Just another one of those humbling weeks when your humble correspondent was reminded of his limitations in life. This week I had to finally accept that this old handyman will likely never be nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court. In her confirmation hearings, Supreme Court nominee and Harvard Law School graduate Ketanji Brown Jackson was … Read more
If your kid’s room got too messy, you wouldn’t make him sleep out on the street that night, would you? For sure, that might be a tempting threat for an exasperated parent, but can we all agree that would be terrible parenting? So now consider this equally terrible analogy. Why are you throwing your innocent … Read more
If your booth for accepting confessions is now open, I’ve got one to make. I am a super-spreader, and I pass things on by human contact and word of mouth in my every day travels from subdivision-to-subdivision. In fact, your humble correspondent has probably been patient ZERO for a number of home ideas that are … Read more
Well, in 2021 you made a lot of sacrifices, put in the effort, and now just LOOK at you! After months of spending more time in your home than you ever wanted to, you now know SO MUCH MORE about what can go wrong with your house and what to do about it. Just one … Read more
This will be remembered by your humble correspondent as the year we helped countless customers do things at home they weren’t allowed to do outside. We created spaces to serve as at-home offices, classrooms, virtual family reunions, and more. But as the year comes to an end, a new challenge has emerged. For the 2nd … Read more
What says “Christmas” more than a gift of home repairs and improvements? Yeah, other than that. Or that. Or…OK, OK I get your point. And, yeah, you can’t wrap it up and put it under a tree, either. Wow, tough crowd. But think about it, limiting ourselves to the material world, what gives more year-round, … Read more
For many homeowners, Halloween serves as a once-a-year reminder of a couple of things. First, that they actually HAVE neighbors (and strangely, every one of them seems to have kids). And second, that they HAVE a front door. The rest of the year they enter through the garage, and would never think to ANSWER the … Read more
I must confess that I have not followed the NCAA basketball tournament, and won’t be watching the Final Four this weekend. Frankly, it hurts this old handyman’s eyes to stare for hours at hardwood flooring made of unstained maple (with a tasteless high gloss finish, no less!) when these high-tuition institutions could EASILY afford an … Read more
I know many of you are disappointed, or perhaps even embarrassed, by America’s low medal count in the Winter Olympics. You’re perplexed how a nothing-burger country like NORWAY could end up with TWICE as many medals – a country with a population not much bigger than greater St Louis, and whose primary economic output isn’t … Read more
With all that violent weather passing through our area last week, you’d think something calling itself a ‘storm door’ would have its opportunity to shine. So, what’s with that flimsy extra door, anyway? That gender-conflicted door that can’t seem to decide whether to self-identify as a window or a screen? That awkward, spring-loaded door that … Read more