What PURCHASES are you RESISTING?

I wish I had seen this..

You can bury the asbestos and cutback by installing subfloor over top, ideally hardie backer 1/4”. Caulk or hydraulic cement the seams. You can tile or lay floor right over it.

SuperflyPete wrote: I wish I had seen this..

You can bury the asbestos and cutback by installing subfloor over top, ideally hardie backer 1/4”. Caulk or hydraulic cement the seams. You can tile or lay floor right over it.

My post was too vague. Since my ex moved out, I haven't been using the small second floor of my house for much besides storage. Last fall, I started using that floor more, and noticed that a single soft spot in the floor seemed to have spread to a number of spots on the second floor. I didn't know the cause, but knew that I need to peel up the floor tiles to see what was going on underneath. Termites? Dry rot? But I have a head for trivia and remembered that asbestos was used in a lot of things back in the day, including floor tiles. I took a small sample and it to a local lab for testing. I seriously considered DIY asbestos removal, and the Minnesota Department of Health has a surprisingly detailed page at their site about how to do it. But I didn't want to spend so much money for the safety gear and the HEPA filter vacuum cleaner and then still spend the rest of my life worrying about cancer. So I paid some professionals to remove it.

I have the same kind of floor tiles in my basement. Most of them are covered by carpeting, so I can just safely leave them alone. But the tiles extend all the way to the walls (and the carpeting doesn't quite), and also to the laundry room and the basement steps, and some of those tiles are chipped. So I plan to seal those tiles with a couple of layers of epoxy.

Now that the upstairs floor is exposed, I can see that roughly 1/3 of the sub-floor planks are cracked. Using a sheet of paper, I found that most of these cracks go all the way through the board, from top to bottom, and some run nearly the full length of the board as well. I am going to pull these boards out and replace them, maybe all the boards, then decide on my final floor covering. I do like the look of the fake wood vinyl strips that Cranberries mentioned, but I know that my cats would be really happy with carpet tiles. Anyway, I need to get back to work on that, because the contents of the upstairs bedroom and storage area are now crowding my first floor and basement. I have a queen size mattress lying in the middle of my living room, which is not a good look for guests, especially since I am actively dating right now.

So, that black mastic is called “cutback adhesive”, which is a material used as an isolation sealer and adhesive.

It’s a fucking nightmare to remove. So, you can encapsulate it and the asbestos tile above it instead. Basically screw 1/4” hardie on top, ideally into a concrete floor with flathead anchors, and then you can tile over it, or if you’re doing a laminate or other floating floor, you can seal all the cracks with soupy mixed mortar or hydraukic cement (which cures in an hour) so it lays flat, then right over the top goes the floating floor (assuming it’s level or had been leveled) or tile.

Alternatively, you can pour self leveling epoxy coating (garage paint) over the whole damned thing.

Good enough for Chernobyl!

Good points. Discovering that the adhesive also contained asbestos was why I decided to hire pros to do the asbestos removal upstairs. A crew of four guys came in on a Sunday and got it all done in seven hours. And I am definitely doing the epoxy coating over the basement tiles instead of removing them.

I am somewhat tempted to DIY the subfloor myself. I already own a measuring tape, a hammer, a crowbar, sawhorses, and a circular saw, so I could probably pry up the bad subfloor planks and put in replacements without help. It's just a subfloor, so it doesn't need to look pretty or be absolutely level. Then I could caulk the edges of the planks and pour a self-leveling epoxy to smooth it all out. Or I could hire a handyman to do the planks for maybe $800. I'm still going to do the final floor myself, so it's down to a choice between carpet tiles or vinyl tiles. A hardwood floor would be nice, but the ceiling is only about 6'3", so a hardwood floor would bring that closer to 6'2".

At Half Price Books yesterday, I came across a copy of Runebound Second Edition in pretty decent shape for $25. I used to play this game a lot with my oldest son, but I sold the game off years ago. Now my youngest son is at an age where I think he would enjoy it. Oh, yes, the temptation was strong.

But as I stood there holding the box in my hands, I suddenly remembered how much of the game is just rolling 2d10 and adding lots and lots and lots of modifers. And how much of the game is pondering those infernal terrain dice, and figuring out how to get from point A to point B. And how much of the game is just ... shopping. And just how long the game can drag as you try to get yourself leveled up to tackle those red threat cards.

With a long heartfelt sigh, I successfully made my Persuasion saving throw, put the box back on the shelf, and walked away.

I hope Red Scorpion finds a good home. Just not mine.

Congrats on the successful saving throw (even if I think the game was a little better than your description.) If you ever want to relive it for free: therewillbe.games/articles-beyond-review...-part-i-base-fantasy

Was considering backing the upcoming crowdfunding campaign for ENDEAVOUR: DEEP SEA.

I played the first edition back in the day, had fun with it but not enough to keep it around. Never played the second one.

After mulling it over, I realized that I would rather play a game with an unapologetic treatment of slavery than SeaQuest or Flipper. So I resolved to pick up 2e after the Elite Gamers (tm) dump 2e in anticipation of it being made "obsolete" by the new one.

After reading Jackwraith's Funkoverse article and discovering that Squid Game was part of it, I had the Squid game and the Universal Monsters sets in my amazon cart. But I convinced myself, correctly, that I generally don't have a willing opponent for this stuff. So I removed them.

Later on I found myself in Wal-Mart, and wondered if they had these games. They don't. But what they DID have was a full on Netflix licensed board game called Squid Game: Let the Games Begin. This plays 3 to 6 players, and you run your teams through 6 games, just like the series. Last team standing wins. In this game, it doesn't have to come down to one on one.

I ran through sample rounds of all 6 games, but have yet to play with actual humans. That said, the only game that seems pretty weak is the marbles game. You pair team members up, and take turns tossing two cardboard marbles or playing odds and evens with them. Not much meat on that bone.

The other games have some strategy, involving pushing your luck, out-thinking opponents, etc. I think the game will be relatively easy to get to the table. I'll report back once that happens.

There's a very cheap copy of 1853 close to me, but I just got Civilization and I'm not sure if it's right to get another game, much less another 18XX. Part of the problem is that I want to get 1825 printed, so that's not one, but two 18XX games.

I failed my saving throw versus vinyl (records) and I now have $1000+ in a turntable, amp, and speakers.

On the one hand it is a pretty fun hobby with all the used options and new colored vinyl editions out there, on the other hand I now have a new way to really annoy my wife by shirking chores to "relax and listen to tunes"

After carefully inspecting my 2nd floor subfloor again, I realized that a lot of the boards need to go. There are the sagging boards, the cupping boards, and the boards splitting in half. I also realized that I really, really didn't want to do the work myself, partly because it would involve buying a table saw that I don't have room for. And partly because I know that I don't enjoy DIY stuff and tend to cut corners and rush things and get sub-optimal results.

Unfortunately, the handymen considered it too big a job, and the carpenters considered it too small a job, so I finally found a highly-rated carpenter who was willing to do the job if I also let him do the flooring. And I was still on the fence between carpet tiles or laminate flooring, and he made a good case for the laminate. The prices are good right now, and his contractor discount knocked 10% of the cost, though I had to shop for and buy the laminate flooring myself.

What was supposed to be a relatively affordable DIY project has ended up costing quite a bit more, though half the cost is due to my unwillingness to DIY the asbestos removal. That cost was worth it if it prevented me from getting cancer or spending the next decade or three worrying if I got cancer from being cheap. The only bright spot in all this is that I will have a really nice-looking second floor, and the financing was cheap due to my existing home equity line of credit. Four years ago, I started fixing up my second floor by demoing out the sagging drywall ceiling, installing sprayfoam insulation, and then doing a new ceiling in shiplap.

So what purchases am I resisting? Everything else for the rest of this year.

I'm getting 1853 this friday, I failed LMAO

Shellhead wrote: And partly because I know that I don't enjoy DIY stuff and tend to cut corners and rush things and get sub-optimal results.

Having a hard inner talk with myself about what I actually do and do not enjoy for DIY versus the $$$ saved(???) has led me to just contract out more and more stuff. Is spending 10+/hours a month futzing with the pool worth more than a $200/mo pool boy (wife says no )? What about landscaping? Plumbing, etc?

I just added a shed and I'm sure the neighborhood enjoyed my ranting about shitty directions and why easily stripped plastic screws were used instead of bolts. But saved some scratch, got the pyrrhic victory of a job well done, and what else am I gonna do, play with my kids? Or when I buy $300 in tools for a job I could pay a guy $200 to do....but hey, if I need to cut concrete later on I'm set, right?!?! Or that cheap $150 pressure washer that will probably die in 2-3 seasons plus 15 hours of work versus $200 and they are done in an hour with the big gas powered disc cleaners.

Ahh, the struggles of the white collar worker

I hire a lot of stuff out too, and I always say "I don't expect the plumber to make a website, so why should they expect me to do plumbing work"

When I first got my house, my original strategy was to DIY everything except plumbing, electrical, and HVAC work. In reality, I have had success with minor plumbing and electrical tasks, and I do fine with painting, demolition, and any yardwork that doesn't involve climbing a tree with a chainsaw in hand. I have become realistic about my limited ability with carpentry.