Most Commented HowTo Blogs (280)

The house my parents bought had a roof leak where a room addition was connected to the main house. It was patched a few times over the years and by the time I inherited the place, a small section of plaster in the dining room broke through. I didn't have the money at the time to re-roof and patched it again a few times.

Eventually, the entire roof was replaced and has been holding up more than 16 years. I had the roofer reinforce the trusses from inside and that changed the weight load to the structure causing a stress crack in the ceiling that I lived with all these years.

I'm in renovation mode cleaning and painting and repaired the crack, but the area I fixed is visible to the existing work. The original stucco/plaster had a sandy texture and the patch is smooth. Having the experience of reworking a ceiling in 3 rooms of a condo (yeah, the one I bought last year) I decided to 'skim coat' the entire ceiling of the dining room to remove all the trowel marks of the original textured work.

Using slow setting drywall compound and an 8" drywall knife, I smoothed out the old repair and any irregular texture. Since it wasn't too bad to begin with, most of the coating I applied was as thin as 2mm. It troweled on pretty nice and was starting to dry by the time I packed up for the weekend.

The 4th is Thursday and I'm planning a 4 day weekend to get a few more things done.



For comparison, I troweled on 1-1/2 gallons yesterday and the condo renovation was 11 gallons total.

The pain is back!
When I got up this morning, my neck muscles were complaining... I needed aspirin for breakfast.

....No witnesses in fake impeachment---VERY fake. Quick acquittal, then quick dispatch of all looney socialist, or worse, Democrat candidates by the Big Promise keeper-in-chief. More regional judicial appointments. Eight to one SCOTUS for LIFE. Narrow retake of House, retain/increase Senate. Then---finish wall, infrastructure, cut public broadcasting, begin unbiased alternative---taxpayer funded---to biased National Proletarian Broadcastingt (NPR). And he's just getting of the line. RIP, liberal interests. The voters got it in 2016, after the affirmative action demi Negro POTUS, and again in 2020. Suck it down, America haters. Hohoho.

I have to remind myself that CS has a double handful of resident experts, versed on all subjects regardless of their careers and education. It doesn't matter whether they are retired shoe salesmen, goat herders, philanthropists, or computer gurus. They always have the reasons why something (usually political) doesn't work, but rarely, I mean rarely have the solution to the subject(s) they speak about.

That might lead the world to the 3rd. World War.
And the dreamy middle class awakens on a fateful morning to see the devastation with the eyes widely opened.

It may be time for Steve Bannon to pay the piper.
Indicted by a federal grand jury Friday. He is charged with contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions from the House Committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Two contempt counts:
One for refusing to appear for a deposition and another for declining to produce documents requested by the committee.

If convicted, Bannon could face up to a year behind bars and a fine of up to $100,000.

You go boy !!

All the condo buildings in my development decided to do renovations around the same time. More than 2 months of pressure cleaning, caulking and painting. New hall lights last week and now we are waiting for the unit numbers to be the icing on the cake.
For them to repaint the doors, they asked all residents to leave their units unlocked and the doors partly opened. Yeah, I made it a point to be home.
The one thing they did was pull off the foam weather strip I added before a hurricane came through 2 years ago so, they can seal the wood. I've got new stripping and waiting for a weekend when I have no specific plans to do the job.
In the mean time, you can see daylight through the edges of the door and jamb.
A few weeks ago, I noticed a small Cucaracha running across the kitchen floor and knocked him out with a spray of window cleaner. Days later there were a few tiny ones on the counter... they met with the same fate. That means war and using some non-aerosol bug spray I went around the cabinets before leaving for the day, with the windows open to air the place out.
All was quiet until until one morning when another Cucaracha came through the crack in the front door. It was a short visit that ended with a shoe burial.
The weatherman promised a cool windy weekend with no rain so maybe I'll actually do the work and make an end to mas Cucarachas.

Our very own planet Earth is going through some rough times now.. But nothing new really...
Our World was going through a lot of turmoil since Humans started to become "Civilised"...

One of the consequences of the evolution of our "Civilisation" is , Arrival of the idea of Terrorism ...

Human species are prone to war usually ...
We had two major World wide War all ready...
We had many Genocide , Communal War , even Nuclear Blast , not once but twice ...
But still , at least during an open war , we know who and where our Enemy is ...
But
When it comes to Terrorism , we are totally lost , because our Enemy could be Anyone , Anywher , Any moment , as they wish...

Throughout years , we have witnessed many incidents linked directly or indirectly with Terrorism...

We have witnessed 9/11 , we have witnessed 26/11 , we have witnessed Mumbai Local Train Serial Blast , we have witnessed Paris Attack , we have witnessed Kandahar Plane Hijack , we have witnessed Peshawar School Children Held Hostage and Killed , we have just witnessed Kabul Airport Blast , and many many more painful incidents that I don't want to recall anymore ...

Before it was terrorist groups like Al Qida .. Now it's IS ... In future it could be something else ...
Also we should keep in mind that , years back when technology was not so advance , still they managed to execute almost fictional Hollywood thriller style Terrorist attack like 9/11 without much Technical Assistance ...
So we should know what those Terrorists are capable of doing when they will have access to all the Modern Technology this days ...

And I am afraid that , this recent activity of IS in Kabul is just one of the initial Tremors before all those upcoming high scale Earthquakes of Terrorism all over the World ...

I am just anxious to know ,
Is there any solution of all this Terrors at all ???

What is the Solution to Stop Terrorism ???

The Euro is now at 1.41 for £1. I travel quite a lot in Scandanavia and pay about 2% from my British bank for buying goods in a Euro zone.
But the bank takes a further 2 and a half percent when I use the cash machine.

I found a way around this is to get cash back at a local supermarket then you are charged only 2%. as a purchase.

I know this works in Finland but can you tell me other Euro zone countries where you can do this?

let's leave behind what had happened in 2014 and move forward for a brand new year. A year to conquer those vibes that held us back and see to it that the previous year's regret won't be entertained instead gain confidence and faith that what comes our way happens for a reason and it should be something to aim positively. In other words, let's learn from what had happened previously not linger with the what ifs..

Happy New Year CS!:)

Had an old computer that provided service for years, new one with better protected Windows 10. But what to do with the old Windows 7 machine? Took it completely apart, just to see the innards. Have modified amateur radio transceivers, to make them cover Marine SSB, usually by cutting a diode. But I thought these radio circuit boards were complicated. Computers are amazingly complex by ANY comparison, and the driver was tiny. Did this while tending to yard sale customers. Then trip to recycling center (vernacular is town dump). My grass mower is in terminal state, and even I don't want to fix it. Beautiful FWD 6 HP mulching mower left by some (?rich) person. Oil change, spark plug regap, and fired right up. Amazing what folks throw away. Never bought a bike for our twins over the years. Minor repair work to dump "rejects", and girls always had new bikes. When outgrown, return for others to dump, and got larger ones to last another few years. later today, after yard sale, placing twin timing belts onto old Honda GL 1100 Gold Wing. May also need new solenoid relay. then, VROOOOOM once more. Also slowly taking down large trees endangering our little house. Now then, there's much more, but let's see if not only men respond to this typical guy stuff. Any handy ladies? Aa..