Maintenance in Home & Garage

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Resole the boots you already broke in

How to tell whether your boots can take a new sole, what a good cobbler will and won't do, and when to stop throwing money at them.

GuideSkillsWes Dunbar23 Sept 20266 min

Clearing your gutters before the water finds your foundation

Two afternoons a year on a ladder is the cheapest structural work you will ever do on your house.

Ask BRO

Give me something to do with my kids this weekend

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GuideAutosDean Shaw23 Sept 20266 min

Change Your Own Brake Pads Before Lunch on Saturday

Front pads on a normal car take about ninety minutes, two jack stands and one tool most guys don't own yet. What goes wrong, and how to avoid it.

Names.com — The name is the first thing you sell

PartnerNames.com

Woodworking6 min read

The mower that won't start, and the order to check it

Nine times in ten it's the fuel, not the engine. A working order for diagnosis, and the point where you stop and buy a new machine.

Poll

When did you last ask for a raise?

GuideSkillsWes Dunbar23 Sept 20266 min

Paint a room in the order a painter actually does it

Cut in one wall at a time, keep a wet edge, and never stop for lunch halfway up a wall. The rest is prep.

GuideAutosDean Shaw23 Sept 20266 min

Rotate your tires at home and read what the tread tells you

An hour in the driveway twice a year buys you thousands of extra miles and an early warning on your alignment, your shocks and your right foot.

CancerDefying.com — The research, protocols and reading in one place

PartnerCancerDefying.com

GuideWoodworkingWes Dunbar23 Sept 20266 min

Turning a storage garage into a working shop

Light, power, wall space and one bench you can always get to. The order you do it in decides whether anything ever gets finished.

Quiz

Is your money actually in order?

Six questions. No email required, no sales pitch at the end.

GuideSkillsWes Dunbar23 Sept 20266 min

Why Your Car Won't Start, Worked Out In Order

Listen to the sound it makes, check one number on the battery, and you'll know whether this is a ten-minute fix or a tow.

GuideAutosDean Shaw23 Sept 20266 min

The Saturday morning truck detail, start to finish

Five hours, one driveway, and an order of operations that keeps you from scratching the paint you just cleaned.

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Pressure-test my business idea

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GuideGearWes Dunbar23 Sept 20265 min

Buy the cheap drill. Never buy the cheap jack stands.

A working line between the tools where price buys you nothing and the ones where it buys you a finished job and ten fingers.

Coconut.com — Tell us when. We find where the sun is.

PartnerCoconut.com

GuideSkillsWes Dunbar23 Sept 20266 min

Splitting a cord by hand without wrecking your back

The block height, the swing, the rounds that will never split, and how to stack so the bottom row isn't rotten by spring.

Poll

How many days a week are you actually training?

GuideBRO SeniorsCal Brennan22 Sept 20266 min

The household manual only you can write

Start with the water shutoff and the names in the photographs, twenty minutes at a time, and tell somebody where you put it.

GuideGearWes Dunbar22 Sept 20266 min

Build Your Toolkit One Job at a Time

Skip the 200-piece set. Buy the tool the job demands, learn what it does, and end up with a box that's all useful.

PartnerWhackAWoke.com

GuideSkillsWes Dunbar23 Sept 20266 min

Why patios sink, and how to build one that doesn't

The flat patio and the wavy one get built the same way above ground. The difference is what happened in the first afternoon.

Quiz

Does your wardrobe actually fit you?

Five questions, honestly answered, and a plan for the next fortnight.

Country Style5 min

Leather fails from neglect long before it wears out

Gear6 min

The Pocket Knife You'll Still Be Carrying In Ten Years

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Rehearse the raise conversation with me

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GuideSkillsWes Dunbar23 Sept 20266 min

Sharpen a knife, an axe and a mower blade the same way

Three tools, three angles, one test. Do them in this order and you'll stop guessing whether the edge is actually finished.

Dude.com — 16 advisers who listen, talk and pray with you

PartnerDude.com

Gadgets5 min read

How to buy a laptop that's still good in five years

Most laptops don't die. They get slow, swollen and unrepairable — and almost all of that's decided the day you buy.

Poll

Where does your best time with your kids happen?

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