Jul 2, 2017 | Do It Yourself, Do It Yourself - Featured
It’s a common problem: you have a bathroom with thin walls and/or a flimsy door adjacent to a living room or other common area. Whenever someone uses the toilet, everyone can hear the person doing their thing. My condo has that problem. It’s embarrassing...
Nov 12, 2015 | Do It Yourself
One thing that sucks about Windows 10 is that Microsoft has removed the ability to play DVDs and .mpg files in Windows Media Player! This apparently is due to licensing issues. So, how do you play DVDs on your Windows 10 system? First, check to see if you have the...
Oct 21, 2015 | Do It Yourself
Living in a condo is fundamentally different than living in a free-standing house because your property decisions are intermingled with the desires and needs of other people. This is very important to understand, and many current or potential condo-owners don’t...
Sep 16, 2015 | Do It Yourself
Building your own computer can be a rewarding experience and can save money in some situations, but not all. I recently undertook my first Windows PC build. Here’s what I learned from the experience. I’ll try to help you gauge whether building your own...
Aug 14, 2014 | Do It Yourself
My old desktop PC from 2006 was taking almost nine minutes to boot up to a usable state (and even after that time, it was still slow for about five more minutes)! It was ridiculous. I finally said “enough is enough”! I thought about my options: I could get a new...
Mar 14, 2014 | Do It Yourself, Do It Yourself - Featured
If your house plants are in various states of near-death, this article is for you. I got the information for this article from my Mom, who used to own a plant store and loves gardening. Drawing from her years of experience dealing with plant customers and plant-owning...
Oct 16, 2013 | Do It Yourself
My desktop computer’s fans started to get annoyingly loud after years of faithful service. In my case, there were two causes: dust blocking the CPU heatsink airflow causing high fan speed, and a grinding power supply fan, probably due to normal wear or lack of...
Sep 4, 2013 | Do It Yourself, Do It Yourself - Featured
After years of sun and water damage (see above), my front door was in need of a re-stain and re-varnish. I decided to save some money and do it myself. Here’s my story and some lessons that I learned. Tools and Materials Here is a list of things you’ll need. I wish...
Aug 19, 2013 | Do It Yourself, Do It Yourself - Featured
I have a porch light controlled by a wall switch in my entryway. Rather than having to manually turn this light on at night and off in the morning (or worse, forgetting and wasting energy having it on all day), I wanted to install a timer where the existing light...
Nov 12, 2012 | Do It Yourself, Do It Yourself - Featured
I had never even seen a mouse until I moved to an older building on the East Coast. Workmen were doing some repairs on the outside, which I think disturbed a couple of critters and caused them to come into my apartment. Here’s how I got rid of them. Types of Traps I...
Sep 20, 2012 | Do It Yourself
Going through my old cassette tapes brings back memories from high school in a way that MP3’s never can. If you’ve been around a while, you might have a box of old tapes in your closet or attic somewhere. Here are some ways to transfer those recordings into your...
Aug 28, 2012 | Do It Yourself
I have struggled with acne ever since junior high. Now, living with acne in my forties, I was wondering if I’d ever outgrow it. You name the treatment, I’ve tried it, from Retin-A, to Accutane (yes, the bad drug that lawsuits are now happening over, which...
May 18, 2012 | Do It Yourself
I was recently asked to create a farewell slide show. It didn’t sound too hard, so I accepted the task having never done it before. Along the way, I learned some things that I think you’d find useful if you ever need to do this. Software The first question you might...
