The Home Improvements Thread (2)

[RonSwanson]

I have the Tadem Ratel with the Torx 220 motor. Going for 3 years now with no problems.

My brother in law bought a Ryobi Petrol Mower. That last just over a year. Now he has to replace the the motor and carb.

I know someone who has had his for over 25 years, and all that he has replaced is blades. The cord is starting to look really tatty and dangerous.

 

[smiley-zn]

My electric wolf lawnmower also gave up.

Any suggestions for a new electric lawnmower.

I was considering the lawnstar 2400w. Does anyone have this lawnmower and can give me any feedback.

Thanks for the responses, now I am confused whether to get a Lawnstar or Tandem

A neighbour of mines has a lawnmower store and can give me the 2400w lawnstar for R3500.

The tandem ratel appears to be quite expensive.

Decisions, decisions....

 

[The_Mowgs]

I have a tandem with torx 160cc motor and never had a days problem with it.

 

[RonSwanson]

Thanks for the responses, now I am confused whether to get a Lawnstar or Tandem

A neighbour of mines has a lawnmower store and can give me the 2400w lawnstar for R3500.

The tandem ratel appears to be quite expensive.

Decisions, decisions....

That's a good price, you can get two for the price of the Tandem. If you are convinced of the quality of the Lawnstar, then I suggest that you take it.
No-one wants a lawnmower with a tatty 25 year old cord in anycase, it's also faded and does not look good anymore.

 

[abudabi]

This is the area outside my kitchen door where I'm toying with the idea to put up a small scullery/laundry. Floor bits from left to right are water inlet for bathroom, toilet exit, shower exit. Don't feel like making major structural changes to them, so could I leave them where they are and build around them? Maybe at the bottom of some cupboards (yes I know access might be a biatch).

Also I'm assuming I'll need to chop up the current slab and do foundations?

View attachment 1221764

Sorry to derail the lawnmower thread; any comments re the above?

 

[Mike Hoxbig]

So our renovations are about 90% complete and we moved in this week while we're still on leave.

The house had mostly old dingy finishes from the 80s when it was built, which they didn't update apart from parts of the bathrooms and kitchen. So we basically had to re-do the entire interior.

We decided on a wood-look tile running throughout the house. It's unlikely to become dated any time soon, would go nicely as a skirting (so less maintenance) and doesn't show dust very easily.

Also went with LED downlights throughout and replaced the cornices.

Outside:

Before:

Didn't really take a lot of before pics but it wasn't painted in years and the paint around the property started bubbling and peeling everywhere.

After:

First thing was to treat the exterior structure and a full repaint. We also extended the patio to wrap around from the dining room, bar and lounge so there's lots of accessible chill space. And added a PVC pool cover cos kid.

Kitchen:

Before:



This wasn't too bad so we kept the granite and oven. Everything else went.

After:



Re-tiled. Removed the island near the stove to create more space and replaced it with space for the dishwasher. Changed stove to gas. Kept the skeletal structure of the cupboards and replaced the doors. Replaced ceiling with a PVC glossy ceiling. Added burglar bars.

Just waiting for the blinds to get made since the window needed a custom size.

Bathrooms:

Before:



Pretty much everything went here except the sinks, vanity cabinets and extractor fans.

After:



Re-tiled and added cladding for the shower areas. New granite for the sinks. New shower doors, toilets, tubs, mixers and fittings. Wife wanted stone-look tub and toilet for hers, I wanted to keep mine simple. Like the kitchen, still waiting on the blinds.

TBC. Pic limit reached...

 

[Mike Hoxbig]

...Continued

Rooms:

Before:

Everything went.

After:

Replaced all cupboards, including redesigned skeleton.

Bar:

Before:

This honestly wasn't too bad. It's a solid oak bar. Unfortunately the wood at the bottom started rotting because they had a bar fridge which started leaking, and somehow they "didn't know".

After:

We kept what we could. Had to build an entire new bottom and had it cladded.

Lounge:

Before:

Nothing really wrong, but I had some ideas for what I wanted.

After:

What I really wanted was a cable-less entertainment centre. Added a power socket specifically for the TV.

Also added a conduit in the wall running from roof to floor, with a branch for the TV. Mount is a full motion extensible Brateck because I wanted easy access to the cables, as well as the ability to adjust the TV depending on glare.

The result:


Dining room and scullery are standard fare with just re-tiling and repainting so I didn't take before and after pics.

That's pretty much it. Still to do are adjustments and repainting of the trellidoors, repaving the driveway, and of course my solar install in the next few weeks...

 

[TedLasso]

Love the patio wraparound and all changes you folks made . Can I ask how much it cost to swap out the cupboards in that room you shared?

and if you know how much of a mess that it created? We have done nearly everything in our house but cupboards and swapping windows to aluminium.

Have one question. Why did you keep that old light in the lounge? Seems out of place with your design aesthetic.


Sidenote:- I understand why your TV is so high (kid) ,but your pic would have been posted in the r/tvtoohigh Reddit subforum.

 

[surface]

...Continued

Rooms:

Before:
View attachment 1224002
Everything went.

After:
View attachment 1224014
Replaced all cupboards, including redesigned skeleton.

Bar:

Before:
View attachment 1223998
This honestly wasn't too bad. It's a solid oak bar. Unfortunately the wood at the bottom started rotting because they had a bar fridge which started leaking, and somehow they "didn't know".

After:
View attachment 1224000
We kept what we could. Had to build an entire new bottom and had it cladded.

Lounge:

Before:
View attachment 1224008
Nothing really wrong, but I had some ideas for what I wanted.

After:
View attachment 1224010
What I really wanted was a cable-less entertainment centre. Added a power socket specifically for the TV.

Also added a conduit in the wall running from roof to floor, with a branch for the TV. Mount is a full motion extensible Brateck because I wanted easy access to the cables, as well as the ability to adjust the TV depending on glare.

The result:
View attachment 1224012

Dining room and scullery are standard fare with just re-tiling and repainting so I didn't take before and after pics.

That's pretty much it. Still to do are adjustments and repainting of the trellidoors, repaving the driveway, and of course my solar install in the next few weeks...

Dude, this looks great. Can I copy some of your ideas ?

 

[Mike Hoxbig]

Love the patio wraparound and all changes you folks made . Can I ask how much it cost to swap out the cupboards in that room you shared?

and if you know how much of a mess that it created? We have done nearly everything in our house but cupboards and swapping windows to aluminium.

Depends on whether you're redoing the entire skeleton (in which case you may as well take the opportunity to resign the layout if you need to), or keeping the skeleton and just changing the doors and adding trimming.

Redoing everything costs more and would be a bigger disruption, although our contractor did all the cutting etc in the garage.

For 3 bedrooms we redid everything and it came to around 60k. For the kitchen we kept the skeleton and changed doors and trimmings, that came to about 40k.

Have one question. Why did you keep that old light in the lounge? Seems out of place with your design aesthetic.



Sidenote:- I understand why your TV is so high (kid) ,but your pic would have been posted in the r/tvtoohigh Reddit subforum.

Haha, will let the wife know what you think about her light It's actually a very small chandelier. The downlights are very bright and we needed a light fitting with a single globe to provide mood lighting when watching TV. She insisting on that. I didn't fight her on it because she gave into keeping the rest of the house as neutral as possible.

The TV is not actually that high. Because of the layout of the house, the lounge ceiling is actually quite low (around 2.3m) compared to the bedrooms (around 2.7m). If you take a look at where the TV is in relation to the unit, it's not too bad - could have been 5-10cm lower, but as you said it's high because of the kid...

 

[Mike Hoxbig]

Dude, this looks great. Can I copy some of your ideas ?

Lol go for it...

 

[TedLasso]

@Mike Hoxbig Thanks for the info. Looks like we should take the plunge an get it done. We would redo all of the inside skeleton's too as there is lots of dead space in our cupboards as it stands and built in draws, etc would be good.

Re your TV, I guess without the unit (in your original pics) there appeared to be no context for height, so it appeared high. Mines is also a bit higher than normal due to kids but it's to protect the TV and my sanity.

I would highly recommend for mood lighting to get a colour changing LED strip around the back of the TV (look for the ones from the US that can adapt their light to the picture on screen - I currently have a hue light strip (which can change colour + all levels of brightness) at the back of mines which means I don't I normally don't have to turn on GU10 lights above for late night viewing. Not sure how useful it would as your TV mount is movable. The next one I buy will the bias option like this ones (something like this:

).

Another solution also , is to buy GU10 smart bulbs so you then also manage lighting in that area. I bought some cheap GU10 lights for the lounge (Tuya managed - but mainly managed by my Home Assistant) for scenes which works well too

Enjoy your new home!

 

[Mike Hoxbig]

@Mike Hoxbig Thanks for the info. Looks like we should take the plunge an get it done. We would redo all of the inside skeleton's too as there is lots of dead space in our cupboards as it stands and built in draws, etc would be good.

Re your TV, I guess without the unit (in your original pics) there appeared to be no context for height, so it appeared high. Mines is also a bit higher than normal due to kids but it's to protect the TV and my sanity.

I would highly recommend for mood lighting to get a colour changing LED strip around the back of the TV (look for the ones from the US that can adapt their light to the picture on screen - I currently have a hue light strip (which can change colour + all levels of brightness) at the back of mines which means I don't I normally don't have to turn on GU10 lights above for late night viewing. Not sure how useful it would as your TV mount is movable. The next one I buy will the bias option like this ones (something like this:

).

Another solution also , is to buy GU10 smart bulbs so you then also manage lighting in that area. I bought some cheap GU10 lights for the lounge (Tuya managed - but mainly managed by my Home Assistant) for scenes which works well too

Enjoy your new home!

Thanks for the awesome ideas, will definitely give it a shot!

 

[Mosgi]

Folks

Thanks again for the assistance last time, I’m now presented with challenge no. 625

You can just about make it out but the paving in the picture was used to mix cement ( liberal use of bonding liquid) for the build/Reno.

The cement has really caked on around the middle and is quite an eyesore in the dry.

Quotes to lift and re-lay are quite a lot (R20k) which seems pointless if we are to replace entirely in 2 years.

Painting is not an option as the estate prohibits this fiercely.

We have tried wet and brush, brick/cement cleaner remover with a wire brush which is effectively HCL Acid, wet and brush, only a slight impact was made to remove some of the bigger chunks but did nothing for the colour, just made it slightly less trash.

Any advice on cleaning the brick, sealing it with wet look might help with at least making it look somewhat uniform but I’d need to clear it with the Estate Manager/Aesthetics Committee.

 

[ElixirCoder]

Folks

Thanks again for the assistance last time, I’m now presented with challenge no. 625

You can just about make it out but the paving in the picture was used to mix cement ( liberal use of bonding liquid) for the build/Reno.

The cement has really caked on around the middle and is quite an eyesore in the dry.

Quotes to lift and re-lay are quite a lot (R20k) which seems pointless if we are to replace entirely in 2 years.

Painting is not an option as the estate prohibits this fiercely.

We have tried wet and brush, brick/cement cleaner remover with a wire brush which is effectively HCL Acid, wet and brush, only a slight impact was made to remove some of the bigger chunks but did nothing for the colour, just made it slightly less trash.

Any advice on cleaning the brick, sealing it with wet look might help with at least making it look somewhat uniform but I’d need to clear it with the Estate Manager/Aesthetics Committee.

Hire an unemployed dude to chip it off with a brick bolster and a hammer

 

[Pudding McTwinkle]

Looking at putting a side entrance to my garage. Anyone willing to hazard a guess what such work is going to cost? I'm handy, but I'm not willing to attempt this job.

 

[Steamy Tom]

Looking at putting a side entrance to my garage. Anyone willing to hazard a guess what such work is going to cost? I'm handy, but I'm not willing to attempt this job.

double lintel, door frame and door, labour, i would hazard a guess around R7k depends on things like the door/frame quality etc of course

 

[prod]

What brand would you guys suggest for a new oven / gas hob combo? Bosch, Defy…Whirlpool?

 

[Mike Hoxbig]

What brand would you guys suggest for a new oven / gas hob combo? Bosch, Defy…Whirlpool?

I've had Defy for years across multiple properties with no issues. Best combination between aesthetics and price IMO. But they'll all get the job done just as good.

Looked at Whirlpool and they looked nice in the pictures, but in person there were things that could become annoying - like the grid moves about because it's not locked into place.

Would suggest going to some stores and taking a look in person. You might like something better after playing around with it for a bit...

 

[smiley-zn]

Thanks for the responses, now I am confused whether to get a Lawnstar or Tandem

A neighbour of mines has a lawnmower store and can give me the 2400w lawnstar for R3500.

The tandem ratel appears to be quite expensive.

Decisions, decisions....

An update on this for those that are interested.

Discussed it with the guys at the lawnmower store and decided to fit a new 2600w motor on as the chassis etc is still solid.

The lawnmower is probably 15- 20 years old and was given to me by my grandfather.

Cost R2000 all in for a new 2600w Mowtor Tech motor fitted. This is the same motor fitted on your tandems, wolfs, rolux etc