My fiancé and I found this brick while digging out our garden bed. It appears that the bricks were placed on an angle. Does anyone know why that would be and does anyone have any recommendations on what to do with it?
Michigan home built in the 70’s. I’m painting soon, so I removed the wood trim around our fireplace brick wall.
On the right side, between the exterior wall and the brick, there is fiberglass insulation sticking out.
At the top abutting the ceiling, it looks pretty ragged.
The left is the cleanest looking, but there is a gap behind the brick between the back wall and the brick and mortar.
Seeking advice for what to do for each from sealing to tidying.
I think we’ll be putting new trim up, but I’d rather tidy/repair and seal the area where needed first. Thanks very much for all help!
After acceptance of my offer, during the inspection we found a little bit of water intrusion and mold in a couple spots in the basement. The house was built in 1928, it has like a clay tile and mortar foundation for the top half appears to be block. I don’t think a lot of water is getting in but some is. The front corner of the house has a little damage and cracking that they said they were going to repair, which obviously could be the cause of water in that corner. There are also a couple blocks on the front wall that are slightly pushed in and a little bit of cracking. So I’m worried about the structural integrity of the house overall. But I told my realtor that I wanted a waterproofing company to come out and give a quote and ideally dig up waterproof the exterior. The sellers had a waterproofing company out that day, and they even took it upon themselves to say they will pay to fix it. But when the quote was sent to me, their fix is an interior French drain running to a sump pump, and then covering the walls with plastic . So it’s not getting waterproof at all, the water is still getting in the home, just controlled. I don’t like this fix because I’m worried about mold building up behind the plastic, them digging up a foot around the whole entire foundation inside makes me concerned that it’s gonna cause structural issues, settling, cracking and whatever else. Also I live in a high rate on area and I was told doing it this way would increase the risk of radon getting in. I’m just really failing to see any positive out of doing it this way and I would really like the exterior dug up and waterproofed. Would you accept this?
Hi just bought a property and slowly renovating it I was lasting this property 5 days ago.
Came back to find a hole in my wall, it does not have an exit point.
Any ideas what has done this? Could it be mice??
As the title suggests, I accidentally flushed a small scissors to my toilet and I do not know what to do. For context, I live in a condominium building and I have been living here for 10 months now.
I mistakenly flushed a scissors down the toilet and I can no longer see it in the toilet bowl. I tried retrieving it by using a plumber but it doesn’t catch anything.
Currently, the toilet looks fine and it doesn’t seem to be clogged but I am really worried and I do not know what to do.
Should I contact the condo staff? Should I hire a plumber? Can I just let it sit there? I really don’t know.
Hi, I’m trying to understand if it’s worth running dishwasher every day instead of running it every 2/3 days and handwashing in between. We have water and sewage charge where the building/city charges for hot and cold water per gallon and then sewage charge per gallon for the same water. The dishwasher would be at about a medium load. I live in NJ.
Best way to fix this? It showed up after about 1.5 years
I may have accidentally created the dumbest home test ever: if I can walk from the kitchen to the bedroom barefoot and not feel crumbs, grit, or mystery stickiness, the floor passes. That’s it. Very advanced science. We have hard floors downstairs, carpet upstairs, one shedding pet, and a household that somehow produces dust even when nobody is home. I’m not trying to turn the place into a hospital. I just want the floors to feel clean enough for normal daily life, especially with pets and people walking around barefoot. Here’s where I’m stuck. A regular mop feels satisfying, but after a few rooms the water looks like soup, so I’m basically wondering if I’m cleaning or just giving germs a scenic tour of the house.
Vacuuming helps, but once the filter gets packed with dust and hair, I don’t know how much deep carpet dirt it’s actually pulling up. It still sounds busy, which is very convincing, but my socks are not always impressed. And with a robot vacuum, the dream is daily maintenance without thinking about it. But for home health, breathing, pet dust, all that stuff, I do wonder if running it at the wrong time just kicks fine dust back into the air. So for people using one every day: does it actually keep floors clean enough to walk barefoot every day, or is it more like “better than nothing, still mop on Sunday”? I’m fine with “not perfect but good enough.” Honestly that might be the most realistic home improvement category.
Our window well situation has been a mess we've been meaning to tackle and it rained a good bit so we started digging out all the mud inside. Still have more to dig, but kind of wondering about the concrete slab thats nearby (its the base for our pool equipment).
Do we want to insert some landscape edging or something in between the concrete and the well? Or will it be fine once we replace the well with a new one?
UPDATE: I should have mentioned that I live outside city limits and on the other side where my mailbox sits, there were trees overhanging my chain link fence and the DOH cut them down. Not sure if that’s relevant. 😀I live in West Virginia on a corner lot. The Wv DOH owns the road and so many feet beside the road and into my yard. The first picture is of the tax parcel map (sorry it’s blurry). The green line indicates my property. The circle is the foot of the driveway attached to the states black top. The following 3 pictures are of the end of my driveway. This past winter was record cold and snow & ice. After the thaw, I saw how much damage had been done to the road. At this time the driveway is unusable due to the severe drop going into it. 2 vehicles have already been damaged. Even though it’s blurry you can see the deterioration from the air. I’ve had two contractors tell me that it’s the states job to fix it. The DOH told me it wasn’t their problem. I’m at my wits end. My dad has a VA ambulance van who drives him for appointments because he’s in a wheelchair who can’t even park in the driveway. I’m not asking the DOH to give me a new driveway, just to repair their road leading into it. If I’m wrong I’ll happily repair it at my expense. Does anyone know by looking at the pictures who is responsible? Thank you all!
Hi everyone,
I shifted into a studio on the second floor three months back and last two days (maybe with warmer weather) have been hearing scratching noise in my apt.
After the first night I saw a small gap in the wall on the left of the stove which my super sealed the next day. However last night, the sound kept going despite loud music I played and stomping my feet near the area stops for a tiny while.
What I’ve done:
Any mouse trap suggestions? Any next steps?
Have attached video below, please let me know what it is. Really scared as I couldn’t sleep well last two night and I just moved :(
Appreciate any advice! Thanks!
Hired IL concrete contractor for large walkway and patio concrete project at my house for 15k approx.
He wrapped up and told me it will cost an additional $500 because during the excavation phase, they had to remove a large underground stump that took 2 hours to remove.
He also said he will just take 300 for it if I give me him cash.
I had no idea there was a stump there or even a tree there in the past. He told me a day later about it and never took a picture of the stump or anything.
And he brought it up to me AFTER they damaged my internet underground line and my window aluminum flashing (I made previous post about this).
In my contract it states “Remove and dispose the existing earth. Any additional thickness or reinforcement may incur additional charges.”
I feel suspicious that he bought up this potentially imaginary stump to get out of paying for my window and cable repair. If I ran that company I would tell my customer about the extra charge asap and take pictures.
Thoughts?
Any ideas what this might be and if I’m in immediate danger? It stops when I turn the main breaker off, but not any of the individual breakers.
What’s staying:
Couch, furniture, fireplace and brick behind
Everything else can be changed
last night i heard a coyote whimpering along side an almost scraping noise, later realizing that scraping noise was a cat screaming (not my cat). i tried to distract the coyote by blaring my car alarm and letting my dog bark and it hasn’t happened since. i really don’t want this to become a regular sound i have to hear, me and my pets are all stressed. is there anything i can do to deter the coyote from my neighborhood? ive never heard or seen a coyote once in the 15 years ive lived here with the exception of this week.
edit: i’m not trying to fundamentally change the biological routine of coyotes, literally just wondering if there’s any way to keep them away from my street in the same way you put up cds to deter birds or fake hornet nests to deter hornets. it just stresses me and mostly my cats out having to hear stray cats getting mauled to death at night.
This house means everything to me, but the repairs are starting to wear me down
But I think I might finally be ready to let the place go
I stayed in this house after my divorce almost 10 years ago and raised my kids here on my own. Back then, even when money was tight, keeping the house felt important because it still felt like home for all of us. But now both of my kids are grown, graduated from college, and busy building their own lives. Most of the time I’m the one driving to visit them or help out with the grandkids
Meanwhile the house has slowly become harder and harder for me to keep up with
It’s not one huge disaster, just a million little things piling up. A couple windows are cracked, the kitchen faucet never fully stops dripping, the shower leaks badly enough that I pretty much avoid using it now, and half the rooms need fresh paint. The blinds and curtains are ancient, a few cabinet doors in the kitchen are literally hanging off, and every time I fix one thing, something else seems to break
I had a few plumbers and contractors come over for estimates andthe numbers shocked me. I knew the house needed work, but I didn’t realize that it gonna cost me a fortune. It started feeling less like fixing up my home and more like throwing money into a place I can’t realistically maintain anymore
Does it make more sense to just sell it as-is and simplify my life a little? I had a look at companies like Bright Home Offer because the idea of not dealing with repairs, showings, negotiations or months of stress sounds pretty appealing
I feel a bit guilty to think about leaving this place because this house holds so many memories about my kids growing up here
But maybe I’m ready for a smaller place closer to my kids and grandkids, and maybe it’s okay to finally move on from this chapter
Purchased this house ~2 years ago and would like to do something to make the basement more usable. The previous owners had an interior French drain installed around the perimeter and the steel beams added about 10 years ago. Have not had any moisture or water problems since living here, but I don’t necessarily want to frame/drywall just in case.
My ideal is that I make the walls look a little nicer somehow (the “newer” mortar is not a good look) and add a wall to close off the space used as a home gym. Eventually would plan to build a bar by the stairs.
My questions:
- Since the previous owners already painted the cement block walls, is my only real choice to just touch up with paint or cover with paneling / drywall to make it look better?
- What can I do for flooring? The slab is relatively uneven, which I feel limits my options.
- Any just general advice on what makes the most sense for a basement that historically had water issues, but seemingly does not anymore?
My wife and I bought a 1949 home in Colorado on an FHA loan. We paid a license company for an inspection. And we were essentially able to close on our home, no issues or fixes needed per our loan. We purchased the home on December 21, 2021. The buyers inspection objection hit, and I will attach their concerns.
Currently, we are trying to sell the home because we have to take care of my great grandmother who lives in a different state.
I am concerned I am getting screwed or already have been screwed with this home. The buyer has a VA loan and as terms of their loan the seller is to provide $10,000 in concessions. On top of these concessions, they sent a long list of inspection objections that we did not receive when we did our inspection and bought the home. (Please see picture).
Our Realtor hasn’t been much guidance and essentially wants us to complete the list in picture #2.
Roof repair - $3400
Minor electric electrical work - $986.32
Repair or replace galvanized pipes - awaiting quote
Repair or replace part sewer line - awaiting quote (ouch!)
Radon mitigation system - $1200
As you can see the biggest ticket items haven’t been priced yet and I’m already well over 5000. With the 10k concessions, should I back out of this deal, and take the time to do these repairs? We can’t raise the price with these buyers, they are at their loan max. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Oh, and someone committed arson on my fence last night. I would upload a picture but the sub won’t allow it.
Willkommen in der faszinierenden karnivoren-welt, einladenden und zugegeben ein wenig skurrilen Welt der fleischfressenden Pflanzen! Wer denkt, Karnivoren seien nur etwas für staubige Gewächshäuser oder gruselige Labore, irrt sich gewaltig. Mit ihren leuchtenden Farben, eleganten Formen und raffinierten Überlebensstrategien sind sie echte Hingucker und bringen lebendige Natur direkt in dein Zuhause.
Hier sind ein paar inspirierende Ideen, wie du die grünen Jäger perfekt in Szene setzen und ihnen einen Logenplatz in deiner Wohnung oder deinm Haus einrichten kannst.