Several years ago I needed my side yard fence fixed. The first 2 guys I called to give me a price didn’t show up and the third guy showed up drunk. I know this because he fell down. At 11 in the morning. So when a couple of guys actually showed up sober with a very professional looking flier, I hired em. They built the fence 6 inches shorter than they were supposed to and the nails they used to put it together shot out through the back of the fence by about two inches. From the street side of the fence it was exactly like a very expensive upright bed of nails. It was about this time I decided to become even more handy. I still haven’t built a fence myself but I’ve done just about everything else. I’ve put up drywall, changed out light fixtures and installed my own dishwasher. I’ve made my own furniture, built raised planter beds and often copy things I see in stores and magazines for a fraction of the price they’re charging. If you too want to stick it to the drunken handyman or the overpriced stores … read on.
** Welcome to everyone who’s visiting from Design*Sponge today! ~ Karen ** Before I sold everything I owned and painted my whole house white I couldn’t buy a decorating magazine. Why you ask? I couldn’t put any of those nice things in my house. It’d look stupid. I’d look stupid. My house would look stupid. [...]
ANY CHARA CTER HERE ANY CHARA CTER HERE If you haven’t seen Part I of How to make Cupcake Tree Ornaments yet, go look at it here. Now that the actual “cake” portion of the cupcakes are done, it’s now time to move onto the fun part. Not that spraying goo in paper cups and [...]
Ask Karen question: Hi Karen, Love your site. I want to make fake christmas cupcakes to decorate my tree with. Do you know how? Denna Karen Answers: NO. I have no idea how. Not a clue. I’m at a loss here, drawing a complete blank. However, like it says on my homepage If I Don’t [...]
This is a Thingamabob. You need one. You need this like a cat owner needs a lint brush. Like a morning needs coffee. Like a car accident victim who is trying to rip off their insurance company for scads and scads of money needs to always wear his “doctor prescribed” surgical collar, even if [...]
My name is Karen and I haven’t lit anything on fire in 5 months. I’m sure I deserve some sort of a chip or something for that. You see … I’m a bit of a pyromaniac. Technically I’m not a *real* pyromaniac I guess. I mean, I only light things on fire that should be [...]
In my last post I let you in on my little secret about fence hardware. And the fact that you do NOT have to use the common, crappy stuff you find at your local hardware store. In fact, you don’t even have to use it if you have a common, crappy fence. Like new [...]
I knew when I was making this birdbath that I wanted the legs to be a brown – almost black stain. So I grabbed me a can of very dark stain and tried it on the dowel. I could see instantly that it wasn’t going to soak in and was basically going to look like [...]
Question Submitted: Hi Karen, So I’ve just recently learned how to light my BBQ. I’m working from home right now and I got tired of having to wait for my husband to get home to work the heavy machinery. I feel liberated and now I want to grill everything! The thing is, my igniter is [...]
There are many things on any given day that I see and think Geez, I wonder what that is. Often it’s in relation to an outfit on a teenage girl. As in Well I know that couldn’t be a pair of shorts, and yet it isn’t quite underwear … I wonder what that is. Sometimes [...]
There are 2 ways to fix things. The right way and the “that’ll do for now” way. This post is going to focus on the “that’ll do for now” way, which isn’t necessarily my fix-it method of choice, but seriously … if I did everything “the right way” I wouldn’t have any time to focus [...]
For most homeowners there is nothing scarier than having to hang stuff on their walls. Except perhaps, having their basement spontaneously fill up with blood. That’d be pretty frightening, but only slightly scarier than putting a hole in drywall. And FORGET about hanging stuff on plaster, that’s right up there with finding out the retired [...]
These are all the things you need for a workshop you can be proud of. I know. You don’t really care about having a workshop you can be proud of. But you should, a home without a well stocked workshop can only lead to Anarchy. ANARCHY I SAY! 1) The Basics Cordless drill and various drill [...]
