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…]
Safety
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.
It’s not often I’m waiting for an accident to happen. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I was hoping someone would get into a car accident. I just wanted to be there when it happened. Here’s what I envisioned. . . Angelina Jolie (sans Brad) happened to be driving through my neighborhood when she lost control of her Mercedes. The car flipped and the gas tank was punctured. At this point I’m heroically sprinting for the car. Angelina is barely conscious, the vehicle is locked, and her seatbelt is jammed. A long line of gas made it’s way down the road where it is ignited by some bastard flicking his cigarette out of the window. That’s so annoying! I have just seconds to spare Angelina from a horrible, fiery death, and luckily, I have my Benchmade Triage 916 in-hand. [click to continue…]
Last year there was an epic power outage that effected a good chunk of the southwestern United States. There’s nothing like an extended power outage to get you back to the basics of what you truly need when modern conveniences like electricity fail. If that power outage lasts into the night, one essential you’ll want plenty of is light. Without it, basic survival tasks like cooking or even finding food in the dark recesses of your home can become impossible. Many people rely on candles for emergency lighting. On the plus side, they never run out of batteries, they’re cheap, and as long as you have matches or lighters, they’re ready at a moment’s notice. The downside to candles is that they can very easily burn down your house. That’s a pretty big downside, and it’s also good reason to consider investing in something like the Coast LED Area Light. [click to continue…]
If you are ever sporting new steel toe boots, do not make the mistake I did. Keen sent over their Pittsburgh work boots, and I naively pointed out the steel toe feature to my four year old daughter. She then laughed maniacally after stomping on my toes relentlessly. That was was all fine. In fact, it was the first test for these Keen’s. I can now testify that the Keen Pittsburgh boots will protect your toes from wild, toe-stomping children. The problem came the next day when I was wearing some non-steel toe Keens. Thinking all Keens must surely have steel toes, my daughter decided to stomp on my un-armored feet. It turns out that’s surprisingly painful. So, if you have foot-stomping children around, I advise you to either wear your steel-toe Keens 24/7, or just have a little conversation about the difference between steel toe boots and conventional footwear. Read on for more details about the Keen Pittsburgh work boots, a public revelation about my anatomy, abusive hammer testing, and scintillating boot style commentary. [click to continue…]
