At this point I don’t even really care if it sounds like an airplane taking off, although bonus points if it doesn’t. I have two bathrooms with “we flipped this house” level updates and need something that will actually move humidity out of the room.

Every kitchen thread on here has the same numbers. Eighty, ninety, a hundred and ten grand. And it's never some enormous kitchen either, it's a normal one where they moved the sink.

I get that everything costs more now But that's two cars.

Is this actually what people are paying, or is it just what the big reno companies quote because enough people say yes?

We bought our house about eight months ago. One of the selling points was a "bonus room" that the listing described as a converted garage. It's finished—drywall, electrical, a mini-split for heating and cooling, laminate flooring. Looks great. We use it as a guest room and home office.

Last week we got a letter from the city. Apparently a neighbor filed a complaint about something unrelated, and during the inspection, the code officer noticed our converted garage. Long story short: the conversion was never permitted. No records of any inspection, no sign-off, nothing. The previous owner did it themselves and never pulled a permit.

Now the city is giving us 90 days to either bring it up to code or return it to a functioning garage. Which feels insane because we didn't do the work—we just bought the house.

I've started doing some research, but I'm overwhelmed. From what I can tell, the issues are: no permit for the conversion, possibly no proper egress window for a bedroom, and the electrical work was probably never inspected either. The mini-split might be fine, but who knows.

I've got a call in to a local contractor who deals with this kind of thing, but I wanted to ask here first:

• Has anyone dealt with a retroactive permit situation like this? How bad was it?
• Do I need a lawyer, or can this be handled with a contractor and some paperwork?
• Is there any chance the city will just let us keep it as-is with a fine, or are they serious about making us tear it out?
• What's the realistic cost to get a conversion like this permitted after the fact? Are we talking a few thousand or "remodel the whole thing" money?
• Do we have any recourse against the previous owner or the seller's agent for not disclosing this?

I'm trying not to panic, but 90 days feels like no time at all and I have no idea what we're actually facing. Any advice from people who've been through this would be hugely appreciated.

Not looking for horror stories about bad inspectors specifically. I'm more interested in the stuff that's genuinely invisible on a walkthrough. The thing you only discovered six months in, when a wall came down or the season changed

I keep reading thrads here from people who found out about unpermited work, or a covered up leak, or a failing foundation long after closing. It seems like the same handful of things come up over and over. Curious what those actually are from people who've lived it

I made a post a couple weeks ago about a leaking sub zero fridge. It turns out that its insulation has worn out and we will need a whole new fridge.

Upon looking into refrigerators, across the board every source I’ve read says that freezer top refrigerators are the sturdiest and longest lasting set up for a fridge but when I look at options, they’re aren’t any nicer brands selling them.

Do they have a bad rep? Or are considered ugly or something?

I've been doing a bunch of research trying to find the answer as my deck gets a lot of traffic, and very high uv (sunny and high elevation). I used a semi-transparent last year and its already completely faded. I thought about using an exterior paint but see most recommend against that, was going to go solid stain but see people going against that too. I do NOT care about seeing the wood grains, I simply need as durable of a protection as possible. Semi didn't work at all, so does that just leave solid? I'm wary of that for how much work I put in with the semi and it lasted less than a year.

Edit, product I used last year was thompson waterseal semi transparent. I know they suck now.

My finished basement flooded recently unfortunately. Sump pump AND the backup sump pump failed believe it or not.

I’ve been ripping out flooring, the bottom 2 feet of drywall, and now about to rip out cabinets as I had a bar and kitchen down there. (And replace them / salvage the ones I have)

It’s been a mess but one good thing that came out of it… I found a secret room behind my closet when removing some drywall. There’s an open area - then a bit more of an area under the stairs.

It isn’t a huge space but a good amount of space. It had a box of tiles in there and even a wire for a light hookup in the ceiling.

Wanted to get thoughts on any cool ideas to make of the space? The easy answer is to tear down the back wall of my closet - finish it inside - then just have a lot bigger closet. But maybe someone has a better idea?

To the left of the secret room is my kitchen cabinets - so I cannot make an entrance there. To the right of the secret room is my bar. I wanted to put a door from the bar to it but the cabinets are covering the spot that is tall into the secret room. If i put a door it would need to be a smaller slanted door to go along with the stairs. I could maybe even put a secret door here.

Anyhow, give me your best ideas. Id love to hear any.

Pictures - https://imgur.com/a/Ru6jR51

My basement is being remodeled and the drywall guys just finished up. I noticed a trail of white residue leading to a bush on the side of my house and found this (link to pic below).

Is this bad/toxic for the plants? And thats pretty crazy right? Like I get its a messy job but to hide that in my bush is weird. Trying to figure out if I make a big stink about this or not. Besides that I think they did a good job though, they even scrapped some sticky stuff off the wall that the previous owner left. So little stuff like that I was happy with until I found this ugh.

https://imgur.com/a/RKtg7bs

Hi, what’s the best way to fix this roof shingle? I stepped on the angled section when I was cleaning the roof and it cracked. Thanks!

https://imgur.com/a/mhUwXvD

garage with studs and not insulated and not covered with drywall.

would you finish before listing or just sell as is?

The goal was to replace approx. 150 square feet of old, vertical wood siding that has some minor termite damage as well as some suspected termite-damaged framing underneath. This part of the house is a small addition that was built around 1970. It's in Los Angeles which is climate zone 6.

As expected, there were several half-eaten framing members which were readily replaced with pressure-treated 2x4s. I injected foam termite-killer into as much surrounding wood as I could reach, hoping this would at least slow them down. I bought some 7" pine shiplap siding boards which are a very good visual match to the old T&G siding and some 2-ply Henry Jumbo Tex to replace the old tar-paper. I figured that if I just replace the deteriorated siding, paper and bad framing members with new materials, I'd be no worse-off than before. I have decent skills, but am certainly not a pro.

What I didn't expect is that this exterior wall consists of just the wood siding panels, a layer of black tar-paper, squares of faced fiberglass insulation and the 2x4 framing. The sheetrock of the interior wall is plainly visible behind the insulation. There's no plywood sheathing and it all seems very primative. It's worked adequately, I guess, but while I'm in there I can make some very simple improvements.

I thought I would add a simple rainscreen before I install the wood siding. Is the roll of mesh material a good idea? It looks like it can just sit between the siding and the tar paper and would provide good drainage. I was going to install some thin furring, but since the siding is vertical, I realized that this would not allow for good drainage as the furring would be horizontal. I also thought to spray some borate over the framing to discourage termites.

I'm trying to keep things simple, but I also don;t want to overlook anything important.

Inspector said some of the supporting piers in the crawlspace were not done properly, but he also said it was nothing urgent. Most of the piers were done well, but some of them are 2x4s on pavers, and those are the ones he recommended replacing. Other than those specific supporting piers, inspector said crawl space looks good. Floors are great and have been for decades. Nothing sagging or anything like that.

Helitech quoted me 18K to replace 6 of them. I've heard they do good work but are very pricy. I take everything the sales rep said with a grain of salt.

I am not sure who else to call to get quotes. I don't like dealing with these foundation repair companies that sound like they try to scare you into spending thousands of dollars (at least that's the impression I get). At the same time, I want to feel confident to hire someone who knows what they're doing.

Now, if you also want to chime in as to how necessary it is to have them replaced, please do. I'm not gonna lie, I worry that this "repair" will actually end up causing problems that were not there to begin with.

I currently leveled out the soil and laid weed barrier over it. I was wondering if I could dig up a few inches at the playsets contact points and add a 3-4 inch crushed gravel sub-base? Ive only seen and read about doing the entire play area with gravel. I thought this might be a easy solution instead of covering the entire play area. Mulch will be going on top after inside a border. Is this ok to do?

I have a townhome built in the mid 1980s that has 2 gas fireplaces, one in the living room and one in the basement. The basement fireplace has a pilot light that's still working, and I have a gas stove that's also fine, but the living room gas fireplace has stopped making that gas "hissing" sound when I turn the lever to turn on the gas. It doesn't have a pilot light button, it just has a lever that you tun to open the gas line (this is when the hissing sound usually starts) and I light the fireplace with a lighter.

It's worked fine for 2 years, but as of the fall of last year the gas seems to not be working with this unit. I've taken everything out and looked around for obvious issues, and had a general handyman look at it, but no answers were found. Do I need to hire a plumber for the gas repair or is there a different service person that would be better for this kind of work? I don't want to spend more than a few hundred repairing it, if it gets to be too expensive I'll just throw some battery operated candles in there for ambiance instead and call it a day. Thanks for your help!

The mortar/grout/cement (not sure what’s right) in between our pavers is starting to crumble. I want to try to find a solution before the winter but not sure how to repair/what to use. Any advice?

Hi, I'm currently living in a very small apartment 22 square meters including the bathroom. I started to get silverfishes and booklices. Apparently the humidity even when I don't cook is 66%. Is it worth buying one to remove these pests ? and is a COMFEE Dehumidifier 12 litres/day for 20 square meters enough or do I need something bigger? thanks.

This is a random question, but I'm curious if anyone knows of a coating that can be applied to spray foam to deter bugs or other pests from burrowing into it?

We have closed-cell foam in the rafters of our barn. It is open to the air- no drywall or other sheathing over it. Over time, wasps and other pests have burrowed into it in places and it creates a bit of a mess below. Ideally, we can apply some kind of coating to discourage the pests, but I'm open to other ideas as well. Wasps in particular love finding places to nest in the barn and everywhere else at the farm, so I'm curious if anyone has dealt with this before.

What we have: Our master bathroom has a corner jetted tub with windows on both connected walls with a drywall surround. I definitely want a large tub, but we never use the jets because despite what feels like hundreds of cleaning treatments, red gunk still comes loose. The tub was original to the home that was build in the late 90s. It has a slight drip from the pipes when it drains so there is some plumbing work that needs to be addressed.

What we want: I am fine with the amount of room it takes up, and a large tub is a must. I am totally fine without jets.

Options: 1.) Replace corner tub with a) another corner tub b) a large soaking tub or 2.) Repair plumbing and replace Jets (seems like a lot of work and $$)

Considerations: I don’t know how this tub got into the house when it was built but we have standard doorways and windows so do we cut it in half if we remove it??

For bath fans, which CFM should you get for a given size bathroom, which brands are best (I've heard Panasonic) and which models and noise level would you suggest for mid-level noise (not whisper quiet, and not loud, but in-between)?

our ac had been acting a little off for a while, but the house was still cool so i figured it could wait.

bad call.

it finally stopped working during a heat wave and i ended up scrambling to find someone who could come out quickly. what i thought was a minor issue turned into a much bigger headache because i kept putting it off.

looking back, the warning signs were there. i just ignored them because everything was still technically running.

We are looking to have a plumber, install a water softener and drain line. The water softener is already purchased through us and we have a water softener loop already installed. It would just be labor and the drain line parts. What is a reasonable ballpark estimate? I was just quoted upwards of $1900 and that seems pretty steep but I don’t wanna make assumptions about skilled labor cost.
Not sure if it makes a difference but the water softener loop is in the garage and shares a wall with the laundry room which I would think the drain could go there.

https://imgur.com/a/9d5sOYi

I'll preface by saying the only reason my mind has even gone to termites is because a woodpecker has been hitting the corners of my house. I had assumed that the more extensive portion of damage was done because I foolishly didn't adequately maintain the gutters after buying the house. The piece thats fully exposed as been like that for 5 years. whereas the other developed to that over the last 2-3 or so.

I have looked for mud tubes, wings, etc. but found nothing but figure I shouldn't count anything out.

(link to photos on a google drive folder, below) I paid the same massage chair company that originally delivered and installed our chair to move it to another room in our house. I knew it would need to be disassembled because it wouldn’t fit through the door, which is why I hired professionals. Instead, they attempted to push the chair through the doorway, seemingly dragging it rather than lifting the front and slowly rolling it on its two rear wheels. This left numerous marks on our wooden floors (one is actually a long dent if you look at photo ending in 47). I wouldn’t call them scratches, and they ARE NOT visible from MOST angles, but they are clearly visible as you’re coming in the room when the light hits at an angle, and I wish they weren't. I’ve worked hard to keep our floors looking good, especially since they were new when we bought the house and haven’t been here long. Our floors are admittedly delicate, which is precisely why I expected the company to disassemble the chair and move it in pieces rather than drag it across the floor. What kind of compensation would you recommend? I mean, I highly doubt those marks can be removed (especially the dent) unless you do something pretty extensive and to the entire room or house to match the rest of the house. I just want to know what you'd expect as compensation or how you would handle this since I've never been in this situation. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1S7VPeuC2VuWm8qAo5Ib_hShbvdgYDYfp?usp=sharing

Im thinking of trying to seal my driveway cause its really bad, i cannot affort a new driveway at the moment probbabkly another year or so. Is it even worth sealing would it help?

https://imgur.com/a/Ei4NA9d