ive lived in the same house for my whole life and no one around us has moved out so i dont have experience with new neighbors. were unfortunately moving to a rental house and im wondering if its normal to introduce yourselves to your new neighbors when you move in? like should we go up to their door and say hi or something? or do people not do that anymore?

i know i personally do not answer the door for anyone but im not sure if thats normal lol

Hello, I live in an older house in Philly. My house has been heating up like crazy recently and I don't know why. For example, today my heat is blasting at nearly 90 degrees even though I turned it all the way, it stops going crazy after a while but I need advice to stop it all together. I have memories of it happening alot when I was a kid during the winter( about 15 or so years ago). Also the type of heater is cga5spdn is that helps. PLEASE HELP

Edit: I'm sorry for the typo, didn't see it there. Also my house uses radiators

We have been in our new build community for a little over a year now. When we bought, the HOA governing documents stated a rental cap of 20%.

After we purchased, the HOA quickly changed that rule and removed all rental caps. Because it was a new build community, the builder was heading the HOA and could make this change without community vote.

As time has gone on, it’s becoming more and more clear that rentals within the community continue to go up. As of today, there’s 5 units available as leases have expired. It feels like there are more rentals than ownership.

I’ve always read that rentals tank your value and lead to the community going to crap. I’m worried that will be the case here. Some neighbors and I have already observed 2 evictions in nearby rentals, trashy behavior by some tenants, and other things that are causing some panic.

To be clear, there’s also tons of good renters in here, too. But I’ve noticed that all it really takes is 1-2 landlords who don’t have strong screening processes or don’t really give a crap to tank a neighborhood.

These homes are in a nice area and some properties in the neighborhood have recently sold at a price that would yield us about $30K in equity. We really don’t want to move and wanted to be here at least 5 years to gain some stability in housing for once. We’ve been apartment hoppers for years before this and were really looking forward to some continuity.

Despite that, I’m worried about the trend I’m seeing and the general sentiment is to move on when this is happening. I just wanted everybody else’s thought. Thanks.

I'm so nervous something will be wrong to cause the buyers to back out. We need this to go smoothly.

My family and I moved across country last summer and we were finally able to move in to our new home in November. We have three teens who were all born in the previous state. Now we are here. Our first two houses fell through due to things we had no control over and this house was our third choice. My husband and I saw it once for about 10 minutes. I didn’t like it, husband did, we bought it. We were down to the wire. Now husband has been very vocal about how he hates the house and never would have moved if he knew we would be living here. That’s pretty irritating, but also it was to accommodate him that we moved, his family is here, he wanted to buy this house, and he travels 1/3 of the year. Anyway, the house still doesn’t feel like home, the subdivision doesn’t feel like home, the state doesn’t feel like home. It isn’t that the kids and I want to go back, but what gives? When will this feel like home?

We updated our electrical by removing old tube and knob but when the electricians did that, they caused a decent sized hole in my walls. Normally, with sheet rock, I could use a mesh thing and puddy over it then paint BUT I'm not sure what to do with plaster. Any suggestions?

It’s winter here in northern New England, and I’m in my second year of owning my 1950s cape with a shed dormer. Insulating the house is a top priority, but after getting some quotes last year, I felt unsure about the best approach. Each contractor had a different plan, and my own research on insulation and ventilation only left me more confused.

Energy efficiency and heat loss are obvious concerns, but lately, ice dams have become a bigger issue. Last winter was mild, but this year we’re experiencing extremely cold temps and a lot of snow. I’m noticing significant ice buildup along the bottom of my roof where the gutters are, and the gutters themselves are packed with ice. I’m really worried about ice dams, especially since this house has a history with them. For now, I am doing my best to remove snow from the roof to allow the sun to melt the ice.

I’m wondering if anyone here has experience with a cape cod-style home in a cold, snowy climate and can share how you insulated it. One major decision I’m facing is whether to treat the attic space behind the knee walls as conditioned space or not. This will determine whether I should insulate between the roof rafters or insulate the knee walls. For ventilation, I only have gable vents at both ends, if that’s relevant.

Would love any advice or experiences you can share!

First time home buyer

I have a Utica SF3 oil fired boiler that has a tankless coil to provide hot water to the house. The shower temp in both showers (old Symmon's Temptrol valves) fluctuates while showering when anyone uses water in the house. Is there something I can do to prevent this? It also takes about a minute to get hot water to the showers.

Items I looked at:

• The showers mixing valves seem to be fine, I had replaced one recently because of a leak.
• I increased the boiler temperature to 200 thinking that it would provide hotter water, thus people would not have to open the hot water valve as much. This somewhat worked, but I still get big fluctuations when other people use the hot water.

Things I'm considering to fix:

• Do i need to add mixing valves to other sinks to get them to pull less of the hot water?
• Do i have to provide larger piping to the showers?
• Are there better shower valves?
• Do I add an indirect fired hot water tank?
• Do I add a tankless heating system to provide consistent hot water to the showers specifically.

Any ideas are appreciated. Hopefully there are cheap options that can address it.

Hi! I recently moved into an apartment/ condo which has really old PTAC unit installed - the one which doesn't even have a specific temperature setting and has knobs to set heat/cold. It has been chewing my electricity bill since its so old that I feel its efficiency is gone way below grade. I can't just take it out and have new one installed as I don't own the condo. I was wondering if I use a space heater instead and keeps the PTAC unit off during winters, I might save some cost.

The most used area of my condo is living room which is where we spend entire day and its PTAC unit keeps running non stop until either we go to sleep or go out. I am thinking to have the space heater placed there for max impact.

Any recommendation on a suitable space heater that can be sufficient for living rooms and can give a bit better efficiency than old PTAC unit? As a reference I live in NJ and am getting $550+ monthly electricity cost for a 2 bed condo.

My kitchen is getting worked on; in a few days, the project has been going on for a month. I am 100% at that point where I want things to wrap up, I don't want people stomping around in my house and making a mess anymore (I get the dust all over, but they're leaving food and trash behind), and I just want to enjoy the final project. It may sound like it, but I am not trying to be a jerk; I am tired of the mess the workers have made of my house and the headache that has been attached to this project. I've had major work done to other parts of my house and it never tired me out like this project has.

I think the biggest issue that has mentally exhausted me, the contractor has been spoon-feeding me info this whole time. There are days I am not told when someone is coming to the house the next day, so I'm stuck wondering if someone will show up and if they'll be there early or later. I had a few days where no one showed up. The contractor kept telling me about a guy he worked with on one project and recommended him to me; he never gave me the guy's info. We're a month into the project and getting close to the end and NOW I'm finding out that I'm supposed to order the specific types of shelves, I'm supposed to contact this guy and set things up, and the best part, the contractor won't tell me the measurements I need. There's a designated wall I would like floating shelves installed on, except I want to use reclaimed wood. I'm a snob that way. I even looked on Etsy and found someone who did them. The contractor won't give me the measurements for the shelves because he wants to wait. When I ask him if people are coming tomorrow and the following day, I get an annoyed response.

I just want this project to end and these people gone.

Anyone have any experience with donating blinds they bought online? Blinds.com and blindster.com are apparently sort of like the online mattress companies, where the return policy is basically on the buyer to donate the items (or just get rid of it). We ordered blinds and later realized the mounting hardware doesn't work with our windows (our existing ones are mounted at each end; the new ones are mounted from the back and the top). The local habitat for humanity restore shop doesn't take blinds. I've yet to ask at Goodwill but we need a donation receipt if we're to get a refund. Thanks for any suggestions.

Progressive has increased my insurance cost by 50% over the past two years, taking it from $2100 annually to $3200 annually. When I call, they say there's nothing they can do because of how the "rebuild value" is calculated. They've increased my coverage amount by $300k over these two years, and refuse to lower it. They offered to recalculate it, but said that doing so may cause it to INCREASE MORE rather than decrease.

Not really sure what to do. I've seen posts talk about using brokers, so I guess I'll try going in that direction. If anyone else has advice, I'm all ears.

Insurance companies are evil.

We recently bought our home in a subdivision and yet, I feel much on an island. I'm not unreasonable, I'll comprise for the simple nod. Attempts have been made. As an introvert, I acknowledge they could have been better.

I would appreciate any advice on how to mingle and get to know my neighbors.

Our neighbor's pipe burst recently, which flooded our yard and basement. Our insurance is now denying the claim, stating that ground water flooding isn't covered. I have videos of the water actively flowing out of their house into our yard, but that doesn't seem to matter. I'm going to call their insurance and make a claim there, but I suspect that will also be denied.

Does anyone have any experience with how to navigate this? If our own pipe had burst, it would be covered. If the neighbor's burst pipe caused damage to their home, it would be covered. But since their burst pipe caused damage to our home, it's not covered? It doesn't seem right.

I appreciate any advice on this.

I am at a loss for what to do. For some context and history, we bought our house in 2020. There are two of us who live here. We don’t have a pool or water features and let our lawns die 2 years ago so we don’t use a sprinkler system. Each summer since we bought the house, we’ve had a few months where our bill spikes. We had the worst one yet in August of 2024. It stated we used 210,118 gallons in one month. We used the toilet leak detectors, checked our meter for usage, had a conservation assessment done, etc. We also had a leak detection company come out and they found zero evidence of a leak or any issues with our water pressure. They suggested we ask for a new meter as the most likely cause was a faulty meter. We did this, but our water company is still insisting that we are responsible for the bill as there was “nothing indicating the meter was not working.” I did also report this to our states utilities commission for them to look into it but the report came back saying they found no fault with the water company.

Is there something else I should be checking for? I feel like I’m going crazy lol.

I've lived in this house for almost 7 years, and about 2-1/2 years ago we started hearing a strange thump or deep pop sound coming from the wall near the south-west corner of the house. Sometimes it's a soft noise, sometimes it's very loud and alarming (like a basketball thrown against the side of the house). It can sometimes happen every day for a week, or it will sometimes go many weeks with no sound. It's very sporadic.

Since it's the south-west corner that is fully exposed, I thought it might have to do with heating and cooling causing something to flex and make the popping/thumping noise. But it also happened yesterday afternoon when it was cold and no sun (SF Bay Area).

There hasn't been any construction in that area that I'm aware of. There are no pipes or plumbing in the area, and no HVAC ducting, either. There are a couple of spots in the area where telecom wires enter the structure. It's a wood frame single story home with stucco exterior.

Do you have any ideas what this could be. Should I be concerned/is there possible danger?

We had a storm (Illinois) that had hail damage to our roof and siding. We got a guy that was an adjuster "help" us. He said he would let us do the work and he would represent us. We gave him part of the first check as agreed. We sent him documents and pictures after the job was done. He never sent them to the insurance company adjuster. Months later I asked the insurance adjuster what had happened. The public adjuster never sent anything. I had to re-submit everything to the insurance. We have received the second check but their name is on it too. I tried to get ahold of the guy and wont respond. What can I do so that I can cash the check to be able to cover my expenses. The public adjuster didn't do anything at all and feel he does not deserve to be compensated at all. thank you

We are using James and Whitney replace a broken window. It is a 6ft by 6ft picture frame window that is a double pane window built into a wood frame. I am replacing it with a vinyl framed window. They removed my window and are not telling me I will lose 3 inches of glass in the width and 2 inches from the top because the window is too small. They keep saying this is normal. I have a large, mid century home with the entire first floor having these 6ft x6ft windows right next to each other. Is this normal? When getting a quote I was told the only difference would be the vinyl window would have a white seam around it which I was ok with. I was not told they didn't know how to measure the window and would install a smaller one. Help. 😩

To try and make a long story short:

My husband and I (26M, 24F) bought our first house in 3/2023. We slowly began having lots of issues with our floor. Planks were not matching up, they were bending. It was breaking and coming apart, and exposing the underneath.

Fast forward to today, and we have installers working on putting in new floor in the entire house to try and rectify the aforementioned issues. Come to find out, whoever remodeled the house before we bought it, installed the cabinets ON TOP OF the flooring.

That, combined with an unlevel floor, and a poor installation job, led to the issues we were having. My question is: should that have been caught by a home inspector? Or no, since that's technically more cosmetic? We're paying $14k out of pocket for this, so I'm a little pissed that this could have potentially been avoided.

Hi everyone. After being in our home for 10 years, it’s time to change our hard wired smoke detectors. Does anyone know if I can just get the same kind and screw them into the existing bases or if I need to get an electrician to come in and mount new ones? Thanks!

I have some land up north, and I want to shut off the water supply to the house while we are away. When I first had my well installed, I would leave it on all the time, and just shut off the main water valve from the pump to the house. That first winter, there was a power failure and the temps in the pump house plummeted to way below freezing long enough for the pump housing to crack. When the power came back on, the pump motor came on and ran for days until we were back up to find it this way.

I started to shut the breaker off as a safety measure, but learned you could lose prime, which is a hassle to re-establish. I am still shutting off the main water valve, but I am also continuing to shut the pump breaker off. I would have to think even in the event of another extended power failure, there will be damage to the pump anyway, so does it really make sense to shut the breaker off? Thoughts?

Lowe's had a subcontractor deliver a new appliance, and they came in a rental truck and hit the old landline that was running from the street over the driveway to the house. It was attached to the original wood siding in the attic area, and the plank got ripped off and also did some damage to the other planks and the interior of the attic. The subcontractor has a contractor who wants to do the work without going through the subcontractor's insurance. This happened a week ago, and I'm anxious to get the work done, but this seems really sketchy. Suggestions?

I'm on nextdoor and have posted a couple times and looked at old threads asking for recs, but a majority of the time it's contractors advertising themselves rather than people saying I used "xyz company, they were great" or "avoid abc company they totally messed up/screwed me over". Where do you find good recs, just read the google and yelp reviews and go with your gut?

Is there any app or AI to rearrange the layout of your house? Currently live in a two story colonial and looking to renovate the first floor, maybe knock down some walls, move the kitchen, etc.

I came across a 40 year old fully functional bath fan in my house with desintegrating wires of one color. Of course the bath fan has some light vibration so it could have shorted out in the future.

Hello everyone,

I recently purchased a newer house (7 years old). It's a 2 storey, 1800sqft, triple pane windows, and has an HRV. I live in Saskatchewan where it currently is -30 degrees celcius and will be for possibly weeks to come.

I noticed when I moved in, the HRV was broken and we had immense condensation on the top floor windows, and some on the main floor windows. Every single one, our bedroom one being especially bad from us breathing at night and shower humidity with nowhere to go. Fixed the HRV and mostly all has been good....

Now, I only get condensation when it is very cold, around -30. I can run the HRV on high for a bit, get my humidity in the house down to like 20% and it's mostly gone, but then we are at 20% humidity and everyone's skin is cracked dry, let alone what it's doing to my drywall and everything else.

I never had this problem in my 1970 house! No condensation ever. Why is this happening? It drives me crazy.

This might sound like a stupid question, but how do I know what price point of a house I can purchase?

How do you figure this out? I don’t have a lot people I can turn to for this advice, so I’m hoping someone here can help.

I am building an addition onto my house. I am in the process right now of doing back of napkin drawings to show the architect so they have some idea what I want.

My problem is in the bathroom. I want a really big whirlpool tub or soaking tub. My dream is one of the 72" x 36" ones. Problem is I only have an 8' x 10' space. I put the design together showed it to my wife and she pointed out that there is no shower in there and having a master bath with a tub and no shower is stupid. She is not wrong. This is the floor plan I came up with.

So my options seem to be to do a tub/shower combo instead or re-design my layout. I looked at the former and the whirlpool tubs or soaking tubs with showers attached all look weird to me. I'd love to re-design and put a shower in there somewhere. The door swinging into the room is a problem but a pocket door solves it. The rest of the issues with my design not so much. Showers at Lowes look to be 2'8" commonly so that's the size I put on my diagram but I don't know where to put it in the room.

We want - separate sinks, a tub, a toilet and a shower. What other options do I have here or am I missing an obvious re-design thing?

edit: Fixed my typo on the shower size. It is 2'8", not 28".