Archives: Home Improvement

How To Remove An Under Cabinet Microwave

By Todd Fratzel on Appliances

How To Remove The Microwave Without Destroying Your Cabinets Recently a reader wrote to me and asked if there was a trick to removing his under cabinet microwave. He explained that he had been prying, pulling, tugging without any success. Frankly he sounded as though he was going to hook up his truck to it…

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Say Goodbye To Incandescent Light Bulbs – Buy In Bulk Now!

By Todd Fratzel on Energy Conservation

You Better Hurry Up and Buy Lots of 100W Incandescent Light Bulbs I’m going to try my best to keep my politics in check with this post. However, if you haven’t paying attention you might be shocked to find out that when the ball falls in Time Square on January 1, 2012, it will be…

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UPS My Choice

By Todd Fratzel on Home Improvement

UPS My Choice – Simplify Pickup & Deliveries We get all kinds of packages delivered to the house for both personal and business. Heck the name of my company (Front Steps Media) is a bit of a joke because of all the products that get delivered to the front steps for us to review and…

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Insulated Door & Window Headers

By Todd Fratzel on Framing, Insulation

Energy Efficient Door & Window Headers With a continued focus on energy efficient construction (Green Construction) we are always looking for ways to improve upon residential construction techniques. Insulated door and window headers are one way to improve on standard framing methods. Old School Headers Years ago we used to build door and window headers…

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Bosch ROS65VC-6 Random Orbit Sander Review

By Todd Fratzel on Power Tools, Product Reviews

Bosch ROS65VC-6 6″ Rear-Handle Random Orbit Sander Last summer I had the pleasure of traveling to Chicago and visiting the headquarters of Bosch Tools. The event a great opportunity to get my hands on the latest offerings from Bosch along with picking the brains of the staff at Bosch. Several tools really impressed me at…

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Ladder-Tite Stabilizes Your Ladder To Help Keep You Safer

By Todd Fratzel on Safety

Ladder-Tite – Ladder Stabilizing Brackets Climbing extension ladders can be quite dangerous and intimidating to the average home owner. One of the big dangers with ladder safety is having a ladder slip/slide to one side or backwards as you climb or work from the ladder. Years ago I had a pretty scary fall from a…

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How To Hang Christmas Wreaths from Vinyl Windows

By Todd Fratzel on Windows

How do you hang Christmas wreaths from vinyl windows? That is a question my wife posed to me as soon as we moved into our new house. Our previous home had wood siding, trim and window sashes so putting a small nail up to hold the wreaths was easy. Putting a nail into the vinyl…

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2011 Holiday Gift Guide & Black Friday Deals

By Todd Fratzel on Home Improvement

Gifts for the DIY’er and Contractor In Your Life First off I’d like to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving and say that I’m extremely thankful for all of our long term readers and fans here on HCI.  Today while smelling the great Turkey roasting in the oven there are all kinds of conversations about…

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