50 Extraordinary Uses For Ordinary Things

Hi All,

The Family Handyman is a do-it-yourself, home repair, tips magazine that is published monthly.  We have a subscription to it at the Farmingdale Public Library. 

And it is a winner.  The magazine publishes articles on a huge variety of topics - including plumbing, electrical, cleaning, organizing, carpentry, drywall, sheetrock, painting, tiling, masonry, becoming a smart homeowner, storage/organization, tools and more - monthly. 

However, the magazine has an accompanying website - which can be visited by clicking here - that has even more information for consumers. 

One of the goofy articles - but by no means unhelpful - they published recently was titled '50 Extraordinary Uses For Ordinary Things'. Users can view the article as either an article or in a list format. Take your pick! Three of my favorites ideas were the three ring binders, foam ball hand protector and the mattress sling. Oh, okay...I also thought the power cord coilers, accessorizing your lawn mower and the wrench caddy were great suggestions as well.

The site itself has a sort of table of contents on the homepage. Options on the TOC include:
How to Repair, Rooms, Outdoors, Smart Homeowner, Stuff We Love, Do It Yourself Insider, DIY University and Get DIY Tips to Your Inbox.

Hopefully you'll find the site as useful as I do!

Regards,
Stu

Just Do It - Yourself

 Hi All,

I just heard about yet another 'Do It Yourself' website called 'Do It Yourself.com'. Click here for the link.  So what makes this site different than other sites?  Well, its easily navigated, quick to load and has loads of tutorials.

How To articles are well written and organized in many cases organized in a 'step-by-step' basis.

How To's explanations are organized by topic. 
Topics include:
- Design Center
- Cars/Trucks/Boats
- Decorating/Painting
- Electrical/Electronics
- Exterior Home Improvement
- From Our Workshop
- Games/Rec Room
- Green Home/Green Living
- Hardware/Tools/Woodworking
- Household/Cleaning
- Interior Home Improvement
- Lifestyle/Crafts/Recreation,
- Personal Finance/Legal Matters
- Plumbing/HVAC
- Real Estate.

Whew - that's quite a list!

There is also a list of Your Projects on the top ribbon on the homepage. 
Projects include:
- Automotive Projects
- Bathroom Projects
- Bedroom Projects
- Decorating Projects
- Dining Room Projects,
- Electrical and Electronic Projects
- Exterior Projects
- Game Room /Rec Projects
- Garage Projects,
- Green Projects
- Holiday Decoration Projects
- Home Office Projects
- Kitchen Projects
- Landscaping Projects
- Living Room Projects
- Patio/Deck Projects
- Room Addition Projects
- Work Projects and other projects.

Furthermore, each category has more sub-categories once you click a link.  For example, the Your Project tab for Decorating/Painting has further links to Designing With Color, Decorating For Kids, Design By Room, Designers & Ideas, Exterior Painting, Furnishings and much more.

The site also has a forums - click here for the links to them - which are heavily used by readers. 
Use this link if you would like to sign up for any of the Do-It-Yourself newsletters.

Clicking on the search box at the upper right side of the page for the term 'replacing an outlet' gave these results.

From the results given, I would suspect that this is one of the better answers.
This article has a list of 'what tools you'll need to complete the projects', a step-by-step written narrative of how to complete the project, and links at the bottom of the page to other similar, but different projects.

All in all this is a helpful, comprehensive, user friendly 'how-to fix things' website.

Enjoy the projects and the links above!

Regards,

Stu
 

Preparing Your House For Winter

Hi All,

Just a quickie post this morning for homeowners.  As you might have quessed, Winter is coming. It was cold last night - it hit about 40*F and the heat was most definitely on in my house....

Now that the cold is here to stay around for the next couple of months, can the snow, sleet and rain be far behind?  Probably not - and as a homeowner, it makes sense to prepare for the bad weather. 

Click on the links below and you'll be ahead of the game when you 'winterize your house'. 

19 Easy Home Winterization Projects - Popular Mechanics - slideshow with links
11 Ways to Winterize Your Home on a Budget - Bob Vila - slideshow of winterizing
35 Ways to Winterize Your Home - How Stuff Works/Home - with links to projects
10 Cheap Tips to Winterize Your Home - Business Insider - bubble wrap idea is a hoot - and clever
50 Ways to Winterize Your Home - Productivity501 - nice simple list of projects
Winterize Your Home: 10 Tips - WebMD - list with a paragraph length summary
Winterizing Your Home - HomeBuying-About.com - #4 - gutters and spouts!

And now for the library plug...click on this link which goes to the card catalog.  Subject of link is 'Dwellings - Maintenance and Repair - Amateurs' Manuals' and I sorted the titles from newest to oldest. Note also that many of these titles will be in the 'Home Sweet Home' section in the library - which is located next to the Children's Room.

Enjoy the links - and now you can enjoy a warm, comfortable home during the winter.

Regards,
Stu

Spring Home Maintenance

Hi All,

Attention home owners, attention home owners. Spring is here - heck after the winter we had it is a very, very good thing that spring is here already! Enough of that wintry, rainy, cloudy, cold weather. Be gone with you bad weather!

That being said, homeowners should be constantly vigilant about home maintenance at any time of the year; but spring especially is known for maintenance. What with rain, wind and the thawing of rivers, streams and canals it is a good time to take a once over look at your house.

So, without further ado a few good websites (and some comments and narrative about the sites) about spring maintenance for a single family dwelling (aka a house).

Straight from Consumer Reports is this link -and any time you can get something free from CR its a good day. Click here for the link entitled "Spring Checklist For the Home: Don't Let Problems Around the House Turn Into Money Drains'. The article talks about dirty air conditioners, hazardous decks, foundation fissures, faulty garage-door openers, clogged gutters,
leaky roofs', weakened trees, and cracked pavement. Good basic stuff for the homeowner.

Next on our list is a site from HGTV entitled, 'The Slackers Guide to Spring Home Maintenance'. This is my kind of article!

The article talks about diverting water, retaining the roof, checking the paint job on the exterior of the house, cutting shrubs and trees, lawn maintenance, maintaining windows and doors (an interior issue), pest control, plumbing issues (leaky and or sweaty pipes) and tile maintenance in the kitchen and the bathroom (check that grout!)

From a website by the name of Handyman Matters comes this site - click here. What's so good about this site you might ask? Indeed, good question!

For starters the site has a checklists for each of the four seasons - its a simple list but very handy if I might say so myself! What else does the site have? Click here for a DIY (Do-It-Yourself) section that has some Tips and Tricks on various home repair projects. Each tip is a sentence or two in length but combined they are darn useful. There is also a section of DIY videos which you can view by clicking on this link.

Finally, since we reopened the remodeled library we have created a separate section for home repair and home maintenance books. We thought that this would be a great way to help our patrons find material (think books and DVD's) on home repair and maintenance more easily.

Note that the material is down the first aisle next to the Children's Room in the library. Also, don't forget that the books and DVD's in this collection are further broken down into sub-sections like gardening, fireplaces, plumbing, landscaping, plants, trees/shrubs, home repair, home organization, furniture, storage, kitchen, home improvement, indoor structures and outdoor structures and probably a few others that I've mistakenly forgotten.

Enjoy the sites and the home maintenance advice - hope you don't need it!

Stu

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