Home Improvement Advice

[mickey]

Just be careful when you use recycled painted wood. If it's really old it might have lead-based paint on it and you need a lot of ventilation and you're best bet is using those liquid strippers because then you don't have lead particles floating around in the air.

[DrHilieWho]

Our TV screen was magnetized by the new Jackie Chan toys from Wendys. Fairly simple to fix, but we're waiting to see exactly which way will work. There are several options at this point.

Our TV is 6 yrs old so it could have a demagnetizing function built in. You have to turn the tv on and off a few times to get the magnetization to go away BUT the trick is to let the tv cool down after you turn it off each time.

If this doesn't work we can buy a degaussing coil (from $20-$40). They are generally only available at electrician supply stores. Or you can order on online

For people who would rather get it over with quickly and the on/off bit doesn't work, calling a tv repair shop will probably be your best bet. It costs $30-$50.

Also, this isn't an option for us, but some monitors have a demagnetize function set by a button. You can put your tv in front of your monitor and run the demagnetizing feature and it will fix your tv screen.

Of course, I'm neither a doctor of people or appliances, so you might want to get the opinion of an expert before trying any of these things.

[Terri]

My husband and I bought a new shed at Home Depot. It said on the instructions, 2 hours assembly time! HAHAHAHAHHAHAHA.
Now my husband is a pretty handy guy, and he had my teenage son to help,but it took one whole day to assemble, not 2 hours. That was after it took a day to build the foundation and floor for it. It does look nice and we can finally get the mower and garden stuff out of the garage. One of these days I might even be able to put my car in there (the garage that is).

[Nimue]

Was the last post before this one actually posted in 2002? I guess I don't need to feel bad that no one has replied to my Hello post. What is that black dog up above this post doing :P ?

[IRISH_EYES_99]

Hey Nimue,
I replied and welcomed you to WOW. Welcome again. If you click on the icon above that says "new posts" it will bring up a page that shows where the new posts are. Then you'd be seeing more of them.

Again Welcome to WOW. It's a great place to be. Lots of great people posting. Good luck.

[Nimue]

Thank you Irish Eyes

I have done a lot of home improvement stuff. Against the advice of my parents I bought a house that is now well-over a hundred years old. At the time buying this house was cheaper than renting a single wide (8 foot wide) trailer that was in bad shape, had roaches and mushrooms growing in the carpet by the leaky water heater.

This house wasn't much better and required a ton of work but it is kinda mine. I refinanced it twice and owe a lot on it but it has allowed me advantages when borrowing money, I was able to start my own business (at home). But I did a lot of work on it and my advantages didn't come cheap. Looking back it might have been better to focus on a career and then be able to afford a nice home that way. I did however build an addition on my home and the part I used to live in is rented out and has been for three years which helps a lot. Especially when self-employed without benefits like vacation time or health insurance.

I have done everything that can be done on a house, there are certain things I would never ever want to do again however when you have the right people helping you even the worst job can be "enjoyable" and it is certainly nice to have the job done. The most amazing thing to me is I did all I have done and I can still count to ten on my hands and see out both eyes.

[JohnChapman]

There are lots of sites available in the search engine that can help you to improve your home in a better way.

[Jennifer23]

Cool.