Archive By Section - Your Home
Food questions with golfer Denis Watson
Pro golfer Denis Watson, who is playing at the AT&T Champions Classic at Valencia Country Club through Sunday, recently offered up his take on food to The Signal.
Improving your yard with hardscaping with fine design
Landscaping not only makes your home more beautiful it can also make it more valuable. In fact, a Michigan State University study found that, depend­ing on where the house is located, high-quality landscaping adds between 5 percent and 11 percent to its price.
Robert Lamoureux: countertops and new piping
Hello Robert, I have a Formica countertop in the kitchen and where the seam was placed, I put something hot on it and it buckled in one spot. Can this be repaired? Can a strip be glued over the whole seam? Thank you so much for your help, Hi Harriet, Now is a good time to start thinking about a new countertop. You could glue Formica over the top of the damaged area, but ...
Second-floor room has that sinking feeling
Hi Robert, My home is more than 2,500 sq. feet with 4 bedrooms upstairs. The back corner bedroom has had a floor which has noticeably slanted downwards for several years. (I used a level to determine where the dip started and ended and it appears to be just in the middle of the room.) Below it is the family room which when I used a level, the floor appears to be O.K. Do you ...
Radon testing basics 101
Short-term testing The quickest way to test is with short-term tests. Short-term tests remain in your home for two days to 90 days, depending on the device. "Charcoal canisters," "alpha track," "electret ion chamber," "continuous monitors," and "charcoal liquid scintillation" detectors are most commonly used for short-term testing. Because radon levels tend to vary from day to day and season to season, a short-term test is less likely than a long-term test to tell you ...
Know your radon risk
We missed it. The Environmental Protection Agency had designated January 2009 as National Radon Action Month. What with New Year's and the Super Bowl and some other pressing topics, we are just now getting around to bringing you up to speed on radon, a dangerous radioactive gas that may be lurking in your home. Now, if you've started glowing in the dark, we apologize, but either way, it's past time to take action and find out if radon is in your air.
Stretching your food dollars
With unemployment on the rise and stocks on the decline, families across America are cutting back on their monthly budgets. While many are choosing to cut back on "luxuries" such as entertainment, food is usually right at the top of the necessities list.
Tips for saving big on groceries
Where to shop If you are a single or a couple, shopping at a discount warehouse may not make sense. While buying in bulk may be the cheapest on a per ounce or unit level, it won't matter if you don't use up the product or worse, let it spoil. Instead, consider shopping at: Discount grocery stores, including those where all items are $1 or less. Farmer's markets, where you can get fresh produce inexpensively ...
Robert Lamoureux: Glue on granite can be a sticky situation
Hi, Robert: Without going into how I managed to do it, I spilled a fair amount of cyanoacrylate (a super glue) on my granite kitchen counter. Do I have to wait 20 years or so for it to wear off, or can I hope to solve the problem sometime before that? As a way of explanation, I am an elderly widow. 'Nuff said. Jane L. Hi, Jane: There are stone cleaners available, but I would ...
How green was my sod
Question: What weighs about 3,000 pounds, ships to you overnight and turns your yard into an appealing green oasis in hours?
Mirror, mirror on the wall
I'll admit it. Each year that passes gives me more reasons to avoid looking at my own reflection in mirrors. Combine that with the fact I'm too cheap to buy artwork, and you'll understand why there are a lot of bare walls in my house. Maybe you feel similarly. However, if you are thinking about selling your home, or just want to spruce it up, you might have to get over your mirrorphobia. As outlined ...
It's all done with mirrors
With the housing crunch keeping more homeowners in homes they've outgrown, and the economy keeping renovation budgets tight, more homeowners are looking for smaller home improvement projects that offer big return on investment.
Santa Clarita Valley Rose Society holds monthly meetings
The Santa Clarita Rose Society meets once a month at 2:30 p.m. Sundays at the SCV Senior Center, 22900 Market St., Newhall.
Robert Lamoureux: Water in the vault can result from faulty pump
Dear Robert: We've got a problem in our underground parking area. There is one area that is about 6 feet by 6 feet that fills up with water under the grate whenever it rains, and water is coming up through the other drains which becomes very slippery and hazardous. We have a maintenance man that says the lines are clear, but we are still having this problem. So, if the drain lines are clean, what ...
Call an HVAC professional for furnace problems
Hi, Robert: When we turned our heater on for the first time this winter we noticed that for the first 90 seconds or so it blows out cold air before turning warm. This is the first time in the five years we've been in this house that this has happened. It does it now every time the heat kicks on. Since its never done this before it makes me think something's not right. Any ideas ...
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