Hi there! New (and admittedly) anxious homeowner here. My wife and I are hoping to replace a few carpets and put down some LVP (WPC) flooring in the kitchen where there is some older existing floor that looks like it could be vinyl of some sort. The house was originally built in 1982 and while i can't confirm if this is the original flooring i wouldn't be surprised if it was. I've gone down a bit of a rabbit hole with asbestos and while my original thought was to have these floors torn up to put down the new LVP I'm now wondering if that could open us up to other issues if there is indeed asbestos somewhere either in the sheeting or adhesive underneath.

Any thoughts or helpful insights would be greatly appreciated - have a 1.5 year old so I also want to make sure I'm not kicking anything harmful up for her sake as well as ours.

We are hosting a house warming party 6 months into moving. Will be an indoor party. Besides food. What else?! Games for Kids? What do you do during a house warming party? This will be our first time.

Hi, all!
I’m very slowly starting the process of looking to sell my first home (ideally aiming to sell by January/February depending on the market and overall timing). I’ll have owned my house for two years next month.

I plan on reaching out to my realtor within the next few weeks to start the conversation about this next step, but would love to hear from anyone having recently gone through this process what your advice is or any tips/recommendations for this process?!

Edit: looking for advice you maybe didn’t know before the selling process or anything you learned along the way!

Short version: I have court ordered injunctions against two neighbors who live blocks away. The court order specifies 1,000 ft away from my property.

The problem is I don't know when they come by. Most likely they'll park their car one or two houses over and then walk onto my sidewalk to take pictures (creepy, I know). Or they'd drive by and might stop (or not) depending on how many people are out, if a car is present, etc.

I need a camera that can record 24/7, preferably with notes/timestamps (such as "a red SUV passed"). I'd prefer to avoid one that requires internet connection due to the location and our current internet plan would need to be upgraded. Also, it would be easier for me to not worry about when an online site deletes them.

I am in Arizona where it gets up to 110 in heat.

I'd prefer 4k so it can reach the street clearly.

Alternatively, I have an office window that looks out and might be able to set up a camera against the glass.

Recommendations? Am I at the right subreddit?

Hey everyone! I’m a new homeowner and was wondering what tool kits you would recommend for someone just getting started.
There are a few things around the house that need to be fixed, along with some furniture that needs to be put together. I’m also looking into getting some basic power tools.
What tools would you consider essential for a new homeowner? I’m mainly looking for a good starter set that will cover most basic household repairs and projects without going overboard.
Also, are there any good deals on tool kits or power tools that I should look out for? I’d appreciate any recommendations on specific brands, sets, or tools that are worth the money.
Thanks!

Bus shelter was removed and the bus pole placed at the end of my driveway. It has resulted in people urinating, littering, smoking and loitering on my driveway every single day. The council won't help me. What would you do here?

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Here is the original post -> https://www.reddit.com/r/homeowners/s/7x7WCtAHsl

So I posted last time and saw a couple wasps flying in and out our porch roof. We found out that they were yellow jackets and apparently one of the more aggressive ones and there was way way more than just a couple. We decided to just get an exterminator and not pay half the price to DIY only to mess it up. The guy came and remove the panel and found that the buggers dug through the insulation and formed a big nest into the roofing. The exterminator sprayed his stuff and removed most of the nest, he said he couldn't remove the entire thing as we would have to reinsulate. After 10 days the treatment was effective as I saw a ton of dead wasps on our porch and haven't seen any flying around anymore.

Spent about 300$ for it

Never even fathomed this in the realm of possibility, but my cat took a dump on a bag of water softener salt.

While I cleaned it and I don’t feel any cuts or punctures , it’s still something that is going into the system that supplies the water, such as drinking water, that was exposed to a full cat bowel movement.

Should I just cut my losses on this one?

Hello all, my partner and I are first time homebuyers and closed a few weeks ago. It is our dream home and we are in love with it…except for the smell. I wish you guys had smell-o-vision because I have no idea how to describe it. It’s like sickly sweet caramel apple old carpets musty….there’s not even words to describe it, but it makes me nauseous. I don’t get used to it when I’m there for a while either. We decided to replace all the nasty old stained carpets thinking that it was holding the smell and we have hardwood sitting in this house waiting to be installed in a week. We’ve now ripped up all the carpets and hauled them out of the house and swept the subfloor (which is only stained in certain areas)…..and then days later we came back to find the smell was STILL just as strong. I wiped down counters, cabinets, surfaces, etc. nothing. I tried an air purifier- nothing. Then I brought out the big guns and used an ozone generator on it for 2 hours. I was so hopeful as I’d heard so many miracle stories about it, but…..nothing. Smell was just as strong. I was devastated and literally started crying to my partner and told him I refuse to live in this house if we can’t fix the smell. Our next plan of action is to use Kilz primer (oil based) on all the subfloors, and wash the walls with a flat mop. I may even spray the subfloor stains with bleach and let it dry before applying Kilz. If this doesn’t work… what in the hell do I do? This is my dream house and we love it so much. But I can’t stand the smell and we actually dread going to the house and walking in because it just hits us in the face. Anything else we can do/any suggestions/input? I will do ANYTHING for this house. Seller said the walls were repainted before it was sold, but maybe it wouldn’t hurt to go over them again with Kilz and a paint?

It’s on the side of my house. So far the internet and everything in the house seems to be working normally.

Edit: solved lol, thanks guys. I have a contractor doing work at the house, I trusted they would let me know I needed to call 811. I’ll talk with them.

My previous owners left behind a *sword*

Hi Folks

I am first time home owner. I am 3rd owner of this home. Location is Austin, Texas.

Context:

On one side of my home, we have landscape 2-3 inch size river rocks and on the other side, disintegrated granite.

The river rock side has a small 1 inch metal boundary and looks flat and not sloped.

The granite side receives a lot more sun and does not have sprinkler system.

I am seeing vertical and diagonal cracks on the walls around the house. I started using soaker hose since last week.

My questions:

a) Should I use soaker hose for longer duration at night around sunny side of the house ?

b) Should river rocks be inclined and sloped away from house ?

c) Should I keep downspout far enough away from the foundation ? See the pic.

Please see pictures for reference.

Thank you all! P.S. cant add more than 1 photo.

These structures have come up in the last few days. The coup de grâce was the pallet fence that just went up. We called the city on them, but apparently they aren’t in violation of any ordinance. Do I have any real options? Located in south San Francisco , ca.

I am new to American Home Shield and I haven't used the plan yet. I went to use it today and was very confused. According to my plan, a rekey is included. However, to get the rekey, I have to sign up for a separate service, Front door Pro, which is described as a subscription service from a sister company. My plan doesn't say it includes this service. So, I asked the support person is the rekey actually part of my plan? Is the Front door Pro part of my plan, and if so, why do I need to sign up for it? Is this a bait and switch? She said she wasn't trained for this and ended the chat. Does anyone else have AHS and know the answer?

The concrete retaining wall under my front porch is leaning and has about a 1.5-2in gap between the wall and the front porch slab. There is a void under the porch slab where the foundation has settled. I assume this is a significant problem that can’t simply be patched, but what would be the best course of action? Should I call an engineer? Should I get a foundation repair company to estimate, a general contractor, mason, etc.? Any advice is appreciated!

Advice on removing this, or even if I need to? Not sure on the species or qualities. I somewhat like the look of it, but obviously don’t want any issues because of it.

Hello, I have been looking into renting out a house and I happen to come across a trailer home for a decent price. I was not considering home ownership at the time so I'm not up to date on all costs that would go with it. I appreciate any help thank you.

How do we keep them away ?

Replacing our rear privacy fence in Gurnee, Lake County and keep getting mixed answers on how tall can a fence be in gurnee. Village stuff looks like 6 ft for interior rear, but shorter if it wraps toward the street or a corner. Anyone here actually pull a permit for a full 6 ft rear run, or did HOA make you go shorter?

I pet sticky fly traps out and came back a few days later to them looking like this ? Why are they covered in these mini looking flys and what are they.

I have sidelights on both sides of my front door, and the glass seems to be failing. The black spacer/seal that is normally hidden around the perimeter between the panes has started coming loose and curling into the visible part of the window. It almost looks like a black snake inside the glass.

I’d really prefer not to replace the entire front door/sidelight system if I don’t have to. Has anyone dealt with this before? Can a glass company replace just the insulated glass inside the existing sidelight frames, or does this usually require replacing the whole sidelight?

Also curious what a reasonable repair cost might be and what type of contractor I should call: glass company, window company, or door company?

Hi, I am hoping someone can help me understand the decision process here.

My wife and I live in a 130+ year old house in SE Tennessee (been renovated many times and modernized, has drywall, etc.). We have about 2500 sq ft. but I would say only about ~2000 of it has AC coverage and the rest has a separate wall unit. Two stories. Crawl space without encapsulation, but there is 10 mil vapor barrier and vents. Lots of trees around us (we came from suburbia), but consequently lots of shade and stuff, too.

We have seen some evidence of mold. Nothing crazy, but it's there. It also stays around 55-65% humidity on the 1st floor. We have a small dehumidifier running upstairs and it works ok but we have to empty it OFTEN. Like 4-5 times a day. Enough that we don't think it's practical to run two dehumidifiers all day every day and have to empty them constantly.

We have a large, older AC unit in front of our house, I think it's like 2-2.5 tons. We also have a smaller unit on the side of the house that is newer and like one of the smaller tonnages. Both installed long before we moved in a year ago. There are ducts above the second floor, on the floor of the second floor, and on the floor of the first floor.

Humidity below the house is 75% generally, sometimes less, but also sometimes more. It's been very humid this Summer, but it's definitely feeling like it inside as well.

We are currently deciding on committing to full encapsulation with a dehumidifier, sump pump, etc.

We are also wondering if replacing the large, oversized AC unit for the first floor would solve the problem enough to avoid the need for the dehumidifier (house has been around this long, after all).

And ultimately, what I want to know is, will the encapsulation/dehumidifier likely be enough, or would we ALSO have to get a new AC unit? We don't really want to do both if we don't have to, as we are not entirely sure how long we will live here. We have spoken to AC people, mold people, and encapsulation people, so we are just trying to make the best overall decision to impact the humidity problem the most, but not update all these things at once if not really needed.

• Option 1: Fix AC sizing and ensure proper function/maintenance.
• Option 2: Encapsulate/dehumidify crawl space.
• Option 3: Do both.

Thoughts? Any other questions or info I can answer/provide?

I’m constantly wiping down my countertops because this fine dust or silt keeps showing up. I have no idea where it’s coming from. Every two weeks I’m cleaning again, and I’m having to change the main AC filter about every three weeks.

Over the last five years we’ve completely encapsulated our crawl space and installed all‑new AC ducts and home registers, so I’m stumped. I’ve attached a photo of the rag showing the silt I’m dealing with.

Thanks for any suggestions on what might be causing this.