If you've been following This Old House TV's 1897 Victorian project home in Newton, Massachusetts--and who hasn't?--you already know that general contractor Tom Silva replaced all the old, drafty windows with energy-efficient Andersen 400 Series Woodwright Inserts.
Tom chose these units for their energy efficiency and their fit with the home's architecture, but also because the windows are equipped with a really cool feature: glass that practically cleans itself.
This high-tech, low-maintenance glazing, which Andersen calls High-Performance Low-E4 Glass, has an invisible exterior coating that, when activated by sunlight, reduces water spots by nearly 99 percent.
This no-spotting feature is especially useful for second-story windows that are often difficult to reach. Low-E4 Glass also stays cleaner and dries faster than standard glazing, and is standard equipment on all Andersen 400 Series products.
Not only do these lighted tool ornaments make a festive statement on the tree, but they helpfully remind beloved gift-givers about the kinds of presents you'd like to see under the tree.
A few ideas, culled from recent Hardware Aisle activity:
The Saw Scabbard, a fantastic blade storage solution.
Here they go out on a limb (okay, way out) with a product that simply doesn't exist elsewhere. Maybe there's a reason for that, maybe not.
But in a market in which virtually every power tool manufacturer produces a homogeneous lineup of items, right down to the little flashlight in every cordless combo kit, it's nice to see something different come along.
All due respect to those overworked gardeners that don't have time to tend the plants in the daylight hours.
For them, the Lighted Nozzle featured in yesterday's NY Times could be a handy little gadget.
But with the record-setting southern drought causing more stringent watering bans, and the climate negotiations in Bali being obstructed by mainly, well, us, I figure:
I own an older 18-volt impact driver. It's a sure-fire work horse--and it weighs about as much as one.
Don't get me wrong, it's an exceptional tool, and it'll drive a three-inch Phillips head screw without much effort. But this new Makita Lithium-Ion tool is a real improvement.
This sander's removable pads fit the contours of common molding profiles. For those less common profiles, you can actually buy a blank pad, stick some PSA sandpaper on your molding with the abrasive side up, and sand the blank into your own custom block.
It ain't cheap, at $290, but an afternoon of sanding profiles by hand will cost you your fine motor skills by nightfall.
Say you're going to build that custom entertainment center on the second floor. I challenge you to round up all the variety of saws you’ll need--including the different blades--in one trip.
You’ll need your circular saw, with one blade for rough-cutting the framing, and another multi-tooth blade for cross-cutting the furniture-grade plywood.
Bring your back-cutting saw, and maybe a few of your Japanese saws for the small detail cuts.
And don’t forget your coping saw--you’ll trim out this project in the end.
Headbanging with holiday spirit, this schizophrenic Christmas tour-de-force stuck with me ever since I saw it on a Miller Lite ad last year.
Pairing the over-the-top light show with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s “Wizards in Winter” so successfully made Christmas more, well, metal, that I had to wonder how I could get my neighbors to feel the noize of my own light show.
People often ask me while I'm standing in line at my local green building supply center: Keith, as This Old House's resident eco-expert superstar, what's the most controversial green building product you've come across?
This no-spotting feature is especially useful for second-story windows that are often difficult to reach. Low-E4 Glass also stays cleaner and dries faster than standard glazing, and is standard equipment on all Andersen 400 Series products. 
