Home-Improvement4U.com

Home-Improvement4U.com

Well, this is gonna be an interesting post. There have been a lot of things going on in my life recently that have made it difficult for me to work on articles for Home-Improvement4U.com. I'm glad to say though that that is about to change. I have felt a calling to mission work in Baja California, Mexico. Chapultapec to be exact. Just a short drive south of Ensenada, Mexico. It's a very poor community. The reason I moved here is that we have an orphanage here that is in need of repair and renovation. In fact, I'll be showing you how to do so much more because now I have an opportunity to do it all. I have large rooms that having nothing but drywall hung up. I'll be doing everything from framing to drywall hanging/finishing, to painting, to ceiling fans, to bathrooms, you name it!

I think this is going to be a great opportunity to expand our collection of articles. Getting setup was a bit difficult, but I think we're there now. I finally got DSL this week. I was without Internet access or a phone for 3 weeks! Material selection is a bit challenging here, but there are several lumber yards and hardware stores. There's even a Home Depot in Ensenada, though it's assortment is not quite as good as in the states. Be sure you visit the Home-Improvement4U.com website for articles. In my blog I'll be posting about the progress of the orphanage. Check back frequently.

Site Down!

Well, the support group at our hosting server decided to do a nice big update that totally crashed our system. My domain as well as about 20 others were crippled. The whole system had to be completely redone and now it is on a different system with a different look. The forum still isn't working right to date. I like the new layout of the content though, it allows for that great 'Next article' feature at the bottom of each page, and I don't have to do anything about it!

Other than that, it's been a real busy time. Too many irons in the fire. The P-trap in my upstairs laundry room froze and my washer flooded the kitchen ceiling. Insurance came in and had the ceiling repaired and they tore up the whole subfloor in the bathroom and replaced it. I'm not impressed with State Farm though. In the kitchen, 1/3 of the ceiling fell. They had the repair company that they pushed replace only that drywall and then retextured the whole ceiling. It doesn't look to nice and I can't believe they did it that way. I'm going to be changing insurance companies very soon.

I have a friend whose water line broke while they were in California. The whole kitchen is getting replaced, not to mention flooring and trim. They even get reimbursed for eating out since their kitchen is down. No treatment like that for me, no sir. It's like pulling teeth to get State Farm to pay for anything. There was also some misinformation about if State Farm can push a certain contractor to doing the work. Turns out they can't. Oh well, I'm standing back to see how it all turns out.

New Image Upload Mod!

This is great news. For so long now users have had to describe what they are dealing with and not only is this sometimes tough to do, but it also leads to misunderstandings. I spent the evening updating my phpBB and adding a couple of mods so that now users can upload an image to a free image hosting server. That way they can take a picture or draw a picture and upload it for everybody to see. Works pretty nice. You can read about it and see a sample at http://www.home-improvement4u.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=89

I think I'll be adding somemore mods also, there's a list of pretty interesting features on the phpBB website.

I've been sick since last week, so no new articles yet, but I have been revamping the main site. We'll soon do away with having all the pages listed on the left. There are just so many articles, it's hard to see what's going on, so I'm redoing things so that you can only get from one page to the next by clicking a link at the bottom of the page.

Until next time, happy hammering.

More Roofing Articles

Well, I've added some more roofing articles. You should now be able to pretty much go from ripping off your old roof, to paper, to shingles. All the way to the peak. This is, of course, only for a standard gable roof. Valleys and Hips are a bit more involved, but I'll get to them eventually. If you want to take a look at the articles, hop on over to http://www.home-improvement4u.com/roofing/

Roofing - What fun.

Well, I finally got around to putting a bunch of roofing articles up on the website. Someone on the forum had asked about reroofing, so I put together a great how-to step-by-step that includes everything from removal to tar paper. It is not complete though, as I'll be covering things like how to get the shingles looking straight and even (something that novices often overlook). I'll also deal with valleys and peaks. I'll probably have those articles posted within a week.

Check out the articles and if you have any questions, post it in the forum!

Don't fall off!

Vinyl Siding Articles

For those that haven't checked out my vinyl siding articles, take a look at this http://www.home-improvement4u.com/siding/installing-vinyl.htm page. It features a step-by-step guide to every aspect of your siding project. Most people don't know that with a little inside knowledge, the average do-it-yourselfer can install their own siding.

Warehouse Reviews

I just added a new page which reviews different home improvement warehouses and lumber yards I've visited. I also did some articles on re-roofing. The forum is kinda slow lately. Hoping to generate some traffic soon though. I'd like to get about a thousand registered users and grow the thing so that other's come to offer advice. We'll see. Maybe Lowe's will even send me a big fat gift card for all the nice things I said about them in my review. http://www.home-improvement4u.com

In Alaska

I arrived in Anchorage yesterday. The weather is very pleasant here. The air is very clear. A nice change from Southern California. I was there for two weeks, half of which was out in the desert where pine trees were pumping pollen out into the air so fiercly that my eyes itched and I sneezed constantly. I thought Spring in California would be milder for me than Indiana, boy was I wrong!

Up here though, it's very nice. It's been in the 50's and 60's and the view is beautiful. I may be taking a plane ride and see more sights.

All this explaination just to tell you that's why there hasn't been much activity on the Home-Improvement4u.com web site. I've been on sort of a vacation for awhile. I'm attending meetings so it's not really a vacation, but I do get to take in the scenery and enjoy myself.

I'm working on more home maintenance articles, which I hope to post on the site this week.

Until next time...

First Post!

OK, I have now started a blog on my home-improvement4u.com website. I discuss every topic relating to home improvement and I even setup a support forum where people can ask me all kinds of home improvement questions.

It's really been a lot of fun. I've been doing it for a few months now, adding articles, answering questions now and then. We haven't even started advertising for the site and people were starting to post questions.

I just added 11 articles on home maintenance. I've got a feeling that will be a very popular category. It features articles that cover things like fixing a slow drain, or holes in drywall. Each article covers a topic.

The main articles are on siding, roofing, kitchens, etc... They are much more comprehensive and much longer. I'll probably be reorganizing things a bit in the future, the files are really growing!

Check us out at http://www.home-improvement4u.com