use pretty much everything I had learned so far with the other projects, but also learned about how to do many other things I had not done before.

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GE dryer starts, then stops as soon as the start button is released

GE Washer and Dryer, the dryer starts, then stops

My GE dryer, the star of this post, and her sibling

My dryer was about two years old when it decided to stop running. I remember putting some clothes in it, closing the door, pressing the start button and going away.

A few minutes, or perhaps hours later, I went back to check up on it just to realize that it was still on. The timer was still showing some crazy number like 50 minutes, the dryer was not running or making any noises, and the clothes were still wet.

Well, perhaps I forgot to press the start button, I remember thinking, so I went ahead and pressed it. It started running, nice! And then it stopped as soon as I released it. So, I pressed it again hoping that this time, it was going to work, but no, it stopped again.

Sounds familiar? You are not alone! It apparently is a very common issue with newer, electronic, dryers.

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Replacing Vinyl Flooring with Porcelain Tile

Finished Master Bath tile work!

One thing I’ve never liked about most houses’ finishes is the flooring selection. Unless we are talking about higher end homes, most home builders only offer two flooring options, carpet and vinyl.

I specifically want to talk about vinyl, because I understand carpet has its place, especially in colder areas of the country, where you don’t want your feet to freeze every time you get out of bed or walk around the house in your pajamas on a rainy Sunday morning.

However, I don’t understand why, in this day and age, they insist on offering the vinyl option. I know, it is cheaper, perhaps not by much though, after considering that they need to install some kind of underlayment under it, but other than that, I cannot think of any other real benefit when compared to tile (whether it be ceramic, natural stone, porcelain or others), which is my favorite flooring option, for many of the following reasons, and more:

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Backyard Landscaping Makeover

Inexpensive backyard landscaping ideas? Follow my example and do it yourself!

My new backyard!

As you learned from my garage improvement post, I do not like eye sores! Unfortunately, this house had a few of them. As you’ve also learned, though, I was determined to do something about them!

Next on the list was the small backyard, full of all kinds of weeds, uneven, dry spots and an improperly installed sprinkler system with stuck out and mower broken heads.

In early August 2011, I decided to start working on it.

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