REMODELING AND NEW HOME HACKS

the home three years before, and Dr. Larsen and his wife trusted me. Little did they know, I had no clue how to build the three simple walls needed for the small new bathroom.

By Tim Carter

ust a half-mile from my home a new house is being built. I've yet to meet the new owners but I've been able to closely monitor the progress. The aroma of sawdust still invigorates me, and I must say I do miss wearing my tool belt rig all day long while building a new house. Three years ago I had the pleasure of doing this installing all the plumbing, radiant heating, and electric in my daughter's new home.

DJo you want to build a new wall inside your home? Perhaps you're trying to create a new small space for a home office or hobby room, or maybe you have a bigger appetite and are transforming a dank basement into a finished living space. But you have no idea where to start. I've been there. I've experienced your anxiety.

I survived with the help of a few phone calls to my boss. It was a humbling experience as I discovered you don't know what

You can't always do this in an existing home, especially if the ceilings in the room are finished with drywall or plaster. As you tilt the wall up, it binds against the ceiling. If you're challenged by a finished ceiling, you'll most likely have to install your top and bottom plates, making sure the plates are garden. I built one of these years ago for a customer. Ever since I completed the punch list, I've always wanted one for myself. you don't know. Keep in mind this was decades before the Internet and YouTube. You have no idea what an advantage you now have when you have to educate yourself about how to repair and build things around your home. Count your blessings! plumb in the same plane. You'll then cut each wall stud to fit snugly between the plates and toenail them in place. Drill angled pilot holes in the ends of the wall studs for the nails. Use no less than 3-inch-long 16d sinker nails to connect the wall studs to the plates. people's laundry in the cage that hung from the ceiling in the basement. With people wanting convenience with laundry rooms – often on the same floor as the bedrooms – I don't think builders will get many requests for these.

As you might suspect, with nearly 50 years of hands-on building experience, I've accumulated quite a few intriguing hacks that should be in many homes – as well as a handful of fantasy hacks that you will only find in homes built by those that can afford them.

Every now and then it's interesting to go back in time. I clearly remember having to build my first partition wall inside a house. I was a soaking wet-behind-theears carpenter working for a small remodeling company. One of my college professors, Dr. Larsen, had asked me to install a half bathroom in his home. I had no idea what to do, so I told him that my boss could do the job.

Another really inexpensive hack is to install an outdoor frost-proof hose faucet that has both hot and cold water supply.

Once the simple plans were drawn and the contract signed, I was sent to my professor's house to start the job. I had painted the outside of

Let's start on the outside of the house and work our way inside. I'm not an RV owner, but I got more than one suggestion to create a dump port 4-inch pipe that allowed the RV to discharge its sewage into a septic tank. As a master plumber, I can tell you it would take all of 15 extra minutes of work to do this as the piping is being installed from the house to the septic tank. What a great idea!

Another really inexpensive hack is to install an outdoor frost-proof hose faucet that has both hot and cold water supply. I did this in my daughter's garage so they can wash a filthy child or dog or clean a saltencrusted car in bitter-cold weather. Once again, it only takes a few extra minutes in most cases to install the hot water line to this faucet.

Generous roof overhangs, roofs over exterior doors, deep porches that offered shade on sunny days, and screened-in porches were features many wanted on their next home. A variation on the screened-in porch is an octagonal stand-alone structure that could be located in a lush shade

Building a new interior wall in an existing house can be much different from doing it on a new home job site. When we carpenters build a wall for a new home, we typically build it flat on the floor. Once all the studs are nailed to the bottom and top plates, we tilt the wall up and secure it so it doesn't fall over.

Many folks wanted to ditch their propane grill canisters. They want a pipe that extends out to their patio or deck that connects to the propane or natural gas lines that service their furnaces, water heaters and ranges. Guess what? I had this at the last house I built for my family. It took me just 30 minutes to install the tee fitting in the black-iron pipe line, cut and thread the short piece of pipe that went outdoors, and connect the shut-off valve and quick disconnect for the hose that extends to the grill.

Moving inside, right at the top of my son's wish list was hard-wired ethernet cables to all bedrooms and any room that might have a TV or monitor connected to the Internet. Many feel wireless is the way to go, but if you do your homework, you'll discover a hard-wired cable provides faster and more secure connections.

Quite a few people walked down memory lane and desired an oldfashioned laundry chute. These require a considerable amount of work and harken back to the day when someone in the house didn't mind sorting through different

If there is no ceiling, you can tilt the wall up so long as you orient the wall in the same direction as the floor joists above. You simply make sure the top of the wall rises up in between two parallel floor joists. Once the wall is vertical, you can then slide it into position under opening you just My your it at rough measurements Measure of the where attached the door. measurement. of your much frame the door. be trimming when you want between the top You height just one-quarter the factory Trust install drywall gap between and the ©2021 Content

Perhaps the most popular suggestions were practical ones about secret spaces to hide valuables. As you might suspect, I had thought of that and have one such place in my existing home. At the very least there are simple ways to do this in attached garages and basements using ordinary building materials and containers that would trick a sly burglar. If you do this, always plan for floods. You must make sure valuables can't be damaged by water.

Others wanted full-blown secret rooms with hidden entrances and exits. As for myself, I've always wanted secret staircases and passageways in a house. They'd work much like in the game of Clue where you enter a passageway in one room and exit into another room in a distant part of the house. Think of the possibilities! There are several companies that offer different doors that are disguised as bookcases, steps that lift up, and other ways to hide an entrance to a secret room. You can locate these companies with ease on the internet. YouTube has quite a few videos of clever ways to create secret doors.

4 Ways

To Go Solar Without Solar Panels

Take a drive around your neighborhood and chances are those solar panels that once seemed so futuristic are becoming a pretty common site. But, even if you’re not ready to make the plunge to full-out solar power (and pay the price that panels cost), here are four ways you can incorporate solar energy into your home, according to the American Home Shield Home Matters blog:

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Outdoor Solar Lights

These attractive lights can instantly spruce up any landscape as well as add security in needed spaces. Solar security lights, flood lights or accent lights use solar cells to convert sunlight into electricity, and then store this electricity in special batteries that power the lights, come nightfall. Be aware, both the units and separate solar cell panel units need to be placed in sunny locations, so if shade from trees or structures will prevent adequate sunlight from getting through, the light’s performance will be compromised.

Small Solar Devices

Think about that tangle of wires on your desk or kitchen counter where your family charges their growing array of devices. Now imagine if those wires could be replaced by the sun! While it may not seem like big savings to charge personal devices with solar, they actually use more energy than you think. A solar-powered phone and tablet charger can be a simple, inexpensive and effective way to begin introducing the benefits of solar power to your family.

Solar Water Heaters

Powered by solar panels that heat the water and deliver it to the storage tank, solar water heaters can replace gas or electric models. You may even be able to take advantage of a specific federal tax credit for solar water heaters. Solar water heaters can be a reasonable alternative to conventional gas or electric-powered models.

Solar Cookers

Think of a solar cooker like a sunshine-powered crockpot. Angled reflectors direct solar energy into a special chamber, heating food at relatively low temperatures over the course of many hours (eight to 10, depending on the recipe), just like a traditional slow cooker.

So start harnessing the power of the sun in small ways and start to see the difference it makes both in your next energy bill and the long-term health of the planet.