When it comes to home improvement, you need information you can trust. Inside each issue of The Family Handyman, you’ll find see-and-solve expert repair techniques, a variety of projects for every room and step-by-step, do-it-yourself photos.
When I think about spring, what comes to mind is growth. New life. Rejuvenation. And projects. For me, this is the most motivating season to decide which projects to tackle both inside and outside my home. Every spring, my family tries to complete at least one project together. It’s not always easy to find the time with the chaos of everyday life: Work, school, sports and other commitments keep us plenty busy. But it’s important to us to prioritize one project, whether it be creating a simple birdhouse, staining our deck or building raised bed gardens. I value the time we spend creating things—and memories—together. Of course, projects aren’t just built in the spring. Last winter, we invited all of you to show us what you were creating through our…
facebook.com/thefamilyhandyman pinterest.com/family_handyman youtube.com/thefamilyhandyman instagram.com/familyhandyman tiktok.com/@familyhandyman MEET THEA ALVIN, STONEMASON When spring finally hits here in Minnesota, our thoughts turn to outdoor projects. Who better to inspire us than Thea Alvin, one of the world’s foremost dry-stacking stonemasons? She’s featured at familyhandyman.com in our series about the women who make up 11% of the construction workforce in the U.S. Alvin has been working as a stonemason for nearly 40 years, starting at 16 when she helped her father mix mortar and carry bricks. “Stone masonry as a career came as a result of loving being outside, of the challenge of the paradox of me doing it,” she says. Alvin has worked on chapels, walkways and water features. She rebuilt a 15th-century-style domed Trulli house in Southern Italy and crafted a cistern…
I rebuilt my backyard fence last summer and needed the posts closer together. This meant digging all new postholes. If I’d had only a few holes to dig, I’d have done them by hand, but I had to dig about 20. I didn’t have room to bring in a skid steer, but I did have Ryobi batteries from other yard tools I own, so I grabbed a Ryobi 8-in. 40-volt batterypowered auger. My expectations were low, so I was happily surprised when this auger bored into the dirt with the ease of a gas-powered machine. The auger will stop if you hit a large rock, but if you hit a rock with a gas-powered auger, you get flung like a rag doll—so I don’t mind the auger stopping in this…
The Craftsman Pocket Laser Distance Measurer is capable of measuring distances up to 55 ft., accurate to within 1/4 in. With a single button, the 1½ x 2½-in. unit shoots a red laser at targets to determine their distance. It’s as simple and foolproof as it gets. As soon as I took it out of the package, I was shooting measurements. And it features a micro-USB rechargeable lithium-ion battery. The Craftsman Pocket Laser Distance Measurer lets you pick from inches, feet and inches, feet as decimals, or meters as decimals. To determine accuracy, I took some measurements around the house with a 30-ft. tape measure, a 100-ft. fabric tape measure and the Craftsman Pocket Laser Distance Measurer. I performed a side-by-side comparison of 50 measurements taken with the Craftsman Pocket…
Living in Minnesota, I dread four or five weeks each year: a few weeks in the winter that are unbearably cold, and a week or two in the summer when temperatures push 100 degrees and I break into a sweat retrieving the morning paper. With the Arctic cold, I can always layer up. But during a heat wave, options are fewer. Last summer I decided to try out a portable air conditioner at our cabin. The LG 7,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner is a standalone AC, dehumidifier and fan in one. It features multiple fan speeds, an on/off timer and an auto restart feature for power outages. The large digital user-friendly dashboard features indicator lights for fan speed, timer and temperature control. The AC also features an innovative auto-swing vent…
The 3M Restore and Protect Headlight Restoration Kit claims to make your headlights 10 times clearer, improve brightness by up to 200% and add a layer of UV protection. The two-step kit includes an instruction pamphlet, 1,000 - and 3,000-grit refining discs, a foam sanding pad, a couple of clear coat wipes and one disposable glove. My car’s lights were in good shape, so I tested the kit on a couple of junkyard headlights. I started by cleaning the headlights with soap and water. Next, I attached the P1000 abrasive disc to the pad and started sanding. Using a spray bottle, I wet the headlight and sanding disc liberally. I attacked the headlight with plenty of elbow grease, sanding vigorously and spritzing with water as needed. With the P1000 disc,…
