Submitted by user Chuck_050382

Building an offset reverse flow smoker from old fuel oil tanks. I am building two smokers, one for myself that will be mounted to a trailer, and one for a friend that will be built on stand.

Submitted by user sdunt

Our 1970's Wausau house uses "panelized construction" which means that we have these fake beams on the ceiling to cover the joints between the roof - ceiling panels. We also can not remove the beams or drywall over them because there is a certain amount of movement necessary in the roof joints. Here is our solution to updating the look of the house from the 1970's to something in the 21th century by covering the beams and installing crown molding in all of the rooms.

Submitted by user sdunt

Our property includes a 28 x 32 ft barn that is of pegged post and beam construction. The roof line has sagged and the wooden shingles are rotten and missing so you can star gaze in the haymow. We are in the process of saving the barn by putting on a new steel roof. But before we do that we need to get the roof back in line. Then we can add new bracing to the rafters so the barn will be structurally stable.

Subprojects

• New Steel Roof

Submitted by user Mark42

Having the laundry area in the basement of a 2 story home is rather inconvenient. While planning to finish the basement, we decided that the space used by a laundry room would be better used for living space. So the laundry came out of the basement and was installed in a hallway closet. The closet is 72" wide and 24" deep. Typical of a bedroom closet. With the sliding doors removed, total depth at the door opening was another 6", for a total of 30" deep. Still a tight fit for a standard washer/dryer. But I was determined. So I added a 1.5" spacer under the door casing to offset a pair of bi-folding doors and that worked just fine. Check out the results....

Submitted by user Mark42

Basement Finishing Project: The time had come to make some more living space in the house. We needed a home office, exercise area and a place for the kids to gather with their friends to watch videos, play games, etc. The plan was to finish the basement. The basement was used as storage and workshop. So a lot of cleanup and planning was needed to get the office, exercise area and family room in the basement and save space for storage and workshop. Project was started in March of 2004 and finished by February 2006. Almost two years, but I took summers off to work on my boat (see my boat project) and do various other projects around the house. The end result was finished living space 23'x25' plus storage and shop. Total cost for this project not including the leather furniture, was just about $7000. About $1800 was for the cabinets, the rest was materials. The Armstrong Optigrid Ceiling was a real plus. Even though it cost over $800 for the ceiling, because it only used 1 5/8" of headroom, it was well worth it. The result was a 7' 0" ceiling. The Armstrong CVT floor tiles were very inexpensive and a great product for the basement floor. They wear well, polish up nice, not affected by moisture in the floor and are easy to replace if damaged. CVT tiles are about 70% limestone, and they will pass any moisture coming from the concrete floor. The wood column to cover the steel post was pricy, but it was the only choice I had in a wide 10" column. The insulation in the ceiling keeps the noise way down, even when the high school kids are having a party down there. We often have to go down and check because its so quiet sometimes! I had made plans to run baseboard heat in the room, but after the first winter with the finished insulated walls up, the basement stayed warm. We leave the door to the work shop and storage areas open in winter to let the heat from the boiler radiate out into the rest of the basement. That's sufficient to keep it warm. This is how it all worked out...

Submitted by user Mark42

Family Room Makeover. The Family Room remodeling consisted of new Ash flooring by Kahrs, Brandom Maple cabinets and a new Majestic fireplace and split fieldstone face. Wife and I came up with a plan to redo the family room about a year ago when we purchased a new sectional, coffee and end tables. The coffee and end tables are maple with dark cherry panels. The cabnets are maple to match, and the desk top and Entertainment Center top are stained a cherry color to match the coffee and end tables. It took another year to get to the point where I was able to start remodeling the room. The plan was to replace the PC desk, TV stand with "built in" cabinets. We also wanted to remove the large raised hearth on the red brick fireplace to free up more floor space. The raised hearth with its large limestone top was a real danger to the little kids if they hit their heads on it. So out it went. We also added book cases, hardwood floor and replaced the aging fire box with a new heavy duty unit that will last the life of the house. Then a new fireplace face was built from 2 tons of split field stone, and the hearth is slate and set level with the finished floor. Hope you enjoy browsing this project! Mark