Every home needs maintenance and repairs. Do you have the skills, tools and materials to do it all yourself? Even if you don’t do the work yourself, you should learn the basics about your home systems like how to turn the water off if there’s a leak, or how to reset the breaker (in older homes, replace a fuse) in the electrical box. Once you get comfortable with these systems, you’ll learn which repairs you can handle yourself and when it’s time to call a professional.

If you didn’t grow up learning how to do home repairs (most of us didn’t), then you need a good reference book to help you find the information necessary to handle these basic tasks yourself. READ MORE

Interior trim can add spice to every room from the ceiling down to the floor. Trim is functional in that it covers the gaps where different building materials meet, i.e. where the ceiling meets the walls or the walls meet the floor. Trim provides a decorating tool where you can dress up some of the simple features in a room like windows and doorways.

For the interior designer or Do-It-Yourself homeowner, finding the perfect “spice” for a room you already love isn’t always easy. Having chosen furniture, window treatments, throw rugs, and furniture layout, the room may still lack the sizzle you want to create that perfect look. Interior trim is the perfect way to accent your room to put more focus on it’s best features. READ MORE

Buying paint is easy but you’ve got to figure out how much paint to buy. You have to know the condition of the walls, ceiling or trim you’ll be painting and you want to include enough paint for touch up later on. This is true whether you’re hiring a professional painter or plan to do-it-yourself.

This article begins with the preparation every painting project needs in order to be sure you’re happy with the results. The best results come from good prep, good paint and a good paint brush.

We’ve created a worksheet to help you calculate how much paint to buy before you begin your project. It can be very frustrating to run out of paint and have to go back to the store. You also don’t want to buy too much as disposing of paint may not be easy depending on your town’s regulations. READ MORE

Wood decks are traditional but take lots of work to maintain. Fortunately there are many new deck materials that require far less maintenance. These materials may cost more initially but when you look at the total cost over 20 or more years, you’ll find that you’ll save money from lower maintenance and repair costs.

Some people may claim that decks and other home features require no maintenance but that’s simply not true. Maybe you don’t have to stain and/or seal a deck made of composite materials but it will still need an occasional cleaning. READ MORE

Front doors play an important role in a home’s curb appeal. Whether plain or elegant, every door begins with a basic door at the center. From here you can upgrade a door’s style and add features like the sidelights and curved transom glass shown here. Regardless of which features you add (or don’t), you will also add trim to the door on the outside and inside of your home, providing one more way to dress up your home’s entrance.

When ordering any exterior door, there is certain information you need to provide beginning with which way the door swings when you open it, i.e. to identify which side of the door will have the hinges. Exterior doors are always measured from the outside, i.e. as if you are standing outside the house and knocking on the door. READ MORE