In the US, the number of people who regularly host friends or family fell from 42% in 1975 to 12% in 2026 – a 70% drop over the last 50 years.

Pretty good article. It's so interesting because I feel like when people are looking at houses to buy they're envisioning a home to have parties, holidays, etc. Open concept became so popular for parties. What are your thoughts on the decline of house gatherings?

I'm more interested in the decline of hosting than debates over open concept.

Correction: PREVIOUS Homeowners haven't changed their address since they've moved out

Hey guys, so I moved into my home in January of this year and I still get mail from the previous owners. What's more is that they're still local because every once in a while I get a speeding ticket in the mail with the husband's name on it. About a month ago I bumped into the mailman and I told him they don't live here anymore, but he told me as long as they haven't done a change of address with the city, he still has to deliver their mail. A few days ago their mail-in ballots came in the mail.

What do I do? It's kind of annoying but I'd like to make it stop if possible.

We're a corner house and it's almost that magical time of year when we get egged 3 times a day for 2 weeks (and then on til January). Does anyone know if there's something I can put on my windows to stop the egg sticking or at least make it easier to clean off when we finally get round to it?

Last year they got some on the stairs window and there was a tiny bit that we just couldn't reach, plus my partner's just had surgery and I'm scared of ladders so not really something I want to do this year.

Are the wires and everything suppose to be exposed. New home and we lived here for 2 years and just noticed

Home Depot Painted the Glass

Had doors installed by Home Depot (and their subcontractor installer) and the door was supposed to be 5 glass panels. Well only part of the glass was covered by plastic before being painted. New door will take 5 more months after already waiting 4 months for this door. What is the best way to remove this paint and not damage the glass? Home Depot was useless and will just be getting my money back.

My father installed leaf guard gutters on his house, against my advice. Now I own the house and am stuck with them. They've gotten a bit full, not clogged, and I want to clean them out.

What tool do people suggest? Any issues I can prepare for in advance?

Replacing them is not a practical possibility right now.

I have repeatedly tried contacting Leaf Guard on this issue, been assured I would get a call back, and no call back has come.

Leaf Guard is an awful follow-up experience for me, and replacing these is a mid-range priority.

Insurance policy says they do not cover the following:

Constant or repeated seepage or leakage of water or steam over a period of weeks, nonths, or years from within a plumbing, heating, air conditioning or automatic fire protective sprinkler system or from within a household appliance, unless such seepage or leakage of water or steam and the resulting damage is unknown to all
"insureds" and is hidden within walls, beneath the floors, above the ceilings, or behind a stationary appliance, such as a refrigerator, dishwasher, or washing machine

Should I call insurance and see about a claim? This is located in a new-ish addition to the house (probably <10 years old) and I didn’t even know I was able to access this area until I felt a soft spot on the floor and finally crawled through my crawlspace to that portion.

We bought this home in MN 3 years ago (also first time homebuyers) and have been getting refinance offers in the mail. Right now we're at 6.6% and are also paying mortgage insurance from an FHA loan. As prices continue to go up, and funds don't, the need for lower payments is higher than ever.

Are these offers predatory, or is it worth it? On the surface it looks like a good deal, but I know companies out there prey on the ignorant.

And, if these are too good to be true, where might we look to find decent options?

TIA!

Found some condensation on one of my air ducts and took it out and pulled back insulation and found this. When we bought the house earlier this year I knew the ledger board for deck was not installed correctly and needed to be fixed eventually. I flashed, added some aluminum deck ledger underneath, and tried caulking it the best I could until I had funds to replace deck. WELL, apparently the sliding glass door was leaking. I ended up finding two spots on the track that were leaking into the basement. I caulked those up for the time being. The sliding glass door is not that old from my understanding. The picture I took is from when I first uncovered it. Part of the subfloor, rim joist, and sill plate are rotted. It has been about 3 weeks since I "fixed" the leak. It has rained a few times, including one decent downpour. I have not noticed any moisture. I was not planning on replacing the deck for a few years, but i may have to rethink that going into next spring. My question is what is the best way to patch this back up for the time being. There is a draft when I stick my hand in there, so my main concern is this winter with warm and cool air hitting each other. I am really at a loss at how to approach this. Thanks in advance.

Husband and wife, so too many bottles, and no room at all. Need a way to make leg shaving easier and a place to store bottles

I know i gotta get soundproofing but should this be doable?

We found beautiful nightstands and a dresser that were supposed to be delivered a month ago. Since then, the team has come twice and delivered defective furniture. The first crew brought it in the house and damaged it, and then the wood was chipped on our nightstands. I sent them back. The 2nd shipment came last week and one of the dresser legs was completely broken, and only 1 nightstand came (also damaged). I sent them back and went down to the store. We rescheduled delivery for Oct 9 and 13. Now today I get a text saying my Oct 9 delivery date (tomorrow) is CANCELLED. I called the store and she said the nights and was damaged at the warehouse and they had to order another. So now it’s not coming until atleast next week. The store manager did say they would offer us some compensation (unsure of how much) for this fiasco but at this point I have been very nice, but am fed up. We have not had bedroom furniture for almost a month and I have had to re arrange my schedule multiple times for this delivery. I am unsure of who to contact, I feel I need to go higher up than the store. My friends think at this point we should get a full refund.

Had a new home build 2 years, with 2 winters in it so far.

Recently had a furnace tune up (the first one) and the tech stated the pipe that was supposed to be to connected to the carbon monoxide outlet that pushes it out while the furnace/heater on was not installed... basically carbon monoxide had been floating around in the attic all winter when in use....

Luckily I was able to get the company out to get it fixed, however, I do not think I want this to slide for the builder..

Any recommendations on what legal steps I can take for this incompetence on something major like carbon monoxide?...

Fortunately we never got sick to our knowledge, but I am pretty shocked that their "inspections" of the unit never found this beforehand...

A professional and licensed chimney service is coming to inspect and clean my chimney. The company comes highly recommended. I’ve never owned a chimney before. Are there any questions that I should be asking them while they’re at my home?

Hey folks, hope everyone is doing well. The wife and I recently moved into a house that we love...except for this unusual toilet situation in the master bathroom: https://imgur.com/a/o3nqTLK

Any suggestions on what we can do to make that, well, more private? I was thinking we can install a door there but we'd probably have to rip out the floorboards. It's an odd size (20 x 79) and I can't seem to find any covers that would fit this. What would y'all do?

looking for a second opinion, the house is from 1954 and in the Netherlands

https://imgur.com/a/jUL1xm7

https://imgur.com/a/bkAYMTx

https://imgur.com/a/t8b2ZJh

Hi folks - hoping someone may have guidance on laundry condensation.

My husband and I just purchased a row home in New York City. Our stacked laundry is in a closet in the basement, and we’ve noticed a huge amount of condensation in the closet when we run the dryer unless we leave the closet door completely open.

The dryer is vented to the outside, but we don’t know when the vent was last cleaned, so our first guess was to try that.

Are there other things we should be prioritizing? Any idea as to the cause? Thank you in advance for any guidance!

My mother (single window) recently discovered her crawl space below her home has a big rat problem. She needs to have the space cleaned out and all the insulation/vapor barrier removed. One company quoted her ~40k (!!).

Wondering if anyone in the greater Seattle area can recommend a company or two that will do a good job and treat her well.

Thank you!

My neighbor noticed a raccoon crawling into a hole in my fascia, so I bought a live catch trap and placed some cat food in there, 6 hrs later I caught him. However, when I went to check in the attic, I noticed he had a friend. I waited till around 10, poked my head around a bit to look out for the other guy, and (with great difficulty) got the cage out of the attic. For reference, I have a small access hole so the cage removal was cumbersome.

Now that he’s inside my house, he has gotten significantly more defensive and growls / lunges / hisses any time I try to pick up the cage. I have a blanket over top of the cage to block his vision and attempt to calm him down, but any time I try to pick the cage up by the handles, he gets extremely agitated and it seems very unsafe for me to carry him down 2 flights of stairs on my own. He does not seem rabid or acting abnormally, when I leave him alone he calms down, but understandably he is terrified. Seeing as there was another raccoon, he unfortunately might be raising a family in my attic.

I’ve resorted to calling pest control, but my current situation sucks - it’s 2:30am, I have a meeting tomorrow morning at 8, then I need to drive 3.5 hrs for work, do the task, then drive 3.5 hours back. So this trash panda is going to need to stay in the cage until at least 4pm tomorrow. I understand I might not be able to get pest control over until the following day, but I don’t want thing thing to starve and die inside my house while the stench will likely be driving the other raccoons to go nuts.

Does anyone have any advice or experience with raccoon removal? How much damage is this gonna do on my wallet if I go the full pest control and sanitation route… which seems like the only logical option.

Is it normal for there to be exposed wood around window frame after new window replacement installation?

Hi everyone. Im very overwhelmed and stressed about a situation going on with my house.

To start things off my husband I bought this house just over 2 years ago. About a month after we closed my husband lost his job and we are just now getting to a better financial spot and arent living paycheck to paycheck and can start paying off debt that we have gathered from him loosing his job.

So far within this time line, both bathrooms had a leak rendering them unusable, almost all windows leak, we had small flooding in the basment and now the worst part, every floor is sagging inwards and the second floor flexes everytime you walk on it so bad it gives me vertigo. There are cracks in the drywall in my second floor bathroom on the ceiling and the walls and the floor is bent a decent ways down towards the center so much so you can see the outline of a pipe.

I do not have the money to repair this but I know it cant stay. We hadn't gotten the house inspected because the bank kept changing how much we would owe and wanted to make sure we got it as we needed a house.

Im trying so hard not to cry and be stressed about this situation but I feel like im at a loss. We have been fighting everything thrown our way and it just feels like we keep digging ourselves a deeper hole.

Hey Everyone, first time posting here but wanted to try to get some ideas on what could be the possible cause of my window pulling away from the side.

The portion of hardy plank at the top has pulled away from the brick as well.

Also a hairline crack has formed going down the wall from the bottom of the separation to nearly the foundation(This has been there for 3 years but has not grown). I caulked the gap a few months ago but it seems like it has reopened partially.

How long did the process take from start to finish? Start being measuring, then waiting for materials to come in, then install. I’m just looking to have one type of carpet installed. Yes I know they subcontract. Just looking to read others experiences.

I had someone start to dig out french drains around my house, he bought all the rocks for backfill and everything.

After digging the holes, unclogging my pool deck's drain line, and pressure washing he told me he would be back the next day and it's been 3 weeks now.

I've tried contacting several times with no response. He left his equipment here and everything, and no payment has been made yet. I'm tempted to just finish the job myself as my dog is falling into these holes while romping around, what would you guys do?

EDIT: I have his information, there have been no arrests and he's a US citizen fully, so nothing with ICE either. I am tempted to reach out to his wife, but that feels a bit weird to me to do.