North Pole Repairs

Fixing it Right

Simple Kitchen Repairs – Fixing a Light Switch

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chicago old 2Today I am going to talk to you about is a situation right here that’s very common, not only in the kitchen area but throughout your house… you have one light off and light on.  Well the reason why this is off is because it has come loose on the inside so we are going to talk about that next. What you need to do is turn the power off, something we learned to do with all our electric appliance repairs from our training with our friends at Chicago Appliance Masters.  So we are simply going to go to the source, the switch and turn it off completely, this is a dimmer switch so I will make sure I pushed it all the way down.

I am trying to get the light bulb out of the socket, I realised that this is a little bit more difficult than what I thought and all the times when you are going a repair like this, you get into a situation where it’s called discovery, so one of the things that I discovered is that the socket has come loose from the place where it was holding so now what I have got do is take the light apart from up here so we are going to do that now.

chicago old 1As I have taken this loose, what I am going to do is… you want to make sure that there is no power here and I have already turned that off and the switch so what I do is I still treat every wire as if it was live, I don’t touch the ends as I take wire heads off so I am going to take this and screw this back on there and I am going to disconnect this wire here which is the next one.

I have also taken the light itself out of the work inside so after I remove that, now I just simply and carefully remove the casing, and let’s take a close look at that now. Here the casing has been removed and this is twisted, so what I have got to do is very carefully… because this is porcelain, it will break, as you can see the wires are twisted which is no big deal, they still have the integrity that they need but what I have got to do now is straighten this out so let’s do that.

There are two screws here and then one screw that is not visible from the outside so I have to go on the inside and there is the screw there so simply place a Phillips head inside, disconnect this part and there is the part that I need to straighten out so make sure that you put all of your screws and all your parts together and not lose them because you will need that coming back, alright so we are ready to fix this now.

Alright so we straightened it out, now what I have done on the inside, I went ahead and reattached this piece because now I have got to think backward so instead of putting the piece back on here and then screwing this end, putting the wire in, I had to think the other way around, how this was manufactured, so when I had put that little piece that I straightened back in and I have this right here secured as well, so now the issue for me is to get the wire back into this hole right here all the way through and feed back like this one is so what I am going to do is the next step.

Building a Deck – Part 1

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building a deckThere’s different materials that you can use to build a deck. We’ll be building this deck out of pressure treated lumber. Pressure treated lumber has got preservatives forced into it to protect it from termites and rot. Now it comes in green or brown. The green kind of weathers to a grayish color over a couple of years.

But before we get into all those details, let’s first take a look at the deck we’re going to be building here and some of the structural elements supporting it. The deck is going to be sixteen feet across and will come out twelve feet from the back of the house. The supporting system is made up of joist. On a simple deck the joists usually run perpendicular to the side of the house in to the deck boards. The outside joists are called a perimeter joist, or rim joist. Joists are supported by posts.

One common configuration is to reinforce the rim joist that runs across the end of the deck and then put posts underneath it. There are a couple of names for this arrangement: Flesh Header, or Beamless Deck, or an Upbeam.

Deck detailsThe configuration that we’re going to use has a beam that runs under the joist. With this design the end of the deck cantilevers out past the beam. You can also set the post in a little from the sides of the deck as we’ll be doing. Your posts have to rest on solid footings in the soil. Now the minimum depth of the footing varies from region to region, so it’s really important to find out what’s required in your area. Our footings will be solid concrete. They start 42” below the ground and they’ll rise to about 4” above the ground.

A variation for the footing that’s also popular is to have a concrete pad below the frost line and then run the post down into the ground to rest on it. Now where the joist meets the house they’re supported by a piece of lumber called a ledger board. And once you’ve worked out your design installing the ledger board is usually the first construction step in building a deck.

After removing some of our vinyl siding, we mark the location of our ledger board on the sheeting. We need to make sure to take into account any rim joist that will butt into the house next to the ends of the ledger board. To prepare our ledger board the first thing we do is to cut it to length. Always wear safety glasses when using a circular saw, and we tend to wear particle masks when sawing pressure treated lumber.

Our next job is figuring out where do we install the joist hangers that support the ends of the joists? We’re going to double up our side rim joists. These get special hangers that we don’t have to worry about now. The rest of the joists, the field joists, will be spaced 16” on center from the outer rim joist. These joists will be held in place with joist hangers and we want to attach the hangers to the ledger board before we install it. So I measure out 16” from the end and mark for our first regular field joist. I also put an “X” to show which side of the mark the joist will go on. Now I can mark all the rest of the joists. The tape measure has special marks for each multiple of 16” so it was pretty easy.

Starting a Virtual Kitchen Design

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dream kitchen CAAs I begin here’s a completed view of the floor plan that we’re going to go through and create, our wall elevation and finally a cross section. Let’s open up the program and begin our floor plan. Chief Architect residential design software includes the major architectural elements for walls, windows, doors, cabinets, electrical, roofs, and framing – everything that you need for residential design.

To begin our kitchen I’m going to use an exterior wall tool and I’m going to shape out the rectangular room, just simply by drawing our walls. You’ll notice when I get to the final wall there I get a visual indicator that it snaps to show me alignment. With our dimension tools we have an automatic exterior dimension that you can place the dimensions with, and when you have these walls you can resize them just by simply clicking on them or you can highlight the dimension and enter in a specific number.

In this case I’ll enter 24’ and again if you want to highlight the wall, you can easily move it, resize it. Let’s go ahead and select this dimension and we’ll enter in 32’.

Once we’ve got that setup, if you’re a kitchen and bath designer let’s go ahead and zoom in here. You’ll notice that my dimension is actually going to the outside of this wall, and in Chief Architect our walls are actually composed of different layers. Let’s explore this wall just for a minute. In this wall type you’ll notice that it actually has six different layers here, sheet rock, siding, the sheathing and when I do a materials list all of these components will show up.

Kitchen and bath designers or interior designers typically only want to dimension to the wall surface, so I can set my dimensions up to do that and we also have a specific tool to allow you to do your interior dimensions.

Find The Answers To Your Home Improvement Questions

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home repair projectsHome improvement can be a great endeavor to begin, no matter how much knowledge or skill you have associated with it. Don’t let the TV shows about home improvement fool you! Home improvement is more than just big jobs. Read through these tips to see the fun that can be had with this endeavor.

Avoid allowing contractors to work on your house without signing a contract. If you can have the contract checked by a lawyer, you should do so. You should put in when the work will be finished, any guarantees on work, and what is going to be done.

Decide which room in your home will be the focus of your first renovation project. Keep in mind that remodeling can be tackled room by room to preserve your budget. Plan ahead where you want to remodel and keep an eye out for deals. Plan ahead if you want to save money on home improvement.

When doing home improvement, watch the highly visible improvements. Whoever looks at your house is going to go off of what they see, so the last thing you want to present to them is peeling paint or some untrimmed hedges, which can cause them to not buy the house. Even though cosmetic improvements are not usually the most vital improvements, when the goal is the sale of your house, they are!

Put nail holes in the rim of paint can. The channel into which the lid fits typically fills with paint, and when you make an attempt to replace that lid, paint spills onto the can sides. If you pound some holes in the top of the can it will prevent this problem from rearing its ugly head.

Do not get rid of your doors because they look dirty. Take the door down and then sand it. You want to reveal the bare wood. Then, find an oil that you can paint over the door with. Change to more modern doorknobs, too.

Ask for references before hiring anyone to make home improvements. You will be allowing someone to come into your home and make changes; therefore, it is important to check them out thoroughly. Call the references and inquire about the contractor and his work.

Add exhaust fans to high moisture areas, such as bathrooms, cooking areas, and laundry rooms. Moist, humid air can cause mold and mildew. Ventilation also lowers the amount of humidity, which prevents wall rot due to trapped condensation.

Remember to put good ventilation (e.g. a window) in your bathroom. When steam is generated from the shower, mold could possibly form. Simply continuing to repaint the bathroom walls will not adequately kill the mold. It is better to make a change to prevent it from forming in the first place. Install a ventilation fan or a window to reduce the humidity in the space.

As mentioned earlier, home improvement projects can benefit anyone that undertakes them. You need to know a few things but you don’t need to go crazy researching about everything. Keep all of the tips fresh in the front of your mind and start chopping away at the needed jobs once they’ve had time to soak.

Tool Sharpening

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sharpen chiselIt’s inevitable that chisels and planes will need re-sharpening with use. All you will need to do this is an oil stern and a can of household oil. Apply a quantity of oil to a stone. With a gentle grinding action, the sharp end of a tool can be renewed. Make sure there’s plenty of oil on the stone so as to stop any abrasion of the metal. Smooth off the back edge of the chisel and the sharp edge should be ready to be used.

Sharpening a plane is exactly the same but make sure you familiarize yourself with how the plane comes apart. Sharpen the plane blade on the oil stone. Smooth off the back edge as with the chisel and don’t forget to remove any excess oil off the blade.