Pick up presents for your house
Why not give your home a holiday gift this year? It could be some do-ityourself equipment or a new showerhead in the bathroom or a unique kitchen tool or appliance. We’ve put together several possibilities:
ON THE HOUSE
Handles
How many times has this happened? You walk up to a door with your hands full — bags of groceries, a briefcase, whatever — and you can’t open the door without putting down what you are carrying. Now Brinks Security has a line of what’s called Push-Pull-Rotate door handles ($25 to $55) that can be installed on interior and exterior doors.
The handles can be opened easily with a fingertip, hip or elbow or rotated like a traditional knob or lever, so you don’t have to put down your parcels to get through the door. The handles can be purchased with deadbolts for exterior doors. Obviously, you still have to unlock the door first in those situations. Cost varies if a lock is part of the handle package.
Modular tools
Look for tool kits that save space, money and time for the handyman or handywoman in a home workshop or garage. One possibility is the Matrix modular power-tool line from Black & Decker. You start by buying the basic cordless Matrix Drill/ Driver. You can do much more than drill or drive in screws with this piece of equipment. You simply pull the drill/driver off of the battery apparatus and attach another device.
Buy as many of the other 10 attachments as you want — an oscillating tool for cutting drywall, metal, wood and more; a high-torque impact driver for driving screws and large fasteners; jigsaw for precision cutting; detail sander; trim saw for plywood or paneling; router for decorative woodworking; or a
reciprocating saw for rough cutting and pruning. Each fits into the battery that powers all the tools.
You’ll need a battery charger as well. The basic tool sells for about $70 but can go higher depending on special features in its design. Attachments, batteries and so on cost more. A cheaper 12-volt system is also available. Craftsman has a similar modular set with the name Bolt-On. that can pipe in up to seven hours of music and more using any Bluetooth device. The spray face of this showerhead has 60 angled nozzles that deliver full, enveloping spray. The magnetic speakers that come in several colors pop easily in and out of the showerhead so that you can recharge the lithium ion battery.
Hand-cranked radios
A wide range of handcranked radios are sold in retail stores and online that are perfect for emergencies at home or camping trips in the great outdoors. Prices range from a little over $10 to close to $100. Some include an LED flashlight and can operate on solar power as well as power produced by cranking. Some can recharge your cellphone. Be sure it’s NOAA-certified so you can pick up National Weather Service channels. No home should be without one of these.
Universal remote
models have help buttons that can reprogram everything when you have a problem. If it can’t do the job, it will ask you questions until it gets the answer to fixing your connections. After one of these devices is programmed, it can turn on all your electronic “toys” at once. You can also switch from DVDs to CDs to radio or whatever by pushing one button.
Mason jars
Remember Mason jars? Those molded glass jars invented in the 1800s for home canning are being used everywhere. You can buy a dozen jars for about $10. Then you buy plastic lids ($8 each) from coppow.com to turn these jars into travel mugs. Why would this be better than other travel mugs? Well, the heavy glass keeps ice inside from melting quickly, and the Cuppow lids allow for spill-free sipping. You can also buy pumps for the top of the Mason jars to make them into reusable liquid-soap dispensers.
Herb scissors
blades after the job is done. Also great are the green herb snips from WilliamsSonoma ($13) with blades that never need sharpening. Although this pair doesn’t have multiple blades, it has on-blade strippers to get thyme and rosemary leaves off their woody stems.