Homeowner Forum / General / November 2003

Hi, I bought my home in 1976. For some ungodly reason, the light switches
were retrofit with these small, flat, half-oval switches. They are connected
to a central 15 volt(?) transformer in a closet; when you push one of these
switches down, you can hear a slight buzzing noise a few ...

I don't know where to post this message but I hope some help from this
group.
I am in a village surrounded by hills. I am waiting for a land line
connections for past 4 years. They have to lay cable for 4 Kms so they

Anybody know who sells a gas lighting mechanism that I could install in
a sconce shell to adapt it for a natural gas flame? Something with an
igniter and a flame sensor perhaps?
I'm in Kansas City, Kansas, BTW.

Looking for a way to detect or measure the water
behind a wall, or if a water spot is indeed wet,
or all dried up.
I'm trying to avoid cutting holes where there is not

I'm stuck trying to remove a mirror from my bathroom wall. There's
no obvious screws or brackets holding it to wall, and there's only
about 1/16" clearance between the mirror and the wall. If I had to
guess I'd think it was stuck to the wall with heavy duty two-sided

I have these horrible cave crickets living in my house and want to get rid
of them once and for all. They were here because the previous owner was a
SLOB and never took care of anything. When DH and I first moved in, we
fixed all of the leaking pipes to get rid of the water they ...

I am in the process of finishing my basement.  I have a sump pump in
one corner with a discharge pipe (going to the storm drain).  There is
also a vent pipe which is simply a run of open PVC going from the sump
pit to the outside.  If I put my hand over the vent pipe, there is

I am a new homeowner and my home contains two "manufactured
fireplaces," one in the living room and one in the master bedroom.
These have gas lines coming in and fake logs on a grate.
I'd like to know if these units are for decoration or whether they can

An inspection of a 1957 California ranch/rambler we're interesting in
buying has revealed that several of the electrical outlets do not
appear to be grounded.  We've asked the sellers to address this issue,
but if they decline we will have to pay to have it done ourselves if

I had seen a usenet article here about a month or two ago about what I also
wanted to do but I cannot locate the article/thread any more.
The thread was about adding a door sill/threshhold to a doorway between the
basement and garage.  The floor beneath the wood door was concrete.  ...

First time poster here and I'm a bit frazzled.  I'm hoping someone out
there can give some advice on a remedy for this problem.  I'll do my
best to describe it.  My story goes...
I noticed the carpets were wet in the lowest level of our house.  We

We have been painting the house for the past few weeks (Its hard
work!)
Now we have some left over paint, maybe 1/4 of a gallon. (2 different
cans)

My mother is having a home built in Florida by some  builder (artistic
homes) and she told me the strangest thing.  The homes being built where all
sold before they where built, so she put a down payment on it and the price
for the house was set.  But she told me recently that the ...

I am cleaning up a no caulk drain installation.  A vinyl shower pan guy
layed Henry's asphalt emulsion over the cinch bolts and bonded washers
(bolts that cinch the upper and lower assembly).  The solvent ate the rubber
underside of the bonded washers.  I have new bolts and washers ...

I've got a question regarding small bathtubs and bathroom layout
planning. We're looking at completely updating our bathroom (built in
1954, hideous sky-blue fixtures). The bathroom is very small, about
5'x7', and a lot of the floor space is currently taken up by a large