See title. I definitely didn’t order this and it’s been sitting on my driveway for about 5+ hours with nobody coming looking for it. I suppose I’ll just let it sit and hope whoever ordered it comes and collects it? (Or doesn’t)

There’s no slip, receipt, paperwork or anything attached to it. Just a random bunch of lumber and some steel brackets. Advice?

UPDATE: pile of lumber mysteriously vanished by 4pm as swiftly as it arrived. If it was one of you, I shake my fist at you! If it was the original owner, I’m glad you’re reunited with your wood :(

So much lint in the line it was no joke. Dryer was giving e90(I think) error on lg dryer. Wonder how previous owner dried their stuff.

I rarely leave reviews, but after everything I went through with Renewal by Andersen, I feel obligated to warn other homeowners.

I hired Renewal by Andersen to replace a sliding patio door, a front door, and one living room window. Every single project had major problems.

The first issue was the sliding patio door. They manufactured the door too large for the opening. Rather than stopping the installation and consulting with me, the installers simply cut approximately four inches off the siding of my home to force the door to fit. They made a permanent structural modification to my house without my approval.

Next was the living room window. I had asked them to replace one of two matching windows. Instead, they built a completely different style window that looked out of place next to the existing one. Their "solution" was for me to purchase the second window so they would match, an expense that should never have been necessary.

When they installed the second window, there was an obvious two-inch gap between the top of the window and the ceiling. After months of excuses, meetings, and no resolution, my wife figured out what Renewal by Andersen couldn't: they had manufactured a 32-inch window instead of the required 34-inch window. Once again, the customer had to diagnose their mistake.

Although they eventually replaced the window, they damaged my siding during the process and left a hole that remains unrepaired to this day. Despite multiple escalations and promises, no one has ever returned to fix it.

The front door was no better. They built the wrong-sized door, forcing them to replace the molding at both the top and bottom by approximately two inches just to make it fit. After completing the installation, they realized they had forgotten to include the lock mechanism. That meant scheduling yet another visit.

This property is not my primary residence, so every mistake they made required me to travel back to the house, wasting my time, fuel, and money because of errors that were entirely theirs.

The most shocking part of the experience was dealing with management. The Regional Sales Manager came to my home, and instead of apologizing or accepting responsibility, he blamed me for the company's mistakes. He became so loud and confrontational that my neighbors became concerned because of the yelling coming from my house. I've never experienced anything like it from a company that markets itself as a premium brand.

Renewal by Andersen charges premium prices, but my experience was anything but premium. I encountered:

• Poor quality control
• Incorrectly manufactured products
• Unauthorized modifications to my home
• Damage to my siding
• Incomplete installations
• Months of delays and repeated service calls
• A complete lack of accountability
• Unprofessional and confrontational management

In my opinion, this company spends far more effort on aggressive sales and marketing than on delivering quality workmanship and customer service. I deeply regret hiring them and would never recommend them to anyone.

My advice to anyone considering Renewal by Andersen: get multiple quotes, ask hard questions, and be extremely cautious. Don't assume that paying premium prices guarantees premium workmanship or customer service. It certainly didn't in my case.

I have two trees in my backyard, and they have both had the bark chewed about 75% around. Today another 10% was chewed off another one.

How do I protect my trees? Are they going to die? How can I save them?

thank you!

EDIT: 8:34 EST.

Thanks for the responses everyone. A couple things to clarify:

- 1 tree is about 90-95% damaged, the other is approx. 50%
- there is also patches of debarking up in the tree as well… not sure if related.
- We don’t have a dog and not likely one has come into our backyard.
- Both trees have steel mesh 1/4” wrapped around the tree now

I've always lived in modern apartments, and I finally bought a house new construction in a small town. But after four months, all I feel is stress and worry about everything I still need to do. I am dealing with a contractor whom I paid in full, and he never finished the work. I schedule other contractors and take time off from work, and they don’t show up. I’m just mentally exhausted. I spend about 12 hours a week pulling weeds and doing lawn work because the backyard and front is overrun with them. I feel like a fish in a fish tank, so exposed by how horrible my yard looks. I’m trying to take care of it, but it’s not going to happen overnight. I work full-time, attend college full-time, and honestly, this house feels like another full-time job. I’m grateful I managed to buy it, but I can’t help wondering at what cost—my mental health is wearing thin. I’m seriously thinking about selling and taking a loss. Can anyone share advice, encouragement, or insights if they’ve been through something similar? Thanks.

This might be an odd one… I bought a city row home from an older couple and it definitely had a noticeable “old people” smell / perhaps even cigarette-adjacent. Sorry if that’s a rude thing to say. It was worse in one of the rooms but that even leaned more towards a mix of cigarettes and body odor. That room’s smell comes & goes, usually when we keep the door closed. We did our best to tackle it (painted walls, fans, different types of sprays). But I realized when I came back from vacation, the smell in the entire house returned. We kept our AC on so it wasn’t like air wasn’t circulating. Who would I even call about this? I’m so paranoid that this smell is something we have gotten used to and notice it more often when we’re gone for a bit, and perhaps our guests smell this and aren’t telling us. Ugh! Help!

Recently bought a home and have installed our washing machine and tested it out a couple times so far with no issues. This morning I woke up and heard what sounded like the washing machine filling up with water so I went into the laundry room and found this pipe has water coming from it. I noticed the pipe there when I installed the drain hose into the hole on the left side (I took it out briefly to get a better view for the photo) but I didn’t think much of it until now. I can’t find any info by doing google searches..

What is this pipe? Why is it flowing with water and should I be concerned about flooding? Why is it blue on the open end? If it is copper corrosion, should I be concerned about pipes throughout the home?

I’ve been dealing with eczema flare ups since moving in. I have a mild allergy to high levels of copper so now I’m thinking maybe somethings going on with the pipes/water here..Trying not to spiral

Tips, tricks, advice all welcome please!

Looking to start siding my entire house.

Was looking at the LP SmartSiding LP Enginnered product.

Siding Link

Questions

1. Is that siding a quality product? Recommend better?
2. Was looking at the 7.8" wide planks? Or maybe 11.8" would look better?
3. Best under-layment? DuPont Tyvek Homewrap?

Link-Homedepot

1. Would a cap stapler work for this?

Cap Stapler

1. Lateral all the way to the top? Or maybe someone knows a design I don't that would look better for a transition to the roof??

EDIT-

1. Can I use screws?

Yes I will be framing the door in and siding over.

Also looking into narrow smaller longer windows for the top maybe 2 of them to let in natural lighting.

Thank you in advance!

We are getting our kitchen redone. This is our first HUGE project that we are doing in our home that we are hiring out for. We have narrowed it down to several contractors. The one we favor the most is a smaller business, has great reviews, and a smaller online presence, we will call him Bill for this post.

The other contractors have provided very detailed quotes along with proof of insurance and warranty information upfront, but they are also very pricey compared to Bill. Well today I asked Bill to provide proof of insurance and clarification on his quote (it was just a few numbers and little explanation). He kept dodging the question and said he “already reached out to his agent” about the insurance. I get a random email tonight from an insurance company with a COI and my name attached to it. The policy is effective today with a coverage amount of $300k… Now, before you chew my head off, we really like this dude. When we met him, we got all the good vibes and he has done great work from what we have seen. He is also the cheapest. Am I wrong for feeling like we should turn down his quote for this? Like I said, this is our first big project and I would like this to go well. Would you move forward with his quote and just think this was a one off or turn him down and pay more with another contractor?

EDIT: We are NOT going with this contractor. Too many weird things.

Purchased a house last year with two 40 gallon Bradford white gas water heater (model number MI403S6FBN) in series installed in 12/17/2010. The house was built in 2001 so I’m guess the previous water heater only lasted 9-10 years.

so far the hot water does not have any weird smell or color.

The outside of the unit does not have a drip marks or rusting. The TRV is not going off. Everything seems to be working and fine to an untrained eye.

I live in an area with moderate water hardness (7-10 grains per gallon). Hot water usage is low since it is just my wife and I and we only use hot water to shower and run the dishwasher and washer weekly.

Is it possible for a water heater to last 20 years?

I received a few estimates for painting our home. It's only about 1200sq ft, but the price is much higher than I'd expected. I know prices are fluctuating rapidly but I wanted to get some thoughts on what we should do.

About the job:

1200sq ft single story house. Lynnwood, WA

Option1: Company A

• Total: $4480
• Sherwin-Williams Super Paint, 18 gallons in all
• Process
  • Power wash to remove dirt and peeling paint. (First day) Let dry for a day.
  • Prep and cover all areas to protect floors from paint drips and stains.
  • Scraping on peeling areas and sanding as needed for smooth finish.
  • Fill in holes and cracks with caulk where needed.
  • Caulk around windows and doors as needed.
  • Masking on all windows and covering of doors and vents.
  • Start paint spraying and rolling on all the siding and soffit (two coats applied).
  • Remove all masking, plastic, and paper when dry to clean up.
  • Start painting with roller and brush on fascia and trim boards. (two coats apply)
  • Remove all masking, plastic, and paper when dry to clean up.
  • Check all areas for touch ups and confirm project is complete.
  • Clean up all project trash and pack up all our stuff to go.
  • Inspection: Full walk-around to verify quality standards and make sure you are pleased with the job.

Option 2: Company B

• Total: $7650
• Paint: Sherwin-Williams SuperPaint
• SCOPE OF WORK
  • Preparation and painting of the full exterior of house, including the body/siding and trim. Scope of work includes painting gutters and downspouts.
  • Peeling paint will be scraped and one (1) coat of Peel Bond primer will be applied prior to painting to ensure proper adhesion of new coating.
  • Apply two (2) coats of of Sherwin-Williams® SuperPaint® Exterior Acrylic Latex paint to all body/siding surfaces
  • Apply two (2) coats of of Sherwin-Williams® SuperPaint® Exterior Acrylic Latex paint to all trim, gutters and downspouts.

Option 3: 6150

• Total: $6150
• Paint: Unspecified
• This was a much less formal bid, sent via text, and doesn't have any of the specifics.

It looks like Company B does a primer and the other doesn't. Anything else I should be looking for or requesting? We may keep looking for more quotes.

(For some context, I own a condo that has an HOA)

I moved in two years ago, and literally since day 1 this neighbor has been a problem. She has 2 gorgeous Aussie Shepherds but it is incredibly clear they are untrained AND bored out of their minds. They don’t get near enough stimulation. I almost never see her take her dogs with her when she leaves, and she walks them 2-3x a day in our small grass area by the pool. That’s it. Not to mention she’s incredibly rude and disrespectful towards neighbors as well. There have been multiple times I’ve woken up to her dogs barking and chasing each other outside at 2AM OFF LEASH, while she’s chasing them around trying to corral them. She also consistently lets them bark and bark and bark all hours of the day. There has been at least one instance I’ve witnessed where her dogs attacked another dog and she got pissed at the other owner and they got into a screaming match at 7AM. He called the police and animal control on her. She frequently walks them around off leash as well during the day even though they run away from her and cause trouble. I’ve also seen she has a cat that she leaves on her balcony (without protection from falling) for hours at a time at night. I know this because I can hear the cat howling to be let in and I’ve walked out to investigate to make sure the cat wasn’t in danger.

Ive spoken with another neighbor of mine who has lived here longer than me and she said she has had the cops and animal control called on her multiple times and they just… don’t do anything?? This behavior is not new. She has been reported to the HOA and they don’t care either. It’s ridiculous and she is a literal menace to all the other tenants. If police, animal control, AND the HOA won’t do anything… literally what are my options here?

Reading through some water heater posts, i know the inevitable water heater failure will happen. I replaced my last one about 6yrs ago, and i’ve always had the money put back to replace it when the day comes. But someone said, it always happens on a sunday night. So, is there any harm in buying a couple heating elements and a replacement water heater for that dreaded night. would these items last possibly years? I can only see the prices going up, and i can wait for a good sale. what say you?

Do we attempt to get it serviced or or just leave it alone until it dies?

It's in an attic where I don't think attempting to drain it ourselves would go well

My house is about 17 years old. A lot more modern than my previous house. After hundreds of years of home building, it's not unreasonable to expect modern homebuilders to build a product that doesn't suck. Sadly, that is not the case. The design of every house in my neighborhood is flawed. And I have no doubt millions of houses all over the US are similarly flawed by design.

Let's start with the HVAC. We get very hot and humid summers and winters that get down to 20F. Need to have two HVAC systems. One for each floor. The morons that designed the house thought it would be a great idea to put the HVAC systems in the crawlspace and the attic where they are exposed to 20F-140F. They didn't insulate the air handlers so the HVAC is working extra hard due to being in extreme temperatures. So my attic HVAC will run all day long when it's above 90F outside and only cool to 75F upstairs. 78F when it's 100F outside. I've added insulation to the air handlers and aluminum foil on the attic ceiling to reduce IR heat. That only improved my upstairs HVAC by 1F.

The upstairs HVAC is a heat pump that is basically useless for heat in the winter. It blows 70F cool air all day long when it's below 30F outside. Feels like running AC to heat the house and never feels warm. I stopped using the HP because two electric hot oil radiators do a better job and use less energy. HVAC techs say there is nothing wrong with the HP. That's how it works.

Now let's talk about the crawlspace. Which is just a big word for a cramped area under your house where a basement should be. The crawlspace slowly lets humid air in the house thru the floor. I have to run a dehumidifier 24/7 to remove the humidity the crawlspace lets in. On heavy rain days, the humid air gets forced in at a much faster rate. It can go from 45% humidity to 65% and 74F to 78F downstairs after a 10 minute downpour. I'm gonna DIY seal the crawlspace which is a ton of work on hands and knees. Something I should not have to do if humans cared about designing a house that functions well instead of one that maximized the builder's profit.

Electrical outlets. Whoever built this house went berzerk with electrical outlets. There are waaaay too many of them and they are located in ridiculous places. They are eyesores that don't have a purpose. I have to buy objects I don't need just to hide my outlets. The outlets are shoddy. They used cheap outlets that are failing one by one. I've had to replace four already.

Low flow faucets. Not even required by code. Very unsatisfying flow. Hot water can take 4 minutes to get hot. Got a fire place with no chimney. There is a vent behind the fireplace that exposes the entire outdoors directly into the fireplace. It had to be plugged up and decommissioned to seal the house better. The backyard deck was built with nails and is falling apart because of it. You gotta use screws.

It's a $500,000 house in a nice area. This is the kind of crap we get to buy for the biggest investment of our lives.

Refrigerator on 2nd floor and saddle valve on 1st floor celing, connected by copper line.

When Refrigerator a few years ago, home depot delivery guy refuses to connect the Refrigerator with copper line because that is their policy, so I pay him to add a braided supply line between the copper line and Refrigerator.

My saddle line reach end of useful life and I want to replace it. Should I replace the copper line too? The short braided resupply line need to replaced with longer one.

Thank you!

This wall is representative of all the walls in my living room and hallway. I'm replacing the doors with white single panel doors, the paneling and crown molding needs a fresh coat of paint, and I want to paint the baseboards and door casings white. Should all of these components be painted with the same sheen? I've always done egg shell on walls and satin or semi gloss on trim. What is normally used for paneling?

Something I didn’t appreciate until recently: there is no central system that reliably reaches you when an appliance or tool in your house gets recalled.

The CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) publishes recalls constantly - everything from dishwashers and water heaters to space heaters, power tools, and baby gear. But the manufacturer’s legal obligation is basically just to announce it publicly.

Reaching you relies on:

• Registration cards nobody fills out or mails.
• Emails sent to addresses three moves ago.
• Random news coverage you’ll probably miss.

If you bought your house from a previous owner, or bought appliances secondhand, there is literally zero path to notify you.

How to check your stuff manually (costs nothing):

1. Walk through your house and snap photos of the data plates/stickers (usually inside door frames, panels, or back covers).
2. Note down the exact Model Number and Serial Number. (Brand name alone won't work—recalls are almost always restricted to specific model/serial ranges).
3. Bookmark cpsc.gov/recalls and search your model numbers every few months.

Most people won't keep up with a manual spreadsheet long-term, but even doing an initial sweep when you move in can catch dangerous items before they cause a fire or water leak.

(Note: I ended up building a free tool to automate the daily CPSC matching for my own home, but keeping a simple spreadsheet with photos of your data plates works just as well if you stay on top of it!)

We have a 2005 Skyline 28x52 modular that we are trying to sell. Down side is that it's in a community, so buyers would have to pay lot rent.

We can either sell on our own, use a broker, or potentially sell back to the park. The last one will probably yield the least amount of money, but we just want it paid off so we can move on. How can we increase the value of the home or increase appeal?

We painted rooms, changed light fixtures to something more modern, bought a new fridge, placed a new water heater, roof is 5-6 years old, replaced ceiling fan in living room and vent fans in the bathrooms. We have areas where management poorly replaced the vinyl before us buying, so there are spots lifted. Counters are original to the place and have spots that don't come out. Some rooms have carpet but would easily spring to life with a good carpet cleaning.

What I would like to do is repaint the shudders black and stain the two sets of stairs a dark color as the house is white. I think that would make it look more modern.

What else can we do? We want to at least break even and not owe anything on the place.

Condo homeowner here. Got a surprise today that there's mold behind my drywalls that's likely due to some neighbors' slab leaks that they've had going on for awhile. Guess they had some contractors come in to do some work and they inspected both our back walls, and saw mold on my side also. So the contractors said my walls need to come down that covers a significant part of my home.

That includes removing counters and cabinets, etc. to potentially do the work. My counters are all granite and I know it's risky to remove those due to being fragile. Can or would they be saved? Also, what's the likelihood once cabinets and counters are off and put back or replaced, that they're covered by the master policy. I know the coverage will vary. I looked at our policy and, didn't see anything yet and also waiting to hear back from management.

Basically title - found a condensation line dripping directly onto the roof resulting in the mold seen here. More photos in comments. Is this normal? This is a new build (2025) and we are the first owners. Should I try to get a line running this water to the gutter further down the roof?

Thank you!

We bought a house about two months ago. It was built in the 80s, an older woman lived here for about 30 or so years before she passed away then it sat for a couple of years. It was sold and gutted in January of this year. Completely renovated then we bought it. It did not smell when we saw it for the first time or did a walk through. One week after being in the house we started smelling cigarette smoke. It’s gotten progressively stronger as time has gone on and we’re at a loss. We have an 8 month old baby so feels especially bad for her.
We replaced the ac unit a week after we moved in. We also had the air ducts cleaned and sanitized. I’ve washed the walls (numerous times) even though they were repainted anyway. We have also replaced the washer and dryer as the smell seemed a little bit worse near the laundry room area. I feel like I’m going crazy dealing with this. Has anyone dealt with this a successfully gotten rid of the smell?

I bought a dishwasher back in May 15 2026.

Lowes installers came took the old one away i stalled new one. New dishwasher was defective and installers took it away. I sent in the cancelation paperwork. Told Lowes when they called i want a refund because of the defective dishwasher and i still wanted to cancel the order. I also called my credit card company and did a merchant dispute thru capital one mastercard. I went with a different company, a local shop for my new dishwasher. Fast forward to june of 2026 capture one contacts me asking for more evidence to prove that lowe's did not install the dishwasher. I gave them the text messages and emails of lowe's canceling on me because they did not have the installers to install the dishwasher. I also gave them the invoice and receipt from the other company that installed the dishwasher that is not related to lowe's. I did this to prove that lowe's did not install the dishwasher and I had no dishwasher. Capital, one states that is not good enough for evidence. And still wants to charge me the $239 fees and dishwasher even though I have no product from them. Lowes sent capitalone the original may receipt and they state that they did.Install a working dishwasher. With the stuff I have proving that Lowe's did not install. A working dishwasher?Is there something else I can do to remedy this in my favor?

Thanks