I’ve written before that my neighbors have a large golden retriever and a very old chain link fence on their property that has not been maintained, and the dog gets out into my yard/street frequently. The fence is rusting and I’m concerned also about the dog getting hurt.

I reached out to neighbors twice last summer, crickets. Other people on my street have “returned” the dog to the house, often by coming onto my property without permission.

In December I contacted code enforcement, after about 4 wks they said chicken wire was put up (didn’t work), and then a fence panel had been put up. (One panel of stockade fence)

Today I heard voices in my yard calling the dog, and two of their kids had gone over the old fence, the CW and new fence panel (which is leaning against the area, it’s not installed or attached) to retrieve the dog in my yard.

I’m planning to contact code enforcement tomorrow

➡️ Is there an insurance or liability issue for me if the kids or any neighbors get injured on my property while dealing with the dog? If so, do I contact my agent (or mention this in my email to CE?)

This is a large dog and I will not approach it or attempt to constrain it myself. Thanks

My mortgage was sold off to a different lender and my mortgage increased. I looked through the documents and neither my property taxes or homeowners insurance increased, it’s the mortgage insurance that did. From my understanding and what I was told when I signed my contract is that this number isn’t suppose to change within my escrow. I contacted them to see if this was an error but I wanted to double check.

I have a GFCI outlet that has no power. The test and reset buttons are mush and don’t seem to do anything. There is no breaker flipped in the breaker box. I’m guessing the GFCI outlet needs replacing, but how do I know that there is no power to that outlet? The breaker box is poorly labeled. Should I just plug a lamp to nearby outlets, and flip breakers until they go out? Just trying to do this safely.

I’m reaching my breaking point with this house and how expensive everything is looking, but I’m paranoid about an electrical fire if I hold off to save up more.

Anyway, this is the house I grew up in and my parents didn’t keep up things like they should’ve. I got two quotes for about $15k for a Rewiring of a 1,200 sqft house with a half finished basement. I’d love to keep the property because it’s in a wonderful neighborhood and I definitely couldn’t afford to move back into it.

The house isn’t grounded and I just spent $1,200 fixing a few switches and a circuit that blew when a neighbor attempted to fix a ring doorbell. The electrician said it isn’t grounded and doesn’t lok like it has been rewired in 50+ years and all of the outlets are two prong. We have Statefarm home owners insurance but I don’t think they’ll cover this? Only disasters? I’m not sure what to do. We also need a new heat pump and I was hoping to buy an suv this year. 😔

I could sell the house but I don’t know where I’d go and I’m worried about taking out a loan, since I’ll soon have a car loan. My only other loans are student loans and I’m good with money. What do I do… My family isn’t wealthy and my parents are elderly and most likely going to pass in the next 2 years due to major health problems. It’ll just be me (20’s) and my younger sister.

Extra details: I think in the last 5 or so years the major renovations that were done was plumbing. They said it should last 30+ years and roofing. I just had some roofers fix shingles and the roof boot and they said it should be good for at least another 3 years. I’m really tired of this old house and the problems that keep arising but it’s so expensive to live here either way.

The original owner tore down a wall in the middle of the room and the hardwood was replaced and mixed in with ugly new wood pieces so might not be worht saving? Thank you in advance.

We are doing a full renovation and are trying to save money but not sure if we should cheap out here. Let me know if anyone has done this. Island is 10 x 5ft. In deckton.

We purchased a new build from DR Horton and are going through the process of getting our entire downstairs flooring replaced due to installation error. The current flooring is cheap vinyl sheet and we were hoping to replace with something better. If anyone has gone through a similar process, we’re you able to replace with something nicer or were you stuck with what was initially installed?

I requested that speed bumps get installed on my street as people speed and drive recklessly. It’s a half mile, straight stretch of residential road people use to pass through.

The town won’t do anything even though we have a 20 mph speed limit and the area is designated as “traffic calmed”. A truck was speeding and lost control a few months ago hitting a house. That didn’t sway the town. Not sure what else to do. Their feedback was that it’s an emergency route. However it’s only a half mile area that connects to their streets with speed bumps.

Any suggestions on what to do next? Any success stories from your own experience?

I bought my house 2 years ago and it came with the Lennox wifi thermostat. It broke down yesterday bc the screen went out and cant get it back up running even after turning on and off the circuit breaker. I made an appointment for a local dealer to come out tmr to fix it but was just wondering if I should just switch it to a smart thermostat and DIY it instead of keeping the appointment

Edit for emphasis. I don't want anything electronic. I specifically want something I can gently hit with my truck bumper yet easily see it over my hood (I drive in forwards). and something that won't topple over when I hit it .

What i really want to use are traffic deliniators. But they are not tall enough.
What I"m using now - a thick mat with a trash can on top of it. When I hit the mat, the trash can wiggles and I know to stop.

I don't want the tennis ball, I don't want anything eletronic and I dn't want the floor bumper stops. Don't want to use a camera.

I want somethig that I can bump (with my truck bumper) and it wiggles but does't fall over and I want to be able to easily see it from the seat of my mid sized truck. but something better than what I have now.

Thanks

I was cleaning my toilet using the Clorox toilet wand thingys and the pod disconnected from the wand and got flushed down the toilet. Fml. Anyway the toilet flush is now a noticably slower flow than before. Worried it's clogging the pipe. What is the remedy? Just keep flushing to unclog it? Call a plumber? Leave it alone? Thanks!

We live on a decent sized property of about 5 acres, and groundhogs have found their way to within about 50 yards of our house, so I set up a small cage to trap them.

Yesterday I was away with the family when I discovered on my driveway cam that the trap had caught something, and there were two dogs our property that were hounding the trapped animal.

I was about 45 min away from the house at my kid's soccer game. I dropped what I was doing to head back immediately.

By the time I was back there was blood everywhere - the two dogs had dragged the cage up and down my driveway and I discovered that it was a raccoon they'd been terrorizing for nearly an hour. When I showed up they ran off.

My camera caught about 40 minutes of pretty heartbreaking footage from the dogs that were both growling and barking and wagging their tails like they were excited.

After the dogs ran off I went ahead and dispatched the coon, which I felt really bad about (mainly because it didn't deserve to be tortured like that, pest or not.) Then I called animal control to report it.

I have to power wash our driveway, it took me 4 extra hours out of my day to burn the corpse of this coon, and the dogs damaged my trap, but besides those things there wasn't much materially I suffered.

My main concern is that these two dogs have been wandering our property for over three years now, and this is the first time they have done something that presented an actual risk to a living thing.

I have four little children (who are fearful of dogs btw) and we will be getting chickens soon.

I have called animal control 8 or 9 times since we moved here about these and other dogs that all come from the same property and they have issued warnings, but nothing has changed. I have even tried to drop the dogs off twice myself to talk to the homeowner, but they are never there. Instead I find kids at the property who are around 13 or 14 but no adults.

My worry is that these animals will end up attacking a child or pet/farm animal and so I went ahead and asked animal control to issue a citation. I will need to show up in court to testify.

I don't want to create ill will with any neighbors, but I feel like this has crossed a line and these animals present a clear and present danger. Am I overreacting? I would appreciate any advice for next steps and/or if I did the right thing.

New homeowner, we’ve had minor flooding before but only a small pool of standing water never anything like this, don’t know where to start

Hi, new homeowner here. We recently moved into a townhouse and it's the first time we've had an upstairs. Our master bathroom is upstairs and when someone is showering, I can hear the water running through the walls in my kitchen underneath. Is this normal? There are no signs of water leakage, although I don't know how long/how much that would take to show up on the drywall... I'm super paranoid about the noises here as they're all new, and I really don't want to have to open up more walls to fix plumbing!

Planning to sell a house to a family member. They won't need to get a mortgage. What's the best way to go about it, we're thinking no agents to save money on closing costs. We're in NC, USA.

I have a gas water heater that was installed July of 2014. No issues yet, but I’ve heard mine has about a 10 year life expectancy. Anyone know what I should roughly expect to pay to have a middle of the road heater replaced? I want to be proactive and replace it before it fails. Thanks!

After 3 months and a few rain storms I’m realizing my front door and back sliding patio door were not weatherproofed or installed correctly. Water is coming in from underneath and ruining the wood floors around it. Plus the sitting water is leaving a smell and becoming a breeding ground for bugs. The home is a new build bought from a flipper. What recourse do I have? What are my rights? Who’s responsible for the repair?

Okay so my friends dad bought a house in the 90’s house was worth 40k friends dad paid the mortgage off completely but the bank never gave them the title to the house and instead tried to force him to keep paying well after receiving over 100k in payments well they’ve moved people into the house but the house shows up in my friends dads name what are my friends options

Not sure if this is the right place to ask, but is anyone aware of smart thermostats where you can set a threshold temp and it will heat/cool to that temp automatically? Like, say I want the heat to kick on if it gets lower than 72 but the air to kick on if it gets above 75. Without having to get up and change it or use an app on my phone to do it.

Recently purchased a home. We just closed and noticed a very annoying knocking sound coming from the Hvac (heat recovery system) which wasn’t there during the inspection. Is this normal?

Also we are smelling gas smell from the gas stove.. we closed the valve but still a slight smell… is this normal as well?

Are you guys not struggling with the 1 bath? 3 bed 2 bath should be the standard but I see so many 3 bed 1 bath and and I can’t imagine even a small family being comfortable. Am I overthinking it and it’s fine?

Hi all I live close to some train tracks. I don’t mind the noise but there are definite times I feel movement. I notice I have wall cracks that keep reappearing even though I’ve spackled and painted. Is there a product that allows for movement so that the cracks don’t reappear? Something I can paint over? Thanks for any suggestions!

So I just bought my first home: a condo. Love having my own place!

There are 8 condos in my building, and I've met all the neighbors, who are all pleasant enough.

However.

I'm on the first floor, and directly above me, there's a young couple whom I've already noticed make quite a bit of noice. Unlike my carpeted living area, they've installed hardwood in theirs. I've been told that this can make footsteps sound louder, and so indeed, they sound quite loud. :)

While I don't care for this kind of noise as often as I'm hearing it, that's not the reason for this post. They are apparently "night owls", and for the last several nights, they've had get-togethers where the voices get quite loud and remain so up until midnight, and sometimes beyond. I'm already sleeping, and the past couple of nights I've been awakened around 3-4 am as the couple seems to walk laps around their bed, while talking quite loudly to each other. I'm not a terribly light sleeper, but this has been enough to wake me up. And I'm not a fan.

So I have a few pokers in the fire.

I've made friends with one of their neighbors, and so soon I'll be asked up to play cards with the whole crew. Which I'll do, as I love cards. I will discretely mention my concern about the late night noise to this couple and see how they take it. Again, they seem to be pleasant people, and I also don't want to make enemies out of neighbors right out of the gate.

I've also reached out to our HOA president to see if we have any regs for loud noise at certain times of the day/night, and also I've just reached out to our town police to see about any municipal regs.

As for what I can do in my own bedroom, I often sleep with a white noise machine on, so this can help blunt the noise from above. I've also turned on my indoor air cleaner machine, which also helps.

Is there anything else I can do to help mitigate the noise at night / early morning? I don't know if there's anything architecturally and/or interior design-wise to help mitigate this noise above my bedroom. I have also heard of Manta SOUND Sleep Mask, which may solve the problem altogether.

Any advice would be appreciated!

I live in Ventura county (California). I am doing a remodel and need an electrical and plumbing permit. While I’m at it I’m filing a building permit for a 145 sq ft laundry/storage addition. The city is asking me for lot lines and easements. Does this mean I need an entire survey (cheapest I’ve found is 2k). Or would the city have this on file? Permits were pulled on this home for a different addition in 1971. I feel like they would have had to do a survey then. Where can I check to see if the city still has this survey?

Thanks to anyone who can help

How do people get a job that gives them enough time to move into thier house before they work. For example. I need about dour months to move in because we don't know anything about our housing situation ulyet would be more accurate. Or am i wrong.

Hello all! We purchased a house in Ohio in October 2023. A huge perk was the fact that a new AC unit had been installed. All winter the furnace worked great, but as soon as we hit warmer weather and tried to switch to the AC, it didn't even turn on. (It did when we first moved in.)

Called home warranty, it took forever for them to figure out the issue and get it "running". Well, now we've run into the additional issue that the system seems to be too small for our house? PLUS, the ductwork is chaotic and the unit in the basement is blowing air everywhere BUT upstairs. It got hotter when we turned it on. They checked the coolant, its all good.

The home warranty sent out an HVAC guy, but he said since they didn't install it there wasn't anything they could do.

I am terrified we are going to have to pay to have new ductwork and units put it, which is currently out of budget. I am curious as to if we are missing steps, or if people would go a different route before the one we are going down.

We have a medically fragile child in the house with asthma and other lung issues, I am worried the heat of summer will not be good for her so its an issue we want to tackle right away so any and all advice will be well received (including how we didn't do our due diligence...)

Thank you!

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Hello, first time home owner and very new to drilling things into walls. I want to set up some floating cupboards and a laundry bench that I need to drill into the wall but I’m so worried about hitting pipes and wires. Would love advice on how to avoid this!