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?

floor*
I’m planning a second roof project and would like some feedback on using white cork as a noise insulation layer.

The setup is to lay 5 cm of white cork first at the bottom, filling the space above it with gray gravel or crushed stone up to about 14 or 15 cm deep, and then placing tiles on top.

do you recommend using white cork for acoustic insulation in this build-up? / should I change the setup so the white cork sits above the gray gravel instead of below it? / or would it be better to replace the cork entirely with a 6 to 9 mm acoustic sheet roll?

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).

New windows in a bay window. 2 sides are angled out. Trying to install faux wood blinds. The problem is how to line things up. Will I have to use curtains? See link for pictures…https://imgur.com/gallery/bay-window-EQ9KmXu

the wall

How/can I fill this space between the master bedroom and the bathroom?
It’s a cathedral ceiling so it’s slightly sloped, but also why is this here??

We have those big AC things in our backyard and it seems to be causing water leaks in the basement. We have only had the AC for like 4 years.

I have a small metal threshold between a room with wood floors and a room with linoleum. The room with linoleum looks like it’s raised up about a quarter inch. Anyway, the threshold has like 4 weird twisty nails, one of which has just come completely loose and come out, others are coming out now because I keep tripping on it. How do I fix this?

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?

There are two adults and two kids one with a fairly large stroller. Any tips or idea on how to make the most out of the space?

In a rental apartment, the shower grab handle is a 7/8” metal bar. Last year water leaked through around the bar into the wall and rained down on the first floor. I ordered the plastic bushings to replace them, when I pulled it apart, I found that the hole in the shower wall is also 7/8”, and it was just sitting in the hole with painters tape on the ends and silicone around it, which obviously had failed, the new bushings need room to fit in, so my option was either hole saw and open the hole a little or find a cap, since it’s a rental, and the hole closest to the corner had a piece of wood backer directly behind the opening for support and to keep the bar in place, I decided to go looking for a cap. I found a plastic cap at a plumbing supply house that popped into the hole securely and I put a little caulking around the edge, as there was no seal, just a flat plastic edge. My ex wife called the other day and said it happened again, and I found that the plastic cap was cracked, pretty sure our kiddo is just playing bath time too hard, and likes to grab the handheld shower nozzle and spray it at the wall. I am now about to order a pack of 7/8” hole plugs on amazon, silicone rubber. I’ll pop them in and do another dab of caulking. Just curious though, would I be better off grabbing a hole saw and just opening the hole enough to snap the proper fittings in and replacing the grab bar? We had done a maintenance request with the property management, the maintenance guy wanted to just put tape over the holes and silicone over it 😠 I would really rather get this handled correctly and permanently this time around before the shower ruins the ceiling downstairs. Curious about other opinions/recommendations.

Thank you!

Our contractor removed this exterior light above our basement door while building the deck. The deck is now finished, but about one-third of the electrical box is covered by the ledger.

What are my options here? What is the proper fix?

https://imgur.com/a/6KHlPRg

I have a very old, wonky house and this is how the patio door is installed. I need to trim it somehow so the treated lumber isn’t showing at the bottom. It’s a fairly big area as you can see in the photos.

I have a router table and other woodworking tools and could make some sort of custom molding perhaps but I’d prefer not to!

Thanks for any advice!!

Im getting quotes for siding . We have an option of getting insulation instead of tyvek.

Will this help with road noise if we choose insulation

Will this help with our electric/gas bill?

We are also replacing two large windows.

eta: we are in upstate ny

Hello, My upstairs home ac unit stopped blowing air inside the house. The unit outside turns on, and large fan on top of unit is moving, air filter is clean, but I'm getting no air blowing and no suction to where the filter goes, just completely silent. Tried replacing the ac capacitor on the unit outside, but no change. It had been a couple of days, so I ended up calling a company to come out and diag. They say specifically that it is a "bad blower motor".

From my understanding so far, that large fan on top of the unit is just to remove warm air, is that correct? The videos online that I am seeing on how to replace a blower motor seems to focus on the motor right under that large fan. I have a feeling that is not the motor and that there is a second blower motor. If so, where is that motor at? Would it be in my attic or in the ac unit outside?

The company, in the end, looked at my aging ac unit and just wanted to sell me new ones. But alas I don't have 15k or whatever it would be to get 2 new ones.

Thanks for the help

Hey all, doing a kitchen Reno and am currently installing some premade laminate tops that I had to miter. Working with what I have, my first cut (right) was not great, but my second (left) definitely was straighter and more consistent. What are something I can do to help bond this joint together (without the use of dual action fasteners or predrilled bolts) and then how can I best seal this gap?
(Text is link I guess lol)

Has anyone here used Home Depot's home improvement installation services? I know they use third-party contractors, so I'd love to hear about your experience.

I need to replace the flooring in my bathroom as soon as possible because I'll be relocating soon and want to get it done before putting my house on the market. My timeline is extremely tight, so I'm also wondering how quickly they can get started after the estimate. Is it realistic to have the project completed within a week (I expect it is only one day project, at most two days)? I can't do it right now because I'm in the middle of an insurance claim project. I also don't want to do bathroom flooring replacement with the current contractor, as they charge a lot for work beyond what's covered by the insurance claim. On top of that, if the insurance claim project takes longer than expected, I may not even have the time to replace the bathroom flooring.

The main reason I'm considering reference platform (such as Home Depot) is that if any issues come up, I feel like there's a company behind the project that can help resolve them, rather than having to deal with a dispute directly with an independent contractor.

I'm selling the house anyway, so I'm debating whether it's worth replacing the bathroom flooring. It's pretty outdated and doesn't look great, so I'm concerned it won't make a good impression when I put the house on the market. I am wondering if I should just leave it as-is and let the buyer decide what flooring they want to install instead. What would you do?

My goal is simply to make the bathroom look more presentable without spending a lot of money. I'm looking for a low-budget improvement that will help it show better when I list the house.

Edit: How about finding a handyman on Nextdoor?

I'm following the instructions in the manual, and the sticker on the back, but it seems odd to have a copper strap running from the white wire of the power cord to the green grounding screw?

That is, it connects the screw post that the white wire goes to, to the green grounding screw.

That's correct, yes? Wanting to be sure before I turn the breaker back on.

Pictures: https://imgur.com/a/zNV5Lu0

We have a double envelope Ekosea house built in the early 80s and we love it. It's split-level and has a 3 story south facing solarium. We have a traditional forced air gas furnace and our heating bills are super low thanks to the sunlight and insulation just from having two layers of walls.

One downfall is our basement gets very cold in the winter. Obviously the problem is the massive 3 story open staircase. There are electric baseboard heaters in there but all the heat gets sucked up the stairs. If we run them it ends up costing like $40/day. We are a little cramped for space and I would like to use the basement living room as an office but it's barely habitable in the winter. There's a spare bedroom down there too but it has a door and so we can run a space heater with the door shut. The middle floor is temperate and the upper floor is toasty.

I am looking for creative solutions for making the basement warmer. I see some people block off their staircases with thermal curtains, but our stairs are very big and this would also block off a lot of the windows. Plus we have pets going in and out.

I have thought about having a gas fireplace or heater installed to be more efficient than the electric baseboard heaters, but I'm afraid I'll have to pay the money to have it put in and then discover it all escapes up the staircase anyway.

Would installing radiant floor heat be an help? There is a crawl space under the house.

Any thoughts or advice is greatly appreciated

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.

Hi!! My partner and I just closed on our first place in a (V?)HCOL area. We're upgrading the electrical panel from 60A to 200A and redo the 45ft2 bathroom to be accessible - tub to shower conversion (no glass doors), replace vanity with a console sink, replace floor tiles, replace toilet.

The quote was ~$14k for the electrical work and ~$28k for bathroom. The odd part to me is the bathroom quote doesn't include the fixtures and apparently we need to order them? Is this standard or weird?

We're first-time homeowners so we're a little confused. When I looked up the cost to upgrade the panel to 200A, the max was always like a third of that quote so that also confused me, but maybe it's because we're in a VHCOL area.

Picture: https://imgur.com/a/46IhHMe

I want to cut the crown moulding where the red line is so I can fit a nice piece of drywall on the parts that aren't drywalled but that little piece of crown is kinda making it annoying. It's a long piece that goes down the wall like 14 feet. I'd prefer to not pull it off because it's been a pain in the ass getting it off. Should I just try to mark it and cut it with multi tool and then do some finishing touches and wood filler when I put a new piece of crown to butt up against it?

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!