DIY Life

According to Consumer Reports, two-thirds of burglaries involve forced entries. And lots of 'em are opportunistic in nature. In other words, the criminal sees no one is home and goes around back looking for unlocked doors and windows, maybe testing their sturdiness with a kick or two.

Are your existing door locks of the cheap "builders brass" variety that could easily be forced? Don't want to spend big bucks on expensive, better-quality replacements? Here's a quick fix that will improve your home's security – for only around $10! Introducing: the box strike!

Deadlocks are usually installed in conjunction with a strike plate. That's the piece of metal screwed onto the door jamb, opposite the lock itself. When the lock is engaged, the deadlock slides through the strike plate, resting in a cavity cut into the wooden door jamb.

What happens in the movies can't always be accomplished in real life. For instance, jumping out of a window in a movie looks easy, but if you try it for yourself, you might not walk away like that cute actor did.

If you have seen someone (whether in reality or not) open a door with a credit card, then you may want to keep that particular ability in the front of your memory, as it really can help you to get in your house if you have misplaced your key.

Keep in mind that you really have to work hard to make the credit card open the lock, so you may want to use an old beat up credit card or gift card that is no longer valid.

Sliding doors come in two flavors: they work like a charm or they're a pain in the buttocks. Because of their very nature, things can go wrong. For most repairs, the door will need to be removed. No big mystery here; just raise it up and swing it outward. Here's a few problems and their solutions:

• The door won't roll. Inspect the rollers. If they're loose, tighten them. If they're broken, replace them. Is the track bent? It can usually be tapped back into shape using a wood block and a hammer.
• The door doesn't glide like it used to or jumps off the track. Check the bottom rollers and track. Clean them both carefully and lubricate them with paraffin or silicone spray.
• The catch doesn't catch. Door catches don't last forever and if they won't catch properly, they won't lock either. Sometimes they get bent and don't mate up properly, and sometimes they just wear out. If it's broken or worn out, just replace it. If it's bent, remove it and clamp it in your vise. Use needle-nose pliers to straighten it out. Replace it and test it. It should click and catch when the door slides up and mates with the frame.
  

Use these tips and you'll be slidin' and glidin' in no time!

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.

Don't you just hate it when a hinge on a door or cabinet just won't stay put because the screw hole is stripped out? Sure, you can use a bigger or longer screw, but then it won't match. Frankly, that just looks tacky. But don't lose hope; here's a trick I use.

The first thing to do is remove the offending hardware. Next, dig one of your golf tees out of your golf bag. Apply some epoxy glue or wood glue on the pointy end and sides of the tee. Tap it in with a mallet or hammer as far as it'll go. After the glue is completely dry, use your coping saw to cut off any excess tee and sand as needed. Presto! New wood!

Now you can replace the hardware and it's as good as new - maybe better. The hole is too small for a tee? Use as many toothpicks as will fit in the hole. The ones with flat sides work best. The great thing about this hack is that it really doesn't have to be pretty; the hinge covers up your handiwork.

Does one of the doors in your house swing opposite from how you think it should? Maybe every time you open it inward you're struggling to close it again inside that tiny bathroom, or maybe you open it outward, and almost push yourself down the stairs.

Whichever way your door opens, sometimes they just don't seem to make sense. I would tend to assume that the decision is made, and we're stuck with the way the door was installed, but apparently this isn't the case at all.

You can change the swing direction of a door. Reader's at GardenWeb offer their tips. Here's what you'll need:

• Screwdriver
• Vice
• Wood-glue
• Measuring tape
• Wood chisel

You'll have to switch the hinge and latch sides, then touch up any holes or damage left behind. You might also have to adjust the height or cut the door slightly if it needs to now clear carpet. This is a simple job, but it will require two people, just for the sake of balancing and measuring.

You don't have to live with it swinging the wrong way just because a previous owner made the wrong choice; it can be changed quickly and easily.

Are the kids already bored with nothing to do? The school break between Christmas and New Year's can seem much longer than it actually is, and cold winter days can add to their boredom. Debra McDuffee showed us how to make chalkboard vases, and there are many other things you can do with chalkboard paint.

Marthastewart.com has an article on how to make custom color chalkboard paint. By mixing flat-finish latex paint with unsanded tile grout, applying the paint to the surface you want to use as a chalkboard, and then sanding the painted surface with 150-grit sandpaper, you can create a surface to remind yourself of appointments, grocery lists, or even a place for your little ones to get artistic without ruining wallpaper or other painted surfaces. You can use any color you want too, and be all grown up. Seriously, why pretend you are in school by using green or black paint?

If you happen to have a little artist in the house, give them their very own wall to doodle on. You will be happy you did, as it will save your other wall surfaces, and they can scribble to their heart's content.

If you're into keeping that shed or garage side door under 'lock and key' (no pun intended), you'll love this hack. Using a cheap X10 remote key fob, a power source, and a simple solenoid, you too can create a remote-controlled deadbolt for that door that needs opening quite often, but also finds its key lost or misplaced frequently.

Building solenoids into things is pretty easy, as long as you have battery power or electricity nearby. These are the same devices that automatically pop that trunk or car door open from your keyfob, so why not use them from inside a garage or shed door so that you can have access to the door from outside while leaving no lock mechanism visible from the exterior, which can sometimes invite tampering?

For an estimated $30 or so, you can get a solenoid, a remote transmitter, a power source (hopefully, free), and an actual deadbolt, and have that shed pretty well secure from outside intrusion. Check out the video below to see the finished product in action.If you've got thousands of dollars in tools inside that shed, this one is calling your name.



[via Lifehacker]

Everyone loves stained glass but not everyone knows how to do it. With this glass glob stained glass tutorial from knick knacks & ric rac you can easily achieve the look of of stained glass with glue, glass marbles and grout. While this is not your traditional stained glass it still gives a lovely effect that I personally love.

If you don't want to permanently stick these marbles to your door or window you could do the same thing to framed piece of glass and hang it in your window for an equally lovely suncatcher. The blog's creator also added them to her entertainment cabinet. I think that a china hutch would also love a little TLC with pretty glass marbles.

Wherever you decide to apply this craft, have fun and enjoy the color and pizazz this will add to your door, window, cabinets or whatever. Remember, you can never have too much color in your life. While your at it check out M.E. William's post about using these same glass marbles to make some pretty magnets to add even more color to your home.

[via Craftzine]

Over the last few years, I've seen a couple of Halloween wreaths in stores. They're usually pretty cool, but slightly expensive for what they are... like, I'd spend that much on a real fir or holly Christmas wreath, but not for a wreath of black silk roses or sleek black feathers. Never mind that they'd probably cost about the same amount of money to make. And my family made crazy-detailed themed Christmas wreaths when I was a teenager, so I've always thought that planning them and getting them right wasn't worth the hassle.

But now, Amy at Glitter, Vinyl, and Thread has made some really cool kitschy wreaths for Halloween that aren't too difficult at all, and that seem to be totally worth what it takes to make them! My favorite is the eyeball wreath, but there's also a fang wreath, and an orange garland wreath with cute spooky critters all over it.

The orange wreath is easy: it's just a wreath form wrapped with several different types of garland, after which a few loose things were added to it. The fang wreath has a slightly higher difficulty level, due to the need to drill holes in the fangs; Amy has a drill press. The eyeball wreath seems the most labor-intensive, with lots of drilling and stitching, but is undeniably tons of fun.

[via Crafty Crafty]

I live in a house with five other people. Folks are always coming and going, and they aren't always conscientious about closing the doors behind them, whether to keep air conditioning inside, to keep pets out of some rooms, or just for privacy. Beyond that, some doors just don't stay shut.

Gift wrap comes in so many pretty designs that it sometimes seems a shame to tear into it, thereby ruining it. Some people open their gifts so slowly to save this pretty paper that feel like just giving them a roll of gift wrap as the gift. But you must admit that they have a point. Gift wrap designs come close to artwork much of the time.

Grace Bonny over at the Design*Sponge Craft Blog found a way to showcase this lovely paper in her home. She gift wrapped her closet doors. Okay, not quite but she did use it add a colorful flair to her closet door.

By simply attaching the paper with clear contact paper, tape or mod podge you can apply gift wrap much like you would wall paper. In the Design*Sponge project it is applied to the inlaid portions of her closet door. I can see this being used to decorate many things around the house, from light switch plates to end tables.

This is wonderful news if you are one of those crazy really nice people who is a gift wrap saver. Now you have a craft you can do with all those paper scraps cluttering up your craft room. Although it would most likely look best with fresh paper.

By the way I wouldn't recommend doing this with that cookie monster in the Santa hat paper that you bought on clearance last February. Pretty flower designs or watercolor looking prints would add a nicer touch.