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Let’s face it: Many homes today feature inadequate, poorly positioned, and sometimes plain-old ugly light fixtures. But you don’t have to live with anything you don’t love, especially when so many ceiling-mounted and hanging fixtures can be found on the market. Since new ceiling light fixtures come with mounting hardware, replacing an existing unit is easy—even for the novice do-it-yourselfer.
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Labor. Materials. Pizza?
Some costs do not fit neatly into a renovation project’s line-item budget, but if you ignore hidden costs, you will be left wondering why your wallet has sprung a leak. Prepare for these often unanticipated expenses:
Are you tired of jiggling the handle to stop your toilet from running? The noise and inconvenience drives you crazy, but the real craziness is water waste. According to the EPA, a constantly running toilet can waste upwards of 200 gallons of water every day.
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Listen to BOB VILA ON TOILET FLAPPERS or read the text below:
A beautiful green lawn requires regular watering to keep it looking great. The trick is to use enough water to keep your lawn thick and healthy, but not so much that you waste any of it.
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Listen to BOB VILA ON WATERING THE LAWN or read the text below:
Pennsylvania Backyard Fruit Growers Annual Tasting. Photo: veggiegardeningtips.com
Shopping at the grocery store, one can usually find only eight or ten varieties of apples. That selection represents an infinitesimal fraction of the estimated 15,000 varieties that have been grown in North America.
You’ve probably never heard of a Northern Spy, Sheepnose, or Virginia Beauty apple. At one time, these and many more types of apples were cultivated and enjoyed in their respective regions. But they gradually lost ground to more productive, visually appealing varieties that better withstood transport and storage.
Today, these so-called “heirloom” apples are staging a comeback, and our taste buds are reaping the benefits. Many heirlooms have rich, sweet, and complex flavors unmatched by varieties more commonly found.
Kidde Nighthawk DC Carbon Monoxide Alarm
Carbon monoxide (CO) is the number one cause of poisoning deaths in the U.S. A colorless and odorless gas, CO is a byproduct of combustion. That’s why you should never use a charcoal grill in the shed, or leave the car running in the garage. That’s also why it’s so important to properly vent fuel-burning major appliances like furnaces, water heaters, clothes dryers, ovens and ranges. If you’re in the market for a carbon monoxide detector, the two most important feature options to weigh in your decision are power source and display.
Late spring is the time to sit back and admire those azaleas as they bloom; azaleas add a veritable explosion of color to any garden this time of year. If you didn’t prune your plants back before they bloomed, you have another chance to do some trimming now.
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Listen to BOB VILA ON PRUNING AZALEAS or read the text below:
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With the sun shining, the birds chirping, the temperatures rising, and the days getting longer, this is the season to take stock of your landscape. Will you plant something new? Or will you decide to transplant a tree, shrub, or perennial that already exists in your garden?
The latter may seem daunting, but following a series of simple steps can help you ensure that your transplanted selection not only survives the spring, but thrives for many seasons to come.
Here are ten trusty transplanting tips from the garden tool experts at True Temper:
Enter Bob Vila’s Great Big Garden Give-Away with True Temper, and you could be the next winner of a garden tools set worth $250, plus $250 CASH!
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Homeowners begin every renovation with the best of intentions. The budget is fixed, the schedule is firm, and the results—well, the results are sure to be spectacular.
Unfortunately, life gets in the way, and that week of organized chaos for which you had bargained soon becomes a month (or more) of construction site living. If your home improvement is taking longer than expected, don’t panic—plan!
If you have stubborn nails that pop out of your floorboards, or you need a way to get a finishing nail flush against the surface without damaging the wood, what you need is a nail set.
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Listen to BOB VILA ON NAIL SETS or read the text below:
