Posts

Sponsored by Sakrete I recently replaced a section of sidewalk using Sakrete concrete mix. It was a huge improvement. But next to the new concrete, the old sidewalk looked kind of shabby—pitted, flaking and worn. Plus, the old concrete was a darker gray. Before: After: I’m all about matching the old with the new. Sakrete Flo-Coat Concrete Resurfacer allowed me to do just that, and it added a durable, perfect surface to the entire sidewalk....

With any luck, refrigerators last several years, but replacing them is necessary for more space—or if the refrigerator stops cooling. If there’s a new fridge on your Black Friday wishlist, don’t panic—buying this major appliance doesn’t have to freeze the budget! Whether you’re seeking a mini-fridge for the office or a full-size upgrade, as expert shoppers, we have you covered! Below are this Associate Shopping Editor’s top picks. Don’t wait to purchase—these cool savings won’t last long!...

Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock A disorganized refrigerator is a disaster. You can’t see what foods you’ve got stashed inside, which means some items will spoil and need to be tossed, wasting money. A cluttered fridge also makes it more time-consuming to prepare meals and even draw up your grocery list, as you have no idea what foods you have on hand. Why is there one apple on every shelf? Luckily, a messy fridge is easy to fix....

This FH series introduces readers to a few of the women who make up 11 percent of the construction workforce in the U.S., spotlighting stories of their careers in the field. Know someone we should feature? Email us here. After one semester of college in her hometown of Bozeman, Montana, Lydia Crowder realized higher education wasn’t a good fit for her. Fortunately her dad, a veteran drywall pro, asked if she wanted to give that a shot....

When we think of car dashboard cameras, what typically comes to mind are devices used by TV news crews, long-distance truck drivers or law enforcement. With vehicle technology improving year after year, dashboard cameras—like the Wolfbox Dash Cam—have not only become more affordable, but smaller, lighter and simpler to use. Here are some reasons why you may consider installing a dash cam in your vehicle: To accurately capture and record traffic flow, weather conditions, accidents, hit-and-runs, break-ins and roadside emergencies To prove fault (or no fault) in a collision To provide a reliable witness during traffic stops To reduce blind spots for safer reversals and merging Despite the name, the best place to mount a dash cam is not actually on the dashboard, but somewhere on the center of your windshield—either behind or below the rearview mirror....

Keeping your house clean can be challenging, especially since dust and allergens seem to accumulate in the wrong areas. Don’t get me wrong, vacuuming is a great way to pick up dirt from around the house, but sometimes you will find that some areas collect more household dust than others. A DIY dusting spray is an easy but effective way to maintain dust. How Do You Make a DIY Dust Cleaner?...

A tick in your home is unsettling, to say the least. An innocent walk through the woods with your pup can result in ticks entering your home. While many varieties of ticks aren’t prone to making a home indoors (deer ticks typically die within 24 hours, and can only survive short periods in places where moisture content is less than around 90 percent, and many species of ticks prefer to lay eggs on the soil surface and don’t reproduce indoors), brown dog ticks, for example, do....

A simple and quick fix for improving insulation and regulating room temperature, draft stoppers provide a barrier along the lower edge of doors, underneath windows, across the front of fireplaces boxes — anywhere breezy gaps need to be sealed. What is a Draft Stopper? A draft stopper (a.k.a. a draft blocker) is a snakelike, cloth tube stuffed with batting, rice, beans or other material. Laid across cracks under doors and around windows, a draft stopper acts like fabric weatherstripping....

Hot-wiring a car sounds like something out of a heist movie. Thieves jump in the front seat, fiddle with the steering column and drive away in a trail of dust. In the old days, cars needed a physical key to unlock the ignition cylinder and start the engine, but hot-wiring allowed thieves to bypass the cylinder. Today’s high-tech key fobs and engine immobilizing devices make hot-wiring a thing of the past....

New Africa/Shutterstock Having a barrage of plastic bags fly out of your cabinet every time you open it can be downright maddening. Put an end to the madness and make yourself a plastic bag organizer. Here are eight styles you can choose from. Baby Wipe Container Baby wipe containers are a great storage solution for lots of household items (think craft supplies and batteries). They also work especially well as a plastic bag organizer....

Every time I open my cupboard, I cringe at the teetering stacks of plastic takeout food containers. Somewhere along the way, my dedication to the environment collided with my self-preservation. That somewhere was over dinner, and my hesitancy to eat inside a restaurant during a pandemic. I know a lot of us have the same quandary. Most of those containers and lids are so sturdy that it feels overly wasteful to just toss them into the recycle bin....

Summer gets all the love for camping and outdoor adventures, but don’t forget about fall. With the right protective clothing and gear, you can enjoy the Great Outdoors through Thanksgiving. And performance gear is what Carhartt is all about. Their new Back to the Land campaign features layering and outdoor pieces from head to toe, for men and women. So get out there no matter what the weather does — rain, shine, or anything in between — with Carhartt....

Residents of 15 specific states east of the Mississippi (as well as the nation’s capital) have probably heard the warnings by now. “The cicadas are coming.” “Prepare yourself.” “Don’t be caught off guard.” If this has you running for cover, we have good news. While the cicadas are indeed coming, you don’t need to escape them. Despite the fact that they are noisy, travel in crowds and seem to appear out of nowhere at unusual intervals, these elusive insects are perfectly harmless....

I’m surrounded by pet hair, figuratively and literally. As a certified animal behavior consultant, I write about pets for a living. As a pet owner, I always keep a lint roller on hand for pet hair removal. So writing a FurZapper review caught my interest: All cat and dog lovers should know about this cleaning tip. I joke that in my world, fur is a condiment. But there’s nothing funny about fuzzy clothes that aren’t supposed to look that way!...

If you haven’t built or remodeled a home lately, you’ll discover when you do that a lot has changed. Here are a few building trends we’re seeing today. Online Shopping Alex Toth, general manager of Opendoor Homebuilder Partnerships, sees more individuality among potential buyers. “With the overall shift from offline to online and the ability to have anything at the click of the button,” he says, “families looking to build are definitely customizing and personalizing their layouts....

During the COVID-19 pandemic, everyone from DIYers to construction pros grappled with the unexpected skyrocketing price of lumber. Average lumber prices rose about 600 percent between April 2020 and May 2021. A perfect storm of bad luck and poor timing created this problem. Demand in 2020 far outpaced supply as home-bound homeowners chose to make home improvements while historically low mortgage rates drove new home construction. With mills and lumber yards shut down early in the pandemic, the industry struggled to keep up with these demands....

: Ksenia Ragozina/Shutterstock Becoming a landlord for the first time can be both an exciting and an intimidating experience. Whether you took the leap to try your hand in the income property business, or you’re moving and planning to rent your home to a new family, there’s a lot to consider. We’ve got you covered with some of the biggest tasks to check off your to-do list, so you can rake in the cash and not be surprised with trouble down the road....

I’ve been asked what seems like a thousand times which of my tools is my favorite. For years, my answer was my full-sized, 1-3/4-horsepower router. Why? Its versatility, and the way it’s helped me out of numerous sticky situations. Early in the pandemic, when I was out and about for the first time in several weeks, I made an uncharacteristic impulse buy in the checkout line of my local home center that ultimately changed my standard answer....

When it’s cold outside, your car’s heating system provides warm air to make driving comfortable. Even if you live in a warmer climate, there will be chilly mornings when you’ll want your car’s heater to help warm you up while driving. But if you live in a cold, demanding northern climate, a properly functioning heating system isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s essential. In addition to making your drive miserable, a heater blowing cold air prevents the defroster from removing ice and fog from the windshield, creating dangerous driving conditions that you should never ignore....

Pine is a fantastic wood. There, I said it. It has a reputation for being “builder grade,” or somehow subpar, simply because it’s readily available in most parts of the U.S. But pine is a joy to work with in the wood shop. It works brilliantly with hand tools, machines easily, finishes well and creates an atmosphere in the shop that is pleasant to the eyes, ears and nose. I’ll walk you through everything you need to know about pine so you can use it confidently in your next woodworking project....