Just as the title reads. We’re new/first time homeowners and our house has electric baseboard heat (just discovered the winter electric bills are brutal in the NE). Our neighborhood is having a gas line installed and we are curious what our options are as far as heat. What is very cost effective? Makes the most sense?

Recently bought a 1958 rambler and the entire kitchen needs to be redone. I'm on a budget so I'd be doing one element at a time. What would be the best order to go about this? Projects that need to be done are as follows:

Flooring replaced

Countertops replaced

Cabinets refinished

Stove replaced

Walls painted

The rest of the appliances are fine but that stove is the bane of my existence.

I recently purchased a 1958 rambler and it has the original wood kitchen cabinets. I love how big and spacious they are, but they don't appear to have ever been maintained or refinished since original install. Simply put, they're grody, and cleaning isn't doing it.

I'm on a budget and I'm not super handy but I'm willing to put in the work if it's worth it. I want to keep the wood look so I would refinish them versus painting. I do not want to paint them but I do want to stain them a darker color.

Is this a project that a beginner could handle? Or should I just put the cash in to buying new cabinets and having them professionally installed?

For context I have three extremely large upper cabinets, three extremely large lower cabinets, six drawers, and then a freestanding pantry-like shelving unit that's about 6 ft tall.

Other thing is that all of the trim in the kitchen matches the cabinets so if I refinish those I would want to darken the trim as well. How much of a pain is that? Also not sure if it helps or not but I have two garages so I'd be able to take all the doors off and work on them out in a garage.

Just wondering if anyone has found a very reputable/high quality periscope vent that can minimize space required in a laundry closet?

I'm trying to get the thinnest possible option that still meets the 4" requirement, however most of the ones I'm finding on home depot etc. have a good chunk of 1 star reviews citing poor quality.

The best I found so far is this as a smaller option and this as a larger one, just curious if anyone has found something better!

Depending on dryer height I imagine I can just buy two of the smaller one and cut/combine them or the single larger one.

Might just be the nature of such a product, will see if I can wrap some aluminum vent tape around it to prevent air escaping.

Thanks :)

the back panels fell off this shelf, leaving the wood(?) exposed. can i just leave it as is or so i need to seal it or something? im planning on putting the exposed side against the wall.

what it looks like: https://imgur.com/a/kVtAvsd

We have a new house with an unfinished basement. Our washing machine was leaking water into the basement.

We got a dehumidifier to help. It’s been one full day and the bucket is full. The app says that the indoor humidity is at 70%.

Google said that’s very high and can cause mold. But we’re about to be out of town for a week. If it fills up that fast, what else can I do to fix it while we’re gone?

This is the one I have: Midea 22 Pt. Smart Dehumidifier, App & Voice Control, Covers 1,500 Sq. ft. NEW MAD22S1AWWT

TIA!

I removed the carpet in my house and the bedrooms have bare subfloor but the hallway has these old vinyl tiles. Does it look like they have asbestos?

• https://imgur.com/gallery/ncQv5JS

I started removing them and lifted up about five of them when I thought of asbestos.

If they are, could I cover them with self leveling concrete and laminate floor the entire thing?

How about the tiles I already removed, should something go there so they’re level with the existing vinyl?

I was planning on replacing the carpet with laminate floor over the hallway and bedrooms. I’ve read about PPE.

I’m in the middle of a renovation and wanted to know your thoughts! I asked the builder to connect the range hood to the exterior wall, but the issue is that they mentioned aesthetically, it would not look great because this would be in front of the house.

I am looking at the practical side of things and I think the long ducts would potentially trap grease, etc.

Should have the builder redo this and have it linked to the exterior wall or keep it as is?

I have wallpaper that is on left and drywall on right. Problem is that the whole house besides kitchen has wallpaper. My ask is if their is a way to keep wallpaper and then paint the drywall in any design or way to combine the look? I was thinking trim but may be tacky...

Hi,

I live in an apartment building facing another unit. The living room does not get direct sunlight, so even during middle of the day I need to switch on lights to use the room. However, I prefer to have the windows open for natural air and whatever little light I get. The problem is my unit facing neighbor has taken to sitting in their balcony all day long, so there is no privacy at all when I move about in the living room.
What can I add to the windows to allow for the little light I get and privacy. I thought of sheer curtains, but they would be useless when the lights in the room are on.

I have a 2200 sqft 2 story house, finished concrete foundation basement in manitoba canada. I find in the winter months my basement is very cold. I keep my house at 22 degrees celcius and my basement is considerably cooler. In my utility room where it's bare concrete the floor is COLD! recently rented a cabin which had an unfinished basement with concrete floors and they were warm. It got me thinking why mine aren't like that. Any advice or opinions appreciated

Thanks all

Hello everyone - I have one interior wall in a house we just bought that has very textured paint. We were recommended to skim coat and have never skim coated before. Should the wall be sanded before hand before skim coating or can we just apply the skim coating directly over this wall? Thank you!

(Picture 1 is the wall in question, but pictures 3 and 4 are from the sun room that have similar paint textures)

https://imgur.com/a/PbCS6Ml

Hello, we're doing a bathroom renovation and saw in the background of the Kohler Artifacts bathroom vanity a tile that my fiancé really likes. Here's a link. It's the tile that looks like it's interlacing and has small black squares throughout it. https://www.kohler.com/en/products/vanities/shop-vanities/artifacts-48-bathroom-vanity-cabinet-29481?skuId=29481-1WX

The folks at the local Kohler store weren't able to help. Any know where I could find more information on it? Thanks!

Our house has never had a dishwasher but my wife would like one. We do have a circuit breaker labeled for one but one was never installed. Problem is our cupboard layout is not really set up for one. The cupboards on either side of the sink are narrow drawer units. There are larger cupboards beside those but they are long corner units. Without remodeling the whole kitchen what's the best way to install a dishwasher in existing cupboards?

Me and my wife were fortunate enough to have been given our house for free 10 years ago. We were fresh out of college and a free house seemed a lot better then continuing to pay rent.

The catch was that the house was in rough shape. It's a 1,500 sq.ft 3bd/2ba house and we had to do a renovation ourselves prior to moving in to make it livable (no exaggeration it was bad). We have continued to make improvements over the years (New roof, new floors, doors, kitchen and bathroom appliances, interior paint, driveway, yard, garage door, and probably more). We did it all either ourselves or with help from family and friends. We always thought we would move but the market being how it's been the past few years we've kind of shifted our mindset to just staying put.

We do find ourselves in a bit of a dilemma. We (mostly my wife) are doing pretty well financially and can probably afford to do a renovation with materials and appliances generally found in high end luxury homes. The only con we can think of at the moment is we could never sale the house for what it probably would be worth 2 miles down the road. Think 100k+ in upgrades in a neighborhood where the homes sell for 200k. Anyone have any experience with this?

https://imgur.com/a/21P7a3Q

Was stoked to get some new bright LED lights for my garage when I looked up today and saw this. Photos are attached. (pardon the mess, I just got a new garage door so this NEW issue pisses me right off)

What's the best plan of action here? I'm ASSUMING this is a load bearing beam. Obviously I need to get the stuff off of it for repair, carefully so it doesn't fall on me, Really looking forward to that.

I have a message in for a structural engineer, but I'm asking here because I'm wondering if a handyman can just reinforce the beam(s) for me and I can forego the engineer inspection. I don't see any noticeable sagging from the outside of the garage, and I've never seen a leak. I think this break is just from heavy snow on the roof (Michigan) and the garage is probably at least 60 years old.

i have an appartment i'm renting out and i had installed a yeelight ceiling light. but the light keeps getting out of sync with the remote and now we can't even get it to sync anymore.

i thought maybe there's an alternative that is both cheap and with a much more reliable remote?

thanks!

Hi,

What is the name, and how should I replace, the piece of wood that is flush against the wall that gets screwed into from the metal holders that hold the horizontal rod in a closet? Here is a picture at https://ibb.co/Kc9C4wGF

I want to buy a replacement at Home Depot, but I don't even know what this thing is called to look it up to buy a replacements. Thank you

I hired a handyman who came and worked twice, but the problem remains. The second time when he came he used a 25 feet long auger and it only solved the issue temporarily. Should I hire a professional plumber? I hesitate because I know it would cost a lot. Before the handyman did the job, I tried some chemicals like Drano and a little baking soda. I am thinking of doing that again, but somehow my handyman suggested (while he was here) that it's not a good idea to use Drano because it might damage the pipe.

https://youtu.be/FUKzJnL_7Tg

This is the video I took before the handyman worked on it. Right now it's not as bad but it might be just be like that bad soon, I suppose.

I wonder here if anyone knows better and can offer some advice. My last backup solution is of course hiring a professional plumber, but I know it would cost a lot.

Thanks in advance!

This post is an attempt to help my husband solve our HVAC mystery. He has been at it for days. Why would our Carrier system leak when the humidifier/fresh air function is turned on?

Ours leak water from its corners when it should be flowing into a tube and collecting elsewhere - https://imgur.com/a/aJaoHNs

If so, what could it be and how would I identify the problem?

https://imgur.com/a/PYhUSw8

Last time this happened it was the cartilage. But I don't know if it's the same case.

The faucet in the bathtub leaks.

I took off the cover and tried to screw the screw tighter to make sure it was that:

https://ibb.co/jvTFR49q

No success.

I pushed in this metal thing more deep, and it solved the problem

https://ibb.co/ksWQsm4d

So I'm doubting it's the cartilage, since if I push that metal thing the water drip problem is solved. What can it be? This handle itself is faulty since it is connected with that metal thing? Where can I buy the same kind? What's it's name?

https://ibb.co/xtzCnTmC

The pins at the top do not compress : so I can't understand how to extract from the top railing. https://imgur.com/a/YsSGtzJ

The bottom has a screw that is not compressible: https://imgur.com/a/HIpieRL

I'm half way through a bare stud renovation and I've just gotten to an electrical box that I've been dreading. This box had two switches. One was a 3-way switch for the kitchen light and one was a standard switch for an outdoor light on our deck.

Here's what it looks like.

The three wires circled on the left were for the 3-way switch for the kitchen light. The two black wires on the right were for the deck light. What's happening in the middle, I have no idea.

I can understand some of what I'm looking at but I'm confused by the middle line entering the box. It looks like it's providing power to both switches but I dont understand how.

What I need to do is move both of these switch connections about 12 feet over to the other side of a sliding glass door. But since I dont understand how they're wired I dont know if I can reproduce this.

I'm honestly terrified about this box because the circuit this is on handles the lights for half the house. I'm worried if I mess this up that I'll knock out lights for six rooms and wont be able to correct it.

Any insight as to what's happening here would be greatly appreciated along with any suggestions on how to move this box.

Thanks.

In our home that we recently bought, the shower floor grout definitely re-sealed about 4 years ago and that never happened. Grout is pretty discolored and warn down, so I would like to redo it. Planning on just going to town with a grout saw and putting down new grout. My question is, how much should I actually remove of the old grout with the grout saw? I 100% do not want to damage the pan waterproofing, so I am hesitant to go too far. Thanks a ton!

I'm not finding what I am looking for. My apartment door uses a deadbolt, so the doorknob does not have a lock on it. I would like to find the handle type that will be suited for the exterior.

I found this: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Defiant-Olympic-Stainless-Steel-Hall-Closet-Door-Lever-32LG603B/323700786?MERCH=REC-_-fbt_test-_-323700650-_-2-_-n/a-_-n/a-_-n/a-_-n/a-_-n/a#overlay Almost exactly what I want (style, color and everything) except it is intended for interior. I'm not sure if this matters.

If you know of one that looks the same, with no lock and is made for the outdoors, please let me know.

Hey All - I'm looking to do a 6x8 bathroom (slightly shorter) and planning to put in a 48"Lx 32"W shower pan (34 may also work) with tiled walls and sliding doors.

Looking for recommended shower pans you may have used as there's quite a few options. Seeing Onyx recommended but not sure if it's available in Canada

Also, any specific factors to consider? (Like I'm leaning towards corner hidden drain like below but plumber was suggesting center drain)

https://www.homedepot.ca/product/glacier-bay-48-inch-x-32-inch-acrylic-shower-base-with-left-concealed-drain/1001186706

Thanks in advance!

https://imgur.com/gallery/R9awPSi

From the image, does it look like the spring needs to be replaced?

I’ve owned the house for 12 years and only used the garage for storage, so I’d manually open it and close it. It’s pretty loud so I probably need to grease it up. The motor is manufactured in 1995. It plugs in and a light turns on but the motor doesn’t seem to operate - any ideas? I guess the spring is around the same age.

Help! Outlets leaking water. Pulled off the OSB and insulation to find ice accumulated within the wall behind the visqueen. Assuming it’s coming in from the roof. What do you think? What do we do now? 😅

I’m installing a solid hardwood floor for the first time, and somehow our planks are no longer even. I don’t want to have to create a huge gap between the last and the next row to have this be straight— what should I do?