If you’ve ever felt restricted by the power cord on your vacuum cleaner, you can probably see the appeal in a product like the Hoover LiNX Cordless Stick Vacuum. This style of “stick” vacuum runs on rechargeable batteries, allowing you to easily clean up around the house without having to worry about straying too far from an outlet. Additionally, stick vacuums are typically lighter and smaller in profile than their full-size counterparts, making them an appealing alternative for anyone tired of dragging a heavy vacuum around....

Between people walking over them all day and your pets playing on them, your carpets collect a fair bit of dirt deep in their fibers—which is why you might be looking for a product like the Hoover Power Scrub Deluxe Carpet Cleaner. Carpet cleaners help remove dirt that’s been ground deep into rugs, washing the fibers to get rid of odors and stains. They’re an affordable at-home cleaning alternative for those with lots of rugs, as they’ll save you from having to hire professional cleaners every year....

This design is known as a gravity-flush toilet, meaning that it does its work simply by the force of gravity on the water and has no mechanical assistance of any kind. While pressure-assisted toilets are becoming more common, the standard gravity-flush design is still by far the most common in residential homes. With a simple design and relatively few moving parts, repairs are quite easy. The lack of any mechanical parts makes the repairs fairly inexpensive, as well....

Most home plumbing fixtures are designed to work best at a pressure of about 50 psi (pounds per square inch), but it is not uncommon for municipal water supplies to enter the home with pressures as high as 150 or 200 psi. If such high pressures is present on a regular basis, the strain can eventually cause joints to fail, faucets and other fixtures to leak, and appliances to break down....

Cost to Build a Wood Floor Deck Real wood has long been used for decks’ structural members and for its flooring. Wood is cost-effective, strong, easily available, and it can be stained to a wide range of colors. At the same time, wood must be painted or sealed at least once a year. Wood can be hazardous underfoot as it begins to rot and splinter. Wood attracts wood-boring insects such as termites and carpenter ants....

How a Steam Radiator Air Vent Works When the steam boiler is not in a heating cycle, the radiator air vent is open, allowing ambient air to fill the radiator. As a heating cycle begins, steam flows up through the supply pipe to the radiator. As the radiator fills with steam, it pushes the air out through the open vent. This replacement of cool air with hot steam heats up the vent, which is a heat-sensitive valve, until the vent closes, trapping the steam in the radiator to capture its heat....

Why People Love Jays Jays are members of the Corvidae family, and these corvids are some of the most distinct and intelligent birds in the world. They are curious and even demonstrate problem-solving skills as they work out how to get the best food sources and protect their caches from raiders. They play, even chasing or taunting cats and other predators, and many jays are decent mimics, often simulating hawk calls to distract other birds so they can take advantage of the confusion....

But did you know that with some care and a bit of creative style, you can use chlorine bleach to create intentional fashionable designs on fabric or change the fabric’s color? You may even be able to hide the accidental bleach splash by incorporating it into the final design. Before You Begin Chlorine bleach, or sodium hypochlorite, is a harsh chemical that removes the color from dyed fabrics and can dissolve some fibers....

Bidets are designed to spray the user’s nether regions in order to clean away any waste, instead of having to wipe with toilet paper. Standard bidets are completely separate plumbing fixtures that are often installed beside the toilet. They can be wall-mounted or floor-mounted, while bidet toilet seats and bidet attachments are designed to connect directly to your current toilet. Consider the helpful information contained in this guide to learn more about how to buy a bidet, bidet toilet seat, or bidet attachment....

Before You Buy Kitchen Cabinets Develop a plan for the kitchen remodel. Everything flows from that plan—most importantly, the kitchen cabinets. Begin with one of several established kitchen plans, like an L-shaped layout, galley, one-wall, or U-shaped layout. Most kitchens can use or adapt one of these layouts. Kitchen design software allows your creativity to flourish, and most programs incorporate a basic range of kitchen cabinet types and sizes. Many kitchen cabinet manufacturers offer free planning software, as well as kitchen design and layout....

When you’re planning to buy a bed skirt for your bed, there are several things to consider. Take a walk through our guide to find out about size, color, construction, and more. Why Use a Bed Skirt? Bed skirts are designed to hide a bed’s box spring or foundation. They’re a simple little addition, but the aesthetic benefits of keeping the bed’s foundation out of sight behind a stylish-looking cover can be pretty remarkable....

Caulk vs. Sealant Before going a step further, you might have heard caulk called a sealant and vice versa. Technically, the two serve the same purpose—sealing a space, making it airtight or waterproof. But there is a significant difference between them; sealants are used on objects that shift or move, like windows, for example. A sealant is used when you need more elasticity so it can shift with the moving object it’s sealing....

Scale A table’s size and scale will dictate how it should be styled. “If the table is larger, you can style it like a shelf or foyer table in the rule of threes,” Wolf explains. This means incorporating a small item, a medium one, and a tall one. “With larger end tables, the first step is deciding what the focal point is going to be,” Amy Leferink, of Interior Impressions, adds....

How Large Should It Be? Start small. Unless you have your heart set on space hogs like corn, start with a manageable sized garden. A garden that’s 12 x 20 should give you plenty of variety. Vegetables won’t wait for when it’s convenient for you to get to them. Digging the Garden Measure and mark out your garden space on the lawn. Now comes the really hard work of making a new garden....