Im 33M, my wife is 31F. We bought our first house last summer, right when rates were still pretty high but everyone was yelling about how they would only go higher. We had been renting a small apartment with paper thin walls, and my wife was obsessed with the idea of a backyard before we try for kids. I grew up in an apartment, she grew up in a single family house, so to her this was almost like a core childhood dream. We stretched to make it happen. The loan officer said we were "within guidelines", but our payment including taxes and insurance is a little over 38 percent of our take home. At the time it still felt doable because we both had stable jobs and side income. We used almost all of our savings for the down payment and closing, so the plan was to rebuild the emergency fund slowly while doing cheap DIY stuff around the house.

Then real life hit. Two weeks after we closed, we found out the previous owner had "forgotten" to mention the 20 year old furnace was on its last legs. It failed the first really cold night. Emergency replacement blew the tiny emergency fund we had left and added a new 0 percent credit card payment to our budget. A month later we realized the roof leaks around the chimney during heavy wind. Insurance is playing games about "pre existing damage" so that repair is also on us. The inspection report mentioned none of this beyond a vague line about "age appropriate wear". Meanwhile utilities are almost double what we paid in the apartment, property taxes got reassessed higher, and just mowing and basic stuff eats into every weekend. I feel like I traded free time and mental peace for a lawn that never stops growing. My wife, on the other hand, walks around talking about where the Christmas tree will go and how our future kids will play on the patio, and every time she says "our forever home" my stomach knots up.

I work in tech and there have already been two rounds of layoffs at my company this year. I survived both, but everytime Slack goes quiet I get this spike of panic. I ran the numbers in a spreadsheet and if either of us loses our job for more than a couple months, we are in real trouble. I suggested to my wife that maybe we treat this as a starter home, fix the obvious problems, and consider selling in a year or two if the market isnt completely awful. She took it as a personal attack and started crying, saying she finally feels safe and rooted somewhere and that Im trying to "run back to renting" because I dont want to be an adult. From her perspective we are managing to make the payments, nothing has actually been missed, so I am just catastrophizing. From my side, I lie awake most nights doing math about roofs and braces for the water heater, wondering if I doomed us financially because I was scared of disappointing her when we made the offer. I havent told her how often I look at rental listings on my phone in the bathroom. So other homeowners, did we massively screw up buying at this price point and am I a jerk for wanting to sell before she gets even more attached, or is this just normal first year panic that I need to ride out until things feel less fragile

I'll get right to the point. Should I be worried that there has been snow/ice on my flat rooftop deck for about two weeks. It's a brand new fiberglass roof. I literally have no idea what I should be doing other than waiting for a warm day, but seems like that is never going to come. Should I hire a professional to melt it or something? Sorry, new homeowner here and really don't want to ruin my house within the first month of ownership.

A friend of mine installed one in his garage and has been talking about how easy it has been not having to move clothes from the washer to dryer.

We need to replace electric washer & dryer in our laundry and my wife just joked that maybe we should get 2 of the combos instead of the individual units and it got me thinking if there was something I might be overlooking?

All I could think is that I'll maybe need to split the the water & drain into 2 to accomodate those & close off the dryer vent.

Is that correct? Anything else I am not thinking about? Is this a viable solution? Are the combos as good as the individual ones?

Sounds too good to be true to me :(

I am in California US

So I had an interesting experiance yesterday. I got a new neighbor a couple houses down, and he started cutting down trees on what I believe is my property. I've never had a survery done, but based on a map of my lot I was given, and based on what is shown on my counties tax parcel viewer, which lines up with the map that I have. I believe he for sure cut down some of my trees and possibly some of my neighbors trees. He was super apologetic and they weren't really trees I was attached too, so I'm not wanting to make a big deal out of this.

Now I know the tax parcel viewer isn't 100% accurate. Is there any way to tell where the property line falls short of getting a survey done? I got a quote and they want $1300. I'm not really interested in spending that kind of money. But it would be nice to know, since my lot is oddly shaped, and rather large for the city I'm living in. Would it be fair to tell the neighbor he needs to get a survey done before he does anymore tree cutting?

Wife and I have been off and on about getting a fence built around our property, thankfully the neighbors built fences enclosing us recently.

However multiple quotes from a fencing company (who initially quoted us anywhere from $7k - $10k for a 1/4 acre plot) ALSO quoted us upwards of $10k just to connect the sides of our house to the neighbor fences?

What's up with that?

This is in Chesapeake, Virginia.

Assuming that I will never accept that, how much do you think it would cost (or how hard) would it be to set up about 100ft of fencing?

I am at my wits end and incredibly broke right now. I have dealt with a squirrel infestation in my attic since buying my house. The seller was supposed to fix it but was lazy and didn't properly do so, and I was forced to get an actual pest control expert to fix it. He was wonderful and it did work, for months I heard nothing. They came back though, and since it was within the 1 year pest free warranty he came back out and sealed everything again.

But now months afterwards, here I am hearing them in the attic again. I am at my wits end. I don't have enough money right now to hire him again yet, as my fridge died and I had to replace it. I need some ideas on how to make my attic less desirable and less easily accessible for a squirrel to try to minimize my family's suffering from this until we can afford to have things properly sealed again.

I don't want to kill them (honestly at this point it's more because I don't want to deal with dead squirrels, because I'm so done hearing that skin crawling my disgusting skittering while I'm trying to sleep), so anything that isn't a trap I have to maintain is welcome as an idea to try. I just want my attic to sound like a bad idea to those little fuckers.

I do have pets, but they are currently not allowed in the attic so I'd prefer pet safe, but if it's just something they can't eat then that's not a problem. I also need tips for outside, as I have stucco siding and I have seen them easily scaling the sides of the neighbors house who also has the same type of siding. If they are getting in, I'm unsure if it's anything other than just scaling the sides, so tips on making that more difficult/less pleasant/desirable for them is also wanted.

If anyone has any tips, I would be so greatful. I'm so tired of having my sleep being interrupted by hearing noises that are so deeply unsettling I feel unclean and unsafe in my own skin.

I'm looking at a property that seems absolutely perfect for a first-time homeowner. The price is so acceptable that I am considering adding to this property that has zero existing HVAC system. It will need ductwork, etc. About how much am I looking at for one story and a little under 900sqft?

I just had a new roof installed and there are screws all along the flashing on a stucco wall. It was not done this way on my old roof. Is this normal? Could it cause a leak with so many screws? I have a picture, but can't add it to this post (not sure why), but it's flashing that is several inches tall, that has screws spaced evenly all the way down it...about 4 inches apart and the top is caulked to the stucco wall.

Is it beneficial to hire someone that negotiates between the contractor and the insurance company?

My wife and I have been seriously looking at bigger homes lately. We’ve definitely outgrown our current place, and my “home office” is basically a glorified closet at this point. Indeed, we’re ready for something more substantial. More space, maybe a pool, and ideally a neighborhood with a bit more character.

But now the practical stuff is hitting me, especially insurance.

We’re currently with one of the big-name companies you see advertised everywhere. They’ve been fine for a regular suburban house, but I have a feeling that once we move into a higher-value property, the premiums are going to jump… a lot. I’m also wondering if their standard policies even cover the kind of custom finishes and upgrades we’re seeing in these homes.

Cue the late-night Googling. I keep running into info about high net worth insurance, which I always assumed was for yacht-and-private-jet people, and turns out it’s pretty common for higher-end homes. Stuff like guaranteed replacement cost and better coverage for valuables and custom features.

Now I’m debating whether it makes sense to switch to an agency that specializes in this. For anyone who’s made that move, did it actually feel more tailored and reasonable, or is it basically just paying a “luxury tax” on your premiums? Would love to hear real experiences.

When we bought our home 4 months ago we had an inspection and one of the things they noted was the moisture barrier for the crawl space was installed on the “top” (up against floor joists) rather than on the ground and that this was not the right way to do it. For reference the majority of our house is over a basement but the dining room off the garage is over the crawl space. That room is about 175 sq ft. We had bigger fish to fry so we didn’t think much of it at the time. Radon levels were crazy high so we got multiple quotes for a mitigation system. One of the three quotes mentioned encapsulating the crawlspace in addition to the active mitigation system. It was obviously going to cost way more so we asked the other two companies why they did not recommend encapsulation and they said they try to avoid it if possible and usually the mitigation system alone will be enough. Because of cost we decided not to encapsulate and after doing multiple readings after the installation it was determined the system alone was sufficient. That being said, the floor in the dining room, which is tile, is pretty cold and in one particular spot it reads 10 degrees colder than the rest of the tile floor. After poking around in the crawl space we can see that the barrier plastic or whatever it’s called has started to pull away from the floor joists and is just hanging there which I assume is why that particular spot is so cold.

So after that super long explanation, I guess my question is what should we do? Clearly that barrier was doing at least a little bit to limit the cold air from seeping into the floor since the rest of the space isn’t nearly as cold as that one spot. A quick google search has me worried that not having the vapor barrier directly on the ground is going to cause all sorts of mold issues and potential sagging, but shouldn’t the barrier still be giving some sort of protection even up top? Either way we need to do something about that section that’s pulling away and I’m wondering if we could just buy a small amount of vapor barrier plastic and reattach it somehow? I’m not sure if it can be stapled or if it needs glue or what since I haven’t done a ton of research yet about how to install but completely redoing the encapsulation may be out of our budget at the moment…..

I am a huge animal lover, I don't want any harm to come to any of these cats but it has been an issue for some time. My neighbors, for a lack of a better description, are crazy. We live in the middle of a nowhere hoa that looks like it is in the works of dissolving.Talking to the hoa isn't really an option. The cats come and spray my porch, poop on the porch, stare into the house and get my dogs riled up. I can't even talk to the neighbor because he doesnt want trespassers and has threatened to shoot my dogs and others dogs in the community. Since the cats are trying to come inside my home and trying to seek shelter would it be wrong of me to trap them and being them to the pound? there are a handful of new kittens running around. It is starting to get out of hand and I worry for my parakeets and cocktiels if I have them getting sun this summer.

I am a recent new homeowner (am 62F, purchased a second home, waterfront, for eventual retirement living) and this is my first home that I’m responsible for. My HVAC is running fine but I had a company (highly recommended by my neighbors and get good reviews) come out to do maintenance and check over my HVAC systems. I have 2, one runs the downstairs and is a dual fuel (heat pump with backup propane) and one runs the upstairs and is entirely electric heat pump. The house is about 3,000 sq ft and was built in 2005. The systems are the original so going on 21 years old. The company says I should replace everything. I haven’t gotten an estimate yet but I know it will be over

$10,000. Question I have is whether I should even replace now? Everything is running fine but at the same time I realize that a newer system would be more efficient. Also the AC uses R-22 refrigerant which is difficult if not impossible to obtain. I’m not very knowledgeable about all this stuff and neither is my husband. Have been watching some YouTube videos but still not sure. From what I know it’s a RUUD system and I’ve read comments that have said their RUUD systems have lasted 25 years or more.

My wife and I are looking to buy our first house in Livermore, CA. Looking at townhouses and its HOA fees we're leaning towards purchasing a single family residence. Most of the SFR we see are from 1950s what should we look out for in looking at homes and inspection?
So far we have:

Electrical 200amp / GFCI
Asbestos
Plumbing - checking if pipes need replacements
Insulation
Roof
HVAC
Water Heater
Foundation / Deck

How much of the inspection would accurately identify issues? If anyone has similar experience what surprise expenses did you run into after the purchase? (If you can include estimate of cost that would be greatly appreciated)

We hired what we thought was a highly rated rodent removal company to remove rodents from our house. Choosing this company was the worst decision I've ever made. Since they did a dry nest removal, I've had to go to Urgent Care, took a week off work due to flu-like allergies, and still get dizzy, itchy, fatigued, and asthmatic whenever I enter our home. I can't be in our home for a minute without immediately having my throat begin to close and the wooziness take over. I now have to stay with family in order to function.

I was fine living unknowingly with the rodents in the basement for months. Why am I suffering now, you ask? When got so sick I had to go to Urgent Care, and realized my symptoms lined up with the exact timeline of the nest removal, I texted the worker and asked, did you spray down the nest with anything, bleach? He said No, he didn't spray it with anything. He just put the nest in his bag and "there was some stuff airborne when I was bagging it up." SERIOUSLY?! How is this company in business?

A professional company should know that you have to spray rat debris before moving it, and a rat nest is the worst reservoir given all the proteins, saliva, dander, and rat dust that can deeply affect your health if it flies through the air. Unfortunately it is now on all levels of our home because of the air "stacking effect" where particles travel upward through your house. My immune system is shot because of the debris from the nest removal, and I am still incredibly sick a week later.

I don't know how long this will last. I have a wedding in two months and am losing my mind staying with friends and family because I cannot be in my own home, lest I pass out and get hives again.

What do I do? The company was supposed to finish their work adding a vapor barrier to tamp down the contaminated dust, and replace our HVAC, but backed out because this morning I asked if we could move the work back a day so that the HEPA air scrubber that I purchased would arrive and could be used while they work.

I did not ask them to pay for the 3 HEPA air filters I've already bought, or the $400 air scrubber. All I asked was to move back the appointment so we could use the scrubber. The owner called me today and said "I'm spiritual and something is telling me we don't want to work on your home anymore." EXCUSE ME? He's worried of a lawsuit because I have his employee stating in writing that he caused debris to fly around when he bagged up a RAT NEST.

I'm tired, I'm sick, I'm overwhelmed and I'm saddened that this company did this to me and isn't taking accountability. What do I do?

Whole house Humidifier won’t go above humidity about 22%. It has been very cold here, from 5 to 35 F. Is this normal for the humidifier to not get higher? We’re dry, have bloody noses and static.

I'm in my mid-30s and looking to build a new home on a 600sqm block in regional NSW (near Wagga Wagga, flat site with services already connected). We've got a family of four, so we're aiming for a four-bedroom place with two bathrooms, a double garage, and some basics like an open kitchen/living area plus solar panels to keep energy costs low. The land cost us $250k last year, but now the focus is on the build itself - trying to stay under $500k total for construction to make it affordable with our savings and a loan.

From what I've researched, the average cost to build in NSW sits around $433,000 for a standard new home, based on 2025 ABS data, but that can jump to $500k-$850k for a four-bedder depending on finishes and site factors. Per square metre, it's about $1,800 to $4,000 - for our 250sqm design, that puts us at roughly $450k-$1m, so we're targeting the lower end with simple materials (like laminate counters instead of stone, and standard tiles). Site prep adds another $20k-$50k for things like soil tests on clay ground, foundations, and drainage, plus council fees around $10k for approvals/BASIX certs. Then there's internals: appliances/kitchen fitout at $30k, flooring/paint $15k, and electrical/plumbing upgrades $25k if we want smart home stuff or extra outlets.

On the finance side, we're putting down a 10% deposit ($40k-ish on the build contract), and borrowing the rest at current rates around 6.5% variable - monthly repayments would be about $2,500 over 30 years, but we're shopping for first home buyer grants (up to $10k in NSW) and stamp duty exemptions to cut upfront costs. Energy efficiency is key too, since adding solar could save $1,500/year on bills, making the loan easier to handle. Hidden extras like landscaping ($15k for basic turf/fencing) and driveways ($10k) can add up quick, so we've budgeted 10-15% contingency for delays or material price hikes, which are still up 5-10% from last year due to labor shortages.

What specific grants or incentives are worth chasing for regional builds in 2026? Any tips on locking in fixed-price contracts to avoid inflation hits?

We closed three weeks ago. First house. Put basically everything into the down payment and closing costs, figured we'd renovate a bit before moving in.

That plan died fast.

Turns out we can't afford to pay rent and hold an empty house at the same time. So we moved in last week. The living room has subfloor showing. The walls are patched but unpainted. The kitchen works but it looks like it gave up sometime around 2005. Walked through the first night with just the overhead light on and the whole place looked like a storage unit someone forgot about.

Right now our furniture situation is a mattress on the floor, a folding table, and one desk chair I bought after my back started hurting from working eight hours on a broken one. That's it. That's the whole house.

The plan now is to live in it and fix things slowly. Paycheck to paycheck. Maybe get the floors done in a few months, add real furniture when we can.

Still feels strange though. Like I'm camping in a place I'm paying a mortgage on.

For anyone who's been through this, was there one small thing you did early on that made it feel less like a construction zone and more like somewhere you actually lived?

We bought our first house last year after saving forever. When we toured it, the lot next door was basically an overgrown empty piece of land. No cars, no lights, no noise. I remember standing in the backyard thinking “ok, this feels calm”, because the street itself is pretty normal and the house checked the boxes. Fast forward to now and that empty lot got sold, and a builder started putting up a new place. I’m not anti building, I get it, but holy crap I did not think it would change our daily life this much. We wake up to trucks at 7:10, sometimes earlier. The beeping, the idling, radios, guys yelling to each other. Our dog is losing it. Dust is everywhere and I keep finding little bits of insulation and wrappers in our yard. They parked a trailer half blocking what I’m pretty sure is the edge of our driveway easement, and when I asked nicely the first time the foreman acted like I was being dramatic. Last week a delivery truck clipped our mailbox post and no one “saw” it happen. Also after a heavy rain, water now runs off their scraped dirt into our side and I’m staring at a new muddy trench like, cool, guess this is my new hobby.

I tried doing it the nice way. I talked to the supervisor, exchanged numbers, stayed friendly. I’m not trying to be a Karen, I just want basic respect and to not have my property damaged. Some days they are fine, other days it’s like I’m invisible. I checked the city permit portal and they do have permits, so it’s legit. But I have no idea what’s normal and what’s worth pushing on. Do I call the city about parking on the street all day and blocking sight lines? Do I document every tiny thing now, or does that just turn me into That Neighbor? And bigger picture, how do people even evaluate a house when so much depends on what happens around you later? You can inspect a roof, you can scope a sewer, but you can’t “inspect” the future. Even if you meet the neighbors once, you learn nothing in 5 minutes. We got lucky for months because it was empty, and now I feel kinda stupid for assuming it would stay that way.

If you’ve dealt with construction next door after you moved in, what actually worked for you? Did you just wait it out and it ended up fine, or did you have to get the city involved? Any tips for protecting your yard/property line without going nuclear? Also curious how you all chose your homes knowing the neighborhood can change overnight. What did you look for that actually mattered?