Closed on my new house today! Pics of future RC laboratory!!

[madjoker911]

looking very nice! congratulations, and great job!

[MAXXXMASHER]

I finally got the last bit of my gravel moved around today. Another gorgeous day out, so I stayed up after work and enjoyed the last of nice weather outside. Not too exciting, but I wanted to get this project done before the snow flies. I wanted to be able to park all three cars off the street and have room for guests to do the same. Hate digging out cars after a plow truck buries them!! The alley beside my house is rarely used, but the street in front is fairly busy. That's pretty much it for today's update. Next week, (I hope) I'll get my shed and project garage clean out can begin. Gotta get the Mustang in the before winter, and it's packed right now.....

Room in front of the garage....



And beside.....



My wife thought it was too large of an area; nope, just right!





I also added a little insurance to keep things level for my shed foundation. I have a lillte more dirt to move to fill that gap in. I know it looks crooked, but a level says otherwise. Even standing in the street, it looks off, but it's good.





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[MAXXXMASHER]

I got a surprise delivery today. We called the place making our shed to see if they were going to be able to deliver it tomorrow because of the effects of the hurricane. They said things would be pushed back because the rain was only going to get harder and the wind stronger. They had some cancellations today because people didn't want their yards to get messed up. My yard is going to get a makeover in the spring, so I said if they were willing to bring it, I would gladly accept it. Pretty cool trailer system they had. It had a set of wheels that faced perpendicular to the axle on the trailer with hydraulics to lift the whole thing to move it side to side and line it up. He operated it with a hand held remote control and put it right in place. Pretty cool!

















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[MAXXXMASHER]

Still raining, raining, raining here. Actually it's been a mixture of rain and snow since around sunset last night. The good thing is I only found one small leak. Just a pinhole that I have to hit with the drylock once things dry out. I did find a problem in the basement that is completely unrelated to the outside conditions. I noticed early on that the remaining cast iron drain pipe from the upstairs bathroom had a couple of pinholes in it. No problem; I just put a little tube of JB Weld on the holes, and the problem went away. The other day I was downstairs while my wife was taking a shower and I noticed that my leak was back. I kind of picked at some of it and the leak got worse. After she was done, I inspected further and discovered that there is a crack along the entire thing that was patched, smoothed out and painted. I didn't even notice it before. Now that my lighting is much better, I can see it. Wish my home inspector would have noticed that!! Wouldn't have deterred me, but maybe the seller could have contributed to it's repair. I think for now, I'm gonna get all the old patch out of there and clean it up and repair the crack with some JB putty sticks. That will buy me some time until I can get it fixed permanently. The good thing is, the floor drain for the basement is about a foot away and downhill from the pipe. I know I could (probably) handle this myself, but a six foot section of 4" cast iron pipe probably weighs several hundred pounds. If it was horizontal instead of totally vertical, it would be an easier repair. I think I'll call a professional in on this. It could be I will have to jack hammer part of the floor and replace the pipe that runs to the drain as well. Not sure......

My only leak after three days of rain....



Leak is close to the drain; which is good.



Luckily this red cast iron pipe only goes six feet up. After that, it's all pvc upwards to the second floor bathroom.



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[MAXXXMASHER]

My pipe repair is done for now. Just have to let it cure and harden. My only fear about doing this is that by sealing it up, I will cause it to fail elsewhere and then the pipe will collapse under its own weight. I did a bit of research and most say to go with a professional to get this thing fixed. A crack like this is a sign that the pipe is at the end of it's life. Just hope my patch job will buy me some time. Luckily, I can shower at my in-laws (literally around the corner) if things go south.....

Really noticeable once I got the old patchwork out of there.....





Like magic; this stuff.....



Not the prettiest job, but we're not going for looks here!



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[MAXXXMASHER]

I didn't get a thing done on the house this weekend, and it was great! We packed up the car and headed east to visit my wife's sister and husband (my best buddy), and got to do some rc crawling near the Appalachian Trail near Allentown. Had a most awesome time! I can only show some of the Terrain we crawled on (you know why) and it was the best spot we've played on so far. We also did a little yard scaling to get my 3 1/2 year old nephew involved. Good times....

The view from the highway....



Rocks everywhere!!



Pretty good view of the town below....



Just a small sample, really.



Kid is pretty good for his age!



Like a pro....



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[MAXXXMASHER]

Only a fewnprojects going on lately. We've been living life more normally and sporadically working on projects. My wife got the living room walls finished up and it looks pretty good. Still have to do the trim and rip up the carpet, but at least its not mint green anymore. I built her another dresser for the bedroom and had a little drain problem to deal with. Turns out the main drain between the floor drain in the basement and the sewer was plugged up. NOT GOOD!!!! Has a minor backup when my wife was showering. REALLY messy cleanup. Got that done and my father in law got me a commercial grade drill snake from his buddy and that pretty much took care of the problem. Ran every faucet in the house, the shower, and flushed the toilets. Everything is cool now. I also got my garage cleaned out and can now get our Mustang in there. It has no business being on a snow covered road.

Hooray! Snake to the rescue!! I'll spare you the before picture; it's not pretty.....



Bad light and Ipod = subpar pictures, but here's the living room.







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[MAXXXMASHER]

Wow, it's been a month since I've updated the old home remodel thread. Have gotten a few little projects done here and there, but mostly we've just been enjoying normal life. In the spring we'll get back in the groove with more painting, outside projects and a re-do of our bathroom and kitchen. One thing I did get done is fix up a little section in the basement that I call my hunting & fishing closet. It is a little space behind our furnace that has a shoulder width entrance and is like a walk in closet. It was like a tomb before. Nothing was done in there, ever, I don't believe. It was dirty and full of spider webs. Now, after a good cleaning, paint on the walls, epoxy on the floor, and storage shelves, it will be a great place to keep all my hunting and fishing gear.

Before: dingy and dirty....



For some reason, the wall was not completely finished off...





Crusty floor, too!



Finished up the wall, hit it with primer & paint, and it looks pretty good!







Some posters and pictures on the wall, my old gun cabinet, and a rack to hang all gear on and its a nice man-cave!



Of course, we are all ready for the holidays and have been decorating the place up. Pretty cool to turn on the fireplace and sip hot cocoa with the wife....



Season's greetings from the dog! (What a great photo!)



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[MAXXXMASHER]

I also got my annual train setup done in my den today. This train was bought for my wife when she was four years old, so that makes the set 38 years old. (Sorry, Hon!) We've added cars throughout the years, and I just set it up at Christmastime. Just a simple loop but it would be nice to have the room to leave it set up all the time. O guage just takes up so much space! I like it, but I'm not really a train guy. I could be, but I know I don't need another time consuming expensive hobby......





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[MAXXXMASHER]

Got a few little projects done. Nothing too major, but I finally got my workout room cleared out enough that I can set up my Nautilus. Time to get rid of some of these holiday pounds! I also got the rest of my furniture painted for that room and put up some shelves in our dining room to help hide the exposed heat duct. Every single shelf had to be cut to different dimensions because of the nature of the duct being flexible. Not too bad of a project. I am ready for spring, though. I want to put a loft in my shed as well as pegboard and some shelving. Everything is just kind of tossed in there. We also want to paint the garage block gray to match the house as well as a dozen other projects that require nicer weather. All in good time!

Not too exciting, but my wife sure was happy with the result!



Buckeye red everywhere!



Ready for assembly.



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[MAXXXMASHER]

Made some good progress today! (On my house & 4Tec project..) I finally got around to putting my Nautilus machine together. I did have to make an adjustment to get it to fit where I wanted it. If I was to put in my Buckeye room, it had to go lengthwise, but the problem was that the weight bar was just a bit too wide to fit. The only way around this problem was a few new carbon steel blades for my hacksaw and a good bit of elbow grease. I cut six inches of either end to make sure it would clear the wall on either side. First I had to cut the hollow Olympic size attatchments and the the solid steel bar underneath that. That was a workout in itself! I finally got that done, and needing to stay up all night to stay on my sleep schedule, I built the whole thing. Tight fit all around, but it will work. I also got 3/4 of the carpet ripped off of my staircase. Such tedious work getting all those tack strips up without damaging the nice hardwood underneath. Well worth it, though. I'll snap some pics of that when the stairs are all done. Tomorrow. Hopefully!

Tight fit, but good enough for me.



The top JUST clears the heat vent. I even had to put the set slightly off-center to make it work. Good thing I took a foot off the bar. I hadn't accounted for this, and got lucky.



Not the most spacious home gym, but really, there's nowhere else to put it.



Yep, about four inches of clearance on the left side.....



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[MAXXXMASHER]

Finally got all the carpet off of our staircase. Man, do I hate tack strips!! After two days of pulling them up, I feel like I have arthritis in both hands. We already have nice looking treads to go on there and it will look nice when its all done. Next up is to get the carpet out of the living room. CAN'T WAIT!!

Just have to get rid of the rest of the mint paint and the wallpaper!



My dog providing his usual assistance.....



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[MAXXXMASHER]

Well, the stairs are looking great, so we got to work on tearing out the carpet in the living room. It wasn't too bad. My wife did most of the work while I was sleeping after working. I mainly moved all the furniture around and hauled all of the carpet out of there while she got up most of the tack strips. It's currently in a giant pile on my card table in my den. The garbage men are not going to be happy when they see all of this! We may end up using a lot of the carpet in the attic, since half of it is just wood floors and we use it mainly for storage. The living room wood floors are as nice as all the rest. A bucket of water an Murphy's oil soap, and the floors look great! Just gotta paint all the trim white, and it will be mostly done. I do have to put quarter round down to fill in the gap left by the carpeting along ALL the trim in the house eventually; can't wait to see how much that will cost!! She also picked up an area rug and a runner to finish up. (The dog has to be able to get traction as he tears through the house chasing my giggling 3yr. old niece!) Next up will be to paint the upstairs bathroom after wallpaper removal and put in a new medicine chest and cabinet. Eventually, we'll get a new sink and vanity, but it's not critical at this time. After that, the kitchen will get a facelift. All in good time.....

GIANT pile of rubbish....



They must have had huge air returns in here at one time. There's also spots where I believe there were additional fireplaces in here, too.



Kind of a fuzzy pic, but you get the idea....



The area rug and favorite living room nap area.



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[Jimmie Neutron]

Could have been gravity heat at one point.

[xNitroAddictx]

i demand updates!

[MAXXXMASHER]

I don't have a ton to report. I did put a nice closet in my den. I say put in, not built, because we found a nice one at IKEA. It's about an inch from the ceiling, 95 inches across and we got custom shelves and pull out baskets. It hold all of our coats, everyday shoes, bags, sweeper, and part of it we use as a pantry. No downstairs closets was getting to be a drag. I also picked up a bunch of matching picture frames to further decorate my Buckeye workout room. We also got all the wallpaper ripped off of the wall above the staircase. Lots of plaster work will have to be done before we can paint that! The wall paper was hiding a lot of imperfections! Once spring gets here, we will makeover the kitchen and main bathroom. Looking at butcher block countertops and a white farmer sink. Just going to paint the cabinets and take out the bulkhead. Wonder what that is hiding. Lots of electrical updates will be happening also. Need some outdoor plugs and a couple of plugs in the basement in strategic locations. Might put in a ceiling fan in another bedroom also. The only pictorial update is of my workout room.



FLM BL E-MAXX ~ BL E-4TEC Drifter ~ Pro-Trac Slash ~ FLM P2de ~ SCX-10 ~ AX-10 ~ Wraith ~ HPI Custom Nitro dragster ~ 3 Losi micro scalers

[Fr8cture]

Just saw this thread. Wow man nice looking house. Quite a transformation from the first post to now.

[xNitroAddictx]

nice man! now all you need is a rc track

[mike-susieq1]

very nice MAXXXMASHER- Seeing all the pics you have uploaded here and seeing your really putting alot of work into your house? and have seen the changes you have done. My wife and I will be homeowners later this year and may be doing the same thing perhaps but welcome the work you know.......I have the supplies needed for what your doing now but i need to sale them to fund the house first no use having stuff to rebuild and remodel with no house right? I really like your wood floor you have.
I also know what you mean about those tacks in the carpet they are a pain!!! cant stand them but they do have a tool to remove those i used it a couple times but didnt ask what the name was but they do come out with a little effort as you found out.

Keep up the great work its totally inspiring to see this right now.

[cenracer1]

Nice Home Maxxxmasher.. My man cave is a work in progress as well, but my wife is fighting me all the way. At one point I took over most of the basement and that didn't go over well. Now I have just the back half. I need to finish the walls and repaint the floor, but looking at yours gave me some great ideas.. I really like the Ikea closet and my have to look into one as well.