Home Improvement: Mouse Wants To Be Friends But I Want Him Dead |
- Mouse Wants To Be Friends But I Want Him Dead
- I thought i had water damage from a leaky window
- Just had my first ever electrical inspection of my own wiring install! And the result is ...
- Buying our first home (wohoo!!) and am wondering how on earth do I remove the scalloped things between cabinets over the windows?
- Outdoor home security cameras
- Cost of installing HVAC into old house... worth it?
- Did contractor do shoddy work or are we too picky?
- Anyone know how I could fix this... hard water ?
- Need help adding basement wall
- Just learned ventless dryers exist. What other little-known alternatives are there to standard systems?
- Apartment I'm renting has a vintage stove that's hot ALL the time. It's driving me nuts. Any fixes?
- Any tips for making a marble stain poultice?
- Above door window arch advice
- Opening a door from inside house to garage
- Honeywell Thermostat changed, now cool setting does heat
- Residing w/Termite Damage
- How to restore old school garage doors?
- Replace the aging HVAC system proactively or wait?
- Is this safe?
- What’s On My mom’s Bathroom Ceiling?
- Sweating my balls off!
- Cracked ceiling joist
- How do I update this bathroom for cheap?
- How do I add curb appeal to this house?
| Mouse Wants To Be Friends But I Want Him Dead Posted: 04 Jul 2020 07:49 AM PDT Background: Over the last 3 years I have had an intermittent mouse problem. I live in a condo with one shared wall. I have had professional exterminators come and seal every possible entry point, watched how to trap, and have them basically tell me there is no 100% solution because of the shared wall. I have tried several different types of traps and use quick kill snap traps by Victor since I have found them to work the best. The professionals use Victor brand but the cheap old school wooden ones. My house is clean, no food out, all is sealed in containers in high cabinet, no clutter anywhere. I have "one" mouse currently and he is NOT afraid of me. I found him when I opened the cabinet to check my traps and he just stared at me. Now he keeps coming out and walking in front of me like NBD. He even tries to approach me till I yell at him to go away. When I do this, he just stops and roams around but does not hide. Before anyone says to pick him up and put him outside, that is NEVER going to happen. He walks over the trap and is not interested in the food (peanut butter). I do not use gloves any longer when I set traps (I have seen no difference when I do/don't) and the exterminator said it is a myth because they live in foul conditions and eat trash, they don't care if it smells like a human. I have not been able to sleep since I know he is here. I got so pissed last night and tried to catch him. I couldn't find a container, but even if I set it on top of him I would be too scared to lift it up. I got my heavy bottle of vegetable to crush him and I missed. He stopped, looked at me, then slowly crawled under my fridge and I have not seen him since. It was so weird, it look liked I hurt his feelings (I know it sounds insane, but if you would have seen it, you would understand). The space under my fridge is non-existent, is it possible he got stuck under there? They usually hide in the spaces between my cabinets and my oven. Does anyone have advice or experienced this? It is a small gray mouse that looks kinda hunchbacked. Please help :( [link] [comments] |
| I thought i had water damage from a leaky window Posted: 04 Jul 2020 07:50 PM PDT Boy was i wrong.... I tried to caption the pictures so here is the link I used PT wood to prevent bugs from moving in again. Also used deck screws made for PT wood so i dont have my sheetrock screws rotting out down the road . i plan on staying in this how for a little while. Any other questions i will anwser what i can [link] [comments] |
| Just had my first ever electrical inspection of my own wiring install! And the result is ... Posted: 04 Jul 2020 12:58 PM PDT I failed! Yay! Turns out you can't run romex perpendicular to the floor joists in the basement and staple them to the bottom face of the boards. I know you are usually supposed to drill holes through the joists, but I have ductwork running there so that wasn't an option. So I thought I could just run them along the bottom face of the joist, but the inspector failed me for it. Turns out when homes first started getting wired up back in the day, people would use wires installed like that as clothes hangers, and hang wet laundry from them, with predictably bad results. So they made it against code. So I get to thank some really dumb people from 100 or so years ago for my failed inspection :) I need to attach some 1x4 running boards along the bottom of the joists, and then attach the wires to that, and I'll be good. Everything else the inspector checked, all my outlets, junction box, the wiring running parallell to the floor joists) all passed (I also need to paint my ground screw green, this guy seems to be quite the nitpicker). So that's my little project for tomorrow. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 04 Jul 2020 03:40 PM PDT I plan to paint the cabinets before we move in. But these scalloped things have to go. Any suggestions for a newbie? I consider myself handy when I have the chance to learn, but with very limited experience of said learning. Could it be as easy as prying it sawing off? What saw would I need? And then I assume I would need to find some cornice to go along the return of the cabinets to match what's on the top of the other ones... [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 04 Jul 2020 03:47 PM PDT I would like to install some sort of outdoor home security camera system. One for the front of the house and one for my backyard. I would prefer one that doesn't require a subscription. Any recommendations? Thanks! Edit: I'm thinking about nest or ring. Maybe. Any thoughts/ experiences with these? Edit 2: I've decided against nest or ring. To be more specific about what I'm looking for: I am looking for an outdoor security camera system that records 24/7 (similar to nest) that doesn't require a subscription in order to save the footage. Not sure if it matters, but I live along the east coast of USA. Hot summers and cold winters, so something that can withstand that. Thanks a lot! [link] [comments] |
| Cost of installing HVAC into old house... worth it? Posted: 04 Jul 2020 07:37 PM PDT I'm in an old house that's nearly 100 years old in Pennsylvania. 3,200 square feet, 3 floors. We have radiators and a few window AC units. And... our gas bill is massive in the winter and it's hotter than hot during the summer. So, got a few quotes for installing zoned high velocity mini ducts with heat pump. Best quote was $30K, including some electrical work and framing / drywall to hide some of the runs that there aren't closets for. Does this seem about right? Or too high? Should we stick it out beyond the summer to get cheaper prices? And... how much will we recoup when we sell the house some day? Thanks! [link] [comments] |
| Did contractor do shoddy work or are we too picky? Posted: 04 Jul 2020 05:17 PM PDT The previous homeowners covered the exposed part of our house's foundation with foam board coated with a stucco-like finish. The finish was in terrible shape when we bought it and we always planned to replace the foam at some point. Last fall we had a large hailstorm that cause roof damage and did a number on the foam. Insurance said they'd pay to replace the roof and fix the foundation. Since the foam was glued on, it was not an option to remove the foam without replacing it with something else (the old adhesive could not be removed or painted over), so to save money the insurance said they'd pay to have the foam re-coated with new stucco-like finish rather than reinstall all brand new foam with fresh coating. We were a little concerned, but our contractor said that recoating should look just fine in the end. We asked our contractor to use Tuff II (from Styro Industries: https://styro.net/TuffIIFoamAndICFCoating.html). The contractors did the work yesterday while we were out. We just got back and were rather shocked at the finished product. We didn't expect a perfectly clean finish since they are basically slapping cement over an already uneven foam surface, but they missed entire spots and had very uneven coatings with the plastic mesh showing through. They coated the edges of the foam around one window but not the other four. They didn't clean up any of the coating that ran down onto the ground and left baseball-sized puddles of cement on the ground. The foundation in the front looks like it was done by two different people and has two noticably different textures. Here are the pics: https://imgur.com/a/POkkq1G We plan to send these pics to our contractor and ask them to fix the rough spots around the windows at least, but we aren't sure if we should ask them to also fix the texture in front and fill/level off the thin spots, too. Are we being too picky? [link] [comments] |
| Anyone know how I could fix this... hard water ? Posted: 04 Jul 2020 08:00 PM PDT To be honest, I'm not sure what it is. I think it's hard water. I think I have a granite countertop for my bathroom. I used a brush and a drill with hard water remover from amazon, but I think that damaged the gloss and didn't remove all the hard water or it's been damaged from the hard water. Any idea on how to make my sink countertop clean and smooth again? Do I need to buy something like granite sealer ? Was considering leaving vinegar overnight to get rid of the hard water but apparently that's bad for granite ?? Edit: the back of the faucet is dirtier because I couldn't reach to scrub it well [link] [comments] |
| Need help adding basement wall Posted: 04 Jul 2020 08:15 PM PDT Let me preface this by saying I am in no way experienced in construction, but i have just finished building the frame to non load bearing wall to start refinishing by basement. Upon finishing the frame and propping it up i realised it will sit between two joists. from the endless hole of google ive seen/read about people "blocking" joists for walls and support but nothing about building code for placement. can anyone help me understand this? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 04 Jul 2020 07:20 AM PDT We all know there are both gas and electric stoves, but ventless vs vented dryers was new for me. Makes me think what else is out there that could be useful in specific situations? [link] [comments] |
| Apartment I'm renting has a vintage stove that's hot ALL the time. It's driving me nuts. Any fixes? Posted: 04 Jul 2020 07:53 AM PDT I believe it's a Cribben universal roastmaster. I can't find any info on it so I'm not sure if that's the right name. Either way, the sides of the stove are constantly surprisingly hot to the touch and I think it's making the kitchen/rest of the apartment way hotter than it should be which is problematic because we don't have central AC. The oven is off, and the broiler doesn't work so that can't be the issue. My friends keep telling me there's no way the pilot light could generate that much heat but the fact that I've been able to use the sides of the range as a makeshift iron for an art project is... kind of weird. I'd get another AC for the kitchen but that seems silly and I don't have the funds for that at the moment. I was wondering if there was anything I could do to keep the rest of the apartment cooler? Or if there's something messed up with the stove that would also be nice to know. Also, if there's a better sub for this let me know :) [link] [comments] |
| Any tips for making a marble stain poultice? Posted: 04 Jul 2020 09:39 PM PDT I had a bottle of shampoo leak onto my marble shower bench and while it's not the most obnoxious stain in the world, it's definitely a noticeable dark circular spot in the shape of the bottle. I've heard that you can create a poultice for marble using various things, but I'm terrified that I'm going to stain or bleach the marble and make it worse. Does anyone have any tried & true poultice recipes that could possibly work? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 04 Jul 2020 10:10 AM PDT So we have this window above our front door and as you can see it's not a perfect arch. I would like some advice on some sort of covering to help keep the light from shining inside. I looked a arch window coverings, but since this is not a perfect arch, I'm having trouble finding something that fits. Any advice would be appreciated. FYI: The stuffed animals are there to stop birds from flying into the window or landing there and yes it's been very effective. [link] [comments] |
| Opening a door from inside house to garage Posted: 04 Jul 2020 05:31 PM PDT Hi everyone, We're closing our house this Thursday and one of the improvements we want is opening a door from this hallway to the garage (below grade of the house 1-2 feet). The thing is just found out there is central vaccum rough in exactly where we planed to have the door cut (the plate closer to the corner, the other one is electrical but distant enough to probably not having to relocate that one). How complicated would be to relocate the vaccum piping? We plan to hire a contractor to cut the door open and hung it, also create a couple steps to the garage but wasn't counting having that relocation into his pricing (around 3k cad with all hardware). I think from the location of the other outlets, the piping goes down to the basement and up to the 2nd floor. [link] [comments] |
| Honeywell Thermostat changed, now cool setting does heat Posted: 04 Jul 2020 06:30 PM PDT Also posted to Honeywell subreddit but just in case. TH7220u1035 switched to RTH7600D and now, the cool setting actually does heating. Just wanting to know if anybody has any idea how to help me figure this out quickly this weekend. My prior honeywell unit (TH7200u1035) works but the display was hard to read. I did not find another unit that was exactly the same so I bought RTH6700D. I just tried plugging in the new unit into the existing plate which fits (see the image). Immediately the cool turns to heat even though on cool setting. I changed the plate to the new one which is only missing the right side bottom three prongs but otherwise looks the same, and the same thing happens. I noticed the advanced settings on the old unit do not match the advanced settings on the new unit. Manuals: Old (install): https://customer.honeywell.com/resources/Techlit/TechLitDocuments/69-0000s/69-2668ES.pdf Old (manual): https://customer.honeywell.com/resources/Techlit/TechLitDocuments/69-0000s/69-2667ES.pdf New: https://images.homedepot-static.com/catalog/pdfImages/85/855cb54b-bbb7-45e8-b7a4-4c868f05e142.pdf Can anyone make sense of this? I chose #9 for setting 170 [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 04 Jul 2020 06:30 PM PDT I'm in the process of having a siding contractor replace my siding I had termites which have been treated. The question is now the best way to locate any damage in the house which currently has vinyl siding and foam sheathing underneath then framing. During the siding install they will take off all the vinyl. I'm concerned there will be hidden damage on the framing covered by the foam sheathing so I want them to remove all the foam sheathing as well is this the best course of action? I was told I would need to add plywood afterwards adding a significant amount to the job. Is this a good idea or could something else be done to be more cost effective? [link] [comments] |
| How to restore old school garage doors? Posted: 04 Jul 2020 09:03 PM PDT So I recently purchased a home with some cool garage doors. Problem is they are old and need some tlc. Anyone have any ideas for what I can do with the doors? They are wood and have some original (wavy) windows and some plexiglass replacement windows. They have seen better days but I want to restore them close to their former glory. I would appreciate any suggestions on how I might weatherproof them so they can stand up to the winters and summers in the Midwest. The partner and I want plan on painting them white when they are cleaned up. The pictures are from the inside and the outside is painted white and also has some peeling paint. https://imgur.com/a/QEB0ti3 Also, water leaks through the windows so I assume I will need to seal those up somehow as well. Thanks in advance! Edited to add: picture of top of doors and track it runs along: https://imgur.com/a/ymQXZrs [link] [comments] |
| Replace the aging HVAC system proactively or wait? Posted: 04 Jul 2020 05:14 PM PDT We bought our house new in 2004 so our 2 system HVAC are coming up on 16 years old- which from my general understanding means we are basically now on borrowed time. They are both Goodman units- I belive 2.5 ton for the upper level and 3 ton for basement and main level. We've had a handful of issues over the years but nothing really major. It was 98 today and here in Virginia and the units worked just fine. With all that in mind, I've started the "interview" process and getting estimates on replacing both systems. I'd rather go through that process now when the systems are working than be forced to make a quick decision when they fail and need to be replaced. My big question is this- does it make any sense to replace the units now, while they are working? I was thinking if I did it off-season (ie winter) I could maybe use that to my advantage to secure better pricing. And then there is the what manufacturer is he's discussion? Of the 2 quotes I've received, (both reputable installers with good reviews) one used Lennox with a 2 system "good" option of 14K to a "best" option of 20k. The other installer uses Trane with a much tighter range- "good" was just under 13k to best of 14k. In a quick look at the Trane web site though it looks like those with both lower-end units. With all this in mind... Does it make sense to replace now (or in the winter) to secure better pricing knowing they are likely at the end of their life (or are they?) Best manufacturer to go with? Any other suggestions or comments as I begin this process? Thanks! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 04 Jul 2020 05:11 PM PDT hey all- I'm replacing my old light fixture in my bedroom, because ya know, it's ugly. Bought one from IKEA, and we had to buy a different crossbar so we (my boyfriend is helping me) could extend where the screw holes are so we could attach it to the ceiling. Problem is, when he was attaching it, he strung the wires in such a way that they're bent a bit (see photo). Is this safe?! [link] [comments] |
| What’s On My mom’s Bathroom Ceiling? Posted: 04 Jul 2020 05:11 PM PDT My mom's bathroom ceiling has black marks on her bathroom ceiling. These black marks are all over the bathroom ceiling in and out of the shower area. The marks are all within 4" of the ceiling if they are on the wall. The only source of ventilation is a smallish (guessing 10" x 15") window to the outside and she usually keeps the bathroom door closed. When I asked she said lately she has only had the window partially open. I removed a few of the marks with a sponge, Windex and some elbow grease. Is this some sort of mold or roof leak? This is not a chronic problem she's been there over 25 years and this is the first time these marks have appeared. Pics: [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 04 Jul 2020 04:20 PM PDT I need help identifying a part on my Fujitsu mini split unit. Model #aou24rlxfz outside temp sensor. It's about 5 feet long blue connector. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 04 Jul 2020 02:02 PM PDT I have a cracked ceiling joist in my garage. This beam is connected to the track that holds the garage door when it's open. What would be the best way to repair this or am I better off calling in some professional help? how do I fix this? [link] [comments] |
| How do I update this bathroom for cheap? Posted: 04 Jul 2020 10:35 PM PDT I'm thinking ideally under $1000. I am open to any ideas. I thought about refinishing the tile but with all the different shapes I don't think it will work well. What do you think we should do? And what do you think about this idea: —Regrout/recaulk existing tile where it's failing —Replace bathroom floor tile with dark (maybe espresso) tile (what size/shape?) —Replace vanity (18.5, up to 20") what color? —Repaint walls (what color?) —Replace round toilet with something a bit more modern Any other ideas? Thanks in advance! pics here Edit: current floor pic here [link] [comments] |
| How do I add curb appeal to this house? Posted: 04 Jul 2020 10:29 PM PDT I definitely want to place properly-sized shutters on the house and repaint the doors. Any suggestions for colors for both? Also considering adding a trellis to the side of the porch for privacy. Any additional ideas are much appreciated! Thank you! pic here [link] [comments] |
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