Home Improvement Tool and Toy Reviews

If you watch the news at all you know that the housing market is beginning to suffer around most of the country. The areas that seem hardest hit are those that are on the west and east coasts. Here is Central Texas we have yet to see a real slowdown in the market as new houses continue to go up all over the place.

Our neighborhood in Round Rock is in the close-out stage and I believe that there are less then 10 houses available for sale. These house have at the bare minimum had their foundations poured which a couple are already finished with grass in the front yard. It will nice when these final houses are sold and we do not have any more construction in our neighborhood.

But even as they finish our neighborhood there are model homes being built if a brand new neighborhood that is being built just to the north of us. This neighborhood is set to be priced even higher then ours.

The reason I think things are still going strong in the Austin/Round rock area is that they never really got out of control. In talking with the real estate agent that helped us get our house she said that the prices only increased about 4% a year for the last several years in our area. This is a far cry from how prices increased in California over the last 7 years.

In California the house that I paid $177,000 for in 2001 went up to $440,000 last year. It is now down to $360K. We walked way with a healthy profit from the house when we sold it in 2003 which was nice. I wish we would have been able to hold out until last year but we were hit by the dot com bust and had to sell. We learned our lesson about the economy back then which was one of the reasons we call to Central Texas.

Here we were able to get a really nice house for a reasonable price. If the economy goes bad again we will be able to hold up much better this time around and will be able to keep our house. Unfortunately even though a lot of people were affected by the dot com bust they did not learn and are setting themselves up to hurt by the next bust - the housing bubble. If the economy takes a turn for the worst and people start losing their jobs again all these people with these expensive mortgages are going to lose their houses.

I think if things do start to go bad that Central Texas will not be affected as bad as the majority of the rest of the country - that’s one of the things that makes this such a great place to live.

Technorati: Housing Market, Texas, Austin TX, Round Rock TX, Home Improvement

Things are really heating up over at The Masters House blog concerning the DR Horton Warranty Problems that I have been having. They really are not big issues but getting them fixed has become a very big deal.

It all stems from the fact that every time (yes EVERYTIME) I call them out to fix something on our new house they do not fix it correctly. They either do not finish it or they create a new issue while fixing the existing one.

Basically I had to do 4 levels up in the warranty department before I could get someone to actually get my issues addressed. Well actually they have not been addressed yet but hopefully Mike of DR Horton will come through for me.

Check out the post and let me know if you have had any issues with DR Horton.

UPDATE: THIS HERCULES HOOKS SET NOW COMES WITH A FREE LASER LEVEL!

Since I get a lot of traffic on this website for the Hercules Hooks I decided to search the internet to see if they really work.

Hercules Hooks as been tested along with several other As Seen On TV products and has passed with flying colors. KLTV 7 news tried the Hercules Hooks and found that it worked as advertised and was actually pretty easy to use. The full article by KLTV 7 can be see here.

So what would you use the Hercules Hooks for? I know one thing that it would come in handy for - hanging up Christmas decorations up in the house. If all you have to do is take the Hercules Hooks and press it into the wall then putting up decorations would be really quick.

The other thing the Hercules Hooks could be used for would be around the garage. If you garage is like mine it has drywall in it. I don’t know about you but I have a lot of things sitting around on top of my work bench that the Hercules Hook could take care of.

I guess the biggest thing that makes the Hercules Hooks unique is that they are so simple to use. All you have to do is take the hook, press it into your drywall, twist, and it is ready to use.

It doesn’t get much easier then that!

In my search around the internet I tried to find the most reputable company to buy the Hercules Hooks from for the best price. You can get the Hercules Hook and the Free Laser Level at amazon.com for $14.95 which is a deal.

Happy hanging with the Hercules Hooks!

Technorati Tags: Hercules Hooks, Hooks, Hanging Things, As Seen On TV, Hercules

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I like coffee. No, let me say that different - I like GOOD coffee.

There is a difference.

The difference is that when you take a sip of good coffee you have to stop and enjoy it because it tastes so good. Regular everyday coffee is something that you just drink quickly to get the effect of the caffeine.

For Christmas I would really like to have a good coffee machine that I can make good Cafe Mochas with. To decide which coffee machine I would need I did a little research.

What I found out was that I would need an Espresso coffee maker but that it would not need to be that expensive since I want it for Mochas and Lattes. The difference between a regular coffee maker is that the espresso machines boil the water at a much higher temperature then a regular coffee maker. Since the water is so much hotter it releases more of the favor of the coffee for a much butter taste.

This is definitely something that is going on my Christmas list!

Technorati Tags: Coffee, Espresso, Mochas, Lattes

This awesome and funny computer animation with a cool hamster. My favorite part is at the end when they are trying to use “the mouse” to get on the internet. I saw the sign for Blockbuster Video in the background - does anyone know if this was an actual commercial for blockbuster?

Technorati Tags: Hamster, Computer Animation, CG

Wow, I am finding a lot of cool information out there this morning in my quest for vacation spots abroad.

This time I found a site about Bath UK which is a great tourist stop. Bath has a several different museums, galleries, gardens, and different attractions that are all unique to the United Kingdom.

The Web site that I found this on is heritagecities.com. NBot only do they have information on Bath but Brighton, Chester, Oxford, Stratfort and York which are all famous cities in the UK. They have a lot of details on each f the places and also provide a chart of distance between each so that you can plan to visit all of them.

My wife has never been to Europe and I have only been once so I am really excited about taking her.

Technorati Tags: Bath, Brighton, Chester, Oxford, Stratfort, York

Well my wife, my father-in-law, and my brother-in-law have all been working on the house a lot over the last few weeks (we took this weekend off ). What we have been doing was building a wall to turn our unused formal dining room into a room for my brother-in-law while he stays with us. The room is really for my youngest son but my brother-in-law is going to use it for a little while.

Anyway, yesterday we finally decided on the paint that we are going to use to paint to shelf area that I built into the wall in the hallway. We went with a light forest green color. We used the scanner at out local Home Depot to pick out the color so it would match the mocha color that is already in the rest of the house. We also pick out a deep red color that is going to go in the kitchen.

My wife once heard that a little paint on the walls can give a house some character. We are about to find out!

Technorati Tags: Home Improvement, DIY, Painting, Construction

The the As Seen on TV folks have come out with their latest goodie which I think is really cool - Hercules Hook�.

What they are is little pin type of hooks that you twist and then push into the wall - no hammer needed. Then you can hang anything you want on the wall up to 150lbs.

The thing that I like about them is that they seem to blend into the wall really well as opposed to nails that can really be eye sores.

You can get them at amazon.com.

Technorati: Hercules Hooks, As Seen On TV

My brother-in-law is going to moving out to Texas with us in another month or so and a have so we have preparations to do like finishing the room.

One of the other things that I needed to do was find storage facility for some of his stuff since we will not have room for it all. I was going to go to the place down the street but after getting the price I want to look around. That is when I found Self Storage Directory - Moving.bz.

At Moving.bz you can get up to four quotes for storage from local companies. Once you find a company that you like their price you can send them your contact info from the site and the storage company will contact you.

I am glad I checked them out before committing to that other storage place.

Technorati: Self Storage, Moving.bz

You have to thank God that someone finally came up with this type of can opener.

It’s called the One Touch Can Opener. This thing is the bomb.

You do not have to worry about metal lid falling in the can with this thing because it cuts the side of the can instead. I know I am not the only one that’s been opening a can and have the dusty lid fall into the can - there goes dinner.

Also, and this is gross I know, but you do not have to worry about cutting your finger getting the lid out (I am cringing while I type this - insert sound of little girl screaming here).

Ok, enough of that. This thing will save you from all things wicked that attempt to part you from that can of pork n’ beans. Get one.

Technorati: One Touch Can Opener, Can Opener, Nasty Cuts