What to do with this space
There use to be a porch here now it’s just bare with no grass? Could we put pavers over and just decorate it maybe? We’re gonna fix the chain link fence so it goes all the way to the house
u/latenightgrl — 13 hours ago
r/homeimprovementideas
Gap between oven and backsplash
Got our new oven installed and now have a bit of a gap as the last one was a free standing.
Any ideas on how to cover up the now exposed drywall where the backsplash ends?
u/JustDuctTapeIt — 1 day ago
Garage Makeover Ideas Needed!
Looking for input to give this garage a makeover. Very cost conscious so budget ideas are appreciated.
Most of the year we use it as storage in and out for toys and lawn tools.
Goals:
Ability to park two cars if needed (snow storms etc)
Storage for outdoor toys
Storage for lawn mower and snow blower (only used seasonally so can be tucked away)
Miscellaneous lawn and home care items
Sport and camping gear
Work bench and tool storage
Thule roof box storage
Refresh paint, floors?
u/Complete-Today833 — 1 day ago
Turning old coal room in laundry room. Advice needed
Looking for advice on making this old coal room look less gross. Pretty ignorant on home improvement projects
Looking to:
Sand/grind salt deposits? Remove floor paint. Level floor? Paint/seal walls.
Tell me your thoughts. Room used to be super moldy until getting French drains and keeping humidity down.
u/pieandpastry — 1 day ago
Bought my house 3 years ago and just found out my water has been slowly destroying everything inside it
I want to share this because I genuinely had no idea this was happening and I wonder how many other homeowners are in the same situation without realizing it.
About three months ago my washing machine started making a noise it had never made before. Called a repair guy out, he opened it up, looked around for a few minutes and then showed me the inside of the drum mechanism. There was this thick whitish grey buildup caked around every moving part that was supposed to be clean metal. He asked me how long I'd owned the machine. I said I bought it new when I moved in three years ago. He looked at me and said it had the kind of scale buildup he'd normally expect to see on a machine that was seven or eight years old.
That was the moment I started paying attention.
He asked me if I had a water softener. I said no, I just had whatever the previous owners left behind and I honestly hadn't thought about it once since moving in. He told me hard water scale was probably the single most common cause of premature appliance failure he sees and that most homeowners don't connect the dots until something breaks.
So I went home and started actually looking at things. Really looking.
The inside of my dishwasher had a cloudy white film over the interior walls that I had assumed was just how dishwashers looked after a few years. It wasn't. That's mineral scale. My coffee maker was taking noticeably longer to brew than it used to and the heating element was partially blocked with buildup. My water heater, which was four years old when I bought the house, was making a low rumbling sound during heating cycles that I had ignored for probably eighteen months. I looked up what that sound means. It's sediment that has settled on the bottom of the tank getting disturbed during heating. A classic hard water symptom.
I got a water test done. Hardness came back at 22 grains per gallon. Anything above 10 is considered hard. 22 is in the very hard category and I had been running it untreated through every appliance, every pipe and every fixture in my house for three years.
The shower doors in the master bathroom that I thought were just old and cloudy and something I'd have to live with or replace? Hard water deposits. The faucet aerators that had reduced to a trickle in two of the bathrooms? Clogged with mineral scale. The tile grout that had gone from white to a dingy grey that no amount of cleaning seemed to touch? Hard water residue.
I had been slowly watching my house deteriorate and blaming age and normal wear for things that were actually being caused by the water running through everything every single day.
I ended up installing a water softener and the difference showed up faster than I expected. The shower doors started clearing up within a couple of weeks just from regular cleaning. The coffee maker is back to normal brew times. The washing machine repair guy who came back for a follow up said the new buildup had basically stopped.
The part that really got me when I sat down and thought about it was the math. The washing machine repair alone was several hundred dollars. The water heater is going to need replacing sooner than it should because of the sediment damage that happened before I knew any of this. The dishwasher is probably running less efficiently than it should and costing me more on electricity every cycle. None of that shows up on a single bill. It's just this slow invisible drain that you don't notice until something breaks and then you assume it's just bad luck.
What I wish someone had handed me when I got my keys was a simple checklist. Test your water within the first month. Check your water heater for sediment sounds. Pull the aerators off your faucets and look at them. Look inside your dishwasher with a flashlight. None of that takes more than an afternoon and it tells you immediately whether you have a problem that's quietly getting more expensive every day.
If you're a homeowner and you've never tested your water hardness it's worth doing before you need a reason to.
u/Prestigious_Film_478 — 1 day ago
What is this space for? What should I do with it
Hey Gang, I just moved into a new apartment and I have no clue what this space is for. Maybe mail but who collects this much mail haha. Need some suggestions as to what I should do with this as well.
u/watthefrankk — 2 days ago
▲ 380 r/homeimprovementideas
How would you make this ducting less of an eyesore?
Choices were made here.
u/limanovembergolf — 3 days ago
[ Removed by Reddit ]
[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]
u/Initial-Purpose-6789 — 2 days ago
Front Door
My front door is in desperate need of some TLC. I’m not sure where to even start with the rehab. I’d love some advice or even to be point in the right direction. I’d like to put a coat of something on it to protect it from weather and sun. I’m assuming I’ll need to sand it. Any advice will help!
u/Jelloing — 2 days ago
How would you fix this spot?
I have this Hose Bibb inside my room and it’s next to my desk area and kind of an eyesore. Does anyone have any idea to either hide it/ fix it/ remove it? Thanks!
u/todoro78 — 2 days ago
How would you recommend I widen this pocket doorway into a wide walkway?
The pocket door slides into the blue section. I’d like to remove it entirely and turn this into a walkway (red highlight) from the dining area into the living room. Is it as simple as removing the trim, knocking out the drywall and pocket doorway frame, and sealing it back up and trim? Youtube is full of pocket doorway installation videos, but not so much removal and widening.
u/NotYourValleyBiscuit — 3 days ago
Sellers did not disclose this, can i sue for cost of repair?
We have a brick foundation, and today it started storming for the first time since buying our house and moving in a week ago. I went into the basement because i heard what sounded like a waterfall and lo and behold one of the walls has water seeping/pouring out of it in between the bricks and into the basement. I followed the flow of the water and found what looks to be like a makeshift diy french drain situation in the corner. Clearly they knew about the water since they made the drain and they also have a dehumidifier placed in that area of the basement. They had some old windows and a door sitting on either side of the drain but not rendering it inaccessible, it was still visible if you simply glanced at the floor in that corner. The day the inspector came it was not raining so I know he wouldn’t have a way of knowing about the water coming in, but he definitely could have seen the makeshift drain in the corner and it was not on our inspection report at all.
Is there anything that can be done legally since the seller failed to disclose?
can I ask for a partial or full refund from the inspector?
u/mkdw98 — 3 days ago
Thoughts on the Paneling?
My husband and I are in escrow on this house with beautiful and well maintained wood paneling. That said, the paneling isn’t super our style, but we are open to being convinced. Our initial thought was to put drywall over it, leave the open beams and leave the natural wood framing (similar to what you see through the hallway).
We don’t want to be like the people that covered up beautiful wood floors decades ago with laminate though.
From research we did, drywall is one of the safer ways to keep the wood preserved (vs paint for example). To make it a hair more complex, we do really want to honor the old owner and her legacy. She owned the property for many years and was a great person before passing away.
Would love perspectives on:
-Is it wrong to potentially cover the wood and leave some pieces exposed?
-If we cover it, is there a safer way to preserve the wood underneath?
-If you kept it as it is, would love any inspiration on how to design the space and make it feel cozy
ETA: The floor is LVP and goes through the entire home, unfortunately removal isn’t an immediate option and we aren’t sure what floor is underneath or its condition. Interestingly, the floor looks really nice in all the other rooms and is more of a light tan (not gray). I suspect because the wood walls are so warm that it’s leeching some of the color from the flooring if that makes sense.
u/Same_Blacksmith3868 — 5 days ago
What color to paint vanity?
I’ve been trying to DIY update my bathroom since I bought my house a few years ago. The vanity is not in great shape, but I don’t have the funds to replace it, and don’t expect to for several years at least.
The bathroom walls are painted with BEHR Even Better Beige. I checked BEHR’s website, but the suggested coordinating colors are pretty limited, and I’m not a fan of the turquoise/rosy options they recommend.
I don’t have an eye for this kind of thing. My mom did, and I used to ask her for help with decisions like this, but she passed away recently, and I’m finding myself really stuck on making a decision.
u/3toedsl0th — 2 days ago
Front Door
My front door is in desperate need of some TLC. I’m not sure where to even start with the rehab. I’d love some advice or even to be point in the right direction. I’d like to put a coat of something on it to protect it from weather and sun. I’m assuming I’ll need to sand it. Any advice will help!
u/Jelloing — 2 days ago
Weird Shaped Drop Ceiling
The plan is to make this basement space into a full more modern apartment. I hate the drop ceiling look I think it looks like an office or a school. But the shapes of the ceiling make it difficult to work with. It’s shaped like that over ductwork and pipe. Option A is just to replace them with smoother tiles that will give basically the same look. Patterned tiles won’t work because of the shapes cutting off the designs. Option B would be to do wood paneling with the Easy Up clips but it might be difficult to finish the edges (maybe a L molding?) and expensive (1000 sq ft). Open to any ideas.
u/External-Ad-1460 — 4 days ago
Is it possible to remove or hide these lines? I just want a simple laundry hookup without the pipes showing
First pic is current setup while the others are examples of cleaner setups that I would want to get close to. If I can put the standard rectangle hookup and get rid of the pipes, that would be great. This property is a duplex and the other side of this wall has the other laundry room I believe. If this is possible, should I hire a plumber or someone else?
u/Prudent_Cheesecake15 — 3 days ago
What is this wall texture style called? Have you done this before?
Hey there my wife wants to do the same “heavy textured wall plaster” in these photos. The creator doing the work in the videos is going to release a book in a few months on how to do it, but we need to do it before then…
So what is this style called so I can research it and if you are familiar with it, what materials would you use? Joint compound, plaster, stucco?
Thank you!!
u/your_mother_trebek12 — 5 days ago
I underestimated this cabinet project
My mother’s kitchen is in desperate need of a refresh. We are on a shoestring budget. I told her I would help her paint her cabinets. We disassembled half of the cabinets. There was definitely some water damage on a few of them that were in front of the sink. I was going to sand those down and build them back up with puddy. Not ideal, but better than what she currently has.
So we took everything apart, took the hardware off, cleaned with TSP substitute, and started sanding one of the doors. The finish wouldn’t budge. I changed to 80 grit sandpaper and still almost nothing would come off even with several passes. It’s pretty clear now that these cabinets are covered in laminate. There appears to be a thin wood veneer under the laminate, but I can’t get to it. There’s not much more I can do, is there?
u/Anony-mom — 4 days ago
I need someone who’s creative and give me ideas for custom shelving for better organization in this shed. Preferably wood because the shelves they sell at the store aren’t the best for optimal organization.
u/JonnieSpecter — 3 days ago