Monthly Archives:

July 2011

Windows May Be Your Home’s Weak Spot

When it comes to home security, you can easily invest a lot of money in a high-budget alarm and monitoring system. Yet there are also several budget-friendly things you can do to boost your home’s protection. One of your…

Stain Your Cabinets With Coffee Grounds

We love finding creative uses for common household items. Take coffee, for example. It’s delicious, and for many of us, it’s the fuel that keeps us going throughout a hectic day. And better yet? You can use it to…

Create Your Own Fertilizer With Weeds

As soon as I saw the title of Garden Rant’s post, “Cool Stuff To Do With Weeds,” I was hooked. Because, after all, there aren’t a lot of productive things you can do with weeds–well, besides kill them, that…

The Big Lebowski House is For Sale…Dude!

“The rug really pulled the room together…man”, and with that the adventure began. One of our favorite films of all time, The Big Lebowski, begins in the Dude’s house, his bathroom to be exact and ends with his rug…

Keurig Platinum Single Serve Coffee System Review

We’re big time coffee fans and need at least one cup (usually two) to help us get going in the morning. Nothing beats coffee from a French press of just grounded fresh roasted beans but sometimes we just don’t…

Keep Your Cool–And Save Money–With A Cool Roof

If you want to lower your energy costs and make your home more energy-efficient, there are a lot of little steps you can take: switching to CFLs, installing a programmable thermostat and switching to low-flow faucets, for example. Yet…

Milwaukee Tool: Red to the Core

Yesterday we had the pleasure of joining Milwaukee Tool at their media day in Milwaukee, WI. We joined a group of trade writers and tool bloggers that represented all of North America and Latin America. Milwaukee Tool definitely recognizes…

Husqvarna 562XP Chainsaw – First Look

We’ve got a Poulan Pro chainsaw that works great and we’ve only used it for the occasional de-limbing job, so when I got my hands on the biggest and baddest chainsaw from Husqvarna last week I was stoked! This…

The Power Of Pressure Washing: A Before & After

We’ve talked before about pressure washers on C&H — they can help tackle a variety of jobs and can breathe new life into a variety of products. Take decks, for example. It’s likely that your deck takes quite a…

Build A $720 House In One Week!

The pinnacle for any DIYer? Building a house! If you’re intimidated by the process, we’ve got a simpler version for you to try. The Tata Group has created a $720 flatpack home that can be built in a week…

Secure Your Home With Creative Landscaping

Living in an urban environment sometimes means sacrificing some personal space. Houses are closer together, square footage is minimal, and neighbors don’t have to work very hard to be nosy with their windows practically lining up with yours. Privacy…

Trend Watch: Fridges Of The Future

The refrigerator is truly a modern wonder, isn’t it? It keeps our food and drinks cold, and also serves as an artwork and message display center. We came across a great Kitchens.com post on refrigeration trends and it made…

Add This Thermostat To Your Must-Have List

If you’re eager to make your home more energy-efficient, one of the best things you can do is install a programmable thermostat, which will help keep the temperature in your home more consistent, and is more reliable than an…

A Day of Chainsaws, Trimmers and Mowers with Husqvarna

Husqvarna has been on my radar since grade school. Not the outdoor power equipment, but the motorcross bikes. Growing up in the Southwest, we all rode bikes or three-wheelers in the desert and the bike of choice was typically…

Window Wisdom Video: Easy Cleaning and Added Security

We’re wrapping up our Window Wisdom series with a short video presented by Steve Donovan from Taylor Brothers Architectural Products here in Los Angeles. They carry a wide selection of windows and doors, but it’s obvious that Steve really…

Glam Up Your Cement Floors With Glitter

For a long time at our house, we’ve been discussing how to handle our basement floor. Despite being freshly (albeit poorly and incorrectly) painted before we moved in, a combination of bad workmanship, poor color choice, and the wear…

5 Stay at Home Projects to Avoid Carmageddon

It’s here! The weekend that Angelenos have been dreading for months. CARMAGEDDON!!! Simply put, the 405 freeway will be closed for two days at 10-mile stretch between I-10 and the 101 to repair a damaged bridge. The run up…

Use Landscape Lighting To Enhance Safety

While some people prefer a very in-your-face style of home security presence, there are others who lean more towards a subtle, multi-purpose approach to ensuring their home’s safety. One way to accomplish a more low-key, yet attractive level of…

Build Your Own Fruit Fly Trap

There’s nothing we love more than a quick DIY project that serves a practical purpose. Summer is a prime time to gather fresh fruits and vegetables from your garden or area farmers markets, but the downside is that the…

Create Invisible Kitchen Storage

No matter if you have a galley-style kitchen or an expansive professional one, something every chef or baker of every level is looking for is more storage in the kitchen. Typically, this would involve adding more cabinetry, shelves, containers,…

Protect Your Nest With A Camera … For Nests

A little known secret in the home security world is that the appearance of security is about 90% of the actual benefit of having a home security system. Meaning, if it looks like you have a system, potential intruders…

Hone Your DIY Skills At The Theatre

There are only so many episodes of home renovation shows you can watch before you get the itch to get your hands dirty. However for most of us, we didn’t grow up with tools in one hand, climbing scaffolding…

Would You Live In The World’s Narrowest House?

We often talk about small spaces here at C&H: how to make a small space feel larger, how to maximize limited square footage and other similar topics. But how small is too small? We stumbled across pictures of the…

What’s The Average Cost Of A Kitchen Remodel?

The kitchen is often the center of a home. It’s where we prepare food, eat, gather and relax. It comes as no surprise, then, that kitchen remodels top the list of most popular home projects. And they’re typically where…

A Quick Solution For Wood Paneling? Add Paint!

I have rather strong feelings about wood paneling. As in, I hate it. I don’t mean to offend you if you’re a wood paneling fan, but I think it darkens and dates a room. So what can you do…

Build Your Own Container Garden

One of the disadvantages to living in a loft, apartment or condo is the lack of outdoor space. As a Kansas City loft dweller, I find myself lamenting my lack of balcony or patio on a daily basis, especially…

Seek Inspiration From Designer Showhomes

A confession? I love seeing where people live and work. As I stroll my downtown neighborhood’s streets at dusk, I peek upward to get a glimpse into the surrounding lofts, hoping for a burst of inspiration (sometimes, I get…