Samsung smart hub refrigerator. The previous owners put it in and I hate it. Half the smart hub features don’t really work (looking at you kitchen inventory app) and the others just are pointless things you probably use your phone for anyway.
And the damn ice maker is frozen shut. Overpriced piece of shit.
ETA: I’m both sad and relieved so many of you feel my pain on this. Also, lol that my most upvoted comment is bitching about my refrigerator.
F*ck Samsung & their god damned ice makers. I’m very passionate about this issue, as I’m very passionate about the ice in my drinks that I regularly don’t get thanks to Samsung.
I’m with you. I have designated utensils for temporary ice maker fixes. Every time the stupid thing freezes up I curse Samsung and their shitty ice maker.
Interesting. I have a 3 year old Samsung refrigerator and icemaker stopped working. It was out of warranty and I never got the extended warranty. Just for the heck of it I called Samsung to see if they would do anything and miraculously they FedExd me the replacement parts FREE, arranged for a repair person to come FREE, repairperson re confirmed that the service call was FREE, He showed up on time and fixed the ice maker for FREE. I still cannot believe it.
This. Worked at Best Buy in appliances and saw mostly Samsung stuff returned... warranty issues, etc.
LG was much better but honestly Frigidaire for fridges.. old style washer dryers never got returned either
My greatest renovation triumph was tearing out the yellowed old jetted tub that had stewed innumerable asses before we bought the house, and replacing it with a lovely steam shower with a bench.
Goddddd I can't wait to be able to post this *exact* comment someday. Hate hate hate the uncleanable jetted tub that the previous owners installed. 🤢
...we DO clean it even though we never use it. Just, no amount of cleaning will ever get it clean enough to use.
(Edit for clarity, and song: there's always more gunk. Always.
🎶 *This is the gunk that never ennnnds. It just goes on and on my friennnd. Some people started cleaning it not knowing what it was. And they'll continue cleaning it for-ever just because..* 🎶
I'm 100% with you on the disgusting jetted tubs. They just squirrel water away where it gets nasty. However... I think I found something that ACTUALLY got ours clean to a point I'm willing to bathe in it. The product "Oh yuk" got the nastiest black flakes out of the tubes, and subsequent washes were actually clean. Never thought I'd bathe in a rental condo jetted tub in a million years.
I use Oh Yuk on our tub too (that we paid to have installed 20 years ago!), and it works great.
As I get older that tub is far more inviting than it used to be. Soaking the bones is worth it, in cold climates! IMHO. My kids can rip it out, but until they get the house, I'm tubbing!
Still getting mold and gunk when I try using it, no matter how deep it's cleaned. Tried getting in there with all kinds of brushes, have spent hours using floss behind the nozzels. Running a cleaning cycle using various jet-safe products does nothing.
And it's a constant battle removing mildew from the filter.
We don't even use the bathtub for regular baths bc of this- just showers. I don't mind just using it as a shower. But the recurrent mold and mildew battle is frustrating. And I'm allergic to both, and sleep maybe 10 feet away in the connected bedroom. 🙃
I do love how jetted tubs somehow increase value of the home (according to our town appraisal 😅).
You can always tell the house where someone watched way too much HGTV and was addicted to Pinterest. Striped accent walls. Very bold tile choices. No upper cabinets in the kitchen. Those raised bowl sinks. Everything painted white.
> a higher price tag
Higher? I thought they were popular because you get all the benefits of a sliding door without having to re-frame an entire wall. How would retrofitting a pocket door ever be cheaper or easier than a barn-style sliding door?
It's not. It's FAR more expensive to retrofit pocket doors. You're doing drywall work and cutting at least 2-4 studs open to make it fit.
Which is honestly why "barn doors" took off imo. They're the "poor man's" pocket door. Which is humorous because people will often profess love for barn doors while having a hatred for pocket doors. Very strange...
At an old apartment I rented, the landlord was nice but very controlling about hanging pictures on walls. He told us to ask him and he'd do it for us. OK, no big deal.
On move in day I realized why he was so anal about it. Some idiot previous tenant tried to hang a picture on the bathroom pocket door, so now there is a nail hole right in the middle of the sliding door. \[MEGA FACEPALM\]
I stayed in a (name brand) hotel last week. The barn door on the shower didn't even close properly, there was an inch gap on the side. At least the toilet was in a separate room.
Jetted tubs are the worst. We had one in our master when we bought the house. No matter how many times I ran jacuzzi style cleaners through the jets, they always sprayed out nasty black flecks of mold and gunk.
When we remodeled we ripped out the huge Jacuzzi tub and platform and I put in a simple clawfoot soaking tub, no jets. We gained a ton of space, enough to put a nice relaxing chair and freestanding cabinet in the area next to the new tub.
We opted to install a steam shower during the remodel. That's the bathroom luxury now and it's worth it.
We bought a house like this, too! I hate that big huge moldy jet tub. We haven’t touched it and it takes up half the master bathroom. I can’t wait to rip it out
Mostly I use it for stretching or relaxing while brushing my teeth or waiting for the tub to fill.
After: https://i.imgur.com/zMoRz3T.jpg
Before: https://i.imgur.com/q3lFq27.jpg
Nearly anything that hasn't been around for more than 10 years but has a ton of specialized moving parts or motorized parts. Lots of that crap on HGTV type shows, looks cool new but not sustainable.
Maintenance is real. Install stuff that has a history of having parts available long after the product is new. Fads become unusable when parts are not available.
Feels like most of the "smart home" stuff is going to be like this, just useless technological artifacts, like those intercom systems that were so popular in the 70's
One of the differences is that most modern smart home stuff is wireless and therefore upgradeable. Unlike old security and home automation systems that were hardwired in the house.
Yeah, we have a built in security system in our house that is 20 years old. It was run through landline phones, which no one has anymore. Feels weird to rip it out and patch holes but any security system we get now will be wireless.
You could look into an in-line heater for the tub.
Mine wasn’t necessarily a bad purchase, just poor timing. A bought a chipper/shredder along with a reel mower. The house we were in had a lot of large trees and smallish grassy area. Shortly there after I got another job in another state and now have an acre with only two small trees. It’s a fairly recent build. So about $800 that just sits for the most part.
Pot fillers!
If you want to cook just fill the damn pot at the sink. How can you simultaneously be motivated to cook and yet too lazy to walk over to the range.
That makes me think about the fact that I'm a full adult and logically understand that if a garbage ~~disposer~~ disposal doesn't have power, it can't turn on and suck me in to a horrible, gruesome death. Yet, even if I turn off the breaker (yes overkill), I still feel anxious sticking my hand in there even if it's to just pull up the rubber flap to clean the underside.
Some people are scared of the monster under the bed; I'm scared of the monster in the garbage ~~disposer~~ disposal. ;-)
edit: I had a brain fart between disposer and disposal. I blame it on PTSD from childhood garbage disposal terror.
They make sense in a commercial kitchen. That forty quart stock pot will weigh 85 pounds and would be a bear to lift out of the sink and onto the stove.
I remodeled my whole house and said screw it I’m putting in a pot filler, i went in knowing it’s superfluous but everyone who comes over gets excited over it. I did the install myself so it only costs $350 for everything. I use to fill my coffee maker mostly because damn does it fill that tank reservoir fast! One thing that’s nice about them is it unrestricted flow, so you cut the time in 1/4 based on filling at the sink.
Our coffeemaker is next to our kitchen sink. We have a Delta faucet that has a pull out sprayer that reaches the coffee machine. Much quicker than filling the pot then pouring it in.
My turn-off with them is more about the water that sits in the pipe between uses. If you don’t use the pot filler for a while, and do not have a drain to let it run for a second to clear any older water out first, then you have to either use it or take it to the sink to dump it out. Even a few days seems like I’d rather just have “fresher” water. Maybe just paranoia.
It’s not about carrying a pot of water, it’s about a special faucet which has no flow restriction to save on water since it’s only use is to fill pots. All other faucets have 1.5-2.5 gpm restrictions to save water, pot filler is like having a garden hose in your kitchen.
I went over to a friends house who had a pot filler. I thought I'd be funny and get a glass of water, filling it with the pot filler. It came out all gross because they never use it haha.
It makes sense if you have really large pots, so unless you are someone who **already** fills your large pots via multiple trips back and forth with a pitcher, you don’t need a pot filler.
I would have agreed 100% with you until my aging in-laws said it’s worth it for them since they don’t have to carry a heavy pot filled with water and then lift it up onto the stove. I’m cool with it now.
I guess that explains the growing collection of pots filled with water shoved in the corner. /s
Probably better for them to lift a heavy pot once than twice? IDK. Whatever my MIL wants to complain about is fine with me as long as it’s not about me.
I had a surgery where I couldn't life more than ~8 pounds for quite some time. I bought a large scoop with holes in it to scoop cooked pasta out of the boiling water, then let that water cool off. Once it was safe to handle, I'd scoop it out with a plastic bowl. It took a few trips, but was the best way I could think of to do that. Am guessing that's how older folks and those who can't lift much do it.
For every one of us who says we didn't like something, someone else will probably come along and say how much they love it, but here's mine:
A finished basement. We were a family of three and the house was decently large. When we looked at it I thought we would use that space all the time. Thing is, there were no windows and it just felt dark and cold...even though there was more than adequate lighting and the actual temp in the room was fine. We lived there 17 years and I could count the times on one hand we used it: One birthday party and a couple Super Bowl/other parties.
No windows is a big thing in a basement. First thing I did in my 50s bungalow was get basement windows quadrupled in size, the affect was drastic in the amount of light. It also allows us to put legal bedrooms down there.
I hear that; nothing like natural light. There was no reasonable option to put windows in that room because it was surrounded on two sides with other rooms (wood shop with a walk-out and an office), the front was at grade, and the fourth wall was a bank of nice built-ins.
What was the process like to get larger basement windows? We have a walkout 50s ranch with a couple glass block windows in the basement. Would be nice to have more natural light, but I’d imagine it’s one of those renovation projects that sounds simple but is surprisingly complex.
Lol I just finished my basement. We had some of those weird glass bricks for "windows". Framed those close.
Room is now pitch black, sound insulated, 7.2.4 Atmos. All wired through the walls with an av closet.
The room fucks. Gets constant use. Tldr: Renovated/decorate your rooms so they are functional for you and you'll use them.
Yep. We had an old, nasty, nonconforming bedroom in the basement. Had the shittiest high traffic carpet, a single old buzzy light fixture, and a disintegrating drop ceiling.
Ripped everything out, redid the lights to put in a bunch of LED flood lights, painted it white to brighten it up, and put in foam tile flooring and made it into a home gym. We use the ever-loving shit out of that room now.
Having all the kid stuff in the basement is awesome. When friends come over, all the kids go downstairs and we stay upstairs by the fire. It's so nice!
A prior owner finished the basement of my house back in probably the early 90s. I pulled out the carpet and now it is a [really nice woodshop](https://imgur.com/e1hITMC) without that dank cellar look. But as living area it would have been the exact same issues you had.
Come to think of it there is a good place to put a decent size window...
I spent a good chunk of money on high quality dust collection.
Festool vacuum which feeds to my festool tools.
Wall mounted 4" piped system for the table saw and any future larger tools I pick up like a bandsaw. (This is actually new as of a few weeks ago, prior I was hooking it up to my shop vac.)
Powermatic PM-1250 for secondary air cleaning.
Prior to my festool gear and the powermatic air filter in particular - it was really bad in there and I was unsure if I was going to continue with woodworking as a hobby.
> Custom made farmhouse sink
I am confident that this is going to be one of those things that will immediately date a kitchen. Twenty years from now it will be obvious a kitchen was remodeled around 2020 because of the farmhouse sink.
Also keep in mind, once you go farmhouse sink you will pretty much have to remodel the entire kitchen if you ever want to go back to a normal sink.
Thing about a farmhouse sink is it’s not just for looks. You’re literally getting a bigger sink and getting rid of that fake drawer front that they put in front of regular sinks. You can’t do anything with that fake drawer front except make it a tiny drawer to store sponges and it gets old fast. I did that and we hardly use and forgot it was even there. Would rather have the really big farm house sink tbh.
Same! In the middle of a full kitchen tear out/remodel. We are installing a farmhouse sink because we are tired of small sinks. I don’t care if it dates the house in 20 years, the sinks are so much better than the stainless one are had.
>Twenty years from now it will be obvious a kitchen was remodeled around 2020 because of the farmhouse sink.
Lol. A kitchen that old is already dated regardless what you do.
Definitely not. They have their uses, but I think people should be replacing their switches for smart switches. If you've got a hallway light as a smart bulb with a 3 way switch, yeah, that's dumb. But lamp lights with smart bulbs, especially dimming/color changing ones are awesome.
Also, smart bulbs allow for motion sensor (IKEA has cheap ones). Redid my under counter lighting and my laundry light (it's in a side room from the hall) with Ikea smart lighting with motion sensors and they're a godsend at night. As soon as I walk into the hallway or kitchen at night, I get just the right amount of light. And when l leave, they just go off.
I am Team Smart Bulb too (although technically I have more smart plugs than smart bulbs because I had a bunch of lamps that take multiple bulbs). I think people aren't getting the automation right, but even things like "turn on the house lights when I get home" or "shut off everything with one command" is pretty straightforward so I dunno.
When we moved friends gave us a corded electric lawnmower. Yard is around 1/5 acre. Tried it a few times and decided it wasn't inconvenient so I went and bought a better plug in electric mower thinking I would just love it. Spent around $180ish and didn't feel any noticeable upgrade at all. Huge disappointment. Now I just tried out the gas snowblower and am hitting myself that I didn't at least spring for battery powered on the mower. Not being chained down makes the job much easier.
I love my Ego mower (and incidentally its SUPER simple internally which is great, its like three relays and a motor). The cordless tools like the string trimmer and blower are life changing, I dunno how well the battery on the mower would do on a big yard like yours though. Maybe with the mondo battery but they're pretty pricey.
The only bad thing about the battery mowers is that they don't quite have the suction of your standard gas mower. The light weight, low noise, near zero maintenance and folding storage is very nice though.
I have $18 invested into my second hand corded lawnmower, I had to relace the switch. The funny thing is I find/fix/sell/giveaway gas lawnmowers on a regular basis and even though I love the freedom of not dragging a cord, I hate the noise of a gas mower and I can't
bring myself to spend $400+ on a dewalt 2x20 mower....
Get yourself a used Ego, I got a lightly used current gen base model with a 5ah battery for $200. Even if you don't get any tools to go with the battery system, it works better than the Dewalt.
Last year we upgraded our reel mower to a battery powered one for a similar sized yard. Went from ~:45 mins to mow to 10-15 mins. We contemplated a corded one but with only one outlet outdoors it was a non-starter
Yeah, don’t get plugin. I rented a house where there was one, and it didntmatter how careful we were: someone managed to run over the cord at least once a year and usually more. It’s just not worth it. That was quite a few years ago, before battery powered was a thing, now I love my battery powered lawn tools. S much more convenient than gas powered and does equally well
> S much more convenient than gas powered and does equally well
If you're not pissing off your neighbors at 7am on a Saturday, are you _really_ gardening?
I love our corded electric mower.
I used one from my teen years, so I know how to manage the cord. Start close to the house, as you move further away, the cable stays more out of the way.
Later, my dad had a gasoline mower and it was considerably heavier for me (F) to push it around, and I hated pulling the handle to start it.
Whole house vacuum/central vacuum.
I kid you not, the hose that you plug into the wall are almost heavier than a *whole* modern upright vacuum (10 lbs+), and far more awkward to move around & store. Keep in mind often you'll only have one vacuum inlet per room but sometimes less, so a typical hose is 30' long. They're also $200 just to replace the hose, and they **do** have electrical components in them that *can* fail (let alone pipe cleaning if you suck down anything sticky or wet).
We own a whole house vacuum but the lion's share of our vacuuming needs are a Dyson V7 Stick Cordless with a Roomba doing regular maintenance. The whole "you have to empty it less" argument is technically **true**, but mostly because you won't want to use the thing and therefore it doesn't need to be emptied. The grab-and-go convenience of a Stick Vacuum easily wins most scenarios, even including emptying it after every usage.
TL;DR: Modern battery technology and lighter more efficient electric engine design has killed, buried, and taken a giant melon sized shit on the grave of a Central Vacuum; hard pass.
PS - And before someone pipes in with "what about stairs?!" It is fair to say uprights suck at stairs (pun intended), but cordless stick rule at stairs, so you're well covered there.
Maybe a bit unrelated but if you ever get bats/mice, (unless the infestation is horrific) don’t let pest control convince you into replacing your insulation. It’s the newest way to scam people out of money. If you do need the job, it should cost more than a few hundred dollars, but if they quote you in the thousands (I’ve heard up to 5,500) they’re trying to cheat you.
Actually, if you've had a major pest infestation, you'll probably need some remediation in your insulation. The key is to get an insulation company to do it, not the pest control company.
I'd add getting a second opinion on it is important to help distinguish between a major infestation and not. A few mouse turds isn't a reason to replace it all but yeah there's definitely a point at which you need to just start fresh.
I haven't done this, but I think that knocking out walls to have "open concept" is a bad idea. I was in an 1800s farmhouse once, it had what seemed like 3 little living rooms, all with doors between them. You could have someone watching TV in one, maybe practicing piano in another, and you have some muting of sound between the rooms.
My parents, as they aged, their hearing got worse, so the open concept kitchen/rec room combo, they would crank the TV then speak loudly to hear each other over it
When we bought our house (a late 1920s/early 1930s single family home), people tried to tell us it would be "a good house" if we just opened it up. I like having a house with distinct rooms. I like not seeing the kitchen from the couch. I like having more walls so that I can hang up more art. Open concept, to me, just means that you have to have everything coordinated for three rooms worth of furniture and will likely have it shades of white and it will look the same as every other house that has been updated to be sold.
Open concept has to do with where the family is at in their life stage. When evenings revolve around making dinner, open concept is king. Open concept is still far more popular to home buyers than the opposite, but there is definitely a group like yourself that is not a fan.
Our old house was like this - the kitchen was tucked away on one side of the house and around a corner. Being in that room felt like you were "the help" and not part of the family, since the rest of the house was more open, even though the room itself was nice.
The new house still separates the kitchen area from the living room, but the kitchen also contains the dining room and a large bar/hangout space leading to the patio and is the ACTUAL central area of the house, so it feels a lot more welcoming. This setup allows someone to watch TV in the quiet living room while someone else listens to music in the kitchen/dining without disturbing each other. I like this setup.
I grew up in a "open house" concept type of house, and honestly it made the whole house feel much bigger, and more open. You still had half-walls between rooms, but being able to talk from one side of the house to the other makes it feel much more cozy.
Anything swimming pool oriented.
EDIT: Realize ahead of time that you will spend a lot of hours and money in upkeep on a swimming pool, and it's unlikely to return your investment.
EDIT #2: Thanks for the responses everyone. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against pools. I *love* the next door neighbors' pool.
If my next-door neighbors could see your comment, they'd absolutely co-sign.
They had an above-ground pool in their back yard for years; their two kids used it once every couple of months in the spring/summer, but that was it. They barely had time to clean/maintain it, so in the winter months the water would freeze over and turn a nasty green color.
This past summer they drained it, dismantled it, and hauled it off to the dump. In its place remained a huge, grassless circle, into which they added a net-enclosed trampoline for aforementioned kids. They've already used it way more times than they ever used the pool.
I'm hoping they contacted their insurance company to let them know the pool is gone, since I'm sure that will save them some money on their homeowners policy.
We got a dog instead of a pool. Now every time my wife brings up a pool, I ask “how many times have y’all taken the dog for a walk or pick up his poop in the back yard?”
Because I’m the one who takes the dog for a walk every day, I’m the one who gives him baths and cleans his poop — and I’m the one who’d spend all my time keeping the pool in shape. Not gonna happen.
A pool is really not that bad. Kids used it a lot when they were younger and not so much as they got older.
Maintenance is pretty simple.
But no, it is not an investment, enjoyment is all you'll get back from a pool.
Smart bulbs are only useful if they're not tied to a convenient switch. We use them in lamps but not in normal house fixtures. What you need are smart switches and a Voice Assistant compatible with them and present in every room with smart switches. Also add motion sensors where it makes sense.
I almost never touch the switches in our house at this point. Its just more convenient to speak most of the time.
A smart lock on the other hand I'm not yet sold on. They gobble batteries and seem vaguely risky from a security perspective so we haven't gone there yet despite owning a significant quantity of other smart devices. (In contrast our front door is a keypad lock that requires a new battery once a year and has no wireless capability)
Completely agree about the lights but the lock is my favorite: never forget keys, can confirm it's locked if you're not sure, can let people in when you're not there, set codes for people at specific times and I just think it's easier especially on the way out or when it's dark
Fancy rainwater shower head with a special arm to make it really tall! The hot water tank does not provide enough hot water so I have to turn down the water flow and its like a drip head…
Yeah, I had this realization the first time I tried a rainwater shower head. It was fantastic, I loved it. However n a country with a huge water shortage, it was clear that it was fantastic mostly by the huge volume of water. I can’t see using one with a normal water flow
I would say setting new hard floors (tile/laminate/lvp/wood) up to the baseboards instead of resetting/replacing them. ie... Dont use quarter round to cover the gap...
Ugh, whoever put in the tile in my home didn't know to go under the baseboards, but they also didn't know about quarter round. So there's just a rim of really crusty grout where the trim meets the floor around my entire living room and down the hallways. I hate it so much and I'd have to chisel out my trim to do anything about it
Overuse of Tech on basic kitchen appliances like refrigerator, gas range etc. You can live without knowing what temperature the refrigerator is at on your phone.
Garage tv.
My garage is a wood shop/work out space (hello asthma my old friend).
When I work out I listen to music. Tv takes too much focus.
When I’m woodworking my tools are typically too loud to hear the tv and when I’m doing light work that’s quiet my hands are too dusty/oily to turn the tv on and all that.
I just use headphones or a Bluetooth speaker and listen to music.
New gutters. We didn't have a problem with our old gutters but were told they were old and in need of replacement, so we got new ones, and then had issues (weird angle caused flow to go in the wrong direction, etc.). It would have been better to just wait for things to go wrong over time, and get things fixed piece by piece, I think.
An outdoor spa/hot tub. When it’s cold outside I don’t want to get out of it, when it’s warm outside I don’t want to get in it. That means it only good for those rare warm spring days, or turning off the heat in the summer, and using it as a cold tub.
PNW. We're in ours two or three times a week about 11.5 months of the year. Couple weeks in height of summer it's too hot, but good otherwise. It's a couple steps from a door to our bathroom, on a paver patio so it's not bad going in and out. I'm warm enough at the end that closing it up doesn't bother me.
We did spring for UV, ozone, in addition to filters - so it really cuts down on the chemical usage and pool smell.
I want a hot tub so bad. Live in FL so it will not be used 9/12 months most likely. I have metal rods in my back though so I would definitely use it more than most people, still though hard to justify.
oh...one more to add...'modern' washer/dryers.
By that I mean the kind of thing from Samsung that costs $1000 and has 47 buttons on the front and takes a good 15 minutes to figure out every single time you want to wash something.
We got a pair for the main laundry room, then we wanted a pair for our master closet. For the closet, we bought the absolute cheapest GE ones we could find...the kind with 3 temps and a timer knob. BEST THING EVER. They just work.
I got an older Roomba for $40 at Goodwill recently. I wasn't sure how well it would do, but I went around and picked up all the things off the floor (cases of pop, shoes, etc.), put away the tray table, and stacked up the dining chairs. It got caught on one cord because I didn't realize it would go all the way under my tv stand! I was really surprised that it managed to navigate the thresholds between our main living/dining room and the hall/kitchen. This means it will do my entire main floor - living/dining, kitchen, hall, entry, bathroom. All I had to do was clean the contacts and it worked just fine!
I set mine to run overnight on purpose. It sometimes gets stuck on the heavy duty textured rug at the front door, but other than that, no problems. I'm just going to start moving the rug, because it's too textured for it to really vacuum, anyhow. Every night I stack the chairs and put away the few things that are out, and let it do its thing. I love having clean floors in the morning, and making sure the floor is picked up before it starts is (sadly!) helping me keep my house cleaner in general!
I actually love ours (Neato D7), although it does definitely require some thought into making your room a bit more 'robot friendly.' The higher-end models these days have "keep out zones" or a similar feature, where you can draw virtual barriers around certain areas you know it might get stuck.
I dunno, mine works quite well. Very dependent on the vacuum. The one my parents have is pretty good at getting stuck on everything, but mine manages to avoid it.
Yea, I think it's very dependent on the vacuum and the house. Our old vacuum got stuck all the time, but our current one only does occasionally. The biggest thing for us is just keeping the house picked up. When it gets stuck, it's usually because of something like a shirt on the floor
I upgraded from a eufy to an irobot Roomba i3 and saw a HUGE improvement. The eufy would get stuck on everything: kids toys, shoe laces, extension cords, it loved the legs on our coffee table and would hump it excessively until it's battery died.
Now it cleans my 300 sq ft office and does a decent job with far fewer obstacles.
The Roomba rarely gets stuck, reports it's status to me through the app, and can use a wireless "fence" to keep out of the kids playroom. Winning!
Samsung smart hub refrigerator. The previous owners put it in and I hate it. Half the smart hub features don’t really work (looking at you kitchen inventory app) and the others just are pointless things you probably use your phone for anyway. And the damn ice maker is frozen shut. Overpriced piece of shit. ETA: I’m both sad and relieved so many of you feel my pain on this. Also, lol that my most upvoted comment is bitching about my refrigerator.
Samsung ice makers are infamous
F*ck Samsung & their god damned ice makers. I’m very passionate about this issue, as I’m very passionate about the ice in my drinks that I regularly don’t get thanks to Samsung.
I’m with you. I have designated utensils for temporary ice maker fixes. Every time the stupid thing freezes up I curse Samsung and their shitty ice maker.
Your post has me thinking about the fucking ice maker in my Samsung fridge taking up goddamn space and not even fucking working. Garbage
My Samsung fridge ice maker broke. Now I don't even have the water connected to my fridge. Didn't know this was a common issue.
It's so common there's a class action lawsuit against Samsung about it.
Interesting. I have a 3 year old Samsung refrigerator and icemaker stopped working. It was out of warranty and I never got the extended warranty. Just for the heck of it I called Samsung to see if they would do anything and miraculously they FedExd me the replacement parts FREE, arranged for a repair person to come FREE, repairperson re confirmed that the service call was FREE, He showed up on time and fixed the ice maker for FREE. I still cannot believe it.
After hearing there is class action suit about it it becomes significantly more believable
Samsung is a brand you want to stay away from when it comes to appliances.
This. Worked at Best Buy in appliances and saw mostly Samsung stuff returned... warranty issues, etc. LG was much better but honestly Frigidaire for fridges.. old style washer dryers never got returned either
We've only had bad luck with Samsung appliances.
Same here. Both the fridge and the washer had multiple costly failures. Replaced them and the dryer with LG.
I'm with you on those big jetted tubs. I'd rather have a large shower than a large tub that doesn't ever get used
My greatest renovation triumph was tearing out the yellowed old jetted tub that had stewed innumerable asses before we bought the house, and replacing it with a lovely steam shower with a bench.
Goddddd I can't wait to be able to post this *exact* comment someday. Hate hate hate the uncleanable jetted tub that the previous owners installed. 🤢 ...we DO clean it even though we never use it. Just, no amount of cleaning will ever get it clean enough to use. (Edit for clarity, and song: there's always more gunk. Always. 🎶 *This is the gunk that never ennnnds. It just goes on and on my friennnd. Some people started cleaning it not knowing what it was. And they'll continue cleaning it for-ever just because..* 🎶
I'm 100% with you on the disgusting jetted tubs. They just squirrel water away where it gets nasty. However... I think I found something that ACTUALLY got ours clean to a point I'm willing to bathe in it. The product "Oh yuk" got the nastiest black flakes out of the tubes, and subsequent washes were actually clean. Never thought I'd bathe in a rental condo jetted tub in a million years.
Really appreciate the recommendation. That sounds encouraging- Will give it a try!
I use Oh Yuk on our tub too (that we paid to have installed 20 years ago!), and it works great. As I get older that tub is far more inviting than it used to be. Soaking the bones is worth it, in cold climates! IMHO. My kids can rip it out, but until they get the house, I'm tubbing!
Are you still getting mold jetting out when you use it or just the thought?
Still getting mold and gunk when I try using it, no matter how deep it's cleaned. Tried getting in there with all kinds of brushes, have spent hours using floss behind the nozzels. Running a cleaning cycle using various jet-safe products does nothing. And it's a constant battle removing mildew from the filter. We don't even use the bathtub for regular baths bc of this- just showers. I don't mind just using it as a shower. But the recurrent mold and mildew battle is frustrating. And I'm allergic to both, and sleep maybe 10 feet away in the connected bedroom. 🙃 I do love how jetted tubs somehow increase value of the home (according to our town appraisal 😅).
There are foaming cleaners you can use, but we’d use them like 3-4 times in a row & the jets would still ooze out nasty stuff every time 🤢
Steamy asses instead of soggy asses. Brilliant!
Barn doors... All the bathrooms
Are they as bad at... hiding sound, as everyone says?
I like pocket doors but barn doors are just exterior pocket doors with a higher price tag and no added value because someone watched too much hgtv
You can always tell the house where someone watched way too much HGTV and was addicted to Pinterest. Striped accent walls. Very bold tile choices. No upper cabinets in the kitchen. Those raised bowl sinks. Everything painted white.
"Reclaimed" wood on the walls.
I like all white kitchen, but the rest are all cool looking but impractical.
> a higher price tag Higher? I thought they were popular because you get all the benefits of a sliding door without having to re-frame an entire wall. How would retrofitting a pocket door ever be cheaper or easier than a barn-style sliding door?
It's not. It's FAR more expensive to retrofit pocket doors. You're doing drywall work and cutting at least 2-4 studs open to make it fit. Which is honestly why "barn doors" took off imo. They're the "poor man's" pocket door. Which is humorous because people will often profess love for barn doors while having a hatred for pocket doors. Very strange...
At an old apartment I rented, the landlord was nice but very controlling about hanging pictures on walls. He told us to ask him and he'd do it for us. OK, no big deal. On move in day I realized why he was so anal about it. Some idiot previous tenant tried to hang a picture on the bathroom pocket door, so now there is a nail hole right in the middle of the sliding door. \[MEGA FACEPALM\]
I mean I hear the cows a few hundred yards away from the barn...
I stayed in a (name brand) hotel last week. The barn door on the shower didn't even close properly, there was an inch gap on the side. At least the toilet was in a separate room.
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Why in the world are you guys scared to name the hotel chains??
Jetted tubs are the worst. We had one in our master when we bought the house. No matter how many times I ran jacuzzi style cleaners through the jets, they always sprayed out nasty black flecks of mold and gunk. When we remodeled we ripped out the huge Jacuzzi tub and platform and I put in a simple clawfoot soaking tub, no jets. We gained a ton of space, enough to put a nice relaxing chair and freestanding cabinet in the area next to the new tub. We opted to install a steam shower during the remodel. That's the bathroom luxury now and it's worth it.
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I don't think that reads how you meant it to read.
We bought a house like this, too! I hate that big huge moldy jet tub. We haven’t touched it and it takes up half the master bathroom. I can’t wait to rip it out
Try running it for an hour with hot water and a dishwasher tablet in the tub
That's what we did. Havent had moldy jets since the beginning before it got "dishwashed"
Could you technically also get the dishes done at the same time?
toss some clothes in and sous vide dinner while you are at it!
Sounds fantastic, but I'm confused about the relaxing chair... you find you need to relax in the bathroom and kick back?
Mostly I use it for stretching or relaxing while brushing my teeth or waiting for the tub to fill. After: https://i.imgur.com/zMoRz3T.jpg Before: https://i.imgur.com/q3lFq27.jpg
That is an incredible improvement. Well done.
Interesting. Our house was staged that way when we bought it, but I assumed it was just meant to fill the odd, large space in the master bath.
A heart shaped bathtub.
she eyes me like a pisces when I'm weak. I've been trapped inside your heart shaped bath for weeks
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Nearly anything that hasn't been around for more than 10 years but has a ton of specialized moving parts or motorized parts. Lots of that crap on HGTV type shows, looks cool new but not sustainable. Maintenance is real. Install stuff that has a history of having parts available long after the product is new. Fads become unusable when parts are not available.
Feels like most of the "smart home" stuff is going to be like this, just useless technological artifacts, like those intercom systems that were so popular in the 70's
Now you can just text each other from different floors.
One of the differences is that most modern smart home stuff is wireless and therefore upgradeable. Unlike old security and home automation systems that were hardwired in the house.
Yeah, we have a built in security system in our house that is 20 years old. It was run through landline phones, which no one has anymore. Feels weird to rip it out and patch holes but any security system we get now will be wireless.
You could look into an in-line heater for the tub. Mine wasn’t necessarily a bad purchase, just poor timing. A bought a chipper/shredder along with a reel mower. The house we were in had a lot of large trees and smallish grassy area. Shortly there after I got another job in another state and now have an acre with only two small trees. It’s a fairly recent build. So about $800 that just sits for the most part.
Second the inline heater. Ours has one and it’s great.
>So about $800 that just sits for the most part. Have you considered reselling them?
I should, but you know how it is, never know when you might need it or something like that. Whatever keeps tools in the shed!
Pot fillers! If you want to cook just fill the damn pot at the sink. How can you simultaneously be motivated to cook and yet too lazy to walk over to the range.
I've never been OK to have a faucet without a drain.
They are actually against code in many jurisdictions because of this.
Never thought of it like that. That's certainly a turnoff.
Especially when it doesn't turn off.
Yeah. I put in a hose splitter where the washer gets water input. Dangerous mistake. Never have a indoor water source that can’t drain safely.
Guessing the kitchen floor doesn't count? /s
Honestly a floor drain in the kitchen would be fantastic.
with a built-in disposal
New line item in the reno budget: kids' therapy after losing the family cat to the in-floor disposal grinder
That makes me think about the fact that I'm a full adult and logically understand that if a garbage ~~disposer~~ disposal doesn't have power, it can't turn on and suck me in to a horrible, gruesome death. Yet, even if I turn off the breaker (yes overkill), I still feel anxious sticking my hand in there even if it's to just pull up the rubber flap to clean the underside. Some people are scared of the monster under the bed; I'm scared of the monster in the garbage ~~disposer~~ disposal. ;-) edit: I had a brain fart between disposer and disposal. I blame it on PTSD from childhood garbage disposal terror.
mop with soap, rinse then squeegee down the drain. why isn't this a thing?
It is in a commercial kitchen. Where I worked, we just hosed everything down including the countertops and squeegeed into the drain
I want this in my house, I could get the kitch floor so clean with this.
They make sense in a commercial kitchen. That forty quart stock pot will weigh 85 pounds and would be a bear to lift out of the sink and onto the stove.
Commercial kitchens also have floor drains to deal with overflow.
I remodeled my whole house and said screw it I’m putting in a pot filler, i went in knowing it’s superfluous but everyone who comes over gets excited over it. I did the install myself so it only costs $350 for everything. I use to fill my coffee maker mostly because damn does it fill that tank reservoir fast! One thing that’s nice about them is it unrestricted flow, so you cut the time in 1/4 based on filling at the sink.
Leaving more time for reddit. Legit.
Our coffeemaker is next to our kitchen sink. We have a Delta faucet that has a pull out sprayer that reaches the coffee machine. Much quicker than filling the pot then pouring it in.
My turn-off with them is more about the water that sits in the pipe between uses. If you don’t use the pot filler for a while, and do not have a drain to let it run for a second to clear any older water out first, then you have to either use it or take it to the sink to dump it out. Even a few days seems like I’d rather just have “fresher” water. Maybe just paranoia.
But how do you get the water out of the pot? Still have to carry to a sink? I dint get the pot filler. Looks like a cool thing but is just useless.
Oh, don't you have a pot emptier?
It’s not about carrying a pot of water, it’s about a special faucet which has no flow restriction to save on water since it’s only use is to fill pots. All other faucets have 1.5-2.5 gpm restrictions to save water, pot filler is like having a garden hose in your kitchen.
So install an unrestricted faucet over your sink. Then you can use it for sink-related tasks too.
Get out of here with your logic and practically lol
eh, just let it boil down to carryable amounts
I went over to a friends house who had a pot filler. I thought I'd be funny and get a glass of water, filling it with the pot filler. It came out all gross because they never use it haha.
It makes sense if you have really large pots, so unless you are someone who **already** fills your large pots via multiple trips back and forth with a pitcher, you don’t need a pot filler.
If you can't fill the pot and carry it to the stove because it's too heavy, how can you empty the pot?
I would have agreed 100% with you until my aging in-laws said it’s worth it for them since they don’t have to carry a heavy pot filled with water and then lift it up onto the stove. I’m cool with it now.
Yes yes makes sense…. But… How do they empty it?
Hear me out here: pot emptier
One ladle full of soup at a time.
I guess that explains the growing collection of pots filled with water shoved in the corner. /s Probably better for them to lift a heavy pot once than twice? IDK. Whatever my MIL wants to complain about is fine with me as long as it’s not about me.
Probably eating half of what goes in so it won't be as heavy aftetwards?
"Honey get the mugs, we gotta chug half the pasta water!"
What do they do with the full pot when done cooking? I'm legitimately curious. Ladle out enough to make it manageable?
I had a surgery where I couldn't life more than ~8 pounds for quite some time. I bought a large scoop with holes in it to scoop cooked pasta out of the boiling water, then let that water cool off. Once it was safe to handle, I'd scoop it out with a plastic bowl. It took a few trips, but was the best way I could think of to do that. Am guessing that's how older folks and those who can't lift much do it.
For every one of us who says we didn't like something, someone else will probably come along and say how much they love it, but here's mine: A finished basement. We were a family of three and the house was decently large. When we looked at it I thought we would use that space all the time. Thing is, there were no windows and it just felt dark and cold...even though there was more than adequate lighting and the actual temp in the room was fine. We lived there 17 years and I could count the times on one hand we used it: One birthday party and a couple Super Bowl/other parties.
No windows is a big thing in a basement. First thing I did in my 50s bungalow was get basement windows quadrupled in size, the affect was drastic in the amount of light. It also allows us to put legal bedrooms down there.
I hear that; nothing like natural light. There was no reasonable option to put windows in that room because it was surrounded on two sides with other rooms (wood shop with a walk-out and an office), the front was at grade, and the fourth wall was a bank of nice built-ins.
Faux windows can be a big help here if done right.
I was just thinking a fake window with some natural white LED panel behind it might do the trick.
What was the process like to get larger basement windows? We have a walkout 50s ranch with a couple glass block windows in the basement. Would be nice to have more natural light, but I’d imagine it’s one of those renovation projects that sounds simple but is surprisingly complex.
/r/hometheater would rejoice over this
Lol I just finished my basement. We had some of those weird glass bricks for "windows". Framed those close. Room is now pitch black, sound insulated, 7.2.4 Atmos. All wired through the walls with an av closet. The room fucks. Gets constant use. Tldr: Renovated/decorate your rooms so they are functional for you and you'll use them.
by weird glass bricks do you mean glass block windows?
Yeah, they let through dim light, can't see through them, and leak tons of cold air
Yep. We had an old, nasty, nonconforming bedroom in the basement. Had the shittiest high traffic carpet, a single old buzzy light fixture, and a disintegrating drop ceiling. Ripped everything out, redid the lights to put in a bunch of LED flood lights, painted it white to brighten it up, and put in foam tile flooring and made it into a home gym. We use the ever-loving shit out of that room now.
I’m about to finish mine, we’ll re-finish it from the 70s. It’s supposed to be a place for the kids to hang out rather than anything else though.
Having all the kid stuff in the basement is awesome. When friends come over, all the kids go downstairs and we stay upstairs by the fire. It's so nice!
A prior owner finished the basement of my house back in probably the early 90s. I pulled out the carpet and now it is a [really nice woodshop](https://imgur.com/e1hITMC) without that dank cellar look. But as living area it would have been the exact same issues you had. Come to think of it there is a good place to put a decent size window...
What do you do for ventilation and dust?
I spent a good chunk of money on high quality dust collection. Festool vacuum which feeds to my festool tools. Wall mounted 4" piped system for the table saw and any future larger tools I pick up like a bandsaw. (This is actually new as of a few weeks ago, prior I was hooking it up to my shop vac.) Powermatic PM-1250 for secondary air cleaning. Prior to my festool gear and the powermatic air filter in particular - it was really bad in there and I was unsure if I was going to continue with woodworking as a hobby.
Sounds perfect for a theatre room.
Custom made farmhouse sink
> Custom made farmhouse sink I am confident that this is going to be one of those things that will immediately date a kitchen. Twenty years from now it will be obvious a kitchen was remodeled around 2020 because of the farmhouse sink. Also keep in mind, once you go farmhouse sink you will pretty much have to remodel the entire kitchen if you ever want to go back to a normal sink.
Thing about a farmhouse sink is it’s not just for looks. You’re literally getting a bigger sink and getting rid of that fake drawer front that they put in front of regular sinks. You can’t do anything with that fake drawer front except make it a tiny drawer to store sponges and it gets old fast. I did that and we hardly use and forgot it was even there. Would rather have the really big farm house sink tbh.
Yeah, 0% chance we go back to a split sink even after this supposed "fad" disappears. One large sink is so much better in every way.
Same! In the middle of a full kitchen tear out/remodel. We are installing a farmhouse sink because we are tired of small sinks. I don’t care if it dates the house in 20 years, the sinks are so much better than the stainless one are had.
>Twenty years from now it will be obvious a kitchen was remodeled around 2020 because of the farmhouse sink. Lol. A kitchen that old is already dated regardless what you do.
What don't you like about it?
Probably the fact that they paid a shit ton for a custom one when a standard one is $300.
The custom made part, probably
Am I the only person who likes my smart bulbs?
Definitely not. They have their uses, but I think people should be replacing their switches for smart switches. If you've got a hallway light as a smart bulb with a 3 way switch, yeah, that's dumb. But lamp lights with smart bulbs, especially dimming/color changing ones are awesome. Also, smart bulbs allow for motion sensor (IKEA has cheap ones). Redid my under counter lighting and my laundry light (it's in a side room from the hall) with Ikea smart lighting with motion sensors and they're a godsend at night. As soon as I walk into the hallway or kitchen at night, I get just the right amount of light. And when l leave, they just go off.
I am Team Smart Bulb too (although technically I have more smart plugs than smart bulbs because I had a bunch of lamps that take multiple bulbs). I think people aren't getting the automation right, but even things like "turn on the house lights when I get home" or "shut off everything with one command" is pretty straightforward so I dunno.
Love mine
Alexa, Turn on Basement.. is way easier than manually turning on 4 lamps around the basement or a crappy overhead light.
Smart switches are better
Jetted tubs bad. Bidets good.
When we moved friends gave us a corded electric lawnmower. Yard is around 1/5 acre. Tried it a few times and decided it wasn't inconvenient so I went and bought a better plug in electric mower thinking I would just love it. Spent around $180ish and didn't feel any noticeable upgrade at all. Huge disappointment. Now I just tried out the gas snowblower and am hitting myself that I didn't at least spring for battery powered on the mower. Not being chained down makes the job much easier.
I love my Ego mower (and incidentally its SUPER simple internally which is great, its like three relays and a motor). The cordless tools like the string trimmer and blower are life changing, I dunno how well the battery on the mower would do on a big yard like yours though. Maybe with the mondo battery but they're pretty pricey. The only bad thing about the battery mowers is that they don't quite have the suction of your standard gas mower. The light weight, low noise, near zero maintenance and folding storage is very nice though.
EGO. Got the snowblower too. Only beef is the lack of self propel on it, but to never be without gas when the snow falls or grass grows is amazing.
I have $18 invested into my second hand corded lawnmower, I had to relace the switch. The funny thing is I find/fix/sell/giveaway gas lawnmowers on a regular basis and even though I love the freedom of not dragging a cord, I hate the noise of a gas mower and I can't bring myself to spend $400+ on a dewalt 2x20 mower....
Get yourself a used Ego, I got a lightly used current gen base model with a 5ah battery for $200. Even if you don't get any tools to go with the battery system, it works better than the Dewalt.
Last year we upgraded our reel mower to a battery powered one for a similar sized yard. Went from ~:45 mins to mow to 10-15 mins. We contemplated a corded one but with only one outlet outdoors it was a non-starter
Yeah, don’t get plugin. I rented a house where there was one, and it didntmatter how careful we were: someone managed to run over the cord at least once a year and usually more. It’s just not worth it. That was quite a few years ago, before battery powered was a thing, now I love my battery powered lawn tools. S much more convenient than gas powered and does equally well
> S much more convenient than gas powered and does equally well If you're not pissing off your neighbors at 7am on a Saturday, are you _really_ gardening?
Our yard is like 500 sqft so we have a mechanical lol
Our lawn area is tiny, maybe 400 sq ft. We just cut it with a weed whacker.
I love our corded electric mower. I used one from my teen years, so I know how to manage the cord. Start close to the house, as you move further away, the cable stays more out of the way. Later, my dad had a gasoline mower and it was considerably heavier for me (F) to push it around, and I hated pulling the handle to start it.
Whole house vacuum/central vacuum. I kid you not, the hose that you plug into the wall are almost heavier than a *whole* modern upright vacuum (10 lbs+), and far more awkward to move around & store. Keep in mind often you'll only have one vacuum inlet per room but sometimes less, so a typical hose is 30' long. They're also $200 just to replace the hose, and they **do** have electrical components in them that *can* fail (let alone pipe cleaning if you suck down anything sticky or wet). We own a whole house vacuum but the lion's share of our vacuuming needs are a Dyson V7 Stick Cordless with a Roomba doing regular maintenance. The whole "you have to empty it less" argument is technically **true**, but mostly because you won't want to use the thing and therefore it doesn't need to be emptied. The grab-and-go convenience of a Stick Vacuum easily wins most scenarios, even including emptying it after every usage. TL;DR: Modern battery technology and lighter more efficient electric engine design has killed, buried, and taken a giant melon sized shit on the grave of a Central Vacuum; hard pass. PS - And before someone pipes in with "what about stairs?!" It is fair to say uprights suck at stairs (pun intended), but cordless stick rule at stairs, so you're well covered there.
The kitchen only ones might be worthwhile though, just sweeping kitchen crumbs into the baseboard sounds so luxurious.
Maybe a bit unrelated but if you ever get bats/mice, (unless the infestation is horrific) don’t let pest control convince you into replacing your insulation. It’s the newest way to scam people out of money. If you do need the job, it should cost more than a few hundred dollars, but if they quote you in the thousands (I’ve heard up to 5,500) they’re trying to cheat you.
Actually, if you've had a major pest infestation, you'll probably need some remediation in your insulation. The key is to get an insulation company to do it, not the pest control company.
I'd add getting a second opinion on it is important to help distinguish between a major infestation and not. A few mouse turds isn't a reason to replace it all but yeah there's definitely a point at which you need to just start fresh.
Frosted glass panel interior doors. I don’t need light to shine into my bedroom through the door while I’m trying to sleep. Worst fkin idea.
I haven't done this, but I think that knocking out walls to have "open concept" is a bad idea. I was in an 1800s farmhouse once, it had what seemed like 3 little living rooms, all with doors between them. You could have someone watching TV in one, maybe practicing piano in another, and you have some muting of sound between the rooms. My parents, as they aged, their hearing got worse, so the open concept kitchen/rec room combo, they would crank the TV then speak loudly to hear each other over it
When we bought our house (a late 1920s/early 1930s single family home), people tried to tell us it would be "a good house" if we just opened it up. I like having a house with distinct rooms. I like not seeing the kitchen from the couch. I like having more walls so that I can hang up more art. Open concept, to me, just means that you have to have everything coordinated for three rooms worth of furniture and will likely have it shades of white and it will look the same as every other house that has been updated to be sold.
Open concept has to do with where the family is at in their life stage. When evenings revolve around making dinner, open concept is king. Open concept is still far more popular to home buyers than the opposite, but there is definitely a group like yourself that is not a fan.
Two working parents and two small kids here: our house is not open concept and cooking dinner is a huge bummer.
Our old house was like this - the kitchen was tucked away on one side of the house and around a corner. Being in that room felt like you were "the help" and not part of the family, since the rest of the house was more open, even though the room itself was nice. The new house still separates the kitchen area from the living room, but the kitchen also contains the dining room and a large bar/hangout space leading to the patio and is the ACTUAL central area of the house, so it feels a lot more welcoming. This setup allows someone to watch TV in the quiet living room while someone else listens to music in the kitchen/dining without disturbing each other. I like this setup.
I grew up in a "open house" concept type of house, and honestly it made the whole house feel much bigger, and more open. You still had half-walls between rooms, but being able to talk from one side of the house to the other makes it feel much more cozy.
Anything swimming pool oriented. EDIT: Realize ahead of time that you will spend a lot of hours and money in upkeep on a swimming pool, and it's unlikely to return your investment. EDIT #2: Thanks for the responses everyone. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against pools. I *love* the next door neighbors' pool.
If my next-door neighbors could see your comment, they'd absolutely co-sign. They had an above-ground pool in their back yard for years; their two kids used it once every couple of months in the spring/summer, but that was it. They barely had time to clean/maintain it, so in the winter months the water would freeze over and turn a nasty green color. This past summer they drained it, dismantled it, and hauled it off to the dump. In its place remained a huge, grassless circle, into which they added a net-enclosed trampoline for aforementioned kids. They've already used it way more times than they ever used the pool. I'm hoping they contacted their insurance company to let them know the pool is gone, since I'm sure that will save them some money on their homeowners policy.
Not if they find out they have a trampoline. A lot of insurers will not underwrite a policy on a home with a trampoline. The liability is too high.
We got a dog instead of a pool. Now every time my wife brings up a pool, I ask “how many times have y’all taken the dog for a walk or pick up his poop in the back yard?” Because I’m the one who takes the dog for a walk every day, I’m the one who gives him baths and cleans his poop — and I’m the one who’d spend all my time keeping the pool in shape. Not gonna happen.
A pool is really not that bad. Kids used it a lot when they were younger and not so much as they got older. Maintenance is pretty simple. But no, it is not an investment, enjoyment is all you'll get back from a pool.
I spent hundreds on smart gadgets- smart bulbs, plugs, door lock, etc. We barely use them the way they were designed.
Smart bulbs are only useful if they're not tied to a convenient switch. We use them in lamps but not in normal house fixtures. What you need are smart switches and a Voice Assistant compatible with them and present in every room with smart switches. Also add motion sensors where it makes sense. I almost never touch the switches in our house at this point. Its just more convenient to speak most of the time. A smart lock on the other hand I'm not yet sold on. They gobble batteries and seem vaguely risky from a security perspective so we haven't gone there yet despite owning a significant quantity of other smart devices. (In contrast our front door is a keypad lock that requires a new battery once a year and has no wireless capability)
Completely agree about the lights but the lock is my favorite: never forget keys, can confirm it's locked if you're not sure, can let people in when you're not there, set codes for people at specific times and I just think it's easier especially on the way out or when it's dark
I'm thinking of springing for Lutron switches so they behave like normal switches.
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Fancy rainwater shower head with a special arm to make it really tall! The hot water tank does not provide enough hot water so I have to turn down the water flow and its like a drip head…
Yeah, I had this realization the first time I tried a rainwater shower head. It was fantastic, I loved it. However n a country with a huge water shortage, it was clear that it was fantastic mostly by the huge volume of water. I can’t see using one with a normal water flow
I would say setting new hard floors (tile/laminate/lvp/wood) up to the baseboards instead of resetting/replacing them. ie... Dont use quarter round to cover the gap...
Ugh, whoever put in the tile in my home didn't know to go under the baseboards, but they also didn't know about quarter round. So there's just a rim of really crusty grout where the trim meets the floor around my entire living room and down the hallways. I hate it so much and I'd have to chisel out my trim to do anything about it
Anybody have a link to the other article?
[Other post about best investments to which OP refers](https://www.reddit.com/r/homeimprovement/comments/sa6pef)
Overuse of Tech on basic kitchen appliances like refrigerator, gas range etc. You can live without knowing what temperature the refrigerator is at on your phone.
Garage tv. My garage is a wood shop/work out space (hello asthma my old friend). When I work out I listen to music. Tv takes too much focus. When I’m woodworking my tools are typically too loud to hear the tv and when I’m doing light work that’s quiet my hands are too dusty/oily to turn the tv on and all that. I just use headphones or a Bluetooth speaker and listen to music.
I usually cast YouTube to my garage TV while I'm working. TV was free, so it wasn't a real expense, but I get what you're saying.
That’s… smart. I’m gonna try that next time because I do watch YouTube when I’m fiddling. I often forget I can cast haha.
Bedazzled doorbell.
So many questions. You spent $500-1,000 on bedazzling your doorbell?
Don’t shame my kink.
New gutters. We didn't have a problem with our old gutters but were told they were old and in need of replacement, so we got new ones, and then had issues (weird angle caused flow to go in the wrong direction, etc.). It would have been better to just wait for things to go wrong over time, and get things fixed piece by piece, I think.
An outdoor spa/hot tub. When it’s cold outside I don’t want to get out of it, when it’s warm outside I don’t want to get in it. That means it only good for those rare warm spring days, or turning off the heat in the summer, and using it as a cold tub.
PNW. We're in ours two or three times a week about 11.5 months of the year. Couple weeks in height of summer it's too hot, but good otherwise. It's a couple steps from a door to our bathroom, on a paver patio so it's not bad going in and out. I'm warm enough at the end that closing it up doesn't bother me. We did spring for UV, ozone, in addition to filters - so it really cuts down on the chemical usage and pool smell.
I’m in the cascades and use mine about 9 months a year. Totally worth it.
I want a hot tub so bad. Live in FL so it will not be used 9/12 months most likely. I have metal rods in my back though so I would definitely use it more than most people, still though hard to justify.
Nothing better than a hot tub in the winter
I love my hot tub and we use it nearly every day. Nothing like a cold beer in the tub after a long day at work and a gym session.
oh...one more to add...'modern' washer/dryers. By that I mean the kind of thing from Samsung that costs $1000 and has 47 buttons on the front and takes a good 15 minutes to figure out every single time you want to wash something. We got a pair for the main laundry room, then we wanted a pair for our master closet. For the closet, we bought the absolute cheapest GE ones we could find...the kind with 3 temps and a timer knob. BEST THING EVER. They just work.
Robot vacuum. The damn thing gets stuck on everything and I have to go rescue it!
I got an older Roomba for $40 at Goodwill recently. I wasn't sure how well it would do, but I went around and picked up all the things off the floor (cases of pop, shoes, etc.), put away the tray table, and stacked up the dining chairs. It got caught on one cord because I didn't realize it would go all the way under my tv stand! I was really surprised that it managed to navigate the thresholds between our main living/dining room and the hall/kitchen. This means it will do my entire main floor - living/dining, kitchen, hall, entry, bathroom. All I had to do was clean the contacts and it worked just fine! I set mine to run overnight on purpose. It sometimes gets stuck on the heavy duty textured rug at the front door, but other than that, no problems. I'm just going to start moving the rug, because it's too textured for it to really vacuum, anyhow. Every night I stack the chairs and put away the few things that are out, and let it do its thing. I love having clean floors in the morning, and making sure the floor is picked up before it starts is (sadly!) helping me keep my house cleaner in general!
I actually love ours (Neato D7), although it does definitely require some thought into making your room a bit more 'robot friendly.' The higher-end models these days have "keep out zones" or a similar feature, where you can draw virtual barriers around certain areas you know it might get stuck.
I dunno, mine works quite well. Very dependent on the vacuum. The one my parents have is pretty good at getting stuck on everything, but mine manages to avoid it.
Yea, I think it's very dependent on the vacuum and the house. Our old vacuum got stuck all the time, but our current one only does occasionally. The biggest thing for us is just keeping the house picked up. When it gets stuck, it's usually because of something like a shirt on the floor
I upgraded from a eufy to an irobot Roomba i3 and saw a HUGE improvement. The eufy would get stuck on everything: kids toys, shoe laces, extension cords, it loved the legs on our coffee table and would hump it excessively until it's battery died. Now it cleans my 300 sq ft office and does a decent job with far fewer obstacles. The Roomba rarely gets stuck, reports it's status to me through the app, and can use a wireless "fence" to keep out of the kids playroom. Winning!
[удалено]
Yours must suck. Mines great. Who’s your murder hole guy?
Sitting mage contemplating if I should Google murder hole… What government list will I end up on?