Home Improvement: Bad News Update: My House has a hidden room in it, but the inspection went very bad. |
- Bad News Update: My House has a hidden room in it, but the inspection went very bad.
- 80s bathroom budget face lift w/glitter!
- Wife downed my beer
- Buying a home in due diligence period. Seller offered to fix EVERYTHING but this one issue. UPDATE
- Kitchen tip renovation.
- Day 1 Insulation in the attic has been completely removed.
- how do you fix a concrete pool patio with a white overlay (maybe)?
- Cleaning Wood Window Trim
- My lights get BRIGHTER when I vaccuum
- Partially Finishing Short Ceiling Basement - Brainstorming for feedback
- Is it “normal” for roofing companies to sell you on a new roof via your homeowner’s insurance?
- Make an illegal room legit
- Replaced old dangerous back steps
- The real scoop on carpenter bees
- Sanding my (small-ish) patio deck this weekend, and I have a few questions.
- Bad smell in room for the past 2 months. I have no clue where it's coming from and it's slowly starting to make me sick. Any tips on how to find the source?
- Backsplash Recommendations
- Question on dishwashers
- Is This Plant Going to Eat my House?
- Water leak in converted garage
- Ice maker burped and laid cubes...finally
- Cool guide to different types of stone walls/layouts
- Paver patio question. Need some help on the base
- Advice on Refinishing / Cleaning Saltillo Tiles
- The usual Memorial Day paint sales not happening...?
| Bad News Update: My House has a hidden room in it, but the inspection went very bad. Posted: 23 May 2020 12:04 PM PDT This is an update to this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeImprovement/comments/gl3v57/my_new_house_has_a_hidden_basement_room_should_i/ I have some bad news guys, I can't buy the house. We attended the inspection last week and a number of major repairs were identified. The roof was installed wrong and needs to be torn off and redone. The chimney is about to fall off and the piece la resistance, the sill plates were totally rotted in areas. They were rotted so bad you could have swept them away with a broom. In addition, the vertical studs attached to the sill plates were rotted. The inspector stuck one with a screw driver and it spun like it was in butter. Total mess and just way too much work for me to take on or have to live through. My last house was a tear down and rebuild. I just don't want to do that again regardless of the price. The homeowner was already having the wood exterior redone so I did not spend a ton of time inspecting it before making an offer, guess I learned a lesson and thank god we had a good inspector. Thanks Mike! I was able to locate the false wall in the basement though. It was built with stone and had a cement skim coat. At the point that I found the wall I knew I couldn't buy the house. It's treasures or demons may have to wait another 100 years before being released. Sorry Reddit! [link] [comments] |
| 80s bathroom budget face lift w/glitter! Posted: 23 May 2020 07:28 AM PDT I started with Yucatan yellow walls, deep blue tile floors, and a plasticity(cultured marble? Formica?) countertop that has yellowed over 30ish years. This bathroom remodel needed to be done inexpensively because we are saving the big bucks for other non diy projects. I don't like the tile, but it's everywhere, too expensive to replace, and still in excellent shape. So paint had to do a lot of the heavy lifting here! Taped off the baseboards and wall fixtures and painted the bathroom. Now that yellowing counter top looked even worse. after painting...sad yellow countertop I started by sanding the whole counter by hand. Just enough to take of the shine and create some "grip" for the primer to adhere to. Cleaned it with some 409 and went over it with tack cloth after just to make sure. Applied a total of three layers of shellac based white primer (Zinser Bin) using a mini foam roller. I was nervous because it dried with some "texture" to it, but nothing that I couldn't hide with a layer of rustoleum glitter paint! You can kind of see the texturing here I allowed the primer to dry for 24 hours before tackling the glitter phase. I was worried it would be too much glitter and would cluster in certain areas. I bought a good polyester brush (valspar Item #1617014Model #885289200) which I think made a big difference in terms of smooth, controlled application and brush marks. It looks milky when you open and apply the glitter paint, but rest assured, it dries clear, without the scratchy/bumpy glitter texture! Here is the finished result of the countertop! Here is a side by side before and alter before/after [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 23 May 2020 06:09 PM PDT I had my wife help me mud and tape drywall I put up in the garage. When we finished I opened a beer and she took the whole thing down. I looked at her, opened another and drank most of it. She then downed that one as well. Now mind you she doesn't drink beer normally. But she said that they were so refreshing after all that work. Made me laugh! [link] [comments] |
| Buying a home in due diligence period. Seller offered to fix EVERYTHING but this one issue. UPDATE Posted: 23 May 2020 01:59 PM PDT UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: Just got a call from my realtor that the seller is now desperate, willing to pay/do anything just to get the house out from them. He explained he and his wife were moving out of state, their older, kids are gone and his wife developing/has Alzhemirs and there just trying to get out. He said we could use the contractor of our choosing and to just get the estimates...... Earlier Update: So earlier this morning we did another walk through in the home. We were able to notice and feel the deep dip in the floor. It was honestly A LOT deeper than we thought, and we pinpointed that load baring wall. We had asked around some more and Husband's father (Don't know why we just didn't ask him in the first place, but he still lives in TX) had an old engineer friend actually in GA (who is licensed in TX AND GA) and got us in contact. He offered to look at the home, write a report and to have his stamp on it and not even charge us (which was very sweet but yes we paid this gentleman). The engineer was not playing any games. The seller was there as well answering he's questions and such. What came out is:
At the end of it the engineer says, "Guys it's not worth it. Either he fixes it, lowers the price WAY down or I'd just walk away." The seller offers to do (HIMSELF) put a pole/joust in the garage where its sagging and still in denial about the load baring wall... I sent a small list of picked out homes from a bigger list my realtor had given me a few days before. We walked away from the home. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 23 May 2020 01:23 PM PDT |
| Day 1 Insulation in the attic has been completely removed. Posted: 23 May 2020 06:40 PM PDT Had it all removed and air sealed plus baffles installed. Will be blowing in insulation into attic Tuesday to an R49. Pros:
Cons:
They will be here Tuesday morning at 6 am to install the insulation. Can't wait. And yes I could have done it myself (with a helper) but we have a lot of small and tight spaces in the attic and after a leg injury a few months ago I thought it best to just hire someone because the savings versus time for me to do it just didn't make sense. [link] [comments] |
| how do you fix a concrete pool patio with a white overlay (maybe)? Posted: 23 May 2020 04:15 AM PDT I have a concrete pool patio, and part of the surface has been flaking off. I originally thought I could use a resurfacer to cover over the damaged areas. But from my Googling, all the resurfacers come in gray, while my pool patio is white after power washing. (It's still dirty now). When I look at a cross section of a flaked off piece of concrete, there is a thin, white 1/8th inch layer on the surface. (See photo). The surface is also a little glossy. So I'm guessing a cement overlay was applied to the concrete originally.
Photos: https://imgur.com/Zkv4npK Location: New England [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 23 May 2020 06:30 PM PDT Bought a house in need of some deep cleaning. The previous owners obviously didn't manage humidity levels well, many windows have black mold/mildew built up. I know, mold can be dangerous. I looked online for ways to clean, bleach yes, bleach no, so I decided to use Hydrogen Peroxide and an old toothbrush. It's no perfect, but much better. Any better solutions/ideas? [link] [comments] |
| My lights get BRIGHTER when I vaccuum Posted: 23 May 2020 01:09 PM PDT Any electrical load that creates a strain causes the lights in the room to get brighter, not dimmer. Any ideas? I'm in Virginia, US. [link] [comments] |
| Partially Finishing Short Ceiling Basement - Brainstorming for feedback Posted: 23 May 2020 04:36 AM PDT I bought a house in February. It's a single story that's been renovated and flipped with an addition. The original house has a large "standing crawl space" with exterior access only. At some point in the past they actually dug out the original crawl space, benching the foundation (losing about 2 feet on all 4 walls) and poured a concrete floor. The ceiling height (to the joists of the main level and subfloor) is about 6'6" to 7" depending on where you are at. The only thing down there that is a live utility is water line in / sewage out / gas in. There is no HVAC, water heater, etc. down there. The space is approximately 800 sqr ft usable space excluding the benched walls and it's one big room as rectangle. It's a shame they didn't dig it out another foot and a half as it would be a candidate to actually turn into a real finished basement. However, talking with my reliable handyman, we're thinking I could partially finish it for storage purposes since it will never be an actual livable space within the house due to ceiling height and code. Here is my plan to partially finish - the goal would be encapsulated, conditioned, dry storage. Nothing more, nothing less.
If all that is doable and gets done, consider adding access stairs from the main level to the now partially finished basement. At a minimum it will have exterior access. I live in Atlanta and my handyman made the point that the going rate for adding a second level is 200k or so (I have family doing this kind of renovation and their price is 190k for a partial second level). He thinks I could partially finish it for about 15k. Thoughts? Feedback? Criticism? The house is great and I love it, but it definitely lacks deep storage and I think this would provide that in a very big way. You could put a bar and a "man cave" down there - again, the ceiling is short so by code it's not a legal space. The cost of underpinning the foundation and digging out another foot and a half would be insane and not worth it. [link] [comments] |
| Is it “normal” for roofing companies to sell you on a new roof via your homeowner’s insurance? Posted: 23 May 2020 12:59 PM PDT My brother-in-law recently (~6 months ago) began working for a roofing company. He's in outside sales and I think he works 100% on commission. He has mentioned to me five or so times now that he "could get our roof replaced for just the cost of our deductible". I've heard of shady roofing companies who do the hard-sell of showing you shingles that supposedly "fell off your roof" and whatnot, but my BIL talks about the insurance replacement process as if that's THE process for getting a new roof. He says they work directly with the insurance company and will do "all the work" with filing the claim. I just can't help but feel like he works for a shitty roofing company, but I told my wife I'd post to get opinions. My main concerns are.
Just curious about all of this. I told him I'd "look into it", but the fact he presses me literally every time we see him, makes it feel odd. My wife thinks it's just because he works on commission only. I think it's because the company he works for might be shady (they do have good reviews online though). Thanks in advance for any advice or input! Edit: looks like I was right in my suspicions and that this selling tactic is both illegal and immoral. Since now I know that, I have a related question:
[link] [comments] |
| Posted: 23 May 2020 06:04 PM PDT Hi. I live in Souther California. We recently bought a house and it has a room that was illegaly built. We would like to make it legit as we have plans in the future to add more rooms. Is there a way to make it legit without demolishing it? It is just a room. It does not have plumbing or gas. Thank you in advance for your help. [link] [comments] |
| Replaced old dangerous back steps Posted: 23 May 2020 08:35 AM PDT Pics - https://imgur.com/a/4rNRPZI The old stairs were in bad shape plus there was no landing and were too steep. As you can see it's a narrow city lot so there's not much room to work with but I think they turned out well. Total cost was about $1,000 (trex was a big chunk of the budget) and it took me, by myself, 1 whole Saturday plus 2-3 hours after work for 5 days. All in about 25 man hours. [link] [comments] |
| The real scoop on carpenter bees Posted: 23 May 2020 09:26 PM PDT Bunch of bees fighting not out in your eave? You probably have carpenter bees. There are many guides out there to take care of them. A lot of them talk about residual insect spray. The bees themselves are annoying because they dive bomb you. However there are a few things you should know to successfully get rid of them.
[link] [comments] |
| Sanding my (small-ish) patio deck this weekend, and I have a few questions. Posted: 23 May 2020 09:24 PM PDT I have small patio deck, and the past two summers since we moved in, we've left it unfinished and just put a stain on there. By the time fall same (NE climate), a lot of the "high-traffic" areas started to peel and chip away. I used a power washer and was able to get about 80% of the and bought a 5in Ryobi orbital sander to take care of the rest. My (probably dumb) questions: 1. Is it okay to use a sander to remove stain while also sanding the deck? 2. I'm assuming a main reason it would chip and peel was because it was unfinished. Is the sanding going to help mitigate this? 3. What's the best grit level to use for this? The sander I bought came with a two 5-packs of 60 and 80 grit. I'm not sure what type of wood it is, but perhaps the picture will give you a better idea of that. 4. How many sanding "discs" should I expect to use for this project? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 23 May 2020 02:04 AM PDT Since about mid April, after doing some room cleaning, my room has developed this smell that won't go away. The stench is difficult to describe since it constantly seems to change. At first I thought it was just bad laundry so I thoroughly cleaned my bedsheets. That didn't seem to change anything. I checked everything in my room and I honestly don't know where the hell the smell could be coming from. I can't get rid of it, but I can control it to an extent by keeping my windows open all day and night. The best way to describe it some kind of dusty/musty smell that progressively gets worse if I don't open my window. It occasionally smells like a mix of sweat and body odor as well. I've had smelly rooms before personally so I know what smelly room caused by the occupant smells like. It smells bad, but I as the occupant generally get used to it. This one is different. I haven't become nose blind to this smell and I can tell as it generally gets worse. This smell makes me sick and dizzy as it gets worse. I have been a little depressed the past month because I haven't been able to fix it. My only guess right now is my mattress and pillow. My mattress is old, it's a used one from my landlords, and as I've been working from home lately, I've been spending more time on my bed as well. My guess is that all the time I've been spending on my bed has made my mattress worse. When I take off my bed sheets, the area where my torso is is darker than the rest of the mattress. That region of the mattress does smell, but I can't say for certain if that's really the source. My pillow might be another source. I only have 1 pillow and for a few weeks, I applied conocut oil on my head before bed. My pillow and pillowcases have a distinct smell now that might be also be contributing to the room smell. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 23 May 2020 06:27 PM PDT Doing my second kitchen upgrade. I'm planning to remove the current granite backsplash and have tile installed from the granite to the cabinets. I might paint the cabinets white and change the hardware to black in the future. What backsplash would you recommend? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 23 May 2020 08:30 PM PDT My husband and I are starting to look at dishwashers. It seems like the only two choices are portable, or under the counter. The only place we have room for one would be next to the sink, the issue is there is no counter there. Right now we have a small kitchen cart (no wheels) in that space, with the microwave and the toaster on top Does there exist a non-portable dishwasher (so it could be hooked up into the water supply, and drain), that comes with some-sort of counter on top of it. We are not picky, and it doesn't have to match the current counters we have. [link] [comments] |
| Is This Plant Going to Eat my House? Posted: 23 May 2020 03:05 PM PDT Hi Home Improvers, Bought a house that had a few stumps near the front of the house. Those stumps have since sprouted. I can't tell if it is Wintercreeper or Japanese Spindle Tree, but it has some long roots I discovered working in the flower bed in front of them. The stumps are about 4-6 inches around and they are about 20-24" away from the foundation. Does anyone know what it is, if it will damage the foundation, and if so how to make it die? I already ripped up a ton of roots, cut it down to the stump and tried ripping it up but they are angry little monsters. At this point I'd just keep themif they won't cause damage. [link] [comments] |
| Water leak in converted garage Posted: 23 May 2020 01:48 PM PDT First time homebuyer here and first time poster. Just a quick background, I am not handy at all and am clueless when it comes to DIY projects but am certainly willing to learn! Anyway, here's my issue... tl;dr - water is leaking into a converted garage room from where the door used to be. How to fix? I recently bought a home with a garage that was converted into a bedroom, which the prior owner had rented out to a tenant along with an adjoining room that had a small kitchen and bathroom. The main part of the house itself is fairly updated but the "apartment" was more or less neglected and we knew that when we bought the house. The tenant had apparently lived in that space for at least a decade. We have no intention of renting out the apartment (which is illegal anyway - for point of reference, I am in Long Island, NY) and plan to simply remodel the entire space with the idea that my parents could move in when they get old. Or we could completely open it up with the adjoining room to create a large entertainment room. We were enamored enough with the rest of the house that taking on a renovation of the apartment space wasn't much of a deterrent. There was wall to wall carpeting in the converted garage which had a musty odor. We knew it had to be mold but figured that was expected for a garage conversion and we would eventually rip out the carpet and replace it with vinyl flooring. But since moving in a few months ago, we've basically used the room as storage and ripping out the carpet fell on the list of priorities especially with the pandemic going on. Today while doing some Memorial Day cleaning, I noticed a few bugs downstairs and decided it was time. So I ripped away at the carpet and noticed that the entire underlay was basically all rotted and moldy. The wood tack strips were also black and moldy. I also happened to do this while it was raining outside and of course at that point, the water started coming in like a deluge from where the garage door used to be. So I ripped away at more carpet and realized that the garage conversion was very poorly done. They did not level off the concrete at all and the cracks in the concrete show that it is settling towards the driveway which is how the rain water is getting in. My immediate question is, what can I do right now to stop water from coming in? I went outside to redirect some of the gutter water away from the driveway which is helping a bit but that's clearly only temporary. I have no idea how someone managed to live in this space with all this going on for a decade. Also, knowing that the conversion was done so poorly, I feel like the room cannot be suitably used as living space even if I fix the issue. I'm also guessing the room has poor insulation given how cold it got in there during the winter. I almost want to reconvert it back to a garage since we are not using it as living space right now and have no plans on tackling the remodel project any time soon. Having just bought the house, I was hoping to wait a bit before spending that kind of money. Very much appreciate any advice!!! [link] [comments] |
| Ice maker burped and laid cubes...finally Posted: 23 May 2020 07:31 PM PDT Bought house Dec 2019. Finally moved in permanent April 24, 2020. (Long story dont ask). It has fairly new (1 yr old) Kenmore fridge with bottom freezer and ice maker in bottom. For life of me could not get ice maker to produce ice cubes. Read manual. Checked water lines. Made sure it was turned on, apparatus installed correctly, freezer cold enough, stuck my head upside down in freezer w flashlight, watched utubes etc etc. Gave up 2 wks ago. Bought ice trays and put call plumber or repair person on list. Eating dinner 2nite. Heard strange noise. Water lines burbled. And kachunk kachunk...a miracle! It laid a dozen cubes. 7 month gestation? Whaaaaaa? Maybe I should head to Vegas baby! Anyone one have have an answer for me about why, why not and when and if it will ever happen again? ;-o [link] [comments] |
| Cool guide to different types of stone walls/layouts Posted: 23 May 2020 08:56 AM PDT Got it from r/CoolGuides but couldn't crosspost since it was a media post. [link] [comments] |
| Paver patio question. Need some help on the base Posted: 23 May 2020 04:01 AM PDT Hey all, I'm about to install a paver patio and had a quick question. So it's not a normal install of digging out the ground, base and sand. The previous owner had a swing set in a 15x15 area which I am putting the patio over. Only problem is it's play sand. I've raked and sifted as much debris etc as I could. In the middle of that area I estimate I can take a shovel and easily dig a foot out of loose sand. The outside where the patio edging will be staked is solid earth so I'm fine there. I've purchased the poly mats in place of crushed stone, as well as 0.7 yards of leveling sand. Do you think I'll run into an issue compacting the play sand down, then adding leveling sand in 1" then the mats and pavers? [link] [comments] |
| Advice on Refinishing / Cleaning Saltillo Tiles Posted: 23 May 2020 04:52 PM PDT My wife and I are refinishing some saltillo tiles that were water damaged. We've had success stripping the three larger tiles, but the tiles closest to the wall have a white haze to them that won't come off with the stripper. We're using Zep Heavy Duty Floor Stripper, scrub brushes, and a lot of elbow grease. We're in New Mexico. Any idea how we can get that haze out? Thanks! [link] [comments] |
| The usual Memorial Day paint sales not happening...? Posted: 23 May 2020 06:43 AM PDT I have been looking at BM, SW, Lowe's, and HD, and it doesn't seem that anyone is having the usual paint sales and rebates that usually happen this time of year. Or am I missing it? If it's a rebate, maybe it's just not looking online as though it's on sale because it shows the normal price. Has anyone saw the sale ongoing? If yes, where? I have a bunch of paint I need to buy, and getting it on sale would be helpful. [link] [comments] |
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