This issue spans a year and a half. I’d prefer to not move - we fixed up this house so it’s 100% updated. My question is, I know that I can’t stop people from acting ridiculous, but what can we do aside from blocking our neighbors out to force them into compliance/ get them to leave us alone?

For context, we have an easement on our land that allows a neighbor to access their landlocked property. We have a survey, we haven’t don’t anything against the deed, I’ve had 3 lawyers review all docs to ensure I’m not going insane and in the right. The township also noted we are within their ordinances and have done nothing wrong - even their solicitor reviewed everything and confirmed we are within our rights. We owe them access - they want unrestricted access and extending their use of our property as staging, parking, etc. IN MY FRONT YARD. Nothing in the deed indicates that is within their rights.

I have a timeline, cameras, downloaded clips and police reports to corroborate all of their behavior and the slow progression of changes. We really tried to give them a chance to do better. We were honest about our concerns.

The neighbor has a high volume of traffic - fine. However, they travel down this gravel driveway at a speed that tosses gravel into our yard and kicks us dust. We have small kids. Before just fencing we talked to them - give them a chance to know what’s going on and work together so it works for everyone. Immediately didn’t care. Immediately started spinning tire to kick up rocks and speeding because they knew we were worried. The neighbors AND their guests all do this. They also turn up their music at the top of the driveway at night and sit just to wake us up. They turn it down pulling out onto the road. I have cameras and videos of everything - police didn’t help much there but did finally help with spinning tire because it happens around my 2 year old.

We spoke to them 4 times. They never ceased. We never escalated our behavior, only began avoiding the yard and them as best as possible.

After months of being patient and slowly adding additional safety measures, we ended up installing a simple field fence to keep our son off the driveway and across the area of our yard they were using for parking. They were meeting up with people at night (think 11-2) and waking us up. Either way, I don’t want strangers on my yard for any reason at any time. This lady also goes to other neighbors to try to get them to go against us. The township has had to tell them all multiple times we didn’t do anything wrong, get a lawyer if you’re mad, and that they can’t do anything to help them.

They aren’t happy despite never having access removed. They and their guests continue to speed and spin tire, play loud music, and will give us the finger in front of our kids. I know the kids don’t get it yet, but I choose what’s ok for them. We are going to privacy fence the entire way up to block them, since they are triggered by the sight of us. We are allowed to do this and will go to the township to ensure our plan meets ordinances to be 100% on that side. They will 100% be mad about a privacy fence - at least we can use more of our yard and get to our cars without them seeing us.

For the past couple of weeks, I've been finding dog poop in almost the exact same spot on my front lawn. It's getting pretty annoying, especially since whoever is doing it clearly isn't planning to clean up after their dog.

I'm usually at work during the day, so I have no idea who's responsible. I'm thinking about putting up an outdoor camera to catch whoever keeps doing this before confronting anyone. Not sure if I should try a sign first or just get a camera and figure out who's doing it.

I’m trying to find out what the name of this board is that goes between door sill and slab. Anyone know how easy it is to replace? It’s wood and needs replacing soon.

DR Horton home and no idea what type of flooring this is or what it’s called. Can’t find anything that looks like it at Home Depot. And no idea how to find out from Dr Horton what they used. Home was built in 2018 I think. What can I do? The flooring is continuous through first floor of the house.

I purchased my home in 22 and I’m at the unfortunate stage where I need a new roof. I’ve done the 3 bids, the prices vary significantly for what seems to be the same/similar roof. Initially I tried Angie’s list and that was a mistake. Lots of phone calls I had to silence my phone. For this who have bought a new roof any advice? What should I look out for and what were your main deciding factors?

I’m tired of the pushy sales tactics and want to find a trustworthy contractor but it’s all overwhelming. It would be nice if companies were transparent about their pricing upfront. I understand that there are potential unforeseen circumstances but it would be nice to know a general idea if I’m getting a fair value or not.

Hi! I’m closing on a house tomorrow and am a first time homeowner! The electric water heater is 13 years old but in decent shape, no visible leaks or rusting. However, I’m wondering if I should go ahead and just replace it given the age? I have no clue if the prior owners ever flushed or replaced the anode so a part of me thinks I should just replace it now. Another part of me thinks maybe I could get 1-2 more years out of it and use that $2.5k for other things that will surely come up (house is 106 years old, don’t worry no knob and tub or galvanized pipes).

The sun is starting to take its toll on the sealant across the top of the termination bar on the roof I have. Some areas have been discolored and cracked through, one example https://imgur.com/a/tLp4ihP.Are there any considerations I need to make in prepping the area or in the type of sealant? Can I get away with cleaning the area and applying some silicon.

Roof material is TPO, the wall material is none-synthetic stucco.

My bathtub looks like it got the landlord special (thanks prev homeowner) and has begun to peel. The top layer feels like unglossed/matte nail polish and all the parts that have chipped feel smooth, like you'd expect from a regular tub.

Is there an easy fix here or should I brace for a new tub?

Edit:

First off - Bathtub* 🥲

Second - I own the home. It's my first. Previous owners did something to this tub. I have no family to give me pointers on how to care for it. I'm flying blind. Halp please.

Spouse and I thought there was a small animal burrowing a hole under our garage until we realized how far deep the hole was.

Took my cell phone camera and realized it's alot bigger under there than I initially thought.

I took a video and it is now very worrisome.

Does anyone have any recommendations or advice.

Would homeowners insurance cover this?

Not sure what to do here … I have the peice my baby pulled off …

Also thing concludes that my cabinet are actually made out of particle board right

Our townhouse HOA has never done a roof inspection and I feel like mold is growing in the attic. We’re having black areas appear in the bathroom ceiling and our “door” going up to the attic looks like it’s deteriorating. It also smells musky/mildewy. Our HOA is no help at all and I don’t know who to contact about this as I’m not sure what specialty this falls under.

There are a lot of details that I don't think I can fully capture in a post but I'm going to try to get the gist of it down. I'm in my second year of home ownership trying to decide what to do with my first home insurance claim. I'm sure to a seasoned veteran this situation has an obvious answer but I'm lost and totally overwhelmed at the moment. Insurance has been (unsurprisingly) hard to navigate. My broker helped me where the adjuster couldn't, but I'm still stuck in decision-making limbo.

We had a storm last month that did some relatively minor damage in the grand scheme of things. A few shingles over the garage have cracks/holes that don't go all the way through to the structure underneath, two shingles in the ridge cap have actual holes, and the fence needs fixed.

Insurance isn't willing to pay for the additional damages the roofing contractor found, but his estimate is below my deductible anyway so there's that, I guess.

Insurance agreed to pay for the fence and haul away for the old stuff. I live in an area with 4 seasons, winters can be really harsh. I saw myself replacing the fence eventually with vinyl because I thought it'd look nicer and be a better long-term investment. Insurance wants it replaced with the same thing, which is understandable but I think that's silly because the estimate for shadow box cedar is $2k more than the vinyl and doesn't seem like a lasting investment. The old fence is still standing and functional but it leans.

I'm being sent a really small check (in comparison to the total cost of repairs) to get work started, but it's clear to me that in my current financial situation, I have two choices:

1.) Do the bare minimum on the garage roof with the ridge cap (that insurance will cover), leaving about 4 damaged shingles because I can't foot an entire $3k to repair it all or pay all of that off in a 12 month 0% interest financing period. I have savings I could use towards that but it won't be easy to replace and I'll dig myself into a deeper hole if anything more serious happens and with winter coming, I'm not eager to do that. I would use the check to start work on the $7k fence project.

Or, the option I'm leaning towards:

2.) Wait on the fence, save up the money to hire out the post digging (my neighbor and Dad both offered their services) and DIY the rest next summer, lose out on insurance help. Use my check to fund half of the garage roof repair and end up with a much more manageable bill for that. Still on the hook for the costs of the fencing and such, but I'll actually get the nicer and easier to maintain upgrade of vinyl.

#2 seems smarter and more financially feasible, but am I going to regret losing help with the fence? My original plan was going to be to save anything having to do with the fence for next summer so I can set money aside for at least some of it and hopefully pay less in labor costs. I don't really want to invest in another cedar fence that'll degrade and need replacement again (I should state that I never plan to sell this house unless I must, so I very much care about the longevity of what I'm investing in). On top of all that, the roof seems like a significantly more pressing issue, even if it's just the garage. Especially with the prospect of snow and ice in the coming months.

I lightly ran numbers for material costs on the fence and it seems like it would likely be less than what I was quoted to DIY it after having posts dug. Still money, but not as much as my quote.

I'm probably missing details, so I will absolutely reply to questions. How would you approach this? Am I overlooking anything?

I have an oil-fired heating system with a Honeywell R7184B primary control and recently installed a Nest Learning Thermostat (4th gen). My thermostat only has R and W wires, and there’s no C-wire terminal available at the furnace.

I’m having trouble powering the Nest properly and have been looking into installing an isolation relay to provide power without interfering with the furnace’s oil burner control.

I’m in Worcester, Massachusetts, and I’ve received quotes of $1,600 and $1,800 for this job . This includes all the labor, parts, and the thermostat + sensor. I think they also include a C power maker so they don't have to pull the wire through walls.

For anyone who has dealt with a similar setup, are these quotes reasonable, or do they seem unusually high? What would be a typical cost for parts and labor?

Is installing an isolation relay a straightforward job, or would this setup require significant additional wiring or modifications?

Thanks!

We woke up after some heavy rains and the whole left side of the room had water (More photos in comments). Mostly the corner where I peeled off the tile. It didn't come from the sliding door, we have a piece of wood for a wedge that's dry. The water pools outside around the corner, could it possibly come up through the concrete? I couldn't notice anywhere with a gaping hole or water pouring through. My first thought is I should I just rip out all the tile, flex seal the edges, lay down some kind of plastic tarp then retile.

Any thoughts? Advice? Thanks!

We have this 5ft+ deep hole (as measured by a rolling tape measure) that goes wayyyy deep underground. The driveway “layer” itself is 4” thick and you can kind of see in the picture that crumble in the picture. This hole showed up overnight but there are other similar holes that stretch along the 20ft wide driveway/garage area.

Is this normal for houses in upstate NY? i’ve read that some houses’ yards had hollow ground where construction workers just dumped things. We do have a pond very close to the house and I’m afraid this is basically a huge sinkhole waiting to happen. No idea what to do or if filling it with concrete will do the trick

Update 1: Called the Fire Dept and they came by. From what they could see, the foundation “wall” is okay, it’s just that the driveway is being chipped. Something to fix but they didn’t seem it structurally unstable. I’ll call some contractors tomorrow (Wed) and see if they can do some actual checkup. Also got my car out of the garage with no problem lol I can’t add additional pics to the post but the update comment has more pics

Update 2: Posted a night time pic with better flash photography in the comments. Seems like the foundation itself is good, confirming what the firemen said. We have some folks coming by tomorrow to do some diagnosis and hopefully we can have the hole filled by the weekend #pause

Came out to a piece of my siding flopping over my garage. Found it slapped with construction adhesive and one single nail fighting for its life lol. Thanks Ryan Homes, great sub-contracting you did.

I need a new roof, front porch, and exterior door replaced around a new enclosed frame (basically instead of it being inset, we are going to pop it out and close it in). Id love to even consider some kitchen work, but we might have already blown the budget up.

Im getting quotes from direct contractors-- is it cheaper to just roll it into one under a GC?

Id love to hear your feedback.

I just had my electric bill contextualized in a way I hadn't before- my 1950s 950sqft home is costing over 10% more than my parents' 1750sqft new build. I'm sure having all new lights and other electronics makes somewhat of a difference, but it's a large enough gap, in a house twice as big as mine, that I'm second guessing my electricity use.

I don't unplug things, but I do turn them off when not in use. I don't have anything insane pulling in a ton of power, I think, and I'm in that sweet spot season-wise where my AC has been put away for weeks and my heat isn't on yet. Water heater isn't electric.

Most days, 1 TV is in standby mode or off entirely, the other is playing in the background while I WFH. WFH station is plugged into 2 power strips, for laptop, an extra monitor, some other little electronics. Lights are off most of the day and evening, maybe a lamp in the living room or the overhead light in the bedroom right before bed.

I've got little things plugged in that are either using minimum power throughout the day, or in standby mode (plugged in but not on)- some pet water fountains, table lamps, phone chargers, electric blankets, a lighted plant stand on a timer, dehumidifiers.

The only things I consistently have plugged in AND running all the time are security cameras and an electric doorbell.

Almost every plug has a surge protector with extra sockets plugged into it. Again, I don't unplug anything, but almost everything is in standby most of the day. Am I misunderstanding standby mode? Does it actually use a ton of electricity? Should I be unplugging everything unless I'm actively using it? Or is something else going on with my electric bill that a house twice my size is costing a not-insignificant amount less in electricity every month?

I did the painstaking research of finding someone that could do siding and gutters because of the storms that damaged our house this year. The company had great reviews all over the Internet and the accounts did not look fake. We had a public adjuster with the company who submitted the estimate along with our insurance that corroborated them.

We had a meeting to determine the materials and the colors and had to give the checks that the insurance sent. That was the beginning of september. It is now the second week in October and outside of a response that I sent asking for an update, I have heard nothing. Supposedly the insurance company may need to reevaluate because the contracting company wanted to get supplement for some damage that was done inside due to the damage to the roof and siding. I didn't care about the inside because I knew it would eventually have to be fixed.

I live somewhere where there are four seasons. We're approaching winter and the rain from the fall has already caused more damage inside the house and if snow comes, it's going to be worse. We paid them $17,000 and that is not money that I can spend again to find another company. I don't even have close to that. I know State farm is already going to drop us after everything is done as that's what they've been doing to many homeowners since the storms. I really just need this fixed or else I'm going to have to just consider selling to a flipper and moving.

Do I have any recourse or is this just a very expensive lesson on being stupid?

I need to fix this hole. What would you do? It is about 4" long by 3" wide.

I also need to drill back into the spot for a curtain rod.

been researching dishwasher cleaners for a few weeks now and narrowed it down to a shortlist but honestly not sure if i picked the right ones. our dishwasher smells kinda funky and leaves this white filmy residue on glasses sometimes. looked at reviews but they contradict each other alot. curious what people here have actually stuck with after trying a few, not just what worked once

Hey! New to this. Sorry if it’s a dumb question. Just trying to learn.

There is a knob on the vertical pipe underneath my outdoor garden hose knob. Anyone know what it could be for? I accidentally turned it at first. It didn’t do anything and then I turned the correct one on to turn the hose on and I returned the bottom one close to its original position.

Thanks

So there are cats that keep spraying my front door! I think a couple belong to my neighbor and the others might be feral. They all walk through my yard all day and night and if one sprays then the others come out in droves. Sometimes they on do it for weeks then they start and won’t stop. I’ve sprayed enzyme cleaner, mats with the little spikes(they just jump over it) . I had a motion activated sprinkler that never would work. I’m at my wits end!Any advice on how to keep them away from my porch?

My husband saw a mouse this morning in our kitchen and then it disappeared. We called the exterminator and they'll come and check the house and set up traps. My question is how much of a deep clean I need to do? How do I know if the mouse has been in my drawer and cupboards where all my cooking and eating utensils are? My kitchen is also open to the living room. Do i need to clean the living room too? I just feel kind of disgusted when I think about that this mice could have been anywhere in the house. Sorry if this is a silly question but just bought this house 2 months ago and never had this kind of problem when i lived in apartments. Also, once I have the exterminator come, should I still be worried about mouse? like about where i put my food or cleaning my toddler's mess right away? thank you very much

My neighborhood is wild. A neighbor next to me is allowing their teenage boys to play football in the front yard, and run and throw balls across my yard. This is happening especially at night. My yard isn’t very big, and it’s mostly full of plants, my driveway and my vehicle. I also have big front windows in front of my house that I don’t want broken. I have asked the parents repeatedly to not have the kids playing football in my yard, and they don’t listen and act like I’m the one being rude. (And they’re teachers!) The same parents are allowing their kids to burn trash in their fire pit and hit flaming trash around with sticks, also illegal.

Then the neighbors across the street filled their yard with Halloween decorations, so they’re letting their TODDLERS play in the street on a curve. They put a child playing sign in the middle of the street, also illegal. Like they think they can just own the street and block vehicles?

I’m at a loss. I live in a middle to upper middle class neighborhood. These people should know better but they all seem brain dead. What would you do?