Library builder

In 2016, private consumers of heat in Ukraine receive the heat from the following sources: The most common one is electricity, which means electric boilers, electric fireplaces and heaters of different kinds. Skipping some details, in most cases the ultimate source is hydropower. Possible sources are nuclear power and thermal power stations. For the most […]

Earthquakes, tornadoes, and hurricanes don’t come our way very often, but their brute force can be devastating—even fatal—if we’re not prepared. Look at what Katrina did to Louisiana and Mississippi. Disasters don’t just strike “other people.” Sometimes they happen to us. I remember inspecting a house in California after the 6.8 Northridge earthquake. The house […]

Houses are a lot like automobiles. Both work well if they’re cared for and maintained. In order to maintain your car, you need to know simple things, such as where and how to add oil or brake fluid, how to put air in the tires, and how to check the radiator. Sure, you could have […]

When my family moved into our present home, the living room floor was covered with an ancient yellow shag carpet. There were things growing in that carpet that even our dog didn’t like. I replaced the carpeting with a nice, pre­finished floor made from bamboo. The cost for the floor, not counting my labor, was […]

Things are looking good. The house is painted; the doors, cabinets, and countertops have been installed; and all your faucets and light switches are working. But one major transformation remains—the finish flooring. Installing finish flooring is one of the last jobs to do or have done, and for good reason. Now that you’re down to […]

From Locks to Smoke Detectors to Landscaping it was the great Yankee catcher, Yogi Berra, who said of baseball, “It ain’t over ’til it’s over.” The same is true of building a house. Even as you finish the interior painting, install the cabinets, and complete all the plumbing and electrical work, there’s still plenty to […]

Rather than always running a shelf pole all the way across a closet, you can shorten the pole and add a column of shelves at one end, as shown in the illustration on p. 263. With this design, you can make a typical 6-ft. closet much more useful for storing all kinds of clothes, including […]

PREVENTING BASEBOARD FROM TOEING IN   The joints in baseboard should be close to per­fect. Minor touchups with latex caulk can be done before painting. Unfortunately, it’s not so easy to make perfect joints at corners when the drywall is not straight or a corner is not square. On inside corners, drywall can be tipped […]

In other houses, we have used 3-in.-wide trim that’s about 3/8 in. thick at the bottom and slopes up to a slender top edge. The thin edge makes it harder for dust to collect on the top. Baseboards still cover the joint between the drywall and the floor and keep the wall from getting banged […]