Posts

Don’t wait till the cows come home to try this buzzworthy finish! You can even DIY from scratch with homemade milk paint for your next project. Though it’s been found on artifacts from ancient Egypt and was commonly used on colonial and Shaker furniture, milk paint is currently enjoying a resurgence among green-minded folks because it’s made of all-natural, non-toxic ingredients. Milk paint also has appeal for its richly saturated color quality and a finish that can lend an antiqued look....

As a homeowner, it’s normal to worry about the safety of your house when you’re not there or when you’re fast asleep. One of the best ways to get peace of mind is to invest in a home security system. These systems keep your home under constant surveillance and can alert you and a professional monitoring center when doors or windows open. That way, you can know what’s going on in your home at all times....

Steps: Before doing any plumbing work, turn the water off at the water main. Use the compact pipe cutter to cut the cold line to the existing outdoor faucet. With the line cut, remove the old faucet. Measure the center to center distance between the hot and cold pipes on the new faucet. Transfer that measurement to the wall, using the old cold line hole as a reference for the new hot hole....

Steps: Heath breaks down electrical boxes into a few categories and explains their differences.2. Heath starts by explaining that new work boxes are used whenever the walls are being opened up for work. This could be in new construction but also in renovations. They come with brackets on the side to nail directly into a stud from the side.3. Old work boxes are used whenever the walls are closed up and small additions to the wiring are required....

Some well pumps are submersible and sit at the bottom of the well. Others are located inside the home, usually in a basement. Do Well Water Pumps Use A Lot of Electricity? Richard explains every time a homeowner with a well turns on the faucet, a well water pump could come on and call for water from the well. The well pump should be connected to one of two pressure systems....

Once their Little Free Library is finished and dry, host Kevin O’Connor and general contractor Tom Silva head back to Brookside Elementary to install the school’s new library. With the help of several of the school children, Tom and Kevin dig a hole for the post, fill it with gravel, and then attach the new school bus library in place. Project details Skill Cost Estimated Time To see Tom and Kevin build the little free library, click here....

In this video, This Old House landscape contractor Roger Cook explains how to prune a fruit tree. Project details Skill Cost Estimated Time Pruning a fruit tree In winter, look for branches that rub against each other. Cut rubbing branches with bypass pruners or pruning saw. Remove thick, vertical branches with pruning saw. Open up center of tree by trimming away smaller branches using bypass pruners. Trim very top of the tree using long-handled loppers....

You just gotta love plaster. That rock-hard substance, which was applied to the walls and ceilings of nearly every house in this country until the 1950s, gives us surfaces that are seamless, mold resistant, fire resistant, and noise deadening. But what to do when plaster cracks, buckles, and pops loose? It’s a perplexing question for many of our readers, including Tim Thorp, whose house in Providence, Rhode Island, is filled with badly blemished plaster....

85 percent of home buyers considered a kitchen pantry “essential” or “desirable,” the National Association of Home Builders reports. In existing homes, there’s a clear drive to add and improve pantries, ranging from walk-in pantries to improvised solutions like open pantry shelving along basement stairs. Pantries typically hold groceries, but no one says you can’t squeeze in a few platters, small appliances, and baskets to hold linens, paper goods, and cleaning supplies....

Previous episode: S41 E17 | Next episode: S41 E19 In this episode: After several weeks of asbestos and lead removal, it’s time to start rebuilding the interior of our project. Kevin O’Connor finds Tom Silva ready to lay sub-flooring in what will become the new dining room. A huge piece of ledge is in the way of our new garage. Charlie Silva and Jenn Nawada discuss the process for breaking it up with a hydraulic hammer....

Megan and Lincoln Pasquina and their young son live in Boston. Like many city-swellers, they want to move out of the city. They have owned a rental property, a New England Cape built in 1880, for five years in Concord, MA. Want to see more of this project? Tune into new episodes every Thursday on PBS and Mondays on the Roku Channel. City-Dwellers Start Renovations During the past 140 years, the Concord home has seen several renovations....

Garage shelving can help you remove clutter from your floors by providing loose items with dedicated storage space. Garage shelves typically come as wall-mounted, ceiling-mounted, or freestanding units, and they can hold anywhere from a few hundred pounds to a few thousand pounds depending on the unit’s size and material. Here are our top recommendations. Top 5 Garage Shelving Units Seville Classics UltraDurable Commercial-Grade 5-Tier Shelving DEWALT 3-Shelf Steel-Wire Industrial Storage Rack FLEXIMOUNTS Garage Shelving FLEXIMOUNTS Overhead Garage Storage Rack Gracious Living Medium-Duty Shelf Unit Seville Classics UltraDurable Commercial-Grade 5-Tier Shelving This shelving unit comes with wheels and can be moved from one side of your garage to the other....

Like many major cities, Sacramento experiences a fair share of pest problems. Whether it’s something non-threatening like ladybugs or more dangerous like black widows, a pest control company can give you peace of mind when it comes to residential and commercial pest control. With so many options for pest control in Sacramento and its surrounding suburbs, it may get time-consuming and confusing trying to figure out which company is right for you and your family....

I have a secret to confess: Sometimes I go a month (or close to it) without changing my sheets. It’s mostly due to how inconvenient I find the whole task. First, there’s stripping my queen-size bed and wrestling the slightly-too-small spare fitted sheet onto the corners, a job that usually requires my boyfriend’s help. Then I have to lug my laundry down three flights of stairs to the laundromat across the street (that’s New York City apartment living for you)....

SwissGear Scansmart TSA 17-Inch Laptop Backpack Ideal for first-year students attending an out-of-state college, we recommend this TSA-friendly laptop backpack if you plan on flying one or multiple times per academic year. It features several exterior and organization options, including a padded laptop compartment, quick-access zip pockets, a front carabiner, and an accordion file holder. The lay-flat backpack is also available in a variety of stylish colors. TRIPPED Travel Gear Tech Bag and Electronics Organizer Many college students carry small electronics and accessories with them to and from different places on campus, like headphones, charging cables, and flash drives....

If the loftiness of the discounts alone makes you feel dizzy, it may be hard to discern which Prime Day mattress deals are most worthy of your consideration. Our team (with the help of Mattress Advisor) identified 11 beds and mattress toppers that are excellent options, as you’ll likely not see this steep of a discount from the retailers again—at least, not until the next Prime Day. Here are our picks:...

This article appeared in the Summer 2022 issue of This Old House Magazine. Click here to learn how to subscribe. With a vintage Beatles LP playing in the background and dinner simmering on the stove, Megan and Lincoln Pasquina relax with their two young sons in their new great room, its floor-to-ceiling windows inviting in views of the rolling meadow, woods, and pond on their three-acre property in Concord, Massachusetts....

“We’re like an old rock band. We each get to solo, but we really play as an ensemble.” —Richard Trethewey This Old House’s first broadcast, of the crew’s renovations on the Dorchester House, aired locally in February 1979— the same year, fittingly, that the band Men at Work formed. That band is no more, but the guys play on. “There’s a real fascination in watching a craftsperson execute a task and solve a problem,” says Russ Morash, and that, in essence, is the show’s magic....

Once upon a time the formal dining room was the main spot for sharing meals—these days not so much. It’s a common lament among homeowners that this room just doesn’t get as much use as it should. If you find your dining room table has become a place that collects dust and mail, maybe it’s time to rethink the space. Consider why your existing dining room isn’t working: Poor flow and an overly formal tone are frequent complaints....

Matt Jackson has been working in the building trades for nearly 50 years. During that time he’s developed a wide range of tips and tricks, including various ways to use a carpenter’s pencil. In this video, Jackson shares his process for cleaning saw blades. Though he’s cleaning a 10” sawblade in this video, the process is the same no matter the blade size and will work for router bits as well as many other blade types....