this deck is like 30 years old, in good shape, and fastened with nails.

Every time it gets below say 20 degrees, the wooden deck makes an occassional loud bang. At first I thought someone was throwing a brick at the house, but eventually realized that it's just something natural coming from the contracting wood? But it scares the becheezus out of us. Is there any way to...

And to think that years ago they used to use candles on Christmas trees!

Pictures look merry and bright! Great ideas. Tell me, am I the only person in the world who has a dish strainer next to the sink?

The last time I used a self-cleaning oven was in my old stick house. I remember the electric stove became hotter than hell as part of the cleaning process. I now have a 1985 double-wide with flimsy panelling walls, even in the kitchen. I've been afraid to use the self-cleaning oven fearing the wall,...

When the heat (in winter) or AC (in summer) is not running, there's often a musty smell coming from the floor vents. Any idea what causes this, and how to correct the problem? Many thanks.

A large enough percentage of people are "hoarders" or what some call "packrats". I'm not sure if it's yet classified as a mental illness, but it does adversely affect a lot of people. And a very difficult task to resolve because to them possessions=wealth. In Massachusetts, what ...

I just painted a 3-season porch, built one year ago. Lowe's has a brochure of paints made for painting vinyl. I matched up the color and bought a gallon. It went on easy and looks great.

I like this 25-year old MH park because the electric, phone, and cable wires are underground. There's nothing uglier than telephone poles with wires all over the place.
But what kind of maintenance problems usually happen with underground wiring?

What's the best lazyman's way to clean skirting that used to be white, but is now dirty with patches of green?
Thank you,
Jim

This winter we had tons of snow in January. A lot of people in this MH park hired people to shovel the stuff off their double-wide roof. Business was brisk after a couple of carports and a 3-season porch collapsed. We hired someone to shovel off the roof snow too. But the people who escaped to Flori...