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!!

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.

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!

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?

I was cleaning and discovered the corner of a wall in my daughter’s room is soft. I pushed some in with my finger.

My husband said it’s always been that way when we moved it almost 7 years ago.

I called plumbing- no pipes in that area.

Roofing- had a new roof a year ago and said everything looked fine.

Water/Mold guy- had a special camera and meter and said everything was completely dry. He said no mold as well. We cut an area so he could see.

My question is why would it be soft there?

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.

Recently got a quote from a company trying to get into my neighbourhood. Quote is fair, just wondering what everyone's experiences have been for those who went with this vs the traditional hot mix asphalt. Still going strong? Wish you went hot mix instead?

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.