DIY home improvement projects

[Pope]

I enjoy working on DIY home improvement projects around our house and I'd be interested to see or hear what types of DIY home improvement projects that my fellow Cyclonefanatics have done or are planning to do. I'm hoping this could give me ideas for my own house.

I'll go ahead and share a small project that I just completed.

We live in a split foyer and the entryway isn't very big. I got tired of everyone's shoes always cluttering up this entryway and getting in the way of the front door, so I ordered a metal shoe cabinet and I built it into the wall. It still needs a little touch up paint on the trim, but it's essentially done. The cabinet is only 4 inches thick so it barely sticks out of the wall, and it holds a total of six pairs of shoes. Now my cluttered entryway problem is solved!

I'd love to see projects others have done.

 

[Cyclonepride]

I try to do almost everything I am capable of doing. I've replaced a roof, built a deck, replaced sewer lines (ick), all sorts of things. But I'm getting long in the tooth and boy does it take it out of you now lol.

I haven't done anything particularly fun lately. Rehung a gate after my neighbors adjoining fence blew down and tore out carpet and skim coated the basement after it flooded. Replaced a doorbell whoohoo.

 

[Pope]

I try to do almost everything I am capable of doing. I've replaced a roof, built a deck, replaced sewer lines (ick), all sorts of things. But I'm getting long in the tooth and boy does it take it out of you now lol.

I haven't done anything particularly fun lately. Rehung a gate after my neighbors adjoining fence blew down and tore out carpet and skim coated the basement after it flooded. Replaced a doorbell whoohoo.

Good job outta you! I admire your ambition and courage. I usually have to ask for help when it comes to electric work and plumbing.

When it comes to DIY projects, YouTube has been a real savior for me. It's amazing how you can find YouTube videos on just about any type of DIY project you can imagine. I have learned, though, that some DIY'ers who put out YouTube videos don't always know what they're doing, so you have to be careful.

 

[Cyclonepride]

Good job outta you! I admire your ambition and courage. I usually have to ask for help when it comes to electric work and plumbing.

When it comes to DIY projects, YouTube has been a real savior for me. It's amazing how you can find YouTube videos on just about any type of DYI project you can imagine. I have learned, though, that some DIY'ers who put out YouTube videos don't always know what they're doing, so you have to be careful.

I agree. I've spent countless hours researching how to do various things, and it's all there for the taking if you want to find out how to do something. The internet is a miracle in that regard. As you noted though, have to check and recheck your sources.

 

[CYdTracked]

I want to clean out our walk-in closet in the master suite of our house and install some adjustable shelving one one 1 of the walls at some point. We lack space on the 2nd level to store some general stuff so that space is where I think we could use better. Its a big waste of space right now, my wife tends to hoard stuff and its full of plastic totes of her stuff we moved in over 10 years ago that she hasn't touched so my plan is we sort out what is in the totes as either keep or donate then tear out everything and make the longest wall all adjustable shelving and then the rest add some rails for hanging clothes.

 

[nrg4isu]

I enjoy working on DIY home improvement projects around our house and I'd be interested to see or hear what types of DIY home improvement projects that my fellow Cyclonefanatics have done or are planning to do. I'm hoping this could give me ideas for my own house.

I'll go ahead and share a small project that I just completed.

We live in a split foyer and the entryway isn't very big. I got tired of everyone's shoes always cluttering up this entryway and getting in the way of the front door, so I ordered a metal shoe cabinet and I built it into the wall. It still needs a little touch up paint on the trim, but it's essentially done. The cabinet is only 4 inches thick so it barely sticks out of the wall, and it holds a total of six pairs of shoes. Now my cluttered entryway problem is solved!

I'd love to see projects others have done.

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6 pairs? Those are rookie numbers. My wife found some sort of shallow cabinet thing that has 4 drawers meant to store shoes. We can probably fit 12+ pairs in one and we have 2! My size 12s don't fit very well though.

Needless to say, that solved our mountain of shoes problem.

 

[nrg4isu]

My most recent home improvement project adventure was to install 3x security cameras. They're legit PoE cameras and I run my own NVR (Frigate). Fishing cables through the attic and into the soffit was definitely an adventure. It was successful though and I didn't step through the ceiling even once!

Another recent project was to extend a concrete swale to a storm drain. One would think that wouldn't be a homeowners job, but in my case it was. That one was well out of my comfort zone so it took a bunch of reading and watching a few YouTube videos before renting the mixer from menards. In the end it turned out spectacularly.

 

[Gonzo]

Not a very handy guy at all but am proud with the work I did in finishing our basement. With the help of a friend installed 900+ square feet of LVP flooring. I installed all of the recessed light fixtures, all of the outlets and switches and breakers in the new sub box; cut, primed and painted gobs of baseboards and door trims; and did all of the painting.

 

[JM4CY]

I enjoy working on DIY home improvement projects around our house and I'd be interested to see or hear what types of DIY home improvement projects that my fellow Cyclonefanatics have done or are planning to do. I'm hoping this could give me ideas for my own house.

I'll go ahead and share a small project that I just completed.

We live in a split foyer and the entryway isn't very big. I got tired of everyone's shoes always cluttering up this entryway and getting in the way of the front door, so I ordered a metal shoe cabinet and I built it into the wall. It still needs a little touch up paint on the trim, but it's essentially done. The cabinet is only 4 inches thick so it barely sticks out of the wall, and it holds a total of six pairs of shoes. Now my cluttered entryway problem is solved!

I'd love to see projects others have done.

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My kids would never shut that, pile crap overflowing out the top of it, and probably lean on it and bust it right off the hinges.

Other than that, that is cool.

 

[RLD4ISU]

When we bought our first home, we were in our early 30s and didn't have much money - but we knew how to work. We jacked up our house, replaced a basement wall, put in a new bearing beam, completely gutted & re-did the kitchen, bathroom and 2 of the bedrooms, a partial gut/remodel of the living room, built a new deck (now 25 yrs old & still standing).

Since then we've moved 3 times and with each home we've had fewer projects or we're more likely to hire someone.

With this house, my husband built shelves in the basement utility area and a dry rack for my laundry room, together we built a shelf and I came up with some of the decor. He claims I show him ideas from Pinterest and he makes my dreams come true. LOL.

 

[cyfanatic]

I paint rooms often...do a decent job...that is about it for me. Anything more than that I need guidance and assistance...mostly because I don't have a lot of tools. I am trying to run an Ethernet cable to a already finished basement bedroom...that is my next "project". Have some access to the ceiling from the utility room...but desperately want to limit the amount of holes I have to cut in the drywall. Taking my time thinking this one out...

 

[cowgirl836]

My kids would never shut that, pile crap overflowing out the top of it, and probably lean on it and bust it right off the hinges.

Other than that, that is cool.

I thought the exact same looking at it lol

 

[cowgirl836]

When we bought our first home, we were in our early 30s and didn't have much money - but we knew how to work. We jacked up our house, replaced a basement wall, put in a new bearing beam, completely gutted & re-did the kitchen, bathroom and 2 of the bedrooms, a partial gut/remodel of the living room, built a new deck (now 25 yrs old & still standing).

Since then we've moved 3 times and with each home we've had fewer projects or we're more likely to hire someone.

With this house, my husband built shelves in the basement utility area and a dry rack for my laundry room, together we built a shelf and I came up with some of the decor. He claims I show him ideas from Pinterest and he makes my dreams come true. LOL.

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want to do shelving just like that in our basement sometime!

 

[JEFF420]

my wife made us buy a house that was built in 1850... I'm very busy...... electric soon

 

[ackatch]

We did all of our landscaping ourselves. All around the house and shed and 2 "islands" out back we did with rock and edging. Then last year we did mulching and more edging around the trees and at the back of our lot. We had an entire dump truck of rock and 3 dump trucks of mulch. Thank God my dad could get us a mini-skid steer to use.

My FiL and I built my shed and I'm really proud of it. We've also doing our basement shelving, a 600+ bottle wine rack, installed cabinets in our laundry room, among many other things.

 

[cowgirl836]

I've gotten pretty good at painting rooms. Installed a little cubby thing with hooks by our mud room door which has been the best at cleaning up the backpack/coat clutter. Need to figure out how to patch drywall dings that abound with two small boys.


But most of our work is outside. Currently killing off a large patch of grass to put in our third garden area. Have put in multiple landscape beds, planted many trees, built raised garden beds with pea gravel and a fence, lots of river rock projects. Our landscaping when we built was pretty minimal and it's definitely something that catches the eye now. Very proud of it but also I hate cutting turf and we did it manually for WAY TOO LONG.

 

[alkaline33]

I've built shelves like that a number of times. The trick is to build the boxes the same size as the precut particle board for the deck portion. That way all you have to do is drop it in top, no need to run your circular saw to trim it

 

[cdnlngld]

We moved to an acreage last spring and so far i have worked on retexturing a wall. The house is 20 years old and has been repainted so many times the texture is getting washed out. I am resanding and retexturing one wall at a time.

I have torn down the old fire place and have begun rebuilding.

I have built and painted the AV cabinet that will be hidden by the TV. Next is wiring electricity and internet to it.



I have aslo begun converting a small shed outside the barn into a chicken coop. the garden bed surounding it will be a fully enclosed (chicken wire) run for them to scratch and get sun. The run posts are all up and the door has been framed out.


Otherwise, it's been a lot of repairing turf from winter wear.

 

[Tailg8er]

Next task I want to tackle is replacing our existing deck boards/railings with composite material. They're getting pretty worn and I'm tired of re-sanding/staining so often. Seems to be pretty straightforward (assuming the undercarriage is still in good shape), open to any tips from anyone who has done it in the past.

 

[BACyclone]

When we bought our first home, we were in our early 30s and didn't have much money - but we knew how to work. We jacked up our house, replaced a basement wall, put in a new bearing beam, completely gutted & re-did the kitchen, bathroom and 2 of the bedrooms, a partial gut/remodel of the living room, built a new deck (now 25 yrs old & still standing).

Since then we've moved 3 times and with each home we've had fewer projects or we're more likely to hire someone.

With this house, my husband built shelves in the basement utility area and a dry rack for my laundry room, together we built a shelf and I came up with some of the decor. He claims I show him ideas from Pinterest and he makes my dreams come true. LOL.

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My wife saw similar basement shelves in a friend's house and pretty much immediately demanded them in ours. It was not much work tbh and frankly it's a gamechanger for storage.