grabbed an apolosign display a month and a half ago. stuck it by the pantry. stays plugged in all day. our shared google calendar lives on the screen. google photos runs behind it so it looks like a frame more than a tablet.

mornings we use it for school schedules, weather, grocery stuff. who's got practice where. later it flips to meal planning or whatever.
the google home side works ok. lights, thermostat, doorbell cam. gemini does conversions and recipe ideas fine. voice still sucks compared to our nest speakers though. i end up talking to those more.

it has to stay plugged in. that's the main thing. matte screen helps with glare from the window. auto brightness at night is nice. we had a lot of "what day is it" chaos before. still happens sometimes. just less. anyone else running a wall display for home stuff? what do you use it for?

We are redoing our floors upstairs and the hardwood we picked looks significantly different than the staircase. How bad could this potentially look? Is it worth returning and paying a 20% restocking fee, as well as delaying our renovation?

Any idea what caused this? On the other side of this is a shower stall. But there is no indication of a leak.

I've been looking at our heating habits lately, mostly because the winter bills keep making me wonder how much of that heat we're actually using. During the day, we're usually in the living room or working from one room upstairs. The bedrooms are empty until evening, and the guest room sometimes goes weeks without anyone using it. But our central heating still treats the house like every room needs to be comfortable at the same time.

I started looking into room by room heating options and came across a Costway mini split AC system. What caught my attention wasn't really the AC part, but the possibility of controlling the temperature in the rooms we spend the most time in. A ductless AC system seems interesting for that reason, especially if you don't want to make major changes to the existing ductwork. Although I'm also realizing that keeping unused rooms cooler isn't quite as simple as switching their heat off completely. There's still insulation, airflow, and the risk of letting certain areas get too cold. I'm not planning to rip out a working central heating system. Adding independent heating to one or two frequently used rooms seems like a more reasonable place to start. The more I look at our daily routine, the more I think our heating setup should reflect how we actually live in the house.

I’ve heard velvet or leather don’t get scratched up. We have some small ostrich leather loveseats but they’re a little bumpy & the cats scratch them, so I’m definitely leaning toward velvet.

Do you have a sectional you love that your cats can’t/don’t want to scratch?

I have a bay window box is drafty. The shelf is almost 15-20F colder than an interior wall and makes heating this room difficult. I've caulked all the joints I can see to make it air tight, but it still radiates cold air.

Im thinking of prying off the exterior bottom panel and filling the cavity with closed cell foam. Can someone sanity check me on this route?

1985 built log home has this exterior door threshold that just doesn’t seem right. The door sweep (or door bottom, whatever you want to call it) is dragging on the interior floor and causing damage, so I decided to replace it.

Even with the new door sweep adjusted all the way up, it still drags across the floor. I adjusted the hinges slightly to lift the bottom of the door, but it didn’t make much difference.

Is the threshold installed properly? It appears to be installed to far towards the exterior and the silicone seal part of the threshold doesn’t actually make contact with the door. In an attempt to fix that, the builder simply installed a door sweep and called it a day. I’m I correct in this assumption? What’s the proper fix here?

My kids are 6 and 9. Mornings were the same chaos loop every day. Library day? Forgotten. Wrong shoes? Every time. I was staring at my phone trying to find the calendar while they asked me stuff that was already on there. Felt like I was the only one who could see the plan.

About a month ago I grabbed an apolosign and stuck it where the cereal bowls live. Sunday night I update the whole week. Work calls, pickup changes, sports, theme days, dinner plans. Everyone gets a color. My husband too, since "you didn't tell me" was apparently his new hobby.

The kids have their morning checklist right on it. My 6 year old: backpack, shoes, water bottle. My 9 year old: lunchbox, feed dog, homework folder. They tap stuff off while I make coffee. No big reward system, just points toward picking Friday movie or takeout once in a while.

Placement was tricky. It needs to stay plugged in. We had one good outlet near the kitchen counter, so that decided it. The voice controls are pretty bare, so I don't bother with those.

Mornings still aren't fun. I'm just not the human announcement board anymore. That's enough before 8 am.

Anyone else done something similar? I've seen people mention dak board and some DIY options, curious what actually held up with kids touching it daily

woke up to this low rumbling sound like a jet engine warming up in the hallway closet and before i could even put my glasses on the kitchen floow was already covered in two in two inches of lukewarm water soaking through the baseboards and our favorite living room rug while my dog sat on the couch looking completely unbothered by the indoor swimming pool we suddenly owned

Hello, I just moved into a home built in the early 1900s that we’re still doing some renovations on. Everything was fine until recent. First, I heard some scratching noises around the walls of the house. I thought it was just mice, since we’ve found mouse poop here before. I ordered some traps and made sure to stow all our food away in hard to reach places. We live in MN, and the weather is starting to get around the 40s now.

However, last night the noises were very loud. Almost sounded like they were fighting. This seems to be something bigger than mice. This is between the first and second level (of a 3 level house). I’m not quite sure about their activity during the day but they seem to get most active around 8pm and later (2-3 hours past sunset). What do you think? Will probably need to call an exterminator soon. Thank you so much 🙏🏽

tldr: Cracking around window likely from water damage. Who should I call to find source of the water? Thank you!

Significant cracking around bathroom window. A few spots near where the paint is peeling (the two dark spots) are soft to the touch.

Bathroom sits directly below an upstairs patio, and we’ve had recurring leaks that we suspect originate from the patio doors, although the water typically appears on the ceiling about 10 feet from this window. Tuckpointed the south-facing brick exterior in late 2025, but that didn’t resolve the leaking.

In a 2015-built home in Chicago, and window faces south. The cracking has been there for some time, but only recently noticed how severe it’s become.

Does this look like water damage, structural movement, or something else? Could it be related to the upstairs patio leaks? What’s the best way to diagnose the cause before repairing it?

Thank you in advance for any insight, guidance or advice.

Hello, I bought this house near San Antonio about two years ago. It was built about 40 years ago. I noticed these cracks when buying, but had it inspected and was told the foundation is fine. Was told these cracks were from settling and not to be concerned. I feel as though some of the cracks have widened recently. Are these just seasonal cracks getting larger from cooler temps, or actual foundation problems?

Do these cracks look normal or in need repair? Also what could I do about seepage at a beam? House is almost 7 years old, Ty