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the transformer is probably right above the family room for whatever reason
To get around the delay, you can always just disconnect your mechanical chime and buy the Ring wifi one
The transformer is in the foyer near the mechanical chime.
I've thought about getting the Ring Chime, but I believe the delay will still exist since it's still communicating via wifi. I get the notification on my phone at about the same time as the mechanical chime goes off.
I also had to wait until it got dark tonight to take this pic I put lights up just before the snow storm last weekend, only for a section to go out that night I managed to fix it Saturday, but it still bugged me. This was also the first time I was on the roof (since I didn't have a ladder tall enough to reach the peaks) - and I did not like it. Next year might just be one of those projectors
The transformer is in the foyer near the mechanical chime.
I've thought about getting the Ring Chime, but I believe the delay will still exist since it's still communicating via wifi. I get the notification on my phone at about the same time as the mechanical chime goes off.
dafuq did your contractors do i got nothing then..
So I'm planning on extending the patio idea and integrating a firepit into it, as illustrated in the masterpiece below, but I'm weighing the pros and cons of stamped concrete vs a paver patio. Anyone have any experience with either?
With a stepdown, and shit, will you have to deal with any drainage issues with it collecting rainwater etc?
I would imagine with changing seasons and no shifting earth, pavers are probably a better option for long term
since you can just spray weed killer on the cracks and repair sections at a time if you had trouble vs cracking
concrete.
From what I've been reading, for every 48", the patio should slope 1/2" for proper drainage. The grade in my backyard is steeper then that, so the firepit area would still be able to drain like the flat portion near the house since it won't be lower then the ground around it, if that makes sense.
That's a good point on concrete cracking. Even though whichever route I go with would require the ground to be tamped down, I still expect some shifting of the ground (especially nearest the house) since it's a new home. Pavers would be a bit more tolerant of that, or at least easier to fix, I would think.
Pavers will be quite a lot more expensive upfront cost and, depending on your opinion, may look better. In my personal opinion, a properly installed and stained stamped pad looks better than pavers but mostly because I enjoy the modern look.
A properly poured and installed concrete slab won't be hugely affected by shifting ground...they do this all the time these days and have the process down pretty good. If you're planning on doing a DIY then I'd do the paver, if you're getting it done, do the concrete.
Concrete slabs are typically cut every couple feet or so so they accommodate shifting of the earth known as 'control joints' . If they don't do that, they're not doing it properly.
Pavers will be quite a lot more expensive upfront cost and, depending on your opinion, may look better. In my personal opinion, a properly installed and stained stamped pad looks better than pavers but mostly because I enjoy the modern look.
A properly poured and installed concrete slab won't be hugely affected by shifting ground...they do this all the time these days and have the process down pretty good. If you're planning on doing a DIY then I'd do the paver, if you're getting it done, do the concrete.
If we are introducing stained stamped concrete as an option and you are not doing the work yourself then I would say go with that option. If it is just a regular concrete slab then I would do pavers over that.
If we are introducing stained stamped concrete as an option and you are not doing the work yourself then I would say go with that option. If it is just a regular concrete slab then I would do pavers over that.
I'm wine drunk and fucking around with Paint 3d again
Another option is extending the deck out in the section that the main patio would occupy. The screened deck would remain, but the extension to the deck would have the grill (since the gas stub out is over there anyway) along with a table and chairs. Off the deck would be a small walkway (5-6' or so) to a 12' diameter patio with a 3' firepit in the middle. All of it would be surrounded with mulch and plants and shit, with stepping stones in some strategic locations in the mulch for a path into the yard.
One reason why I'm leaning this way is cost. A stamped & stained concrete or paver patio is expensive if I did it all in one shot. But if I broke it up into stages, there's no guarantee the material would match - and that's something I would not be pleased with. Going the deck extension route would allow me to do it in stages in order to save up a little more.
But, I'll be staining the screened deck board this spring, and if I go the extension route, I wouldn't be able to stain it until next spring - so there's still a chance that wouldn't match... But maybe I'm just overthinking it
In other house news - one of the granite slabs in the kitchen was fucked up before I closed on the house. I've been caught in a circle jerk between the builder who blamed the counter top people, who blamed the cabinet people, who blamed the counter top people, who said talk to the builder, who shrugged their shoulders for over a year... I finally got some traction on it by talking to the owner of the granite company, and they finally agreed to replace it (after the owner sent their right hand man out to the house to inspect it). It's the basic granite option that the builder offered, and I honestly don't like it, but I'm planing on going with Quartz in a few years anyway.
But, once they agreed to replace it, my next question was if they'd apply a credit for that slab towards the purchase of quartz, and they said yes. I got some preliminary numbers (which I wasn't a huge fan of), but I'm waiting for the owner of the company to work on the labor costs before making a decision. So, there's a chance I may be changing the counter tops sooner than expected. This is the main reason why I'm thinking about paring back the backyard plans for now, or at least segmenting them out, as I can't go balls deep in both at the same time.
IMO, I'd forego the concrete around the fire pit and stick with just the deck. Instead, build a fire pit and surround it with pea gravel, some nice adirondack chairs, and a couple benches. No worries about matching and far cheaper than concrete. Then you can do a cheap walkway from the deck to the firepit if you really want but I'd personally skip that too.
IMO, I'd forego the concrete around the fire pit and stick with just the deck. Instead, build a fire pit and surround it with pea gravel, some nice adirondack chairs, and a couple benches. No worries about matching and far cheaper than concrete. Then you can do a cheap walkway from the deck to the firepit if you really want but I'd personally skip that too.
That's not a bad idea at all, actually. I can do a pea gravel path from the deck to the firepit area, if I really wanted to, and set stepping stones in it (flagstone or something along those lines)... This my be the route I take, since it's not entirely permanent, and can still be made to look nice.
That's not a bad idea at all, actually. I can do a pea gravel path from the deck to the firepit area, if I really wanted to, and set stepping stones in it (flagstone or something along those lines)... This my be the route I take, since it's not entirely permanent, and can still be made to look nice.
I'd highly recommend you keep the pea gravel contained as much as possible, that stuff will migrate like crazy and dull your mower blades super fast. If you can recess the pea gravel into the ground and surround with some kind of edging that would be even better. I'd just do a flag stone path with grass growing in between the pavers and call it good but that's just my opinion.
Well the countertop company accepted my counter offer, so I chose my slabs last week and signed the paperwork. It ended up saving me a bit of money, and allows me to enjoy the countertops (I really did hate the granite ). I then accepted a deal from a tile company to do the backsplash, which meant I had some work ahead of me prior to them coming onsite.
I really didn't like the outlets on the wall, but I didn't want to completely remove them, so I went with under-cabinet mounts. This meant cutting a hole in the wall so I can reach in there and reroute the wiring.
First hole cut:
Box removed:
New box mounted and wiring moved:
Hole patched up:
That one took me about 2 hours start to finish, taking my time along the way. Then I moved to the second outlet...the one that also feeds power to the island:
Those with a keen eye will notice the wiring from the breaker panel coming down from the ceiling, and the wiring to the island going down to the floor. This means there isn't enough slack in the island wiring to run up to the cabinet. It's a code violation to add wiring, twist nut it together in the box, and then drywall over it without an access panel (and it's obviously a violation to not use a box at all). After about 20 minutes of lots of cursing, it dawned on me - since this wall is shared with the garage, just add a new box in there with an access panel, and extend the wiring as needed. So I did:
Two trips to Home Depot (I kept forgetting stuff...) and about 5 hours later, the outlets were finally moved and the walls were (badly) patched - but they're flat, solid, and getting covered with tile, so no big deal. This pic was taken just before the countertop guys got here, hence the crooked faucet since it wasn't fulled removed:
Old countertops gone:
Quartz in:
Photos really don't do it justice - it looks way better in person and pulls the kitchen together nicely. I opted to ditch the captains cut (the curved cut) on the bar side so it was a uniform overhang for four people to comfortably sit.
The backsplash is getting done as I type this, so I'll post finished photos with the kitchen back together tomorrow night.
In regards to the backyard - I've received an estimate from one of the local concrete companies for a stamped and stained patio along with a fire pit area, and I was pleasantly surprised by their quote. I'm waiting on a quote from a deck guy that stopped by last Friday. I have a target number in mind for the deck extension, but if he's higher than that, I'll spend the extra money and go with the stamped concrete. All options are still on the table right now, and none of them will get done until May or so, based on the companies schedules thus far.
Nice, man...
I didn't dislike what you had before though, not gonna lie.
This takes me back to our old place...I fabricated some steel beams to put on top of the island
for structural support without the need for the corner flying buttress bracket things...ahh...that was
a fun project. The overhang on my old island was long as fuck though. Not to be confused with the
length of my hangdown. That's also substantial.
When I first moved in, I didn't mind the countertops, but as I lived with it, I began to despise it. It was difficult to keep clean since you couldn't tell what was a crumb and what was just natural movement in the stone. But most importantly, it wasn't cut properly. The slab against the wall didn't fit between the cabinets properly and the front edge had a strange bulge to it (which can be confused with your hangdown). It took a lot of back and forth with them to finally see the issue that I was experiencing, and I'm happy I kept on them. The new countertops do make the kitchen look a little colder, but I'm OK with that.
I'm trying to envision the beams you installed - do you have any pics? It's probably too late for me to do anything about it, but I've banged my knees on those brackets more times than I can count
Looks good and we just bought the same counters you had, not our first choice either but it was a great deal. Under mount outlets, I'm about to install a strip of outlets but now you have me wondering if I should do yours...
Damn bro, let me see if I can find some old pics.
I don't know what the hell I did with them...
basically I notched the top of the cabinets and ran a 2.5" wide strip of strong steel down under the granite and then bolted it to the top of the top of the cabinets
on the other side...You could do something similar where you run an "L" and then just bolt it in on the inside of your cabinets...when you open them from the front
it would be the opposite side deep in where you won't see it...
Literally the not being able to tell what a crumb is what my main reason for loving our old granite.
Looks good and we just bought the same counters you had, not our first choice either but it was a great deal. Under mount outlets, I'm about to install a strip of outlets but now you have me wondering if I should do yours...
I would've done a strip if I could have found an elegant way to incorporate the GFCI outlets. But since both outlets on this wall (on two different circuits) were GFCIs, I went the less painful route.
Originally Posted by rockstar143
Literally the not being able to tell what a crumb is what my main reason for loving our old granite.
I'm a neat freak. My girlfriend is the exact opposite of me, so kitchen cleanliness can be a bit... stressful at times
Good call. I'm moving our kitchen from the center of our house to an outside wall so I ran the existing outlets up and turned one below into a GFCI to stay legalish but that was a concern.
Originally Posted by civicdrivr
I would've done a strip if I could have found an elegant way to incorporate the GFCI outlets. But since both outlets on this wall (on two different circuits) were GFCIs, I went the less painful route.
I'm a neat freak. My girlfriend is the exact opposite of me, so kitchen cleanliness can be a bit... stressful at times
Damn bro, let me see if I can find some old pics.
I don't know what the hell I did with them...
basically I notched the top of the cabinets and ran a 2.5" wide strip of strong steel down under the granite and then bolted it to the top of the top of the cabinets
on the other side...You could do something similar where you run an "L" and then just bolt it in on the inside of your cabinets...when you open them from the front
it would be the opposite side deep in where you won't see it...
Literally the not being able to tell what a crumb is what my main reason for loving our old granite.
This is one of the big reasons we picked the granite we have lol.
Love the new countertops man, I might consider doing that same style in our bathroom... I'm fine with sealing granite for the kitchen but the bathroom would get wrecked fast with all the weird stuff the wife uses.
The backsplash was completed Friday afternoon, and after letting the grout dry overnight, I reinstalled the range hood and pot filler. That turned into a mini-project in itself because the builder didn't accommodate for the thickness of the backsplash - so I had to replace nipple out of the wall for the filler and cut a larger vent for the ducting. Not a huge deal, but still annoying. Anyway, here is is, just without the cooktop grates or burners:
I'm loving it so far It brightens the entire space and just looks way more out together and homey.
Nice and a little project always turns into a bigger one.
Side note, good call on doing the outlets like you did, I spent 3 hours putting up the under cabinet strip outlets because there is no room to wire in those little strips. I ended up with a BFH and kind of beat the shit out of the wall and one strip, still have the other side to go.
Pot filler, do you like/use it? I've never seen a need for one but keep seeing them in homes, do we need one?
Side note, good call on doing the outlets like you did, I spent 3 hours putting up the under cabinet strip outlets because there is no room to wire in those little strips. I ended up with a BFH and kind of beat the shit out of the wall and one strip, still have the other side to go.
Holy crap - which strips did you go with?
Originally Posted by 1StGenCL
Pot filler, do you like/use it? I've never seen a need for one but keep seeing them in homes, do we need one?
We both like it, but my girlfriend uses it more than I do. We haven't used it much of late simply because we haven't needed a pot of water for our meals.
Is it worth it if you don't have water available in the wall? Probably not, but the cost to add it when I built the house was around $300, even though the faucet itself sells for $450
It definitely does look cleaner then the boxes I used, but I can see how wiring them in would be a pain. Have you looked in the Legrand Adorne series? They're pretty low profile and modular; but it comes with a price. I would have gone with that system if it wasn't so pricey.
The Quartz looks WAY better than the Granite.. I hated granite as well so opted for Quartz in our new home as well.
I too also badly patch drywall all the time.. I can do electrical all day, everyday.. but ask me to patch a wall and it'll look like Frankenstein did it.
Love the new backsplash. I am indifferent personally on the countertops as I think they both looked good.
Always thought the pot fillers were a nice touch in the kitchen but when I think about how often we use a pot on the stove with water it is like 2-3 times a month at most so not sure it would be worth it ever. For the price you paid to add it during construction though I definitely would have done it even just for the look at that price.
It definitely does look cleaner then the boxes I used, but I can see how wiring them in would be a pain. Have you looked in the Legrand Adorne series? They're pretty low profile and modular; but it comes with a price. I would have gone with that system if it wasn't so pricey.
Why would it be a pain? I'd just go up into the back of the cabinet, out the back, and into the wall.
Why would it be a pain? I'd just go up into the back of the cabinet, out the back, and into the wall.
You can certainly do that as long as it complies with your local code. But I wouldn't want a conduit inside the cabinet, and those strips look like it would be very tight to wire in properly.
12-18-2018, 06:26 PM
I put lights up just before the snow storm last weekend, only for a section to go out that night 
I managed to fix it Saturday, but it still bugged me. This was also the first time I was on the roof (since I didn't have a ladder tall enough to reach the peaks) - and I did not like it. Next year might just be one of those projectors 
It brightens the entire space and just looks way more out together and homey.
