DIY Life

I love wandering through the brand new show-homes in our area. I do it under the cover of looking for new decorating inspiration, but I think I might just like to tease myself with all the swanky stainless steel appliances.

Thanks to Life Hacker, who pointed us to this great tutorial on how to make old appliances look new again, I can have show-home style appliances in my eleven year old kitchen without investing in new ones.

Make sure you follow the cleaning instructions first. This is critical to getting the stainless steel look just right, but it will also improve the efficiency of of your appliances. After all your prep work is complete, you just need to apply stainless steel contact paper, accommodate for any dials, smooth out the bubbles, and enjoy your brand new appliances.

The tutorial details how to refresh your dishwasher and fridge, but I think it would be hard to stop there once you got started, so bring on the stove, range, and microwave... even the coffee pot -- this is going to be fun!

Remodeling a kitchen, there are a lot of things to consider: appliance choices, layout, storage solutions, and finishing touches. When we renovated our kitchen, flow was a priority for us. We love to cook, and the previous arrangement of the kitchen was awkward and inefficient.

If you want to take the flow of your kitchen to the next level, why not consider applying some Feng Shui principles to your remodel? SheKnows has some tips on how to design your kitchen, feng shui style.

• Plan the stove to be facing the door, as you should never have your back to the door while cooking. You can do this by creating a cooking island or by using a reflective surface.
• Avoid red, pink, or purple in your decor, as these colors can cause you to argue with your cooking partner. Instead, whites, blues, and light greens are calming choices.
• Use full-spectrum bulbs to simulate natural light.
• The traditional triangular model for kitchens fits into Feng Shui: refrigerator, stove, and sink, all about six to eight feet apart.
• Fire elements (stove, microwave) should be separated from water elements (sink, refrigerator) by wood.

The article at SheKnows has more details describing how to create Feng Shui harmony in your kitchen. A Zen kitchen sounds appealing, doesn't it?

Fridge's are very expensive, which is the major reason I refuse to get rid of my old clunker. It keeps going and going, just like the Energizer bunny, because I make sure that I clean the thing from top to bottom every 3 months. If your refrigerator has been acting up lately, refusing to keep your food cold, don't despair. You can keep your fridge going well past it's lifetime too, with these easy and simple tips.

1. Change the water filter. Seriously, if you think about it, if you are using a dirty filter, imagine how dirty the water was before it was filtered through the dirty filter!
2. Clean the gaskets. I use vinegar to clean the gaskets, and I check to make sure the gaskets gives a nice tight seal after I wipe them dry by inserting a piece of paper in the door. If I can easily pull the piece of paper out when the fridge or freezer door is closed, then it is time to replace the gasket. Consult your owner's manual on how to change the gasket.
3. Clean the drip pan and the drain hole. Scrub out the drip pan with baking soda and vinegar. The drain hole has to be cleaned of food and debris, so I usually use Q-tips and a small scrub brush. Consult your owner's manual on how you should clean the drain hole on your fridge.
4. Clean the condenser coils. The coils on the back of your refrigerator can get very dusty, thus making your fridge work much harder than is necessary. Use a vacuum hose to clean the coils every three months. If you have pets like I do, then you probably want to clean the coils every month.
5. Level the refrigerator. An unlevel refrigerator means that the doors might not close properly, resulting in spoiled food and high energy bills. You can prevent this by placing a carpenter's level on top of the fridge and adjusting the feet until your refrigerator is level.

These simple tips will help lengthen the life of your expensive fridge. Mark a date on your calendar for refrigerator maintenance so you won't forget to set aside an hour of your time to clean it. Once you get the benefits of cleaner, clearer water, you'll be keeping that fridge clean without a second thought.

We've all been there startled awake by a strange sound, sitting up in bed eliminating the possibilities: Burglar? No. Teenager sneaking out? No. Earthquake? No. Raccoons outside? No.

Eventually, we fall back asleep, accepting that it was just the house making its usual nighttime grumblings. This can be unnerving. It can also make you feel concerned that there is something wrong with the house or some warning signs you should be aware of. Typically, this isn't the case. In most cases it's something inside the house, a fridge or furnace, or even the house itself settling and shifting.

Some sounds are there to stay. They are coming from your appliances, your windows, your siding or your foundation. Once you know their sound and you're comfortable with it, you'll probably stop hearing it all together. Other noises can be dealt with. It could a as simple as securing the downspout or putting a little duct tape in the window sill. In this article Jim Sulsiki takes us through common house noises and explains how they can be silenced. Jim suggests that you isolate the sound as it's happening. You won't have much luck finding the noise during the daytime when factors that could have induced the noise (temperature, animals, weather) are no longer in play.

As the weather cools, we're sure to hear some new grumblings coming from our house. Relax, take a look through the suggestions, quiet the ones you can and live with the ones you can't.

Sadly, the traditional homemaking craft of baking does not come naturally to me. If I can get the goods out of the oven without setting fire to anything, I'm pretty happy. As for my last homemade cake, the rounded top and slightly too-soft frosting both contributed to an unenviable "cow pattie" look. Oops.

With a little practice, even lost causes like myself can learn to frost a cake like a pro, according to the site SheKnows.