DIY Life

When my wife and I bought our town-home, we immediately decided that we didn't like the old-school sliding closet doors that were hung in the 57" wide opening for our kids' closet. They were a pair of hollow core slab doors 30" wide and 1 3/8" thick. They only allowed 27" of the closet to be exposed at any one time, and, as a result, it was difficult to get to the middle of the closet.

I removed the doors almost immediately, and then my wife got a couple of drapery panels from Pottery Barn. I used a metal closet rod as a hanger: as a result, we could then have full access to the whole closet. This worked well for a few years, until my wife recently decided that she was done with that look and wanted to put doors back up.

After the obligatory groaning and mumbling about changing the "door" to the kids' closet again, we went shopping for new doors. After the break, I'll share a few of the options out there for solutions to this issue, along with a few tips I gleaned from the installation process for the doors we ultimately chose.

Road biking and mountain biking are as different in style as they are in culture.

Road biking requires cyclists working together in order to maximize their performance through drafting and other strategies. In my experience, the drawback is that in contrast to working together to get a better time, road biking can be very "every man for himself" when it comes to helping others with mechanical issues.

Mountain biking, on the other hand, seems to have a culture of assisting anyone who looks like they are struggling, in spite of the need for individual talent and achievement in order to excel at the sport.

There is no drafting on an intense section of single track. I have been lent tools, tubes, chain parts, tech tips, and encouragement during various rides when things have definitely not been going well. Many of these offers came entirely unsolicited from complete strangers who just happened to pass me and my friends when we had stopped to deal with a situation.

After the break I will, in the true spirit of mountain biking, share a few of the more unusual repairs I have encountered when either parts or tools have not been present to do the needed repairs properly.

In 1852 Victor Hugo coined the phrase"necessity, the mother of invention". I couldn't disagree more. Laziness is the mother of invention. The wheel? Ug was tired of dragging stuff around. The car? Who really wants to clean up after and take care of a horse for its whole life? Paper? Carving letters into stone is way hard. See? Laziness drives us to invent things so we can expend less and less energy to do the tasks required of us in our daily lives.

Ryobi has latched on to this basic principle and as a result they have dreamed up a new way for us to be lazy. Traditionally if you used a string trimmer (colloquially known as a "weedwhacker") that was gas powered you were in for a work out every time you started it. Depending on what brand of gas powered trimmer you had, there were different arcane rituals to use to start it, but they all involved repeated yanking on the pull start. Ryobi has changed all that. I'll explain how after the break.

While we are not TECHNICALLY in a recession (A friend pointed out that the definition of recession requires 2 quarters in a row of declining GDP) we are definitely in economic doldrums.

We have had four quarters of definitely sub par growth as a nation, the housing bubble has definitely burst, and more and more companies are looking to trim any fat they can.

Economically unstable areas already hit hard by the economic down turn now have even more bad news headed their way. One of the staples of these areas has always been self reliance, and the entry of big box home improvement stores into unstable areas has been a boon to these areas in terms of jobs and the ability to find cheap materials to do their projects. This is about to change for the worse. Especially for states east of the Mississippi.

As the days grow longer and the weather starts to warm, kids across the nation go outside to play, and to get rid of their cabin fever from the long winter we all had.

Chances are that they will be dragging you outside with them! Instead of just pulling up a lawn chair and watching them run in circles, why not have a little fun with science and get them thinking as well as playing?

I am going to cover two different activities best done in the great outdoors that are sure to peak the kids' interest as well as show them a good time. These are easy to do, and it is easy to find the materials needed to get the jobs done! Now buckle up and let's get this science bus on the road!

In the past there were only a few choices for fence materials. You could put up a stone wall, block wall, brick wall, wrought iron, wood, or chain link. If you got creative you could combine a couple materials and get a fence/ wall by putting wrought iron on top of a brick base or wood panels between pilasters of block or stone.

Today the number of choices and alternative materials has exploded. Plastic, aluminum, and man made stone have given the homeowner a plethora (see, a college education can pay off!) of choices to choose from.

I am going to try to sort through some of the more popular choices for you based on affordability, difficulty of installation, looks, and durability. Hopefully this will make your choices clearer and easier to make.

With the help of the other 2 previous chapters in our fence making and repairing trilogy you are now ready to put on the final touches. Setting your posts and hanging your stringers has left you with an excellent and formidable foundation for your fence. Now it is time to make your fence look finished.

Pickets are what give your fence it's style and flair. Your fence will be as attractive as you want to make it. You could end up with a basic, respectable fence, or you could have a fence that the neighbors envy and compliments the design of your landscape and home, if you are willing to put in the work.

OK, you have obviously read about how to set your fence post correctly and are now ready to put up the more of your fence (If you haven't read that article you should, really, I'm not kidding. Please don't make me beg!).

This will involve putting up the stringers (the 2x4s that connect to posts together and which the pickets attach to). Properly setting the posts helped determine how strong your fence will be, and the stringers and the pickets will determine the look of the project. Hanging your stringers properly will help further the structural integrity of the fence, and it will help make hanging the pickets easier.

Now buckle-up and get ready to hang 'em like you mean it!

High winds, snow drifts, flooding, termites, and just plain old Father Time can all be reasons for a sagging or leaning fence. Bad neighbors, big dogs, young kids, and naked sunbathing can be the reason to install a new fence. Both situations will require you to set new fence posts for the successful completion of your goal.

If you don't do it right, not only will your new fence look like Homer Simpson built it, but it will also end up needing to be replaced far sooner than if you had done it right to start with. I will walk you though the correct way to do it. You may be tempted to cut corners or to listen to old uncle Fred and do it the way that sounds easier, but it will all end in tears that way. Trust me.

OK, as we all know the economy is in a downward spiral. The housing market is so far down the drain you can't even get at it with a plunger. The dollar has fallen farther and faster than Elliot Spitzer's trousers at a gentleman's club.

The only thing rising is gas prices. (Think mushroom cloud here) As a result we are all scrambling to find new and exciting ways to pinch pennies hard enough to make Abe Lincoln cry.

I used to do a lot of work on my previous car myself to save some money back in the day. When my wife and I purchased our '05 Touareg from VW I decided that with the new car, vast jumps forward in technology, and our economic stability, I would let the dealership deal with all the issues that arose. As economic fortunes have turned I have decided to start doing some easier things myself. Ooops...

We have all seen LEDs become more and more prevalent in our daily lives. They are as common as traffic signals in major cities (after the whole energy rate fiasco a few years ago) and power indicators on most items. They are also as frivolous as LED hats to support your favorite team.

Manufacturers and retailers are starting to see the future in LED items as well, as they realize that a lot of people are looking to save energy. People want to support being "greener," sure, but they also want to keep a few more dollars and cents in their bank accounts.

Here are a few items I have come across that demonstrate how LED products will continue to make inroads in new categories of retail.

There are many easy principles that we all take for granted that you can use to amaze and delight your kids. All you have to do is make the time to spend with them.

These tricks are relatively fast and very simple to execute. The pay-off in looks of wonderment and excitement in you kids' faces will be well worth the time it takes to pull them off.

So plan to turn off the X-Box, PS 2 or 3, Wii or TV, and spend a few minutes with your kids as you introduce them to the wonderful world of mad science experiments.

When my wife and I decided to mount our LCD TV to the wall instead of having it on its stand, we were faced with the problem of hiding all the cables and wires. There were the component video cables, power cable, RCA wires to connect the VCR, and the cable connection. That was gong to be a lot of ugly spaghetti to have hanging from the bottom of the flat screen.

I decided to use surface mounted wire moldings to hide them. After installing them I painted them to match the wall. While this does neaten things up, you can still see the two runs of molding that I had to use to contain all the cords.

I had considered putting them inside the wall, but seeing as the electrical panel for our town home was directly on the other side of the wall, I decided that it was going to be nothing but heartache to try to do it that way. The other draw back was going to be the extra cutting, patching, pulling, and painting that was going to be required to do it properly.

Now I have discovered a newer, easier, and cleaner way to accomplish this goal of a hidden installation. FlatWire Is the answer that I was looking for.

One of the most fun and educational things you can do with your child(ren) is to start your own garden.

You don't have to make it a veggie garden, although eating what they grow does tend to intrigue the little ones. You can do a flower garden, a butterfly garden, or a cactus garden, to name a few.

I am also going to teach you how to add another twist to it. You and the small ones can build a garden that moves!

Why make a mobile garden? A mobile garden means you can change locations so you can use different plants at different times of the year that have different sunlight requirements. It also means that you can bring the garden to you when you want to work on it. Details after the break!

Is it cheaper and more energy efficient and therefore "greener" to heat just one room instead of the whole house? Well, DUH! The question is though, how do you heat just one room in a way that is best for you? I am here to try to sort out the options for you.

Portable heaters are as many and varied as people. There is no one right heater for every one or even for every room. Some people need just a small table top unit, and others need what I like to call the portable horse bar-b-que. The first thing to decide is what kind of energy is going to be used to produce the heat. Do you want electric, can you use a forced air kerosene unit, or will a propane unit suffice?