Ever notice how pulling out nails with a hammer claw leaves marks on the wood? Donald Shenk did, and he decided to do something about it. A skilled craftsman with a commitment to building more efficiently with wood, Shenk saw an opportunity to give the building and DIY world a badly-needed innovation and seized it.
The result was the Zadok Hammer Pad, one of those amazing creations that has the two qualities of a brilliant invention: 1) it is dead simple and, 2) everyone will wonder how they ever lived without it.
The image tells all. The Hammer Pad is little more than a rubber pad that slips over the claw and head of a claw hammer, protecting a wood surface when the claw is used to pull up nails. Each pad retails for just $5.75. Dead simple. Dirt cheap.
What's the worst way you've damaged your walls with a hammer?
I used to live in townhouse-style apartment with a ductless kitchen hood--you know, the kind that doesn't vent to the outside but instead recirculates the air through a filter? It was misery. I would have that thing humming on High while boiling pasta, baking chicken in the oven or stir frying veggies in the Wok and in every cooking scenario I would be left with an apartment that smelled for days of whatever I had been cooking. I'd usually have to crack a kitchen window to let excess moisture out or they'd fog up within minutes. I lost my faith in ventless hoods because of those moments.
So naturally I was skeptical when the release for Vent-A-Hood's new "truly effective" duct-free range hood came across my desk. Called the "Air Recovery System" line, the new series of hoods ranging from $1,949 to $2,744, features a four-stage technology that collects rising gases, separates grease, contains odors and traps the smoke for a satisfying duct-free hood experience. It does all this through an active canopy and centrifugal blower to capture and then extract grease; an "activated carbon bed" that boasts 50 times more exposure to the foul air than the traditional flat carbon mats found in most ductless hoods; and an accordion microfiber filter that deals with smoke. Mmmmm, I can practically smell the recirculated, freshened air right now.
I wish I had a one of these new Air Recovery Systems to test out. It's really the only way to know if the thing works. Even without one on-hand I'm willing to bet that Vent-A-Hoods latest product would perform better than the sorry excuse for a hood that I was using back in the day. I'd have been better off cooking in a beanie propeller hat.
Do you have a ductless hood in your kitchen? Would you consider installing Vent-A-Hood's new product?
Anyone who has used dimmable CFL bulbs with a standard dimmer is no stranger to the flickering issues inherent in the energy-saving conjunction of the two technologies. Dimming a CFL with a standard dimmer not only results in occasional flickering, it can also lead to limited dimming ranges and a flat out inability to turn the lights on at all when the dimmer is in a certain position.
Enter Leviton's new Decora CFL Slide Dimmer, launched at the 2010 International Builders' Show a couple weeks ago. Made specifically to work with the widest range of dimmable CFLs, the Decora CFL Slide Dimmer eliminates the aforementioned issues, optimizing CFL dimming performance. The dimmer's "auto mode" lets it automatically detect if the bulb being controlled is an incandescent or CFL and adjusts its settings for optimal dimming performance.
Kudos to Leviton for making it more likely we consumers will go even greener in our homes.
No word yet on a cost for the dimmer or the best place to buy, but stay tuned for that info as it comes in.
Welcome to our tenth and final installment of our Charity Series Blog.
Over the past few months we've been blogging about worthy national charities. It's been pretty easy finding quality charities, as sites like The Charity Navigator which evaluates and rates thousands of charities on a four star system, based mostly on the charity's efficiency, operating costs and the CEO's salary. It's a great way to do charity research.
But not every charity gets reviewed by the Charity Navigator or other similar sites.
Recently such a charity came across my desk, and it's been selected as the tenth and final charity in our series. The brainchild of TV personality Frank McKinney, The Caring House Project Foundation is a charity that focuses on providing shelter to the poor and needy inside and outside the US. Most recently, CHPF has been extremely hands-on, both in rescue efforts and rebuilding efforts following Haiti's devastating earthquake. Even prior to the earthquake CHPF has done the majority of its work in the poorest of countries in the Western Hemisphere.
McKinney's blog had some fascinating footage of post-earthquake Haiti, as well as an interview with the principal about being intimately involved in the rescues of rubble-covered Haitians just after the quake.
I was definitely intrigued by the man and his mission, so I searched the Caring House Project Foundation on the Charity Navigator. There was no entry.
Instinctively, a red flag went up. Was this charity not legit? Was this one of the many scams out there? Was Frank like Wyclef, paying himself 6 figures to speak at his own charity's event?
Turns out the Charity Navigator is quick to admit that it cannot review every charity that is out there. And as that is the case, it also gives a person a pretty easy way to evaluate a charity on one's own.
By following the Charity Navigator's evaluation advice, I was able to track down the Caring House Project Foundation's "Form 990," which is required by law to be made public if the charity receives over $100,000 in contributions and has assets totaling over $250,000. By reviewing the CHPF's Form 990 I was able to determine the program's assets, expenses and allocations that they made to other charities and organizations in 2007. For example, they gave $125,000 to the Haitian Health Foundation and over $460,000 to Food for the Poor, a four-star rated Charity Navigator charity. Clearly the CHPF was legitimate and doing good in the world.
Which is why we've made the Caring House Project Foundation the tenth and final charity in our ten-part series. Frank and the gang are doing selfless and important work, and they need our help. Consider making a donation to this worthy charity.
Be sure to check out other charities from our ten-part series:
While most Vermonters lamented the loss of the state's snow during last week's January thaw, we backyard hockey rink builders were clapping our hands in delight. The thaw, combined with a few inches of warm rain, acted as a natural Zamboni, smoothing out the surface of Lake Champlain and ridding Mallett's Bay of the piles of snow accumulated over the past month. We were going to lose most of our snow-bank rink "boards," but we were finally going to have a skate-able surface.
And then the winds came.
As you can see in the video, the January thaw has been quickly followed by the coldest freeze of the winter so far, with winds blowing up to 40 mph and wind chill temperatures down as low as 25 below. Flurries of lake effect snow have whipped across the frozen bay, piling up near the shore and on the rink. (Note the hockey goals half-covered in the drift and a discarded Christmas Tree on the frozen shore).
To make matters worse, the sudden freeze has ripped a massive crack right down the middle of our rink, rendering it virtually unplayable. The saga of the backyard hockey rink built on Vermont's biggest lake may well be at an end. With the neighbor's rink faring significantly better through the extreme conditions, we are already drafting up our concession speech.
Do you have a backyard or pond hockey rink that you've built? Send some photos in to photos@bobvila.com and we'll post them.
Are you thinking about buying a new appliance? If so, you'll want to know what cash rebates are available through your state's "cash for appliance" rebate program.
EcoRebates has a simple search-by-state function that lets you know exactly how much money your state has been allocated by the Department of Energy, which products are covered by your state's program and how much rebate cash is available within each product category. Not every state has its program up and running. EcoRebates.com indicates which states' appliance rebate programs are currently in effect, and when others will be.
By clicking on Vermont, I learned that our appliance rebate program received a cool half a mil from the DOE and that I can get $150 back with the purchase of an Energy Star refrigerator, as well as other rebates for buying an Energy Star-rated boiler, Room A/C, water heater and clothes washer. Exciting stuff, and very good information to have.
My excitement turned to anger when I clicked on New Hampshire, our neighbors with whom we seem always to be in competition. They got almost $1.3 million from the DOE. What's that all about?
What new appliance will you be buying under the cash for appliance rebate program?
What do you do when your wood deck is faded, rotted and splintering? Why, roll out a new one, of course.
Maintaining a wood deck is a pain. On a visit to my brother's home in Virginia a few years ago we spent our "quality time" together sanding and staining the shoddily-constructed and poorly maintained deck that came with his house. The sand paper was routinely shredded by overlooked nail heads and our staining job was undone by a freak and sudden rainstorm that passed through.
The looks-like-real-wood product was created to "say goodbye to deck maintenance," which was a similar goal of the composite and plastic decking manufacturers. "Say goodbye" turned into "see you in a little while" with some of them.
ProFekt is a little different. You're not replacing your real wood deck. You're just covering it up. The ProFekt rolls out over the faded, rotted and splintering deck to present a "Real Wood Look Surface" that extends the life and look of the deck and basically eliminates the need to ever again rent a sander from Home Depot.
The 3 mm. thick, 5.5-inch wide material comes in 40 ft. long rolls, each retailing for $69.99. Available colors include Cedar, Redwood, Sea Coast Gray and Natural Tobacco Barn. A handy online chart helps you determine how many rolls you will need for your deck size. The ProFekt website also has some videos that demonstrate installation.
The product is allegedly available online at Home Depot, ProBuild and ArchaDeck, but I couldn't find it.
My feeling is that ProFekt will have its share of proponents and willing buyers, particularly as it is an alternative to actually maintaining that wood deck. There's part of me that compares this to throwing a coat of paint over an old, rusty car, but even in that case the painting sure beats working the rust out.
