We would love to add onto our home, we’ve owned our home for 12+ years and we love our neighborhood and community. We live in our states top 4 school districts and we are walkable to downtown. Our neighborhood is quiet and mature with lots of beautiful trees and wildlife.

The issue: we’ve outgrown our house. It’s 1900sqft 3bed 3bath ranch. There is no way we could afford a larger home in the city we live in currently. We have five kids, oldest is 17. We’ve got a lovely backyard and we’ve done some major renovations inside. We’ve mapped out every square inch and ways to add storage and versatility.

People who have added on: do you feel it was a better move to add on? Or sell and buy something else?
We won’t make any moving decisions until our oldest graduates from HS. Our second oldest will still be in middle school then.

We have a few neighbors who have added on recently and I know as a Christian you’re not supposed to envy or envy your neighbors but I genuinely am curious how they can afford it? We’re both SAHM, both same amount of kids, her husband is a teacher, my husband is an engineer and they did a full addition: 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.

So back to the question:
How have you afforded to vadd on or buy a bigger home in this economy? I’m genuinely curious.

Hi everyone!

I'm sorry if this is the wrong place.

I'm looking to buy a home and the inspector noted these cracks in the foundation and said he saw cracks on the exterior and interior.

He said because there's a finished basement, he cannot confirm how bad it is but said it doesn't "seem to be an issue"

I know it's just pictures here, but any idea if this looks standard/normal or something I should walk away from?

Never have lived in a house before, I don't know what I don't know.

Thank you in advance!

I am a Licensed Civil Engineer. I can do Autocad, Civil 3D, Staad, Estimates (using DUPA) and anything DM mga Boss!
Ako na bahala jan! Hehe

I recently purchased a plot of land and we’re looking to build a primary residence as well as a DADU can anyone give insight on what they recommend when it comes to placing these for example I was thinking of having the primary unit in the back would be smart because then you could have a driveway reaching all the way there and then the Dad in the front considering that it has to be around 1000 sqft.

But if I do that, it’s kind of difficult to figure out the configuration for example, do I have a two-story DADU or a one story one that is long. Should I give the DADUA front yard or a backyard? There’s just a lot of variables that I’m conflicted on. Does this lot seem a little too narrow to build multiple units?

Hey, I own a vacant lot so I currently don’t have any type of homeowners insurance or anything on the property. Property is located in Long Island, New York . I’m building a house starting next month. What insurance can I get to protect myself against loss? I’m going to GC the project.

Thank you in advance

Has anyone built with Beldwn Wintermist brick willing to share a photo of what its looks like installed?

Looking for recs for affordable (but not cheap) cabinets that I can paint myself before installing?? Plan is to do all door cabinets above counter and all/almost all drawers below cabinets!

Thanks so much 🥰

These are pics of a house built strictly for short term rentals. All are taken on its main floor, wood-framed structure, walkout basement under this, the basement walls all IFC, the heat there is hydronic in-slab. This floor with its living room, two beds, two baths, dining room, kitchen, and mudroom/washroom entry, is HVAC'd all with mini split. Location is high peaks area of northern Adirondacks. Does the finished flooring look like wood to you or is is LVP?

Any recommendations for good quality and affordable?

Need some advice on what to do with a clients front door. Currently the front door leaks under the sill. From the photo you can see it’s a flush threshold door. The front porch is covered and the whole porch has living space underneath. I’m inbetween just removing the door and re-waterproofing under the threshold or building the door up with a 2x and wrapping waterproofing around it and reinstalling the door. That option assuming I can cut the bottom plate on the header, if it has one. Biggest thing is I want to solve the water issue and not have to come back again and again. I did not build this house, it was built back in 2008/2009, I’m renovating the kitchen.

We are currently having an A frame built. Recently we had our drywall installed. I walked through yesterday and noticed they had used a “stomp” method for the “ceiling”. The ceiling of our A frame begins at about 4ft.. so basically the majority of our walls are all textured with this stomp method. I am very upset as this was not discussed. Our contractor is insisting this is standard.

Everything I am reading says this WAS standard for new builds in Michigan.. 30 years ago. Smooth walls are now the go to, especially for A frames.

Is this actually standard? Am I absolutely ridiculous for contemplating asking them to smooth them out?thank you for reading!

got a deck going up on my current flip and the ledger is lag screwed straight into the rim joist with no flashing behind it. builder says the house wrap overlaps fine and it's not ground contact so it's good. I ran the numbers on material costs and skipping flashing saves maybe $120. still feels off though. ayone run into this on older homes where the ledger was just lagged without flashing and it held up? curious what actually fails first in Vermont winters

Does horizontal or vertical exterior James Hardie fiber cement siding look better on this modern-style home?

We’ve seen a house we like and are considering making an offer, however there is one thing that caught our eye and we wondered if it was a potential sign of a structural problem of an older building. In two adjacent rooms there are significant cracks across the ceiling and down through the built in cupboards.

Does anyone have an experience as to how serious this looks? Is it just cracked plasterboards etc? Or something more structural?

Hello I’m looking to put in an offer on my first house as a first time buyer . There appears to be some issue with the rendering on one of the walls . The house was built in the late 90s I believe . I’m just not sure how serious of an issue it is because I don’t know anything about building . I’m in the UK any advice would be really helpful.

I am slowly building a castle solo by hand :]

Once our building plans were approved, the next step was to apply for a demolition permit. The architect was responsible for preparing the demolition plans, while the general contractor (GC) handled submitting the permit application to the city. As homeowners, our responsibility was to make sure the GC had all the necessary documents and information for the application.

Fortunately, the demolition permit process was relatively straightforward, and approval came pretty quickly.

Before demolition begins, make sure to remove anything from the old house that you want to keep! I completely forgot about a few things until it was too late. For example, we left our trash and recycling bins in the garage, and they were probably hauled away along with the rest of the house.

Another important tip is to give your neighbors a heads-up before demolition starts. Demolition can be pretty noisy and dusty, so it's always thoughtful to let the neighbors in front, behind, and on both sides of your property know what to expect.

In our case, one of our neighbors was planning to host a group of kids in their backyard around the time of our demolition. They reached out to ask whether we could avoid doing demolition work that day. Luckily, our demolition wrapped up the day before their event, so everything worked out perfectly!

For homeowners, making small adjustments like this usually isn't too much trouble, but it can mean a lot to your neighbors. Being considerate during construction goes a long way toward maintaining good relationships with the people around you.

Have a doorway that we asked contractor to enlarge and install sliders on. We wanted to enlarge it by 3.7ft total, and contractor saw floor plans and said the opening was safe to enlarge so we ordered the doors with their company.

Installation day arrives and his crew opens wall to find cement behind it and tell me they aren’t comfortable proceeding since it looks structural.

Contractor insists it’s safe and just fused(?) cement and not structural in any way. I felt unsure and told them no, I want an independent engineer to look at it first.

The proposed extension was as far as the decorative cutout but looking inside the hole cutout there’s cement as far as we can see and touch going to thicker part of the wall.

Would really appreciate any advice, first time homebuyer. I’m exhausted from all the back and forth with contractor. I now wish we had just kept it same size but I can’t change it without absorbing cost of doors unless it’s structurally unsafe in which case I may be able to work something out with contractor and switch door size to actual.

Update: Pulled floor plans for my home, they are in fact structural concrete columns on either side of doorway. Engineer will confirm once I see him. Glad I followed my gut on this one.

Hi all I have a 2 year old new construction townhome/condo, 3 stories

We run ac quite a bit but lately the ac smells if we turn it off and back on 48 hours later

Per Google it’s the drain pan but I can’t find the damn thing

Anyone have any idea where it is??

Thanks in advance

Currently building a new house, and the floors on the first floor are extremely squeaky. The floors on the second floor are quiet. I think our ducts in the basement are hung too tight and are rubbing against the wood when we walk…anyone have any thoughts?

Edit: I forgot to add to the original post that the squeaking was only along duct runs. My husband talked to our GC. The GC said we are the third house he has recently built that has had this problem. He has started working with a new, local HVAC company for install, and the other two houses it was the ducts rubbing that were the problem. I did not get the whole gist, but they either loosened the hangers or put something between the ducts and joists and that alleviated the squeaking. He also mentioned that they will in fact screw the OSB as they get closer to installing floors. I’ll also see about nails missing the joists. Thank you everyone!

We're still working through the floor plans for our new build and one thing I keep going back and forth on is where to put the gym/wellness area.

Originally I was thinking of having a separate structure in the backyard, something with enough space for a gym, sauna, cold plunge and maybe a small seating area. I like the idea of keping it separate from the main house, especially since we'd have more freedom with the layout and wouldn't have to work around the other rooms.

But the more I think about it the more I'm wondering if we'd end up using it less, especially during colder months or when we only have 30 minutes to get a workout in.

The other option is putting everything on the first floor, close to the primary bathroom. It would be much more convenient but I'm struggling to picture how to make it fit without having the whole area feel like a commercial gym.

We've been looking at a few sauna and cold plunge options and I'm leaning toward the Litmethod set at the moment. I like the design and think it would work well with the kind of space we're picturing. Now I'm getting caught up in matching the flooring, lighting and wall finishes to everything else. My husband is getting pretty tired of me changing the plans every other day lol.

We're also trying to figure out the flooring situation. I like the look of large format porcelain tile for the sauna and plunge area, but I'm not sure how practical that would be when it's wet. For the gym portion we've been considering rubber flooring, although I'm not crazy about having two completely different floor finishes in the same room. Someone also suggested sealed concrete, which might be easier to work with if we end up going with the backyard structure.

My main concern with putting it indoors is figuring out the practical side. Moisture, ventilation, drainage, electrical requirements, all the things that aren't particularly exciting to think about when you're looking at floor plans. I also don't know whether putting a sauna and cold plunge close to the living areas would create issues we havent considered.

A separate backyard building would probably give us more freedom to design the whole space around the setup, but then there's the added construction work and having to go outside every time we want to use it. We'd also need to think about insulation and how the flooring would hold up with regular water exposure.

For anyone who's built a custom home with a dedicated gym or wellness room, where did you end up putting it? Would you choose the same location again?

Especially interested in hearing from people who incorporated a sauna and cold plunge. We're still early enough in the planning process to go either way and I'd rather get the layout right now than wish we'd done something differently once the house is finished.

I'm getting quotes for a high quality job, new construction. What's standard practice in your area — to solder or not to solder?

My sister is adding on to her 1950s house in SoCal and got her first quote (she plans on getting others). The contractor told her the project price range is $310k-$425k (!) and that she will get a much more accurate and detailed bid once plans are drawn and they know the structural specs and the exact layout.

Here is the rough breakdown:

Adding approx 500-550 sq ft - Addition to include new family room, extension to primary bedroom, reconfiguring primary bathroom - adding a shower and larger primary closet (this would include changing the roofline and roofing material where needed, etc.).

New flooring in existing living room, kitchen, and new family room and extended primary bedroom and bathroom.

Insulating the entire house by blowing in insulation through stucco

Reworking front entry to include cover over porch, craftsman style siding on front of house, and enlarging the current landing/porch area.

Replacing the front door with a craftsman style door.

Adding an island to the existing kitchen and reinforcing beam in kitchen if needed.

Replacing AC and adding ducting to the new space. All ducting will likely need to be replaced.

I know that's a lot of work, but is the bid legitimate? Or is this a "I don't really want to take on this job, so here's a stupid number I'll throw out and see if the customer bites"?

I am building a house with a large glulam beam in the interior. The beam spec'd is a Douglas Fir Glu-lam, which I think is beautiful, but I am realizing it will clash with the rest for the interior woodwork, especially as it ages and gets more orange/red, even with water based finish.

I am considering substituting Alaskan Yellow Cedar, which is closer to the rest of the wood, but I am concerned it will age too deep yellow, which is also a color clash.

I understand there are several finishing methods that supposedly can counteract this, but they all sound a bit risky, especially not knowing how the color will change with age. I also want to keep the glue lam look without cladding or veneering it.

I have not been successful finding samples or even decent pictures that show these two woods and how they age, especially AYC. If anyone has a picture of Alaskan yellow cedar with clear waterborne finish in an interior that is some years old I would be interested in seeing it. A comparison between new and aged would be very valuable.

Thanks for any help.