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© St. Petersburg Times, published January 11, 2003
A can of tricks
If painting a ceiling is on your list of things to do in the new year, your job just got easier. Ace Hardware's new Simply Magic Ceiling Paint goes on blue, so you can see where you've painted, then dries to a pure white in about 24 hours. A packet of blue dye additive is attached to the top of the paint can. Just before painting, you squeeze the contents into the paint and stir. An ingredient reacts with sunlight so that the blue fades away in about a day. The paint is $17.99 a gallon, only at Ace Hardware stores.
Is it the low mortgage interest rates? Is it the otherwise dismal state of the economy? Neither. The reason 25 percent of potential home buyers will look for a new home in 2003 is that they need more space. Men between the ages of 45 and 54 were more concerned about more space than was any other segment of the respondents surveyed by Yahoo Real Estate and Harris Interactive. Twenty percent said they're house-hunting for investment purposes. Eighty-four percent of respondents said low mortgage interest rates had no bearing on their decision to look for a new home, and 75 percent brushed off concerns about the economy or their employment.
Okay, it looks like a ray gun, but this is actually a useful tool. The Raytek MiniTemp MT4 is a portable infrared thermometer that measures surface temperatures. Trying to spot air leaks around windows or doors? Point the MiniTemp at them and look at the digital readout. It's also useful for gauging the temperature of refrigerators and freezers, air conditioning or heating supply vents, pool water or greenhouse temperatures, or serving temperatures of foods and beverages, including baby formula and food, or in candymaking and canning, when exact temperatures matter. It measures from 0 to 525 degrees F. It's $99 at NAPA Auto Parts stores; learn more at www.raytek.com.
Here's a tip from TV handyman Ron Hazelton's Favorite Home Improvement Tips, available at Lowe's: If you're facing a broken light bulb, first make sure the power is off. Then take a dry bar of soap, insert one corner of the bar into the socket and twist. The socket should come right out. If the bulb broke because the socket was frozen in place, coat the threads of the replacement bulb with petroleum jelly so it unthreads easily next time.
-- Compiled by Homes editor JUDY STARK