Diningroom Garden by Jamie Durie | Anythinginside. Build A Colonial-Style Storage Shed. The shed we built rests on a foundation made up of 12 solid-concrete blocks. The 4 x 8 x 16-in. blocks are arranged in three rows spaced 59 in. apart. These blocks are typically set directly on the ground, but we put down a 4-in. bed of gravel first because our site occasionally receives groundwater. The gravel will keep the soil beneath the shed from eroding or becoming soggy. After laying out the 12 blocks, use a straight 2 x 4 and a 4-ft. level to ensure that all the blocks are level. Shim up any low blocks with strips of asphalt roofing, cedar shingles or 2-in. -thick concrete patio block. Next, form each front and rear band joist by nailing a 2 x 6 to a 2 x 8 mudsill.
Essential DIY Home Improvement Supplies | DIY Answer Guy. The essential list of do-it-yourself, home improvement supplies you should never be without. Over the years I noticed that there were certain do-it-yourself supplies I was continually buying. You know; tape, glue, caulking and many others. Having these DIY supplies on-hand has saved me so much time and money that I decided to assemble a list of those indispensable and most used supplies you should have on-hand before taking on your next DIY project. I’ve also included photos of each for easier reference.
Since these supplies are used so often and are quite inexpensive, you’ll be glad to have them on hand. So here we go. Cable Ties This first one has saved me many times. DIY Tip: You can hook cable ties end-to-end to make whatever length you need. Wood Glue First choice of glue is yellow carpenters wood glue. Liquid Nails Liquid Nails is great to have for heavy duty jobs, like laminating wood for a beam, installing sub-floors and extra holding power for outdoor jobs.
Latex Caulk. How to Build a Hardwood Floor This Weekend. Believe it or not, I installed a beautiful hardwood floor by myself in just one weekend. How? I chose a DIY-friendly floating floor. Unlike typical hardwood flooring that must be nailed or glued down, floating floors are simply laid down over a thin foam-rubber pad. They aren't fastened to the subfloor at all.
For this project, I chose the very latest in floating-floor material: Lyptus flooring manufactured by Weyerhaeuser. It's made from fast-growing eucalyptus trees that are harvested on sustainable, environmentally responsible plantations. The wood has a rich, reddish hue that makes it look similar to cherry or mahogany, but it's much harder. Floating floor planks typically range from about 3 to 8 in. wide, and usually require the installer to apply glue along the edge of each piece. Plan the Layout Work from left to right when laying the floor planks across the room, with the tongue edges facing out. Ana-White.com. Earthbag House Plans. Design*Sponge ? Blog Archive ? made with love: found terrariums. There are lots of tutorials for terrariums floating around these days, but this one the terrarium turned on it’s head. Inspired by a pickle jar terrarium concocted by the warymeyers team, there are no fancy glass domes to buy and no scouring your local nursery for plants small enough to fit under them.
In fact, there’s no buying at all. Everything you need is most likely located within a walk around the block, no matter where you live. CLICK HERE for the full project after the jump! What you’ll need: - Empty clear glass jar with screw on lid - A handful of scavenged moss with some extra soil attached - A plastic bag 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Woodworking projects tagged with 'bench' Icovia& Space Planner. Garagestoragetluweyen. *Garage Storage Solution*By: Tluweyen2 February 2010 If you are like my family, we are constantly short on space in our house. Rather than buy a huge McMansion, we bought what we could afford and ended up with a ranch house with about 2000 square feet. While this is big compared to previous generations, it seems ours has more “stuff”. We have been working at cleaning out junk and freeing up space but we are still coming up short and everything seems cluttered.
This seems even more so with our acquisition of more and more preparedness materials. In order to help alleviate the constant storage issue, I decided it was time to build overhead garage storage. I wanted a place where I could store items while I work on securing “tickets” for my family. After searching around at various stores, including WalMart and Target, I found exactly what I was looking for at Lowes. Lowes did not have 1x4x10 but they had 1x4x8. The first step is to cut the 1x4s and 2x4s in half. Tluweyen. Organizing Tips – Martha Stewart. 19 Ways to Slash Your Utility Bill. Where George Scott sees red, his clients are bleeding green.
Scanning the outside of a ranch home in Longmont, Colo., recently, the energy auditor's infrared camera registered blue and aqua in spots where heated air stayed put. That's what the homeowner expected. "He thought he'd done everything right," Scott says, because he had tackled obvious stuff like adding insulation.
"But he was baffled by his high gas bills. " When the camera scanned the attic, the viewfinder found orange and red blobs where air gushed by the chimney, 20 recessed lights and two uninsulated hatches. After the inspection, the homeowner plugged those leaks with about $50 in caulk, sheetmetal and spray foam insulation, Scott says. "I estimate his gas use will drop 300 therms, or about $300, this winter. " But you don't need an infrared camera to reveal utility-bill busters that are left after the obvious stuff is done. . + Maximize CFLs We've all heard the advice to switch to CFLs. . + Seal HVAC Ducts + Block the Stairs.
Top 10 Sites for Do It Yourself Projects : Planet Green. Building A Basic Work Bench. 15 Homemade Organic Gardening Sprays and Concoctions That Actually Work -... Master ROI Table | GreenandSave.com | Green News, Tips, and Services for... 10 Home Improvements Worthy of Tax Credits | BuildDirect Blog. 1. Upgraded Windows and Doors One of the most problematic sources of energy inefficiency in homes is outdated windows and doors that allow heat to escape.
By upgrading to energy smart windows, skylights and doors you can increase your overall efficiency and watch your bills decline.TAX CREDIT: 30% of cost up to $1,500.DISCLAIMER: Credit does not include installation costs. 2. Upgraded Water Heaters Accounting for nearly a quarter of your home’s energy consumption, inefficient water heaters can and will inflate your bills. Upgrading to a gas, oil or propane unit will benefit you in the long-run and at tax time.TAX CREDIT: 30% of cost up to $1,500.DISCLAIMER: Credit includes installation costs. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10 .
BuildDirect has launched our new Learning Center! Designer Creates Fake Rocks That Help Save Water. 'Water displacement objects.' Images: Rochus Jacob via designboom. Putting a brick or a bottle filled with pebbles in your toilet tank is well known as an easy way to save water -- about a half a gallon with each flush. But sometimes a little style is needed to entice people to take such basic measures -- something designer Rochus Jacob provides with his latest elegantly simple creation.A shortlisted entry in the Incheon International Design Award (IIDA) 2010 competition, Jacob's "water displacement objects" are as straightforward as they sound: white, rounded stone-like pieces of recycled plastic that allow people to take a full bath with 50 percent less water.
Drastic Reductions Without Big Behavior ChangesAs the designer, who won the grand prize in last year's IIDA awards with his thermodynamic cooler that relies on evaporating water rather than electricity and his Murakami chair, a rocking chair that powers its own reading lamp, explains: DIY: Wine Bottle Light & Wit & Whistle. November 3rd, 2009 This past spring Daniel and I went on a road trip from San Francisco to the Grand Canyon. Along the way we stopped at Chateau Julien for a wine tasting.
I wanted to do something with the empty bottle instead of throwing it in the recycling bin. So here it is! You’ll need: an empty wine bottle a drill safety glasses and gloves (just in case the bottle breaks) 1/2″ glass drill bit masking tape short strand of Christmas lights (with a plug only on one end) How to: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Wall Mounted Sliding Door Hardware Can Change Your Roomscape! Roomscape? Anyone ever heard of that word? I’m sure it’s widely used somewhere, but for the time being I’m under the delusion that I made it up! I made it up because I was looking for an interesting word to describe the way a room feels; the way it looks; and the way it flows ! I’m going to show you a super cool way to make it better! Wish You Had A Pocket Door? I can’t tell you how man ytimes I’ve been in people’s homes and had them say to me, “I just wish they would have put a pocket door here when they built this place. It’s been driving me nuts for years!” These owners are often unwilling to part with the money it takes to tear out the drywall, remove and alter framing, install a pocket door frame, maybe re-route electrical and/or plumbing, and fix it all just to get that pocket door.
Pocket doors are great space savers because they eliminate the space needed for the door to swing, and they open up wall space where the door would normally “park” when open. How cool is that? It’s Johnson. Coming Soon: "Melting" Drywall That Cools Your Home. Not too long ago, it would have been sci-fi, but "phase change" materials are making their way to the U.S.: ThermalCORE, a new type of dry-wall panel created by National Gypsum and BASF, promises to help cut cooling costs with tiny little wax molecules that melt by day and harden by night.
Your typical dry wall is just a sheet of plaster, coated in paper-pulp; it's used in almost every building that goes up today because it's cheap and easy to install. But it's a terrible insulator--meaning that we have to heat and cool our buildings even more to make up. By contrast, according to Tech Review, the plaster in ThermalCORE is embedded with microscopic beads of wax that are encased in plastic shells. (Pictured at left.) During the day, the wax melts and absorbs heat--thus helping cool a room. By night, the wax hardens and releases that heat, warming the room back up. Ingenious DIY Idea: How to Declutter a Desk or Workspace « Dornob. It happens to the best of us: we get seduced by some sleek ultramodern furniture design and forget to factor in what it will look like when we add cables, cords and other peripherals that have become essential in this age of electronic and digital technology. This idea solves the problem from the other direction: rather than boasting an initially simple design, it relies on your actions after-the-fact to transform a messy desk into a brilliantly clean workspace.
Van Mardian may have been the first to publicize this simple DIY desk organizing idea, but many people have since (and likely before) come to the same conclusion: a simple piece of composite pegboard mounted underneath a work surface makes it easy to use wire, zip ties or whatever other fasteners you may have handy and attach all your necessary-but-ugly essentials so they are not seen from above.