The world is faster, more demanding, less free and more competitive than it used to be, and I find that staying sane in the 21st century requires mental and lifestyle strategies to match. Then there are personal issues which are…
Want to install wainscoting along the side of a staircase? This short video shows an overview of an actual installation I was part of on a century home. We used a kit for this job from an outfit called Elite…
Question: As the weather warms up in spring I sometimes hear a faint drip-drip sound coming from the attic of my 17 year old bungalow. Water stains and dripping also showed up on the ceiling. When I opened the attic hatch,…
Masonry wasn’t my favourite homebuilding material when I got involved in building and renovation back in the mid-1980s, but 35+ years of dealing with reality has changed my mind. Brick veneer, in particular, offers the best combination of quality and…
With a little proactive maintenance, you can keep vehicles running and looking good economically for decades. Click to see 5 real-world tips that have kept a 29 year-old pickup in great shape.
If you’re thinking of installing a new hard surface floor in your home or cottage, an experience I had working on the house of my daughter and son-in-law and their kids may prove helpful. The house had wall-to-wall carpeting upstairs,…
Long before metric and unified fasteners, machinery was chaos. Threads varied from shop to shop. Parts didn’t interchange. Repairs were slow, expensive, and uncertain. The Industrial Revolution needed something more than innovation — it needed standardization. This AI Dialogue explores…
A roll of plastic pipe I ordered years ago arrived in a carton that makes me concerned. A stern, 15-word warning of the sort I’m seeing more and more often is the reason why. It highlights a creeping menace that’s…
In the late 1980s I faced a choice, and it was like many of the big choices we all face in life. Do I do the harder thing that I know is best, or do I choose the easier way…
Even people who don’t heat with wood or use an outdoor wood boiler find it interesting to see how heat is delivered underground, from one place to another. That’s what the video above is all about. It shows the Danish…
Sometimes a simple and effective solution to an annoying problem is right under your nose, but you can’t see it. This is certainly the case with scratches on your car. A few minutes work with some rubbing compound and a…
Steve Maxwell, Canada’s Handiest Man, makes a suggestion for how homeowners can make DIY repairs to gaps in their laminate flooring.