I have a little seasonal ritual that I go through every year. Each May, I take the umbrellas out of my coat closet and from the back of my car and I store them in my garage. Some folks might consider this risky. What if, for example, I’m out driving…
I recently became aware of something called a life hack. My nephew is always posting pretty interesting stuff that he finds online. Last week, he shared with me one of these life hacks, which in this case was a tip for heating two bowls in the microwave at the same…
I’m just going to come out and say it: most homeowners don’t know some of the most important basic tips for keeping their homes and furnaces safe in the winter. Sure, they know how to turn their furnaces on, how to adjust the thermostat, and maybe even how to change…
Northern California winters are kind of a unique thing, if you ask me. The vast majority of us in our area don’t really live up in the mountains. No, we tend to live down in cities like Sacramento, Folsom, Roseville, Vacaville, or somewhere in between. That means we don’t get…
Having to run your furnace all winter, and your AC all summer is no fun at all. Don’t get me wrong, the heated and cooled air that furnaces or AC units produce is, of course, wonderful. But the thing is, a bill for all that comfort eventually comes due. There…
I have a lot of fun associations with wintertime from back when I was just a kid. Yessir, when I think of the winter, I think about spending weekends up in Tahoe, or drinking hot chocolate after coming from a cold day at school. Sometimes, I even think of the…
With the holidays coming up, your garbage disposal is going to be working overtime. With all that food prep and plate scraping, it’s important to know the proper operating instructions for your garbage disposal unit (also known as a waste disposal unit, garbage disposer, or in Canadian English a garburator). The day after…
When it comes to making sure that none of the conditioned air that is being produced by your HVAC system is escaping through your windows, you probably know by now that having energy-efficient windows is what matters the most. You probably also know that the right windows, combined with the…
I’ve always had a whole lot of respect for people who can do a thing themselves, whether that thing is car maintenance, woodwork, or even plumbing. In fact, I think it was that high level of respect that first drew me to become a plumber way back when; a useful…
California is not a place typically associated with rain, at least not like the other West Coast states of Oregon and Washington. No, here in California, we’re associated much more closely with sunshine and nice weather than we are with rain. And that’s a pretty accurate description of places southern…
