We all know in order to do a project around the home we need the right tools for the job, right?
Well, I have a suggestion for you. I have a set of cordless tools that I love to use. The cordless tools are amazingly handy. The kit that I have is the Ryobi cordless super combo kit. The kit includes the following:
A Torque IV Drill
Circular Saw With Carbide Tipped Blade And Edge Guide
Flashlight
Reciprocating Saw With Blades
(2) Rechargeable Battery Packs
1-Hour Diagnostic Charger
& Tool Bag
Just to let you know, I can get just about any project done around my home with these cordless tools. They are great to use, lightweight and have plenty of power to do the project. I think the higher the volt the better the power on these cordless tools. It seems to me the lower volt tools that I have used in the past do not have adequate power for some of my projects.
I have been using this tool kit for a couple of years and thought it would be a good idea to share my thoughts on this since I have had time to use and get to know the product before writing about it.
Below is a link to the same tool kit that I have. I hope you enjoyed the post.
Another suggestion by the Fixie Chick
Thank you

Well, since I wrote an article about Hostas in this blog earlier this month, I got to thinking that I could make your life easier by including a link to a great book on the hosta plants. This book I have and review it time to time. As I mentioned in my last blog about my hostas, I feel these are my favorite perennial, shade plants. They are showy and beautiful. The hosta has over 300 different varieties. Some are very small right up to very large ie. 6 feet in diameter.

Below is the link for those of you who like Hostas also. The link is for “The New Encyclopedia of Hostas” Detailed, easy-to-read descriptions include growing tips, recommendations for landscape use, and suggestions for companion plants. Clear cultivation advice is provided, including recommendations for hostas that succeed in challenging environments, such as the warmer regions of the United States. Captivating photographs show hostas up close and in a wide range of different garden situations.

Another great suggestion by the Fixie Chick
Thank you

I suggest, for all you DIY ‘ers that you have a flashlight handy when you are doing a project around the house. You never know when you will need it. I know it sounds like common sense. For example if you are working outside on a project in the middle of the day it stands to reason you would not need a flashlight. However some of us don’t think about getting prepared before they start a project. For example, if you are going up into the attic to take care of a project, and there isn’t sufficient light. Won’t you regret not taking a flashlight with you once you get up to the attic and realize there is not enough light? I think so. We have all been there before. Simple, just be prepared and your projects will go much smoother.

I have a “Mag light” flashlight that I prefer to use. The Mag light brand comes in a few sizes. I have a large one and a “mini mag”. The both are very durable and give off plenty of light. However, I would recommend using a “mini mag” because the large flashlight can be very cumbersome and heavy. Especially if you already are carrying a lot of materials and tools. If you choose to own one of these flashlights you will love it and have the flashlight for many years.

Below is a link to one that I suggest using to make it convenient for you.

Another great suggestion by the Fixie Chick
Thank you and enjoy.

When doing any DIY project around your home, you must first get everything you need for the project out and ready to go. This may sound like just basic organization skills, and, it is. However I cannot tell you how many emails I get from people who ask me questions or are frustrated when doing a project. They indicate that the project is overwhelming. Most of the time it boils down to the individual is not doing the preparation to get everything out and ready.

This includes having all the tools you need for the project handy and at the ready. That is why I recommend using a tool belt. I have a beautiful, pink, suede tool belt. I love it. It allows me to be feminine and tackle the DIY projects around the house that I want to do. I can put my hammer, various size nails, crow bar, tape measure and more all in the tool belt so that it is ready if I need any of the items for the project at hand.

Below I have provided a quick link if you would like to get a pink tool belt such as the one I have.

This is another simple suggestion by the Fixie Chick
Thank you and enjoy.

Whenever you are doing a project around your home you must take caution at all times. One thing to be sure to use is your safety glasses. I suggest not forgetting to use safety glasses because what is more important than your eyesight? If you think about it, all it takes is one sliver of a piece of ceramic tile or wood, or even a piece of sand to hit your eye and it is not going to go well after that.

This is a very simple and affordable way to take precaution to protect your eyes. It is not a big deal to pick up a pair of safety glasses and put them on before you start that project. I cannot stress this enough, you take that extra step and it can potentially save your eyesight. I don’t think I can make it any easier or more clear. I don’t need to go on with all kinds of statistics and nonsense. The Fixie Chick just got to the point.

By the way, safety glasses don’t have to be ugly and unfashionable, they can be stylish and attractive such as the ones I use. In addition, they are pink. I have provided a link to the safety glasses, below, that I have for you to choose if you need some.

Another great product suggestion by the Fixie Chick
Thank you for reading.

I, being the Fixie Chick have to have my own tools to get my DIY projects around the house done properly. And my hammer is no exception. I frequently use my hammer when the need arises therefore I believe in having one of excellent quality. I am a believer that you must have good quality tools. If you do so, the tools will last longer and make your DIY projects easier than if you had poor quality tools.
I have a hammer called “The Original Pink Box” 12-Ounce claw Hammer. The reasons I chose this hammer to own in my arsenal of tools is because it is pink. In addition my hammer is a comfortable size for me to use effectively. And lastly, it is a good quality hammer. That sums it up quite nicely.

Below is a link to the same hammer I use.

This is another product recommended by the Fixie Chick
Thank you for reading my blog.

Notice the large varaiety of varigated hostas at the base of the water feature.

Instead of going to the nursery and purchasing new hosta plants and spending plenty of money that you don‘t need to. I always take a piece or chunk of another existing hosta in my yard. Sometimes, I will cut the hosta in half and dig up one half and replanted in another area of my garden or yard. Sometimes I will use a large knife or machete to cut the plant as if I were cutting a piece out of a pie. I then will replant the smaller piece of the hosta in my new section of garden. This is a great way of propagating the hostas because the hosta plant will quickly fill in where I took out the small piece and within a few weeks you will not be able to tell where the plant was cut. No need to do anything special with the plants, just water and they will take root. If you want to ensure they are going to do well, some fertilizer would help also.

Another Simple DIY blog tip by the Fixie Chick

Spring is the start of the lawn care season, and with a little work early in the year your lawn and garden equipment will be ready to perform all season long. This guide will help you move into the yard without a hitch.

Safety First

Remove the power cord, spark plug wire, or battery for cordless equipment prior to performing any service. Also gloves and eye protection are required to safely perform service.
Next, check all of the unit’s fasteners, replace any that are missing, and tighten loose fasteners to the manufacturer’s recommended tightness. Loose and missing fasteners are a frequent cause of trips to the repair shop, and can be dangerous.

Sharp Cutters are Key

Evaluate the condition of any blades, cutting attachments or blower impellers. If in poor condition, these items will impair performance and can cause injury.
It’s probably best to leave maintenance of these items to a professional unless you are a very skillful mechanic and instructions for removal, replacement and sharpening are readily available.

Electric Equipment

Electric equipment’s external cords and wires should be checked for fraying.
Check all extension cords used to power these products. Any frayed cords and wires should be repaired immediately by a certified technician. Replace any bad extension cords. Don’t risk using the unit or extension cord even once as dangerous shocks can result.
Ensure that all switches are intact and activate freely. Fully charge the battery, if applicable.

Gas Powered Equipment

Perform the simple maintenance procedures from the owner’s manual.
Check the oil before starting any small engine that doesn’t use gas/oil fuel mix. Place the product on level ground to avoid false readings. If the oil is low, fill it to the recommended level with the specified oil. Also, while some oil consumption is normal for small engines, now is a good time to check for oil leaks that need to be addressed by a professional.
Check the air filter; carefully clean dirt, oil, and debris off the filter cover and the surrounding area before removing the cover. Examine the filter, and if it is dirty, replace or clean it per manufacturer’s instructions.
More experienced DIY ers might want to change the oil and filter and check the spark plug. Make sure that your fuel is fresh as stale fuel can damage your engine. Unless you used a fuel stabilizer like Sta-Bil from Gold Eagle Co., any fuel more than 90 days old needs to be properly disposed of.

Cables and Levers

Check to make sure all of these cables and levers operate smoothly. If they don’t, lubricate or replace them.

Start Up

Connect the spark plug wire and fire up engine-powered equipment. Following the operator’s manual instructions, fill up the fuel tank with fresh fuel, making sure there are no fuel leaks, and start the engine.
If the engine doesn’t start, it is often because unstabilized fuel was left in the unit during storage. This stale fuel doesn’t like to burn, and leaves varnish in your carburetor’s small passages and the fuel line. But all is not lost. If stale fuel and a dirty fuel system are the causes of hard starting, try a product like Start Your Engines! fuel system revitalizer. These starting fluids/system cleaners can refresh stale fuel and clean muck out of your fuel system just by pouring them into the unit’s fuel tank. It’s an easy and economical way to fix a gunked-up engine.
If the engine still will not start after trying a fuel system revitalizer, it’s best to get a professional to evaluate the problem.
Spring lawn care season is a great way to get active and enjoy the outdoors. It can be rewarding and easy if your tools are ready from the start. So what are you waiting for? Get going!
Another great DIY article by the Fixie Chick

Ok, I love the outdoors, in case any of my readers could not tell that by my posts in this blog. Since I crave being outside more than inside, I wanted to write this short article to inform you of something that I purchased a few years ago and consider it a huge asset to my patio in the event any of you can learn something from my purchase and review. It is called a patio heater. The heater is run on propane, however I do know that it can be converted to natural gas just like a barbeque grill can be converted.
The patio heater stands about 6 feet tall with a burner near the top and a deflective heat shield at the very top. They come painted or in stainless steel. I have a stainless steel model. The prices of the units have come down considerably in the past 5 years or so therefore I am now writing to suggest one. I use this heater to extend my spring and fall outdoor time. You know the times when you crave to hang out around the patio table but the temperature outside is not quite comfortable enough. This unit solves that problem just fine. It heats a radius of about 8 to 10 feet around. It is great when you are entertaining outside and the temperature cools off just a bit too much. All you do is ignite the patio heater and serve more drinks! Now that I have had one, I can assure you I would not live without it!

The Fixie chick
See below if you would like to know the type of heater I have:

Good Day. Today I’d like to share a question that came in on the Fixie Chix Ask it Form.

Inquiry/Question: Our beautiful plants get dug out of their terracotta pots and destroyed, thrown all over the place and killed, apparently by a raccoon in the middle of the night. We live in Conesus in the woods. How can we prevent our plants from being destroyed? O.W.

Fix: Dear O.W.,
A Raccoon’s diet consists primarily of insects, fish and frogs during the Spring and early Summer. During the late summer and fall, fruits, berries, nuts, and grains are also eaten. I am wondering if your pest might be a ground hog or rabbitt. Both love to dine on green, leafy plants. Either way, here are a couple of solutions to try that should deter most small animal pests.

A very popular animal repellant on the market today is actually electronic and claims to emit soundwaves humans can hear but deters animals from coming any closer. For around $70.00, you can purchase the Yard Guard Animal Repeller. This electronic yard protector uses adjustable, powerful sonic and ultrasonic sound waves to repel dogs, cats, deer, rabbits, raccoons, squirrels, opossums, armadillos, skunks, bats, rodents other creatures and bugs. Humane and effective, ideal for yards, gardens, porches, buildings and greenhouses, for up to 4,000 square feet of coverage. This may not be the best choice for indoor pet owners.

Additionally, you can try natural repellants, some you can purchase, some you can make yourself. Most of the solutions I have seen for sale are made of the urine of the pest’s predator.

Hot Pepper Repellant Recipe for the DIY ‘er
You need:
1. One chopped yellow onion
2. One chopped Jalapeno pepper
3. One tablespoon of Cayenne Pepper
Boil ingredients for 20 minutes in two quarts of water. Then let it cool and strain the mixture through cheesecloth. You can apply this with a pesticide sprayer or a spray bottle. This will deter just about any animal from an area where it is applied. The only draw back is that it only lasts for three to five days.

I hope this information is helpful. Please let me know which method you choose and how it works for you.

Don’t forget, anyone can log on www.FixieChix.com and click on the Ask It form. I am happy to help whenever I can.
-The Fixie Chick

If you feel like trying your hand at trapping the racoons, here is a recommended trap:

The tires may be the most mundane parts of a car, but there the only contact between your car and the road. A tire is actually a pneumatic device that supports the vehicles load, acts as a spring, and translates acceleration, braking, and cornering inputs to the driving surface. Tires profoundly influence safety, performance, ride, comfort, and fuel economy.
It is not actually your tires that carry the load of your vehicle, but it’s the air inside them that does. That’s why it’s important to check the pressure weekly, or at the very least, once a month. It only takes about a minute or two, and you’ll be likely to notice any pressure loss caused by minor punctures before it results in a major problem. The best time to check tire pressure is in the morning when the tires are cold since air expands when it’s hot. I, personally, have noticed that my tires loose a significant amount of air in the fall when the air temperatures fluctuate up and down quite a bit.
Set your tire pressure, according to the range recommended by the vehicle’s manufacturer. This information is listed on a label located on the door jam, engine compartment or glove box door. Also check your owner’s manual about recommended pressure adjustments for driving a fully loaded vehicle or in extreme temperatures. Inflating your tires at the maximum pressure may improve high-speed performance and fuel economy, since it reduces rolling resistance, but it can also produce a harsher ride and reduce the tires’ resistance to damage from potholes, bumpy roads and other hazards. Proper tire pressure levels make handling steering and braking safer and easier.
The Fixie Chick

Here is a nice Tire Pressure Guage that I would recommend if you are in the market for an affordable one:

Do you know how to keep your food safe during a power outage caused by storms or other events? Foods stored in freezers and refrigerators can become unsafe in just a few hours if bacteria begin to grow, and if these foods are consumed, people can become very sick.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has the answers to help you keep your food safe.
* Keep the refrigerator and freezer doors closed as much as possible to maintain the cold temperatures. Each time the door is opened, a significant amount of cold air is lost. Never taste a food to determine its safety.
* The refrigerator will keep food cold safely for about four hours if unopened. A full freezer will hold the temperature for approximately 48 hours (24 hours if it is half full and the door remains closed). Food may be safely refrozen if it still contains ice crystals or is at 40 degrees F or below.
* If possible, obtain dry or block ice to keep your refrigerator and freezer as cold as possible if the power is going to be out for a long time. Fifty pounds of dry ice should hold an 18-cubic-foot full freezer for two days.
* If the power has been out for several days, check the temperature of the food in the freezer with a food thermometer. If the food still contains ice crystals or is at 40 degrees F or below, it’s safe. Check each package of food to determine its safety.
* Discard refrigerated perishable food such as meat, poultry, fish, soft cheeses, milk, eggs, leftovers and deli items after four hours without power.
* The safest rule of thumb: When in Doubt, Throw it Out!
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that as many as 5,000 people die each year due to some type of food-borne illness-that’s almost 14 people every day.
In addition, for one out of every five Americans, food-borne illnesses are even more dangerous than they are for the average healthy adult. Those in the at-risk category include young children, pregnant women, older adults and people with weakened immune systems.
So when the lights go out and you’re left in the dark for more than a few hours, take precautions to avoid food-borne illness.

Here’s a do-it-yourself home improvement project you can complete in under an hour, for way under a hundred dollars! Carriage door hardware attaches right onto your existing garage door for an elegant, upscale look. There are about a dozen styles and finishes to choose from, so you can choose the look that’s right for your house.

For this project you will need:
Hardware Kit
Cordless Drill
Rivet Gun (I recommend a convertible or universal gun)
Adhesive (I recommend Liquid Nails)
Tape Measure
Marker
Safety Glasses & Work Gloves
Paper Towels
Gather all your tools in one place so they are easily accessible

Step 1:

Place the hardware where you want it and mark the holes with your marker. When you mark the second door, choose a reference point(s) and measure the distance from handle to reference point and strap to reference point to ensure even placement.

Step 2:

Put on your safety glasses. Using a bit that about the size of your rivet, drill a hole in each of your marks.

Step 3:

Liberally apply Adhesive to the back of one piece of hardware and apply to garage door, lining up holes in hardware with holes in door. Hold the hardware to the door until a bond forms, about a minute.

Step 4:

Insert rivet into one of the holes. Place rivet gun opening over rivet, and using a pumping action press arms of rivet gun together two or three times to create a pressure seal. Once you feel pressure, press arms together hard. Rivet nail will pop off, leaving hardware riveted to door. Pick up and dispose of rivet nail. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until all hardware is attached. Carefully wipe off any excess adhesive as each piece of hardware is applied.

Check out the Fixie Chix column in the July issue Home & Yard Handbook. And don’t forget, if you have any questions about this project or any other, please email me. I look forward to helping you.
Happy Home Improving!
-The Fixie Chick
DIY is FUN!

Have you noticed the bird droppings, sap, tree buds, dirt and debris that has settled on your patio furniture this spring? A good cleaning and a little maintenance will get your outdoor furniture in tip-top shape this year. Here are some tips to DIY:

* Vinyl or Resin
If you have vinyl or resin furniture, you may be tempted to wash the furniture with bleach, and a hard scrub brush. DON’T! Bleach, chlorine and even dirt can deteriorate vinyl and resin furniture. Your best bet is to purchase a cleaner specifically formulated to clean vinyl/resin outdoor furniture. Give your furniture a good initial cleaning and spray it off once a week to keep it nice and clean.
* Aluminum If you have aluminum furniture, keep the following in mind: There are two types of aluminum furniture. Painted and not painted.
For painted aluminum furniture, clean with mild soap and water, rinse, dry and protect it with paste car wax. If the paint is in poor condition, rub it with fine steel wool, wipe and polish with wax.
Unfinished aluminum oxidizes. Believe it or not, the corrosion actually protects the metal from the elements, but oxidization does dull the aluminum. A metal polishing paste can remove the oxidization. Once it’s polished, protect it with car wax. Alkaline cleaners will CAUSE oxidation, so avoid chemicals with ammonia.
* Wicker Keep your wicker furniture in the shade. The sun dries it out. You can use a little wood glue and a permanent marker in matching color to touch up small areas. To give a piece a whole new look, spray paint each piece with outdoor spray paint.
* Metal and Cast Iron Use a mild detergent, scrub the surface gently and rinse with a low pressure hose. Iron rusts. When you wash it, check for paint damage. Sand the rust off, along with the damaged paint, right down to bare metal, then prime, and paint with a rust resistant paint. Finish with a spray on liquid wax.
* Wood All wood furniture is best stored indoors through the winter, and should be cleaned once or twice a year. There are some excellent products that help lighten darkened wood, as well as oils, stains, and polyurethane coatings that can add a durable protective finish on wood furniture. When washing wood, use a mild detergent, and gently scrub and rinse with a low pressure garden hose. Painted wood can be wiped down, but avoid high pressure sprays, as it may flake off the paint entirely. With care, even outside wood furniture can last for decades.
* Cushions Fill your bathtub with mild detergent and hot water. Use a soft scrub brush or sponge to rub off stains. Dry the cushions in the sunshine for a couple of days. Sun lightens stains and kills mildew.

NOTE: Use environmentally friendly cleaning products that won’t kill your grass or damage your garden beds.
NOTE: Check to make sure that none of the bolts holding the furniture together are rusty. Replace them if they are, and tighten them thoroughly.

Another great article to DIY by The Fixie Chick

I look forward to helping others prosper while growing this new business to the best of our ability.
We also have some very exciting new products that we will have exclusive agreements to retail. The products will be non-toxic cleaning supplies. I will be making announcements as we get closer to the launch of our new cleaning products.