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How to Install a Picket Fence

An expert's step-by-step guide to digging postholes and assembling panels for a picket fence
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Closing Your Vacation Home for the Season

It was a blast relaxing in your home away from home but now it's time to winterize it. Here are the steps you need to take.
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How to Design Small Baths So They Feel Roomier

Our tips range from the practical—use a pocket door to the psychological—choose one large mirror
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Clear Choices for Windows

A buyer's guide to materials, styles and money-saving options.
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How to Install a Lockset

A step-by-step guide from This Old House master carpenter Norm Abram
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Colonial Revival Architecture

Recalling the Good Old Days
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Tight-Fitting Floor Boards

A tip for laying tongue-and-groove flooring
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How to Build a Great Gazebo

Whether custom designed or built from a kit, a backyard pavilion provides a perfect place to unwind.
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Perfect Paneling Seams

If you can't get a perfectly tight fit between the sheets, you can at least hide the evidence
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For the Love of Vinyl Siding

Look beyond the never-to-be-settled debate over siding's merits/sins. It's an affordable, energy-conscious update. It can even look good.
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How to Hang a Porch Swing

Precisely measuring the enjoyment porch swings provide is difficult, but a good place to start is monitoring how long your smile lasts.
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The Art of Graining

For his next trick: master refinisher John Dee transforms MDF into wood.
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How to Build a Simple Deck

This Old House general contractor Tom Silva's method for constructing a handsome on-grade deck.
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The Winchester House

Healthy but tired, the 1920's Colonial Revival in Winchester got an improved kitchen and master suite, an updated heating plant, and a cosmetic freshening inside and out.
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How to Make Sense of Zoning

Local codes can be complicated, and running afoul of them costly. Here are ways homeowners can protect themselves from zoning hassles.
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How to Install a Toilet

This Old House plumbing expert Richard Trethewey's method for putting in a new toilet—or replacing an old one.
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How GFCI Receptacles Keep You Safe

Two-thirds of all electrocutions in U.S. homes could be prevented if people installed the receptacles.
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The Right Brush

For the perfect paint job, invest in the best.
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Landscaping a Sloped Lot

Retaining walls, decks, and native plants give the finishing touch to a timeless home.
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What to Know About Repointing Brick

Touching up like a pro means using the right mortar. Lime-based putties take longer to set but they won't break bricks.
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Renovating a '60s Split Level Without Divorcing It From Its Roots

The update of a '60s-era kitchen increases the room's efficiency while retaining its period flavor
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Pros and Cons of a Whole House Vacuum System

Wondering if installing a central vacuum system is worth it? Here’s one homeowner’s experience.
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Advances in Clear-Coats Make Them More Practical

See-through exterior finishes more closely match their makers' marketing hype
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The Silent Treatment

Taking the squeak out of wood floors
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How to Silence Your Squeaky Stairs

Tired of squeaky steps? Identify the source of sound and learn how to fix it to get quiet stairs.