Remodeling & Home Repairs

The homeowner at my Eastwood kitchen project (these posts) installed an over-the-range microwave where an existing cabinet had been. The result was that there was an awkward space above it that wasn't very useful for much. He wanted me to make it into a space to hold wine bottles. Sure, why not? ...

I was reading through some forums on the Internet and found an interesting comment that someone made saying that a contractor was highly "certified", but wasn't a craftsman and his work showed it.Hmmm.. Behind any job that a person does is a certain mentality or work ethic. It's HOW the job is do...

Today I was helping a new friend install some laminate flooring as he gets his house ready for twins. I'm not sure the flooring will help with dirty diapers, but it will be one less thing for the "honey-do" list, right? Anyway, laminate is a popular upgrade from carpet that is considerably less e...

When I was first introduced to this lovely porch it was sagging considerably. Further inspection showed that it was built without an all-important ridge beam and now the decorative brackets were supporting the weight, for now... The cure for this was to completely remove the porch and rebuild a n...

I spent much of last week working on a sunroom that needed some repair. After fixing the cedar siding (read this post), I went to work on the windows.The wood casement windows mainly just needed to be scraped and painted, however there were a couple small trim pieces that had rotted and come loos...

In plumbing terms, a "trap" is a curved piece of tubing that will always hold a little water to keep sewer gases from coming through into the house. They are wonderful things. However there is one trap that should be avoided: the S-Trap.With an S-Trap, the piping turns up, but then goes back down...

In my experience, I'd say that the most common problems that come up in home inspections relate to water entry, whether from a leaky roof, or through the foundation. One of the culprits, downspouts, are notorious for giving homeowners problems, yet they are so easy to fix! Here's the problem: dow...

It's always fun to do projects that really transform a room. In this bathroom project, we put new tile on the floor and replaced the vinyl base with stained baseboard. The tiles are stock from Lowe's. We mixed two shades into a checkerboard pattern. The two shades are called "Mocha" and "Hazelnut...

I was just cruising the Internet and found a challenging game on the Fine Homebuilding website called "The Inspector". They've doctored up a photo and challenged readers to click on the code or safety violations. Play the game here. I tend to 'play' this game in my head whenever I walk through a ...

I'm not a sports nut, but I have caught a couple of the recent NBA finals games.  I've been quite impressed with Kobe Bryant- not so much his athletic ability, which is undeniable, but especially his work ethic and leadership skills. At last night's game against the Orlando Magic, Kobe was one of...