Who would have thought something so simple could be so valuable? I used my magnetised pozi drive screwdriver recently and found it enabled the whole process of picking up and inserting small screws into the plating around door handles, effortless. The magnetised end meant the screws could be placed easily into position without fingers being in the way and obstructing the view. The job was finished in no time at all.

The summer, clean up the garden or clear out the garage activities, are in force, if the trail of weekend trailers heading to the dump is anything to go by. It pays to load trailers with weight distribution in mind – put the heaviest items close to the tow bar end of the trailer and the lighter loads towards the back of the trailer. Even up the side weights too, by balancing items each side of the trailer.

Habitat for Humanity NZ are looking for men and women to join global village team builds in Nepal and Mongolia this year (2010). You don’t have to be skilled, just keen to help people who need a helping hand; be willing to have a go; have a level of fitness to do physical work and keen to have an enjoyable experience. Check out their website www.habitat.org.nz and go to their global village page.

Have you ever had those moments when you wished you'd read the small print attached to a handling aid, before you use it? Just recently, when the need to transport 13 350x350mm pavers from one property to another, I used someone's domestic sized flat trolley – the sort with a flat bottom, four wheels and a low handle. I merrily stacked about seven pavers on the trolley, pushed them to the next place then discovered the flat bit of the trolley was groaning under the weight and the sides were buckling under the strain. End result was a severely damaged trolley, some heavy lifting and a visit to the shops to replace the trolley. Good lessons in this exercise – I may have been better off using my barrow hand trolley and carrying only 2 pavers at a time…and it would have been smart to check the underside of the flat trolley, to see if there were weight restrictions.

I can be literal sometimes, to my cost. The tin of metallic paint said it was fine to be applied by brush and roller and mentioned the need to roll or brush only one way, to keep the metallic bits all flowing in the same direction. It was tricky around hard to reach places, but doable. In talking with a professional painter some time later, after I'd painted the bathroom and a kitchen wall in the said metallic paint, he said that professional painters would never brush or roll metallic paint, as the best finish is obtained by spraying it onto the wall surfaces. Useful information to know…pity it wasn't on the tin.

In my research to discover what product may minimise the potential for vacuum cleaner hoses to chip the corners and scuff the paint off stairwell edges, all was revealed. Well, one product was. You can get a soft wrap to go around all of the hose length and stores that sell vacuum cleaners sell them.

Despite the careful use of my vacuum cleaner and clear intention not to let the power cord hit the corner of my stairwell and leave marks, I manage to do it about twelve times out of ten. I've touched up the paintwork countless times and it drives me crazy. What product is out there that might put a firmer edge on sharp corners and minimise the potential for chipping the corner and scuffing off the paint?

I was greatly surprised to discover last night at the first informal meeting of Christchurch (NZ) based DIY Devotees, that installing home irrigation systems wasn't as simple as I had first thought. In my naiveté, I thought it was a simple matter of going to the local hardware store, getting a home starter kit, putting it all together, getting a timer, slapping that on and there you have it – effortless watering, happy plants and a relaxed homeowner, gazing out the window looking at the garden grow. How surprised I was to discover the need to check the water pressure coming out of the taps; the need for different sized pipes, depending on how close or far away the piping is from the tap; how some chemicals within the pipe may be corrosive and damage glass and surrounds, when the tap is turned on; the need to take off the timer over winter, as water in the pipes may freeze in cold weather and damage the whole system and worst of all, dead earwigs seem to appear in the best system, eventually. Oh well, back to the drawing board to work around these fish hooks….

I’m not the only DIYer around who finds minimalist diagrams difficult to understand or a fast talk through a process not enough to help me get the gist of what's required. I met a mechanic recently who spoke of their difficulties in trade training, in understanding the inside working mechanisms of machinery. They found moving 3 dimensional instruction video clips the biggest help in their learning process. Wouldn’t it be great if the 3 D video approach was used more often and used for some DIY instructions as well.

Ever had the problem of bar stools with rounded hard plastic "feet" that leave indentations in your cork tiles or soft lino? The problem can easily be solved, by replacing the rounded, hard feet with soft, flat feet…most hardware stores have a great range of alternatives. The difficulty is, as I found out recently, is taking off the hard plastic feet…however, a sturdy nail or screw nailed into a hard foot then gently levered out with the claw of the hammer, will remove it. It's a bit of a mission, but doable!