I came across a story about some folks in California who bought new kitchen cabinets for their new house. Before taking delivery, they tested the cabinets for formaldehyde. California has a new standard for formaldehyde emissions that went into effect at the beginning of the year.

The tests showed that the cabinets exceeded the new standards, yet because these cabinets were built with materials produced before the new standard went into effect, they were exempt.

Formaldehyde is found in adhesives used in many wood and wood-based products over the years. I discussed its presence in kitchen cabinets in Shopping for Green Kitchen Cabinets. I also prepared this list of sources for formaldehyde-free cabinets.

But if you are buying cabinets in California, expecting to get products that contain little if any formaldehyde, keep in mind that cabinets built with products manufactured before 2009 do not have to comply.

Photo © flickr/Creative Commons

You’ve almost certainly seen plenty of them—those little pimple-like bumps in a drywalled wall or ceiling. Just as likely is that you’ve noticed little indentations in a drywalled surface. Both are common problems stemming from the nails or screws used to attach the drywall to framing beneath.

Some people just learn to live with things like this. Others, like me, become obsessed with them to the point where a repair becomes necessary for continued sanity.

This is really a simple repair, as I’ve explained in this instructional article. But there is one matter that can turn it into a big undertaking, and that is the paint. Yes, painting is easy. But matching paint can be a pain in the neck.

I always recommend that when you paint a room, you be sure to put some extra paint in storage for times like this. If you have a whole bunch of small pops to repair, the finished project will look good as new if you can exactly match the original paint job. If you have to go to the paint store to try and match the paint, however, there is a very good chance that you will not be happy with the results. In a case like this, it’s probably best to save the nail pop repairs until you are ready to paint the whole room.

It may be a bit counterintuitive—the idea that creating “space” could actually increase the value of your home—but every real estate agent worth her or his salt will tell you that space sells. Storage space, that is. In fact, the authors of Home Staging for Dummies claim that adequate storage space is the second most appealing feature for potential homebuyers.

The lesson here is two-fold. Add storage space when and where you can. You will almost certainly make use of it while you own the house. And when it comes time to sell the house, clean up the storage spaces you have. Make them look as abundant and tidy as possible, whether it is the closets or the kitchen cabinets or the shelves on the garage walls.

• Installing Wall Shelves

Photo © Ruth L

I haven’t kept an exact count, but I would venture to guess that table saws have been responsible for more lost fingers among people I’ve known than any other power tool—or anything else, for that matter. After writing about DIYers and safety the other day, I came across this YouTube video featuring a fellow named Steve Gass and his creation, the SawStop table saw.

The SawStop is a fully functional table saw that is equipped with a blade that stops turning the moment it senses a conductive item, such as a human finger, nearby. The SawStop folks created quite a buzz a few years ago demonstrating their saw’s functionality by using a hot dog as a surrogate thumb. It was quite remarkable to see this blade, spinning at 5,000 rpms, stop in 1/1,000 of a second, just before the hot dog got close enough to scratch.

But hot dogs aren’t fingers, and I guess the SawStop crew decided they needed to provide visual prove that their product would work just as well under a more real-life test. It did, I’m happy to say, but I still cringe each time I look at the video.

The SawStop Web site offers a gallery of fingers that were saved by this remarkable machine, usually sporting just a very small cut.

Photo © AMagill