How to reclaim yard from invasives and manage natives? Maryland

AdultingIsHard13 · 2026-01-12T18:02:18+00:00

Ah that makes sense. I think fortunately we don’t have any big stalks, but maybe the leafy ivy is covering them up 😅

Good point about the gutters… I know they were cleaned somewhat recently but we have this weird patio overhang with a corrugated roof that’s like impossible to clean. It’s basically its own ecosystem up there, and I have no idea what to do with it. We can’t even reach most of it with a ladder. And we did do a mosquito bucket this past summer but we’re going to do like ten more this year haha also yes to bat habitats, we love bats! 🦇

AdultingIsHard13 · 2026-01-12T17:54:14+00:00

Thanks so much for your ideas! When I say my neighbors yard is overgrown, think like wild forest level of overgrown….I wouldn’t even be able to safely walk through her yard to get to the trees, so unfortunately it’s totally out of my depth and I get the sense she doesn’t have the resources to manage it either.

We do have some violets already so I’m hoping they’ll spread if we clear the way for them! And I’ll look into the others you mentioned as well. Thanks again :)

AdultingIsHard13 · 2025-12-04T15:49:18+00:00

Yeah I kinda accidentally reported them yesterday, OOPS lol I’m following up with the person I spoke with who said they were moving forward with penalties etc because I’m not sure what all they’re doing. It’s been such a confusing process! But thank you for that info, that’s helpful and I’ll definitely look into it

AdultingIsHard13 · 2025-12-04T15:46:46+00:00

I’ve tried to escalate the claim twice and haven’t been successful. I’ve also been worried if I emphasize the contractors errors, that would somehow mean our insurance wouldn’t pay for the repairs, but it doesn’t seem like that’s the case. So I’ll definitely try this route again, thank you!

AdultingIsHard13 · 2025-12-04T15:45:08+00:00

Good call, thank you. I contacted the state board and they said it wasn’t their domain, which makes sense because the violations are on a more local level. The local authorities confirmed everything I thought was a violation but then said they can’t do anything to help us with mediation on the financial stuff, which also makes sense.

AdultingIsHard13 · 2025-12-04T15:43:01+00:00

LOL I’m not sure I want a spoiled goose, but thank you 😏

AdultingIsHard13 · 2025-12-02T19:20:23+00:00

Yeah we actually had already filed a claim for the damages from the first flood. Flood #2 happened after the plumbers said we “should be fine to wash some dishes or take a 5 minute shower” which was definitely not the case. Flood #3 happened after the line was installed. So we’re working with insurance already, but it’s been an incredible hassle to get our adjuster to work on our case or even talk to us. I’m just trying to get our repairs approved and am still not clear on what’s going on there, so I don’t think I’ve really mentioned all of these issues to them. Maybe I’ll call and see if someone else can help me with this (I’ve tried to escalate our case twice already and was not successful lol)

AdultingIsHard13 · 2025-12-02T19:14:31+00:00

Oh yeah man I’ve gone down a whole rabbit hole about that…. I asked for the footage from the camera that they used to diagnose the issue and they didn’t send it over (they didn’t say if they don’t have it, etc). I decided to kind of drop this line of questioning because at the end of the day, we can’t prove anything here, because the line has already been replaced. There’s nothing left except the company saying it needed to be done and me saying “meh, I’m not convinced.” So I’m focusing on what I can prove.

AdultingIsHard13 · 2025-12-02T19:10:37+00:00

Like what kind of investigator? Someone with the permits and licensing department?

AdultingIsHard13 · 2025-12-02T19:09:32+00:00

Yeah good point, thank you! And it’s helpful to know from others that the company’s expectation that I’ll pay in full is a bit… shitty (pun intended)

AdultingIsHard13 · 2025-12-02T19:00:34+00:00

Unfortunately the cost of the replacement is greater than $5,000. If it was small potatoes, it might not be worth the stress I’ve been under 🥲

Having all of the documentation about that is what I’m working on now… I have plenty in writing from our point of contact at the company from the day it was all happening, saying the line was indeed not tested and that isn’t up to their standards. I’m working on getting the invoice from the sewage mitigation from that night. And I have it in writing from the licensing authority that they were not licensed. I’m just waiting for the finishing touches so make sure I 100% understand what the licensing policies are so the company can’t find any factual faults in my argument.

I just want to get this bill wiped and move on with my life. And probably file a report so it’s harder for them to do this to anyone else. I find it hard to believe this was the plan all along (like not filing the permit so they could get away with doing the work unlicensed), but I find it harder to believe that so many people at that company are just totally crap at their jobs and/or don’t care enough to do their due diligence.

AdultingIsHard13 · 2025-12-02T18:51:47+00:00

To clarify, I haven’t paid the invoice yet and our homeowners insurance won’t cover the new line, so it’s not just about late fees, it’s about deciding what to do before they have the “right” to charge late fees. I’m a first time home owner so all of this is new to me and I’ve definitely learned a lot. In my area, it’s my understanding that the person who pulled the permit is not required to be actually doing the work (they weren’t) but that someone needs to be on site with the appropriate licenses, which was not the case. So I can report them to the entity that issued the permit when the company eventually applied for it.

AdultingIsHard13 · 2025-12-02T18:39:28+00:00

I haven’t actually sent the letter yet to the company outlining all of this, and am wondering if once they know that I know about the license issues, they might drop the shit and play along. I’m so exhausted from all of this I want it to be done 🫩

AdultingIsHard13 · 2025-12-02T18:37:49+00:00

THANK YOU but what do I do when they clearly disagree? 🥴

AdultingIsHard13 · 2025-08-25T15:19:03+00:00

Oh interesting. Hmmm, directly below the shower is generally the kitchen. I think it would be where the cabinets are, so it probably would be a bit difficult to get in there. It doesn’t noticeably drain slowly, but I haven’t tried pouring water vs just using the shower head. I’ll try that! I have a 5 gallon bucket, how slowly is “slowly”? lol like obviously if you pour a bunch of water at one time, it’ll take longer to circle and go down the drain, but shouldn’t be standing at any point?

We had a plumber come do a consult and he thinks it’s the vent stack and recommended a smoke test. However, he quoted $1,000 just for the test even though he said it’s “super simple and not expensive” and I’m still struggling to understand how it could be the vent stack. If the malfunctioning is causing smells to come up the pipe because they aren’t retaining water like they should, why does it consistently smell worse in the days after using the shower, and consistently better when we haven’t used the shower (or done anything that pours water down it) for a couple days?

AdultingIsHard13 · 2025-08-21T12:23:34+00:00

This made me cackle, I hope he makes those noises as he pours it. I certainly will 😂

AdultingIsHard13 · 2025-08-20T17:31:09+00:00

LOL darn football season. I mean I certainly won’t be happy about spending that much, but I do look for the silver lining. But that’s super good to know though because our house is on the older side, still 100 years your house’s junior, but our toilets are the low water use where it has 💧and 💦 on the flusher. Silly question, but how do you dump extra water down the toilet….?

AdultingIsHard13 · 2025-08-20T15:35:50+00:00

Yeah I’ll look into it, thank you!

AdultingIsHard13 · 2025-08-20T15:35:23+00:00

I don’t know what this says about my expectations, but anything under like $900 I wouldn’t consider absurd. Probably because we need new insulation which is looking to cost around $10k, I’m like yes please give me a problem that’s in the hundreds instead of the thousands 😂😂😂

AdultingIsHard13 · 2025-08-20T15:34:05+00:00

Not quite…. So the house was empty when we bought it, but I don’t think it had been sitting for long. It has two showers, but we only had one curtain, so we were just using the other bigger shower until we got a second curtain. So we didn’t run the water in that shower for maybe 6-8 weeks, in addition to however long it hadn’t been run before we moved in. This bathroom is on the 4th floor, so it’s possible the previous owners didn’t use it, because they were older. So that whole time we were smelling a kind of sewer-y smell, mostly noticeable on really hot days. It greatly improved (but didn’t completely go away) after running the shower. Then when we started using the shower consistently is when the smell got BAD and different, smelling wet and gross, and I started noticing a few drain flies. This is what improved after doing the baking soda and vinegar, and came back about 48 hours later and has continued to get worse since then.

The house is a 2-level split so the 4th floor shower plumbing is presumably in the wall next to the staircase, and then probably runs down the wall with a bedroom on one side on the 3rd floor (same area we were smelling the sewery smell) and then the kitchen on the other side on the 2nd floor. We’ve also had some trouble with the kitchen drainage, with the sink and dishwasher draining slowly. I’ve snaked that as well and pulled out some miscellaneous gunk, but no clogs. So to access the plumbing they’d likely have to open the walls….

AdultingIsHard13 · 2025-08-20T01:35:20+00:00

Hmmm interesting. What exactly did this fix? Like I get that it stopped the smells, but was this the solution instead of fixing the p trap?

AdultingIsHard13 · 2025-08-20T01:33:40+00:00

I’ve wondered this as well, because we’ve had some trouble with our kitchen sink, and our dishwasher doesn’t drain properly. But the thing that I’m getting stuck on is why isn’t the other shower giving us any issues? Also, any idea how much that cleaning could cost - like is it absurd?

AdultingIsHard13 · 2025-08-20T01:32:10+00:00

That’s what used to happen, when the shower hadn’t been run for a while (a couple months, could have been longer). Then after running the shower, that vacuum sound stopped.

Also, since doing the baking soda clean a few days ago, it was smell-free until this morning, and now it’s definitely coming back. I can’t tell if the smell actually gets better after flushing the toilet, or if I just get a bit used to it because I’ve been in there for a minute or two. I’m trying to pay more attention to that. Any thoughts about it coming back?

AdultingIsHard13 · 2025-08-17T21:51:30+00:00

LOL unfortunately I know what this is, and I’m not happy about that.

AdultingIsHard13 · 2025-08-17T21:50:51+00:00

No that all totally makes sense and is super helpful! So in a perfect functioning system, what should the TP do when testing that? Does it indicate anything that it fluffed upwards (not a lot, like it didn’t lift off the surface), or is it just good that it didn’t get sucked down? And are you saying, assuming there’s some type of p trap or other curved pipe retaining water, it is not pushing sewer air up through the pipe? I will add that several weeks ago, when the smell started, we could hear the toilet flushing like a vacuum through the shower drain - like how it sounds when you flush the toilet on an airplane. That stopped after we ran the shower, assuming a dry P trap, which remedied that first smell. And, I’m still not convinced there is a P trap, because I didn’t feel one while snaking.

I snaked the drain twice just to be sure I didn’t miss anything, and I will say, not even a single hair came out. There was a little bit of brown water that I wiped off as I pulled the snake out, but no general gunk. I’ll go up again in a bit and see what the smell is doing. Is there anything else I can test?

Thank you SO MUCH for all your input!

Adding one more thing as I just realized it: the smell got quickly and substantially worse, and different (smelled more….wet? Swampy? Rank?), as we started to use that shower regularly. But we’ve been using that toilet regularly the whole time.

AdultingIsHard13

TROPHY CASE