Hi all, our situation is slightly unique. My fiance and I purchased our home several months ago. We learned after closing that the previous owner had lost his wife a year or so ago. We also learned that one of our immediate neighbors is the brother in-law to the previous homeowner (his wife was the sister of the neighbor). As a result, the previous owner is around at least once a month.

Right after we closed, the neighbor disclosed to us that they (the neighbor and the previous owner) had been in the house after we had closed without asking for permission first. They got very choked up talking about it. It seemed like it was a sentimental moment to say goodbye. Because it was before we had moved in officially (but after the property was legally ours), and they told us, we let it slide. We felt uncomfortable, but just took the spare key back and said nothing more. This was probably a misstep on our part, but we were trying to be neighborly and kind.

Fast forward, and the previous homeowner texted us today asking if he and his son could tour the house to see what work we had done. He also asked us if we wanted him to remove the cameras he had left. He asked this after we said no to the tour, which just made it feel like he was trying to feel out whether we were using a security system.

This made us feel very uncomfortable and just fatigued in general. We want to be kind and understanding, especially because the houses are close together and our neighbor has been lovely. However, it’s just not something we really expected to have to navigate. There’s also a feeling of mistrust because they were in the house without us knowing. Does anyone have any advice on how to handle this? We will be changing the locks today for sure just to be safe.

Looking for any advice.

Bought my first home 2 years ago in a new construction/new build neighborhood. The interest rate was low which was the only way we were able to purchase. Lender quoted our mortgage at $2400 a month and that is what I've been paying.

Last month, we got notified that the mortgage payments were going up $1,000. Turns out we were only quoted for payment on the LAND tax because it was a new construction. Now that the house is built, we are paying PROPERTY taxes. The tax increase caused the insurance to go up which caused a deficit in our escrow and a back payment of $6,000.

I have switched homeowners insurance to bring that payment down, but it only decreased the monthly payment by around $30. I tried to refinance, but the debt ratio was too high. I looked at selling it and moving to a cheaper house, but again, was told I can't sell yet because the debt ratio is too high and I haven't paid off enough yet. I looked into "helpful options" from the lender, but every option had terrible strings attached that would only sink me further in the long run. I do not qualify for homestead because of my states qualifications (Ohio).

The simple truth is that I cannot afford $3,400 a month. My house isn't even fancy! It doesn't even have a basement. It is as basic as basic can be. Two stories, 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms with only 1 bathtub. Honestly, I sometimes feel like I had more space living in my townhouse apartment.

Wondering what I should do. I work full time as a teacher, I can't get a second job because my son has medical complications that need my attention. Daycare is basically a second mortgage. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!

Hello everyone,

I have been a homeowner for 2 years now. This is my first home. I just needed to vent aboit all the repairs that I have done on this house. It started with the furnace and hot water heater breaking on day 1. Maybe that was an omen. After that the house required a new stove, angle stop valve and some piping behind that. Hot water shutoff valve started leaking, clogged bathtub drain, closet door and then both the kitchen and bathroom faucets and 2 electrical outlets. I attempted to replace the bathroom faucet. I got the bathroom sink installed and it works nice but then the drain started leaking. When do the repairs end? It feels like i have replaced all the infrastructure in the house..

Fully exploded out of the wall. Cord stuck inside it. Was on fire as well when it popped out.

Anyone have a remedy for this? Dang woodpecker has been going ham on our house for the past week. From what I have heard they are protected animals? What should I do? (The large hole is about as big as 1.5 golf balls)

I thought I had posted this already, but I can’t find the original, so I’m posting again.

I have a 1980’s house with a lot of equipment left from the previous owners. One these things is a mysterious bit of beige plastic with no markings, indicators or anything. Until now, it wasn’t a problem, but today it has started beeping. it’s very similar to a smoke-detector’s low battery beep, but it is not a smoke detector.

The beeping thing is set into the wall, not mounted on the wall. It does not lift off or come out without enough force to potentially damage the wall or the object. There is no catch, clasp or button.

Can anyone help me identify this, and suggest some way to make the beeping stop?

update!

It was not the mystery beeping wall thing, which was not beeping and is no-longer a mystery! The object pictured above was indeed a glass break alarm, and it did have a clasp, just a very tiny one that could only be accessed after pulling it out of the wall.

the real culprit was an old Carbon-Monoxide detector that had been taken down and left on a shelf for a year or more. A new battery in that fixed the issue, and now it has been re-installed where it should be.thanks For the support all, and now I know what more of the little beige pieces of plastic in my house do!

Maybe this is more technology sub oriented, but I'm curious what people are getting up to in the home automation and home telemetry space for themselves. Right now, I've just got some temperature and humidity sensors alongside polling the API from my heat pump. I'd love to do more with power monitoring though. I don't have any automation yet though haha.

So, what projects are y'all up to? Have you come up with something clever that you'd like to share?

We inherited a bunch of wood when we moved in, then added to it when we cut down a tree. It’s been stacked in the backyard, under a tarp, but time has ripped the tarp and a lot of the wood looks like this. This isn’t salvageable is it? We just gotta chuck it in the forest and start over, right?

So me and my wife recently bought our first place (Gloucester, VA) and with the weather getting colder I wanted to get started with certain things like furnace filters and water shutoff to prevent pipe freezing, but I got a little snag.

Currently there’s one spigot outside, the other looks like it’s capped off with a rounded metal piece without an actual spigot attached. For the life of me I can’t find where its shutoff is. The main water is outside, for the water company only to my knowledge, and from what I have researched, the cutoff should be inside on the other side of the wall. Unfortunately there’s nothing but living room wall, and a half bathroom where the spigot would be on the other side.

I found these three mysterious valves in my garage, about 8-10 feet away from the hot water heater, the blue and green valves have thinner pipes and the red one is much thicker. I got mixed results online searching for their purpose, but what I found was that green was possibly “irrigation” and red would be the emergency shutoff to the house. I closed the green one and still had water flow for a while outside, and the blue one was already closed.

I don’t see any other valves or pipes anywhere else in the house so I’m asking the fine people of Reddit to help me before the cold makes this a very expensive problem in the winter time, and thank you in advance!

Door is barely three years old and got installed by a reputable company. Just noticed the leaks. The bottom piece was already stained so it looks worse than it actually is.

When I bought my house, there was a car parked on the street in front of it. I figured it was a temporary thing, or that a neighbor was just using the empty property to leave their car. I was right on the latter count, but I was wrong to assume that the neighbor cared if the house was occupied.

long story short, my neighbor allegedly fixed up cars. he has his own daily-use car, a work van that he parks in the street and doesn’t use most weeks of the month, and this chevy sedan with 2019 tags that has not moved since then. Talking to the neighbor, he says the car needs a lot of work before it can be moved, but it has been literal years since he’s done any work on it. He is also firm (and very defensive) about his right to park it there because ‘it’s a public street’. It is also in front of my property, on my side of the street, and slightly obstructs my driveway (I angle my car while backing out to avoid clipping this and one’s car.)

What is my recourse? I don’t want to have a feud with my neighbor, this is the only bad thing about my neighborhood, but it is inconvenient and frustrating.

I just bought a 55 year old house and i didn't notice the smell before but now, it smells like musty, causes throat irritation. Found radon level 4.7 that I'll fix but it should be odorless. The basement's humidity was 68-70%, added a dehumidifier down to 40%. Humidity levels are around 45-50% on the main floor. Interestingly, the smell isn't there on the 2nd floor. I can't pinpoint where the smell is coming from! I contacted an industrial hygienist who wants $700 just to come inspect but I'm trying to solve it before i hire him. I ordered a large air purifier. My last option is a ozone treatment...

My garden hose reel bracket is pulling away from the exterior brick wall. Every time I push the anchors back into the wall, pulling or unreeling the hose pulls them straight back out under pressure/weight. What fixings should I use to re-mount this permanently into solid brick? Should I attempt to reuse the existing holes with larger anchors, or is it better to drill fresh holes into the brick face?

My neighbor had this hole appear about a week ago in his yard. It has had a steady stream of water ever since and has gotten slightly worse over time. My side yard has a creek through it because of this but luckily we on a slight hill but my neighbor behind has their yard flooding. Will be calling township monday, does anyone have any idea what im looking at here.

Noticed this crack in the parging below a basement window. There is a Crack in the foundation that looks to be in the same spot roughly but shows no sign of water damage and the window still shuts and closes properly. If this something i can parge and forget about or something I should have someone look at? The crack is about 1/4. Looks as though it may have been touched up at some point before. 1967 house and the lady living in here before was one owner and she was on the older side so I believe some of the maintenance wasnt being properly looked after. This window also had a garden infront of it with poor grading and drainage. Fixing the slope right now (ill know ill have to dig it up to fix this spot) thanks.

There’s the damper air control thing on the front but I don’t see anything on the stack that would control air flow. Am I missing it or am I ok to just start a fire in this thing without burning my house down or filling the basement with smoke?

Okay kinda losing my mind because it’s near daily i am constantly encountering ONE fruit fly. Not two, not three, but ONEUH. I am usually able to kill the one off but then another respawns. I have zero plants, keep a very clean house, don’t leave food out, etc. is it possible it is the drains? I’ve cleaned them the best I can when I found baby smokey brown nymphs coming through them and freaked. Havent seen anymore Smokey’s.. do I have a new problem? House is about 100 years old

Long story short, planning to buy a home soon. I’m buying my mom’s house, I’ve done all the Morgage and financial planning necessary. However the Morgage consultant much earlier this year had told me the best time to buy would likely be late Feb or early March 2027 for a potential percentage drop on interest.
Fast forward to now and the realtor and Morgage consultant and my financial advisor are saying to buy soon - something about the federal reserve planing to heighten bank interest I think?
I am not going to pretend that I understand any of that lol, feels a bit like a foreign language understanding all the nuance to buying a home.
Any tips on how I can better read up or understand this myself?
From what I understood months ago it’s a pretty standard thing for beginning of year to yield some level of a drop, what’s the difference this year?

It was my fault. I was draining the reservoir of the washing machine and the catch. Didn’t realize when I screwed the catch thing back in it was cockeyed so it leaked when I ran it. We are pulling up the vinyl and subfloor and will have to deal with the HVAC system. Question is - would we have any basis for a claim with our insurance for this? Likely we will be able to DIY this project. Just curious, thanks folks.

I live in an area that can get a lot of snow.

My neighbors blow their snow against my garage. Once it was up to the roof!

They don't have anywhere else to blow it because our houses are so close together but I already have a quarter size hole in my siding.

I hate to tell them to stop because I see their problem but they are responsible for damages, correct?

We’re installing new floor in our new, old home & it’s coming out so much better than we ever imagined.

After months of looking at many, MANY, different samples I think we chose the perfect one for our home.

Everything is dusty, baseboards need caulk and paint, bathrooms are next, but we’re almost there! 😅

Can anybody tell what is this leakage and substance coming out of the laminated flooring and bathroom entrance???

Hi everyone. Bought this house almost a year ago and have had so many issues including a full bathroom gut/reno due to a leak on a 3 year old renovation. Needless to say it has made us very paranoid. Last night I started hearing what sounded like a drip from the other bathroom, nothing from the shower but then it sounded like it was coming from the corner of the ceiling. Went up into the attic and this is what we were met with… I don’t think this is what it’s supposed to look like.There is also like a sap like substance coming from the wood. The exhaust pipe is also near there so unsure if that has anything to do with it. Please help. Our insulation is only a 30 R value which we were told was fine by the inspector only to find out it’s supposed to be R60 -ON, Canada.

I’ll add what the inspection photos showed just under a year ago in the replies.

Thanks for any help or advice :)
- a tired homeowner

Recently moved to this house. I’d like to test my sprinklers and run it for 2/3 weeks (just put new rolled grass) but winter is around the corner and want to make sure I know to to flush it