At some point in your life, you’ve known what it feels like to be a little backed up. It’s not fun. While there are several over-the-counter helpers to get you cleared up, it’s safe to say that preventing the feeling from happening in the first place would have been the most ideal of situations. Bunged up gutters aren’t pretty either. Leaves, twigs and garbage can very easily find their way into your gutters, causing runoff water to sit. This resting water can weigh down your gutters, act as a breeding pool for bugs or if you live in cooler climates, freeze and really cause problems. Cleaning out gutters, the typical solution, can be a gross, tedious and an unfortunate weekend job.

So, like your body, preventing constipation is what we should aim for, right? We stumbled across a new product called Smart Screen, - it’s like bran for your abode! It’s both clever and simple – you just install the all-aluminum Smart Screen on your existing gutter and it lets water in but filters the junk out. The design of the Smart Screen … continue reading Prevent Gutter Constipation: The Smart Screen

Plaster vs Drywall, which is best? As many of you know by now, I’m a stickler for historic accuracy when it comes to remodeling. Some might describe me as obsessive or possibly deranged, but they’re just haters. I prefer to be described as “particular”, or “having high standards” - that just sounds less likely to get me locked up in a padded room. My “particularities” led me to choose plaster instead of drywall when we had to replace several walls in our 1930’s vintage home. Sure, drywall guys will tell you they can match any texture, but drywall is still very different from plaster. Before you dive into hanging drywall in a vintage or high-end home, consider the alternative of plaster.

These days you have two general options when it comes to finishing walls: the first is standard drywall, which we’re all pretty familiar with. It’s everywhere, and so is the dust from installing, sanding and finishing it. Drywall consists of gypsum sheets (sheetrock) screwed or nailed to the studs. Drywall compound and tape are applied to the seams between boards, and the compound is also coated over the fasteners to cover up the heads. A high-end level 5 drywall finish includes a final skim coat similar to a plaster job, but most drywall jobs aren’t done at that level. Even when they are, the finish durability is still underwhelming when compared to cement-like plaster.

Modern plaster, on the other hand, is typically applied over a special type of wall board referred to as blue board. The old style was usually applied over lath, but that method is exceedingly rare these days. … continue reading Plaster vs. Drywall, Which is Better for your Home

A dimmer is a quick and easy way to add value to your home. A dimmer with a remote is a quick and easy way to be a playa’. Awww, Giggidy. If only the smooth, sultry voice of Barry White was included, the Lutron Maestro IR Dimmer with Remote would simply be the ultimate mood setter for those occasions when special lady friends drop by.

If charming the literal pants off people doesn’t motivate you, there are other good reasons to look into the Lutron Maestro IR Dimmer. We like that it’s easy to install, has a remote range of 30 feet and has several customizable options – such as programmable delays (giving you time to leave a room before it goes pitch black or letting your eyes adjust to the brightening light) and an ‘optimal lighting’ button – one touch sets your lights to the level you’ve pre-selected as your favorite. … continue reading Giggidy Giggidy: Lutron Maestro IR Dimmer with Remote

You’re going to like this. Your bucket, however, might never forgive you. The Bucket Boss 35 is essentially a fanny pack for plastic pails – and we all know how cool fanny packs are. They are so cool that even in our mature thirties we feel a bit of shame being seen with our vacationing parents when they have theirs on. Hopefully, in time, your bucket will forgive you for the indignity. If not, oh well.
… continue reading Your Bucket’s Humiliation Is Your Gain: The Bucket Boss 35

How wrong is it that when I see a product that claims to let you carry hundreds of pounds of weight, I wonder how it’ll stand up to those poor sobs featured on TLC (no, not Jon & Kate Plus 8 – those other people … the ones with excessive … um, girth)? Well, yah, I do.

One hefty-does-it product that’s received a lot of positive reviews is the Big Slider Utility Mover. It basically looks like the crazy carpets that are used for out of control slides down ski slopes. Actually, I think it IS a crazy carpet, just marketed in a clever way. Anyhoo – it’s a plastic sheet with a handle that can be placed or wiggled underneath a heavy object. You can then slide said heavy object around with relative ease. … continue reading Drag The Whole Disfunctional Family: Big Slider Utility Mover

When we moved into our first place, my in-laws were generous enough to gift us with some much needed baseboards. While my father-in-law is a fairly handy type, my husband and his brother are … well, let’s just say when they were growing up, they spent more time playing Super Mario Brothers than helping out in the ol’ garage (should anyone ever need someone to jump on an evil mushroom, these are your men).

With the “help” of his sons, my father-in-law got to work. Unfortunately for him (and our neighbours who had to put up with the intermittent shriek of the miter saw all day), the job took a bit longer than anticipated. The corners and edges in our home weren’t quite 90 degree angles of perfection. In fact, they were a little more this way … a little less that way – you know, whichever. And the direction given by my husband and brother-in-law on the angle to cut was also less than ideal. … continue reading Saving Wood and Sanity: The Wixey Digital Protractor

No matter how clean you keep your house, if there’s construction or home renovations going on, there’s a good chance you’re going to rattle a few walls, create openings and find yourself coming face to face with a rodent. Now, I really didn’t want to kill anything. I hated the idea – but I hated the idea of mice in my home even more. We tried the humane stuff first – ultra-sonic pest repellents (junk), catch-and-release (futile) – but my compassion for the little guys were dashed when I saw one dart from under the couch I was sitting on, just missing my (bare!!) feet. Uuugh. Time to die, Mickey.

I wanted to do this as quickly, swiftly and efficiently as possible. Poisons and glue traps were out of the question, so I researched the web and found a simple solution to beckon mice toward a snap trap. … continue reading The Post That Will Get Hate Mail: Best Way to Kill a Mouse

Before I get into this review, I have to ask: Is it just me or do others agree that it’s about time Sherwin-Williams refreshes its logo? I could be wrong, but a corporate identity that features a bucket of paint being dumped over the Earth just seems a bit out of place in our green, eco-loving, Al Gore-humping society, no?

Anyway … logos aside, here is something definitely modern from Sherwin-Williams: An iPhone app! The ColorSnap™ for iPhone let’s you grab inspiration from the world around you and determine the Sherwin-Williams paint color that best matches it. The app will also show you which shades best compliment it. The app will even give you RGB numbers should you want to goof around with the color and shots of your soon-to-be-painted wall in Photoshop.

While I’m sure this app was intended for people snapping images of other peoples’ wall colors, artwork and other color muses, for kicks, I took a picture of myself and plugged it in. Apparently, my face is “Sensational Sand” and I coordinate well with “Cavern Clay” and “Realist Beige”. Well, now I know. As anyone who uses applications like these or views paint colors through a screen knows, grains of salt are required. Color matches won’t and can’t be perfect. Buying cheap sample jars of the paint you’re interested in is a simple way to figure out if the shade really works in your space – but the ColorSnap™ app can certainly help you narrow down the field. … continue reading Capture the Shade with Sherwin-Williams ColorSnap™ for iPhone

Do you hate weeds? I mean, really, really HATE weeds? Do you want to destroy them with a wrath your garden has never seen? If so, it is my pleasure to introduce you to the Red Dragon Weed Dragon from Flame Engineering.

There is no messing around with this bad boy. With the Weed Dragon, you will officially be getting medieval on your lawn. It is a show-no-mercy, let’s burn-the-fuggers kind of machine. There’s a strap-on / drag-along propane tank for Jebus’s sake!
… continue reading Is It For Real? The Red Dragon Weed Dragon