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A stripped down, links-only HouseHacker.com.

HouseHacker is sort of dedicated to bringing you the goods on home improvement, household gadgetry, DIY, cool furniture, yada, yada...

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Brilliant UFO abduction lamp.

Your blood puddle pillows are in.

Clean your dishwasher with Lemonade Kool-Aid.

Clever light bulb design.

Days Ago digital day counters are small gadgets that attach to your food containers via suction and magnets to keep a running count of how many days ago you put your leftovers in the fridge.

Scrabble furniture.

Handy way to skip all the intro crap on DVDs that is usually forced on you when you throw a disc in your player. Apparently the chapters on DVDs that you can't skip (FBI warnings, copyright stuff, etc.) are flagged, on the disc, as UOP, or User Operation Prohibited. This site lists some of the techniques you can try to skip the ennui.

This colour coordinated bookshelf looks cool, but you might have a hard time finding a particular title.

For chewie edge lovers or corner brownie fans - it's the Edge Brownie Pan. All edges, all the time. Via BoingBoing

Puzzle carpet.

This to That is a handy site that will tell you what adhesive to use when attempting to glue various objects together.

Super creative bathroom tiles.

Skinny house in Brazil.

Apparently there are many LED lightbulbs available already. Via TreeHugger

WiiRoomba. YouTube of a guy controlling his Roomba with a Wii remote.

Hardcore Lost fans have a party and repackage the snacks and beer as Dharma Initiative rations. Make your own with the PDFs that they've so generously shared.

Here's a nice set of home improvement videos with the energetic and snappy Eric Stromer.

Faucet Fountain turns your regular faucet into a drinking fountain.

Kids and the Home Office. Here's a list of tips for the parent that works from home.

Save the Internet.







Househacker/tags/yardwork

DIY Solar Charged Lawnmower

If you've got an old, broken, space-eating gas lawn mower, you may be interested in resurrecting it and converting it into an eco-friendly solar charged model, provided you don't mind having it look a little Frankenstein.

This how-to walks you through the process of modifying a mower as well as creating the solar panel/charging station that provides the power. The mower does take a while to charge up (40 hours by the authors calculations, assuming a half-charged battery), but since most lawns don't require mowings of any greater frequency than that (or anywhere near that, one would hope), the solar solution seems like a perfect fit for the task.

The author provides a lot of detail, including a couple of schematics and a parts and costs table. The final price tag was $699, with the bulk of the cost going towards the motor ($312), solar panel ($120) and battery ($90).

eXtreme Gardening via Weed Burners

Are you ever out gardening and realise that, as relaxing as it may be, the whole experience could benefit from a flamethrower? If so, one of these weed torches might fit the bill. From the site:

Use this lightweight burner to clear weeds and their roots in driveways or walkways in summer, or to melt dangerous ice patches in winter. Adjustable regulator valve lets you control flame intensity. Durable, nickel-plated steel and brass burner uses widely available standard 14 oz. propane tank (not included).

These aren't new though: here's a heavier duty unit and a video demonstration of another one in action (although not on weeds, but whatever - you get the idea).

Would it safe to say that people that use these probably aren't the same people that sit on these?

Weed Burner at Amazon.com

Via Toolspotting
       



Intelligent Weather Aware Lawn Irrigation System

AWS Irrigation Management offers a high tech lawn irrigation system. Each day, the system monitors the amount of rain at your home and sends the data to a central computer. The computer cross references the data to the local weather report and then proceeds to create and analyse a virtual soil sample. This sample is used to determine the amount of watering your lawn requires. The system does another check in the morning to see if any adjustments are necessary and waters accordingly. From the site:

Our network uses solar powered radio repeaters and is completely wireless. We can contact sites by phone, internet or license-free UHF radio across a 40 km radius...


Topsy Turvy Upside Down Tomato Planter

Featured as one of Time Magazine's Best Inventions of 2005, the hanging Topsy Turvy upside down tomato planter produces tomatoes that are bigger, better and easier to grow than with traditional methods. The planter's elevation has the added benefit of preventing certain bacteria and fungus, as well as keeping critters at bay.

Handy Dandy Gardening Chair

Originally intended for milking cows, this height-adjustable, light weight (4 lbs) back and joint saver looks like it would make weeding even the most overgrown garden a bit less crappy. The seat is made of 'sturdy co-polymer'. Sturdy is definitely the word you want to hear when sitting on something like this.

via Treehugger

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