HI & DIY project that you are most proud of

What is the Home Improvement or DIY project that you are most proud of?
How long did it take you?
Would you do it again?

Project: Remodelling of a bathroom.

Highlights: Well, I know nothing about plumbing and successfully accomplished the removal of an old bathroom set, and did the installation of a new toilet, sink, faucets, flooring and plumbing!

Length: 4 days working from sunrise to sunset.

Frustrations: getting the bathroom flooded during the first water flush testing (LOL). I had to disassemble and reassemble the whole thing before I could figure out I was missing a rubber piece :s

Acomplishments: it worked!!! And I did it all by myself! 😄

Would you do it again?: Honestly speaking... Nah. I know that if I try the same thing again I'll probably lose interest pretty soon and will most likely not finish it.

Posted by ianthefish

impressive i might add.. what did you have to replace with your plumbing? the p-traps or something?

Thank you! Yes, for the toilet I had to install a wax ring because it originally didn't have one (it had been installed over 25 years ago!) And well, also connecting supply lines to the toilet water box. For the sink, yes I did the whole sink plumbing replacement: pvc p-traps, supply lines and fixing it to the wall :s.

I know. But anyway my impatience made me go for it and do it myself. Good news is that I haven't had any problems with it so far. I guess I didn't do it so bad after all, although I gotta admit that having a virgo rising really helped me through it *LOL* 😄

Man! I see you have a lot of work on your to do list! :s But you didn't say which of your past DIY projects you were most proud of. Tell us about it!

the tiles look fine. what would drive me up the freakin wall is that there is no way to center the tile walkway with the door because there's something in the way on the right side of the wall. is that an archway or something?

Posted by ianthefish
heh.. i got that laid out, cut, and laid all in one night after work.... we had like 2 days to finish the whole downstairs... i work good under pressure...

im a perfectionist when it comes to things like these, so i would never be able to have someone thinking i did a terrible job on something.... im real picky when it comes to home projects... thats why i hate letting people help me.. cause they never do a good enough job in my eyes....

if you want something done right, you do have to do it yourself..

Haha! You took the words right out of my mouth 😄. Btw, I like the design and colors you chose for your tiles!

Posted by FeistyAquarian
My most favorite home improvement was going from a cramped apartment to a house! I improved the living situation! hehe

Nah, but it was a foreclosure so we needed lots and lots of work to be done, and we are still going to be working on the backyard here soon. I hope it turns out well 🙂

I hear ya! When I left my parent's home I moved in to a crappy one bedroom apartment. It was awful. All that time I felt so depressed and miserable due to the lack of space :S. After a year or so, I got the chance to move in to a real house, with backyard and frontyard! *relief* "...and I lived happily ever after" 🙂

*gasp* O_O ...Looks like a full body work out!

Posted by ianthefish
this is what my back yard was looking like for awhile... i had to cut and jackhammer the old concrete walkway around the house, and dig down about 6 inches of dirt with a bobcat after i ripped up the deck that took up the whole back yard.... uncovered a big cistern with the bobcat in the process... thankfully i didnt fall thru the damn thing.... i dont know how i would have gotten that bobcat out.... all the dirt is gone now, and the cistern is filled in, and i put up a new fence cause that old one was a real piece.... winter and deer season stopped my progress.... i just need to move my A/C condenser to the side of the house and add some rock and sand and lay the thousands of bricks that are stacked in my driveway..... ill be happy when this is completed...

Aaaw, don't put bricks on it. How about covering it nice soil, grass, plants and small bushes? It would look so pretty during summer!

Posted by ianthefish
plus then i would have to mow the grass... and i dont want that, it would take 6 minutes to mow my grass instead of 2....

*LOL* shame on you!!! 😄 Do you know how long it takes me to mow my backyard? FORTY-FIVE minutes! and that's without considering the racking or trimming of bushes :s

Excellent job Ian!

Great choice with the wooden borders for the finishing of the wall, and nice touch with the tile accents on the first step towards the stairs. Now the area looks definitely a lot warmer, nice, clear and neat. ✨thumbs up✨

Posted by ariesvita
What is the Home Improvement or DIY project that you are most proud of?
How long did it take you?
Would you do it again?

I re-tiled and carpet my entire home by myself, I would definitely do it again.

Posted by Flavia

Posted by ariesvita
What is the Home Improvement or DIY project that you are most proud of?
How long did it take you?
Would you do it again?

I re-tiled and carpet my entire home by myself, I would definitely do it again.

click to expand

Re-carpeting! I've never done that before, and sounds like something I would be willing to give a try. I did floor tiling before, and I enjoyed it too. I remember that the only thing that would get on my nerves was making small cuts to the tile in order to make it fit into a small area. Sometimes I would cut either too much or too little -aaagh! that always made me want to pull out my hair LOL

So, how long did it take you to finish the whole thing? Any thoughts or suggestions for a potential beginner?

Posted by FeistyAquarian

Good! I love it 🙂 I had to share a small apartment with 4 other people and my gosh, no privacy at all :/

I know. I like having other people around, but yeah, the cleaning and sleeping habits of your roommates can sometimes be quite annoying :S.

I'm quite picky when it comes to bed time. My brain demands absolute silence at night in order to be able to switch off. I once had a roommate who was the total opposite of me, and she needed to keep the tv turned on all night in order to fall asleep, and even though we stayed in different bedrooms (and she would put the tv volume at the lowest) I could still hear the sound of the tv. That used to drive me crazy. So, I ended up buing some noise blocking headphones for me... and still have them LOL

Hey Ian, I love the work you did! And I like brick so I'm not going to argue about the backyard. (Though I'm sure you've finished all this by the time I got into these comments) I hope you make the bricks look nice. Like, make a path from one side of the yard from the exit to whatever and where ever you plan to put out there, a few patio furniture maybe. And the tile work looks great. The stairs however... It's just me! I HATE carpet! Most of the time anyway. Not that it's a must, I'm not pushing you here, but if I were I'd use the same wood framed around the stair landing and get rid of the carpet. It would give it a more finished look. And the wook being such a warm color (against the tiles which would look cold on it's own) it would be gorgous!
Just saying...

I plan to study construction. My first semester in college so far and I'm sticking with the local community college untill I find a job, get my own car, and afford to go to the right college for construction. Not univercity though. Not yet anyway. I don't have allot of experience (I've built the shelf in my room but we're not allowed to do anything to the house because we're renting - we've never owned - and changed door nobs which wes no where near challenging) so I'll still have to try out a few class in the future to see if it works for me. If the shoe fits. Or if -I- fit.
Who knows, I'm taking my time on life.

This was just for practice ... lol, gave it to my ex-wife. Now I'm getting ready to build one that is bigger and better.

...hmmmm, hopefully this html works:

Hey! That looks fantastic! Excellent job 😄

We remodeled our basement. That was really nice. I want to get involved in more home improvement projects next year. Home Depot has classes that I am attending hope I don't lose a thumb Lol http://www.homeimproverclub.com/

This one's pretty easy. I built a toy for my daughter using a combination of LED lights and reed switches.



The toy is a tray with three basic shapes on it. Whenever you wave a magic wand in front of the shapes, they light up (and turn off whenever you move the wand out of range).

I got it to work by using reed switches to control the lights. As you might know, reed switches are part of an electrical circuit and will complete the circuit in the presence of a magnetic field. The magic wand contains a magnet, and by placing it close to the shapes you activate the reed switches and allow electricity to pass through to light up the shapes.
Hope that made sense.

For anyone interested, here's a video of the toy in action:

i have refurbished/refinished a 9 drawer dresser, 2 drawer night stand, 2 end tables, coffee table, dining room table, and chairs. It took me 5 months. now i am working on converting a long coffee table into a tv table for the flat screen tv. 🙂