Wandering around your home hardware store until inspiration strikes is a terrible idea. If you’ve got a loose idea for a redesign, re-arrangement or physical improvement to your house, apartment or even just a room, we recommend these computer planning tools for the job.
Even though we love a good DIY job, some home remodelling calls for a good contractor. Money blog 20 Something Finance offers some tips for finding a reputable person for the job, but we’re curious: How do you find a reputable contractor?
Installing accent and security lighting in your yard shouldn’t require an electrician and lots of expensive labour. Low-voltage lighting systems make it easy to plan and install yard lights without a professional.
My wife and I just moved to an apartment with a great backyard, but neither of us think spatially. Using Google Sketchup, it’s been easier than I’d imagined to plan our Ultimate Patio 4000.
Got a shed or garage you like to tinker in during the day and want to save a little cash on the cost of lighting it? Polish off your a few two-litres and let’s DIY.
AU UPDATE: Undertaking any cabling work in Australia requires a cabling qualification – so please don’t try this at home. See this updated post for further information. When you want to run your landline to the guest room, you don’t have to call the phone company. Installing your own phone jack is a surprisingly simple operation, and home improvement guy Danny Lipford runs down how to go about it, with step-by-step photos. I’m not much of a Bob Vila myself, but I have actually done this, so I can attest that it only involves a bit of super-simple wiring that can save you cash and a lost morning waiting for the phone company technician to show up. DIY: How to Install a Phone Jack [Danny Lipford]
If you liked the idea of the wall-sized whiteboard calendar but weren’t keen on the price, or maybe you wanted to go even bigger, now you can—Markee dry erase paint turns any surface into a dry erase board. It’s not cheap, at $97 per gallon, but it’s cheaper than the wall calendar, and you should be able to get a lot of coverage out of a whole gallon of paint. It’s kind of like the paint-on chalkboard for the dry erase crowd. Wonder if erasing permanent marker is as simple on a Markee made white board. Markee [via Unclutterer]
DIY web site Instructables thinks your thumbs are too precious to sit in the path of your clumsy hammer, detailing how to repurpose an old mouse pad as a nail holder. It’s a pretty simple idea (in essence, the mouse pad just holds the nail for you, though I think I’d double over the mouse pad to ensure a better hold of the nail), but if you aren’t a wiz with the hammer, it might save you a black and blue fingernail or two.
Nail Cushion version DIY [Instructables]CEO Michael Hyatt says he learned his lesson when it comes to sending angry email:
Several years ago, I wrote a fourteen-page diatribe to a business associate. I skewered him. I was right. He was wrong. And I had the proof. I laid it out in meticulous detail. I prosecuted my case like a lawyer before the bar. I sent it off with fire in my eyes and a healthy does of self-satisfaction in my heart. That’ll show him, I thought.
