Swimming Pools

[fishki]

Does anyone have an inground pool?
Or know anyone that does? Are they just a pain in the ass and not worth it.

I have been thinking of putting in an inground pool at our house, I have been looking at the fiberglass pools, around a 20 - 30 thousand gallon one, they are pretty damn expensive but financing is available for them, but from what I have read they are the least expensive to maintain.

I went a bought a little 2000 gallon pool at walmart just to see if I could keep it clean and stuff over the summer before I buy a big one, it's been a month now and I still have the original water in it and it is crystal clear, I test it every day and add whatever I need to keep it balanced, and I run the pump/filter thing everyday at least 6 hours, i get my feet dirty and jump in, I have some friends kids come and play in it and I'm sure at least one has peed in it, but so far I am doing good at keeping it in check... I have learned that buying regular Clorox bleach is cheaper than buying shock to dose it up every week and keep my chlorine levels up, so far it works great..

Any thoughts or suggestions?

[Drew]

A POOL, are you freaking kidding me?

I'm looking to buy a house. All I want is a house with 2 bedrooms a bathroom and somewhere I can park one of the cars.

Jeez...


PS. I would prefer no mold or urine stains.... Thank you

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[fishki]

lmao... yeah drew find a house dude... then go for a pool
Actually buy a house with a pool in the yard already

[Drew]

No pools for me lol.

Seriously though I find this topic depressing. Living in and around san Francisco sucks for the housing market.

I have some news and I have been meaning to make a thread about it but I have just been too lazy. I guess I'll just do it here.

So the wife is pregnant! We decided we wanted to buy a house and then start to try and have a kid. Well the first time not trying not to get pregnant it happened. Whoa... Slow down there... But its cool and its a girl!

Now for the house. This has proven near impossible where we live and has been very stressful, depressing and a little exciting. Though the exciting part usually crashes pretty quick.

Go ahead and search for a house in alameda,ca and you will see how hard it is.

We tried looking farther out but then that means both of us would have to commute. I work in san Francisco and the wife works in alameda. We also don't like any subburbs surrounding alameda. At least not the ones we can afford.

We tried looking in Oakland, but I didn't like any of the schools near by. Plus I'm not sure how safe it is. Seems to have a high number of forced entry robberies.

So yeah, I hope you enjoy your pool ... Lol j/k I still like you fish.


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[fishki]

damn drew, that sucks you cant find a house, I had figured the housing market would be booming just about everywhere with all the foreclosures that have happened the last couple years. Nemo and me have both been much happier since we got the new home in last year and moved out of the drug infested town we were in for the last 13 years.
Yeah dont settle for less than you want, find a place safe, especially with a family.

Congrats on the girl I hear they get expensive

You dont even need a pool drew... you got the ocean
Remember I'm in Kansas...we barely have water

[Drew]

The ocean is hella cold though ... Haha. Alameda is on the bay.

Problem with the market here is that there aren't many homes on the market. Anything decent sells with many offers. A few foreclosures but even those are at the top of our price range. 2011 looks to have been a better year to buy a foreclosure.

I just don't know anymore. I don't want to live in a crappy area.

This girl is going to have to learn to be cheap.. lmao


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[nymphetomine]

damn drew, congrads!!!!!!!
lucky i'm still a couple of years away from that ( atleast, i hope)

i have some family in san jose.. dunno if that is something (i know nothing about the states)

and for the pool.. my boss has a big one.. seems pretty easy to maintain, except if you get a leak underground, than you have to dig a shitload.. but you have nemo for that..

anyway.. good luck to all!!!!!

[twistedblister]

Ha how many pools fish make you dig nemo?

Good luck with finding a house and taking care of little drew

Fish. Pools ... Are great and a pain. I have not done one for awhile. The Niger the surface area and direct sunlight the more chemicals you will have to use. I resurrected one after a hurricane and it just took a few weeks. And lots of chlorine. I have never done. A saltwater one so I don't know about those. If I have another built again it will be chlorine because I know how to take care of it
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[fishki]

Ok, so I think I am NOT getting a pool, alot of daily work, plus it has now cooled off here now so I would only be using it a couple months out of the year. I checked into a heater for it but I dont want to spend more money on heating it for winter use...

[Drew]

so I think we have a place to live!!!! yay and its in alameda!!

What we found is a townhome. we have actually bid on about 5 of these now and we finally got one!! Its all done and needs nothing. That's good and bad cause its at the top our price range with not a lot of room to improve. Kitchens and bathrooms were remodeled in 08, they could be nicer but they are like new. Its also a little smaller then most of the ones we bid on, but it going to work just fine.

And the is a community swimming pool!! easy commute for me as express buses are right up the street and the ferry terminal is right down the street.. lol. Its also about as close to the bridge as you can get.

We are still waiting for loan under writing approval but all looks good. They are considering the property a flip as this couple just bought it this spring and are now relocating to Germany.


I have a question for you fish. Do you know anything about engineered hardwood floors? They put this down through out the townhome. Its looks really nice and I like it. But the way they did the stairs sucks. on the leading edge of each step there is like a trim peice, kinda like a cap. the problem is it is raised a little from the step. so its like each step has a little trip edge. it feels weird to me. do you know of or can think of anyways I could improve this.

I'll try and take some pictures next time I'm there. It feels like a safety hazard to me, but maybe its no big deal. I'm not sure how wide the stairs are either. It just struck me as weird when I was there.

[fishki]

Great news drew !! Glad you found a place where you wanted

Yeah take a pic or two, sounds like they used strip flooring for the stair tread,
which is a no no imo, your stair treads should be an engineered single plank with a bullnosed edge, not a trim piece.

(It is possible to use strip flooring, I don't and wont install it as it puts pressure on the leading edge t&g, it still should have a bullnose tho and not a raised trim)

If you are to concerned about it then it is a relatively easy change out if the sides of the steps are not trimmed in, cost about 50 bucks per step to replace.

[Drew]

Thanks for the info fish. Yeah I don't like the way they did it. May not be the first thing I do but I want to check into soon so I can plan for it. Gonna be all cashed out after the move and baby. Baby is due 5 weeks from move in. First 2-3 weeks are filled with people visiting and a baby shower at the new place.

Seriously crazy people. We don't even have a second bed or anything like that but people don't seem to care. Ugh...

Sounds like I need to replace the whole step? Sounds ok, my only concern is it has a turn. Half up one way and half the other way. I'm not sure if the steps turn or if there is a big landing.

To me this step thing is not OSHA aproved and someone should get a fine. Lmao. But seriously why would put a raised edge on a stair.

Oh well

Root makes me happy :)

[nymphetomine]

[Drew]

Lol

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[Drew]

Hey, what would be the best way to patch drywall was fish?



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[nymphetomine]

Make an awesome panorama shot (pic), print it out and use that to cover it up..

[Drew]

It's only an inch tall :\

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[fishki]

wth drew, thats not a swimming pool

ok step by step instructions here



You need to get some boards, dont matter what, I just used some hardwood flooring scraps here, they cant be to big or they wont fit thru the hole


Slide the boards in along the edges and screw them in thru the sheetrock, with about half the width left to screw your patch into


Then just screw in a peice of sheetrock...


Get some mesh tape and cover the joints


hopefully you have at least a 6" taping knife and not some cheap putty knife from walmart.


Here is where homeowners make a mistake, they try to cover the patch in one coat, (don't do that) Using a 6" knife skim coat over your tape, (you will have to repeat this step a few times to get a nice smooth coverage), do not glob your first coat on thick, it will dry and crack!! You will still have visible tape, that is fine, let it dry and repeat the process with another coat. Also remember to feather your edges out (unless you want to do a shitload of sanding) you can slightly twist you knife and put more pressure on one edge to get a nice coat.


Once you have a few coats on take a sanding sponge and lightly feather out the edges and brush over the surface. It actually looks like your wall is textured drew.... if so take a close up pic of it and I can maybe tell you how to match it.

[Drew]

Thanks fish!

I don't have a 6" putty knife... Yet. I just have some smaller ones from home depot to plug nail holes in apartments. This is why I wanted to ask before I do anything for this repair.

Yeah the wall is textured. And I do have the pieces I cut out.. Not sure if I should use them yet.


The lower hole is also much smaller.. Should I cut a bigger piece out to make it easier? The upper piece already has a support diagonal beam I can use so I should only need one board I suppose.





Here is the finished side. I was putting in wall sconces to the bedrooms as there was only switchable outlets and the rooms are small. I didn't want to waste floor space. This is the babies room.
[img]http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/01/21/4ajyse6a.jpg[/img]


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[fishki]

the funny part of this is I had nothing better to do today, so on my way to get a pepsi I stopped over at a house we are working on and cut a hole in a scrap piece of rock and patched it so drew would know how to patch his holes....

[fishki]

ummm drew.... you see that wire nut sticking out in side that wall.....
you can't have that there, needs to be inside the box, and it looks like some electrical tape is wrapped around it also.... thats not up to code


and no, you don't need to make the hole bigger, just put the pieces back in that you took out. make sure you have enough wood in there to hold the pieces in good, being small holes wont take much

texture looks like a skip trowel, once you get the patching done you can easily blend it in

[Drew]

Lol at the bored fish.

Ok, so you don't see what you think you see. Plus I'm not finished and not exactly ready to patch yet. I still want to pull the outlets out and do a better splicing job.. Or trimming up some wires to save space.

So what you are seeing at the capped wiring is the ground straps. Not the ground side of the power cables. That is the back side of the outlet from the babies room. All the cables seam to go in and out of that outlet so there is no space. So they ran the ground straps out and twisted together. I assume this was done in the sixties. We added one strap to it. My friend capped and taped it to make it look cleaner. But it was just open ground straps before.

But like I said I'm not finished or ready to patch quite yet. So is that not ok for ground straps.. It's cleaner then it was originally.

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[Drew]

Question on your code comment. Is electrical tape over nuts not ok. Or just that it is outside of the box?

Inside the box there were crimped splices that were tapped up. I used the nuts to cap my new wiring secured them with tape.. Is that okay for inside the box.

I do want to redo the ground straps in the covered outlet you see. But I am still thinking of the best way to do it. I have also not hung any light in this room yet.



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[fishki]

Yes drew, any connections must be inside a box, whether crimped, soldered, or wire nutted, taping over a wire nut is generally not required as electrical connections cause resistance and tape can cause heat buildup inside a wire nut.

Usually when you see tape or a wire nut outside a box it means a damaged and/or broken wire.

Also any junction boxes have to be accessible, generally these arr in the attics, but outlet boxes and switch boxes are also used as a j box in some instances. You cannot have a junction box buried inside a wall.

[Drew]

Ok, so there is no box hidden behind a wall. The rooms are back to back. So I made cuts so I would only have to cut up one room. What you are looking at is the back side of this.


So all power connections are done inside of the box. What you are looking at are ground straps.. Non cased wire. It was already like that.. So you are saying the building was not up to code when built?



Here I will take off the nut and tape so you can see.



So everything was already like that.. I just added the copper grounding strap. So this is not ok and I need to pull all these straps into the box?


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