How to Fix a Ripped Screen in a Door or Window the Quick and Easy Way

Lacey is a good watch dog.

She watches out the patio door as cars go down the street.

She watches out the patio door as kids play in their yard across the street.

She watches out the patio door as the next door neighbor’s cat struts outside.

And she barks at them.

A lot.

While trying to tear through the screen door.

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Not only do I have a big ol’ rip in the screen in my sliding patio door but also the upstairs window screen where Lacey’s good for digging dog nails have ripped it too.

How to Change a Pocket Watch Battery

Like most people, I rely on my cell phone to tell time. On those occasions when I shouldn’t be checking my modern phone throughout the day  when I’m doing a historical performance gig, I tell time with a pocket watch.

Sometimes I'll woman’s pocket watch necklace like this one just because I like it or I need a long necklace to go with an outfit. The added benefit of using a watch necklace I suppose. (Disclosure: I am including big bold affiliate links in this post for your convenience.)

Why is my Watch Losing Time and How Do I Repair It?

How to Repair a Front Load Washing Machine that Will Not Drain

I think I am one of the only people in the United States who actually likes her front loading washing machine. That’s why I panicked when my trusty Whirlpool Duet washer stopped in the middle of a cleaning cycle and flashed me a F21 error.

I didn’t want to use a washing machine that will not wash as an excuse to buy a new one. We’ve been good to each other. I wanted to save her, not replace her.

Fortunately, an F21 error on my washing machine means the drain is clogged and is a very simple fix you can do yourself!

 

How to Clean a Clogged Washing Machine Drain

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How to Repair a Loose Cabinet Door Hinge

Recently,  I closed a lower kitchen cabinet door with a slightly more aggressive shove to push whatever dish was preventing the door from closing all of the way to slide back into the cupboard and allow the door to close all of the way. I’ve done this a million times before when I’ve been in a hurry. Maybe you have too.

This time the cupboard decided to revolt after I closed the door and did a nice lean to the right.
I broke the kitchen cupboard door hinge.

I popped the plastic hinge cups that are common on boats, campers, and builder grade kitchens back into the holes. There. Fixed!

Until the next time I opened and closed the cabinet door. Gentle close. Wonk. Door shift to the right.

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How to Repair a Plastic Concealed Door Hinge

How to Replace a Lamp Socket That Will Not Light

There are many things a women likes to hear from her husband.

“I love you.”

“Let’s get ice cream!”

“I bought you diamonds! Here are those cutting blades you wanted.”

are a few.

However, “Honey, were those lamps you gave me for Christmas expensive?” is not one of them.

My husband accidentally yanked the pull chain out of the socket when he turned off a lamp in our bedroom. He tried reattaching the pull chain. After several failed attempts, he couldn’t reattach it. He thought a new lamp was in our future.

Until I answered his question with, “Your lamps are hand-crafted stained glass imported from Ireland.”

In other words, expensive.

But easily repaired for under $5.00. I just needed to replace the lamp socket.

How to Repair a Dishwasher that Won’t Drain

 My dishwasher did not drain after washing a load of dishes. I like my dishwasher and it is barely four years old.  I really hoped I could fix my broken dishwasher because I do NOT want to go through The Great Dishwasher Research Hunt again.

Basically there are a series of filters and pumps in a dishwasher that can become clogged through normal use, not rinsing dishes, or in my case my bad habit of not removing paper labels from jars before I stick them in the dishwasher clogged the drain pipe. This little exercise cured me of that habit.

Unclogging a dishwasher drain pipe is much easier than the dozens of YouTube videos I consulted make it out to be. The most difficult part of the process is dealing with the vile stench of the clog because I’m a baby about bad smells. 

How to Unclog a Dishwasher

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How to Make a Folding Cloth Fan

We are in the sweltering hot Dog Days of Summer. Ohio likes to add a little extra misery to the mix with humidity. Hazy, Hot, and Humid is a phrase all Ohioans face with sweaty dread and air conditioning.

Until you have to go outside – yuck.

Fortunately, there is an easy, eco friendly, and cute solution – use a hand fan to keep cool!

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How to Fix Rear View Mirror

The rear view mirror came off my car windshield. Luckily I wasn’t driving at the time.
I’ll admit it was odd to get into the car and see the mirror was sitting on the front seat like it expected me to drive it somewhere after it popped off.

Replacing the car would be a fun way to repair the rear view mirror until I remembered that as much as I love cars (and I really do) I hate car shopping.

I despise the haggling, the fake let-me-talk-to-my-manager dance (seriously. they are salespeople who know how, when, and where they can go only so low on the pricing,) and worse how I’m often treated like I am an idiot who doesn’t know anything about cars (my father worked in the industry.)

That may not be an exclusively female customer thing because a male friend who is a car nut also gets treated like he can barely put the key in the ignition when he goes to a car dealership.

Besides, the car is paid for. Fix instead of replace it is!

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What is This Green and White Corrosion on My Faucet and How Do I Fix It?

The kitchen sink started leaking from the back side of the faucet handle.  Most of the time the kitchen faucet leaks because the washer in the faucet handle wears out.

Faucet handles get a lot of use all day every day so the wearing of moving parts is inevitable. Replacing the washer with a new one is usually the quick and simple fix.

I removed the screw cover and screw from my single single handle faucet to lift the  handle up to remove it and replace the rubber washer.

It wouldn’t budge.

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You can see a lot of rust inside of the faucet handle. White and green corrosion fused the faucet handle parts together and snapped off in my had. What is this stuff?

How to Clean and Replace a Roomba Battery

I like technology. I like a clean house, especially when all the exertion it takes is to push a button. Being the early adopter than I am, I have a Discovery Series Roomba robot vacuum sweeper. Being the 400 series (they are now up to the 900 series), it isn’t the most powerful robot sweeper out there. I still like to use it to sweep our bedroom because I don’t have Superman strength to lift the furniture over my head to vacuum under it.

Until the rechargeable battery died.

As revolutionary as iRobot is to give us the first robot cleaners, the company’s customer service is as backward as you can get. The iRobot people at Blissdom were surprised my Roomba Red lasted so long because they don’t service or replace defective products. If you have issues with your Roomba they tell you to buy a new $800 robot to fix the problem.

Seriously? To fix a dead battery?

How to Repair a Dead Roomba That Won’t Suck

   

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How to Install a New Doorbell Chime and Button

Normally I’m a fix it instead of replace it kind of gal but neither Husband nor I have any great love for our builder basic doorbell. When our doorbell wouldn’t chime even after I replaced the transformer, we took the opportunity to upgrade it to a door chime we can actually hear from upstairs as well as down.

I wanted a pretty doorbell button to replace the plastic builder grade monstrosity we had. Husband thought the door chimes that played different music and tones are more fun than the faint, “ding dong!” that bit the dust.

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So of course we acted like two dorks testing all of the doorbell chimes in Lowes multiple times to find one we liked.

Sorry Lowes fellow shoppers.

Sometimes we are 12.

We bought the Utilitech Wireless Doorbell and Utilitech Antique Brass Doorbell Button (affiliate links for your convenience) to coordinate with the front doorknob and lock. This particular doorbell comes with a bunch of chimes (we are currently using the Westminster chimes setting.)

I got the opportunity to pick out a prettier doorbell button. Most importantly this doorbell lets us hardwire it to our current doorbell wiring although you can also install it as a wireless doorbell if you like.

We wanted to stay with a hardwired doorbell so we didn’t have to play Where are the rest of the rechargeable batteries? Did you recharge them? game on a regular basis but that’s just us.

How to Replace a Hard Wired Doorbell

How to Adjust a Shower Water Temperature Valve

The shower in our guest bathroom runs cold and takes forever to heat up. It can be sign your water heater is ready to heave its last breath. Sure enough after 11 years of faithful service, our water heater went to that great metal recycling plant in the sky.

Well, actually, it went to a metal recycling plant down the round but in the sky sounds more poetic.
Shower water still took forever to heat with the new water heater. I thought it was set at a lower temperature until we passed inspection from the natural gas company.

Nope.

The natural gas inspector told me our hot water heater passed with flying colors and is already set at the correct temperature. He said the issue is with the faucet not the water heater. The water temperature regulator (also known as a scald valve) on the faucet is set too low.

How to Adjust the Water Temperature Regulator on a Kohler Shower Faucet

 

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How to Replace a Beeping Hardwired Smoke Detector

My how to fix a chirping smoke detector post has been one of my most popular posts on this blog since I wrote it two years ago. I am glad I am not alone with the whole fire alarm beeping and waking you with a false alarm in the middle of the night
scenario.

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I tried three out of the four ways to repair a beeping or chirping smoke detector except one – replace it with a new model. Turns out my smoke alarm was broken and beeped, chirped and otherwise drove us crazy and Blitzkrieg in to false alarm barking spasms for far too long.
 
*Enter the Condo Blues Whammy*

Of course my broken smoke alarm was in my bedroom – the only room in the house with the cathedral ceiling.

*sigh*

However it was a very easy and cheap fix to replace my broken smoke alarm with one that no longer beeps and wakes us up in the middle of the night due to a false alarm once we bought a very tall ladder.

How to Fix a Broken Smoke Alarm

Four Ways to Repair a Beeping Smoke Alarm

It is night. All of The Condo residents are nestled all snug in their beds, except for Blitzkrieg, the one-eyed wonder dog who is snoring like a buzz saw in my ear because he is sleeping under my side of the bed. Out of the darkness it comes.

“Eeeep!”

“Eeeep!”

"Bow-rowr- -rowr- -rowr- -rowr- -rowr- -rowr!”

Eeeep!

Groggily Husband and I investigate the noise. There is no smoke. There is no fire. However, one of the hardwired smoke detectors is beeping and it will.not. stop.

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The first time this happened, I called 911 just as I learned to do in case of an emergency in Safety Town. The firefighters came. Fortunately, they confirmed that The Condo was not on fire. Nor did we have an electrical fire in the walls. The firefighters said that I’d know if an internal electrical fire was the culprit in the The Case of the Beeping Smoke Detector because the walls of The Condo would be hot to the touch (good to know.) That was a relief! They said that my smoke detector is chirping intermittently because either it needs a new battery or it needs repair.

Four Ways to Fix a Falsely Beeping Hard Wired Smoke Detector or Fire Alarm