WNY Handyman

Every year I run into the issue of poor garage storage space.  This year I am going to do something about it.  Well… that is what I have said for 5 straight years.  Each year I’ll add a shelf, some hooks, or a cabinet, but nothing seems to work.  My space needs have either grown, or my hodgepodge of shelving isn’t cutting it.

Garage Storage Unit

This year, my intention is to alleviate our issues by moving things up off of the floor and providing high storage with some custom cabinet storage along the entire wall.

This plan comes from The Family Handyman Magazine and is a terrific concept.  The lumber won’t be cheap, but if it helps to clean up my garage, then it will be mission accomplished.  It would be nice to park both vehicles inside the garage

Click on the image for the complete plan (pdf).  If the link is dead, please post a comment below and we will email you a copy of that file.

Have fun.

When building an interior railing, you will have a few choices.  the choices that you make will have a big impact on the final appearance (obviously), but will also have a major impact on the time to build.  If you don’t to many stair railings, you probably don’t have some of the custom tools that make the job easier. On top of that, you won’t have the knowledge needed to avoid mistakes and make the job easier.  From the newel that you select to the baluster and finish, a stair can be tricky.

Our recent renovation was formerly a 1 family home that was converted to a 2 family home many years ago.  The conversion to a 2 family was minimal, so bringing it back to a single family was not a major job. In fact, the separating wall that was built at the staircase was only 3″ thick.  The following is a picture of the staircase after demolition of the dividing wall (with some new 2×6 framing added for the newel/railing structure).  You can see that we built a solid framework for our newels and bolted them in from the backside (we had to cover the panels from 1889 as they were unusable).  Click on the image for a larger version of the before and after stair railing pictures.

Stair railing rebuild

Our railing was built from the ground up, this is often easier than a remod.  We had a very specific look that we wanted to achieve and a standard newel wasn’t going to cut it. We went with a beefier newel post that is 5″ at its widest and 4″ at the narrow points. This gives a real custom (and older style) look.  It was a bit of a search to find the box newel post.

In building out this stair rail, I walked away with 2 tips.  If you are working with multiple elevations that will transition with a newel, the less detail on the newel, the better.  A detailed newel can limit the railing position when you transition to a new elevation.  Another tip that we learned the hard way was to use a baluster (spindle) that is squared at the top and bottom. This will allow for easy cuts and fitting.  Our original plan called for a pin top. Since we didn’t have the boring jig to ease the job, we altered the plan to use a spindle that was square at the top and bottom.

The before picture doesn’t really seem to fit.  The explanation for this would be the dividing wall that blocks the stair along with the closet, basement door and interior entry door for the lower unit.

Entry hall before and after

The end result turned out terrific.

If you have a crumbling rubble foundation, you are probably wondering what your repair options are and what the cost might be.  For starters, this is not a DIY job.  Typical do it yourselfers don’t have the ability to lay the blocks required to make this repair.

Rubble Foundation Wall Repair

My experience with a rubble foundation repair.  I happened to be fortunate that the water infiltration into this basement was minimal. Because of that, I did not have wash out issued in the foundation.  These old rubble foundation walls eventually give way if water infiltration is an issue.  Over the years, the force of the water will break down the cement and the wall can start to crumble.  On top of that, most people will apply a band-aid fix that will essentially skin the wall with cement.  This will hold for a bit, but eventually the skin will start to flake off in large bits.

Rubble foundation repair

In our case, we had a foundation wall that was 14″ to 16″ thick.  There was only one area where I had concern about the amount of rubble that had crumbled from the wall.  When enough of the rubble foundation material crumbles away, it will compromise the integrity of the upper foundation (usually large stones or cement) and cause cracks, settling, or worse partial collapse.  We hired a competent contractor who has done hundreds of jobs similar to this.  The contractor is from the East Aurora, NY area where an old stone foundation is common.

Our fix could have been accomplished using a variety of techniques.  The 2 best solutions were a poured interior wall, or a block interior wall.  Due to cost and accessibility, we selected a block interior wall.  The new block wall is tied to existing structure with Rebar and the wall itself is built to last.  This interior wall is placed against the existing rubble foundation wall and will eliminate future crumbling of the foundation.  Not only that, but it provides a crisp interior wall with a nice clean look.

The cost for a repair of this nature will depend on the linear feet you need to cover and the height of the new wall.  Assuming you catch the repair prior to any structure being compromised, you will not have a need to do any lifting of the existing structure.  This new interior wall essentially acts to “retain” the current footer.

Don’t let your rubble foundation get to the point where your house needs to be lifted and the foundation dug out and rebuilt.

Since we have a smaller basement area (there is some crawl space that isn’t affected), our cost was below $5,000. Some might not consider this a cheap fix, but it would certainly beat the $20,000 bill you will face should a major repair/reconstruction be required.  Get multiple estimates and be sure to go with a contractor who has done this repair before.

When you are doing a renovation project on an older home that has gone through multiple additions, or been converted to a multiple family home, you are bound to find some interesting things.

We are working on a former 2 family home, located in Lancaster NY, that was built in 1889.   When we pulled the entry apart to open the staircase back to the upper, we discovered a nice detail under the stairs. This wainscoting could be from 1889, or could have been added during one of the numerous renovations. In either case, it is a terrific stair detail for us to bring back to life.

1889 Stair detail

It was time for an update in our laundry.  Our washer and dryer were both 10+ years old and I wanted to take the opportunity to make the space more functional.  The laundry room is small and a side by side washer/dryer (with upper controls didn’t provide us the opportunity to have surface area for folding, etc.  I decided to go for a pair of stackable laundry appliances.  This way, they could be placed in the corner of the room with about 6′ left over for cabinetry.

Laundry room update - New appliances, Cabinets and Paint

• Appliances: $1,200 (with mounting bracket, shipping, and new dryer vent line)
  I found an absolute steal on the washer and dryer. They came from a site called us-appliance.com. They were a pretty well reviewed supplier and have been around since 1963.  The day I made my selection of the GE units.
  • Washer: WCVH6800JWW GE Energy Star King-size Capacity Frontload Washer – White
    The washer was on sale for $498!
    http://www.us-appliance.com/wcvh6800jww.html
  • Dryer: DCVH680GJWW GE 7.0 Cu. Ft. Super Capacity Front Load Gas Dryer – White
    This was also on special and was only $548
    http://www.us-appliance.com/dcvh680gjww.html
  • If you are buying from us-appliance, consider the Bing.com cash back program. You can earn 6%-7% back on your us-appliance.com purchase!
• Cabinetry: $300
  Ikea has some great RTA cabinets (ready t0 assemble) for a kitchen, utility room, laundry room, etc.  The cabinets were simple to assemble and perfect for the laundry space. We wanted a flush door so that there wouldn’t be dust collecting, so the lowest cost cabinet was out best option.
  • 30″ sink base cabinet
  • 24″ single door base cabinet with drawer
  • 18″ single door base cabinet
  • 24″ double door wall cabinet
  • 18″ single door wall cabinet
• Paint: $30 @ Sherwin-Williams.  A single gallon covered the laundry and the adjacent pantry space.
• Sink: $70
• Countertop: $40
• Miscellaneous: $50
  Caulk, knobs, paint supplies, fabric backer to hide the plumbing/electrical, potted plant.
• Labor: $0
  This is where you come in.  You will save yourself between $200 – $500 for the cabinet and counter top installation, about $99 – $199 for the appliance installation, and about $150 for the painting

Take a look at the finished product. Simple and cheerful.   A huge improvement over the drab room that was there before.  Think of how often you head into the laundry. A bright, efficient and cheerful makeover can be money well spent.

Laundry room update with drop in sink

We will be starting a new project in about two weeks.  It is a home located in a great neighborhood within the Village of Lancaster. The location is fantastic, the house…. not so much.   When buying a home to fix, that is what you want… The worst house on the best street.

This home is located in the Village of Lancaster (off Broadway) and is on a street that includes a mix of home styles.  There are even a number of older 2 family homes.  Our property was built in 1889 and that will have some challenges.  There will be some interesting issues to address with a home that was built in 1889. The oldest property that I have worked on was about 1920.

This was a 2 family home until the prior owner got tired of tenants above him and closed off the upper unit. He pulled the kitchen and had it reassessed as a single family home.  We are going to do a full conversion to a single family.  This will provide some challenges, but I think we will be able to pull off a modern floor plan with some big changes.  We are going to combine the current kitchen with a lower bedroom to provide a modern “open” design.  After the redesign, we will end up with a 4BR (3up, 1 down), 2 Bathroom home with a modern eat in kitchen.  There are 8 1/2′ ceilings on the first floor and this will compliment the open design.

Home renovation plan

There are a NUMBER of large issues with this renovation, not the least of which is the foundation work that is needed.  This will be a big project, but I feel that we will be working with a great contractor who can get things done quickly and properly.  They worked on our office renovation and we couldn’t have been more pleased with the work that was done there.  They have a motto “We Show up, Finish Up, Clean Up and Don’t Screw Up”

There are a couple of major repairs needed before we can even get started making this property look nice.  There is foundation work required and roof work required. There is water leaking now and that needs to be addressed right away.  The foundation is a rubble style foundation and needs to be shored up prior to any major work.

Check back for more as we get into this project.  We’ll include some pictures and video as we go along.