Pleased with my new bathroom light, I naturally wanted to blog about it. Then it occurred to me: Was I supposed to get a permit for this? I can’t very well be a blogger for the L.A. Times and be a scofflaw at the same time. So I looked it up on my county’s website,…
The power is out where I live (and maybe soon where you live), and I have this to say: Hallelujah for daylighting (i.e. lots of windows), gas heat, gas stove, gas water heater, cell phones, land lines and a lot of charge on my laptop computer. And when this battery winds down, I’ll plug the…
A reader sent in this question and I’m glad because I’m having the same quandary. The question: I’ll be purchasing lighting for above a bathroom mirror. Which is better? Mounting the fixture so the lights point down or point up? Currently there is a bar fixture so I have no experience with this lighting issue.…
I don’t smoke, drink or step on people’s feet. So what’s left to improve upon? My remodeling skills. My 2008 resolutions are: • To research my remodeling purchases more carefully. I tend toward impulsive purchases (I did this with my bathroom faucet) and later am unsure whether I chose wisely. Why not wait a little…
A Good Housekeeping article titled A Cleaning Routine for Busy Women may be discriminatory. What about busy men? Do they not deserve a cleaning routine? But that’s beside the point of this post, which is: How do you keep your house clean during remodeling? And if your house is like my house, there are projects…
I’m loving my new solar-powered fountain, which gives me the soothing sounds of water outside my office window without running up my electric bill. And I feel connected to nature, as the fountain begins running in the morning only after the sun comes up. Because it has a 6-volt battery that gets charged up during…
When the crew arrived to paint my house, I steeled myself for a miserable few days. After all, I’m a writer, a contemplative, who needs solitude to do my work, and I feared the ruckus would throw me off my game. But I found myself quite happy, and my days were super-productive. Why? Bill reminded…
Here’s my take on this greenhouse gas/global warming deal: It’s hard for some of us to know what to think. The vast majority of scientists say greenhouse gases from human activity are causing, and will continue to cause, catastrophic climate change, with the world’s poor suffering the most. On the other hand, radio hosts tell…
I’m awfully proud of myself and thought I’d take this opportunity to brag a little. The boasting has to do with some 3-inch long wooden corners I wanted to create for my refurbished workshop table. After I added the little pieces of laminate samples around the frame under the tabletop, it occurred to me that…
I’ve often suspected that the house I live in (built in the 1970s?) was made from "found materials." We have ceiling beams of different thicknesses, various kinds of siding and window sizes that make no sense other than that’s what someone found cheap or free. But what I’m happy the original builders found was a…