My siblings and I always said that my father was good with absolutely NO TOOLS except for Duct Tape.  He was a master who could work wonders with duct tape and would fix things around the house small and large with the miracle tape.  If he had worn a tool belt, it would have had only different sizes and colors of duct tape… oh, yes, and maybe a can of WD-40.

Duct tape, sometimes mistakenly called Duck tape, is a great repair tool because of its flexibility and sturdiness.  My father would use it to seal leaky pipes or close openings around windows and doors to keep air conditioning in the house during the summer or heat inside during the winter.

He fixed drawers that were old and starting to become un-glued.  He would duct tape the areas on the inside and around the drawers where no one could see the glossy silver adhesive.  If there were wires that had to run from the outlet along a stretch of wall behind a couch or piece of furniture, he would take the wire into the creases, rather than use staples to keep the wires from becoming loose and dangerous.

Our attic was full of no-longer used things around the house including what had been our living room rug.  There that heavy thing was, rolled and tied up with duct tape on each end and the middle.  No rope would have worked as well as the duct tape.

Duct tape’s strength comes from the fact that it is made with three layers:

1. Top is soft, waterproof plastic;
2. Middle is a web of cloth fabric that adds durability; and
3. Bottom is a strong rubber-based adhesive

Johnson & Johnson invented Duct tape for the US military during WWII.  It was used as a waterproofing that could keep water out of ammunition cases.  It was clear that the tape was useful in repairing nearly any kind of rip or tear whether it was clothing or tents.  It could even be used to keep shoes dry.  Soldiers returned home knowing the many properties of this great tape and J&J began selling the product to everyone in the United States.  The product took off in part because it was great for sealing a home’s heating and cooling system’s ductwork.  So, you can say duck tape because of its waterproof qualities or duct tape because of one of its earliest and best uses in the house was for fixing ductwork.

A big reason why duct tape is so useful and popular is that it is, almost illogically, so strong and yet can be torn easily by any member of the family young and old.  So I will strap on my father’s old tool belt and fill ‘er up with duct tapes of all colors and stripes and look for the many household repairs that duct tape is perfect for.

Americans watch an average of 4 hours and 39 minutes every day according to recent Nielsen research.  Although, Americans ages 12-34 are getting more of their viewing over the internet and watch less in front of TVs, ages 35 and up spend more time with the “boob tube”.

I’m in the over 35 years old category and I remember when a 25” TV was considered humongous.  (Ahem; I also remember being one of the first families in the neighborhood that graduated from Black and White TV to Color.  Forget all this discussion about Plasma vs. LCD/LED.)  I do not watch much video on my smart phone’s small screen or even on my laptop.  I watch most of my TV on, well, a TV.  We have a few TVs in the house of varying sizes.  Our biggest TV is 57 inches diagonal, which is not considered big using today’s standards, but is plenty big for our purposes.  The question debated in my house is “how far should we move the sofa from the TV for optimal viewing pleasure?”

The other day, my daughter had a party and moved the couch back from the TV to make room for party games (I don’t want to guess what the kids played).  After the party and before we moved the couch back, I watched TV.  I have to admit, the roughly 18 or so inches further away, made viewing more pleasurable.  The debate rages on.

TVs are getting bigger and bigger and these big TVs, although still expensive, are getting more affordable; especially last year’s models on sale.  Recently, the New York Times published an article about the changes in TV size and technology that helped defined the issue and started to answer the question about where best in the room to place your TV.  After you figure out how much space you have against the perfect wall in the room, you have to decide whether to mount the television set or not.  If mounting the TV high is important to you than you should note that a Plasma TV is heavier than an LED/LCD set.  (And you better be able to find those studs so you can hang the TV safely.)  When positioning the TV on the wall, you will want your eyes level with the bottom of the display, or only slightly above.

You will also want to be sure that your room is big enough all around.  Some people find that they have sufficient wall space for a large TV but insufficient distance away from the TV to configure a sitting area that makes for pleasurable viewing.  You do not want to be on top of the TV and you don’t want anyone to have bad angles that hinder him or her from seeing the whole display.  Many people have found that they improved their TV viewing enjoyment by going against their desire to get the biggest TV imaginable.  They bought the smaller TV set that most optimally fit the dimensions of the room.

The recommended rule of thumb to determine how far away you should sit from the TV is to take the diagonal measurement of the TV screen and multiply it by 1.5.  So, for example, if your TV has a 40-inch diagonal screen, then you should position your seats, 40 x 1.5 or 60 inches (5 feet) away from the TV.

Of course, every rule of thumb is debated and there are some in the TV viewing community who will debate that instead of 1.5 times the TV display diagonal, it should be anything ranging from 1.2 to 2.5 times.  If you are like me, you want to be completely immersed in the entertainment experience.  However, the optimal seating will depend on the number of pixels.  The higher the definition your TV, the closer you can sit without seeing distortion.  Your best bet is to try 1.5 and adjust from there as best as your room will allow.

Enjoy your TV, no matter what the size, by contemplating the best seating configuration before you get your next TV.  Make sure that your television room is big enough for your TV.

Our automatic garage door would not close and I was sure that the track had been dented or the bolts had loosened.  That seemed to be the only way to explain how the door would begin to close and the garage door would come within 6 inches of the ground before it would catch, stop its decent and then start back up and open. 

This is a minor inconvenience until you are racing to work in the morning and you pull out of the garage and in your view mirror you see the door shutting… until it stops and opens up, essentially leaving your house open to anyone who wants to come in the usually un-locked side door.

I am not the most handy DIY home maintenance-type but  I tried a few things by poking around and imagined having to call the garage repairman before I thought I would give good ole WD-40 a shot.  A couple of sprays on the garage door’s wheels and the track was all that was needed.  It’s been days now and all is well.  This was just another of the many successes for WD-40.   There are thousands of uses for WD-40 all over the house, indoor and out.  Some of the garage uses that have been described on the wd40 website include:

Any time is a good time to perform an easy DIY Electrical Safety Audit.  The more entertainment systems, computers and kitchen top appliances taking up more electrical outlet space and electricity, the more important it becomes to periodically step back and do a full house inspection.

We sometimes take for granted our electrical products and most certainly forget the potential fire hazards that faulty wiring or an overloaded system can cause.  The numbers are staggering and worth getting a bit frightened about.  

In homes with forced-air heat, indoor air becomes very dry without a duct-mounted humidifier, so they're a pretty common accessory with minimal but important maintenance needs.  Most homeowners know that the humidifier water panel needs to be replaced every heating season.  But what happens if you forget to replace the water panel?

We recently found out.  I went down into the basement to get some tools and noticed water on the floor near the basement air handler.  Since it hadn’t rained recently (and our basement doesn’t get wet from rainstorms) I figured that something had to be going on with the humidifier waste pump, humidifier itself or (worst case) the air handler’s heating coil which passes air over a hot water coil from the boiler.