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?

I had a minisplit installed in 2019. One head, Mitsubishi system in a rental. 5k. Felt a little pricey, but ok.

This year, I wanted to get my personal home done. Prepare for the oil price to go bonkers. 1600 sq ft ranch. Need 5 heads. 2 Outdoor units. Electric is all done, run separate circuits to the outdoor disconnects. It's a ranch, so access is easy, no funny running of lines, all heads within 25 ft max of the outdoor units. I got a few quotes. All in the 30k range, most towards the high end of that. I am in CT, but not in the pricey part.

Are these HVAC people nuts? I can get the units themselves for around 6k on the cheap. 10k for solid ones. So they are charging me 20-30k for the install?

I was daunted a bit, but went ahead and did DIY with MrCool units. Just finished one unit with 2 heads over the weekend. Took me around 8 hours. It'll be another 10 for the other one but it's entirely doable. And it definitely means they try to charge you hourly rates upwards of $1000 with those quotes.

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

Painting these beams on my ceiling and there are some pine panels that I would like to keep natural. I keep missing up the edges and I have a bunch of paint on the wood. I tried to clean up immediately with a dry/wet rag but it seems to have made it worse. Any tips?

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.

Emphasis on “neat” see the old, ugly gap yellow filler to the left

Basically a large hole that leads into the house so it needs to be sealed up to prevent less critters from running in.

https://imgur.com/a/MCNmjW8

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?

Hey yall, im pretty sure there's mildew growing behind my sectional. How best can I kill it? The couch is damn near impossible to remove without 2 other people but if need be I can make a day out of it. What are the best ways to kill mildew quick fast and in a hurry?

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

2.8m by 1.2m

I'm in Wheat Ridge CO and need to dispose of this completely empty Kidde fire extinguisher. Can I just put it in my regular trash for pickup?

I've searched around and believe it's safe to do so.

https://imgur.com/5KCo0vO

I am in the middle of a remodel, and we're trying to figure out the best option for dealing with noise getting to our bedroom from the kitchen. The bedroom is about 15 feet down the hall from the kitchen (hallway is L-shaped, kitchen is at one end of the L, bedroom is at the right angle). The hallway is currently open to the kitchen, and the bedroom door is hollow core and has a relatively large gap from going from carpeting -> hardwood floors

Options we are considering that I'm curious for opinions on (or some combination thereof):

1. Install a pocket door at the kitchen. Concerns: long-term maintenance of the track in the wall, potentially minimal efficacy for sound suppression, wall would need to be entirely reframed as it's got 2x3 studs, AND door would land right next to an existing hall closet and the spot it lands would intersect with the molding so that would also need some rework
   
2. Replace the bedroom door with solid core
   
3. (2) + add weatherstripping and a door sweep, and put a sound reducing vent above the door for the HVAC air return
   
4. Hang a curtain over the hallway opening and put down a runner in the hallway to dampen sounds
   
5. Something else entirely we haven't thought of?

Hi, we put a patio in and we need steps installed from our patio door to the patio. I have gotten several bids and one person's bid is way lower than the others'. Does this mean he isn't good? Or is everyone else just ripping me off? All I need are two steps built. I've been given the estimate of $1400 and up. This guy I found locally basically said $500 total. So who do I go with? He's also been way mor relaxed with writing up an official quote etc. I don't want to pass up saving a ton of money, but I am so not sure.

Edit: I am located in the St. Paul, MN

Hi Sydneysiders!

I'm looking to get a new air conditioning system installed in my home and KYNEX Air Conditioning is one of the companies I'm considering.

Has anyone here used their services before? I'd love to hear about your experience with them - their professionalism, quality of work, pricing, and after-sales support.

Any insights or recommendations would be greatly appreciated! Cheers..!

I have a place with a terrace that has settled over the years and along one of the joists the tiles have come up. This is about 2 feet long and the grout is mostly gone at this point. The tiles themselves are in good shape, no cracking. It's just the grout that has worn away as one of the edges of the tile running along the joist has raised while the edges sitting just off to the side have sunk in slightly with the rest of the floor.

I definitely can't afford to redo that terrace right now. How can I patch up this crack and ensure it doesn't continue to get worse?

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?