Tag: repair

The saga of our front door continues! I mentioned yesterday that our storm door was in our sites for repainting. Well another problem we faced was the old storm door closer had broken. As you’ll see in the pictures, where it was anchored to the door jamb was in poor shape so it came as no surprise when the metal bracket broke. For this project, I tried something new. Since I was skeptical about... 

Drip… Drip… Drip… It really can drive you crazy! Fixing a leaky kitchen faucet can seem like a big job, but even if you are not much of a plumber, there are some simple things you can try before calling the cavalry. Replacing a faucet can cost upwards of $250, and a simple repair might be all that’s needed to return you faucet to like-new condition. The most common cause for... 

The long holiday weekend gave me a chance to tackle a project that’s been on my to-do list all year. This past winter, we had a particularly windy snowstorm that ripped one of the decorative shutters off the front of our house. Thankfully that’s all it ripped off- no shingles or doors. I’d guess the shutters are original to the house so I’m a little surprised that they’ve... 

We recently installed a Frigidaire Gallery wall oven (model# FGEW3065KFA) from AJ Madison as part of our ongoing kitchen remodel (review of the oven itself is forthcoming). While branded Frigidaire, this model is actually manufactured by Electrolux, according to the manual. We used the oven 3-4 times for baking, and then ran the self cleaning cycle to make sure everything was in order, and to clean... 

I love this week’s Before and After because it shows us a really dramatic deck transformation. Michael from Better D.I.Y. had an old, rotting deck. It was dangerous and liable of collapsing at any time. Michael took the time to research decks and rebuilt it from the ground up with a stunning result. For being this week’s Before and After winner, Michael gets a $50 gift card to Lowes, Home... 

There’s really nothing worse on a hot, humid Summer day than to have your central air conditioner give out.  Unfortunately, that’s just what happened to us about three weeks ago right after our hardwood flooring installation.  The temperature in the house started climbing steadily beginning around 6:00pm, rising from a relatively cool 73 degrees up into the mid-80s. While I’m not... 

Between six and twelve months ago, we poured four separate 250 sq. ft. quadrants of self-leveling cement (a.k.a. self-leveling mortar, or self-leveling underlayment) onto our basement concrete slab. We selected LevelQuik ES for the job and followed the instructions to the letter… Or so we thought… Much to my dismay, last week I noticed that a small 3 foot x 8 foot area of the underlayment... 

All my recent indoor HVAC problems started with one little symptom. There was a tiny bit of water pooling in front of my furnace. If you have a similar problem, it doesn’t necessarily mean costly repairs, but you should act sooner than later. Diagram of Indoor HVAC System It’s important to understand the different parts of your HVAC system before you begin poking around. You don’t... 

We’ve had a lot of rain recently. That’s a good thing as it pulls Maryland out of a short lived drought. However, it’s not such a great thing for my gimpy passenger side windshield wiper. For a little while now, the passenger side wiper wouldn’t always move, and when it did, not very far. This kind of problem can often happen in colder areas where the wiper blade freezes to... 

Just as I began to pen this article I realized that my before, during and after pictures were accidentally deleted from my camera. I was able to take the replacement “after” picture to the right, but the rest will be up to your imagination. I’ll try to be vivid in the description. A few weekends back we poured the second area of self leveling cement over the ThermoTile radiant heating...