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For the past 6 months my neighbor has basically lived in his garage like very weekend every evening after work I see the lights on, tools going, and even sometimes music blasting. I’d catch glimpses of wood, pipes, random deliveries showing up. I’ve been dying to know what this secret project was. My partner and I had a running bet: I thought it was some elaborate home bar, they thought it was a souped-up car project. Today I found out when he opened the garage door, and inside was a crazy home theater. It looks amazing like straight out of pinterest. Honestly, it’s so cool that now I kinda want to get him a little congrats gift for finishing it. Any ideas for something thoughtful but not over the top? submitted by /u/KatNaps31 [link] [comments]

Any ideas how to secure them more permanently? They are bolted into the asphalt with a hammer drill, but someone came by in the middle of the night and unbolted them and threw them in my woods. They are there to protect wildlife, we have lost many box turtles in the past three years due to Amazon trucks and idiot speeders on our dead end road. I am wondering if I put sealer, adhesive or concrete into the bolt holes if that will help secure them more? I am also going to put up a camera so I can catch the culprit. It is a private road and my property. Appreciate any ideas! THANK YOU EVERYONE! I wasn't sure epoxy or adhesive would work but several of you offered really good ideas and I'll go over them with my neighbor, Mr. Fix-it and we'll get to it. As for "private" road. Our town does not manage private roads, which we have a lot of. We don't get plowed, rarely get fixed potholes, and have the right legally to apply traffic calmers. In the past three years, 8 box turtles (1 was 50 years old) have been crushed on the short stretch by my woods, where we have a lot of go-through traffic trying to avoid town traffic. I have had signs up for years but in the past 2 years, someone has taken delight in tearing down my signs and vandalizing my property. I thought it was kids, but last year they pulled down my Vote flag and now the traffic bumps, which everyone of my neighbors are grateful to have. There are kids, as well as pets and wildlife. I thought the issue was solved but came home after being away this weekend and found two of them dislodged. Two remain but they are closer to my house and I have motion sensors now. I don't like traffic bumps any more than anyone else, but when people can't even bother to avoid running over a turtle on a road that is less than 200' long--who will be next? My neighbor's little boy on his bicycle? A cat? A dog? The fawn that sleeps in my woods? I appreciate your responses and look forward to catching the little shit who thinks he can mess with this old lady! submitted by /u/Awkward_Ad_339 [link] [comments]

Not talking big ticket items just those small smart upgrades that genuinely improved your quality of life. I recently replaced my old chair and finally got a good one and my back is actually grateful now I also added a proper coffee setup instead of relying on instant. Funny enough I only treated myself because I had a little bit of extra cash lying around. submitted by /u/GrapefruitSouth3267 [link] [comments]

We have tried EVERYTHING to get the cat pee smell to go away in our downstairs concrete floors that is the concrete underneath the flooring that we tore out. We’ve ripped out all flooring, baseboards, cut out the wall a few inches high all around the perimeter, used enzymatic cleaners over and over and over, sealants, Kilz, Rocco and Roxie, EVERYTHING!!! and we can’t get it to go away because it’s in the concrete. We haven’t been able to enjoy our BRAND NEW HOME for going on 2 years of trying to fix this issue. We are such clean people but we had a cat that just couldn’t adjust and I kept cleaning up every time it happened and I kept trying with him. He is living the best life ever down the road with a new family who has no other pets and I’m so happy for him. But I’m going insane, I’m depressed, half my home (front door, entryway, dining room, 1/2 bathroom, linen closet and under stairs closet) are not livable and have been tarped off for 2 years now and I feel there’s no light at the end of the tunnel. Can anyone finally help us get this gone for good 😭 nothing we do works yall 😭😥 And to top it off, we went from a family of two to taking our 4 & 6 year old niece and nephew in as our own right around the time this started happening. Our home was so beautiful and our first home ever, a new build, and it’s been ruined and I feel hopeless. I want my home back. I see pictures of our home in the background of normal pics in my camera roll and I get so emotional. I took it all for granted, simply not having this issue and being able to enjoy my home and not live in a construction zone, not using my front door for two years, raising two children, with half the amount of home we thought we had. I’ll do anything to get this fixed, I just am so unsuccessful with everything I try. I need my life back yall. 😥🥺💔❤️‍🩹 submitted by /u/No_Recognition_2681 [link] [comments]

I collect everything we do in the house in a binder. The invoices and work done by contractors. The model of parts or things I have to replace (air filters, light bulbs, etc…). Manuals for appliances. I shared this with a friend and they reached to the side of their desk and pulled out a big binder full of papers that was everything about their house. Is this common? Do other people do this? submitted by /u/skabob11 [link] [comments]

I'm looking for some advice on a window replacement project in my current home, which I'll soon be converting to a rental property (my wife and I are expecting and need more space for the kid, so we bought a new home). The current house (located in Wisconsin) was built in 1936 and has really old but beautiful wood sash windows that use the counterweight pulley system. They may not be the originals but I think they must be 40 or 50 years old. These windows are single pane, double-hung, and I'm sure there's no insulation in the framing, so they're highly inefficient. I don't think the sills or jambs are rotten, but they're definitely worn. A total of 18 windows need to be replaced (17 double-hung and one picture frame). I'm debating between inserts and full frame replacement. The quote I got on the inserts was ~$22K for Okna 800s. The quote I got on the full frame replacement was ~$55K for Provias, which includes replacing and staining the interior trim (oak to match my floors), new interior stools and aprons (to match the current windows), and replacing the exterior aluminum flashing. I'm also awaiting quotes from two other contractors. I understand there's a lot more work with the full frame replacement, but I'm a little surprised it's more than double the cost of the inserts. I'm also wondering if the full frame replacement is worth the expense. I'm going to be renting this property out in the near-term, but could very well sell it in 5-10 years and wonder what ROI I'll get on an investment like this. I'm curious if folks have a perspective on whether the full frame replacement is worth it or if I should instead just go with new inserts. Thanks in advance for whatever counsel you can offer! submitted by /u/zoppytops [link] [comments]

What do super nice expensive homes use for switch plate covers? Because I knowwww it ain’t the white plastic vibe. Just bought our first home and want to change them all out but not sure what is best. Brass? Is the gold look cringe? submitted by /u/ssssssscm7 [link] [comments]

Good evening! After a recent storm during which wind blew water inside, we made the call to replace a window. I took delivery of it today and it's scheduled to be installed tomorrow. I was giving it a once over this afternoon and noticed this large gap on the top side. It's a little larger than 1/4 inch at the widest part. I haven't dealt with windows before- is this worth making an issue over and trying to get MI to repair before installation? Imgur link to photos of the gap. submitted by /u/MattinMaui [link] [comments]

Hello wanted to ask yall, Im running a charging cable for a car from an inside port of the garage to the outside, and to prevent pinching I put a small wood piece to lift the side up enough to sneak the cable out. However, it's lopsided; would this create an issue down the road? Kind of putting off putting a more "plush" garage seal that would allow for a cable to run under it. submitted by /u/VriskyS [link] [comments]

Just diy'd some tint on afternoon sun facing windows. All three are 2 years old but the sun coming through temped at 88+. How many degrees cooler can I reasonably expect from this? submitted by /u/Bridubz94 [link] [comments]

Hello! My dryer currently exhausts directly into the garage. I’d like to re-route it up the garage wall, across the perpendicular garage wall, and down the opposite garage wall to outside the house so that the dryer is exhausting to outside, instead of directly into the garage like it is now. I attempted to draw the current and proposed setups (enjoy my 3rd grade drawing skills https://ibb.co/0jr0pKZx). My questions are (1) is there anything inherently bad/incorrect about doing it this way, and (2) is doing it this way up to code? Part of the reason I’m doing this is because I know exhausting into garage is definitely not up to code, so I’d like to do it correctly if I’m going to bother to re-do it. submitted by /u/Acrobatic_Remove3563 [link] [comments]

I’ve got the skills to handle wood rot repair and exterior painting, but no desire to be 25 feet up on a ladder all day. I’ve gotten quotes from pros and one-man shows, and they’re all in the $5,000–$7,000 range—way more than I expected. Has anyone gone the rental route for a lift to DIY this kind of work? Would love to hear how it went and if it was worth it. submitted by /u/cassawkc [link] [comments]

So this morning, I woke up and started working in my office (I work from home). As soon as I walk into my office, I get hit with a foul stench of rot/gasses. At first, I thought it was my trash can outside, since I’ve got a window AC unit and the trash can is directly under the window. It was my first thought even though I’ve never had any issues like that before. Since trash day is tomorrow, I decided to go ahead and bring the trash to the street this morning. Mind you my street is pretty far from my house, so even if it was my trash, it wouldn’t have reached into my room after moving it. After an hour or so, the smell was still there, and as the day went on and it got hotter outside, it got worse. I start talking around the house, and I can smell it obviously in my office, but now in my living room (which is on the opposite side of my office) but it wasn’t as strong. After about an hour total of looking between doing my work tasks, I was able to pinpoint it to a corner in my office. At first I thought it was up against the wall, but the more that I smelled around the area, I realized that it was at the very bottom of the corner of my room. I smelled around that area A LOT to make sure I was right in where I thought it was. I eventually decide to log off work for the day so I could figure this out, because I was getting a headache and I was tired of smelling it. It smells putrid, like an animal died, so I decided rip out a small section of the drywall on either side of the corner, hoping I’d find a dead animal. I found nothing. Here’s the image: https://imgur.com/a/ZgSZ6Rl I took a wooden dowel and dug around in the top portions of the wall and got nothing. I pulled out all of the insulation and found nothing. I went into the crawlspace and while I did find some raccoon poop and a few mice droppings, I didn’t find any dead animals on the underside of the wall or even in the crawlspace. I have no clue what to do next. I tried baking soda, vinegar, air fresheners, candles, and now I’ve got a dehumidifier running to see if there is a dead animal that it will dry it out. I went into the attic as well and it didn’t smell and it would be almost impossible to access the area where this corner is. I will add that my office is an addition, and is where the garage used to be. They had converted it before I bought the house, but I did remodel it. Not sure if that makes a difference, but I’m sure it could. The crawlspace butts up against the slab that my office is on, but you can see the flooring right up against where the office is. Any help or advice is appreciated. submitted by /u/CypherA7 [link] [comments]

I paid to have baseboards installed in a few rooms of my house and there are massive gaps in the end result and overall I feel like it was just done poorly. Here are pics of the worst of them: https://imgur.com/a/uV7NcAn Most of the corners look like this. There are large gaps between baseboards and there are quite a few gaps between the wall And the baseboards When I brought this up to the contractor, he just said that it just needs to be caulked and that it’s not his job, but the job of the painter. I think it looks horrible and like they did a half ass job, but I would like the opinion of anyone who has experience with baseboard installation before escalating this. AIO or is this a good installation of baseboards? submitted by /u/Toddler_Hodlr [link] [comments]

We recently had our shower retiled. We noticed upon completion of the job that there was a lot of play with the shower down spout, and I flipped through some pictures of before the tile went on. It's pretty clear they did not bother having anywhere for the drop ear elbow to attach and I've insisted on a fix after some deflection and "it's fine" from the foreman. After discussion with the foreman, his suggested options are as follows: Workaround fix by filling the gap in the tile hole and the shower arm with epoxy to stabilize the downspout and alleviate the weight on the pipe (easiest). rip out tiling around the shower spout, get a 2x4 installed behind there to attach the drop ear elbow to (super annoying, as we've had to redo this tiling multiple times already and risk damage to the waterproofing or shoddy make-up tile work). go in from the back by removing our kitchen cabinetry or cutting through an out-of-sight portion. (leaning hard no on this one). Is there anything I should be concerned about if we opt for the epoxy route? submitted by /u/schnarf541 [link] [comments]

Had professionals inspect the basement. They found step cracks inside, some filled with hydraulic cement and walls painted with Drylok. The basement looks recently finished, which raises my suspicion of an intentional cover-up and non-disclosure. Some walls are slightly bowing, and settlement is suspected. The contractor said if we want to buy time, we could fill the hole outside and Drylok the interior again, but I’m wondering how long that would realistically hold up. We bought the house in April, and it seems clear the seller knew about this. Can I take legal action for non-disclosure? Any advice or similar experiences would help. submitted by /u/Vickypats [link] [comments]

We've been having a lot of rain in our area lately and been noticing a musty smell come from our garage (of which the outer wall is our back porch. (see pics: https://imgur.com/a/6nnVJ1k) Who would we call to have someone look at this? Does anyone know what this is and what we can do about it? submitted by /u/noblerare [link] [comments]

Yesterday I was installing a new ceiling fan over an old light fixture. The space above this room is an uninsulated attic space that even with a window fan sits about 100+ degrees in the summer. When I took the old light fixture down I could feel cold air (cooler than the room i was in) flowing out of the hole which I found surprising because of the oven above it. Is this relatively normal or is this something I should get an hvac person to come check out? Its a 100 year old house and there isn't any duct work that would go through the ceiling here as all my vents are floor level. My house won't get below 82 degrees in this heatwave and my electric bill is about 3x the amount of "similiar" households according to the electric company though I have always just assumed it was the drafty single pane windows. submitted by /u/anix421 [link] [comments]

Hey everyone, Our townhome roof has been leaking and we have noticed a couple water marks on our ceiling and water dripping from one of the spots on particularly rainy days. The condo board has hired a roofing contractor to fix what sounds like a few roofing issues which will then be followed up by a mold remediation contractor. Any tips on things I should watch out for when the mold contractor comes in? I've never been into our attic and feel like I don't have a very good grasp on the extent of the damage and how I can confirm the work has been completed properly. submitted by /u/SoupyLeg [link] [comments]

Hello, We just bought a house and noticed that the ventilation fan in our master bathroom sags a bit on one side. How could I fix this? https://imgur.com/a/nJnmccb submitted by /u/trans42019 [link] [comments]

I live in Massachusetts and have a home gym in my basement that I’d like to partially finish. Mostly just want to put up walls to hide the concrete. The ceiling is already kinda low with some pipes hanging below the joists so I plan to leave it open as I don’t want it to be any lower than it is. I plan to just put foam interlocking mats on the floor on top of the concrete. My main question is how to do the walls. I was thinking 1x3 studs with drywall, left open at the top into the ceiling joists to allow airflow so moisture from concrete walls doesn’t create mold. Is it just that simple? Anything else I need to do to avoid mold issues? submitted by /u/evanezzer [link] [comments]

Hello everyone, We recently noticed mold around one of our vents and we had someone take a look. He told us to spray “Great Stuff Gaps and Cracks Insulating Spray Foam Sealant” in the area between the drywall and the vent after we clean the mold. Their guess was it was causing condensation since it’s not a perfect fit. Just wanted to get opinions on if this was the best product for the job, thanks! submitted by /u/Whowasphone1 [link] [comments]

Repost on another forum. Not sure if it's the place but....We usually get our water tested once a year. Comes back clear. It's a private well. However every house I have been in that uses well water smells like sulfur. Mine does not. Is this a bad thing? Is it suppose to smell? It just smells like regular water if that makes sense submitted by /u/stressychaos [link] [comments]

Me and my boyfriend are buying a 4 bed 2 bath home. I need help looking for some items that are affordable but also the best for the price And if there’s some items I should need that are not listed please list them with links The items I’m looking to buy Paint sprayer Drill kit Any and all tile supplies-looking to do it myself Any and all paint suggestions And and all flooring suggestions If you can also find affordable tile for kitchen/mud room I’d like them to match but also look nice I’m also looking for some furniture needs to be as affordable as can be, the budget is enough but not entirely sure if I can even use it all for the home The homes overall look and feel id like it to have is cottage/farmcore/gothic-cottage My boyfriend is a minimalist and I’m a maximalist so our styles clash a bit but he also said he was okay with most of my decisions with the home submitted by /u/Key-Quit-2342 [link] [comments]

I just took off tempered glass doors on a sliding metal track that has been on since the 60s. I expected caulking and maybe screws but not this. Does anyone know what they used to adhere the track to the tub? is it just polyurethane caulk that is so incredibly old that it hardened into a cement like glue? If you were me how would you go about getting it off? I was using various scrapers, a razorblade scraper, a putty knife. This stuff is absolutely caked on so hard it feels like part of the porcelain enamel tub. less submitted by /u/Peppermintblade [link] [comments]