The Historic District

Speaking of backyard pests. Anyone else experiencing an increase in the coyote population? We've had lots of missing cats and small dogs lately. You can hear the coyotes howl at night but since we're more or less a suburban area they get no proper hunting pressure to keep the population in check. I...

Bats... The commercial building a few doors down from me has a huge colony. We used it as a dojo for a few years and then it sat empty for two or three. There were hundreds if not thousands of them when we were studying there. So now a couple of young guys have opened an archery shop there. The upst...

The best money on "green" on our old houses is in the heating and cooling department. I reduced our electricity consumption by around 40% by switching to ducted inverter mini splits. The system should last for many years. Windows? Replacing them makes very little sense especially if you co...

I'd just use lead wall anchors and regular screws. Putting the wooden strip in the wall is ingenious, but it'll be a ton of work. I guess it depends on the condition of your walls and the job in general. It would make fine tuning each cabinet MUCH easier so it's got that going for it.

I'm sanding drywall compound patches in plaster today. And not making a huge mess out of the house in the process. There's a "low dust" drywall mud available now and that stuff is wonderful. It sands beautifully and the dust just drops straight to the floor. I cleaned up the mess with a sh...

Sashguy wrote:I often wonder if the building industry lobby is behind all of this.

Gee? You think so? I'm pretty sure they are.

The bulbs that are designed to go in enclosed fixtures aren't quite as attractive as the ones designed to mimic the look of an incandescent. Shop around a bit. The higher quality bulbs that can handle the rather minimal heat soaked up in an enclosed fixture are out there. And they are worth it. If i...

A banjo player? Really? Nice table. I used to have three of them similar to that. Why three, you ask? Because my family had been in the grocery and dry goods business since well before the Depression. The tables were originally used for rolling out cloth to be cut to length. Eventually they were use...

Hire it done. I've done them with the large random orbit floor rental machines and it's a ton of work that requires everything else to come to a halt until they're ready to walk on again. This is a job you want done quickly.

Been there with the lead issue. It'll be an ongoing battle but now you hold all the cards. Trust me when I say that the .gov doesn't really do well against a licensed contractor who isn't worried about getting paid .gov money. By getting the certification you put yourself in the best possible positi...