Sage Advice on Home Improvement

Welcome to the Home Page of the Red River Sage

On this weblog you will find delightful stories about life and those who travel through it.  As you will soon learn the Sage has an opinion on just about everything and doesn’t mind sharing it.  For now we will concentrate on useful tips on how to do things around the ranch (house for you city folk) as well as reviewing useful tools to do them with.  I spent several years using my weekends and a few vacation days to build our family home in the beautiful Red River Valley (Texas side of course) and in the process learned to take on just about all of the building trades and found out that their not so hard, just intimidating.  I thought I would share some of what I learned with anyone who wanted to get another point of view.  In fact, now I learned to do what I did was by asking others how to do things.  The hardware stores are great places to ask for advice.  Just pick out someone who looks like they may have actually done it (usually a little mature looking) and get a sense for why you should listen to them before you start collecting ideas.  It is also a great place to get bad advice, so sorting out who to listen to from those you should avoid was part of my learning.

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Please keep in mind that these posts are my opinion and advice, they worked for me but you will have to decide if your skills are developed enough to do things as I did and if the approach and results are safe enough for what you are trying to do.  No guarantees as you might expect. Keep in mind one of the Sage’s favorite sayings “Advice is frequently worth what you paid for it”

Laminate flooring – a great way to spruce up your home

For many years my wife and I believed that carpet was the idea floor covering and we did everything we could to use them. We bought remnant pieces when we could not afford finished area rugs. We drooled over our friend's oriental rug that you could absolutely not walk on with your shoes. After many years of this I helped my young daughter fix up her first apartment and saw firsthand how much better her room looked after she put down some very inexpensive laminate flooring. It was an amazing change and so easy to do. I decided to try it my home. We were just completing an addition that created a new kitchen and family room. We bought the left over laminate material that my daughter had and added some to it. I'll tell you how to install it in the next article but you would not believe how easy it really was. This floor is so easy to clean it is crazy. A quick dust mop across it and it is back to the original shine. I have become completely sold on hard floors after longing for carpet most of my life. We struggled to keep the carpet even half way clean. An entire industry has developed around helping you clean your carpets. I have bought 10 different vacuum cleaners hoping the next one will pull the dirt out with continuing disappointment. Spill something and you have a real disaster. I have actually spent time cutting out spots and trying desperately to tape a new square from one of the closets into the hole trying to make it look natural. I have my own carpet cleaner, complete with whirling brushes, two water tanks, hoses, attachments, measuring cups, etc. Wow – how did I get in this deep? My new laminate floor is so great. I can actually live on it and when it gets dirty, I get out the dust mop I bought at one of the home improvement stores and run it around quickly and it looks new again. Our house has that clean smell again. Writing this makes me remember something I heard during my stay in Okinawa. We could afford help around the house there and the lady who helped us fight the carpets to keep them clean was really puzzled why American's wanted those dusty, dirty rugs all over their floors. She just could not understand it and kept telling me so. Once again, I have learned that she was years ahead of my learning. Today we have only the master closet carpeted (ok, the warm floor does feel good in the morning). Oh, we do have a small sleeping loft that still has carpet. April will see this and get after me to replace it with hardwood, tile or laminate again. Anyway, I am a fan of hard surface floors; don't believe I will ever go back. If you have not considered this floor covering, I highly recommend you give it some thought. I was slow to recognize the value of really clean floors and the difference it makes in the feel of a room. In the next day or two I will write some about how easy it is to install. If you are interested, check back.

Unique but Little Known Hand Saw – The Perfect Man Gift

I spent several years on Okinawa courtesy of the US Army where I saw local carpenters using a different hand saw. At first I dismissed it as not as good as those large American made hand saws that I had grown up around and learned to use from an early age. The new hand saw I saw was smaller, much thinner that I misunderstood as weaker. There was a carpenter shop where I was working and I got to know some of the carpenters pretty well and came to really appreciate what they could do with their saws. Once I brought my "real" hand saw out to their work site so they could see what a really good had saw looked like. I was showing off again. The carpenters took one look at my saw and started to laugh at me. This hurt my feeling as you could imagine but made me want to learn more about this flimsy tool they preferred to use. As I did, I began to understand their perspective. The American saw cuts as you push forward. If the saw is not stiff, it tends to buckle as you push into the cut. This new saw cuts as you pull back. Because of this the blade can be much thinner completely eliminating the tendency to buckle. The thinner blade also makes a thinner cut requiring less force as the blade cuts the wood. It also turns out that cutting a straight line is almost automatic with this "pull" saw and takes some skill with the American hand saw. Was it possible that the Okinawan carpenter actually had a BETTER hand saw? It interested me enough to try to bring one back with me on my return home but was unable to locate one in the local markets. Of course all I could get at the PX was the American version. It seems that they were not selling so well there. Anyway, imagine my delight and surprise when a few years later, as I was browsing through my favorite toy store (Lowes) when I saw in an out-of-the-way peg board – An Okinawan style pull saw. They were now available in the United States. I bought one as if it was the rarest of finds, bragging to the sales clerk all the way through the process. I quickly re-taught myself how to use it and began telling my friends all about it. Of course they were skeptical. I even gave one as a Christmas gift to my father, who had taught me how to use the American version. I am not sure he ever tried it. If he had, he would have loved it as I do. I use mine all the time now. I found my American version a few weeks back in the work shop under some other near discarded stuff. It was rusted and clearly had not been used for some time. My pull saw is hanging on the peg board near the center and easiest section to reach. Years later now, it is still free of what I will call rust. It is some worn from the experiences we have had but no less useful. It has teeth on both edges of the blade, one for course cuts and one for fine cuts. Because the blade is so thin, both seem like fine cuts when you are comparing it to the other style saw. Because it is smaller and lighter, I have found it to be much more versatile and easier on the hand and arm. It enables me to cut quicker, cleaner and straighter than ever before. As I mentioned, it has been several years since I found my pull saw, ok – a career away. The good news is that these pull saws are now more popular and easier to find. I see them when I am browsing each week end, only now they are much more prominently displayed. If you are looking to add to your toy chest or just looking for a unique gift for a do it yourself type, I highly recommend this tool. You may have to tell my story to get them to try it but when they do, it will quickly become their favorite saw as well. Here is a picture to help you recognize it.

 

 

The most versatile tool for working with screws

A must have tool for around the house is a light weight cordless screw driver.  I have several, but the one I use the most is a Pivot Driver ™ by Black and Decker.  It is light weight and easy to hold.  It can be configured as a straight driver which is the way I use it most of the time but can also pivot to work in smaller spaces.  The trigger is a simple rocker switch that causes the driver to tighten or loosen screws by simply pushing the forward position to tighten or the rear position to loosen smaller screws.  The one I purchased came with an insert that has a Phillips head driver on one end and a slot driver on the other.  All I have to do is pull it out and turn it around to change the set up for different screw types.  I have had mine several years and would be lost without it.  The rechargeable battery that came with it finally died but I found a replacement battery easily.  I found this tool to be so versatile that it is the first thing I look for when starting almost any small project around the house.  This week I decided I needed a new file cabinet and purchased one of those “some assembly required” wooden ones at the office supply store.  I believe this driver is the only tool I used with the possible exception of a hammer that I use when I get frustrated.  I have assembled ceiling fans and installed electrical switches and plugs with it, assembled book cases, hung pictures, and a hundred other quick projects that end up on my weekend duties list.  There are several brands to choose from with lots of selection for length, shape, strength and so on.  If you are just starting to build your personal tool box, I highly recommend one of these light weight cordless screw drivers as an early entry.  A picture of my worn workhorse is shown below.

Install an Energy Saving Device for the Bath Room

Want to make big savings on your energy costs?  Try this simple to install idea.  Almost all bath rooms have a vent fan that exhausts air to remove smells and moisture.  Some of us turn them on and forget to come back and turn them off a few minutes later.  After a few minutes of running, the fan has done its job.  If it is not turned off it continues to consume electricity to drive the fan motor and more importantly it exhausts your conditioned air into your attic or directly to the outside.  This exhausted air is replaced by small leaks under doors, around windows and other areas in your home where outside air can creep in.  You have to use more heating or cooling energy to condition this air.  You can install a timer in the place of the fan switch and let it turn the fan off after the amount of time you set has gone by.  These timers come in a variety of types but I prefer the electronic ones over the manual ones.  I purchased the one in the photo below from Lowes for about $20.00.  With only basic knowledge of electrical wiring you can install it yourself and begin saving right away. 

 

Be sure to turn the power off before starting to replace the fan switch.  Then remove the face plate that covers the wall switch.  The switch is held in place by two small screws on the top and bottom of the switch.  After you remove them the switch can be pulled out from the enclosure.  You should see a black wire and a white wire attached to the switch and possibly a bare wire that is the house ground circuit.  Remove the two or three wires from the switch.  The timer will come with either three wires or three screw connections that mate with the wires you will remove from the existing switch.  Remember to match the colors (Black to Black and White to White).  There will either be a green wire or a ground lug to connect the bare copper wire that should be in the junction box with the old switch.  Sometimes these wires are not attached to the switch so you may have to look around for it.  I recommend you always connect the ground wire to any electrical device if possible for the added safety it affords.  The timers are made to fit in the same box that the switch was in so it should fit easily inside the electrical box that held the wall switch.  Secure with two screws to the enclosure.  Turn the power back on and test the timer to see if it turns your fan on properly.  Remember to buy a face plate for your time if it doesn’t come with one.  Frequently the wall switch face plates will not fit the timers.  Now you can set the fan to run for the length of time you desire and it will shut off automatically saving you both electricity and whatever your heating and cooling energy is.