Chicago Duplex Down Rehab

I don't like to be agitated, but our clothes do. If your clothes washer agitator is not spinning and just making clicking noises, it probably needs new 'agitator dogs'.   Yes, funny name, don't know the origin.  Research is an exercise left to the student. You'll first have to find the exact model number of your washer.  Its on a metal tag mounted on the inside of the housing just below the lid.   Once you have the part number, you can go to Appliance Part Pros and type in the model number, then all of the replacement parts will come up.  Once you find the manufacturer part number you can type into Amazon or other online retailer to get the best deal.  I found the same part number on Amazon here , for $4 with free shipping. Yipee!  Do not go to local appliance parts stores if you can avoid it. Their markup is insane, and i'm pretty sure they're working on commission.  I want to support local businesses, but not when they're setup...

Does your oven not warm up, and you smell some gas?   You probably need to replace the 'igniter'. I've had do this twice for 15 year old oven.  Its under the oven, accessible once you remove the bottom cover.  You don't even need to pull the oven out of place to do this.

After letting the glue dry overnight, I applied 1 coat of primer to the unfinished pine.  After letting that dry for a day, i applied 2 coats of Sherwin Williams Pro Classic paint. wet primer coat I let the paint dry 24 hours for each coat.  The paint was ok to touch after 4 hours, and I was able to move the piece indoors for the remain dry duration. using two outdoor chairs to raise piece The piece was about 130 inches long, so 4 stair rail hardware mounts were need to support at every 3 1/2 feet.  There's no hard and fast rule for how many mounts are needed, but definitely not just one at top and bottom in this case. Make sure you orient the hardware in the same direction at the return.  Also, double check the distance from the wall mount to the rail is greater than the return.  If you, you'll be fighting the return piece against the wall while trying to mount, which would be terrible. Also, the screws are left out of the wood just enou...

I found this online article on how to install a handrail with 45 degree (rather than common 90 degree) returns.  It said to cut some scrap at 45 deg, and then create another piece that is the same length as the hand rail to wall distance.  In this case, the hand rail bracket is 2 1/2" from the wall, the hand rail itself is 1 1/2" thick, so the calculated distance is ( 2 1/2" -  ( 1 1/2" / 2 ) ) = 1 3/4" . Setting the 45 degree piece against the miter saw fence as if it was against the wall, you can mark where the rail would need to be cut to have correct length at angle. Now the marked scrap piece can be used to measure off the hand rail cut.   Make sure you're going the right way, depending if its the top or bottom of the stairs! The miter saw should have a pre-set notch for 22.5 deg.  Once the miter has been set for this angle, cut the hand rail at the mark.  Then switch the miter to the 22.5 deg in the other direction to cut the hand rail aga...

We've had an unfinished bookcase in our master bedroom since... I'm not even going to say how long I've put off this project!  It needed a picture frame casing and trim paint to match the rest of the bedroom. After a trip to  OWL Lumber  for some casing, I went to  +Pumping Station One  to cut and assemble the frame.  I used square head trim screws to help hold it together on the ends with glue.  Its a real pain to clamp the ends since you have to deal with 4 corners all at once and the glue coming out the bottom.  Other recommendations welcome. Once I brought the frame home, leveled the bookcase in the opening, and I nailed the frame in to the bookcase side panels. Two coats of Sherwin Williams ProClassic  and 3 day dry time later..