Home Hacks
Ideas to save money, time and make stuff work that really doesn’t want to work any more.
Remote locks and lockboxes for your home.
There may be times when you are away and you need to allow access to your house. There are a few ways to accomplish this.
Diagnosing a burning smell from a Vehicle with a laser thermometer
My mom smelled something that smelled like wiring burning while driving her truck. She took it to the service center but they didn’t find anything. When she pulled up for Easter dinner, I could smell it. The engine compartment seemed OK. I got out the laser thermometer and took readings on the calipers. That identified the problem.
Giant Yellow Tag strikes again – Pork Chops
Once again I got lucky with a Giant Yellow Tag sale. Most stores will discount meats that are approaching their ‘sell by’ date. I ended up with 7 nice thin pork chops for less than six dollars.
Bacon fat as a cheap fire starter.
Access to a cheap fire starter is a good thing. I usually have 1 or 2 strips of bacon with breakfast. I’ve been doing the bacon in the microwave. I put a paper towel in a microwave bowl, then the bacon and cover with a paper towel. Afterwards the towels make great fire starters. However, you have to be careful with how you store the grease soaked paper towels because of the danger of spontaneous combustion.
35+ year old furnace was not heating. 2 year old Wifi thermostat was the problem.
I was working in my home office and noticed that the furnace wasn’t running. The forced hot air furnace is 35 plus years old and belongs in a museum, not a house, but I’ll get around to that later. I found that the problem wasn’t the furnace. Continue reading
How heavy is that log?
I was cutting and stacking some large pieces of White Oak that Asplundh had trimmed for Peco. They left the logs neatly stacked by the street.
They seemed heavy. I found a free online calculator that gives you an idea of what any given log weighs.
A quick fix for a broken Ford key fob
Add a booster fan for chilly rooms with hot air registers (works with air conditioning also)
Starting a woodstove that is installed below grade.
Hack your lawn tractor so you can actually see after dark.
