Saturday, June 29, 2013
Installing Cabinet Pulls in 5 Easy Steps
In a depressed economy, most of us can’t afford to make home renovations. This makes it very difficult if we want to enjoy a new look – or if we want to sell the house and spruce it up before we do so. One great way to create a quick renovation in the kitchen without spending a great deal is by changing the cabinet pulls or cabinet handles. While costing a small amount, this small change can make a big difference in the kitchen décor. Here is a quick guide to installing cabinet pulls, even for the novice renovator.
Step 1 – Count It All
Before you purchase new cabinet pulls, and invest your money in this project, it’s important to know how much hardware you will need. Nothing is more frustrating that realizing you’ve purchased three extra 2.5 inch cabinet pulls and now have nothing to do with them. Make sure to thoroughly count every cabinet, drawer, door and closet where you hope to install new cabinet pulls. Have someone else in the house double check your numbers as well.
Step 2 – Measure It Out
Now, it’s time to measure the distance between the center of the screw holes to know what size cabinet pulls you’ll need. The easiest way to do your renovation project is to purchase new cabinet pulls that are the same size the old ones were. Why have to close up holes and drill new holes, if you can simply find the same size 12 inch cabinet pulls or 3.5 inch cabinet pulls to fit the existing space? Once you know the exact size of your space, you’ll be able to shop for the inch pulls by size, making it a much easier and smoother purchase and installation.
Step 3 – Let’s Shop!
Now, the fun begins. Once you know which size inch pulls you need, you can have fun shopping for a new look. If you’re shopping for your own renovations, then think about the cabinets that you already have and make sure to match the new cabinet pulls to your existing colors and style. If you’re hoping to sell the house, then consider purchasing brass cabinet pulls or satin nickel cabinet handles, as these will catch the eye of the potential buyer.
Step 4 – Out with the Old, In with the New
Once your cabinet pulls arrive, you’re ready to begin the installation process. Remove your existing cabinet pulls using a screwdriver to dislodge the screws. If the screws aren’t budging, try putting some W-D40 or Goo Gone on the screw heads. Let the substance dry and then try again. This should work to dislodge the screws. Now, install the new cabinet pulls in the same location where the old pulls were. Take a new screw and place it in the existing hole, starting from the inside of the drawer. Using a screwdriver or Allen wrench, turn the screw through the hole and into the hole of the new cabinet pull. Take a look from the front of the drawer at your new hardware. If you like the look and fit of the 2.5 inch cabinet pulls you’ve purchased, you can tighten the screws and place the cabinet pull into place.
Step 5 – Other Tips
If you plan to paint or refinish the cabinets, drawers or doors as part of this process, make sure to do so after you’ve removed the old cabinet handles and before you’ve installed the new ones. This will ensure that you cover the entire surface with the new paint or refinishing and it will ensure that your new hardware doesn’t get painted on or ruined.
You’re ready to host a T.V. show about home renovations! You’ve successfully installed your new pulls – whether they were 3 inch cabinet pulls or 8 inch cabinet pulls – and you can bask in the glory of a job well done. Now, you’re ready to admire your work for years of great use – or to sell the house at its true value.
How to Make a Homemade Clock
So you’re looking at how to make a homemade clock. I can see the appeal, clocks have an elegant quality about them that just makes them so beautiful. When somebody walks into your house and sees that your homemade clock is a homemade grandfather clock, then they stop in their tracks and take notice. Imagine inviting around the family and when they walk in the door they see the clock, they give you instant respect. They will think that you are rich and that you are a classy person. Is this something you would be interested in?
You do not have to pay the ridiculous prices that you see in shops for thousands of dollars. There are kits you can get which actually let you build a clock based on our wood working skills. If you are a novice or total beginners at wood working then no problem. You will have to find some instructions which allow you to buy the kit that is partially made up for you and you have to put the pieces together without the difficult joinery work.
If you are advanced however I’m not counting you out here. You can get instruction manuals and clock pieces that actually come in the tiniest pieces and give you the joy of putting the whole thing together from scratch. Either way, would it feel fantastic to build a clock? It brings out the primal urge in us of building something useful for the whole family.
If you get good plans, it can be a future family heirloom. Imagine giving it to your kids. Even better, why not build it with one of your children or parents as a great bonding session. I always used to love building things with my Dad, and there was always something there that reminded me of the great times after we had made it. Reading the time on something you have built with your own bare hands is so much more fulfilling when you know how it is made and that you made it all by yourself.
Ten Tips For Building Your Own Media Center Computer
With new faster processors, bigger hard drives and new larger LCD televisions building a media center computer has become more and more practical. A media center computer can record multiple television shows at one time, can organize all your music and pictures and can also be used as a normal computer. They are definitely very cool. However, before you decide to build your own media center here are ten quick tips…
1. Consider building a machine with a dual core or quad core processor. The multiple processing threads will be very useful when recording multiple programs and watching a program at the same time. A fast multi core processor is a must if you plan on watching and recording hi definition TV.
2. Don’t skimp on the RAM. A good media center will have at least 2GB of ram and should probably have up to 4GB. The ram will help keep things moving quickly while you are recording programs.
3. You can never have enough hard drive space. With high definition TV becoming more of a standard you are going to want to consider having large amounts of hard drive space on your machine. I wouldn’t build a machine that had less than a terabyte of hard drive space.
4. To increase performance considering using a raid configuration for your hard drives. Using raid zero along with high speed SATA hard drives can help you improve video performance and can prevent recording errors.
5. Get good TV tuner cards with built in hardware encoding. Tuner cards with MPEG hardware encoding will take a load off your processor when they record tv shows, this will help ensure that you won’t get any skipping or problems in your recorded output. I use Hauppauge cards in my machine and they work great.
6. Invest in a good decoding program. The software decoder software offered by Nvidia does a good job on my media center. However, I tested four or five different ones before I found one that operated the way I wanted with my hardware configuration. Be prepared to test some different options before you settle on the one that will work best for you.
7. Don’t forget to order the remote control. A media center without a remote control is a travesty. These computers are designed to operated while you sit back on your couch. The remotes don’t cost that much and they work great.
8. Buy the best video card that you can afford. The better the video card that you have the less chances you have that you will have problems with playback. Before you buy your video card also make sure to check the list of Media Center approved cards. If the card isn’t on there you might want to avoid it. Also make sure that you buy a video card that has a high definition output that matches your TV (either DVI or HDMI are the best).
9. Get a good audio card that is capable of feeding source audio to your receiver or your speakers. If you plan on outputting 5.1 or 7.1 data from DVD’s you are going to want to make sure that the sound card that you pick has an optical or digital coax output. You might also consider buying a card that will convert all the sounds used on your computer into a 5.1 or 7.1 digital audio feed.
10. Be prepared to play with your configuration and build. Unfortunately, building a media center is not an exact science and there is usually quite a bit of tinkering involved in getting a stable fully functional system. If you aren’t comfortable playing with the settings and the drivers to get things to work you might consider buying a prebuilt media center and have someone else do the testing and configuring for you.
I have been running windows XP media center edition for quite a while now and I love it. I have built two different media centers and they have both been a blast. Try it for yourself and see.
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