My home was hit by a tornado

Yeah.... It's bad. The whole house is jacked up except for the foundation.

Here is the garage.

Here's most of our household stuff out on the curb being carried away.

This was not a good end to this blog site. But we will be rebuilding bigger, better, and way more household projects for me to do.

The Subfloor was bad

It all started with some weak hardwood behind the vent.

The small spot of weak hardwood turned out to be an entire room and hall way of bad sub floor.

I was hopping for a splice job. No such luck

There was more bad than good, so I decided to replace it all.

The insulation was bad and the floor joists that the original owner had fixed before I would purchase the home were improperly installed.

Whats really bad is the fact that I had two inspections before I purchased the house.

Just another view of the hall way.

After taking out the rotted sub floor, I fixed the joists as best I could and installed new insulation.

Take a look at the old rotten sub floor and jack up old insulation.

The crawl space was a mess.

The new insulation

The beginning of the new sub floor insulation.

The fully installed living room sub floor.

The fully installed hall way sub floor.

We sealed the cracks and sanded were it was needed before we attempted to install the cheapest laminate hardwood known to man. lol

There it is the living room all done. Not super hard to install but the job was made harder by us having purchased cheap flooring. I made it work, so its all good.

The hall way all done. I worked on my normal job during the days and on the floor during the nights. I had no Christmas. It took 7 days, it could have been done in 3 but I had to get rest so I could go to my job. I'm not saying it was fun, but I did learn a lot.

Moving outlets & nedia wires

Originally I used a media strip to get power to my wall mounted TV. Just a heads up, don't ever use the sticky tape backing on the media strip. The sticky strip backing will take the paint and a few layers of sheet rock off the wall when if you remove it.

I took down the flat screen and pealed away the media strip. The media strips sticky backing ripped the paint and a few layers of the sheet rock, so I had to putty and sand along with tapping the bottom outlet and running a second outlet up top (look ma no visible wires). And yes I know I should have cut the wall and hid the 2x4's I'm using for my mount but that's a project for another day. You can't even see my quick fix for mounting in between studs.

I put the TV back up and put the outlet covers on. Now all I have to do is paint next weekend.

This is the before pic. Ugly power and cable lines running the wall.

The girls room needed the cable outlet moved as well as the power outlet. So I had to cut the wall and move the cable over and then move the cable and power up the wall to new outlets.

Just a pic of the cable line being moved over.

The outlets for power and cable are now up and out of the way.

I had to putty and sand the cut I made. While I was at it I puttied all the little thumb tack holes (holes from pics and posters) the girls have all over their room.

I put the TV back on the stand and connected the power and cable, then I added a large non-sticky media strip to hide the wires from the DVD player and Nintendo Wii. I'll be painting next weekend.

This is the before pic. Ugly and unsafe power and cable lines running the wall.

I moved the cable outlet up and just capped the box until I put a splitter on the line and make the cable accessible from the bottom and top cable outlet. I also tapped the power outlet and moved it up to the TV.

The cable and power outlets up safe and out of view.

There you have it clean looking and safe. I have some putty work, sanding and then painting to do on the old wire holder holes but I'll do that the same day as I paint (no need for the daycare room to look bad until next weekend).

The before pic. I had media strips hiding the wires. I installed the media strips using the sticky backs on them. The same sticky backs that destroy the damn paint and sheet rock when you remove them.

I moved the power outlet up and I put in a media wire box and put all the X-Box360, Dish Network HDbox, & DVD player wires behind the wall.

I left the media strip that brings the cable line from one side of the room to the other side of the room (I'm lazy, I'm not dropping a new line or cutting & drilling all around the boys room). I tapped the outlet and put a power outlet up top and I cut and put in a dummy box and fished the media wires through the wall. I also pulled the two media strips that were hiding the media wires previously and puttied and sanded the mess the media strips sticky backs made. I'll be painting next weekend.

All done the wall is clean looking (even if the room and its inhabitants are not lol). All I need to do is spot paint next weekend and that will be a wrap.

Fixing the Shed door

The door works great closed

The kids have yanked on the door and let the wind take the left side so much that the screws attaching the door to the hinges have stripped and made the door a pain in my ass.

Just a view of the stripped hinges

I took the door off

Door Repair

To repair the stripped holes in the door I drilled out all the stripped holes, squeezed some wood glue in each hole and inserted a wood plug stick and cut the stick flush.

The stick cut flush

Now all I have to do is wait a bit for the glue to dry, then I can put the door back up.


I might end up cutting the metal door and inserting a 2x4 because the wood were the hinges connect on the door is not very thick for such a heavy door. I guess me cutting the metal door for the back and inserting the 2x4's might just be my next project.

Installed a Gable Attic Fan / Light / Outlet

The fan is rated to cool a 2300 sq. ft. area. My attic space is around 1500.

My AC Unit has not been keeping up when its really hot outside, so I'm going to install a gable attic fan to remove the hot air in the attic and reduce the heat in the house.

Installed the fan and the attached thermostat unit.

I used two 2x4's and attached them to the beams then attached the fan and the thermostat unit.

I ran a dedicated line to the fuse box for attic equipment.

I drilled and ran a outside rated line to the fuse box and installed a junction box to feed the fan, a light/outlet, and a switch to turn on the light.

The lighted light/outlet switch

I installed a lighted switch to cut the light/outlet on and off in the attic.

The Light/Outlet

I installed a light / outlet in the center of the attic. I need a light because a light source besides a flashlight is a must for the next time I do some work up there, and the outlet will come in handy if I need powered equipment up in the attic to do some work.

The opened fuse box and wall

I opened up the fuse panel and the wall just above it so I could run a new line for the attic equipment.

Dropped the line from the attic

I pulled the line through the hole I drilled in the attic and fished it though the fuse box and secured the line. (Of Course ALL the Power is OFF at my primary breaker that's located outside)

Installed the lines and breaker

I installed the lines and attached the 15amp breaker. (Breaker located on the bottom right hand side)

Closed up the fuse panel & updated my fuse list

I removed a tab from the panel for the new breaker and updated my list of fuses and put the fuse panel and piece of drywall back up and secured them. After this all I did was go outside and cut the power back on and check the light/outlet and attic fan. The attic equipment works fine so far. I hope this fan will help my AC unit work better and cut some cost of my cooling bill.