Anyone else stuck into a major house project?
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Mine has been going on for years now. I keep having to leave it in order to go make money, just to spend on the house. In total it has taken about a years work so far, almost all of it I have done myself, and I am actually getting pretty sick of it. Yeah, its a nice place. Yeah, I have doubled its value. But really, if you have a roof over your head,do you really care? is property that important? Did the western world lose its way with its property obsession? (Just thinking of the number of house programs on UK TV, it is extraordinary how many there are.) Have we lost sight of lifes true values? Anyone else got stuck into major house projects? Was it worth it? Did you finish even? :(
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Erudite_Eric wrote:
But really, if you have a roof over your head,do you really care?
The seeds have wisdom have sprouted, grasshopper! Or - put another way: If you keep working too hard to reach the good life, you'll never be able to enjoy it.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
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OK, here is the closest I can get. I had a mate, true story, in the Paras actually. his family were doing some work in the house. It needed a skip. You know, big metal bin, gets filled with crap. Anyway, they did the work, and noticed their cat had disappeared. They truck came to remove the skip. And there it was,, 2 mm thick. A cat pancake. Sad, but pithily funny. Actually, I love cats, so really it is sad... :(
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I've done 5 houses were I lived in and remodeled for other people and for them it was worth it because it tremendously increased the value and also gave me a place to live for an extended period plus a good chunk of money.
VS2010/Atmel Studio 6.0 ToDo Manager Extension
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Yeah, thats a nice sized chunk of work. I have 2000 square feet to work on.... :( (And the fucking garden....)
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Erudite_Eric wrote:
But really, if you have a roof over your head,do you really care?
The seeds have wisdom have sprouted, grasshopper! Or - put another way: If you keep working too hard to reach the good life, you'll never be able to enjoy it.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
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Mine has been going on for years now. I keep having to leave it in order to go make money, just to spend on the house. In total it has taken about a years work so far, almost all of it I have done myself, and I am actually getting pretty sick of it. Yeah, its a nice place. Yeah, I have doubled its value. But really, if you have a roof over your head,do you really care? is property that important? Did the western world lose its way with its property obsession? (Just thinking of the number of house programs on UK TV, it is extraordinary how many there are.) Have we lost sight of lifes true values? Anyone else got stuck into major house projects? Was it worth it? Did you finish even? :(
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I had difficulty getting out of my apartment building this morning because some brilliant painters decided that ladders should be placed directly in front of doors (definitely not a fire hazard). Had to go out the other side of the building and walk around to get to my car. So I almost got stuck because of a house project...but that's the closest I've been.
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Yeah, thats a nice sized chunk of work. I have 2000 square feet to work on.... :( (And the fucking garden....)
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Doing the ceiling work (drywall, taping, and sanding) sucks. That was the worst. Now that it is done, it looks great.
"the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
"No, that is just the earthly manifestation of the Great God Retardon." - Nagy Vilmos (2011) "It is the celestial scrotum of good luck!" - Nagy Vilmos (2011) "But you probably have the smoothest scrotum of any grown man" - Pete O'Hanlon (2012) -
Mine has been going on for years now. I keep having to leave it in order to go make money, just to spend on the house. In total it has taken about a years work so far, almost all of it I have done myself, and I am actually getting pretty sick of it. Yeah, its a nice place. Yeah, I have doubled its value. But really, if you have a roof over your head,do you really care? is property that important? Did the western world lose its way with its property obsession? (Just thinking of the number of house programs on UK TV, it is extraordinary how many there are.) Have we lost sight of lifes true values? Anyone else got stuck into major house projects? Was it worth it? Did you finish even? :(
============================== Nothing to say.
Nope not at the moment, The last one started in 1998 and finished in 2005. Now when I say finished, I mean enough to move in! I converted 2 flats (3 floors) back into the original house. Yes it was worth it. although it got a bit of a pain during the process, work kept getting in the way, social life got in the way, wife got in the way.
Dave Find Me On: Web|Facebook|Twitter|LinkedIn
Folding Stats: Team CodeProject
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Doing the ceiling work (drywall, taping, and sanding) sucks. That was the worst. Now that it is done, it looks great.
"the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
"No, that is just the earthly manifestation of the Great God Retardon." - Nagy Vilmos (2011) "It is the celestial scrotum of good luck!" - Nagy Vilmos (2011) "But you probably have the smoothest scrotum of any grown man" - Pete O'Hanlon (2012) -
Nope not at the moment, The last one started in 1998 and finished in 2005. Now when I say finished, I mean enough to move in! I converted 2 flats (3 floors) back into the original house. Yes it was worth it. although it got a bit of a pain during the process, work kept getting in the way, social life got in the way, wife got in the way.
Dave Find Me On: Web|Facebook|Twitter|LinkedIn
Folding Stats: Team CodeProject
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When you say lavished money, were you getting other people to do the work for you? If so I can imagine that that is going to end up super expensive, and in monetary terms not worth it. DOing the work yourself is interesting in that you can change your mind when you like. You end up with something very nice, very personal, something I imagine you wouldnt get with an architect and a gang of builders. (Although it would be quicker). But yeah, there is little chance I will do this again. It is so much hard work. Physically, mentally, stressfully, and really, to be happy and living simply with ones family is all that is important in life I think. (Of course when it is done I can retire on the rental income! :cool:)
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Erudite_Eric wrote:
... you can change your mind when you like.
Not once you've ordered the custom-cut granite countertops.
Erudite_Eric wrote:
You end up with something very nice, very personal ...
That nobody else will want to buy when you put the house on the market.
Don't blame me. I voted for Chuck Norris.
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Did you consider it your major job? To me part of the issue is focus. Am I a windows kernel programmer or a builder? Its hard to keep ones focus and thus ones skills with such a quandary.
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I walked away from programming in the mid 90s for personnel reasons and started my own construction company until resuming programming career in 2007. When I returned I couldn't catch up with all I had missed so I retired and do side jobs in both areas now but at my own pace. No more deadlines!
VS2010/Atmel Studio 6.0 ToDo Manager Extension
Version 3.0 now available. There is no place like 127.0.0.1 -
Mine has been going on for years now. I keep having to leave it in order to go make money, just to spend on the house. In total it has taken about a years work so far, almost all of it I have done myself, and I am actually getting pretty sick of it. Yeah, its a nice place. Yeah, I have doubled its value. But really, if you have a roof over your head,do you really care? is property that important? Did the western world lose its way with its property obsession? (Just thinking of the number of house programs on UK TV, it is extraordinary how many there are.) Have we lost sight of lifes true values? Anyone else got stuck into major house projects? Was it worth it? Did you finish even? :(
============================== Nothing to say.
The summer I turned 12 my parents put in a 2 bedroom addition to their house. They had a contractor do the first part of the work to make it weatherproof and a few of the more fiddly bits afterwards: hanging doors (nothing in the old part of the house was perfectly square), finishing the drywall (dad hired an old friend who taught him how to do it at the same time), and de/reattaching the power meter from the outside wall to fit the siding/insulation under it. But my dad and I spent almost every evening and weekend that summer pulling wire, stuffing fiberglass batts into the walls, hanging drywall, and nailing shingles to make the new rooms livable. Then once that was done: as an encore, we tore off the old siding from the house and blew insulation into the old walls before hanging foamboard and vinyl siding around the entire house. My 5yo brother helped as a gofer, and mom did all the painting. Dunno if I'd want to do anything that ambitious myself; but my parents didn't have much choice since the house wasn't big enough for 6 kids and they couldn't afford to pay someone to do all the work. Murphy could always leave me in the same spot. More recently, I missed out on helping my mom tear down a drop ceiling in the kitchen when her work schedule gave her enough consecutive days off to do the job and clean up at the same time I was on vacation. Even money is on my spending at least one day later this summer helping her with some other part of the kitchen project. I suspect the only way I'll get out entirely is if she decides to hire my Uncle, who's semi-retired but does occasional small remodeling jobs to keep himself busy, to do all the reconstruction work instead of just the dishwasher and kitchen sink are cabinetry.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason? Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful? --Zachris Topelius Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies. -- Sarah Hoyt
