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TooMuchAbstraction posted:While we're talking about drafting...one thing I've always kinda wanted to do is draft plans for my own house and then build it. We did this. Not full CAD blueprints, but endless sketching of floorplans and revising to make it a viable house. I decided the room layout, sliding/swinging doors, outlets, lights, window placement... the (young) architect/builder had a lot of advice and revisions to maximize earthquake safety, avoid extravagant costs and reduce future maintenance. Technical details like plumbing and a/c placement were completely up to the architect. For example... our old house had twin closet doors, so I drew those on our new plans, and the architect had trouble matching them with the current catalog. After I saw the catalog myself I changed it to a cheap and simple rail-type of closet door. It was easier to make design choices when I knew what was available, and the architect was relieved to find that many of the details I drew were just examples, not demands. We didn't really do custom elements, everything was ordered from well-known brand catalogs. In reality the floorplan turned out very well, but there are a few things like outlets and windows that could have been placed better. This was the first house done by the architect from sketch-to-finish, as he was taking over his father's business. After he becomes more experienced he probably won't let the customer choose everything piece-by-piece from the builder's catalogs like I did. Most architects will have a smaller selection of favorite materials and just let the customer choose the colors.
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Jul 1, 2017 02:01
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peanut posted:We did this. Not full CAD blueprints, but endless sketching of floorplans and revising to make it a viable house. I decided the room layout, sliding/swinging doors, outlets, lights, window placement... the (young) architect/builder had a lot of advice and revisions to maximize earthquake safety, avoid extravagant costs and reduce future maintenance. Technical details like plumbing and a/c placement were completely up to the architect. Yeah, this sounds like probably the way to go, then. Thanks for the advice, folks! This is still very much a "someday I'd like to" kind of thing, but at least now I have some guidelines for what level of detail it's reasonable for me to think about. I'm definitely more interested in stuff like floor layouts, traffic flow, windows, and workshops/garages than I am in figuring out how plumbing and electrical stuff gets routed. Being able to hand a bunch of sketches to an architect and have them work with me to come up with a workable design that looks vaguely like the sketches sounds like a relatively sane approach.
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Jul 1, 2017 02:22
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First I practiced measuring and sketching out the house we were living in to get a sense of size. Then I sketched places I used to live in from memory. Then we debated stairs in the entry hall vs stairs from the living room. It was a fun obsession...
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Jul 1, 2017 04:24
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I'll probably never get to do it, but I'd love to help design a house around the idea of "what will make it the easiest to work on in the future if poo poo goes wrong or needs to be changed, yet still comfortable to live in?" I'm thinking things like: a 5 foot crawl space under the house for ease of reaching plumbing; having all the plumbing running through wet walls with a large enough cavity that you don't have to rip out drywall to get through to it; having every pipe clearly labeled, every few feet; having lighting installed on a separate circuit specifically for working on the plumbing with a few outlets accessible to cut down on the need for extension cords. I'd want a similar plan for electrrical, only through the attic, with each room's outlets and switches routed between studs from above, not across studs, to make it easier to rewire later if necessary, and to make it less likely to run a screw or nail through a wire if you're hanging something. I'd also want to be able to isolate each room from the rest of the circuits physically, both with the breakers in the electrical panel, and another physical cutoff at each room for lockout tag out safety. This is all probably overthinking everything, but I'm in my first house, and have gotten so goddamned frustrated with some of the ridiculous decisions that had been made over the last 110 years that this house has been standing, that I want to not only make it easy and simple to work on for me, but to fully document all that's been done for future homeowners, with explanations for the choices I've made. When we moved in, we realized that there were no outlets on the wall behind the sink in this picture of the kitchen.  These pictures are from after we had some wiring ran.   We found out when we had work done that the PO had removed all the molding from a tall window and closed it into the wall directly behind the sink, leaving the window in the wall.
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Jul 1, 2017 09:52
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At 5 feet isn't it basically a basement, not a crawlspace? And with a basement you have a place to keep your furnace, water heater, and anything you'd like to someday have destroyed in a flood.
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Jul 1, 2017 10:01
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Also, separate post because it's unrelated to my house, but there's a house nearby that's amazing to me. From what I can tell, it's a Lustron home, the only one I've seen in my area. It might be a copy, as the post on the front corner is missing the zig-zag. google street view hopefully. If not, look across the street. It still looks like it's in good repair, although I'm not sure anyone lives there.
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Jul 1, 2017 10:16
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Facebook Aunt posted:At 5 feet isn't it basically a basement, not a crawlspace? And with a basement you have a place to keep your furnace, water heater, and anything you'd like to someday have destroyed in a flood. I don't really want to put it underground, though. Like maybe have two feet of it below ground level, so that it doesn't look like you have to go up a floor to get in the front door, but I don't want you to have to feel like you're a World War II soldier crawling through the mud across no man's land under barbed wire if there's a leak in the drains.
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Jul 1, 2017 10:24
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The Sexual Shiite posted:I'm thinking things like: a 5 foot crawl space under the house for ease of reaching plumbing; my crawlspace is like ~4' and super clean, every tradesman who's been down there has raved about how awesome a crawlspace it is. you still have to crawl but you can easily access everything without smashing your head on stuff and it's big enough to put poo poo like furnaces and water heaters in.
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Jul 1, 2017 10:28
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SoundMonkey posted:my crawlspace is like ~4' and super clean, every tradesman who's been down there has raved about how awesome a crawlspace it is. you still have to crawl but you can easily access everything without smashing your head on stuff and it's big enough to put poo poo like furnaces and water heaters in. That's the kind of thing I would want. Granted, my primary reasoning for going a little taller is a combination of ease of access and also amusement at the idea of a future owner's kid deciding he wants to have his own private space, so he does this: 
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Jul 1, 2017 10:49
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The Sexual Shiite posted:Also, separate post because it's unrelated to my house, but there's a house nearby that's amazing to me. From what I can tell, it's a Lustron home, the only one I've seen in my area. It might be a copy, as the post on the front corner is missing the zig-zag. google street view hopefully. If not, look across the street. It still looks like it's in good repair, although I'm not sure anyone lives there. I read all about these a while ago because somebody on my local craigslist free stuff section was giving one away. Unfortunately I didn't have anyway to remove it from the property or anyplace to put it down on. I think they are really neat along with the metal cabinetry options they had available back then. Anytime people put them up on Craigslist I try to go and save them.
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Jul 1, 2017 10:55
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SoundMonkey posted:my crawlspace is like ~4' and super clean, every tradesman who's been down there has raved about how awesome a crawlspace it is. you still have to crawl but you can easily access everything without smashing your head on stuff and it's big enough to put poo poo like furnaces and water heaters in.
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Jul 1, 2017 12:33
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Slugworth posted:If it has a concrete floor, put a mechanics creeper down there, and they'll love you without reservation. it does not. not even a vapor barrier, but my house is built on sand so drainage is a total non-issue in fairness the house is 102 year old, i should be thankful i have a foundation, as opposed to pilings at my old place. the upstairs shook on the washer spin cycle.
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Jul 1, 2017 12:41
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SoundMonkey posted:it does not. not even a vapor barrier, but my house is built on sand so drainage is a total non-issue You better be careful, you're in the Bible. Thankfully you're in the New Testament, not the old, so you have a chance of lasting longer if you're not a Jew.
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Jul 1, 2017 13:33
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Jul 1, 2017 13:36
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The Sexual Shiite posted:We found out when we had work done that the PO had removed all the molding from a tall window and closed it into the wall directly behind the sink, leaving the window in the wall. My dad's house they felt the one of the bathrooms felt smaller than it should. He was gutting it to remodel and sure enough, there was a second wall built inside the bathroom. It was all framed out "properly" and appears to have been put in because they didn't want a window in their bathroom. Removing it added back in the original window, maybe 8-12" of space, and gave them back the clearances needed to install a tub.
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Jul 1, 2017 15:40
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The Sexual Shiite posted:I'll probably never get to do it, but I'd love to help design a house around the idea of "what will make it the easiest to work on in the future if poo poo goes wrong or needs to be changed, yet still comfortable to live in?" Oh God, I know, right? I'd love to see a builder try to come to terms with my thoughts on a house. "So you like Colonial Revival, right?" "Yup.' "But you want a tight envelope, so you want ICF construction?" "Yup." "But you hate stucco, don't want siding, want to be more formal than brick, but hate synthetic stone veneer." "Yup." "You realize there's only, like, one quarry around here that makes actual Wissahickon Schist veneer, right?" "Yup." "And it's super-expensive." "Yup." "Uhhh, okay then. And you want enclosed conduit space instead of us just burning channels in the inner styrofoam? I mean, you know that takes a chunk out of your share footage and would be a lot of material and labor for something you'd never see and hopefully never use, right?" "Yup." "Well, fine, then, for ALL electrical, plumbing, HVAC, and ... wait, what, copper? You want cast iron radiators too?" "And some radiant floor, but yup." "Wait, and you want to be able to pop off interior trim to be able to expose the entire length of these conduits?" "Yup." "And it says here 'on exposed walls blueboard and plaster at minimum, three-coat plaster preferred'?" "Yup." "And period-authentic, extensive interior and exterior trim in hardwoods, no PVC or MDF?" "Yup." "And the windows and doors are ..." "Yup and yup." "Well, at least my kids ca go to whatever college they want now." "Don't forget all the built-ins, the hardwired security system, the hidden doors, and the room-sized guitar humidor." "Oh, I didn't, champ, those were hard to miss."
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Jul 1, 2017 19:43
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The Sexual Shiite posted:Also, separate post because it's unrelated to my house, but there's a house nearby that's amazing to me. From what I can tell, it's a Lustron home, the only one I've seen in my area. It might be a copy, as the post on the front corner is missing the zig-zag. google street view hopefully. If not, look across the street. It still looks like it's in good repair, although I'm not sure anyone lives there. Yeah, that's a Lustron. The zig-zag pole doesn't appear on all of the buildings. That one is known as the Stewart House/Stewart Residence and is on the National Register of Historic Places. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Register_of_Historic_Places_listings_in_Henderson_County,_Kentucky https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset?assetID=da87bcfd-ab41-4672-817b-e35ce1eb4406 The other 3 Lustrons in Henderson have been covered: two with vinyl, one with brick. 933 North Main Street; 125 North Ingram Street; and 2308 Sunset Lane MisterOblivious fucked around with this message at 00:24 on Jul 2, 2017 |
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Jul 2, 2017 00:10
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Did the Lustrons succeed at being low maintenance? Did the steel walls and roof hold up well over time?
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Jul 2, 2017 00:20
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Facebook Aunt posted:Did the Lustrons succeed at being low maintenance? Did the steel walls and roof hold up well over time? Funny, I'd thought all this time that the steel post-war houses were painted, not that they were porcelain-enameled. Certainly would help in the durability department. I think something like 2000 of 2500 are still around?
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Jul 2, 2017 00:28
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tetrapyloctomy posted:Funny, I'd thought all this time that the steel post-war houses were painted, not that they were porcelain-enameled. Certainly would help in the durability department. I think something like 2000 of 2500 are still around? Yeah, but from the wikipedia article it looks like some of them have had their roofs replaced, and various other alterations. It just doesn't say if that was an esthetic choice or the roofs were breaking down. I imagine over time the enamel could get chipped, and then you'd get rust stains if nothing else.
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Jul 2, 2017 00:32
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The Lustron houses look like they were the inspiration for the pre-war houses in Fallout 4.
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Jul 2, 2017 00:33
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Facebook Aunt posted:Did the Lustrons succeed at being low maintenance? Did the steel walls and roof hold up well over time? For the most part. Not all were well maintained though. People try to paint them and it really doesn't work out well.  It's better just to accept the color of the house and polish them with car wax occasionally. The insulation leaves a lot to be desired though and the heating system doesn't work so swell here in Minnesota. This dude removed the vinyl siding which required filling 800 some odd holes with epoxy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTLDUyEP_LY MisterOblivious fucked around with this message at 00:41 on Jul 2, 2017 |
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Jul 2, 2017 00:38
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My mom grew up in a Lustron. She loved it.
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Jul 2, 2017 01:56
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Collateral Damage posted:The Lustron houses look like they were the inspiration for the pre-war houses in Fallout 4. They almost certainly are. Living in Florida though, the idea of an all metal house sounds like a nightmare. I know it said they had some {very thin) insulation, but I can only imagine how much heat those things would absorb sitting in the sun all day.
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Jul 2, 2017 03:05
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Per Wikipedia, there are about five Luston homes in my immediate area but I don't think I've seen one (maybe they're been covered with siding?). However my best friend's mom's neighbor has a Lustron house and when my friend and I were younger we went and stuck magnets to it. edit: we had this same conversation about Lustron homes back in October. I knew I'd mentioned this story before. HelloIAmYourHeart fucked around with this message at 06:10 on Jul 2, 2017 |
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Jul 2, 2017 06:07
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Redditor decides to turn a shed into a living space, and well, I think this sums it up: https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY/comments/6kujei/converted_old_shed_into_summerhouseliving_space/ https://imgur.com/gallery/sGexD
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Jul 3, 2017 04:19
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Where is? The door? Dude deleted all his comments, I need answers
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Jul 3, 2017 04:31
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Fashionably Great posted:Redditor decides to turn a shed into a living space, and well, I think this sums it up: Maybe I'm being too generous but it was all done with old poo poo lying around minus like insulation, membrane and something else. So for a close to zero money project and on a shed not a house with resale value...I am ok with it and would hang out in such an establishment (if the weather temp was nice, didn't see an AC unit).
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Jul 3, 2017 04:57
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Life has many doors, shed boy
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Jul 3, 2017 05:06
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screaden posted:Where is? The door? Dude didn't reply, those deleted posts are mostly rick and morty references. https://ceddit.com/r/DIY/comments/6kujei/converted_old_shed_into_summerhouseliving_space/ Your submission has been removed for one or more of the following reason(s): Your descriptions on your photos are inadequate. Descriptions must detail important aspects of your project (tools used, measurements, methods, materials, tips, problems encountered, etc). Imagine you are teaching a classroom of students with zero experience and they will recreate your project based solely off your description of how to complete it. If we are unable to determine how you got from one photo to the next based on your descriptions - they will not be accepted. Please read our guidelines before resubmitting. If you believe this was a mistake, please message the moderators. Do not respond to this comment - you will not receive a response.
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Jul 3, 2017 05:12
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tangy yet delightful posted:Maybe I'm being too generous but it was all done with old poo poo lying around minus like insulation, membrane and something else. So for a close to zero money project and on a shed not a house with resale value...I am ok with it and would hang out in such an establishment (if the weather temp was nice, didn't see an AC unit). I mean no it's not done all that well and using doors looks dumb as hell but as reddit DIYs go there was a decent amount of thought and effort put into this with materials at hand. Sure it's gonna be an inferno in summer but throw a tiny fan heater in there in winter and kick back for some Cold Ones With The Boys.
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Jul 3, 2017 05:22
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MisterOblivious posted:Dude didn't reply, those deleted posts are mostly rick and morty references. Ah, I don't use reddit at all
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Jul 3, 2017 05:58
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOqb_UzJSUQ
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Jul 3, 2017 06:10
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screaden posted:Where is? The door? And now he deleted the Imgur album, and I don't see anyone posting they there's a mirror.
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Jul 3, 2017 19:09
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Polio Vax Scene posted:Life has many doors, shed boy 
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Jul 3, 2017 19:14
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I got this thread mixed up with the UK one and figured the (image not found) shed talk was a redditor's biting social commentary on the Greenfell fire. Or a well meant but dumb attempt to do something nice for victims by building a shed the could store stuff in.
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Jul 3, 2017 19:26
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Got caught up on a few thousand posts of this thread, awesome. From two weeks ago, but:Leperflesh posted:By the same token, if you're shopping for a 3br house, you should include 2br in your search and look for 2br houses with a bonus room, because you will probably get that house with identical square footage for substantially less money, and the savings will more than pay for a dang wardrobe. This is really interesting and useful, will definitely keep it in mind! Ashcans posted:Here a bedroom has to be at least 70sqft and have electrical service and a window; closets don't actually matter, although if people are renovating they often put them in anyway because people like having them (it's nice not to have to move wardrobes). My partner and I moved from a place with built-ins to a converted 1850's warehouse flat that... didn't. I picked up a pair of daggy 80s wardrobes on moving day, which the seller and I could get into the van with little trouble, but I couldn't lift with just my partner for assistance once we got to the new place. We were supposed to be borrowing a friend's furniture dolly that day, but he was unexpectedly away on business. I have a couple empty stainless steel kegs laying around I've been planning to use for a DIY project, and my mind flashed back to a book I read as a kid on how the Pyramids were probably built...    Roll it forward, then partner would swap the rear keg in front and repeat. Once we got it onto the camping mat (memory foam with a very sheer polyester covering, you can pretty much use it as a skimboard on hardwood or short carpet) we could push it around the flat with relative ease, then stand it up where we wanted it. I honestly didn't think it would work, but  MisterOblivious posted:Dude didn't reply, those deleted posts are mostly rick and morty references. From all the comments, I'm *really* bummed I didn't get to see the pics.
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Jul 6, 2017 01:18
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Pompous Rhombus posted:I have a couple empty stainless steel kegs laying around I've been planning to use for a DIY project, and my mind flashed back to a book I read as a kid on how the Pyramids were probably built... I worked as a furniture mover for a couple of years. The boss made some rollers for shifting stuff that was too big or fragile for a hand trolley and too heavy or awkward for straps over ground that was too soft or bumpy for a flat dolly. Not a situation that comes up often, but when it does they're a godsend. I've never seen anyone else using rollers to move furniture before right now.
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Jul 6, 2017 01:48
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LOL the Zillow vs. McMansion Hell thing made the news. In canada. http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens...illow-1.4188696 Nothing really new, I just love how much Zillow boned themselves.
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Jul 6, 2017 01:49
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Pompous Rhombus posted:From all the comments, I'm *really* bummed I didn't get to see the pics. It was just a shed where the inside walls were doors cut down to cover the insulation.
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Jul 6, 2017 02:20
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