Tag Archives: Creative
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Mike’s Pre-Spring Home Hacks
Posted on January 3, 2025 by mikew in Fix It & Use It8 Ways To Jumpstart Your Home Maintenance Before the Spring Winter is an unpleasant time to do home maintenance and repairs. Weather is uncooperative, garages are chilly and days are short and wet. What I want to offer are favorite strategies for tackling home maintenance in the winter months. Motivation and daylight is limited so […]
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Search and Find Your House: 2024 Edition
Posted on January 3, 2025 by mikew in Fix It & Use ItI have been privileged to serve the hundreds of clients in 2024. It is a honor to have the trust of so many real estate agents, home owners and soon-to-be-owners. Whether it was giving you the list of items to know before listing your house to sell, preparing you for upcoming repairs in the purchase […]
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Grandpa & the Elves: Part 2
Posted on December 16, 2024 by mikew in Fix It & Use ItIn the holiday season we are surrounded by the nostalgia of traditions, celebrations and the peculiar families we’re blessed with. Carrying this spirit forward I return with another compilation of admirable ways that grandfathers have left home handiwork for us to enjoy. Grandpas, and elves, are magical creatures that have uncanny mastery of the crafts. […]
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Brilliant! Home maintenance cleaning hacks
Posted on November 2, 2024 by mikew in Fix It & Use ItSUMMARY: This article discusses seven simple cleaning tools and seven everyday homeowner solutions that can remedy most spills, stains and unwanted blemishes on household surfaces. One of the most underrated aspects of home maintenance are methods of cleanup due to house living and repair. Here are some of the proven ways I have found to […]
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What’s-in-the-Chimney? Series
Posted on August 19, 2024 by mikew in Fix It & Use ItStanding with incredible views I take time to walk and inspect most roofs. When accessible I peer down the fantastical chute responsible for brightly wrapped presents Christmas morning – and I imagine. Or sometimes I don’t have to imagine. There are interesting finds when I shine my flashlight into chimney flues. Here’s quick photo series […]
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Things I Miss: Classic Ways Things Once Were in Houses
Posted on June 2, 2024 by mikew in Fix It & Use ItThe golden years of building were the 60s and 70s. This was the generation of homes being built just as I was born and considered new construction when I was a kid. A generation later it is becoming evident that there was something unique about the quality and design of these homes. I offer a […]
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So Many (mis)Uses of Tape!
Posted on May 5, 2024 by mikew in Fix It & Use ItThe popular adhesive unrolls in countless creative applications. A+ for creativity and a short-term fix. However, the tired and aging materials reveal a once temporary has become an indefinite, semi-permanent repair. Let’s get on with the fascinating ways people keep things up and in and on. #13 – Strap It To A Pole This automatic […]
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Grandpa and the Elves
Posted on April 10, 2024 by mikew in Fix It & Use ItOne of the great rites of passages for aging men and women is the day people look upon their handiwork and shake their head in disbelief and awe. Often backyard workshops and garage hobby spots became the artist’s studio or engineer’s laboratory. When the fateful day comes for the person to move on they leave […]
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Clever Gadgets of a Great Generation
Posted on March 6, 2024 by mikew in Fix It & Use ItOur grandparents (or great-grandparents) were an innovative, scrappy, do-it-yourself generation. It wasn’t until them that we had McDonalds, TV and highly efficient house building methods. Occasionally I come across impressive displays of mid-century ingenuity that bring a smile “golly-gee-willagger!” Here are some of those clever finds for your enjoyment. In this 1950s home it looks […]
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If Your House Could Speak
Posted on January 3, 2024 by mikew in Fix It & Use It[The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this letter are mostly fictitious. No identification with actual people (living or deceased) or structures is intended or should be inferred.] Dear capable caretaker, [THE APPROACH] It has been my great honor and duty to shelter you from the frigid weather, and chilly rainfall. I have […]
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