Mini-ratchet not up for the job... toes screws in a tight place

While installing a new railing, I had a few hard-to-reach holes with some "toe" screws to put in (screws going at an angle into one piece and coming out into another piece beside it). I had a 10cm (3") distance between the floor and the bottom of the base railing. I pre-drilled and put in the screws as far as I could before putting the board into place, but the majority of the screwing still needed to be done. [Note: the wooden block was there just to hold up the rail into the screws were put in]

I couldn't fit my drill or my screwdriver into place and really didn't want to consider using some sort of stubby/mini screw driver. I went hunting for an angle attachment or some alternative driver and settled on a small ratchet that came with screw driver (Robertson #2)

The Mastercraft mini-ratchet worked well after getting the right angle and back pressure with my thumb. But just when I thought I should stop and check my progress, I saw an "O" ring had come loose from the ratchet socket. It had been holding the whole works together, which systematically fell apart in my hands. It lasted a full 30 minutes from the time I purchased it and returned promptly to get a refund. Perhaps it was more designed for light-duty electronics work?

It did give me a good idea though, which I should have thought of before, to use my normal ratchet set! I picked up a 3/8" socket with the right sized Roberston bit and headed home to try it. Of course I knew it wouldn't be fragile enough to fall apart. Sure enough it fit well and the longer handle helped make the work easier. The only problem I had was that it worked too well! The last screw I was driving in broke off when it was 90% of the way in. It still held well enough and I ended up reinforcing it with another screw from above.

It was a long day, but the base for my new railing was now in place.

Home Construction a Lost Art?

Is it just me or does the typical North American home construction of the past 40 years generally suck? I'm not talking about the overly blasé architectural styles, but rather the quick "slap 'em up fast" style of construction. My house was obviously developed as part of that industrial genre. A process, I might add, that must not have clear metrics for quality. The more I talk to people about their own homes, the more I see common issues that wouldn't necessarily cost much more to improve when building.

When I was young I had this (foolish?) notion that houses were all built to common standards for energy efficiency, maximum longevity and precision quality. Naive, for sure, but maybe also ahead of my time – as now the green movement has helped bring at least energy efficiency to the fore.

Not everyone might share my opinion on what constitutes cheap, poor quality or just plain annoying, but I bet no one will say they actually appreciate these qualities. Of course, I won't be surprised if my house has more flaws than others too!

How many of these are amongst your list of pet peeves?

• Narrow doorways
• Too few power outlets
• No extended warranty
• Drafty electrical outlets
• Derailing sliding closet doors
• Disintegrating carpet backing
• Dirt collecting siding material
• Inaccessible wiring & plumbing
• Thin, light & hallow interior doors
• Painted plastic moldings, corner bead
• Unusably small wiring boxes & plumbing spaces
• Lack of extended awnings over exterior stair landings
• Bifold doors, bifold door tracks, bifold doors, bifold doors, bifold doors, etc.
• Poor use of natural elements - winter sun/summer shade
• Ineffective or high maintenance roof drainage systems
• Exposed concrete around external base of house
• External ornamental shutters discolouring siding
• Uninsulated joints between floor levels
• Hard to open screen door windows
• Negligent surface water control
• Ugly exterior aluminium joints
• Difficult access to furnace filter
• Inflexible wall configurations
• Poor heating vent locations
• Undocumented fuse panels
• Limited exterior lighting
• Wall/ceiling joint cracks
• Unpainted spackeling
• Ugly doorbell covers
• And most of... no laundry chute! ;-)
• I'm sure there are more!

Sure, some of these are just annoying and fixable, but many are things I am stuck with for a long time. Wiring and drafts are two of my favourites to hate. When you are in a house that is "finished" already, there is little hope for overhauling these areas. Which ones from this list, or your own, are making you think bad thoughts?

While I can't say I hate my house, I can certainly relate to a lot of Tanya writes in this post/rant.

It wouldn't be so bad if there was more professional help available, at least in my area, that could come help patch up a few of the fixable things. Alas, I fear they are too busy helping to clone more copies from the same residential gene pool.

Are there better houses elsewhere in the world?

Poor Man's Workbench

Where I live, it's critical to have a heated work area for more than half the year. Mine is in my basement, but will migrate to an outside shop during the summer. Therefore, it is important that my workshop be portable. Here is how I set up a great workbench/cutting table without costing me anything. It can also be disassembled and moved by removing only a few screws.

Until recently I would just grab the tools I needed and bring them to the part of the house needing the work, then shove them back into a storage closet after I was done. This worked for a while and was certainly highly portable! But after wreaking my knee caps kneeling on a concrete basement floor while using a saw, I decided I better set up a slightly more permanent work area. This was also needed because I had some bigger, longer term projects on the horizon that had to be kept out of the way.

So I brought in some old saw horses and set them up in my basement. I searched through spare lumber the previous owners of the house left for us and found some great 1" by 12" planks. Large sheets of plywood were in the plan for my next project, so I knew I needed a large surface that I could use for a variety of scenarios.

Spacing the planks out parallel to one another with a 12" gap in between worked perfectly - basically just lining the side of the planks up with the sides of the horses. The end of the planks stick out about 24" over the saw horses. This extension, plus the inside gap, make it a sturdy and flexible area for cutting and laying out materials. It is especially handy for clamping material as there are so many open edges that are not very deep.

I pre-drilled pilot holes for some screws, then used a spade bit to deepen the hole a little bit so the screws would be sunk into the planks and not touch things set on the work surface. I screwed the planks down with some 2" screws and haven't changed it since.

It's sturdy enough to run my mitre saw and to also let my circular saw have its way with a clamped piece of plywood. It was cheap (free), easy (I hope you don't need plans for this one!) and it is holding up well. An all around satisfying project in itself!

My Cost:	$0 - using hand-me-down horses, salvaged lumber and other tools already on hand
Supplies:	2 saw horses, 1"x12" lumber, screws, drill, screwdriver, spade bit

Lots to Do!

My 30+ year old rancher-style house fits right in with the age of its occupants and the easy going neighbourhood. It's nothing fancy, but it's my home and has some great opportunities for improvement.

Some of the main challenges are a massively sloping yard, decaying wooden steps outside, a rotten carport post or two, old paint, old paint and more old paint. There's also a large unfinished basement.. two floors down from the street level. I have stairs coming out my ears and a maze of landings and steps in the back - but at least I've got lots of floorspace to work with.

As I poked around the Internet I didn't find much help for various home improvement concepts. Sure they are there, but most tended to assume too much prior knowledge.

For example, one of my first projects was to separate a playroom from my home office. I found a bit of information about how to hang a door (complete with confusing lingo) and I found details for building a door frame - but next to nothing about building a small wall, door frame and how to install a pre-hung door.

Between the bits and pieces I learned online and at the library, I managed to get the job done and it felt a lot simpler than other sites made it seem. So this blog will chronicle these little tasks in case it offers some hope for other intimidated homeowners who need to get comfortable smashing a wall, slapping up a door or blasting nail through a piece of lumber.

More on the above example in my next post as I describe how I learned to frame in a new door in a previously vacant spot.