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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot. THD provided the end nippers used in this post.
One of the most neglected, but one of the most important home maintenance tasks a homeowner can DIY, is caulking. The use of properly applied caulk keeps the outside elements out and the inside ones, like a/c, inside. Caulking is a very easy and inexpensive DIY that can prevent damage to your home.
A little bit of caulking can be the difference between a very inexpensive repair and a much more costly one. Without caulking, water, bugs, and weather can get into your home and cause damage, unwanted insects, and loss of heating or cooling.
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text by Vicki Sign up to get Mother Daughter Projects updates in your email! Last summer we tried out Wet & Forget, an outdoor cleaner that works over time. We shared that experience in this post. In this follow-up post and video we are sharing the results of that initial use of Wet & Forget. In our first application we sprayed a patch of siding at Steph's house as well as some pavers and garden blocks.
Take a look and see the results, six-months later!
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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot as a part of The Home Depot’s ProSpective Campaign.
Have you ever...
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We recently attended an outdoor tool event sponsored by The Home Depot. There were about 20 or so online content creators and media folks invited to the event. Although we didn't get a chance to really talk to the others attending, we did meet Leah from See Jane Drill and met a representative from This Old House.
The event gave us a chance to see some new outdoor tool innovations, try them out and talk with brand experts. We took lots of video and notes so we could share all we learned with all of you. Here's a brief look what we experienced at the event (please watch the video above for more info).
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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot as a part of The Home Depot’s ProSpective Campaign.
As part of The Home Depot ProSpective campaign (May 2017- 2018) we have been receiving a variety of tools to use and review. A lot of the tools and their function are new to us. It’s been fun and educational to see the different tools available to pros and DIYers and how to use them. We were sent the Makita Brushless Cordless Angle Grinder to review and found that, although it is marketed as a pro tool, it does have value to the home DIYer.
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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot as a part of The Home Depot’s ProSpective Campaign.
As part of the Home Depot ProSpective campaign, we get sent some neat tools to try out. One of those tools this quarter is the Makita Brushless Cordless Blower kit. As soon as we opened the box, we wanted to see how this blower stacked up to our current 18v cordless blower. This fall was a perfect time to test it out, as I get a huge amount of pine straw in my front yard and normally have to use a rake to clean it up.
Learn how Bed Bugs get into YOUR house and other 'Creepy' Topics with Professional Bug Man Roger11/27/2017 text by Vicki Sign up to get Mother Daughter Projects updates in your email! Living in Florida, professional pest control service is a must. We have ALL the bugs and critters in Florida! My friend, Roger, of Rock Solid Termite and Pest Control has been my "bug man" for over 25 years. He comes once a year and takes care of all things creepy and crawly!
When it was time for this year's annual service, we asked him if he would be willing to talk about pest control service for Mother Daughter Projects. He agreed and we asked him a whole bunch of questions resulting in three different videos!
This post is sponsored by The Home Depot as a part of The Home Depot’s ProSpective Campaign.
We're closing in on our second quarter of tool reviews for The Home Depot ProSpective campaign. In both quarters we have received tools that had us scratching our heads trying to figure out how we were going to use or review certain tools. The Makita Diamond Cup Wheel and Diablo Diamond Wheel are two of those tools.
After some research we discovered their use, but that still left us with “how to show them in action?” The answer was actually right under our noses or should I (Vicki) say, at my front door. I rarely use my front door so I was unaware that I had the perfect project in my front yard. Turns out, a section of my front sidewalk was uneven—with our new tools, we could take care of that tripping hazard ourselves! We did a little internet research and learned that we could use the Diablo Diamond Wheel to help cut down the raised portion of the concrete and then use the Makita Diamond Cup Wheel to grind the rest away. Coupled with the Makita Xtreme Vac, we were able to safely grind away the concrete.
This post is sponsored by The Home Depot as a part of The Home Depot’s ProSpective Campaign. THD provided the Ryobi Workshop Blower used in this post.
The very first battery powered tool we purchased was a leaf blower. I (Vicki) was very slow to jump on the current generation of battery powered tools due to poor experiences with the original (90's) ones. Steph finally convinced me we should try them and once I did, I was sold!
Since that first leaf blower, we have added many battery powered tools to our collection. One that we didn't know we needed was a workshop blower, the little brother of the left blower! Through The Home Depot ProSpective campaign we had a chance to try out this clever little handy tool.
This post is sponsored by The Home Depot as a part of The Home Depot’s ProSpective Campaign. THD provided the Husky gloves used in this post.
As I (Vicki) write this, Tallahassee is about 30 minutes from our peak winds from Hurricane Irma. We have breathed a collective sigh of relief as this storm has downgraded bringing less wind and rain into our area.
Even so, once things subside, there will be yard clean up pretty much everywhere due to all the trees in the area. I have already noticed one small branch in the front yard that will need to be cut up for pick-up.
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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot as a part of The Home Depot’s ProSpective Campaign.
This post is about a product you have never given a second thought to. If you've ever caulked anything, you went to the store, bought the caulk and probably another gun since the once you had at home was a gunky mess and completed your project. You probably had a few choice words to say as you dealt with caulk that came out to fast or too slow, or that produced lines that were took thick or not thick enough, and continued to ooze once you took your hand off the trigger.
Ryobi has reinvented the caulk gun into a battery powered tool that takes the mess and frustration out of home caulking projects. This is a tool you never thought you needed, but once you see it, you know you must have it! (Well, maybe that's just us!)
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Last spring we FINALLY cleaned the siding at Steph's house. We used a pump-up sprayer for the cleaner we used. Part way through the cleaning, we discovered Ryobi had a battery powered chemical pump sprayer. We were very interested as the pump-up sprayer was proving to be a tedious, fatiguing option. The Ryobi sprayer comes with and without a battery, but the one without the battery could only be purchased online and we needed it NOW. We finished with the manual pump, but never forgetting about the cordless one!
Fast forward to our recent trip to the Haven conference where we learned more about the Ryobi sprayer and ended up getting to bring it home with us! We immediately put it to the test with the moss, mold, mildew, and algae stain remover, Wet & Forget.
You know that one project that you just keep putting off for one reason or another? Well, that project for us was cleaning the vinyl siding at Steph's house. It's been so long since it had been cleaned that it was looking like some kind of science experiment!
Two sides of her house stay fairly shaded creating (unfortunately) perfect conditions for the formation of algae, mold and mildew growth! Cleaning this green mess was going to take a little muscle!
Seems like when you do one project, another needed project is revealed! That happened when Steph had the glass in her windows replaced recently. They are insulated glass that had become cloudy inside that no amount of cleaning would ever help. She bit the bullet and hired a local glass company to complete the project.
Replacing the windows necessitated removing the screens which turned out to be really, really dirty. Cleaning was in order, but some of them also had holes (squirrels like to hang on them), so repair was needed for those.
There's a lot of interest in garage floor coatings—the appeal of which is the ease of cleaning and the fresh look it gives to the floor. But what to choose?
In January 2016, we used Rust-Oleum’s RockSolid floor coating in silver bullet metallic on Steph’s garage floor. RockSolid is an epoxy like product advertised has having superior quality and durability as well as being DIY friendly. One year later—how’s it holding up? Watch the video above and read more below!
Have you ever looked up at your shower head and noticed a bunch of the nozzles aren't working? I (Steph) installed a new shower head in 2013 when I moved into my house, and haven't thought about it since. Over time I have noticed the water seemed to be coming out harder and was spraying in different directions. It also didn't have the 'rain' effect it once did. I decided it was time to try to clean it! Here's what I did.
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When I moved into my house, I had the good fortune of having a working, natural gas powered fireplace. It's pretty amazing to just flip a switch and have a fire! I love the look and turn it on often (it does offer some heat but not too much- which is ok since we're in FL).
Before using it, I had it inspected by a natural gas specialist. While in my home, he lit the pilot light. He said all was good- I just have to use it to keep it in working order. One thing I started to notice was the bottom grate only lit up halfway and there was something that looked like dryer lint (or something you would find in a litter box) in the fire box area.
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One of the switches in my master bedroom quit working so we removed the old one and put in a new one. It seemed like a pretty straight forward repair, but there was a bit of learning curve to it.
After purchasing a replacement switch, we realized that switches are not "one size fits all!" Once we took off the switch cover and got a look at the switch, that's when we saw that our replacment switch was not going to work. We searched Home Depot online, but they only offered the type of switch that we got at our local store. We then searched the Leviton (switch manufacture) site for an exact replacement, which we could not find under the parts number on the old switch. Leviton has "live" chat support which we utilized to get a match. We provided the old numbers and description along with pictures of the old product. With that information the tech was able to give us the part number we needed. We ordered from Amazon, because, you know, free shipping! A search of the book, "The Complete Photo Guide to Home Repair" by Black & Decker provided the information we needed to successfully and safely replace the switch.
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Recently I noticed a build up of organic material up against the side of my A/C fence enclosure. I thought, "I need to clean that up so the fence doesn't start to rot" --too late! Once I revealed the bottoms of the pickets I saw that rot had already started. Replacement was necessary for those four boards and prevention, in the form of debris removal, was necessary for the rest.
What started as a replacement of four boards morphed into a much larger project. We replaced the boards, washed and painted the entire fence, removed the ivy climbing on and near the fence, dug away dirt under the fence, edged, mulched and added a few mums for color!
When I (Steph) moved into my house 3 years ago I quickly realized I needed to figure out how to take care of my lawn. I had three options:
Mom found a reel mower (manual push mower) at a yard sale and brought it to me to try out. I was not sure this "old fashion" mower would do the job, but I was really surprised at how well it worked. I also invested in a manual edger. Look below for some pictures of these tools in action!
Recently we were trying to spray paint, under a deadline to finish, but it was really windy out wrecking havoc with our efforts! We needed help. We searched Steph’s garage and came up with a child-size pop-up tent. Surely this would work!
We found out quickly that our homemade spray paint tent didn’t provide the wind protection we needed, plus it kept blowing over and there was no way to secure it into place. It’s a great play space for kids, not so much a paint space for DIYers! It’s inventible, you will have a home emergency--you don’t know when, you don’t know what, but it WILL happen. Unfortunately, it happens to all homeowners at some point! Check out the video below for some tips on how to turn off water, power, gas, etc. in an emergency.
A few months ago an extension cord got stuck in my leaf blower. Everyone in the family tried removing it but it would not budge. We decided there was no hope removing the cord so we cut the cord off the leaf blower in order to replace the plug. Watch the video above to see the project.
I have a lot of trees in my yard so that means I have a lot of fallen leaves! I have tried all kinds of tools to make leaf collection easier, but nothing has worked as well as the lawn and leaf chute I picked up at Home Depot. Watch the video above to see it in action!
Steph is on a mission to convince me that battery powered tools are a viable alternative to their corded counterparts. As a millennial, she has grown up with all things battery powered and has no doubt that they all work well. I, as a Baby Boomer, having experienced first gen battery powered tools, am not quite as convinced of their usefulness. Anyone who used a first gen battery powered tool probably ditched it for a corded version pretty quickly.
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