The noise is about 9 secs to open or close then dead silence. Excellent point on induction motors. Where I live in PA, everything is frozen in time so an antique motor is a real possibility. People do a lot of "homemade" things here so that is another possibility. I know what a vehicle without resistor plugs sounds like. I ran a race car with no resistors in the plugs and remember what the AM radio sounded like. The crackling varied with the RPM of the engine. In this case, the interference would fade as the vehicle drove away which is not the case. This interference has the same amplitude, frequency and duration. It occurs in the early morning and then around 6PM without fail. On weekends it is more random.

Also, if you think about it solely in terms of figures...when you need to sell, banks issue mortgages based upon the appraisal. Therefore, buyers need to have the appraisal come in for more than the agreed upon sales price. Generally, appraisers take the price per square foot of other comparible houses in your neighborhood, then adjust the value up or down depending upon condition and finishes. Now, this is a very simplified explanation, and appraisal is not an exact science, but it will give you an idea of the long-range value of the house. So, let's take an example on a 1800 sq ft house. If the average ppsf (price per sq ft) for similar (not exact, but similar) houses in your less than desirablable neighborhood is, let's say, $200, and your house has $40k worth of upscale finishes/renovation, appraised price is $400,000. Then, take the same house, with the renovations, and plunk it into a more desirable neighborhood. Similar houses in the neighborhood sell for $300 a square foot, appraised price is $540,000. Quite a difference, no? I recently spent 2 years looking for my 'dream house', and I ran into the same dilemma as you, time and time again. And I ran the recently-sold house numbers time and time again(used www.mlspropertyfinder.com)...and price values varied, by neighborhood, sometimes more than $200 per sq ft. For me, it was a better investment to wait & find an undervalued house in a better neighborhood. And, after 2 years of searching, I did! Hope this is helpful, and good luck....

The front of the house is the entire connected front elevation as one face; in your case it looks like two structures, is that a garage on the left? Of course your door also needs to suit your architecture, space, entry style and foyer etc. A 72" aka 6' wide double door is good although a 5' wide double door is not a bad idea either. Not to belabor the point but a good feng shui front door nourishes the house. It is called the mouth of the chi energy; a lot of people seem to overlook this but (if possible) a front door must be the grandest looking door in the house. More feng shui: That means no weird looking doors, no rust on doorknobs, no dried flowers, vines or old garlands on the front door.. Your front door must be made of solid wood not glass. And it has to be larger than the other doors in your home. In your case your french door competes and goes against these rules (only if you are paying attention to feng shui). Black windows and exterior trim can look stunning though its not for everyone unless you have a personality to match. We have black windows (only exterior), exterior trim, garage doors, entry door (black both sides) and all other exterior doors are painted black on exterior with white on interior; it looks amazing.

Carole, here is what we are all trying to show or explain. your photo shower the curb being constructed on TOP of the tile already installed. (i understand the photo of the wall where they were using a cleat to support drying tile, however that is normally not done either) the next photo shows you how a simple water proof liner wraps OVER the curb before mortar bed is poured or tile install. The curb should Absolutely not be built and tiles on top of finished tile. water will seep through. Right this second 2600 square feet of my own personal home is being completely torn out due to a "contractor" remodeling the showers before I purchased the home. They tiled and did not use a liner. The water over a years time slowly seeped through into the walls and wood flooring. to the tune $100k worth of damage and mold building inside the walls. Plus the fact each year I help design, order, and supervise approximately 180 bathroom remodels per year. We are a state licensed contractor who pulls permits. Did your contractor pull a permit on your bath? If so did the inspector come out before the curb, after the curb, etc? there should be a permit pulled when redoing a shower ALWAYS. Of course your contractor is defending himself and has done this for 30y. Which is completely fine. Honestly it looks like they forgot to build the curb and tried to go back and add it. What has happened over the past 30 years is codes and the way we build things has changed over time. see photos. Only trying to help, but if you are happy that's good. We are now saying "don't be surprised if there are future issues" I know you started seeking advice on grout, but we were all trying to do the right thing when we see something done wrong. That's all. Moving on to the next topics