Among the valuable life lessons I’ve picked up over the years, “clean as you go” is possibly one of the hardest to abide by for me, even today. For some reason digesting in relaxation on the couch has always made the perfect segue after eating a great meal. Of course then there’s family time, story time, bath time, night-night time, quiet time, pay-the-bills time, exercise time, and before I know it I skip over cleaning time right on to bed time. Unfortunately, choosing not to clean the dishes, stove, and counter tops only adds to the chore later on and often creates ugly stains that seem impossible to remove. (more...)

I hate invading insects. There, I said it! During the first year I owned my home, I constantly stumbled onto pockets of various marauding insects. Fire ants were most prevalent (and most hated), but I also encountered my fair share of flying, stinging bugs like yellow jackets and wasps and the occasional gut wrenching cockroach. I tried many pest control products including granules, boric acid, boiling water, and flame thrower but none work as effectively or apply as easily as Bayer Advanced Home Pest Control. (more...)

Sure, everyone has had Gatorade before but I bet you didn’t know that, when used properly, this magical beverage can save you hundreds of dollars a year or more and win you friends for life! I’ve employed this technique many times and it never fails to bump my karma and put money in my pocket. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that I’m on a first name basis with at least one person in any major residential service a homeowner could call upon and I owe it all to Gatorade. (more…)

This beautiful quote by Plato has influenced many of my life philosophies. I’ve even derived another idea from it, “Be kind, for you never know who is a Black Belt!” In all seriousness, this mindful approach to people and life has worked very well for me. Take for example an incident that happened several months ago. (more…)

Quite possibly the worst part about owning a home is keeping up with the yard and flower beds. My raw seething hatred for mowing the grass, edging, weed eating, and weeding is rooted in my childhood. Join me as I share with you the misery of my traumatic experiences in lawn care! (more…)

Most new homeowners are set on doing things themselves and I was no exception. I soon found out that many projects are too large, time consuming, complicated, or require specific skills for someone like me to do. (more…)

Yeah, I’m talking about dog poop! We have a 100 pound black lab and a 40′ish pound corgi terrier mix and between the two of them they more than adequately cover our backyard with their output. The question is, what to do with the stuff? (more…)

Quikrete Epoxy Garage Floor Coating

Anyone who has worked on cars knows how greasy and messy they can be. Oil in particular has a tendency to seep into concrete and stain it which can effect your ability to sell your house at the price you want. I knew I’d be changing oil and working on our vehicles when we bought our house so I decided to coat our garage floor with an epoxy product made by Quikrete that I purchased from Home Depot. (more…)

Ridge vent and wind turbine

When a hail storm damaged our roof this year I had the opportunity to make a few improvements to our attic ventilation system. The roofer’s inspection of our then current setup yielded an insufficient number of soffit vents, 2 seized electric attic fans, and one electric attic fan over the garage that wasn’t even wired up. That left one working attic fan to vent the hot air and it did a terrible job! (more…)

Hail is a fact of life in North Texas. During the 2008 spring we were hit with a massive hail storm that destroyed nearly every homeowner’s roof on my street, but shingles and roofs are not the only casualties. Virtually anything you might keep outside uncovered could be at risk during a hail storm. (more…)