I’m not looking for sympathy, but I am struggling to survive during this brutal cold snap.It’s difficult to cope with soul-destroying weather when you have been abandoned by your family. The close-up of Doug Speirs barbecued steaks, which tasted like victory in the middle of a cold snap. I mean that in the sense my wife, She Who Must Not Be Named, has left for a few days to drive our daughter, She Who Is Embarrassed By Her Father, back to university in Thunder Bay.Which means for the past few days I have been left under the supervision of our two dogs, neither of whom are particularly skilled caregivers.I have tried to carry on with life as though everything were normal, but, thanks to the bitter cold and a city snowplow, the dogs and I have been effectively cut off from civilization.This became clear the other morning when I bravely went outside to climb in my car and drive to the office. Which is when I discovered that my driveway had been sealed in by a wall of snow left behind by a city snowplow.
Courageously, I grabbed one of our old snow shovels and attacked the windrow, which had frozen into a tiny wall of ice, resulting in the business end of the shovel, which was made from moulded plastic, shattering like a (bad word) icicle.Shoulders slumped, I trudged back to the garage in search of a more serious metal shovel. Which is when I bravely attempted to open the garage door to see whether, after clearing the snow barrier, I’d be able to get my car out.What you need to know here is that my wife is the only person on the planet with the magical touch required to operate our finicky mechanical garage-door opener when the mercury plummets to absurdly cold levels.Summoning a sense of optimism, I punched the button to activate the opener, which caused the door to creep upwards about an inch before, groaning loudly, the motor shut down, which you can tell because the little light under its plastic casing shuts off.When this happens, the only way to turn the motor back on is to pick up the broom we keep in the garage and use it to firmly whack the motor to let it know who is in charge.
This causes the light to go back on, allowing you to race back to the button, press it again and watch the garage door noisily creep up another few inches before grinding to a halt.I will conservatively estimate I stood there, a shivering human popsicle, for about half an hour, heroically pushing the button, whacking the garage door motor with the broom, and experimenting with various forms of profanity, while the ancient door crept open by roughly two feet, which, although I am not a physicist, is not enough space for my car to drive under.If you had been able to eavesdrop, it sounded like this: PRESS! In the end, no longer able to feel my extremities, I slumped back into the house and explained to the dogs that I would be working from home until my beloved spouse returned and took charge of the situation.I wish I could tell you that was the end of our troubles, but it turns out the garage door opener was the leader of a massive revolt involving the rest of our major home appliances.It is with a sense of shame I confess that I was also unable to successfully operate the dishwasher, the washer and dryer and, worst of all, our high-tech coffee maker, which means I am wandering around in stinky clothes, eating from dirty dishes and engaging in these activities without the medical benefit of daily caffeine.
I was just about to lose hope and lie down on the living-room rug with the dogs, when, suddenly and without warning, an important thought popped into my brain.I realized there was one appliance that has never let me down, even when the going gets tough, even when the weather becomes so cold that squirrels desperately fling their tiny bodies into electric fences.I am, of course, referring to my beloved propane barbecue, which is parked on the small, crumbling patio outside our back door.I looked down at the dogs and, with grim determination, bravely declared: "FROZEN SOLID OR NOT, WE ARE HAVING BARBECUED STEAKS FOR DINNER!"And so, a few hours later, armed with a flashlight and bundled up in an impressive array of parkas, scarves and fuzzy sheepskin slippers, there I was, scraping the snow and ice from the top of my state-of-the-art grill.With no thought for my own safety and the dogs looking on from our picture window, I hovered over the blazing grill, keeping watch over a juicy ribeye steak, a hunk of tenderloin and a baseball-sized sirloin.
I am not trying to paint myself as a hero, the kind of person who, when left to his own devices, bravely steps up to the plate and confronts the worst Mother Nature can dish out, but there’s one thing I want you to know — on a bitterly cold, cruel night, those steaks tasted like... victory.The Home Depot Black Friday flyer is here and it has some truly excellent deals! The Hoover WindTunnel Air Lite Upright Vacuum is $98.00 (down from $198.00) and the Milwaukee M12 Cordless LITHIUM-ION 2-Tool Combo Kit is $118.00 (down from $199.00). There are tons of other appliance, home decor and tool/DIY buys available as well -- read on for all the details! This flyer is effective online and in Home Depot stores (where available) until November 30. Select products are eligible for free shipping while shipping rates for other products are determined by size and destination -- enter your postal code in your cart to receive a shipping estimate.Garage doors lead pretty simple lives. Up, down, up, down, over and over until they suddenly don't work the way they should.
Fortunately, that simple life usually makes for relatively simple repairs. Sometimes, though, even reliable old garage doors bite the dust.If you are having trouble with your garage door, here are some tips on what to do.When your garage door starts acting up, more often than not it is telling you it's time to do a bit of maintenance. So, before hitting the panic button, try these simple repairs. First, examine the rollers and tracks. If you can't remember the last time you cleaned them (and they look the part!), give them a good brushing and then add some lubricant. Next, perform these simple garage door maintenance tasks.If none of this fixes your problems, or if you would rather just let someone else fuss with the problem, take a look at How To Find the Best Garage Door Installers and Repairmen.Noisy garage doors cause all kinds problems, especially for anyone who has to sleep above or next to the garage. Fortunately, most noisy garage door problems can be fixed with a combination of routine maintenance and the replacement of a few parts.
For more information on the latter, see How To Quiet a Noisy Garage Door.It is precisely on those coldest days of the year when you most need and appreciate the convenience of opening and closing your garage door quickly. Sadly, those also happen to be the kinds of days when cold and moisture combine to make this difficult. Garage doors can and do freeze to the garage floor. Sometimes it is a minor icy connection between the two that can be broken when you hit the opener button.Other times, however, the door refuses to budge. When this happens to you, stop hoping that if you hit that button enough times, a miracle will happen. About the only thing that is going to happen is that you cause a much bigger problem with the garage door opener (including, but not limited to, stripped gears, broken coils and burned out motor).Instead, take a few moments that break the connection. Use a heat gun or hair dryer to melt the ice. Standard de-icing products will also work. And, if you are careful not to damage the door or the seal on the bottom of the door, use a flat shovel or similar tool to chip away at the ice.
Once you get the door open, clear any water, ice or snow from the spot on the garage floor where the door rests when closed. That way, you should be able to plan on getting the door open next time you need it.I don't know about your record, but I have broken the glass on garage doors from both the inside and the outside. In the former case, I put the end of a 2x4 through a pane, and in the latter (and a much more common occurrence) an errant pass with a basketball (or perhaps it was a fit of anger after yet another missed shot) did the duty. Regardless of the cause, this is one problem you want to fix as soon as possible. Broken glass is a safety issue, a security problem, and an invitation to every bird and hornet in the neighborhood to make your garage their next home.It's not difficult to replace a pane of glass. Learn how with these instructions.Garage doors are much safer these days than they used to be. That is especially true of garage doors equipped with garage door openers.
Older garage door openers did not have the kinds of safety features that would stop them before closing on a child or pet wandering in or out of the garage while the door closed. That made for many tragic stories.But the improvements in safety haven't eliminated safety concerns when it comes to garage doors. Everyone needs to understand how to stay safe in the garage. See 10 Garage Door Safety Tips for some suggestions.Have you ever noticed just how much you use, and rely on, your garage door opener? Sure, we spend the big bucks for attractive front doors to our homes, but for many of us, the actual coming and going takes place through the garage. And that means we depend on the garage door opening and closing at the press of a button.So, when the garage door opener decides to take a day off, it can leave you stuck outside, probably during a rain or snow storm. Though they may seem complicated, there really are several things most homeowners can do to diagnose and repair opener failures.
A good place to start is with Troubleshooting the Most Common Garage Door Opener Problems.There are really only a couple of reasons why you would consider replacing your garage door. Either is has stopped working properly, or you are sick of the way it looks. Most often, it is some combination of those two factors.Unfortunately, shopping for a new garage door isn't a particularly easy process. Most of us rarely perform this type of shopping, and there really aren't a lot of consumer publications offering solid information on the best choices.It helps to break things down into bite-sized pieces. Your first thought might be along the lines of "What is a new garage door going to cost me?" A good place to look for answers to that question is with these frequently asked questions about the costs of a new garage door.From there, you ought to consider the different materials that garage doors are constructed from (see Choosing the Best Garage Door Material. Once you understand something about materials, you then need to make sure you choose the style of garage door that best complements your house.