Great detective work! 
Isn’t it funny that it is almost always a cheapo piece of plastic at the center of a megabucks repair?
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I was really surprised (first watching it on YouTube) to confirm that it was a tiny piece of plastic that makes the window go up and down. It was so cheap, in fact, I even replaced the other end of the arm even though it wasn’t broken. What’s all the more surprising is how quickly the door panel can be dissembled. I took me an hour at the most, and that’s just because it was my first time. If I had to do the same repair again, it’d only take me 30 minutes. I made sure to grease all around those plastic regulators before putting back the door panel.
Now, onto another first-time DIY: refinishing my kitchen hardwood floor. As usual, more time spent on learning than what it takes to accomplish the job.
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My H is a retired automotive engineer. His specialty was fasteners. He has never been a fan of parts that fail too easily! He has fixed a few car windows in his time … grumbles about saving money at the expense of function every time!
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THANKS for resurrecting this thread. Fun. Going to try Aquaphalt. Any advice for those who did so a few years back?
My DIY list is getting smaller. I’ve done many things for a short time, or once, then move on to something else, so I guess technically a “jack of all trades - master of none”? Most have lasted at least a few years but now we’re turning more and more to hiring it out. We painted the house exterior once. That was enough ;-).
Some past DIY projects: Pottery, Sewing (from home decor to my own wedding dress), Stained glass, Refinishing furniture, Interior painting & minor plastering, Knitting/Crochet LONG ago. I’m the household IT person… does that count?
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Our biggest DIY project was painting the house! We are taking about 2 1/2 stories tall structure. Than goodness the siding was already primed… I would not have survived watching Mr. climbing those ladders more than once!
Next DIY project: restaining the wood around the front door. This I can handle easily.
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My big DIY project in the past year was refinishing hardwood floors in the bedrooms. It’s something that normally we would think too big to do ourselves (and when we moved in this house, we had most of them professionally done). But with kids moving out and remote schooling, I wanted to make a bedroom into an office and had too short of a timeframe to have someone do it. It was hard! But turned out great. Then a few months later we had carpet in one last bedroom so I did that one too. The more we got rid of carpet, the more I wanted to get rid of!
Current project is scraping the front porch floor and repainting. Choosing NOT to scrape all the way down or sand to bare (can’t stand the thought of a floor sander again) so I’m just going to realize that it will look better, but not perfect, and won’t last for years. My husband is finishing our basement (as in home theater room, bathroom, laundry, office) bit by bit. He’s the DIYer, but I do the paint jobs.
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I’m actually right in the middle of refinishing my kitchen hardwood floor. Just finished scraping the edges at least to remove all the wax build up. I will then rent a sanding machine from Home Depot tomorrow and get down to business.
Did you sand the floor, and if so, did you apply either a sealer or stain before applying the polyurethane finish? I’m not sure whether I should sand all the way down to the hardwood’s original state of bare wood, then seal and finish or sand down enough to just go straight to applying the polyurethane finishes. Your input would be appreciated.
We were original fans of This Old House. From the first season.
Although we never had an old house the things they taught pre-YouTube were invaluable. We improved 8 or 9 houses based on their lessons.
Our current home has walls of bookcases that we made , which mirror the original woodwork.
We get a kick out of seeing the second generation. Good for the show for lasting so long!
Measure twice , cut once.
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I just finished a long hallway and bath with new sassafras installed, sanded, dye, sealer, Early American stain, sealer, 3 coats poly. Kind of excessive; turned out gorgeous.
Now doing bedroom with 125 year old poplar. Sanded to bare, stained with golden oak, three coats poly.
I’ve also redone very old heart pine, which I sanded and went straight to the coats of oil poly.
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That’s a lot of work! I’m sure the finish looks great.
Yes, I sanded with a rented floor sander. We knew from our previous professional refinish in the other areas that there is not enough wood to go super deep on the sanding. I sanded until the old and dull finish looked better, it seemed as if I was to the bare wood, but all that was on it before was some super old finish, not stain. (I followed the how-to on the Home Depot web site in terms of what type of sander, and the grits to use. I maybe did 3-5 passes of sanding). Then I used a pre-finish wood primer, then straight to poly. It turns out to exactly match the hallway that was professionally done when we moved in. The trickiest part was applying the polyurethane quickly. That would be easier as a two person job, one to brush the edges and one to do the big parts. We did not remove our old baseboard or trim (shoe molding?) so had to be very careful at the edges.
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Thank you, I’m going to start sanding after lunch. Apparently, the previous house owner had used multiple coatings of wax or Rejuvenate, so I’m going to start off with a rougher grit, probably 36, and hopefully all the wax coatings would come off. Yesterday, I used a scraper to go all around the edges, and it was amazing the amount of wax that came off. After multiple passes of sanding with varying grits, I’ll probably go with a sealer first, then sand it once more with 220 grit before applying two or three coats of Poly.
We have ordered the hardwood for 2 bedrooms upstairs, but it won’t be here until December. H and a friend will lay the wood themselves. H is very handy and our friend has done hardwood in his house. We are currently painting the upstairs. H has pulled up all the tile and flooring in the master bath. We have the new tile and toilet and are waiting for the sink and fixtures for the sink and shower fixtures to arrive. We will get a plumber and someone to do the tile once everything arrives. H has done tile before, but there is a lot to do in the master so he doesn’t want to do it himself.
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I’m trying to convince my DH that we can do our hall bath ourselves. Means replacing floor (will use LVT wood look planks), and the vanity. Then the toilet which is really fine but we’d like one that is a little higher. Take down the mirror above the vanity.
Lights, tub/shower are fine. But faucet sets will be replaced.
A plumber would do sink connections and replace shower and sink sets.
Everything will be painted.
I don’t think it’s too hard…
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Our DIY project today: took down a dead alpine fir. It was a lovely, 2-story tall tree at some point in its life. We have been giving it many second chances and patiently cleaning the needles out of the garage gutters. The summer heat wave did it in… it was time for the dead tree to go. My husband was so happy to “play” with his Greenworks chainsaw!
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Literally sanded my kitchen hardwood floor for about 7 hours today. Made a mistake by starting with 36 grit instead of 20. Going through 3 sheets of 36 grit papers only got the wax off the floor. Went back to the store after lunch and got myself a couple 20 grit papers, went through those, then another 36 grit paper. Tomorrow morning, before returning the machine, will do one pass with 80 grit followed by 100 grit, then I should be done with the machine sanding. In between coatings, I’ll sand with pole sander with 220 grit papers. I underestimated how long it’d take to sand down to the bare wood. I also underestimated how much the machine weighs. I had a hard time loading that thing onto my car. Got blisters on my hands and am dog tired but it’s consoling to know that the bulk of the labor is done.
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Aquaphalt used about for three years now out of 4. Buy fresh, I got from ace hardware they delivered free to my home. Very heavy. Home Depot wanted twice the price and $150 for delivery. Use gloves that you are ok to throw away. Wear old clothes. Do on a warm day (material is better). I used old shoes to use weight to stomp on instead of a tamper I bought.
Yes @TiggerDad those machines are super heavy! And…we didn’t know (or DH didn’t pay attention when renting) that it needed to be returned clean. As in empty and no dust on outside.
In my mode of “paint everything!” (except for the hardwood floors LOL) I am wondering if anyone here has tried the RustOLeum paint-over-tile paint. I want our bathroom freshened up but we not up to replacing the tile floor. Thinking of painting the dated tile (beige marble pattern) a medium gray and then covering most of it with a rug. Thoughts?
Is the tile in good shape? Can you jist put a rug over it now? I feel like if it doesn’t go well you are stuck with the paint job.
I am curious though if people have tried that spray paint!
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This summer I did a couple of new projects. The first was a partial remodel of our master bath which involved painting, installing LVT over linoleum and putting in a new toilet and vanity with a marble top. The LVT install was pretty straight forward-just like installing a Pergo floor. I highly recommend getting the the metal pull bar tool to be able to keep the seams tight. The toilet and vanity installation were pretty easy. I’ve learned the hard way to do reconnaissance on all the shut off valves to make sure they will actually turn off prior to starting. The hardest part about the vanity install was actually getting it up a tight staircase to the second floor. This was a large Wayfair vanity that came with a pre-installed marble top that basically weighed in like a car engine,. There was no way to detach the top from the base. It took four adults to lug it up the stairs. We had about a quarter inch of clearance on the final turn.
Second project was a half bath remodel in my AirB&B rental where I put in a new marble mosaic hex floor. Very happy with the job. No lippage. No thinset stick through on the grout. No grout haze on the tile thanks pre-sealing the hex tile. The bath floor and threshold came out dead even with hardwood flooring in the hallway. Basically on this one I managed to avoid all the minor mistakes I made on previous projects.
Next up is sanding and refinishing the hardwood floors in my rental kitchen. @TiggerDad has me a little scared TBH. It sounds harder than I thought. After that is rebuilding a foot bridge in back of our rental property. I will try to post a picture when i finish it.
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