Multi-tools are small, versatile, hand-held power tools that help you sand, saw and scrape in dozens of home renovation situations in tight quarters.
It won’t be long before the new year makes some of us feel like setting new lifestyle resolutions for ourselves, and if this means getting intentional about upgrading your home improvement and renovation skills, there’s something new you should know about.
Mature trees are beautiful, but they can also be expensive.
At least that’s what I hear from homeowners who’ve paid $600 to $700 to have unwanted single trees removed or professionally pruned.
Over the last 22 years I’ve had the best job in the world. Power tool and electronics manufacturers send me their latest gear,
When someone says the words “stained wood”, what colours do you think of? Probably some shade of brown, perhaps with a golden or reddish hue.
Chainsaws are the fastest way to cut tree limbs, brush and wood of all kinds in landscaping situations, but the noise, expense and fuel involved in running a gas-powered model puts them out of the realm of what’s reasonable for many Canadian homeowners.
Plumbing can be puzzling. It all seems simple enough as long as pipes work like they’re supposed to, but that’s not always the case.
No matter how basic your DIY aspirations, life is better with at least a few good implements.
In the 1920s, the fields outside my windows resounded with the music of bagpipes and violin.
I met Mike and Alice Ogden almost 25 years ago as cottagers with a summer place next to a little lake near my house.
Winter is the time when the quality of your dryer vent really matters, and if your vent is like most in Canada, you’ve got some work to do.
How come so few have a nice, fuzzy lining up around your neck, where it counts? The ToughGuy’s cotton exterior and sheepskin-like lining prompts me to wear the coat way too often, in settings where my wife reminds me I really should be wearing something fancier.
With winter just around the corner, you need to brace yourself for more than just cold blasts of arctic air.
Most of us live just an extension cord away from the stone age.
Cut off our electric power — even for just a day — and we’re pretty much helpless.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Generators have been getting smaller, lighter, more powerful and less expensive during the last 10 years.
Cold weather is on its way, and this means bathroom exhaust fans will become more important.
If you’re stripping wood finishes, repairing antiques, building new furniture or smoothening any kind of wood surface, there’s an ancient alternative to sandpaper that’s faster, less messy and healthier for you.
ossil fuels are one of the more common necessary evils of modern life.
Laminates and wood floors have a lot going for them.
They look good, they’re easy to keep clean and they don’t harbor dust mites or odours.
Of all the homebuilding hardware used on Canadian houses, nothing annoys me more than standard, aluminum eavestroughs.
I’m a big fan of do-it-yourself home improvements, and whenever I wonder about the wisdom of this strategy I talk to my non-DIY friends.
