August 30, 2008
Q: I recently hung a flat panel TV on my living room wall. It looks great, but since the wall it hangs on is solid masonry, I can’t hide the cables by snaking them through the wall. How can I bring my TV’s sexy back?
A: The dirty little secret of the flat panel TV is the curtain of wires that dangle beneath. There are ways to hide the wires, by running your component cables through a hollow wall or though the use of fancy-pants cord management systems, but these solutions aren’t always a viable option and sadly, flat panel TV accessories remain priced high ($300 for a mounting bracket???) even as the cost of the televisions themselves come down in price. Luckily there is a “thingy” that has been on the market for years that can be easily (and cheaply) adapted to solve this problem. Let me show you how it works!
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August 29, 2008
Sure, prepping to paint is a huge headache, what with laying dropcloths and taping and priming the surfaces and rinsing out brushes and so forth. Of all the DIY projects I do around my apartment, I enjoy painting about as much as emptying the cat's litter box (which, bless his heart, my husband takes care of). But I'm talking about headaches in a literal sense. Has any of you ever gotten a headache when you were painting?
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August 29, 2008
Save 75% on Brookwood patio collection at HomeDepot.com.
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August 29, 2008
When I was in my early teens I discovered books by American illustrator, Eric Sloane, in my parents’ bookcase, and his folksy words and his drawings of barns, houses, and tools had a lot to do with giving me the old house bug.
Titles such as American Yesterday, American Barns & Covered Bridges, and Our Vanishing Landscape now seem somewhat honey-eyed, but the information therein still fascinates me. Where else, for example, could you find information about moving large stones in the middle of winter using a team of oxen and a pung (a stout sled used for moving heavy loads). The books’ nostalgic depictions of 18th and 19th Century American life seem nostalgic themselves fifty years after their publication.
Some of the books are still in print, and used copies abound. And if you get way into Sloane’s world, you can visit the Sloane-Stanley Museum in Kent, CT where you’ll see lots of the tools and implements that he illustrated for his books.
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August 28, 2008
Save up to 44 percent on RubberMaid heavy-duty utility and flat-shelf carts at Enco.
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August 28, 2008
Last spring, just as we were sitting down to dinner, lots of little flying ants came out of the hot air duct in the kitchen floor. Lots means hundreds, and needless to say, supper was ruined. My wife freaked out and ran for the vacuum cleaner, while I took a piece of cardboard and blue painter’s tape and covered up the vent. Hell with the bugs for now; I was hungry.
So were the flying ants, only it turned out they weren’t flying ants they were termite swarmers in search of a new place to dine. (I’ll say it again: aren’t old houses a hoot?) A new site, Termites 101, has lots of great information about the little buggers—all generated by top academic entomologists. The site is sponsored by Orkin, the nationwide exterminating company, but its not infested with lots of come-ons about their services, other than a little tab at the top called Get Help.
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August 27, 2008
When my 14-year-old son, Christopher, first saw the Heat Seeker infrared thermometer, he immediately began taking temperature readings of everything--and everyone--in his path, including the water in the toilet bowl (64 degrees F), inside the refrigerator (38 degrees F), the TV screen (84.5 degrees F), a metal desk lamp (118.5 degrees F), his sister (89 degrees F), inside his own nose (91.5 degrees F), and Pablo the parakeet (79.5 degrees F).
When I finally wrangled the tool from his hands, and started using it for one of its many intended purposes--in this case, to locate energy leaks--I realized just how useful (and fun) the Heat Seeker is.
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August 27, 2008
Dude! That wall is covered in sticky notes!
There are all kinds of "solutions" to the problem of every scrap of paper disappearing just when you need to make a note of something. London-based designers Duncan Wilson & Sirkka Hammer are to be credited for my favorite solution: "wallpaper consisting of four layers of varying grey tones on a bright primary backing." With use, layers of the wallpaper squares are removed, changing the "pixelation" of the design.
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August 27, 2008
I've seen a handful of wood sinks pop up into the market recently, and each time my initial "Ooo, ahh" reaction is pushed aside by the thought of how cruddy the basins will become after a couple of years of watery wear-and-tear.
This new vessel sink from Totally Bamboo, however, comes with a 10-year guarantee on its polyurethane-sealed surface. Made from a single piece of Moso bamboo, which is grown without fertilizers and insecticides, the 6-inch deep bowls are hand-crafted on huge lathes and then rubbed to a low sateen sheen.
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August 27, 2008
Save 15 percent off winches at TractorSupplyCompany.com. This offer is available only online.
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