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The house next door just went up for sale. The previous owners were a rough combo: antisocial, allergic to yard maintenance, and very into sharing their questionable taste in music with the entire street late at night.

I am extremely motivated to not repeat history.

We’re in the burbs on a pretty quiet street with no HOA. Buyers are coming through now and I’m wondering:

Is there anything we can do to tilt the “cool, considerate neighbor” odds in our favor?

Half-serious ideas we’ve kicked around:

- A couple of low-key LGBTQ and “all are welcome” flags (welcoming *and* a soft filter)

- Conveniently walking the world’s friendliest and fluffiest dog during showings (also a soft filte

I had a contractor doing about $2.3k worth of work that required opening up drywall on my ceiling. After they opened it up, they saw a leak but couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. They covered the opening (about 5’x 5’) with plastic sheeting and told me to call a plumber.

Plumber comes out, thinks it might be my polybutylene lines leaking, so he replaces a section of them. (I’m aware polybutylene sucks but can’t afford to repipe the whole house right now.) While doing that, he finds a staple driven straight through the lines where the contractors attached the sheeting. He said he wasn’t 100% sure that caused the leak, but that section definitely needed to be replaced or it would

Hey y’all, hoping someone here can help me before I lose my mind.

Our toilet has been running intermittently for a few seconds at a time. Originally, it was running a lot, so a plumber replaced the flapper while he was fixing some other stuff here. That helped, but didn’t fully solve it. The tank was still running every few minutes and filling up past the set water level and water was getting wasted down the overflow, so I replaced the fill valve two days ago (Fluidmaster 400h).

It actually stopped running for about a day… but this morning I heard it running again for a few seconds and then shutting off. Just like before. 😫

A few details:

• No visible leaks around the toilet or on the v

Hey y'all, hoping you can help me with a gut check. We had a fair amount of water damage from a grout failure in our house. We hired a contractor to come out and remediate the damage.

In the process, they:

• Stapled plastic sheeting to a polybutylene water supply line. We suspect it caused another leak. Plumber had to fix it which cost over $700. Unclear to me if there is still a risk of further cracking in the line due to that "whoopsie." The contractor assured me that the water from that leak should dry out on its own and be fine since it is just in the subfloor and joists which are currently exposed anyway. Not sure if I should trust that.
• Made a small (~1-2" diameter) dent on our

Looking for an non-faith based organization in Durham that will be accepting new toy donations this month. I'd like to find an alternative to groups with a religious affiliation like Durham Rescue Mission. Thanks!

Hi everyone, I’m looking for a stair/railing contractor (or general contractor who does outdoor railings). I have a family member who really needs a railing installed on their front porch. They have mobility issues, and I really don’t want them to fall and land in the hospital. They have tried to call different handymen/contractors, but either get no response or a quote that is too high for them. (Over $2k - does that seem too much?)

Anyone have any recommendations for good contractors or ones to avoid?

Just learned today that there will be more funding for research on ways to treat sleep disorders in people with ADHD. Hooray! Even better, the funder - the non-profit Patient-Centered Research Outcomes Institute (PCORI) is asking for public input on the goals of the research. I would encourage folks here to take a look and give them your thoughts here:

Draft Key Questions for Systematic Review of Nonpharmacologic Interventions for Sleep Disorders in Individuals With ADHD (2024) -- Request for Public Input | PCORI

FWIW,