I have a similar project I’m considering, and I’m thinking about running furring strips perpendicular to the joists. It’s added expense and more work, but it allows space to run power and other cabling to wherever I need it.

I think I agree with the guy above. I think it was the original floor, there may not be a true “subfloor” in the way we think of it now. In my family’s mid-19th century house, there’s a lot of thick hardwood plank straight on the joists.

Yup, I do have gutters with the downspouts funneling water to the sloped area away from the house

I'm not buying this is your issue. If it is you still have bigger problems then that small sloped area next to your house. Do you have gutters?

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

That looks like original hardwood to me. I am not certain, but typically old homes had sub-flooring run at a 45 degree angle, or no subfloor at all, like your basement due to thicker boards.

Agree. After sawing off the old nosing, I'd probably get a really thin 1/4" (or less) sheet of nice plywood and glue/nail it to the riser of that top step before putting on your new bullnose. This will hide that ugly horizontal line left when you cut that nosing. Use something like polyurethane construction adhesive to stick it on, then use latex caulk around the sides and bottom to hide the gap.

To the best of my knowledge it's the subfloor, the 1st floor has the same thing and we can see the underside in the basement.

The house is from the 1850's, so it's very old.

Sorry the OP is having a hard time with these. It is a good lesson for other DIYers to make sure not to let mortar build up around these leveling thingamajigs. I am about to start my first tile project where I will use the plastic levelers, so this was useful to see...

Too much thinset around the clips. Have an old tooth brush and clean water to clean around the clips as you’re installing.

Yeah you have to clean the edge of the tile with a small putty knife then put the clip in. And yeah it’s a huge pain in the ass and you will def chip a tile or two trying to get it clean. It’s just so much easier at the start takes 15 secs to wipe it rather that 15 mins carefully scraping

Just because you can doesn't mean you should. There's specific products for insulating pipes, just spend the money and use them. You'll save a lot of time and get better results. Find somewhere else to shove the loose rockwool if you really want to.

I am not an experienced floor person or anything, but that looks like regular hardwood flooring to me, i thought subfloor was usually cheap garbage wood that looks terrible, I doubt they would have put work into making a nose on a floor that was meant to be covered up. Looks old too.

Water running down the wall is the issue for older windows. Rain is not the main issue because any water, including from a garden hose or high pressure sprayer, can cause water to run down the wall of your house.

You'll notice the window has a similar ledge on the bottom of it to divert water running down the window away from the bottom edge of the window in order to prevent water from seeping in under the window into the wall. Similarly, this ledge above the window is intended to divert water away from the top edge of the window so it doesn't run down the wall and seep into the wall above the window. These design features are common in older windows that were installed flush with the exterior of the house. In even older buildings, windows were recessed in thicker walls which eliminated the need for these ledges, as long as the lower part of the wall was canted to drain properly.

This water seeping in around windows has historically been a major issue of failure in buildings and was solved in modern construction windows by including a flange as part of the window frame, so any water seeping down the walls is stopped at the flange. It works so well, no one builds these drip ledges anymore.

Yeah, I'd skill saw it off. Set your depth a Little shallow of full depth so that you can pry away the cut piece.

Yeah, thinset around the base of the spacer is absolutely your one and only problem here. I usually will place the tile first, then use a 1 inch putty knife to scrape the excess thinset away from the edge of the tile, then squeeze the spacer in.

A new name for my pecker.

Always wear safety glasses with these things. You don't wanna trust a safety squint when a disc spinning at 10,000 rpm shatters and sends shards flying in all directions.

The thing is you’ll get more insulation value putting the loose batt insulation in your attic and getting the right fitting pipe insulation for the pipes.

I did this same thing my first time tiling, didn’t really realize how bad it was til it was time to snap the tabs off.

Used this and everything was perfect within like 30 minutes. Not a big deal.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Marshalltown-2-in-Steel-Blade-Red-Plastic-Grout-Saw/5001934179

I've never used these, what's the point versus a normal spacer?

Your installation is considered "hard wired" and you do not need a junction box as long as you wire the dishwasher directly into the electric line.

The last kitchen remodel I did, the owner didn't know if they wanted a dishwasher yet because the kitchen was so small, but they wanted power available in case they changed their minds in the future. In this case, I terminated the circuit in a junction box under the sink cabinet which was next to the cabinet that would have been removed to install a dishwasher.

As long as a dishwasher is a permanent part of your kitchen, you don't need to install a junction box and hard wiring as in your current configuration is the best choice and meets code.

What is not acceptable is terminating a circuit in a hidden junction box, like behind the dishwasher, because all junction boxes are required to be accessible to look for evidence of arcing during an inspection. In the case of a direct or hard wired dishwasher, the junction box is actually installed beneath the dishwasher where the electrical connection is made and is considered to be a safe way to wire an appliance.

My thought process is that I already have the insulating, I only need the coverup. Buying that, if it exists, should be cheaper than shell + insulation together readymade. Should anyways.

I had same issue with qep level tabs.

What I found worked for removing the spacers was vise grips grab the unbroken off tab then pull parallel to the grout line.

For broken off ones I used a razor knife with only a little bit of blade to not reach my water proofing, to cut the broken ones out. Total pita.

And it's extra good for sniffing!!! ;-)