Saturday, December 19, 2009

ADA I was looking for a general utility post and found this interesting article on blogger. Get on down to my comment section and let me know what you think. ADA requirements don't apply to everyone building or remodeling a residential property but for those with disabilities you can't ignore the ADA. If you live in texas you have to be licensed through the Texas Licensing Regulation Board to review plans and complete inspections to pass the international Building Code requirements for ADA (The Americans with Disability Act) accessibility standards.

Can Remodeling A Bathroom To Accomodate A Handicapped Person Be A ...
First, get an appraisal for your home before the remodeling. For example, the house appraises at $100000. Second, do the remodel. The remodel costs $10000 for the example. Third, get another appraisal for the home after the remodel. ...

Monday, November 02, 2009

DIY

Definition: Do It Yourself  -  DYI Get ready for some special training, education and a whole lot of new top ten lists, free ebooks and articles full of information to increase our knowledge base -KR

Friday, October 23, 2009

Personal Introdution from Keith Russell

Hello Everyone,




I’m a construction professional from Arlington Texas. I’ve been in the Home Improvement field for about fifteen years. I started out in this business heavily involved in the commercial field of construction and came up in the “old school” of carpentry behind my dad. I got my journeyman’s card at the ripe old age of 18, then got into the precast erection field, where I built my first nine story condominium in Port Aransas Texas called “The Dunes”. That was in late 76’ early 77’, and yep it’s still standing. I’ve built everything from wooden tool boxes to high rise buildings and a lot of stuff in between. I’ve been involved in virtually every aspect of building including, retail, hospital, tenant finish out, industrial, maintenance and repair, warranty work, custom carpentry, design, specification writing, project management, job clerk, site layout engineering, form building, residential repair, remodeling, restorations, ground ups, framing, roofing and roofing waterproofing specialization, concrete finishing and repair, electric, hvac, plumbing, insulating, scheduling, design/build, architecture, CAD, CSI MasterFormat 1994 to 2004 - hardcopy and database library matrix conversions, pre-construction investigation, green and sustainable research, design and construction procedures, site planning and development and a whole bunch of other construction related projects. I’m just a few classes from finishing my first construction degree.

As much as I have enjoyed completing and learning from all of those experiences, I have embraced a new adventure. My central goal is to help home and property owners keep, maintain, and customize their living and construction experiences. I offer the tools to take on small, medium, and large projects through educating ourselves, developing friends, partners, and great relationships with each other and professionals in every aspect of construction, as we experience the sense of community, fun and friendship on the web and in our lives. I’m really enjoying this stage of the journey and I’ve recently started a DIY community blog called THE SMALL JOB DEPOT. You can check it out at, http://thesmalljobdepot.blogspot.com . It is a very rewarding experience!

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Getting our small jobs completed together

Working together to get our small jobs completed, means that we can share our victories, our failures and the difficult problems in a way that Do-It-Yourself home improvement is pulled off with the least amount of trouble, the most effective professional style repairs and installations, with the greatest flair and the best design and engineering practices, from the best resources available, including builders, repair and restoration specialist, suppliers, handymen, honey do experts, home improvement companies, security companies, and virtually every pro out there. But most importantly each other! By being an online interactive community of Do-It-Yourself home improvers! So get envolved and lets watch our community evolve together! Thanks, Keith

Do it Yourself Home Repair and Maintenance

Check out this powerful link from Home Tips on Hub Pages Do it Yourself Home Repair and Maintenance

Monday, October 19, 2009

Catching the Do-It-Yourself Mindset

Do-It-Yourselfer's are some of the most interesting folks around. As a professional in the residential repair business for over 25 years, I've found that do-it-youself candidates usally start out kind of slow with patience as their friend. We are fed up with contractors, tired of the expense and rigmarole that comes with hiring people to come into our homes, to complete a small or medium sized task that we could probably do ourselves, if we just had the time and expertise to do it. We are usually proficient in engineering thought and in just being able to get the right peg for the right hole. Some of us however need a little help sometimes and would love to have a true profesional that is really concerned for our wellfare as much as they are theirs. So we attempt to get someone that we know or that someone else knows to help, which in a lot of cases causes us more frustration than if we had just taken on the small job ourselves. So we try classes or seminars at our local Home Depot or Loew's even the local community college or trade school. Sometimes this works out but again what's the point in do-it-yourself, if you have to take more time to learn the project rules and the procedure than it would take to just have the brother-in-law do it in the first place?! There's the expense of the class or seminar too! So we keep up with the projects keep going to classes and usually hire at least one subcontracting professional anyway. Especially here in Texas where we know that subcontractors are required to be licensed (in most cases) and we know that general contractors or remodelers and the like are not required to be licensed. We really don't understand the contracting market because most of us have at least four years of college and these guy's appear to pride themselves on the "on the job experience" style of learning, usually at our expense. What is one to do? What about a place that we can come together on the wonderful WorldWideWeb and open up discussion forums, view the latest tips from a community where these "contractors", other do-it-yourselfer's and a host of other tools are available to help us and it doesn't require leaving the comforts of the place that we are trying to repair, remodel, maintain and just enjoy at the same time? Surely such a site , blog or forum of some sort or the other exists? Well, now it does and yes this is it. Whether it's honey-do's, small jobs, do-it-yourself projects, remodeling, repairing, restoring or just plain learning, we are ready for it here at "The Small Job Depot" Come on in - enjoy the time you spend with us and tell us your story about what went wrong? What went right? Or how you plan to make sure that your next Do-It Yourself project is a fun and exciting success!

Friday, October 09, 2009

Most Recent Post

We have lots to do and lots to learn. The most interactive blog for learning Do-It-Yourself Home Improvement procedures and skills from the pros and from each other!