When hearing the word “garage,” my husband begins to grunt like a deranged maniac. He is and always has been a “car guy,” which explains why we have three garages on our property. While I love our garages almost as much as he does, our minds are not always in the same place when we hear that magical word….”garage.” (more…)
Shopping for flooring for my kitchen remodeling project was certainly an adventure. My husband and I thought we had picked out the perfect laminate flooring for the kitchen from Lowe’s, but it was well before we were actually ready to install the flooring. So, we decided to wait on purchasing it. (more…)
I don’t consider myself to be a shy or introverted person, but when it comes to calling service professionals I become nervous. I’m not sure why it happens, I just don’t like calling them. It seems here lately I’ve had many opportunities to face this particular demon head on. I’m a school teacher, which allows me to have my summers off. Somehow it seems that all of our home improvements fall during the summer, and obviously I’m the one to handle them seeing as I’m home. (more…)
No, deck fighting is not a new martial art form. Deck fighting for me started with a plywood deck using ¾ inch exterior plywood. It took a few years for it to deteriorate, but I couldn’t keep paint on it, so it always had that needy look. I decided to replace it when a rather heavy friend of mine darn near broke his leg. You see there was a soft spot in one corner of the plywood and that is the exact spot my friend decided to stand. The top of my friend was above deck, but his leg up to the calf ended up below deck. Fortunately, I have good friends and didn’t get sued.
When my husband and I purchased our first home, we became the painters, yard service and handymen. We didn’t have the extra money to hire someone to do a job we were capable of doing ourselves. However, neither of us had more experience than changing light bulbs and planting flowers for the porch of our apartment. We quickly got a taste of what it means to own a home. (more…)
Fortunately, this story is not about one of my many screw ups. It’s about a friend of mine who just built a brand new house on the water. He found a killer two for one deal on off brand screw in fluorescent bulbs or CFLs. He couldn’t resist. What he ended up with is a disaster. In his beautiful palatial living room with an extremely high ceiling, he now has a polka dot effect with his mix of warm and cool colors. (more…)
Before I go in detail about how poor some of the “how to” knowledge is at my nearby home improvement store, let me praise them for having the tools and supplies that I need 99% of the time. I’ve chosen this story as my opening post partly because I think it’s helpful, partly because I think it is a good story, but mostly because I don’t want to sound like a darn Home Depot spokesman in my future posts.
With that said, my bother owns a few rental houses (the poor guy). One night he calls me up and says that he’ll pay me to help fix a bathtub leak. Sounded like a good deal to me until I found out what I was really getting paid for…crawling under the house. (more…)
Fingerprints! Oh, those cursed fingerprints! I already talked about how fingerprints have become my nemesis when it comes to the black cabinets we installed during our kitchen remodeling project. What I failed to mention is that they have also crept up somewhere else in our kitchen: on the stainless steel appliances. (more…)
When it was time to sell our beloved vacation home, my husband and I thought long and hard on ways to increase the resale value. The first thing that we did is beautify our home. We hired a landscaping company to make our front lawn immaculate; we even added additional plants and shrubs in our yard. Next, we added a fresh coat of paint to the exterior and interior of our vacation home. (more…)
First and foremost, never plan a do-it-yourself home improvement project the week before inviting your family over for Thanksgiving Dinner. Secondly, never-ever skimp on quality products. I’ll explain why later, but first let me tell you how our home improvement project ended in a disaster.