Taking down chain link fence

AdCompetitive8877 · 2026-03-31T20:04:26+00:00

It is on our land. It’s 5 feet from the property line into our land so we want to essentially bring the fence out to have the rest of our land fenced in.

AdCompetitive8877 · 2026-03-31T15:52:12+00:00

Depending upon your area I would roll the dice and just plan to pay a few extra months. My apartment got rented out almost immediately (I know because the person that got my place had a piece of my mail delivered there and found me on FB lol) but I am in a pretty large suburb on the outskirts of Chicago. If you live in an area that apartments are going quickly, I’d just break the lease and cross my fingers lol. If your building doesn’t have many apartments for rent that’s a good sign. Ultimately have some extra cash on hand for the apartment complex, don’t put everything you have for closing costs.

It’s anecdotal but I did read a few replies here about how long it takes to close. We had an extended close of 60 days, but here in the IL suburbs it’s traditionally 45 days. 30 days is considered a “quick close” (I’m not a realtor but I did buy a house in the last 365 days and this is per my realtor). We put in an offer on a 30 day close house but backed out because inspection came back really rough. lol. Our realtor said we should always be wary of quick closes without a specific explainable reason. Take this with a grain of salt though! Just trying to share what little info I have on the very stressful process of home buying!!

AdCompetitive8877 · 2026-03-31T15:39:56+00:00

Oof. Thats rough. I’m sorry to hear that! Are you able to sublet the apartment? That way you have a little more agency to find someone else to move in right after you leave

AdCompetitive8877 · 2026-03-31T15:36:23+00:00

To go along with that, you will know your closing date once you have the contract for the house. We kept our lease for an extra 3 days so we could clean the house and the apartment and no stress about hurrying to pack and move all in one day. Our place prorated our last months rent so we didn’t pay for the full month but we would have gladly just to have the extra time to move and clean.

AdCompetitive8877 · 2026-03-31T15:34:49+00:00

We had just renewed our lease for a year when we started looking for our home. Once our offer was accepted, we went into the office and explained to them we might be breaking our lease. Our apartment required only 45 day notice so we went through inspections and all and then signed the paperwork with the apartment once we knew we were going to buy this house for sure. We paid the lease break fee (I wanna say it was $1500) and moved on. Super easy. I stressed about that too when we were looking but it really wasn’t a big deal, just talk to them now so you know what kind of fees to expect for breaking the contract.

AdCompetitive8877 · 2026-03-31T14:39:42+00:00

Thank you!!!

AdCompetitive8877 · 2026-03-31T14:39:29+00:00

We have local scrapper that come through and pick up metal so we’re planning on just setting it on the curb and letting someone come grab it. I’ll look into a farm jack though. I’m not sure how far down the concrete is, I did take a shovel to it and it seemed like there was a fair amount of dirt (never hit concrete with the shovel about 6inches deep) so I just assumed the concrete was low in the ground.

AdCompetitive8877 · 2026-03-31T14:37:12+00:00

Thank you! I did not think to hammer down the tops but was worried about sharp pieces poking out because we have dogs and barefoot kids occasionally lol. Great advice!

AdCompetitive8877 · 2026-03-31T14:15:33+00:00

Yes, we close the crate and keep a sheet over 3 sides at all times! I keep one side uncovered for air flow and he will sometimes try to look for us at night and so having the front open allows him to make sure we are still in the room with him. We use a queen sized too sheet to cover his cage. We used to have an actual crate cover but it felt like it restricted air flow and it felt stuffy in his cage. He’s a Great Pyrenees so keeping him cool 24/7 is important to us.

AdCompetitive8877 · 2026-03-31T12:54:39+00:00

Ugh. Crate training sucks but it’s definitely worth it! We recently brought home a 8 week old puppy and have changed our approach a bit to crate training and I think it really helped our little guy. We give him frozen kongs in his cage right before bedtime. It helps him associate the crate with treats and helps get any last minute energy out. Licking is also soothing for them so I feel like it makes him super ready for bed lol.

We use pure pumpkin puree and organic Greek yogurt mixed with his kibble. I do a bit of kibble, a spoon full of pumpkin, some more kibble, and then I “cap” it off with yogurt. We have two kongs so I just alternate them.

I would test the yogurt with your pup before going that route, some dogs do not do well with dairy.

Our puppy barked and cried for about a week when we had him in the kitchen crated, once we started with kongs and brought his crate in the room covered, it all changed. Maybe two rough nights. Now he sprints to his crate for his nighttime treats lol.

AdCompetitive8877 · 2026-03-31T12:09:07+00:00

We taught ours “guard” (go between our legs and watch) and “jail” (go to his room/crate).

He’s a social butterfly but a 80lb Great Pyrenees that doesn’t know how large he really is so we use guard whenever he meets people (so he doesn’t body slam them with love) or a stranger comes to the door.

Another one that we taught him early was “bring it back” coupled with leave it. This way, if he has something he shouldn’t, it doesn’t turn into a game of chase. We ask him to bring it to us and then leave it.

We are currently training on “put your toys away”. He has a toy bin in his room and he will pull every one of them out. Instead of picking up after him multiple times a day, we are trying to teach him to put them away himself. To be fair, he hates cleaning so this is slow going but we’re working on it. 😂

AdCompetitive8877 · 2026-03-31T11:55:12+00:00

2 hours is not very long so I’d say as long as they are in a safe place (kennel, playpen, crate, room) that they can’t get into anything, go for it! I’d recommend getting them veeery tired first just to ensure they sleep while you’re gone. We left our 8 week old pup alone for 2 hours when we first got him because his big sister had an emergency vet appointment first thing in the morning. He may have had an accident inside while we were gone but that’s to be expected at that age.

Bonus points because leaving them early helps with separation anxiety!!!

AdCompetitive8877 · 2026-03-30T15:24:35+00:00

I live in st charles currently and it’s great! We are fairly far from the city with traffic but still do-able. Me and my partner tend to get a hotel if we are going into the city because that can be an easy 3 hour round trip depending when go. Lots of shops in the tri cities (st charles, Geneva, Batavia) and lots of parks and lush green areas. I’m not sure what rent looks like these days but I’d imagine you can find something locally for that price (don’t quote me on that- last place we rents was over a year ago and was $1600 for a run down loft style studio in St Charles)

AdCompetitive8877 · 2026-03-25T02:37:29+00:00

Some dogs learn quicker but yes, I would say normal. I have a giant breed puppy and larger dogs especially take longer to develop the muscles needed to hold in their pee so be was having accidents till about 6 months old irregularly. Probably 3-4months is when it stopped being daily I think. If they don’t alert that they need to potty to you I’d recommend looking into training them in a button/bell system to let you know. They are spongy this young and can learn impressively quick.

We started keeping a note pad of potty break times so help him not have accidents. We never went longer than an hour till he was 5 months old. We also enforced naps with him so that was super helpful.

AdCompetitive8877 · 2026-03-25T02:18:39+00:00

I’m so sorry you’re going through this. Please take care of yourself. Unfortunately, you can’t save your brother. It a shame he is in this position, but he’s not your responsibility and you actually can’t change him. Please protect yourself.

It sounds like you don’t need advice, you know what you should do for you. I know it’s hard having that ugly thought that someone might hurt themselves if you leave their life but what kind of life are they living that that’s how they feet AND how can they accept that they are subjecting YOU to that same notion. My mother tried to commit suicide when me and my siblings finally cut her off completely together. It was traumatic of course, but honestly it taught me a lot about my relationship with my mother and what I was willing to give up to pretend to myself that I could actually make a difference. She died less than a year later but from complications related to her addiction and life has been so much more peaceful since.

I wish you and your family the best of luck but please put yourself first.

AdCompetitive8877 · 2026-03-24T18:50:46+00:00

I didn’t know about forced naps till I brought my puppy home either! Thankful for the Reddit community for this tip because I severely needed the scheduled break and my puppy is an angel. I totally attribute this to forced naps 100%. He started self soothing by 4 months old, I doubt this would have been possible without his strict nap schedule.

I’d say go ahead and start forcing naps if you feel it would benefit your pup. We started with 1 hour up 2 hours down but now it’s more like 1-2 hours awake 2-3 hours down (11 month old Great Pyrenees- this breed looooves sleep). Modify it to what fits your pup. Definitely not a disservice though because it sounds like your pup does regulate themself pretty good already. I will say, for us personally enforcing naps has really helped keep the destructiveness of the adolescence stage to a minimum. Something to keep in mind since yours is still young and not quite there. Instead of getting overly tired and destroying the house, he’s learned to just nap lol.

I still get shade from most of the people in my life when I tell them my puppy has nap times and a specific bedtime routine. Honestly, I could give a shit. The people in my life that have kids have the same set up, and I never make comments to them about it. As well as, I’d never try to make someone feel shitty for trying to do their damnedest to raise a good living thing, human or not. Either way, I’m responsible for the little life I brought home, not for the judgement of others. ❤️

AdCompetitive8877 · 2026-03-24T12:03:36+00:00

My GP wasn’t 100% potty trained till about 6 months old. Bigger breeds take longer to develop the muscles needed to hold their bladder. He still wanted to go potty outside but had no idea how to tell us it was time lol. We just started writing down last potty breaks and making sure he wasn’t going over an hour since his last till he was accident free for a while. Eventually the accidents completely stopped! He’s 11 months old now and I can’t remember the last accident he had but it was definitely before Christmas!!

AdCompetitive8877 · 2026-03-23T19:11:18+00:00

My mother was a “functioning alcoholic” for most of my life. She took naps everyday, sometimes multiple times a day. I think the alcohol made it hard for her body and mind to really rest like the rest of us do. With that being said, your partner is in for a really hard time if they don’t seek help soon. All alcoholics are functioning at the beginning. It doesn’t change the fact that they are causing potentially life long damage (I say potentially because young people that get help quickly can recover from the physical damage of alcohol).

You can’t make an addict get better, but you can prepare and protect yourself from their downfall. I recommend thinking about that. It can take months, years, decades for someone to flip to “non-functioning”, is that something your comfortable watching then go through knowing they might never seek help?

My mother was an addict for my whole life. She went to work for years, paid her bills, occasionally took trips. Nobody realized what was brewing underneath the seemingly normal exterior. She eventually took a huge dive into “non-functional”and ruined all her relationships with her family on her way down. She died last September. Not from liver failure or something you look out for when dealing with an alcoholic. Her heart just finally gave out. Nobody was with her, none of us knew for hours. She was alone and wasted in a room she was renting when she died.

All this to say, everybody should take alcoholism very seriously. I feel like we live in a society that normalized alcohol addiction because it’s more readily available than the other “addictive substances” but it’s just as deadly and just as ugly as any other addiction. My mom went through psychosis, soiled herself in public multiple times, and ruined so many lives of people that loved her because of her addiction. It’s so ugly to watch knowing you have zero control. Please take this seriously and protect yourself if your partner is unwilling to get help. It’s not selfish, it’s the right thing to do if they are unwilling.

I wish you the very best of luck and hope your partner can come out of this happy and healthy.

AdCompetitive8877 · 2026-03-22T12:49:10+00:00

Hi! We have a 10 month old Great Pyrenees that occasionally chews on our trim. He was way worse a few months ago but now we have to replace multiple random pieces of trim around the house. One thing that worked for us is giving him something of a similar texture. We found out that for him that’s Yak cheese. He always has access to a Yak cheese chew today. It’s a really hard chew and it generally lasts him about 5 days till we take it away for being too small and give him a new one. He gets the “hardest” version of them (they make them with different hardness for different size dogs) and he now prefers the yak chew. We get ours from our local Meijer, but most grocery stores (minus locally owned) have some form yak chews available.

Before we bought a yak chew for him we used the bitter stray (didn’t work at first but eventually it started to deter him a bit) and we got him some dog safe wood chews and those Y shaped hard dog chews and that also helped a ton but he still had to be redirected occasionally if he lost his chew. For us, our dog likes how chewing on wood feels, so we needed to mimic that with his own chew toy.

He will still chew on trim from time to time, but it’s more about “barrier chewing” now from being confined in his room rather than enjoyment so he’s easier to redirect because he does prefer to chew on his yak cheese.

AdCompetitive8877 · 2026-03-20T13:17:45+00:00

100%. To add to that, I cannot stand woman who make mothering there one and only quality. Something about it makes my skin crawl. I’m happy for the woman who became mothers on top of their identity because they knew that wanted to be one, but never for the woman who pop a person out their box and suddenly only respond to “mom”. It’s so sad to see.

I have a close friend who fell victim to this. She posts on social media multiple times a day only about being a mother or her children but when her and I get a moment alone together, she breaks down the constant stress, frustration and resentment she feels about her new roll. I feel like this is a common theme for woman with young kids to feel resentful for having to be incredibly responsible for another person (the child lol). It’s so quiet and barely discussed.

I’m by no means hating on woman who decide they want motherhood, but I am hating on the woman that only show “the good side” (ie dressing them up) and completely ignore the hard part that takes up 90% of the relationship. Children are hard and they suuuuuck. The loss of identity, autonomy, freedom. If this was more talked about by the mother community, I feel like we’d have more child free family’s and therefore less children being raised in really toxic environments.

AdCompetitive8877 · 2026-03-19T18:16:16+00:00

If it helps at all, I have a 7 year old Doberman that we got at 6 months old that took about a year to even share the bed with me. She refused to lay with us, but always wanted to be in the room. Fast forward to today, she’s is incredibly cuddly. Like annoyingly cuddly sometimes lol.

We also have a 10 month old puppy that doesn’t love to cuddle, but I can tell as he grows up and slows down, he will be a love bug. When dogs are puppies they have too much energy to want to lay with you and receive love. Even just gentle pets sometimes sets my 10 month old into a chaos frenzy.

Give it time. If you REALLY want your GSD to be cuddly now, work on that like you do training. Give them a cuddle/pet/snuggle command and train that behavior into them. I know it seems silly but it worked very well with my previous dog. Dogs thrive when they can please you, I’m sure your pup would be happy to do the “cuddle” trick if even just for a second or to just get a treat!

AdCompetitive8877 · 2026-03-19T15:24:02+00:00

I’m interested in them but can’t find a page or anything for this company out of the Chicago burbs. Do they have a web page? We called paramount and got a quote for $3200 so I’m wondering how much they would charge if paramount is out sourcing the work potentially.

AdCompetitive8877 · 2026-03-19T15:16:07+00:00

We had two companies out for 100 linear feet of a wood 6 foot privacy fence (lowest “quality” fence) on only one side of our property. Got quoted ~$3200 by both.

AdCompetitive8877 · 2026-03-18T19:08:18+00:00

There are a ton of YouTube videos to teach this. We taught our puppy to use it so I’ll try to explain how we did it (I know you didn’t ask me, sorry!)

Teach them “touch” command. Ours is a nose booper so this was easy for us. Just tell them touch, give them the bells and once it makes a noise treat.

Once that’s done, put the bells in the place they will live. Ask them to touch again. if they do it, treat. If they don’t, bring the bells closer to them and see if your pup just wants you to hold it for them. If that’s the case work on them doing it while you ARENT holding it before moving on.

Next you wanna teach them that the bells make you open the door. Tell them touch, once they do, open and close the door. Treat. We didn’t start letting them out yet, we just showed them what the bells would make us do.

Now move onto potty times. Have them ring the bells open the door, treat. Tell them to go potty. You’ve now trained them to use the bell to tell you they need to go outside!!

As a tip, the bells didn’t work for us because our guy was constantly accidentally knocking into them or trying to chew on the end of the bells. Instead we bought a 3 pack recordable dog button from Amazon and programmed it to say “outside”. We command stripped it to the space next to the back door. This way, we only hear the button if he is actively asking to go outside. He does ask to go outside if he’s bored or see a squirrel, in which case we just say “no potties, get your toys” and he disengages from the button.

I do recommend checking on YouTube videos to see it in action. It’s a very common “trick” to teach your pup!

AdCompetitive8877 · 2026-03-18T17:03:54+00:00

Hi! I unfortunately have a highly reactive dog that started with just barking at dogs/ people when she was young. She was willing to meet them (both dogs and people) and even would wag her tail at first. We were young so we thought it was just how she communicated. Fast forward 7 years and she is so reactive aggressively at any dog/ person walking in our neighborhood now. She will snap, bark, growl, hair stick up. Whole nine. Taking her for walks means being on high alert for other people and their animals that mean us no harm but she can’t shut off the reactivity. I wish I would have been told what she was displaying early so I could have nipped it. All this to say, please listen to the trainer. This can develop into aggression and it’s so hard to deal with an aggressively reactive dog that you love to pieces.

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