Black & Decker has a new hand-tool offering called the ReadyWrench. It’s similar to the Craftsman dogbone wrench in that it combines several of the most common socket sizes into one wrench. B&D sent us a ReadyWrench to try out. Read on for more information and how you could win [...]
Keeping hand tools organized and accessible on the go is tough. The lionshare of portable toolboxes on the market come with a deep bottom storage bin and one or two removable shelves (like the one shown at the right). These solutions aren’t bad per se, but we [...]
The Kreg Jig is a great addition to any woodworking shop, no matter what your skill level. The jig enables you to quickly and securely join two pieces of wood together with pocket holes. Kreg provided us one of their kits to try out & review. If [...]
With my wife gearing up the holiday music and Black Friday only a few days away, I thought I’d share some gift ideas for handymen / DIYers. I searched high and low to find inexpensive items that are super useful. If you have additional suggestions, leave a comment and I’ll [...]
If revolvers were the great equalizer that tamed the lawless west, the 18V impact driver is the modern-day DIY equivalent. Back in the 1800s, the enemies were unruly types who plundered, poached, and pilfered from innocents. Today’s DIY enemies: bolts tightened beyond the loosening force of traditional drill-drivers, and [...]
Some time after Jocie and I moved into our house, we started to notice a bad odor in the unfinished part of our basement. The smell is difficult to describe, but it reminded me of bad fish. If you look around online, it’s obvious that a lot of people are [...]
In our prior house, we had an awkward nook in the corner of our small 10′ x 10′ rectangular kitchen — a 2′ x 3.5′ space that was completely empty. The area was in the corner opposite the cabinets (which were laid out in an ‘L’ shape on the other [...]
A good resource I’ve come across is called Seal Your Home. This site was created by DAP to help educate consumers about weatherizing- improving the energy efficiency of a building’s envelope. Reducing the flow of cold air into your home is an important part [...]
I’m playing with the Excel mortgage calculator I wrote about this morning.
I’ve always heard that with a 30 year mortgage, you don’t own that much of your home after 15 years of steady payments… You’d think after shelling out half of all the payments, you’d own [...]
I was playing with amortization schedules in Excel 2007 and created this nifty (and pretty simple) tool for calculating home loan amortization schedules for up to a 40 year loan…
I figured it might come in handy for others, so I cleaned it up. You can download it below.
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I’ve been very pleased with my 14.4v cordless drill for several years now. But recently, I’ve come across a few jobs where it’s just not up to the task. Enter my new Porter Cable 18v hammer drill! I had no idea what I was [...]
I’ve been reading about quite a few giveaways going on around the DIY blog-o-sphere and I wanted to pass along the word. There’s nothing like winning something!
Todd @ Home Construction Improvement is actually running two giveaways.
Delta Dado Set Giveaway – Dado sets are really useful [...]We decided on recessed can lighting for our new basement game room. Not only do can lights reduce the visibility of ceiling defects, they eliminate light fixtures hanging down into the room. Since our ceiling is low (only 7′8″ without [...]
Fall is the best time to grow new grass. By September, the hottest months have past but the temperature hasn’t plummeted. The soil still contains a fair amount of moisture and there are plenty of good growing days. An easy easy way to plant grass seed is with a seed [...]
On most decks, the decking boards run parallel to the house and across the joists (either perpendicular or at a 45 degree angle). But what if you want to run the decking boards perpendicular to the house, going straight out from a back door? While uncommon and a bit more [...]
The next item in the Craftsman Tool Storage series is the Craftsman Wall Cabinet. Craftsman was kind enough to provide several elements from their Garage Storage System. Be sure to check out the Workbench, Floor Cabinet, 5-Drawer Addition, and VersaTrack Reviews.
The [...]
In September and October we told you about Ryobi’s Durashot Tek4 digital camera and Tek4 Professional Multimeter, two of ten tools that comprise Ryobi’s latest line of 4V Li-Ion gadgets.
As I wrote in the digital camera review, the concept behind Ryobi’s latest tool line [...]
Happy Saturday! As you read this, we’re up and at ‘em getting started on our basement insulation project. Here’s some weekend reading to get you started while we’re busy.
TipNut headlines this round up with 10 ways to make your own laundry detergent. It’s an [...]
And another giveaway has come to an end. It’s time to announce the winner of our Price Pfister faucet giveaway.
Price Pfister has been making stylish, dependable faucets since 1910. They [...]
The Price Pfister giveaway has finished (winner announcement shortly) and it’s time to get rolling with our next amazing freebie. Trane is breaking into the scene with a very nice, energy efficient, programmable thermostat. And the best part, there’s going to be two winners!!
Trane XL800 Digital ThermostatDid you know [...]
We’re just about ready to have closed cell spray foam installed (our choice for basement wall insulation). We’ve lined up a great contractor in the Baltimore area who’s going to let us follow him around the basement with our video gear so we can share the whole experience with [...]
At first look, a cordless drill and a cordless hammer drill seem like very similar tools. They look similar and are even used for some of the same projects. But hammer drills have one key advantage, making them much more useful and, I believe, worth the additional cost. Read on [...]
Ceilings have a way of really showing defects when the drywall is not installed properly. While the visibility of ceiling defects can be reduced (e.g., through recessed lighting, flat paint, and other methods), the goal of every ceiling drywall installation should be to reduce or eliminate [...]
So you’ve just purchased a new workbench – it’s home, it’s setup and it looks great. But how do you keep your workbench looking like new? The appropriate maintenance depends on the workbench top material. Fortunately, most workbenches feature similar materials. Cleaning and maintaining these materials is [...]
