DIY Life

Concrete cracks really detract from your home's appearance. Like piles of leaves clogging your house's gutters, concrete cracks suggest a lack of homeowner love. There's also a safety factor: you could take a tumble on uneven concrete. Consider putting concrete repair on your Spring things-to-do list. For anyone planning to sell a home within the next few months, put this on your must-do list!

Not sure where to start? Never fear. It's actually extremely easy to patch cracks in your driveway, your garden path, or on the pavement outside your home. First, consider when to tackle this job. The best time is Spring or Summer. Don't do it when you're expecting rain or freezing weather.

Newsflash for beginner DIY'ers: these days, you don't fill cracked concrete with more concrete. There are better products on the market that are easier to use. In particular, many patching products now contain latex. This adds flexibility and, therefore, added durability, in extremes of hot and cold weather.

Want colorful flowers this spring? No time to read that 500-page gardening book you got for Christmas? Well, time-pressed gardener, here's how to grow masses of beautiful pansies in 10 easy steps.

1. Know your zone. Is now a good time to plant? The answer depends upon your zone. Check the USDA's plant hardiness map. Pansies are grown as annuals in zones 2 to 11 (i.e. most of the US) during spring and fall. From zone 9 south to zone 11 (south Texas and most of Florida), they will grow right through winter. North of zone 9, they may die down during winter, but come back in Spring. Further north, the cold will kill them stone dead. Bottom line: if the weather is warming up for Spring and you don't expect any really hot weather anytime soon, you're probably good to go.

2. Buy smart. Don't be sucked in by the brightest blooms. Instead, buy dense, sturdy-looking plants with lots of healthy, green leaves and buds. These will give you more blooms in the long run once they get established. Another buying tip: it's better value to buy whole trays of baby pansies rather than pint-sized pots of mature ones. Be patient and those tiny plants will soon grow to full size.

I have occasion to work at a Catholic retreat center in the beautiful north Georgia mountains, adjacent to a National Forest. Over the Christmas break, in a bitter cold spell, one of the mobile homes used as temporary housing had frozen water lines (no one was at the camp to "drip" the water). We got the lines thawed by covering the suspect freeze points with plastic sheeting and using a "torpedo" heater (see Anna Satler's excellent post on using a hair dryer; unfortunately for us, the number of frozen pipes we had would have required 10 or 12 hair dryers and maybe half the power of the community!) to take care of business; it was a hassle but the situation was resolved with no need to replace broken water lines and shower drains. Our next immediate need was to insulate the area under the home, then skirt it to protect the insulating board. Keep reading, even if you don't own a double wide; this fix can be used for any structure that is raised above the ground -- a mountain cabin, wood shop, or any building which has water lines to protect.

The gallery illustrates the basic process; join me after the jump.

If the temperature is cold and you're not running water regularly, there is a risk that your water meter will freeze. This instructables post teaches us how to thaw a water meter. I'm sure some of you will see a subtitle with the word fire, and be that much more interested, while others would rather steer clear. The author warns that the instructions involve the use of fire, so make sure that you use appropriate caution, and only apply these instruction to a water meter. If you're still interested, read on for the materials, and check out the full post for the instructions and pictures.

What you'll need

1. Channel lock pliers
2. Vice grip Crescent wrench
3. Lighter
4. Newspaper
5. marshmallow
6. Stick
7. A friend to help out

You can fix this yourself unless the meter is actually cracked in which case you'll need to call the water company for a repair or replacement. In very cold conditions, it is suggested that you leave a very light stream of water running through the night to avoid freezing.

We're heading into a week of wind warnings. Power companies are busy preparing for outages, and homeowners are anxiously bringing in their outdoor toys. There's some important preparation that you can do when you are anticipating a storm. Here are 11 steps that should prepare you for any storm right through winter.

It's important to carefully inspect your yard and the outside of your house. Unless you want your patio furniture to end up in your neighbor's yard, it's time to take them in. You'll also want to make sure that you are stocked up on flashlights, and other emergency tools. You'll want to keep snow clearing tools on hand, along with salt for managing ice buildup. Check last year's supply now and replenish what's missing.

It might seem a bit early, but each year people are caught by surprise, and it's worth being ready for the stormy seasons. Make your way through the 11 steps, modifying it for your climate and specific needs. You'll be glad you were prepared.

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.

The science of predicting weather is a tricky thing. Trained meteorologists even struggle when it comes to accurately forecasting weather systems. Still, long before we relied on forecasters to tell us what to expect, people were predicting the weather themselves based on some tested techniques.

While technology has taken us beyond this point, and we have access to specialized people and tools, we do not always have a forecast at hand. Knowing how to read some basic clues can go a long way towards making sure you don't get caught camping in a rain storm.

WikiHow lists 12 steps to predicting weather. They offer pictures with various cloud formations and explain the significance of each. The direction of wind, color of sky and dew in the grass are also great predictors. These tools have been used by farmers and sailors throughout history and are still effective ways of predicting weather.

I always think of the rhyme, "red sky at night, sailors delight; red sky in morning, sailors take warning". This little limerick has been around for ages and is a handy tip for noticing what weather is moving toward you. Translated to a more scientific explanation, a high pressure system of dry air stirs up dust, making the sky look red. If this is happening in the west, in the evening, the air should move towards you bringing good weather.

Have you tried any of the predictors suggested in wikiHow's article? What do you use to predict weather when you don't have a weather forecast handy?

Some tips for keeping your energy costs lower this summer, provided by EnergyStar.

The summer season if filled with one hot day after another. If you are a beach bum this is, indeed, a very good thing. But if you have to spend those hot months looking and smelling your best in the office or at luncheons, the heat can be a daunting foe. Nobody wants a hug from a person with dark wet circles seeping down their sides, nor do employees want to be locked in a conference room that smells more like a locker room. The following tips are aimed more at women since one of them entails shaving, so if you are a man looking for sweat prevention tips the shaving bit is probably not for you.

Grade school was fun, do you remember? Most of us would be lucky to remember a single thing from high-school or college algebra. Did you ever make a blue tornado? It is often a vivid memory for many people, but in case you didn't or don't remember, you can teach your kids about the earth's rotation and make a fun "toy" at the same time.

Even if you don't have kids, feel free to try this fun activity (even by yourself). Tornadoes aren't usually blue (not that I shake hands with them and ask about it), and you can make yours whatever color you want, but blue shows the tornado's vortex quite vividly, as you can see.

A tornado forms between a certain type of thunderstorm and the ground, and the swirling spiral forms due to things called updrafts and many other complex factors that I don't even understand completed. To read more on tornadoes and why they form, visit HowStuffWorks or USAToday.