Got a bunch of quotes and these are the models that stood out. The Polaris and Alliance are double pane while the ecoSmart is triple. That would make the ecoSmart more efficient. It also has the much better warranty through the company installing with lifetime parts and install. The install warranties would be 1 year on the others. All the business have been around quite a while. I really liked the guy who gave me the Polaris quote too.

Polaris = 4700 for 2 doors Alliance = 5700 for 2 doors Great Lakes = 8700 for 2 doors

Leaning toward Polaris as it seems like a great price. I can pay for a lot of energy with 4K! Not sure how much I would really save energy wise in mid Michigan. Thoughts

https://i.imgur.com/Wo3vkD9.jpg

Hey guys,

I'm about to do some window treatment and I had shopped in what I wanted to do to get a better sense of whether I like it. Do you guys think having the curtains go all the way up to the ceiling is too high? Is it weird doing so if the windows themselves don't go all the way up?

And how do I actually get something like this done? The bars at the top are supposed to be wooden panels that have a dual track inside them. I've seen something like this done at fancy hotels. What's the name for this kind of set up?

Not sure if this is the right sub but one company is wanting to charge me $610 to install an outlet in my crawlspace. Is this a reasonable price? Should I get more opinions? I really need to get this done asap as my home has too much humidity.

I have an old Woden house that does not have an electrical outlet on the porch.

I can cut a hole for one next to the outlet that is on the inside wall of the house.

Can I wire the outside outlet using wires connecting to the inside outlet?

If so, how to I connect the wires?

Hello!

My husband and I recently bought our first home. We are planning to turn the downstairs into a MIL/apartment for my mother. We have inquired with the county about getting a permit to do this and don’t have any concerns about being able to our plan approved. In order to do this, however, we first need to clear out a closet that washer/dryer, furnace, and water heater (we are putting in a kitchen in this area). From our research, all of this requires a permit. So, we contracted an HVAC company that is licensed, bonded, and insured (or claims to be – need to fact check here). We explained that we want to move the furnace to the storage area under the stairs. The technician (who is also the owner, I believe) said this is possible. We were under the assumption that he will be obtaining proper permits for this project. When he came to work on the first day, he said our heat pump likely has a leak, and that he recommends that we replace the whole system while we are moving the furnace. We agreed and asked if we need additional permits. This is when we learned he actually didn’t obtain permits (to our knowledge, electrical & mechanical permits are required by our county). We told him we do not feel comfortable doing this type of work without permits. He said that he couldn’t get permits for his company, and suggested we get them ourselves if we really want to. We went back and forth a while, but ultimately decided we couldn’t trust them working on our home. They didn’t want to obtain permits, they wanted us to pay the whole invoice after he completes his work – about $15k (not once the county inspector signs off), and he brought ducts that were too small for our home and tried to convince us that they were sufficient (my husband had done research on this so he knew to check). All in all, we saw red flags and asked him to refund us $1k of our deposit, which was about $2.2k. We only asked for $1k because he showed up the first day and disconnected the old furnace and diagnosed a potential issue. We felt this was fair. Instead of refunding us, he is asking us to pay an additional $800 for his work. Is there any legal options for us here to get some of our money back? Or at least protect ourselves from the additional $800 hitting collections? Is it legal for him to not get a permit and then blame us for not asking for one BEFORE he starts working? Any insight is helpful. Thank you.

How much would 7 recessed lighting cost to install? It is the first floor so no attic access. I got quotes 2400 but this seems excessive.

Hey everyone,

I'm new to this group and have never been great at doing home improvements. I'd like to look into getting some new flooring installed or potentially doing it myself. I've seen ads for Shaws flooring and was curious if anyone here can point me in the right direction. Any particular brands that are easier to do myself? Do I just bit the bullet and accept the fact that everything is expensive and have someone do it for me? Trying to get better at doing things on my own.

Not sure if this is the ideal sub for this question, but I just realized that it might be smarter to see if reddit has advice for fixing my annoying closet doors instead of continuing to begrudge them for another decade.

I might not have the best vocabulary to explain. They're simple wooden doors hanging from small rollers that are placed on a track. My house is pretty old, but robust. They might be part of the original design from the 60's. When the doors fall off, it's not too hard to put them back on (especially now that I'm stronger and taller), but it's still a pain.

I want to improve them. I don't need them to do much more than they already do, besides staying on the track as intended.

If possible I would like to avoid the need for a track or stabilization on the ground. We installed very nice flooring a few years ago, and I love the way it looks the way it is. I have a feeling that segmenting up the layout of the floor will affect the feeling of roominess, and might risk stubbed toes.

I haven't done these kind of projects in the past, but I'm the kind of person that enjoys diving into research to take on new projects.

I'm closing on a ~70 year old house soon, and since I need to refinish the floors and repaint, I figured it's the best time to make a lot of tech upgrades and an opportunity to make many holes, as this will be a 10-30 year home. I'd love any suggestions as I'd like to make this the best I can, without spending too much.

• Lighting
  • Everywhere has ~6" recessed lighting with incandescent bulbs. Since I'll be upgrading to LED, I'm curious if it makes sense to replace the fixture/socket itself. I feel like smaller canless (or minimal) are in these days. Are there any affordable/decent options (even on Alibaba)?
  • Looking for Z-Wave compatible light switches as well (see Alarm section below)
• Audio
  • I'm a big fan of Sonos and we already have some, but it's expensive. I'm thinking the Monoprice 6-Zone amp/controller. I'm hopeful that I can control it with AirPlay, but at the very worst, I can at least hook up a Sonos Port to it.
  • Speakers - open to anything, preferably the best bang for the buck.
• Alarm
  • The home currently has a DSCPower832/5010 Alarm. A few years ago I used Alarm.com (through GeoArm) and had a completely integrated system with my lights, garage, thermostats, etc. I'd like to do the same this time around. I'm not sure if this system can easily be converted, but at the very least I'm sure I can use the existing cabling. Open to any suggestions!
• Networking/Cameras
  • (1) CAT6A Drop in every room, in addition to what's required for Cameras, APs, etc.
  • (1) Dream Machine SE w/4TB Surveillance drive & a Switch 24 PoE
  • (~3) UniFi 6 Long Range Access Points
  • (1) G4 Doorbell PoE Kit & (4) G5 Bullets
• Generator/Solar
  • I've been looking at the SunGoldPower Off-Grid Solar 18000W kit - I'm curious on everyones thoughts. Is it worth the money for DIY?
• Other thoughts
  • Apart from looking at the roof, windows, and big ticket items. Should I be looking at any modifications to the house, i.e. insulating exterior walls with foam, etc?

Thanks everyone!

My property, including my garage, was damaged by flooding caused by my park district and city. When they finally fixed the flooding issues, I contracted with a local garage builder to do a tear-down and rebuild. Originally, we were told building could begin 10 days after the concrete was poured. Four weeks ago, when the concrete was done, the garage builder told us that it would be 4-5 weeks until they could begin the actual construction because they had to wait for the concrete to cure.

The city building inspector, the concrete builder, and the guy who drove the concrete truck (who turned out to be a long-time friend and who has been doing this for a long time) all said that the concrete would be ready to build on in 2 weeks.

I called the garage company today to ask if they had a start date and was told that now the construction won't begin until October 13. We had to rent a storage pod and my honey is losing out on money that he makes winterizing summer equipment and getting snowblowers ready for the season. We're also getting into rainy weather season now.

What, if anything, can I do? I'm so frustrated with the whole project.

My house has 4 wired smoke detectors: one on the top floor, one on the main floor, and two on different sides of the basement. I've replaced all but one on the basement, which has a type of wiring that I haven't seen before, while the rest have been simple 3-wire installs.

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The model number for the smoke detector is "System Sensor 2100" and here are a few pictures: https://imgur.com/a/VWEiCWY

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Is there a way I can connect a typical 3-wire smoke alarm to this?

Hi All...

Recently bought a 100+ yr old Bungalow in Los Angeles, and trying to update a few things - like smart dimmer switches - to make it feel a bit more modern.

So while I should have probably assessed the wiring situation prior to ordering the Smart Switches (KASA Smart Wifi Light Switch - KS220), when I went to install it I was confronted by a confusing wire situation.

INCOMING WIRES

It appears I have TWO INCOMING RED Wires and one thicker BLACK wire (pic 2).

The thick black wire is capped with a smaller gauge black wire coming out from that... which is then intertwined with one of the RED wires (pic 3). On the current dimmer switch (Lutron Contour) there is also a green wire and red/white stripe wire that are not connected to anything in the switch box.

I know I need a neutral/ground wire for the KASA switch.

So, am I destined to live with "dumb" switches, or is there a way to make my current wire situation work with the KASA (pic 4).

If so, can you ELI5 what wires I need to connect to what?

Thanks in advance!

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Current Dimmer Switch

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Current Wires in box

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Whole Picture - Current Dimmer

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Kasa Needs

Hi - quick question - we recessed a 6 x 8 beam into the existing 2x10 joists. Now we are hanging the joists with Simpson U210R hangers. Is it ok if the bottom nail hole doesn't get nailed off, (beause there is no beam there, as 10" joists hang lower than bottom of 6x8 beam. Any advice appreciated.

How hard is it to install gutters on your home?

Does anyone know the color name for Madison LeCroy's green kitchen cabinets?

https://preview.redd.it/wkfdbcso4opb1.png?width=1519&format=png&auto=webp&s=54e915f13533215edf2ac990793e49d179ce0c33