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.
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.
If you leave the driveway in front of where the garage door is, you may want to think about a curb stop or two so no cars accidentally accelerate into your new living room. You also mentioned leveling the graded garage floor so you are probably fine on this point, but, you will just want to make sure that outside the new wall water doesn’t run back and stand.
Wow, what did he “fix” then? He did a terrible job. I understand an electrician not fixing the cement block, but they should have properly installed and secured the box flush with the concrete.
They make circular conduit cutters not much bigger than the conduit itself. They go for around $25. One of those would easily fit in the opening you have. Be sure to turn the power off to the circuit first though.
Electrically speaking it is in the proper housing, but the box is not secured, so I would ding it for that at the very least. I agree about cutting the conduit back and putting in a proper secure box and then cementing around the box. You could also use a surface mount box. In that case you would cut the existing conduit back, put a 90 degree elbow with a enough conduit to extend past the wall edge. Patch the wall and then install a surface mount box where the wires are connected in.
If you do end up replacing just a bottom portion, be sure you use some Z-flashing so that rain water can’t get behind the seam. As mentioned, use something that won’t rot. I also recommend using Hardie Sierra 8 to replace entire sections, I have it on some portions of my house along with T1-11 and they compliment one another as long as they are not side by side.
For the exterior of my house I use Sherman Williams Duration. It has held up really well over the last 12 years and I am still able to buy matching paint as I have only been painting walls as needed and I have time. I am only about half done :(
