I use Emby and catalog my music using MusicBrainz Picard. Before Emby I used Ampache but I want to serve up as much of my media through the same interface as possible. Adding all the proper metadata and sorting the music can be time consuming, but it makes all the difference in serving up the music properly. Music is much more varied than Movies or even TV so it is a bit more difficult to get right and there are sooo many artists. MusicBrainz Picard makes it pretty easy though. I will be checking out Beets.io after reading this thread to see if it can help any more with organizing my library.

This is anecdotal, but I put in ceiling LEDs in my kitchen and sun room about 11 years ago. About 16 in all. The lights are turned on and off multiple times a day, every day. I have not had a single one fail. Since then I have probably put in nearly twice that many in other places, but they have only been in place for a few years at most and typically get less use. I have not had a single one of these LEDs go out. My guess is because the circuitry can dissipate the heat and that seems to be what kills the replaceable LED bulbs. Speaking of which, over that same time period I have went through more than three dozen replaceable LED bulbs. I think on average I replace at least one bulb every 2-3 months.

I have an inline duct booster fan with a control. I would recommend just putting one in your existing HVAC duct that runs upstairs. Also, if you don’t already, use your HVAC fan on “On” rather than “Auto” whenever there is an unwanted temperature differential. Overall I don’t think your idea about repurposing the chimney with additional duct work to move air is a bad idea. Especially given your description that multiple renovations have been done and perhaps a holistic approach to the HVAC system wasn’t taken. Our HVAC contractor re-routed our gas furnace’s exhaust gasses that had been going from the basement all the way through all the floors to the attack, the newer model just goes out the wall in the basement. The old exhaust was used to add a return from the upper floor to the basement. And of course, always check that you have more than enough insulation.

A better solution in this case would be a split unit to move the heat out of the home envelope completely.

We added a return to our upstairs and added an in line booster fan to our HVAC system to move more air up stairs. This helped a lot, but I have to agree that first I would look into insulation as it is a cheaper solution and closing a few downstairs vents as needed.

I initially had the opposite problem where my uninsulated cinder block basement was too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter and my basement didn’t have any HVAC registers or returns. The only air conditioning it got was from a window AC unit and leakage from the HVAC ducts. Over several years I ended up adding 2" foam insulation internally to all the exterior walls, insulating the ceiling to the basement (mostly for sound absorption but it also helped with floor temperatures), and adding returns and registers in the basement. I also added an inline booster fan to help pull air up to a second floor bonus room that was an addition. Now the basement is always comfortable, the second floor is much more comfortable, and the energy costs are about the same. My moisture levels are 30-50% in the summer.

I did a radiant barrier on my rafters to guide heat up from the soffits to the ridge vent and then insulated the joists. Blown in insulation is pretty cheap. While doing other work I also insulated my southern facing garage wall and of course insulated the garage door (and sealed the edges). This made a noticeable difference in the temperature of the garage. I can turn a couple of fans on in the garage and leave the door to the house open and achieve a very reasonable temperature in the garage if I plan on being in there for a length of time. This helps in both summer and winter.

I run just one Windows machine with some VMs for various services if needed. Less to maintain and have to tinker with.

I installed cable in a couple of apartments I rented. I just made it look professional and nothing was ever said about it. In one apartment town home I even had access to the attic and was able to run cable in the walls. I did have to drill through the floor and door headers in some instances, but it can be done.

I still use Dia Diagram Editor for most things. I just wish it was still being updated.

You could try gluing it and clamping but it looks like getting a clamp on it might be hard and I have not had good luck gluing veneer that is peeling away like that. That is cheap and easy to try so I would start there though. Some of the other suggestions to repair it are good as well. I will throw out another, buy a sheet of veneer and cut out a square an inch or so larger than the area that needs to be repaired. Lay the square over the area to be repaired and cut out the bad area in the shape of the repair piece, then glue the repair piece in, a little wood putty and sanding to match might do the trick.

Depending on where it is peeling away, you might try putting on small decorative trim pieces stained or painted in a complementing color. I did this all along the underside of our countertop as decoration and to make some new cabinets blend in with older existing ones.

I have “professional” drywall in my house that doesn’t look that good. Take it as the learning experience it is and rest assured that most people won’t notice it.

I put on an old pair of coveralls, gloves, hat, hood, respirator, old shoes, goggles. I covered the doorway to the room with plastic and setup a fan for ventilation and pre-heated the bottles. Even with all that I was miserable. I was hot and sweaty, had trouble breathing, and couldn’t see out of the goggles. My arms were tired and the foam mixture wasn’t always mixing properly and ended up wasting a lot of the mixture. It was still pretty expensive and time consuming… not sure I would do it again.

I thought ridge vents were all the rage these days. I installed ridge vents and then put up Reflectix Reflective Roll Insulation from the soffits up to 12-18 inches from the ridge. It reduced the heat in the attic by a noticeable amount and wasn’t too expensive or difficult to install. I also blew in additional insulation. I plan on adding additional venting in the soffits in the future. My experience is that fans fail, require maintenance, use energy, and tend to only cool the attic off in certain areas if not well planned out with supporting architecture and venting.

Out the side will be much better than through the roof as long as you don’t place it too close and directly under a soffit air intake.

Crazy idea, but if you can’t get the bandwidth to support a media server like Jellyfin or Emby where you live, what about placing a server at a trusted relatives or friends house that does have access to high bandwidth? You might need/want to help offset a better internet plan for them though. You could then setup a VPN connection to be able to manage the server remotely and sync files and media to it. You could even use it for off site backup.

I wouldn’t worry about the soft spot too much, it could just be the foam supports underneath the tub itself and not the floor. Even if it is the floor, that’s probably within your skill-set to fix if you can manage a circular saw and swing a hammer. I hired a contractor to install a shower for me in a new bathroom because I don’t have the plumbing skills or time. He outsourced the plumbing, electrical, and did the, framing, tiling, and everything else himself. The shower alone took them about a week, one of the main issues he encountered was keeping the tile lines straight. His tile saw wasn’t exact enough and the cuts were ever so slightly off which caused compounding problems.

I don’t really know of a way that you can add insulation without taking up interior space, exterior space, or replacing the wall with more modern materials.

• What about the sides of the home not facing the street? Can you add an exterior layer of insulation and then new exterior siding to those walls?
• On the side facing the street, you could replace the stone wall with a different type of wall that was more thermally resistant. This would of course be a major undertaking.
• I am sure you have considered fully insulating the floor and ceiling as best you can.
• If rodents and or insects are a concern, look into Mineral Wool/Rockwool Insulation.

I have seen time-laps videos on Youtube of a company that retrofits houses that have crawl spaces with full basements. It is pretty amazing to watch them work. They hand dig out sections at a time and pour footings and supporting walls, they then do a final pouring of the floor. They do this without lifting the house.

Is the house occupied? If not, can the existing floor/decking be removed to get direct access to the crawl space and supports? If so, that will make the job so much easier.

While you are at it, have you considered digging out underneath the house and creating a concrete and cinder-block basement? It would cost a bit more but since you are already doing major foundation work, it might be worth it and would dramatically increase the square footage of the house. Adding a basement would allow you the freedom to bring in large excavation machines to do the digging with.