Hammer Archives | Page 4 of 4

Finders, fixers.

habitat volunteers, photo by rob swystun

Free or cheap ways to hone your DIY skills

As much as we may want to, most of us don’t have the time to become a carpenter’s apprentice, nor the money to go to the North Bennet Street School. Fortunately there are other ways to pick up some basic home improvement and DIY know-how. I recently wrote an article for the Boston Globe about a…

How to build a rustic DIY end table from reclaimed wood

I’ll admit it: I’m a garbage picker. On Sunday evenings I like to go for a jog or a walk through the neighborhood, and it just so happens that Monday is trash day. And honestly, people throw out a lot of good stuff! Now, my wife likes a clutter-free (not to mention trash-free) house, and…

Is Angie’s List worth the money?

When we first bought our house about seven years ago, our to-do list, based in part on our lengthy, detailed home inspection report, was literally pages long. More like a to-do binder. We knew next to no one in Quincy, and after renting for all of our adult lives, we certainly didn’t have a ready…

3 house projects for a dry spring weekend

Happy Memorial Day weekend! It sure is a gorgeous start to summer in Boston: warm, sunny — and really, really dry. The National Weather Service warned of an “elevated fire weather risk” extending through Sunday because of the extremely dry conditions we’ve been having. Here are three spring projects you could tackle around the house…

Wish Listing: Roslindale

Our last lust-worthy listing was a million-dollar colonial in East Milton — purely daydream territory. This week? We have an actual bargain on our hands. This place needs a bit of work, and that’s the only reason there’s a Doctor’s Row-area two-family — just a few blocks from the heart of Roslindale Square — on…

couple using home equity loan for remodeling project

What’s a home equity loan, and what’s a line of credit?

If you’ve lived in your home for a while, paying down the principal on your mortgage while home values have crept (and then leapt) higher, you may now have a decent amount of equity in your house — the difference between what the home is worth and what you owe the bank. That equity is…