Most Viewed HowTo Blogs (280)

Being a born optimistic I can't agree that its that gloomy. But then I know its not brighter either.
Usually at the dawn, people loose faith and inclined to the darker side. May be I am an exception
Question is not of societal norms and beliefs, neither its about the atheism. And also it's not about the political or economical ideologies, be it socialism, communism, capitalism or cronyism. The basic thing is human nature. At the root humans in general, are selfish and greedy. The tendencies get inflated in an insecure environment.
It starts with socialism, then they try to control and in the process, things end in communism. End result is a totalitarian regime.
Likewise, it starts with capitalism generating a battalion of day dreamers and they make hay while the sun shines. The wealth wrests in a few hands. End result is the same.
Socially, atheism and belief system, swing like a pendulum.
I think Buddha has provided the solution "Madhya Marg (Mid Way)".

There's talk that a second round of coronavirus stimulus check could be in the mail.
There's also talk (from the president) about fraud for mail-in voting
There's also talk of shutting down the post office.

Logically speaking, and all things considered... if your check is in the mail, there is a good chance it won't make it to you.

To those who are affected... Happy Valentine's Day!
To those who aren't affected... Happy Valentine's Day!

According to Wiki:
Valentine's Day aka Saint Valentine's Day is celebrated February 14.
Originated as a Christian feast day honoring a martyr named Valentine and through later folk traditions, it has also become a significant cultural, religious and commercial celebration of romance and love in many regions of the world.

So go out and spend $100 $200 on dinner and roses to show her your love!

My kitchen renovation project is going slower than I planned. The 3 stone top fabricators I would choose from were closed for the week between Christmas & New Years, so I'm awaiting prices and availability. Actually, I got a price from one and waiting on the other 2.
So no contract and no one to measure to start fabrication.
The old sink and top have been shifted to the new location and the plumber did a temporary reconnect. That will work until the new countertop arrives.

I planned to assemble the drawers over the weekend and drawer slide mechanisms for the cabinets were in separate boxes, but the screws are no where to be found. So I missed the opportunity to assemble and install them.
I got a response from the office where I bought the cabinets and they will gladly replace the missing screws, but I'm not going that way for a day or so. At this point, I'll pay one of my installers to finish the cabinets as I'm working on 2 new projects.

Cabinet parts and tools are stacked everywhere in the kitchen, dining room, living room and hallway and my plan is to re-stack them into one area so the place doesn't look like the aftermath of a tornado!
That said, I'm pretty comfortable predicting this phase of my kitchen renovation will be finished before the end of the month.

I broke down all the old cabinets and tossed them into the dumpster so there were no signs of construction going on. Yesterday, I see one of my neighbors is doing a renovation too, but they placed the old cabinets, drawers and parts near the dumpster for everyone to see.
I hear the garbage truck this morning banging around so that stuff should be gone today.

This one is easy to follow.
Packages designed in such a way the product often breaks getting out of the box/wrapping.
I understand the purpose of tamper-proof packaging, but some products need special tools to get them out of their protective, heat fused blister or clam-shell packing.

I'm opening a pack of pens that required scissors to get them out.

My ex passed away on mother's day. We didn't end on good terms and I feel so sad. Although we hadn't spoke in over 3 years but i knew something was wrong after I kept dreaming him two nights in a row. Finally I called his phone only to have his mom tell me he had passed. What's eating at me is I just discovered loads of messages he had been sending me in my trash folder....

Two weeks ago, I received a subpoena to appear at my daughters. The purpose was for dinner... and to install a chandelier in her dining room.

Dinner was great but the lighting didn't go so well.
Most new houses have cheap white base fixtures. The homeowners need to install something substantial. The fixtures are caulked to the ceiling that needs to be cut away from the drywall. If you don't it will pull off a chunk of ceiling and you have 2 jobs. Install the new fixture and repair/repaint the ceiling. Usually in that order.

The electrician didn't use the normal screws that come with the fixtures, instead they used screws that are self-tapping anchors that are rated to be used on concrete. Moron. The threads in the electric box were stripped so I had to improvise with other screws.

The chandelier had some prism shaped acrylic rods that reflected light around the room. I made the joke that she bought it from Superman as it had a similar look to his ice getaway in the North Pole.

Not a fan of parts that don't fit, it required some finagling to get all the rods and assembly to go together.

This week was another request... install pendent lights over the island.
Installation of the first light went well, but testing the illumination revealed some odd shadows on the countertop and raising/lowering the light didn't help.

Oh... there's a box in the hallway that's 30" x 30" x 30" yeah?
It's a light going over the breakfast table. I'm thinking something that would be launched over Cape Canaveral designed to circle the globe and detect alien spacecraft. I was close. Not my taste in fixtures, but everyone like that one!

Groan, two fixtures in the living/family room and I'm outta there!

The pendent lights are going back to the store tomorrow and I'll be notified when the replacements arrive.

Citizens of the United States have the privilege to vote in elections and there are a few rules that must be followed. You must be 18 or over, a resident (with some homeless exceptions) and not a convicted felon. You can register to vote online, by mail or in person at a local election office. Birth certificate or ID is required for a voter card to be issued. It usually takes a few weeks to receive your voter registration card in the mail.

When you go to vote, you will be asked to show a photo ID and that information will be cross referenced to confirm you are allowed into a voting booth to cast your vote. One registered voter, one vote.

Mail-in votes have some rules as you must request a ballot prior to an election. Only ONE will be sent out that is imprinted with your identification details. Mail-in ballot requests have a time limit and you will be notified that new requests have to be made for future elections.

From what I have read, the data base used to confirm who is on the eligibility list and who is not, is constantly updated. One thing it does do, is to verify if someone is deceased. So if you scoop up your dead uncle's photo ID and voter registration card, you may have an interview with election security at the polls.

My neighbor is semi-retired and does maintenance around my condo. He called me yesterday to say my dryer vent is clogged. I don't normally do laundry, but I noticed it took more than 2 cycles for the comforter to dry. I haven't checked the vent in... a long time!

So, I went around the back of the building this morning to see. Wow.. there is a cage around the vent that keeps animals from getting inside. It was packed with lint. I'm surprised any clothes or towels dried. Inside the laundry room, I removed the vent hose from the dryer where it connects to the outside wall and inserted the hose from an industrial strength shop-vac but it was only able to get lint inside the vent as the vanes are one-way letting air out and close tightly with the vacuum.

Armed with a broom, screw driver and wrench I used a ladder (yeah, I'm on the 2nd floor) to remove the cage surrounding the vent. I was able to clear the lint from the louver & vent, but it's not worth trying to get all of it out of the holes in the cage.

Good for now, Home Depot sells those cages for $9.
Not a priority and it will happen at a later date!

A designer I worked with a few years ago took an assignment in a foreign country. I didn't ask, but the pay must have been enough for her to pack up and relocate. She contacted me with a request to do the design for her younger sister's bathroom renovation. I said yes and to my surprise, the sister already started some of the demolition, ordered custom glass doors and was getting bids from a few contractors.

The goal was to enlarge the bathroom by taking the wall out to the adjacent closet. Okay, I get it... where do you plan to relocate the closet? They had no idea.
Since it wasn't a bearing wall, she was okay with taking a few feet from the living room in order to enlarge the bedroom in compensation for enlarging the bathroom.
I took measurements, asked 30 questions and came up with a design... It was totally different than what was in her or her sisters heads.

She said she was 'blown away' I was able to make everything fit. She loved it.

My statement was "Thanks, but it's only the first round concept. We need to confirm if what I'm suggesting is doable. Plumbing, electrical and air conditioning duct work will need to be moved."

One of the requests was to locate the main wall more toward the living room from where I showed. The problem there was the custom glass door was in production and no changes could be accepted. That means the opening for the door has to be shifted a few feet. It's an exterior wall and expensive to relocate.

I resubmitted drawings showing the enlargement/revisions while she got a price from the contractor and was going in the direction of "Let's do it" but her older sister said, wait... this needs more thought. I agreed, since my dimensions were only concept and they knew I had to return to remeasure and get exact sizes.

On Tuesday, the younger sister said she made a decision and wanted to get started right-away. I couldn't go yesterday, but made it a point to go there today.

Thinking they would start in a week or two, I was surprised to find all the demolition was done. The contractor tore up the place. The floor tile was gone, all the interior partitions removed, gutted electrical and a/c duct work hanging from the ceiling.

The "Oh shit" exception: He already built and drywalled the wall between the bedroom and living room according to the OLD SET OF DRAWINGS. The sister wasn't working with the revised set I emailed 2 weeks ago. I spotted this mistake immediately as the revision had the wall about 4 inches from the door casing and I could see it was more than a foot.

I had a set of revised drawings with me as I was going to put my new dimensions on them. Too late for that. I gave that set to the contractor who will move the wall he installed today and will work through the changes to fit the conditions.

Hopefully they won't charge her too much to move the wall, probably a few hundred in labor.

It's a good thing I caught that mistake before all the electrical, a/c and plumbing was done. Otherwise, she would have to accept it the way it was, or pay a few thousand to have the changes made.