One of our readers, Natalie, asked an excellent question a few days ago. She wondered what type of paint you use on radiators, and what special brushes you might use. Thus far, we have only painted one of our radiators. We spray painted the upstairs bathroom radiator with Rustoleum’s High Heat spray paint (found at […]

Have you heard of this “Cyber Monday” phenomenon? Apparently it’s an attempt to grab all of us techies who refused to storm the stores on Black Friday. They’re luring us with online deals these days, and apparently they named the day in 2002, but up until last night (when I saw a feature news story […]

On this, the holiest of all shopping days, I’m sitting in my craft room working on a few homemade Christmas gifts, consciously avoiding the spending frenzy. I’m a bargain hunter, which makes it tempting to head out in search of those “great deals”…. I took a long hard look at the Lowe’s flyer yesterday, but […]

My Grandma sent me a newspaper clipping the other day with a great, super simple idea in it. When you’re painting, glue a paper (or better yet, styrofoam) plate to the bottom of your paint can. That way you can move it around and not worry about leaving paint can rings on the floor. Because […]

Here’s a snapshot of what I’ve been reading this week: This Old House got a major website facelift full of pretty pictures and a little more white space. It makes me want to surf the site a little bit. Except that when I do, I’ll find all sorts of projects that cost $3.4 billion dollars […]

Want to send your dog into violent fits of rage? For $29.95 you can install a “Pet Peek” in your privacy fence, so he can see every little leaf that blows past HIS property, and bark his head off accordingly. Please tell me I’m not the only one that finds this product shot (complete with […]

We have a one-pipe steam heating system, which is highly efficient when it’s running properly but requires quite a bit of fidgeting & futzing. We spent many a night falling asleep to the clangs, gurgles and pings of radiators that were not well-adjusted before we figured it out all. What we’ve learned about steam heat […]

A friend passed along this “consumer alert” via email… too funny not to share: Home Depot Alert A ‘Heads Up’ for those of us men who may be regular Home Depot customers. Over the last month I became a victim of a clever scam while out shopping. Simply going out to get supplies has turned […]

Now that we’re not working 24/7 on our house, the blog is getting a little lackluster…. time to branch out a bit and start moving beyond the “here’s what we did, ain’t it great?!” posts I guess. So unless you all hate it, I’m going to start a weekly “Worth a Look” post with links […]

We’re working hard to earn a black belt in frugal winterizing. Living in Central New York, it’s a necessary skill – unless you’re willing to sell a kidney to keep the pipes from freezing. Everyone has their tactics. There’s the “layer-up” method, whereby you force everyone in the house to wear 3 pairs of long […]