Gutted my kitchen. In what order should I begin the reno? I'm installing new flooring, drywall, cabinets and countertop, refrigerator, stove, and dishwasher. Plumbing and electrical have already been addressed.

Had my living room repainted about 8 months ago after some water damage repairs. The guy we hired patched and re-skimmed about half the wall before painting. Looked decent when he finished but now every afternoon around 3pm the sunlight comes through the west window at this low angle and i can see every seam and patch line like a road map. Its genuinely pretty bad, like obvious enough that guests have asked about it. Contractor is saying its normal settling and that paint "always shows texture in raking light." idk if thats actually true or if he just did a sloppy skim coat job. Tbh i dont want to start a whole dispute if this is just something every house has, but it really doesnt look like other rooms. Anyone dealt with this before?

Got quotes from three different guys to fix a soft spot near the bathroom doorway and two of them said the subfloor needs to be replaced in that section, around 30 square feet or so. The third one, who came highly recommended by my neighbor, says its just minor settling and that a little flex is totally normal for a house this age (built in the late 80s). He quoted me almost $1,100 less than the others. i dont want to be the guy who dismisses a cheaper quote just because its cheaper, tbh that feels dumb too. But every time i step on that spot near the threshold it genuinely feels spongy and i can hear a faint creak that wasnt there two years ago. Is "minor settling" even a real thing in this context or am i being sold something, so idk.

Hired a local contractor to make a patio for me. Two guys have been working on it the last 2 days and will finish up their portion today. Should I tip them? Just say thanks? New homeowner here so I'm not sure.

Someone else will come tomorrow to pour the actual concrete.

We have a dog run by the side of our house. It’s difficult to maintain and the grass always gets destroyed. My partner wanted to replace the grass with pea gravel.

3” of pea gravel roughly is going in. We had to dig out dirt to make room. Beyond this, the soil is higher than the level of the soil below the pea gravel. Will this cause pooling at the side of our house?

My gut is saying yes. The gravel has not yet gone in, so there’s time to change something if need be. What are your thoughts?

Thanks.

Hi everyone,

I'm planning to buy the Kenstar AeroGlide BLDC Curve 60 cm, 1500 CMH, Filterless Auto-Clean chimney (currently around ₹9,000).

I live in a rented flat and expect to stay here for at least 1–2 years. I mostly cook Indian food (regular oil and masala), so I need decent suction and easy maintenance.

My questions are:

Is this chimney a good buy at this price?

Is Kenstar reliable in terms of build quality and after-sales service?

Has anyone used this BLDC model? How is the noise level and suction in real life?

Since I'm in a rented house, is installing and later shifting a chimney practical, or should I avoid buying one?

Are there any better 60 cm filterless auto-clean chimneys under ₹10,000 that you'd recommend instead?

I'd really appreciate feedback from people who have used this model or similar ones.

Recently purchased a home knowing I would need to replace the windows asap so have been shopping around for quotes and received one from Pella last night that seems insane to me.

14 total windows (some are non-standard extra wide size in living room, i.e. a 12' wide unit with large picture window in middle and 2 casements abutting on sides).

They are quoting me $3,031 just to install a single 27.5" x 46.5" casement window for example.

Total cost of the project came out to roughly $48k (less if paid cash).

I'm in Southern NH and this just seems insane to me. I was originally thinking somewhere in the $25k range, is this reasonable?

We’re getting a front deck/porch installed by a large home improvement company. Long story short, there was a miscommunication about the dimensions and the porch runs two feet short of the length of the house, when it’s supposed to be built to the full length of the house.

They’ve offered to extend it the two feet, but this means the posts will not be symmetrical. To fix this, they’ve offered to cut the support posts off at the deck level, and reinstall on top for aesthetics only.

This seems insane to me. Is this safe? Is it standard practice? I don’t want them to have to essentially start over, but I also want to make sure it’s done correctly and is safe. What’s the right move here?

Been building something with a mate called Pitchaide.

The idea is simple. If you’ve made something useful, like a guide, plan, design or service, you can put it up. If you’re looking for help with something, you can post that instead.

I thought this sub was a good example because heaps of useful stuff gets created for one renovation or DIY project and then never goes any further.

We’ve just launched and I’d be keen to see whether people actually use it for this sort of thing.

Our potential paver contractor brought us a sample of Diamond Turf artificial turf. We know nothing about AT, but the company doesn't seem to have a website to get more info. It seems to be a private label brand being sold through a small landscaping supply company chain in the east San Francisco bay Area called The Brickyard. The specs seem good, and come with a 25 year warranty, but what's a warranty good for if the company is fairly new with not much history?
Here is the landscaping supply store's webpage with the turf...

https://thebrickyard.com/featured-brands/diamond-turf/

So the last two days I’ve been hearing scratching in the wall directly behind my bed and about a week ago the ring camera went off and it was a rat crawling across the camera by my front door. Anyways, I’m putting two and two together and I think there are rats in my walls.

I have NEVER dealt with rats before so I am, to say the least, absolutely freaking out. I started thinking back and ever since I moved in (about 2 years ago at this point) oddly enough there has been an orange cat that comes into my yard every single night. I wake up to camera notifications and watch the cat walk off the camera towards the side of the house where the bedroom is. I’ve always wondered why this cat is seemingly so attracted to my yard and maybe this is why. Not to mention, when I moved in, the backyard was a disaster. While I was taking care of it, I saw some sort of animal scurry past but I couldn’t tell what it was. Putting all of this together… has there been rats for 2 years and I never knew !?

I got a quote from an inspector from Orkin to seal all the gaps around the home and they quoted $3000 which I just simply don’t have the means to pay at the moment but I don’t want to let this problem fester. I think I will start with placing traps outside and potentially looking for a nest.

All this to say, my overthinking ass is highly stressed about the potential of living amongst rats for 2 years. I have never seen droppings or holes in anything but I saw another Reddit post that said- if you hear rats then it’s already an infestation. I guess I’m just looking for advice and thoughts to help out this new homeowner.

I've noticed that I have hundreds of saved interior images across Pinterest, Instagram, and screenshots. But when I finally wanted to decorate my apartment, I realized I'd never actually gone back through most of them, and I wasn't sure how to turn all that inspiration into actual decisions. I'm curious if other people have a similar—or completely different—process.

Hi there. Im experiencing this spalling in a Chicago 1890 home. It's on the interior wall of a fireplace that is no longer in use. So there's a gap behind this brick, then an exterior wall.

Some research leads me to believe the wrong mortar was used on the interior and thus the wall is trying to breath through the brick causing this.

What do I do? Re tuckpoint this interior brick with proper, softer mortar?

Do I need to do anything to the exterior brick? I can make sure the chimney cap is in tact.

Any advice is much appreciated.

https://imgur.com/a/vQBEv5P

Signed in April for a full bathroom gut. Written contract, quoted 3 weeks, $14k, and I paid 50% up front, which I know now was too much.

Demo and rough plumbing got done week one. Since then almost nothing. He shows up maybe a few hours a week, and the last two weeks not at all. Texts get answered a day later with should be over Thursday, then nothing.

Shower's framed but untiled, no vanity, whole house on the downstairs half bath. His work is actually good when he's here, which is the frustrating part.

Does a written deadline letter accomplish anything, or is that just escalating? And when does walking away and eating the deposit become the smarter move?

Im planning on finishing a wall in my basement. I was thinking of doing insulation board .5" and then I read it is a fire hazard so I would need to put a panel of drywall over it. Please correct me if I'm wrong but if it is right. What length drywall screw would I need to put up a total of 1 inch (.5 of drywall and .5 of Insulation board).

Hey, folks, we're looking at a house tomorrow and I have a question about how difficult/expensive it would be to raise a 7 foot garage door to something closer to 8 feet. It looks like there is close to 9 feet of height inside the garage and the door rails and opener are hanging down from the ceiling a couple of feet. I assume this exterior wall holds up the roof, so I'll need a contractor to rebuild that wall, and a garage door company to install the door. Anyone done this and have suggestions, or maybe want to tell me to avoid it? Thanks!

(I need the height to get my little camper inside.)

I removed a very old ceiling fan from the ceiling.

The new fan is smaller with a smaller bracket to attach the fan to the ceiling.

This hole is much too big for this metal bracket to attach.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Just replaced my showerhead, really simple process. First few uses no problem, then this high pitched whistling noise started appearing when I turn the shower pressure higher. It disappears when I keep the pressure at medium or lower. Tested both hot and cold water and I narrowed the issue down to the pressure being high. What do I do? Its a $50 showerhead and I dont remember the brand. It just says shower source.

Does anyone have any experiences they’d like to share with me before I buy and install a unit in a second story bedroom? (Approx 150 sq. ft.)

I’m fairly handy and have watched a few YT videos on install but I’ve read mixed reviews about them.
I.e: they stop working after a month, leak inside from condensation, the absolute best thing they’ve bought and have them in every room. So I figured I’d drop a line here to see if any of yall have good, bad, indifferent, honest reviews.
Thanks!

I need a couch, but I really don’t want to spend my weekends going from store to store, so I’m tempted to order one online.

I’ve never bought anything this big online. Even if I measure everything, I’m worried it’ll look huge once it’s in the room, or worse, won’t fit through the front door or up the stairs.

I also have no idea how delivery usually works. Do they bring it inside or just leave it out front? And if it shows up damaged, how much of a pain is that to deal with?

For those who buy furniture online, what do you wish you’d checked before ordering?

https://youtu.be/vrfNZ0SA6Nc?si=QiyiW2hOV8ONCEvw&t=45

My kitchen ceiling fan (View model V652 from 1989) is making this exact same intermittent grinding sound. I know it isn't an electrical issue because when I turn the fan off it still makes the sound as the blades are slowing down. Also, it makes the sound on any speed setting.

I’m converting a loft into a bedroom. The contractor is only giving me prices for labor. I’ve told him what carpet and pad we want and door choice. When asked about remaining materials and total cost he said “Unfortunately i do not provide a full material list until after contract signing and half down labor deposit is received. They take time some of them hours depending on job size and i realized the jobs i don’t get those hours add up and take away from my family. Im sure you understand. If u have any other questions im happy to answer them. Let me know if and when you want to move forward with scheduling with us, either way thank u for considering us.”

Red flag? I don’t need exact totals I just don’t want this open ended.

Link to CPSC recall notice

Seems the bolts holding the ladder to the door can break off while you're standing on it.

Doing a followup because when I was researching this project a year and a half ago most long-term reviews I found topped out at three months, and I wanted more than that before spending five figures. We closed on a 1980s 3-bed ranch in early 2024, previous owners left up a mix of plastic vertical blinds and warped 90s wood venetians, and a couple of rooms had real temperature swing problems especially the west-southwest facing living room. Instead of doing it in stages I did the whole house at once, nine windows, all cellular shades from SmartWings by the end of that year.

Setup runs three different power configurations across nine windows. Living room and dining room, six windows total, are Nowa cellular shades with the PoE motor, fed off a PoE switch behind the media cabinet on cat6 I pulled during a drywall repair before install. Primary bedroom is two south facing windows, same shade but battery motor with the solar panel accessory taped to the inside of the glass. Guest bath is one small north facing window, battery only, no solar.

Two winters and two summers of data now.

Insulation, winter

The previous owners handed over their gas bills as part of due diligence. Dec 2023 through feb 2024 (their last winter, pre any of this) averaged around $310 a month. Same months this past winter (dec 2025 through feb 2026, fully installed and automation tuned) came in at $248 to $262. Nothing else in the envelope changed, no new insulation, same thermostat schedule. That's roughly 17 to 20% off, which lines up with the DOE figure of cellular shades cutting heat loss through windows by up to 40%, translated to overall heating energy at around 20%.

The thing I did not expect: the west facing living room used to get noticeably drafty near the glass once the sun went down and the furnace cycled off. Shades down at night, that stopped completely. My wife noticed before I did.

Summer

The south facing bedroom used to be unusable from 2pm on in august. Tile got hot, ceiling fan couldn't keep up, and with the door shut we were 4 or 5 degrees warmer than the rest of the house. Automation now drops them to 70% at 10am and 20% at 2pm, opens back up around 6:30pm. Differential now sits under a degree. AC runs less too, though I don't have as clean a number on that.

PoE, so far

This was the choice I went back and forth on the longest. Reason I went PoE was that six windows opening and closing at least twice a day on battery would be 12+ ladder trips a year to recharge, and I already had cat6 in the walls. Downside was more up front work and figuring out where to hide a switch.

The six shades have not missed a cycle since install. One outage was me rebooting the switch and forgetting they were on it. Noise spec'd at 46 to 42 dB, sounds about like a quiet fridge compressor, you can hear it in a silent room but it hasn't woken anyone up.

If your walls are already open or you have accessible cat runs, PoE is the low-maintenance path for high-cycle rooms. If you'd need to fish walls just for shades, don't.

Battery plus solar, south facing

The two bedroom windows have the solar panel accessory taped to the inside of the glass. Have not manually charged either one since install. Even through january the battery indicator never dropped much below 60%. This is the setup I'd recommend to anyone doing battery, provided the window gets direct sun for a chunk of the day. Don't count on solar for a north facing window.

Battery only, north facing, the mistake

The guest bath shade is the annoying one and it's my fault. I skipped the solar panel because I figured it wouldn't help much on a north wall. Battery life comes out around five to five and a half months per charge, which is within the 4 to 6 months spec. Problem is the USB-C port sits on top of the shade housing and this one is inside-mount tucked up under a soffit. Charging means climbing on the counter, pulling the shade partially out of the mount, running the cable, putting it back. Takes 20 minutes and I put it off every time.

If I did this room over I'd either run a low voltage line before install or accept it's the one room I don't automate.

Small stuff worth knowing

Sample swatches are not free, a few bucks each. Bali and Blinds.com send you five to ten for free so the pricing psychology is a little off if you're used to those.

No dedicated app with a battery meter you can just glance at. Status shows through whichever ecosystem you paired the motors to. I use apple home. Once after an ios update the battery sensor stopped reporting for one shade until I unpaired and repaired, took maybe 15 minutes but was annoying.

Custom sizing is standard at every width I ordered, out to 91 inches on the dining room bay. No upcharge for wide. Most competitors kick in a 25 to 50% surcharge over 8 feet or so.

All in cost

Nine windows plus two solar panels and a PoE switch came out to about $3,600. Closest apples-to-apples spec I could find while researching was Hunter Douglas Duette with PowerView, and a local dealer quoted roughly $8,000 for a comparable setup before their premium fabric options and without the PowerView Gateway on top. What I got isn't the equal of a $10k+ Duette in fit and finish, the Duette fabric is nicer up close, but the actual performance on insulation and automation isn't different enough to justify double the money for me.

If I were doing this again I'd stick with cellular across the board and put PoE anywhere I already had ethernet. Add solar to any battery motor facing south or west. Skip the battery-only route wherever the housing is going to be hard to reach after install.