OK, now I'm a little more confused. HVAC guy used 50 sq. ft for both bathrooms which is pretty close and provided the following equation: The heaters have a capacity each of 1275 Btu's. The restrooms are an estimate of 50 sq ft. The manuel J calculation for second floor room with one side exposure to outside is approximately 18 Btu's a sq ft. 50 Sq. ft. x 18 btu's =900 Btu's per restroom. Using BTUs seems to make sense so I did a little more research on using BTUs as a basis. Here's my assumptions because I don't have the Manual J to refer to: Room square foot = 50' Room cubic feet = 400 (8' ceilings) Based on the fact that the nearest heating ducts are in bedrooms and we keep our doors closed and thermostat turned down to 65, I'm going to assume the starting temperature is 65 and we'd want something like 75 temp in the winter, so temperature rise would be 10 degrees. I'm just making assumptions here, so if they seem out of line, someone let me know. I know some calculators use desired temp minus minimum outside temp to calculate the temp rise, but the calculator I've linked to below seems better suited to our needs, as it appears to take into consideration the starting temp which will be set by the house furnace. At this point, I don't know if the primary purpose of these heaters will be to supplement the 2nd floor heating or if they will only be necessary for warming the bathrooms - if they were baseboard a/c units, I would have left them running at full blast this summer to provide some relief to the rest of the 2nd floor. If we're going to need them to supplement the heat, I'd assume they'd be left on most of the winter and the bathroom temperatures would remain fairly constant. But, if the current furnace and existing ducts are able to maintain the house at about 65 degrees, I see them as primarily being switched on in the mornings to heat the bathrooms before morning showers, then turned off before leaving the house. And in either case, I think it's important to take into consideration how long it will take the units to raise the temperature 10 degrees and will that time be different for a unit that's constantly running to assist with maintaining a 65 degree temperature vs. starting from cold to warm a room from 65 degrees to 75 degrees? The calculator below is giving me 3,675 BTUs and 1,077 Watts/hr, which is closer to the recommendations made by the folks here, but conflicts with Manual J calculations. I don't know that much about a Manual J, but it does appear to take into consideration things like 2nd floor room (I assume that also means room underneath is heated), 1 exterior wall. The online calculator does take into consideration factors like insulation type, but doesn't ask if it's 2nd floor. I don't think either wanted to know that the ceiling above is attic space with poor insulation (at this point, anyway) One other thing I discovered in doing more online research is that the thermostats that were installed on the baseboard heaters are single pole, which means they don't actually turn completely off, so does that mean that they will be generating at least some heat year round? Does that mean that they will continually draw electricity year round too? If so, would either of those factors concern you? Any thoughts? Here is a link that might be useful: The Heat Shop BTU calculator

Great thread. I've made many mistakes over the years. When I needed drapes for 5 very tall and wide windows, I thought I would save money by making them myself. I ended up buying 30+ yards of a synthetic moire on sale at a chain fabric store, along with drapery lining, and after making up one panel, found that even with lining, the light coming through the fabric made the color brighter and kind of gaudy. The bolt is still in an upstairs closet, and I found 96" crushed voile panels online that I like very much for about $20 each. Lesson: keep it simple. A couple of years ago, I hired a local designer mainly to help me choose paint colors and advise on accessories/tweaking. In the master bedroom, I had some custom green silk drapes that I never liked that much, and she talked me into spending the money to have them interlined and a printed fabric border added, along with custom shams with the same fabric. I had already spent $2000 on the drapes, and now I spent another $1000, and I still didn't like them. I took them down, and they and the matching euro shams are in the closet in the guest room. I put up natural linen-look semi sheers from target, and I like them better. Lesson: keep it simple, and don't throw good money after bad. We weren't using our formal dining room much, and the same designer suggested moving the dining furniture into one end of our large living room, and making the old dining room into a den and the old den into a home office, which was really needed. Since I wanted to replace the old LR sofa anyway, I moved the den furniture into the living room and had a custom ($$$)sofa made for the new den. It was not a huge space, and we tried to keep the sofa scaled down. When it arrived, the fabric was gorgeous, the style just what I wanted, but the seat depth was so shallow that it was not very comfortable. I had also slipcovered the old den chairs to go with the new sofa ($$). I ended up moving the new sofa to the living room, where it was more appropriate for perching ladies than lounging TV viewers, and now none of the colors I had chosen (with help paid for by the hour) for the LR and new den would work. Plus, the newly slipcovered den chairs (on swivel rocker bases, I love them) don't work that well with the old sofa color. Fortunately, I hadn't painted yet. Lessons: Don't buy furniture without sitting on it. Choose paint colors after you are certain of your fabrics. Don't let your designer talk you into stuff you don't really need. Keep your major pieces fairly neutral. The worst was the master bath update. I had chosen tile for the walls and floor, and the tile vendor gave me a couple of names for the installation. The guy with the higher quote was very highly recommended but I went with the other guy because he said he could also do some other work I needed done. Even though I had a gut feeling I was making a mistake. He did a horrible job on the tile, broke my toilet, and disappeared. I had to buy more wall tile and pay another contractor to replace it, and I'm still stuck with a bad job on the floor. Between the cost of doing the job, redoing the job, and buying a new toilet, I could have had the better contractor do the job, and replaced the vanity and sink as well, and upgraded to a better tile. Lessons: A jack of all trades might be a master of none. Go with your gut. Ask contractors for their license numbers and CHECK IT online with your state to see if it's in effect. I've made more, but these are the recent highlights, LOL. I feel better having confessed them here.

First and foremost, I'm not trying to be snide, but seriously, you get what you pay for...and $250.00 for a home inspection pretty much gets you a walk through...which is probably why he missed the red flags. That said, lets talk about those red flags. The sealer alone is not a red flag...because bottom line is that chances are that at some point most basements will experience water intrusion even if they have gone for years and never had a drop. This is because things change....the most obvious is development, which creates more impervious coverage, so the water flows to places that it never did before...often entering basements. The weather pattern has also been very weird for at least few years now, in terms of sometimes raining for days on end, overwhelminmg even the driest of basements. This is why many places are enacting new storm water management measures etc. That said, it is pro-active to seal the basement walls with seller...so that is not necessarily a "red flag". It is also best to have a sump pump? Do you have one? If not...have one installed. A friend who has owned his house since new 15 years ago had a flood in his basement for the first time a few months ago...a sump pump would have saved him a lot of grief. Of course, IF the staining along the floor and walls were present on the day of inspection, and did not develop between the day of inspection and the day you closed, and IF it was not concealed by the sellers possessions...yes, he should have noticed this and reported it.. If he took pictures of the basement and you have them to prove that the staining was present, you can make a case for money back. Otherwise, probably not. The porch is whole different story, as all of that should have been reported. If he did not include that in his report, I would send him documentation of what he missed, and tell him you want him to refund the cost of the inspection for that reason alone, water intrusion or not. However, you may need to prove that the porch issue caused water to intrude. You still have not said what the waterproofing company plans on doing about the water main issue, and the unknown source. Until you have definitive info on all of this, IMO, he will probably not comply as he can say that you can't pinpoint the cause as being the porch. Before spending huge bucks on the WP company, hire a professional landscaper to check the grade...as that could be your problem. You may also want to hire a forensic HI, to see if he can determine where the problem is coming form...as water has a funny way of appearing no where near the actual source of entry. Expect to pay at least $500.00. Last but not least...what state do you live in? I can check for you to see if they regulate the HI profession..if so, you should report him to the licensing board..or at least tell him you will..as that has far more impact than the BBB. .

Thanks everyone. I wouldn't say the extreme slope is irrelevant. It created a strange looking tile job around the drain and in the corners. Just to clarify, the solution of leaving a gap between the bottom row of tiles on the rear wall (8" x 24"), and the floor, and then filling the gap in with grout, the slope to the drain was reduced to not be so extreme. After they tried this approach it looks better than the first attempt. The only other solution is completely re-tiling the walls or re-tiling the bottom row of tiles with 2 rows using a different tile pattern. Regardless, I think I'll have them replace the grout with caulking based on what you and others are telling me. Thanks!