Don't see a DIY project thread here for household stuff so figured I'd kick it off. I've been absolutely busting my ass for the last 5 weeks or so on this pool. Back in Ontario we had easy access to pools at both of our parents houses. When we moved here we didn't really care about having a pool or not, but after living here a couple years, the summer heat is brutal and having a pool for relief from the heat started sounding like a pretty good idea.
Got quotes for a nice inground setup...$100K, easy. Nope, just don't see the value in that. So, we went full redneck and bought, for $6K, one of these 'hard-sided' above ground pool kits. Tried to hire someone to install it...$10K, and they were all flakey and sketchy. So, during the hottest part of the summer (haven't seen a heat index under 100F in like 8 weeks) I took a few days off, and cleared some weekends, and slugged through it.
Clearing the area, levelling the ground, and then installing the support buttresses - this was the worst part. After that it was just hauling materials (4 tons of screening, 5 tons of sand) and assembling everything. I had help from Mrs.Firm for some of it, but largely working solo, so had to great creative on how to make things work without extra muscle, but got it done. No equipment, just shovels, wheel barrow, LOTs of water, liquid IV and determination.
Still need to run a proper electrical circuit (currently running on an extension cord), which I will do in the next couple weeks. Next year, I'll do an interlock type walkway out to it from the main patio, and some interlock around it to clean up the dirt/gravel.
Is it kinda ugly, yep. But when it's 100F and 85% humidity, it's a God-send
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I don't think that looks bad at all. Do you think this will be a shorter term solution before investing in an inground pool? Did you price out any container pools, I have seen ads for those and they look pretty neat.
Like those drop in fiberglass deals? Someone I know here as a business installing them....Was still going to be $50-60K. The biggest expense is concrete work, it's gotten out of hand.
Plenty of people getting 30+ years out of these hard-sided units, given it's maintained, and likely goes through a few liners in that period. I figure, if I get 15 years out of it, the kids will be grown, and we probably won't need a pool anymore, so we could get rid of it then. So for now, this is good enough. There are so many better investments I'd rather dump $100K on; starting with the shop build I am planning for the property.....but $100K can go a long way down here if you're smart with it, can buy 2-5 acres of farm or hunting land, a local small business, rental properties, etc. Any of those are better investments than a hole in your yard filled with water.
I agree, it doesn't look bad at all. That's a lot of sweat equity right there though, great job!!
Some lawnmower repair here. It broke a couple of weeks ago when son #2 was mowing the lawn & I was outta town. One of the drive wheels stopped working & jammed. I took it apart & found the gear had fallen out & jammed in the wheel. I figured out the retaining clip had fallen off. As a temporary fix I just removed it & let my son use it as a 1 wheel drive. In the meantime I Googled the mower model # & found the schematic & ordered the part, was $6.10 all in. Picked up the part today & put the gear back in & it works perfectly now.
Good repair. I recently had a nightmare of a fix on my Husqvarna zero-turn...Don't want to relive it, lol. Can't wait until the days where my son can manage the grass stuff.
Looks great, Firm!
Back at the pool again this year....Ran it last year from when it was done in August until October on an extension cord, so this year I wanted to wire it up properly, and add a heater. So, I needed two 20A circuits run out to the pool...A bunch of research ensued, followed by renting a ditch witch and running a trench about 150ft from the corner of the house to the pool. Fortunately, someone had previously added a panel on the side of the house to power an existing hottub, so I was able to add to that panel and not have to run all the way back to the main panel in the garage. Still though, it was a much bigger job than I anticipated.
Once the power was setup and running, I bought a heat pump style heater off of the Jungle website, rigged up some 'custom' fittings to make it work with my existing 1.5" flex hoses and chlorinator - which was also a big pain in the butt. It's done now though, and we have power and heat, so the family has been enjoying it.
Next I need to do some sort of interlock or patio slab walkway from the main patio up at the house down to the pool, and create a separate little sitting area by the pool.
I kinda really slacked on the in-progress photos on this because unlike the car projects, this stuff is much less interesting/enjoyable for me, so I am usually in a 'just get it done' mindset.
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Yuck..LOL 😆
I feel the same way about lawn care. I grudgingly do it, but rather be doing just about anything size.
I like the idea of a pool but not sure I'd want one. I see a pool and I see $$$, a questionable investment, and a ton of work. Most people I know with a pool are constantly checking and fiddling with it. I'd rather spend my time on lawn and garden care ;D
Couple of things going on at our house. The last hailstorm destroyed our roof shingles, so my neighbour and I (we live in a duplex) are replacing our roof shingles. We're contracting that one out, as I don't care to be roofing. I'm 100% out of pocket on this one. My insurance company can eat a bag of dicks!
At the same time, we've both decided to replace the wood siding at the front of house which is starting to rot. This is a project we'll do ourselves, and we'll replace with CanExel engineered siding, oriented vertically.
We want to keep the same colour of brown trim (replace with new engineered trim, painted the same colour), as that's the colour of the fascia and gutter, which we're not replacing, but we'll change the colour of the main part, to change up the look of the house a bit.
I also appreciate having a neighbour who is willing and able to make changes to his house, and coordinate them with us.
The first pic is the house as it looked a few years ago (and mostly still does)
The second pic is some of the colour choices that I mocked up to show my neighbour and our spouses. We chose the top-right option, or 'cliffside'.
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Sounds like you definitely lucked out with a decent neighbor. Sorry to hear that your insurance company did what they typically do and leave you out in the cold when it comes to covering such damage. At least it's a decent time of the year to get all this done.
^ Yeah, definitely lucked out with a decent neighbor. That roof doesn't look too bad to re-shingle at least, no crazy pitches, no valleys. Honestly probably wouldn't be that bad to DIY it....On my last house we had a storm pull off about 30% of the shingles on one side, and damaged all the homes in the neighborhood similarly. Roofing companies were crazy busy and price gouging, so I watched some videos and re-shingled one entire face of the roof myself in a few hours. Worst part was lugging the big bundles of shingles up the ladder. At the time, all I could get were black shingles, and the rest of the roof was charcoal, so it looked a little odd, but kept it for about a year until the roofing companies were hungry again and got it redone.
Don't even want to think about what the roof on our current place will cost when the time comes...very steep, lots of peaks and valleys. Ugh.
Good on ya for taking on the siding GBA, not something I'd look forward to, or feel comfortable doing. Keep us posted on how it goes.
Mrs. BC and I own a lot at a nearby lake. The lot is designated RV in the zoning bylaw, so no permanent living quarters (defined as something with a permanent foundation and plumbing) can be built, hence we simply have an RV on the lot. I've built a 10x12 bunkhouse, added a deck, fence, etc. We have on site septic (holding tank) and our own well. It's a nice spot for not a big investment. A hop skip and jump to the marina also, so getting on/off the water is easy.
This year I built a deck cover. We wanted something more permanent for shade/protection from rain for an outdoor spot. We spend almost no time in the actual RV. I had help setting the posts (some are built into the deck, some are cemented in the ground), however the remaining work I did on my own. A lot of trips up and down a ladder. I have two boys, but they're busy and our schedules just didn't work out for them to help me on this one. Plus I don't mind working away on this stuff on my own. The structure ended up being about 31' long, with the main section have a 13' wide metal roof, and another section extending another 10' out. It turned out well. Its built with conventional lumber and used sheetmetal for the roof. Notching some of the posts for the beams and joints was challenging at times, but I'm good with the result.
Some progress and complete pics are below.
Nice work BC. Are the bugs not an issue there, we would have a screened in area for sure otherwise I find most places at around dusk the bugs get bad so without protection we always venture inside.
Thanks! Insects aren't bad, mostly because the lot is covered in crushed rock. We have municipal reserve space behind us and on one side. If you go into those areas the mosquitoes can be bad. I'm not adverse to spraying myself with bug spray if needed.
Really nice work, that's a big project and it looks like it turned out really great.
Quote from: Firm on Jul 15, 2026, 02:26 PMDon't even want to think about what the roof on our current place will cost when the time comes...very steep, lots of peaks and valleys. Ugh.
Mine was $17k, right around the pandemic. I'm just about the only guy on the street who filled the 17 pages of paperwork + follow-up hassles of the class-action suit terms against BP (premature aging of the shingles used on the original builds all over our then-new neighbourhood). It was worth $8k, so time well spent.
That's not bad, definitely worth the hassle. Ours was done 2 years before we bought the place, so it's about 5 years old now. Shingles are those architectural shingles that are suppose to last longer, but I've got no paperwork or warranty, so when the times comes it'll be fully out of pocket. When it was done, they re-used most of the flashing, which irritates me, I would always demand new flashing with a roof. Hopefully I get another 10-15 out of it, then maybe I'll go metal...My parents did metal about 10 years ago and it's really nice, never have to think about roof issues again.
We're going higher end on our roof. We're going with IKO Dynasty, which are a performance shingle rated for wind and hail. They're a heavier shingle than other products, and they've got a class 3 impact rating, one below the max of 4, and a 210km/h wind rating. Given the hailstorms that we're getting lately, I figure it's a smart move to pay for a higher end product.
The contractor is also including all the flashing, drip edge, roof vents, etc. I'll be taking my chimney out, too (it's no longer hooked up to anything) and he'll be patching the hole that it leaves.
Quote from: Firm on Jul 22, 2026, 09:05 AMHopefully I get another 10-15 out of it, then maybe I'll go metal...My parents did metal about 10 years ago and it's really nice, never have to think about roof issues again.
We switched to metal after our shingles were at end of life. I think we were the first one in our neighborhood and there's been about a dozen or more houses that did the same thing after us. Honestly don't know why more people don't pay for the upgrade, beyond going up there every decade or so to tighten the screws or replace any that are missing and that's about it. We paid about twice the cost of shingles, but we shouldn't have to worry about it going forward.
Quote from: GreatBigAbyss on Jul 22, 2026, 09:32 AMWe're going higher end on our roof. We're going with IKO Dynasty, which are a performance shingle rated for wind and hail.
We went with the same shingles in 2024.
Not exactly DIY, but since last month my A/C at home has been approaching the end of its life. It's a no-name brand Chinese mini-split system that's original to the condo being built in 2010. When I bought my place in 2021 I figured it didn't have too much time left, but somehow with minimal maintenance it's lasted another 5 years. Since last month, the system stops cooling after several hours in operation and displays an error code that I traced to a temperature sensor. It seems like this temperature sensor is faulty and after awhile senses that the room is cold, shuts down the compressor, and doesn't restart it as the room warms up. I don't know a ton about HVAC and figured it wasn't worthwhile to start taking apart a 16 year old machine and throwing parts at it to get maybe another 1-2 years at most, so I bit the bullet and started shopping.
It's crazy how much prices vary for mini-split systems! I got 4 quotes and the most expensive was almost 2.5x the cheapest. Makes it really tough to make a decision. I ended up choosing the Mitsubishi MSZ-HX mini-split in the 18,000 BTU size. It's a heat pump (vs. the old one which was strictly an A/C), so I'll be able to use it for most of the winter instead of electric baseboards. HVAC contractors here basically only install heat pumps these days rather than A/C-only units because Hydro Quebec subsidizes them since they use way less electricity than traditional baseboard heaters. I'll be getting around $1,000 or so back from HQ after my install.
I've been flipping the breaker twice a day for the past month to hard reset the A/C, to get the cooling to restart, so I'm looking forward to having the new system installed on Friday. Very grateful the old one hasn't kicked the bucket yet, haha. All of the contractors who visited were shocked that the original unit lasted this long, seeing as it was as cheap as you could get back in 2010, and it works pretty hard in the summer seeing as one of my outside walls is southwest facing.
I bet that'll help save some $ come winter on the heat side of things.
I have a recent A/C story too. Our house has 3 AC units; one for the main floor kitchen/living area, one for the master suite (mainfloor), and one for the upstairs. It's been a bit of a heat wave here with daytime temps flirting with 100F and humidity 75%+, very uncomfortable. Last Friday, around 2pm, I am at the office getting ready to leave early so Mrs.Firm and I can go to Nashville for the night to celebrate her birthday as my FIL is in town to watch the kids. She calls me and says that the AC is making a lot of noise, and sends a video of it sounding pretty horrible. I leave work and get over there maybe 45 minutes later and the unit has shut itself off, it's humming loudly, and the fan motor is extremely hot. Clearly, the condenser fan motor seized up and shut everything down...Of course, this is the upstairs unit, which is most critical for cooling, and it's where the kid and my FIL sleep.
I jump on Amazon and find a replacement fan motor, and a capacitor (just in case), but earliest delivery is Sunday. At this point it's like 5pm, and it's 100F outside and already about 85F in the house upstairs. So, we move the kids mattresses into the living room downstairs and set them up to sleep there. Get my FIL setup in the other living room, so at least they'll have the mainfloor AC, and we get on the road to Nashville.
We got home late in the afternoon on Saturday and it was 92F upstairs...so everyone slept downstairs for another night. Kids at least loved 'camping out' in the living room...go figure. Sunday afternoon the parts arrive from Amazon and I was able to swap the fan motor in about 30 minutes and the AC unit fired right up. By 9pm upstairs was back to a comfortable 73F.
The whole ordeal made me very grateful for AC in general, for Amazon shipping, and for being handy enough to diagnose and repair the unit myself, otherwise we would've been in for a much longer wait and bigger bill.
Did you have a way to recoup and recharge the refrigerant? Or just recharge?
Neither, the condenser fan can be replaced without opening the system at all.
Ooooh, it was just the fan. For some reason I read it as you replaced the condenser.
Quote from: GreatBigAbyss on Jul 22, 2026, 11:25 PMDid you have a way to recoup and recharge the refrigerant? Or just recharge?
No idea, will find out on Friday. They'll also be changing out the breaker from a single-pole 20A to a double-pole 15A, since the requirements for the new systems have changed.
Holy Crap. What a weekend. I'm bagged. The house went from this:
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To this
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To this
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And finally to this
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It feels good to be done. It was a lot of work. Three days of 8-11 hrs each, non stop.
Not too many trips to Rona - although I did have to rent a 12" sliding compound miter saw, as my regular miter saw wasn't big enough.
Eventually I'll have to do the gable on the side. I'm not in a big rush, as it isn't exposed to the elements like the front was, but I will eventually want it to match. I'll need to be renting some scaffolding though, as it's too high to be safely worked on with a ladder.
Nice work! Big improvement, that original stuff looks like it was getting pretty rotten. Also, that Tims cup in the first photo hit me hard...probably because I really need a coffee right now, but specifically I could really do with a Tims coffee in that cup right now. Before anyone says, I know, it's shitty coffee, but you spend 20+ years drinking it probably daily and then lose access to it...you crave it once and awhile.
Great job GBA and awesome progress.
You guys did a great job GBA, I'm sure you're over the moon that it's done and satisfied that you won't have to do that again for a good long time if ever at all.
^^^^ Actually, not true.
My neighbour wants to do his side. We bought the material together, and he's asked for my help. I don't think he's very handy, so I'll probably end up doing the Lion's share of the work.
Planning on doing it in a month's time, so Sept long.
Quote from: GreatBigAbyss on Aug 04, 2026, 11:12 AM^^^^ Actually, not true.
My neighbour wants to do his side. We bought the material together, and he's asked for my help. I don't think he's very handy, so I'll probably end up doing the Lion's share of the work.
Planning on doing it in a month's time, so Sept long.
My bad, I just assumed that you did both at the same time as you had discussed that earlier about your neighbor. So still some work ahead but hopefully now that they just recently did this, his will go smoothly without any delays.
Really impressive work.
You sure are handy!!