Video: Troubleshooting toilet problems

My home painting story

Joey tells the story of how he painted his 3 bed 1950's weatherboard home, gives us some tips he learned along the way and gives us some info on removing wallpaper, preparing walls and hiring the professionals. Read More...

---

Renovating the spare room: New carpet, dangling wires and girlie-fying

After the success of my bedroom renovation, I decided to tackle the spare room next. I might have somewhere nice to sleep but my guests were still roughing it in magnolia spare room, staring at the same ugly wardrobe that I’d ripped out of my room. I was starting to feel bad about it, especially as I was making everyone admire my new bedroom. Read More...

---

The realities of home improvement

I stumbled across this picture of home renovation realities and had to post it up for our readers - so funny, so true! Read More...

---

Renovating my bedroom - carpets, cupboards, blinds, and a feature wallpaper wall

I decided that I’d had enough of sleeping in ratty bedroom with holes in the walls, more shiny, vinyl paint, dirty carpets and ugly fitted wardrobes. I had a week off work, my parents were coming to stay and I had a brand new sledgehammer to try out. It was time to decorate my bedroom. Read More...

---

The satisfaction of having one completely renovated room!

So even when you think you have a room finished, and you’re just at the point where you can go and sit in it and close the door and pretend that the whole house looks like that one; there are always a few irritating little things that still need doing. It always seems to me that these things actually take much longer than all the work you’ve already done. Read More...

---

Renovation accidents: Top 10 tools and materials to cause accidents!

Given the amount of time we spend in our homes, it’s hardly surprising that you’re more likely to be injured at home than anywhere else. If you’re renovating your home then your chances of getting hurt shoot up again and statistically if you’re renovating your home on a long weekend, when using a knife – you’re pretty much guaranteed to end up in hospital. Read More...

---

Kirsten prepares and sands the floor

My plan had always been to sand down the original wooden floorboards on the ground floor of the house. I love natural wood floors and I’m very lucky that the boards in my house are in incredibly good condition. I guess ugly laminate does have its uses after all. Read More...

---

Woman vs House: Tearing another room to pieces

Kirsten attacks the front room, rents a rubbish bin, hires a builder to fit a fireplace and paints skirting boards. Read More...

---

Giving up and calling in the professionals - why hanging doors is hard!

Kirsten McCall's men tried to hang the door but failed. It's much harder than it seems. Read More...

---

Best DIY books: Top 5 DIY books to choose from

Service Central has extensive articles featuring DIY guides, advice, pricing guides, news articles and more, but sometimes a good comprehensive book is needed. Here are the Top 5 DIY books. Read More...

---

Replacing my fireplace - more destruction!

As I'd found the original Victorian hearth tiles under the horrible laminate flooring I decided that the only thing that would do in the living room was an original Victorian fireplace. This is how I put the new fireplace in - much easier than I thought! Read More...

---

The second massive mess: Woman vs laminate

Dogs + laminate don't go. To protect my space on the sofa the only thing to do was to pull up the laminate. Lucky it was so ugly anyway... Read More...

---

Can't get the sofa in? Just remove a wall. Sensible.

One of the very first things I did after taking possession of the keys to my new purchase was start to tear it apart. I picked up the keys yesterday and now it has one wall less than it did when I signed the papers. The problem was that I can't get my beloved sofa in the living room, the angles are wrong and it wouldn't go through the doors despite being taken to pieces. So rather than take the easy way out and buy a new sofa that would fit, I decided to take the wall between the hallway, stairs and living room down. Sensible. Read More...

---

Hiring a rubbish skip - sizes, waste types and tips

Household waste can accumulate during the course of normal life, or it can be as a result of a renovation, new driveway or new fence. One of the most difficult things about DIY is rubbish removal - because unless you have a ute, getting rubbish to the tip can be troublesome. Rent a skip for a week or more, fill it up, and watch it being taken away. Read More...

---

How do you tell if you need to restump or reblock your home?

Many Australian homes have a foundation of stumps. Wooden stumps to support your house were common up until the most recent years when concrete stumps became more popular. The reason why concrete stumps became more popular is because wood can only be expected to last between 20 and 80 years depending on the type of timber, soil conditions and other factors like drainage and pests. Archicentre has said that up to 30% of timber stumped homes need an immediate full or partial restump, so your house could very well need to be restumped. What are the symptoms of stump rot or movement? Read More...