Hello Reddit!

I need third-party perspective from anybody who's generally in charge of managing the landscape of their household.

Viewing the attached photos, you can see that my backyard has a pretty sizable slope, and it's located right in the middle of my yard. Our lot is about 0.4 acres, so the backyard is most of our lot. The issue I have is because of this slope in the middle of the yard, it's unusable. To make it even more fun and enjoyable, I have to mow it because there is grass there. Currently I'm using a zero turn, which is a major pain, and it takes me about two hours thirty minutes to manage the property between mowing everything and then weed eating. About an hour of this is managing the steepest part of the hill, which you can see in the photos next to the rock landscape.

Okay, to my point. We now have a general need for a shed so I can create more room in our garage. I want to take all the lawn equipment, the lawnmower, everything that's used to maintain the outside of the house, and put it in this shed. My wife wants me to put the shed in the far corner of the backyard. What I want to do is hire somebody—and I know this is going to be expensive—to dig out the steepest part of that hill, put in a retaining wall to the size of the shed we decide on, and put the shed there. My thought process is that I would be taking unusable space in my backyard and making it useful while also removing the most difficult part of my yard to maintain.

This is not a house we intend to retire in. As such, my wife and I have argued whether or not by doing so it's going to improve the chances of selling the house or reduce the chances of selling the house. All I have to offer is my experience in maintaining a house's landscape for the last ten years of homeownership. Based on my own opinions, I am likely to include the difficulty of maintaining said landscape in my buying decision, so if I saw a yard like this, it would be a major drawback of purchasing the property.

If you would all be so kind to provide me with your opinions, I would greatly appreciate it.

Edit - I could only add one photo, here's a link to show a better perspective.

https://imgur.com/a/Lpvx9d3

*Additional context, that "sand pit" you see is for an above ground pool. Our HOA allows us to setup above ground pools while in season, but then requires us to break them down at the end of the season. The plus side of putting a shed in that hill, is that I can also store all my pool equipment there.

- No, I'm not made of money either. I recognize this is something that will be ridiculously expensive, so if the consensus is that my idea is stupid, the congratulations - You all saved me tons of money.

As the title suggests my neighbor built a wall and a big heavy 10 ft gate across a 15 ft easement driveway. Effectively cutting the width from 15 ft down to only 10 ft. My question is that he is selling his home, will a mortgage bank write a mortgage on a property that has an encroachment on an easement?

Every time I try to get a contractor it turns into the most frustrating experience in the world. Getting a dishwasher installed took over a month of getting ghosted and pestering them for replies. Now I just need someone to take down a metal ceiling panel so the plumbers can get in there to fix a leak and again it's just such a hassle getting anyone to call me back!

Do they not want my money? I'm desperate to give them money! The ceiling thing won't even be hard, it's just too bulky to do ourselves!

I live in a house that's about 80 years old. I think one couple lived here for most of its life. There are random boards, planks, nails - fine. But what are all these pokey-poley-hookey things. There are so many in different shapes, sizes, and materials. (It will only let me add one picture, but genuinely there are a lot, mostly in the garage, at least one in the basement.) If it's relevant, I live in a small town but not like a farm area.

I was going to patch it myself, but starting to worry i should make it done by professionals.

Its going at least 1 feet into the ground, going deeper tha were i dig.

House is 8 years old.

Should i worry ?

Has anyone seen this before? We just bought this house a couple of months ago, and doing yardwork this morning I noticed a big wet spot around the sump pump drain (above it is the radon duct). It seems like the discharged water may not be exiting through the drain but instead leaking into the foundation. Could this cause issues with the foundation, especially as we move into colder months? Any advice for diagnosing and fixing the problem?

Thanks!

Okay, so my wife and I have had an issue where all of our clothes smelled like wet dog, but only AFTER we step outside. Inside the house, everything smells great, like freshly cleaned laundry. The second (and I mean within 10 seconds) you go outside, your clothes start to smell like wet dog.

Started troubleshooting with the usual suspects and tore apart entirely my washer and my dryer. Cleaned everything, even took apart the drum of the washer and cleaned the inner side of the plastic drum.

We started soaking our laundry to remove bacteria and mildew, first with vinegar, then with oxi clean, most recently with dawn dish soap. Nothing has worked.

Swapped laundry detergent, used a pet enzyme booster, baking soda, borax, we have tried everything we can think of, to no avail.

Yesterday, we left the house a noticed a similar smell on the plastic lids of our yeti travel mugs. That’s a clue, so we started to believe that it was our water heater.

Yesterday I drained and flushed the water heater, we soaked laundry in cold water with dawn dish soap, no effect, still smelled strongly of wet dog and still ONLY after it had been outside.

We have lived in this house since June and it only started in the last couple weeks.

We are at our wits end. We have a newborn baby and we don’t want to keep washing her clothes and burp cloths in a washing system that is clearly not getting everything clean.

Any help or opinion would be appreciated.

I love cooking bacon, so sometimes I set off the smoke alarm. I looked into how to reduce false alarms and found out that placement, sensor type, and regular cleaning all matter. The general recommendation is to keep smoke alarms at least 10 feet from cooking appliances when possible. Dust, cobwebs, and other debris can also cause issues, so keeping the alarm clean and checking its age matter too.

Earlier this year, I finally replaced the first alert ionization alarm near my kitchen with a photoelectric xsense one and I've had fewer false alarms since then. Of course, it'll still go off if I smoke up the kitchen, but it happens a lot less often now. Photoelectric alarms tend to be less prone to cooking-related false alarms than ionization ones.

I'm thinking about gradually replacing the rest of my ionization alarms with photoelectric ones, too. If your smoke alarm keeps going off while you're cooking, check its placement, sensor type, and whether it needs cleaning or replacing. I'd rather figure out what's causing the false alarms than get so used to them that I start ignoring the alarm altogether.

My wife & I have an electric water heater that appears to be near it's end of life so we are ready to replace it. The more I read about heat pump heaters the better they sound, online- but I would like to hear some real world experience with them before we plop down a chunk-a-change for one.

1. Those of you who have actually have one, does it offer the energy savings I read about online?

2. Is it as simple as a regular electric unit- 240v wiring, a hot & cold water line? I have done regular heaters so I feel comfortable doing a heat pump if they are similar in installation. It will be installed in the basement with plenty of space around it.

3. Which brand has been working best? I can get AO Smith at Lowe's, and a local plumbing supply has Bradford-White.

We think we are going to get the 80 gallon so we can leave it on the 120v circuit all the time unless we have company- right thinking or no?

1. Anything else we should know before we do this?

Thank you for any information you can share.

Be very wary of this company if you have any remediation needs at your home. The franchise I worked with attempted to defraud me of thousands by fudging numbers in their xactimate project management software which ultimately generates the invoice for the client. They initially thought they would be submitting to insurance which is I guess why they ran a fraudulent bill up. Then when insurance denied the claim they stuck us with the invoice.

Long story short it took probably close to a hundred hours of line by line analysis of their invoice and back and forth with the owner to get to a settlement. Contacting corporate to complain yielded zero results as nobody from their HQ would return my calls.

Be careful out there, especially in the world of remediation.

I am totally inexperienced here. There is a room in my house that has a bit of a weird smell which I suspect could be mold. I have hired a mold tester before and I believed he only tested the air and had it sent to the lab, and from his results, the level of mold seems to be okayish, even though the room is indeed humid and not well ventilated. However, I don't think he ever tested for hidden mold inside the walls or under the carpet. The carpet is a bit concerning since parts of the carpet feels slightly cooler than the rest which seems to be a sign to be hidden moisture and possibly mold deep underneath.. Are there any companies in the SF Bay Area that does more thorough inspections inside hidden areas? Is it even worth hiring those companies? Sorry, I am totally new and inexperienced here, and I'm not sure how to proceed.

Home is less than 3 years old. This is 1 of 2 spots in a vacant room. No pets or people stay in it.

This is the only room in house this exists. Upstairs near exterior wall / window.

Hi all! So I’ve been a travel nurse for the past 4 years, mixed night and day shifts but have decided to settle back down in one area and moved into a new home a couple weeks ago.

Has anyone else who has moved into a new home had a horrible time sleeping? I’ve got my home furnished mostly and it’s cozy and whatnot but I’ve been able to sleep like 2 hours most nights and that’s with taking unisom, zquil, melatonin, and magnesium.

Im not sure what my deal is but has this happened to anyone else?

Found a house after years of searching, everything looks good. They have an underground oil tank they were using until April this year when they properly abandoned it. They have all of the permitting and paperwork. The attorneys are arguing over a soil test.

I understand the sellers POV, if they test the soil and it’s positive, we back out and they’re still on the hook for all the remediation. I also understand the potential financial risks for us down the line.

Personally it doesn’t bother my husband and I, but I want to make sure we’re not being naive. Anyone have experience here?

Hey everyone just looking for advice. I've been in my home for 7 years now and it's my first place. My neighbours just sold their house and I was approached by a realtor/lawyer about a well access easement.

Basically the layout of the properties is they're both about an acre or slightly larger. There's 40ft between houses but I basically own right up to the side of their house. It goes their house, 20ft green space, thin tree line, 20ft wide gravel driveway to side of my house.

I don't use the green space whatsoever but for whatever reason they have a well bordering my property. They're asking for a 75'L x 20'W easement to allow for future potential maintainence of the well. I have no problem for them to do whatever they want over there if need be but I personally don't like it being legally binding.

My dad's wife is a realtor and she advised against it because it potentially deter future buyers from my place or give them leverage to come down in price.

The way that the easement for me was written up is basically that it's an agreement between the two properties forever no matter who lives there. I know I could suggest it being an agreement between me and the new owner and it's voided when one of us sells but that's how it was currently worded.

I am planning on selling my house in the next 2-3 years so I'm not sure if I feel comfortable with signing an easement.

I do feel bad as my neighbours are elderly and retiring and have always been nice to me but I'm not interested in potentially lowering the value of my home either.

Thoughts?

I wanted some feedback on a Water Heater issue I had and the solution. I had called three reputable, family plumbers in my region. I live in a city, but I would not say it is a HCOL.

The first plumber that came out, which had rave reviews and local recommendations, spent about two minutes looking at my water heater and stated I needed a new one and quoted me $3,100. I had pointed out that the hot water pipe above my heater had been leaking: I noticed it the prior day and in hindsight the water was progressively running colder for probably 48 hours. While my water heater is 10 years old, I maintain it and was surprised that it was considered "dead". I tell them I'll reach back out later if I wanted to move forward with getting a new one.

The second plumber comes over two hours later, starts the water heater, and determines it is functioning just fine. He assumes the minor leak from the top was the issue and replaced the pipe within an hour. $150. I have hot water.

Third person I called and said the problem was resolved.

I am a bit disappointed. Both plumbers were local family places that neighbors had recommended. Am I wrong for feeling like the first plumber was swindling me? First, I thought $3,100 was a bit high - this would be a 40 gallon gas replacement...no real alterations needed. Second, I really wasn't sold that the water heater itself was dead and, when it turned on with the second plumber, I guess I wonder why the first plumber didn't do that? I even asked the second plumber if I needed to replace the heater and he very defiantly told me no no no, it's just the pipe.

Was looking for a shutoff to the valve outside but cannot find any shutoffs except the main inside. Any advice?

My toilet upstairs leaked and into my lower living room ceiling and it’s been over 12 months for a new construction.

When communicating with the builder warranty team it feels like they are trying to say because it’s almost likely a wax seal issue they don’t want to cover it.

They just had a plumber come for an assessment but not said if they will fix or not but the plumber saying it probably won’t be either.

I’m seeing SB800 covers plumbing but when brought up they saying the wax seal is only 12 months

Anyone have any experience or knowledge with this?

For context, my property is in Ontario, Canada and for the past 15 years, I have been renting a water heater from MyReliance. I have very little knowledge on this market, but I have seen far too many places say its better to purchase and own one.

Thus, I have come here hoping to get some advice and recommendations on what kind of model and brand is worth going for and what to avoid. My current water tank is a 50 gallon GSW natural gas "power venting" tank.

I have tried doing some research and see that there are three major players on the market, Rheem, AO Smith and Bradford White. Rheem and AO Smith seems to have common complaints that their tanks are unreliable and often leaks after installation as well as very poor servicing/warranties. As for Bradford White, it seems quite a bit more expensive and harder to purchase compared to the other brands.

I recently bought this house. It has a hip roof built 1997. Sometimes at night I can hear something rustling through the attic. It is unfinished with loose insulation, it is unclear if the "beams" are weight bearing, and the roof is short - No room to stand.

I wish to get better access, and slowly work on improving the attic. If I replace all the loose insulation with modern blocks of insulation, and add more lighting, it would be much easier to spot what is actually in the attic. My main issue is starting and inability to tell if these "beams" are weight supporting. There is currently a plank in the attic that maybe a previous service worker used to be able to sit on multiple "beams" at once.

I’ve lived in my loft for 6+ years. I’ve always had neighbors on both sides, and noise has always been an issue to some extent, usually bass vibrations from music and TV. The layout of our lofts seems to amplify everything because sound echoes and bounces around, and even ordinary noises feel louder than they should. Usually, the noise stops at night, which I’m thankful for.

Recently, my next door neighbor’s boyfriend and his dog moved in. My neighbor is a good friend of mine, and I love her, so I really don’t want this to become an issue between us. Unfortunately, I’ve been woken up almost every morning by doors and cabinets slamming, and sometimes music and the dog barking. All of their cabinets are along the wall we share, so every time they open or close them, I hear it. Between that, barking, and other noise, it’s been really difficult to get consistent sleep.

I’ve mentioned noise to her kindly over the years, and she knows I’m sensitive to sound. I feel like I’ve reached a point where I can’t say anything else. I understand people need to go about their mornings and live normally in their homes. I worry that asking them to be more mindful of how loudly they close things would come across as annoying or unreasonable. I don’t want them to feel like they have to tiptoe around their own home, but I also feel like I should be able to sleep in mine.

I’m a very anxious, hypersensitive person, and I feel like my body no longer fully relaxes when I go to sleep. I almost anticipate being woken up and feel like I can’t truly settle in. I’ve had some really awful experiences with neighbors in the past, including someone I shared a wall with, came home drunk at 2 am, and played piano for hours. I think those experiences have made me especially sensitive to this now.

I need 8 hours of sleep to function, and adjusting my schedule to match theirs isn’t realistic. I own my condo and am on a waitlist to rent it out, but that will take some time.

Even if I do move out, I don’t know where I’d go. I’m paranoid I’ll have the same problem anywhere I live that isn’t a standalone house. At the same time, I’m not sure I’m ready to live in or buy a house on my own. The idea of having to make such a big decision just to feel comfortable sleeping in my own home feels overwhelming.

I’m desperate for solutions, both practical and mental. I have a white noise machine, but feel like it doesn’t help with the vibrations. I’ve been researching brown noise because I’m wondering if it might help more with that.

For anyone who’s dealt with something similar:

• Are there particular sound machines, earplugs, or other products that have made a real difference?
• Is there anything I can do to reduce noise coming through a shared wall, especially when cabinets are against it?
• Has anyone successfully dealt with anxiety of anticipating noise or becoming hyperaware of every little sound? How did you learn to relax in your own home again?
• Is there anything specific I should bring up with my therapist to help with this?
• If you’ve moved because of noise, did you find that living somewhere else actually helped? Have you found condos or apartments where noise wasn’t a constant issue?

I’m not expecting complete silence. I’m just trying to find a way to get consistent sleep and stop feeling on edge in my own home.

Please be kind. I’m already hard on myself about being sensitive to noise. Comments like “you shouldn’t live in the city” or “you knew what you signed up for when you bought a loft” aren’t helpful. Thank you!

Hi, my 1.7 cubic ft GE died and I’ve removed it thinking that I can easily replace it assuming it will fit on the existing bracket. So I am trying to stay as close to the dead (no-longer-produced) machine in the hopes the bracket is common between them.

My questions: is this a reasonable approach? Or are brackets as varied as snowflakes? And because no place has the model I need, can I buy a 1.6 cu model (same measurements except the height is a hair shorter)? Those are in-store now. I have no idea if I would notice the size difference. Would going smaller guarantee a difference in the bracket?

The machine is a GE, and I’m not a GE fan, but it did last over 10 years and I’m sorta stuck with GE, I think, because of the bracket issue.

I have these hairline cracks in my tub. They run nearly the entire ekength if the tub but are very small and can only be seen up close. It's not leaking from what I can see in the basement. Is this okay?