Home Repair 101: Replacing a Doorbell

After more than a decade at our current home, I know a few things are bound to go wrong sooner or later. We've been pretty lucky so far, but this summer, we discovered one day that our doorbell no longer worked! Not a big deal until people started commenting about stopping by to find no one at home (at times when we actually WERE there.) Hmmmm...after a brief investigation, we found the doorbell was only ringing about half the time.

I put off doing anything for a while, because I assumed it would mean calling an electrician, or in other words, Ca-Ching $$$$!! So for a while, we solved the problem with this:

And this:

(He does a great job of letting us know when someone is at the door!)

But occasionally, he decides to take a nap, so I did some research.  I found out that if the doorbell button is the cause of the problem, its relatively easy to fix.  If the chime itself is broken, that's another story.

Its an easy test to and see if the button that is the problem.  First, remove the old button, and you should see two wires. Disconnect them from the old button.

Now, just take the exposed ends of the wires & touch them together. (Don't worry, you won't get shocked or anything like that!)  If the doorbell "rings" then the button is bad & needs to be replaced. That was the case with mine.

So you'll need to get a new button at your local hardware or home improvement store (Menard's was my choice).

You will attach the two wires to the new button with two little screws on the back side of the button.

the wires can go in either place - it shouldn't matter whether white is on top or red.

I actually had a little trouble attaching the button to the siding of my house (the holes were a little too big for the new screws) So I used another trick I learned - as you can see in the picture above, I stuck some toothpicks into the holes to help the screws stay in more securely.

And here it is! Maybe I will add a video clip of myself pushing the button so you can see just how wonderfully it works now....or maybe not, you'll just have to take my word for it!

**Disclaimer: this is not actual professional advice. Please consult your local electrician, contractor, or doorbell specialist for detailed instructions or help in replacing YOUR doorbell! :)

Pinterest...Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down

Recently I found some GREAT ideas on Pinterest that I tried out at home. One was a definite winner, and the other one, not so much!

The first idea I found was definitely a "Thumbs Up!" I had a ton of green onions in my garden this summer, and although I love to use them in a lot of different recipes, I knew I would never go through all of them before they froze out in the garden or wilted away in the house. So, I was very excited to find this little tip!

Wash & cut up your green onions:

I added another step and spread them out on a cookie sheet, then popped them in the freezer overnight. They were easier to work with and didn't stick together in a big clump.

Next, I put them into a clean, empty water bottle:

Put them back in the freezer, and just pour out the amount you need for your recipe! How easy is that?! I now have 3 bottles full of onions ready to use this winter!

Now, on to the "Thumbs Down" pin...

I had SUCH high hopes for this one....I went back to the blog it came from & read through all the comments raving about this cleaning tip, then ran right out to get some Barkeeper's Friend of my own...

So the tip was a magical way to get rid of scratches on dishes. All you had to do was scrub with Barkeeper's Friend liquid. The picture in the pin even looked just like MY dishes, which I believe are from the "White & Gray Scratchy" Pfaltzgraff collection. They are soooo bad that it's really kind of embarrassing to have people over to eat!

And after scrubbing with BKF:

Amazing, right? They're like brand new dishes! But wait, there's more...here is a picture one meal after BKF...

Not completely scratch-filled like it was before, but not perfectly white either. :(  I'm not sure what to do now - I only cleaned a few plates just to try it out, so I guess I could do them all once and gradually let the scratches build up again, then break out the BKF for another round of cleaning. Or I could just ignore it like I was before & use paper plates when we have a crowd over! I have been checking out some Fiesta Ware lately, so maybe now is the time to make the change! Either way, I think I'll stay away from white dishes from now on!

Changes Underway...?

As you can tell, I've been playing around with the look of my blog. I changed my background to something a little more lively, and I really like it! I would love to do an update on my header, but that's an area where my skills are lacking! I'd love to learn more about blog design, my strategy so far has been a "trial-and-error" process - just trying things on my own to see if they work! I have figured out some basics - like making myself a button (would also like to re-design that!), adding "link-within" links, Linky followers, email followers, etc. If anyone knows of a good book or website with advice on this kind of stuff, I'd love to hear about it!

Blog Hop

You may have noticed that I recently added the Linky Follower tool to my blog. It seems to be the "wave of the future" around Blog Land, so to speak! With the news that Google Friend Connect is being discontinued (to anyone without a Blogger account) the Linky follower tool is catching on like wildfire. I signed up for an account this week, and so far I'm liking what I see!  

Anyway...on with the post! Last night I found a Linky Party Follower Hop on one of my favorite blogs, Gallamore West so I thought I'd sign up!  I'm posting the information here as well if you want to join in!

I was a little confused at first (as I always am with any new thing requiring me to link, cut, paste, copy codes, or do anything that resembles being a smart computer person!) But it turned out to be very easy! Feel free to comment or email me if you have any questions and I'll do my best to help you out!

Here are the RULES:

 

1. You MUST have the LINKY FOLLOWERS tool on your site to participate.

If you see that your link has been deleted you need to add the LINKY FOLLOWER tool to your site and then come back over and re-enter your link {You can have both the LINKY FOLLOWERS & GFC on your site but you must have the LINKY FOLLOWERS tool to participate in this party hop.}

2. You MUST follow the person who has the party on their site as a thank you. (Leave me a comment letting me know & I'll follow you back, too!)

3. Add your blog button to the LINKY PARTY below.

4.Then grab the BLOG HOP code

5. Last (the FUN part!) Follow as many other bloggers as you want!

You will find the code right under the Linky Party where it says CLICK HERE TO ENTER–just under that it says: WHAT IS A BLOG HOP? GET THE CODE HERE. Click on GET THE CODE HERE and enter it into a post on your site. You can grab info from my post if it helps you with your post.

Be sure to leave each one of the blogs that you follow a comment letting them know you are following them and ask them to follow you back. If you want to add the BLOG HOP to your own site you will get lots of new followers (see rule #2)

So go ahead and add your link, check out Linky Followers, and have fun!!

Pinterest Stalking

I'm a little slow in the post department this week, folks! I apologize! But I just wanted to share something I learned a while ago.  If you have a blog and are curious whether any of your projects have been "pinned" on Pinterest, there's a SUPER EASY way to find out!

Just put this into your browser:

http://pinterest.com/source/YOUR BLOG URL HERE/

So, to look up my pins, I use the following link:

http://pinterest.com/source/crazyiniowa.blogspot.com/

Easy, huh? It's kind of fun to stalk Pinterest look around & see how many of your own things are being pinned!

And I promise I'll be back soon with a "real" post!

Are you a "No-Reply" Blogger?

Last night I was hopping around on the internet & found a very interesting post about "No-Reply" Bloggers. Are you a No-Reply Blogger? Well, I sure was, and didn't even realize it. Maybe you are one, too!

You are a "No-Reply" Blogger if you don't have an email address associated with your Blogger profile. It's not a huge deal, BUT, suppose you leave a wonderful comment on someone else's blog and they are so overwhelmed with gratitude that they want to send an email back thanking you. They click on your profile to email back, and WHAM! They get a message saying the comment was posted by a "No-Reply" Blogger. They have no way to contact you and their efforts to thank you are halted. Darn, that's frustrating.

Anyway, I realized I was one of the offenders in this category. I had no idea! Since my email address wasn't listed publicly on my profile, no one was able to email me back when I left comments. I changed the setting, put in my crazyforcrafts@live.com email, and I'm happy to say I am no longer a "No-Reply" Blogger! ANNNNNDDD, less than 24 hours after adding it, I got my first email replying to a comment I'd posted last night. Funny how that works!

I wish I would have pinned or bookmarked the blog I found this on, because they had a GREAT explanation of the whole thing. But I was so excited that I closed it out without thinking. Grrrrrr! Anyway, here are the easy steps if you'd like to leave the world of No-Reply Blogging:

1) Log in to your Blogger account & click on Blogger Profile

2) Click Edit Profile

3) Check the Show My Email Address box (DON'T WORRY! If you don't want your personal email address shared with the world, just create a new email for blog use only. Just remember to check it once in a while!) And you will still use your original email address to log in to Blogger.

4) Enter the email address of your choice in the Email Address field

5) Click Save Profile. That's it!

Yay!! You are now a "Reply-To-Me" Blogger (Isn't that great? It's a new term, I just made it up.) :)