The house you have. The home you want.
140 guides across 18 sections.
Featured
Three tools do nearly everything. The rest is a hobby.
Three power tools cover nearly everything a house asks of you: a cordless drill/driver, a circular saw and an oscillating multi-tool. Sam on what each one is really for, why the big combo kit is a trap, and when the fourth tool has earned its place.
How to create a listening corner.
Make room for one good record. Sam’s guide to a comfortable chair, useful light, sensible storage, and a listening corner you will actually use.
Drywall never held your bike. It just hadn't let go yet.
Garage hooks don't fail — the drywall around them does. Sam's five checks for rails and wall anchoring: finding studs, wood versus steel framing, why a rail beats a hook, and the lever nobody accounts for.
How to Get Your Backyard Ready to Host a Wedding
Hosting a wedding in your own backyard? Sam's homeowner's guide: square feet per guest, neighbors and permits, power, the lawn, tents, restrooms, lighting, parking, real costs, and the 8-week yard checklist.
Anyone can tell which wall you did first.
Painting isn't a skill, it's an order of operations — and four of the six moves happen before the tin comes open. Sam's sequence for a room that still looks right in morning light.
Your AC doesn't break in August. It gives up.
Air conditioners rarely fail in August. They give up, after months of a dirty filter, a smothered outdoor coil and a drain line quietly filling with sludge. Three jobs, one afternoon. By Sam.
Your gallery wall is crooked and everyone is too polite to say so.
Gallery walls go crooked because people level each frame to itself instead of to one reference line. Paper templates, a centre line, and the hook maths that puts the nail in the right place. By Sam.
Everyone buys the rack first. The floor is what ruins it.
A garage gym is not a shopping list — it's a small construction project that ends with a barbell on it. Measure the five things, build the floor, place the rack, handle the heat. By Sam.
Your kitchen isn't disorganized. It's organized for a kitchen you don't have.
Most kitchen organizing is sorting by category for a kitchen nobody has. Sort by frequency instead, keep the two feet beside the stove empty, and give every drawer one verb. By Sam.