July 31, 2008
Kalamazoo's grills can be pricey for sure, but if you lay out the cash for one, consider the company's custom cooking surfaces, an upgrade that can be added to any of its grills. Made of solid slabs of 1/4-inch-thick stainless steel, the surface can be customized to a buyer’s preference with a combination of laser-cut patterns optimized for cooking meat, fish, or vegetables as well as a hibachi-style surface. Kalamazoo will also personalize the surface with logos, initials, or other artwork.
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July 31, 2008
The Black & Decker Grass Hog String Trimmer/Edger is being offered for $99.98 at Amazon.com and qualifies for free shipping. It is regularly $189.95.
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July 31, 2008
One of the great things about living in an old home is all the lovely architectural details. One of the worst things about living in an old home is all those same lovely architectural details — at least when you want to make a change to the floor plan.
My family and I have been wanting to add another bedroom to our pre-war apartment (not an impossible thing considering the lengthy living room), but co-op laws and our own reluctance to do any damage to the molding had put our plans on hold for many months. Finally, my dad found a contractor who assured us he could do the work without harming our walls. I was a bit skeptical (particularly considering some of my dad's past judgment calls on contractors), which is why I was so pleased to come home from work on Monday to find this nifty, stacked frame leaving all the molding (and cable lines) free from nails and direct contact. See after the jump for more photos of the modified structure and it's new French doors.
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July 31, 2008
I knew that I would find a few rocks when I drove eight steel u-channel posts into the scrappy Connecticut ground with a sledgehammer. After years of promises, I was finally making good on my offer to build a kennel-wire compost bin for my wife. What I didn’t know was how many rocks I would find.
The first few were softball sizes, easily dislodged with a shovel. And then I hit something big about eight inches down. Fortunately, I had my five-foot-long digging bar. It’s a 20-pound, tapered, forged-steel shaft that begins as a one inch rod and ends in a wedge-shaped point. It’s five foot length gives you enough leverage to move almost anything. They cost about $30. Cheaper digging bars are not tapered and they have a section of flat bar stock welded on the end. Don’t buy one because it will bend, you’ll get bugged, and that rock will still be in the ground.
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July 30, 2008
By the end of this blog post, I will make this "cat face" or "schilling" — as some old time carpenters call the hammer head dent left on a wood surface when you miss striking a nail— disappear. Please note the small knot above the dent so you don't think I simply photographed another portion of the board. This is no huckster, slight of hand trick. This is science.
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July 30, 2008
Most diyers are familiar with the ubiquitous drywall screw, which has become the fastener of choice when joining wood to wood and, of course, for hanging drywall.
The drywall screw's extremely sharp point, thin shaft and bugle-shaped Phillips head have rendered traditional wood screws virtually obsolete.
However, few homeowners know that the drywall screw has a pin-headed cousin: the trim-head screw.
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July 30, 2008
Home Depot is offering up to 50 percent off or free shipping on patio furniture. Offer good through August 7.
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July 30, 2008
Ok, so I've talked about ornate doorknobs and cabinet pulls as being jewerly for your house before. And at the time, I really believed it. Then I came across Edgar Berebi's collection of architectural hardware, which has officially thrown everything else out the window. With their painstakingly intricate details, meticulously placed crystals, and antique-worthy designs that harken back to a time when sitting down to concentrate on a task for days on end was considered a great skill, I find myself really wishing for the first time that I could minituarize cabinet pulls and wear them as earring studs.
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July 30, 2008
Are they...
...wrenches for hard to reach places
...fishing hooks for the Loch Ness monster
...calipers for measuring body fat
...ergonomic pry bars
...industrial can openers
(Answer after the jump.)
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July 30, 2008
My wife is teaching our daughter to capture bugs and put them outside. I am more of the stomp-first-ask-questions-later school of thought. If this is my biggest sin (it isn’t) I hope I have other karmic brownie points that will keep me from being reincarnated as something that ends up flattened by a sneaker.
On occasion, the girls have captured a crawlie between an upside down drinking glass and a sheet of paper, and then we carry it over to the computer and go to What’s that Bug. It’s a way cool website maintained by two photography teachers in Los Angeles. People send in pictures of bugs they’ve found that are then researched, identified and posted on the site. During the summer, the site gets about 100 letters daily.You can search by generic descriptive terms, yellow beetle, for instance. Other cool sections include Carnage (squished bugs) and Bug Love (you guess).
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