My wife and I bought a house built in ‘77. Total fixer-upper. It sat vacant for over a decade before we purchased it.

We got straight to work cleaning, refinishing floors, taking out a wall, painting, etc. It was musty and stale at first, the prior owners had been smokers, but by the end of the first couple months everything looked and smelled fresh and clean. Everything, except the second bedroom on the upper floor.

No matter how much we cleaned, how much activated charcoal we used, it still smelled vaguely like a warm, moldy, piss soaked blanket. We were frustrated, but made a bit of a breakthrough when I replaced the ceiling fan, which required some light drywall repair. I noticed the smell worsened during the course of this work. So reluctantly, I prepared to climb up into the small attic crawlspace above our top floor… in late August… in Virginia.

The access hatch was on the far side of the house but crawling across to the second bedroom was easy due to the plywood laid across the joists. At first glance there was nothing suspicious. It smelled like an old crawlspace, just super hot and musty, but nothing like the smell below. I decided I should pull up the plywood above the fan to check for water damage and mold. Honestly, I think I would have preferred some mold or moisture…

Piles of shit. Not a figure of speech, but literal piles of old desiccated shit (see photo). At least that’s what it looked like. I told myself that I was being ridiculous and surely it must be weirdly moldy insulation that just looked like shit. But someone had clearly cut through the wood previously to access to this specific spot and none of the surrounding areas showed any signs of water damage or mold. Without any other ideas I decided to regroup and figure out how best to deshittify the attic.

Animal feces, especially from wild animals, can contain some really nasty bacteria that you definitely don’t want to be breathing in. So I masked up, gloved up, threw on a tyvek suit and some gloves, and headed back up with a 5 gallon bucket and a shop vac.

An hour and 7.5 gallons of shit later, the offending area was cleaned out, bleached, and deodorized with active charcoal bags. A couple weeks later and the smell FINALLY went away. After further investigation, I’m convinced it was cat shit.

Without getting overly descriptive, it had the right consistency and contained hair when broken apart. I assumed cat because of the size and the fact that it’s probably the most readily available if someone were to start assembling a shit arsenal. The remaining question is why.

Credit where credit is due, putting cat shit above someone’s ceiling fan is nefarious. It turns the air from the fan into a silent but deadly, never ending cat fart. I just can’t imagine what the previous owners did to wrong someone to this degree while still providing them access to their attic!!

On the plus side, if I’m ever wronged to that degree I’m locked and loaded with a wild revenge scheme.

Anyone ever seen the likes of this shit?!

My neighbor has a big garage and a gutter that runs the entire length on the back and directs water right into my backyard. We moved in in February and the previous owners never cared or complained. The back of our backyard gets soaked and basically flooded after heavy rains.

We talked to him in the Spring and he said he was going to dig some sort of drainage hole with gravel but hasn't done it yet.

https://imgur.com/a/0okAVZb

A year ago I replaced the expired smoke detectors in my house with new Kidde units, I didn't cheap out I got one of the more expensive models they had at Home Depot, I even got the 10 year internal battery version thinking I'd spare myself from having to think about smoke detectors for the next decade.

Boy was I wrong.

Everything was fine for about six months, then one of the new detectors started chirping because of a dead battery. So much for lasting 10 years, but oh well sometimes you get a defective unit, so I replaced it. About a month later I woke up to a false alarm on a different detector, and after a few more false alarms I replaced that one too. Now a third detector has been giving false alarms every couple weeks. Always in the middle of the night of course.

I wanted to say Kidde was trash and just replace them all with something better, but after researching it I see folks are saying they're all trash. I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on new detectors only to be in the same place after a couple months.

The issue also doesn't seem to be dust, I've cleaned the detectors that were giving false alarms and my house is generally clean.

Has anyone found a brand or model worth buying? I'm willing to pay for something that's reliable but the only consensus I could find is the google nest units were great, but they don't make them anymore.

We have a neighbor the next block over who has a very bright exterior light on a solar cell. So it stays on all night and washes our bedroom in light (through the open door…we have blackout shades on windows). Our municipal code says “Trespass. All lights shall be directed, oriented, and shielded to prevent light trespass or glare onto adjacent properties. The light level at property lines shall not exceed 0.3 foot-candles.”

So if we file a complaint, I think we are set regarding the light trespass and glare. However, I was sure that measuring the lighting would be a slam dunk. I bought a well rated light meter off Amazon, walked over and all I get is .2 or .1. This is for a light you want to shield your eyes from when standing in the street. So I feel like I’m missing something.

Has anyone tackled an issue like this before? We don’t know these people nor do their immediate neighbors who also said they hate the light intrusion. We can go knock randomly but if that doesn’t work planning for plan B.

Photos are at 2AM.

Recently bought a 1960s house and have just discovered mold in the attic. The inspector said the attic was fine, and this area can't be seen without crawling around the chimney, so I guess it went unnoticed.

My moisture meter reading was dry, but it hasn't rained im a while. We were getting ready to add more insulation because there is only the original layer, and it's now considered insufficient.

There is a bathroom and a closet under here. The exhaust fan vents out this side of the house and the downward facing vent outside seems to be working properly - the flap lifts when the fan is on.

The bathroom was renovated not too long ago, not sure how the old set up was, so maybe the mold is old.

Anyway how do I figure out what's causing this? Who do I even call? Will mold remediation companies figure out the source or just clean up the mold?

Any advice or experiences would be appreciated.

God. Been in our house about 2 months now so I know I've got plenty ahead. It just seems like every time we think we've resolved something, the house fights back!

Every project we start we find something wrong. Nothing is simple. Every time you pull back drywall something was installed wrong, bad wiring, weird plumbing etc. No project has been simple.

Its an old home so I know this happens but god, can I have a break?? Both for my wallet and for my sanity.

Feel free to commiserate with me or if you have any stories about it getting better id love to hear them!!

I’m a pretty particular person, so I’m not sure if this behavior is normal. My neighbors moved in a few months ago. The first day, their kids were barking at my dogs to rile them up, I immediately asked them to stop and when I have been outside, I haven’t seen that happen again. They also started using the fence as a soccer net immediately. I let it go for a few weeks, but the kicks were shaking the fence and I started to notice damage to the boards. Fence is new and installed when I moved in. I spoke with one of the adults in the house and for the most part, this hasn’t been an issue again outside of a kick here or there. I have cameras on my driveway and I noticed their kids are coming onto my driveway frequently, just running around my driveway. On the 4th of July, they shot bottle rockets and small fireworks off from their driveway and they landed on mine and were not picked up. It’s one day a year, so I let it go. Recently, I have been seeing their kids throwing rocks onto my driveway. Sometimes they throw smaller ones at each other but a younger child was throwing a decent sized rock (not huge but would probably scratch a car) and it landed about a foot away from one of my vehicles (parked in my driveway). There is also some smaller things like they place their trash over the property line when they put it on the curb (which means I have to put mine overlapping my driveway which is a single vehicle width), they play music so loud I can hear it inside my house with all my windows closed, their kids come onto my driveway whenever they feel like it. I’m a pretty quiet and keep to myself person. I’ve never had neighbors who have bothered me or acted like this, so I’m curious if others think this is pretty standard behavior and I’m just a particular person? Would you find the fence kicking and rock throwing out of line? I don’t want to be a Karen and keep complaining about their kids, but I also don’t want my property damaged (ideally I would prefer it left alone entirely).

Im making a movie room. Going to get a dark navy from Sherwin Williams likely.

But curious, what's your best advice before I start? Is it as simple as it seems?

Honestly what does someone have to do to get an electrician to come to your house?? We’ve had a breaker trip several times in a 24 hour period and then suddenly stop tripping. We think the culprit is an outdoor lamp post that hasn’t worked in about a year. We called several electricians and they either don’t call back or they text and ask questions and then leave you hanging. Bottom line, we need someone to kill the electric to the lamp post so we can just use a solar lamp and we want to take the refrigerator off this fuse (which is also shared with another kitchen light). Is there some magic phrase I need to use when I call to get someone to come? Should I rub a magic lamp (post) and make a wish? Is this something I can do myself?? Just kidding. Kind of. But what gives with contractors who don’t want to work??

Hey all,

Trying to shut off my spigots before it freezes tonight. The one in the back of the house is easy since it's exposed just sitting above the pressure tank. The second one though, is above the drop ceiling. When the previous owner installed the drop ceiling they mounted the T-bar directly to the joists. See the photo of a corner away from the hose spigot for an example. The only reason I got this tile off is because one of the T bars was missing and I could pull it down. In general, all of their renovation work was pretty shoddy so we can add this to the list.

My question is, how am I meant to remove a tile? Am I supposed to just wedge it and pull it down?

Thanks

Edit: resolved but if you have removal tips I'm all for it. Used a superbar to pry it out since the Tbar is screwed in on both sides. Valve ended up being on the opposite end of the house, meaning the past hour was completely unnecessary

No idea what to do from here. Getting new floors installed, they took off the baseboards and found it. Got an inspection, obviously they didn’t see it because it was hidden behind the baseboards. Do I gotta rip this bitch out or do I have bigger problems?

What can I do about this leak in the ceiling?

Yesterday, last night, there was a lot of rain and a lot of wind that was hitting the side of the house. Now there’s a small water stain in the ceiling, similar to another one that we had this summer.

I currently have a fan drying it out. However, it seems like it only happens during wind driven rain storms. Any other heavy rainstorm, there’s never any leaks

And it only seems to be in the living room. Is there anything that I can do on the outside of the house to seal up any gaps?

I’m not exactly sure where it’s coming from, and over the summer there was another small leak right behind one of the recessed lighting fixtures. I opened it up and took out the light and everything was bone dry in the ceiling. I could not feel anything at all above or sideways, and it’s never leaked again

I already have some primer that I’m going to purchase, and also some paint, so that way once everything is completely dry, I can paint over it, make it look nicer, but is there anything that I can do long-term on the outside of the house to prevent this from happening again, or what’s the best way to go about figuring this out??

I discovered mice dropping and urine stains in the floor vents and registers of my home after noticing wafts of something that smelled akin to latex paint drifting through the living room. Getting a closer wiff, it smells like a dirty hamster cage, and now that it’s getting cold out, the smell is getting stronger.

I have duct cleaners coming to do a negative pressure vacuum and pump sterilizing fogger in a week, but they won’t be manually agitating/scrubbing out the waste and it has me worried it won’t be enough.

My house is a double-wide mobile home on a cinder block skirt on top of a concrete pad. My HVAC technician flat out told me he values his team too much to subject them to going under the house to find and plug holes in the ductwork. With the crawlspace and the membrane it’s hard to blame them, but my head is spinning trying to work out what I can and should do here.

Is hooking a giant vacuum to one end of my ductwork and then fogging the heck out of it going to be enough to make my air safe to breathe, let alone deal with the smell? As far as I can tell they’re the only crew in 100 miles that will even take the job.

Trapping the mice has been a longstanding struggle and I am trying to do more to seal up the skirt to slow them down. Right now I’m just trying to decide if the cleaning will be sufficient and whether it’s safe to stay here in the meantime.

Had all of my downspouts extended underground but this one connection is a real eye sore with the downspout not being flush with the beam. I know it’s tough with the porch being there and this setup technically works when it rains, I just can’t get over how bad it looks. Any advice on how to clean this up?

our power bill in California has quickly risen to 3x what it should be. its close to $900 and it has been for the past three months. I assumed it was because we were running the ac too much and we even got it repaired hoping that was the problem.

is there some sort of inspector I could call to figure out where the power is going? has anyone had this problem? I'm convinced it should not be this high

This is a crack coming down from the center of the support beam that runs along the ceiling. I feel like I would have noticed this years ago but I just noticed it last night.

The tape I put on there to see if it gets worse, but isn’t this type of crack something to worry about or get checked out by an inspector?

Today was the beginning of getting my roof replaced and the company accidentally set my house on fire. The fire department was called to put it out and caused a lot of damage. The roofing company had insurance but not sure where to even start.

Any advice would be helpful!

Bought 36 X 80 (link) exterior door system from Menards about 6 months ago, so kind of stuck with it at this point.

Have realized after removing trim from the old one, that previous installer/homeowner built this wall and door frame during a remodel.

Long story short, the rough opening is exactly 37 1/2 inches wide, and they shoehorned the existing prehung door into the hole without shims.

Do I do the same thing or try to fix the rough opening to a correct 38 inches wide? Reason for new door, is the old one blows open in the wind when it gets cold (probably due to the way it’s installed).

Slab-on-grade house, Charlotte NC area. We had recurring drain issues, so our plumber camera'd and dug. At the foundation, the cast iron-to-PVC transition was a no-hub band encased in concrete, and the band wasn't connected to the cast iron at all. The cast iron stops short of the foundation, so it's been dumping into the soil for who knows how long. Insurance denied the claim (wear and tear exclusion, no interior damage), so it's on us.

Repair (accepted): ~$5.4k, time-and-materials. He'll cut a 5x2 section of slab in the guest room, run new PVC from the cast iron inside to the exterior line, and add a new cleanout at the house. Backfill to rough grade only. No concrete patch, no flooring. Camera showed no bad spots in the cast iron, but it could be thin and need more pipe exposed.

The wrinkle: the ensuite bath's drains run 2 ft from where he'll be digging. The bathroom is tiny (about 54"x85"), and we want to:
Rotate the vanity 90°
Wall-hung toilet (carrier) to save depth
Convert the tub to a walk-in shower: pan with a curb and a sliding glass door

Plan:
We clear the room and pull the trim and LVP. Plumber does the repair.
Remodel plumber does the bathroom rough-in in the same window (toilet relocation, vanity, 2" shower drain). Alternative: just have a capped wye/stub left for later.
Inspection, compact the trench, and I pour the slab patches myself (gravel base, poly vapor barrier, epoxied rebar dowels into the existing slab).
Hire the tile setter to do the pan, waterproofing, and tile. Hire out the glass and electrical.
Carpet the guest room later.

Rough budget: repair ~$5.4k plus contingency, bathroom ~$6-9k, guest room carpet/trim ~$1–2k. Total ~$12-16k.

Questions:
Does ~$5.4k sound right for this scope?
Is it worth doing the bathroom rough-in now vs. just leaving a stub? The bathroom floor gets cut either way.
Anything wrong with my DIY slab patch approach for a 5x2 cut? Rebar dowels overkill or necessary?
Wall-hung toilet in a 54"-wide room: any gotchas with carrier wall depth? Geberit worth the premium?
Tub-to-shower: anything I'm missing beyond the 2" drain and matching the pan's drain location?
Does the bathroom budget look realistic for the area, or am I dreaming?

This issue spans a year and a half. I’d prefer to not move - we fixed up this house so it’s 100% updated. My question is, I know that I can’t stop people from acting ridiculous, but what can we do aside from blocking our neighbors out to force them into compliance/ get them to leave us alone?

For context, we have an easement on our land that allows a neighbor to access their landlocked property. We have a survey, we haven’t don’t anything against the deed, I’ve had 3 lawyers review all docs to ensure I’m not going insane and in the right. The township also noted we are within their ordinances and have done nothing wrong - even their solicitor reviewed everything and confirmed we are within our rights. We owe them access - they want unrestricted access and extending their use of our property as staging, parking, etc. IN MY FRONT YARD. Nothing in the deed indicates that is within their rights.

I have a timeline, cameras, downloaded clips and police reports to corroborate all of their behavior and the slow progression of changes. We really tried to give them a chance to do better. We were honest about our concerns.

The neighbor has a high volume of traffic - fine. However, they travel down this gravel driveway at a speed that tosses gravel into our yard and kicks us dust. We have small kids. Before just fencing we talked to them - give them a chance to know what’s going on and work together so it works for everyone. Immediately didn’t care. Immediately started spinning tire to kick up rocks and speeding because they knew we were worried. The neighbors AND their guests all do this. They also turn up their music at the top of the driveway at night and sit just to wake us up. They turn it down pulling out onto the road. I have cameras and videos of everything - police didn’t help much there but did finally help with spinning tire because it happens around my 2 year old.

We spoke to them 4 times. They never ceased. We never escalated our behavior, only began avoiding the yard and them as best as possible.

After months of being patient and slowly adding additional safety measures, we ended up installing a simple field fence to keep our son off the driveway and across the area of our yard they were using for parking. They were meeting up with people at night (think 11-2) and waking us up. Either way, I don’t want strangers on my yard for any reason at any time. This lady also goes to other neighbors to try to get them to go against us. The township has had to tell them all multiple times we didn’t do anything wrong, get a lawyer if you’re mad, and that they can’t do anything to help them.

They aren’t happy despite never having access removed. They and their guests continue to speed and spin tire, play loud music, and will give us the finger in front of our kids. I know the kids don’t get it yet, but I choose what’s ok for them. We are going to privacy fence the entire way up to block them, since they are triggered by the sight of us. We are allowed to do this and will go to the township to ensure our plan meets ordinances to be 100% on that side. They will 100% be mad about a privacy fence - at least we can use more of our yard and get to our cars without them seeing us.

My house is a 1,200 sqft single-story SFH in North Carolina (built in 1997). It's currently a rental property with a tenant inside, managed by a property manager. it's covered under a landlord policy ($5000 deductible).

Two days ago, minor moisture was spotted in the garage. Overnight, water surfaced through the concrete slab into the interior, ruining the laminate flooring throughout the entire house. A licensed plumber found two cracked CPVC fittings on the main water line beneath the slab. The plumber has already completed the spot repair and transitioned the broken underground section from CPVC to PEX. He informally mentioned that the leak might have been happening for over a month.

In a panic right after water shut-off, I immediately called insurance company to file a claim. Only afterwards did I learn that simply reporting a water claim creates a record, which can spike premiums or cause a non-renewal, even if the payout is $0.

The quotes I got for water damage restoration range from $4500 to $8000 (repairing dry wall cuts and replacing all laminate flooring NOT INCLUDED).

If the adjuster investigates and concludes this was "continuous seepage/leakage", the claim will likely be denied. That would leave me in the worst-case scenario: $0 payout + a denied water claim on record + upcoming rate hikes / non-renewal risk.

Questions:

Has anyone encountered a similar problem? Has your insurance company denied a claim? What losses did the insurance company ultimately compensate for? Did it include the cost of replacing the flooring? How much did the premium go up after filing the claim?

Is there anything to pay attention to when selecting a water damage restoration company? Can I hire a handyman myself to handle repairing the drywall cuts and replacing the flooring?

If you were in my shoes, would you bite the bullet and pay for the flooring out-of-pocket and withdraw the claim, or push forward and try to get the resulting damage covered?

Truly appreciate any insights from fellow homeowners. Thank you!

I am about to start a major project in my backyard. I plan to replace my old deck in my backyard with a longer one which connects my sliding back door to my other backdoor…

However, I have an odd structure in the way. It looks like an old bulkhead which the previous owner completely removed and then capped with a flat wooden structure and roof shingles.

The first two pictures show my backyard with an exterior view of the odd structure mentioned above. The third image shows an interior view of bulkhead stairwell from my basement.

What is the best way to go about lowering
and properly sealing this bulkhead space so that I can build a structurally strong deck over the top of it?

(See comments for additional photos)

I want to strip and stain the handrail and newel post on my stairs a different color. I found how to unscrew the newel post so I can lift it out of place, but I need to remove the handrail first. Looking at the handrail, it’s several separate pieces, but I can’t find any screws below the handrail that would have been used to connect the pieces together. Instead, it appears that some type of staples were used to connect them. Looking at the attached photos, what do you think? If they’re indeed stapled together, I’m guessing I’ll have to remove the full 10 foot run of the handrail and the twists and turns that connect them bottom handrail with the top handrail - this newel post is at the landing halfway up my stairs. Ideally I can move these pieces to the garage so I can deal with all of the harsh chemicals there instead of inside my house. Plus I’m certain that I’ll get the stain on the balusters as well if I’m doing it in place.

Window replacement company tore up our exterior window frames. They are offering aluminum window cladding/ capping. Is there any downside to this? What has your experience been with this?

Hi all,

First time homebuyer here, considering purchasing a blighted property from a land bank and using a home renovation mortgage and a good contractor to bring it back to life.

I’ve been researching doing a fixer upper like this for months; this one is worse than I intended (total gut, vacant for 10-25 years, previously condemned), but the location and size are exactly what I need them to be, and the land bank has a few incentives to help ease the financial pain.

I’m touring it this weekend; I’ve already run the listing by my lender (who is very well seasoned in home renovation mortgages - he’s quite literally done hundreds in my city), and gotten a scope of work estimate from the land bank. I’m trying to figure out if/where to cut costs and make sure it’s got a healthy shot of staying in-budget now before I commit to anything.

I was thinking about doing used cabinets in the kitchen to shave about $15k off of the land bank’s estimate. Salvage/second hand stores in my area regularly have decent sets of ~20 uppers + lowers for around $1k; about half the price for the same about on Facebook Marketplace. It’s a small galley kitchen that could only fit maybe 10 total upper + lower cabinets. I have fairly eclectic taste, so I’m totally fine with sturdy but dated/vintage cabinets.

However, I know that cabinets are fairly kitchen specific, and I don’t want a “money saving” option to turn into a money pit here. The home renovation mortgage requires a contractor to do almost all of the work in the house, so I’ll be paying for someone to install cabinets regardless.

So, asking people who know more than I do about redoing a kitchen: pre-owned cabinets to save money in a total gut house where I’m trying to keep my budget in check - yay or nay?