The drip of a leaky faucet is a close cousin to the ancient water torture, causing daytime aggravation and nighttime insomnia. More than that, it is water—and your money—going down the drain. Your water bill doesn’t distinguish between what you use for drinking, cooking, washing, laundering, and the like and that which trickles away without serving you in any way. A leaking faucet can also stain a sink or lavatory and eventually wear away the finish of the fixture, too. If is best to go about leaky faucet repair as soon as the problem arises. Read the rest of this entry »

Maybe it’s the whine of power tools in your shop, the hum of the Cuisinart in your kitchen, or the ululations of MTV in your kid’s room. Whatever the case, everyone in the family would probably be a lot happier if those sounds were confined to the rooms where they originate.

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Years ago, dark, heavily stained finishes on furniture were popular. Since that time, the natural aging process has served to make those old finishes turn even darker. Some now look nearly black. But fashion changed, and here we stand today, surrounded by all this old, dark woodwork, furniture and paneling, wishing for something lighter in color and more natural. Nearly everyone wants the faded ”driftwoody” English country look.

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Poking through the racks of free pamphlets in the lumber yard the other day, I came across a really simple idea for building a concrete retaining wall. It’s not the most beautiful wall in the world, but it’s functional, sturdy and takes no skill at all to build. The basic idea? Take bags of ready-mixed concrete, stack them up to form a wall, sprinkle on some water, and that’s it. In time, the concrete in the bags will set up, the paper sacks will eventually erode away, and you’ll have the easiest concrete wall you ever built.

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You will see it on walls and you’ll see it on ceilings. It starts out as a slight bulge. As time passes, it gets larger and larger. And then one day, when nobody is looking, the bulge turns into a perfect little disk that literally pops out at you. I’m talking about a problem called ”nail pop” and it’s one of the most common drywall defects in the home.

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