Living in an area with a lot of older homes, and being widely renowned for my vintage home repair expertise (if only in my own mind), I have ample opportunities to hone my character-rectification skills. Recently, I got a call from homeowners seeking advice on whether to repair or replace one of the three columns supporting their porch roof; the column had quite a bit of rot, and several floor-to-ceiling splits (that would be REPLACE). While there, my eagle eye, keenly attuned to potential safety and/or style discrepancies, noted two corroded, ungrounded, uncovered outlets, which had probably been installed in honor of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s inauguration. [click to continue…]
How To
The dryer. It’s one of those appliances that you forget about until it doesn’t work, right? Nothing is quite as bad as either running to the laundromat or ‘freeze drying’ your laundry in December because the dryer took a dump. Sure, we’ll remember to clean out the lint trap every once in a while. Hey maybe you even have a trash can next to the dryer with enough lint to make a quilt thrown in there. But another key part of maintenance that is often neglected is the dryer vent. Rarely does anyone take the vent off to prevent clogs. But that vent is a very important part of maintaining the dryer.
I’m lucky. There’s a Rockler store just 1.8 miles away. Of course I’m also lucky to live by the beach, be only fifteen minutes from work, and live in beautiful southern California. I lucked out again when I started working with Marc and he offered to send me tools and construction materials to evaluate. Some of these came in handy when I had a small mishap during an L.A. Kings game a couple of weeks ago. [click to continue…]
Last week, we talked about how to install a video surveillance system. In that marathon post, we mentioned that we weren’t too excited about installing bright, metallic silver cameras on every corner of our 1930′s Spanish style home. As a result, I devised a simple and relatively quick hack to dress down the appearance of the cameras and help them blend in more to the architecture. Before any hate mail comes in, let me start this off with a disclaimer: If one of your primary goals is deterrence, then camouflaging your cameras might not be the best strategy. Then again, you can use this exact same how-to, but substitute glow-in-the-dark, day-glow, fluorescent pink paint instead, and then you’ll really draw attention to the cameras. [click to continue…]
My first intro to the world of video surveillance came when, in a flurry of poor economic decision-making, I purchased a Toshiba network surveillance camera which I installed as part of my mission to keep dogs from pooping on our lawn (daily). Although that camera turned out to be problematic, it got my feet wet in video surveillance. After limping along a few years with a single camera that crashed seemingly more than it ran, I decided it was time to upgrade the surveillance system to multiple cameras, and document that process for HomeFixated readers. In the content below, you’ll find essential tips and suggestions on everything from network switches to budget-conscious network video cameras that perform well. [click to continue…]
