Wordpress Themes – The Sky’s the Limit!

By admin on February 2, 2010

Whether it’s a simple blog or a complex magazine, you want your website to look the way you want it – not the way someone tells you that you want it.  Lots of “designers” have “plans” where you choose a template and then your site ends up looking like so many others.

With Wordpress it’s different.  There are literally THOUSANDS of themes out there waiting for you to find the right one.  Many are free – some are so reasonably priced you wonder how developers pay their electric bill!

Say you find a theme – the layout looks great; but you’re not thrilled with the color scheme?  Not a problem – I’ll help you take your own custom color scheme and adapt it to what you want.  You end up with truly a one-of-a-kind website that reflects your tastes the way you want it to.

Click the images below for a gallery of just a few themes.  As you look them over, remember they are the beginning point – much like paint chips at the home improvement store.  Look for what “can be” – not just what is there.  Once you can “see it?”  I’ll help you build it!

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Antique Chairs

By admin on February 1, 2010

A set of six antique chairs; 75 – 100 years old; three generations in the family… in poor shape from a previous repair. A non-flexible, epoxy-type glue used some years ago wouldn’t allow the flex and give that these old, poplar chairs need. The old glue had broken and in some places, actually cracked the wood worse than it would have been without it.

The job?  To very carefully pull apart every joint possible, clean all the old glue, re-glue and clamp the chairs.  As sentimental as the client is, they aren’t going to re-upholster the seats if the chairs are beyond repair.

In some cases this was gluing and clamping three or four joints; in a couple it was essentially rebuilding the chair.  A couple were missing the diagonal supports which meant cutting a new blank and then hand-carving it to fit the odd size tongue and groove side boards.

This is not a job to be sloppy or careless with; it’s old wood and each chair is pretty fragile.  But once glued with the proper glue (high strength but flexible – NOT “superglue” type), these chairs are ready for the next generation in the family.

Average labor – depending on how many glue joints must be repaired and whether new braces have to be fabricated:  Approx. 1.5 – 2.5 hours per chair.  (And this job gets done with only two chairs at one time; not enough room in the shop for all of them and they are too valuable to take a chance of stumbling over and breaking one!)

Click the image below for the Photo Gallery.

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Handy Tip of the Week

By admin on January 31, 2010

Unclog your own Sink Drain – don’t call a plumber and get ripped off if you don’t need one.

A simple “snake” from Lowe’s and you can do the job yourself.  If you’re really not sure about doing this yourself, call me and let me give you an hour tutorial; then you’ll never need me again for this particular repair.

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Common Sense in the Repair Business?

By admin on January 30, 2010

The problem:  A water heater that keeps “tripping” the reset breaker on its upper thermostat.  The breaker at the house panel is fine, but the heater intermittently turns off.

Adding to the problem is the fact that this water heater is behind a panel in the master bedroom walk-in closet.

Calling a plumber with a “name-brand” company resulted in a $150 bill for a report that “everything seems fine, so maybe the whole thing needs to be replaced.”  The estimate for that?  $1,300.  (Yes, you read that right!)

In the meantime, these folks have a water heater that won’t work right, a closet that’s torn apart to get to the reset button, and the worry about a 240 volt major electrical system.

The solution? First, going online to the manufacturer to download the entire manual for this water heater.  A quick check according to the manual shows that both thermostats are suspect, and both heating elements test “bad.” (Outside the plus / minus 6% range from the optimal 12.8 ohms – a multi-tester is a beautiful thing to keep in the tool box!)

Then, ordering from Amazon.com new thermostats and elements and one more trip to replace them.  Done – good as new – and these folks have their closet back.  It ain’t exactly rocket science.

I’m not interested in “up-selling” folks – besides, I’m not licensed as either a plumber or electrician so I won’t advertise anything other than common sense with repairs like this.  Some folks would rather pay for the “name brand,” and that’s fine… if you’d rather pay $1,300 for a new water heater (that actually costs less than $300 from Lowes)…

But if money’s tight and you need your home’s major systems to actually work, give me a call.  If I can’t do it I won’t; but I’ll send you to someone who will without trying to rip you off.

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Why Wordpress for Web Site Design?

By admin on January 16, 2010

True, Wordpress began as a blogging platform.  But it’s become one of the most popular Content Management Systems (CMS) around.  Why?  Because it works.  It looks sharp.  It gives you flexibility.  And it doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg to hire a coder who knows C+, C++, Java, or all the others!

I work on a pretty cheap hourly rate setting up websites for folks that they can then manage on their own.  But so far, I don’t have anyone complaining that it’s not what they wanted or too hard to keep up to date.

Need a sharp, new website?  Email me and let me know.  I’m betting there’s enough code already “floating around” the web to help you out!

(Click the image to see the product for one of my latest clients.)

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Making it Work

By admin on July 3, 2009

m-door1The problem:  A storage room off a carport with doors to the back yard.  Sometime in the past a couple of interior luan doors had been cut down to fit the odd size opening.  Not surprising that some years later, those doors are rotten and the whole assembly is, to put it bluntly, a mess.

Ordering custom size, double hung doors from a factory is somewhere in the neighborhood of $800 – $1,000.  (Yea, check it out – you’ll be shocked!)

m-door3The solution:  Fabricating doors that match the exterior siding and then sizing them to fit the existing opening.

The final product:  Something that looks like it was designed this way!

m-door7This isn’t a quick and easy job:  18 hours of labor when it’s all installed and done.  But if you need something “different,”  this is the way to do it without breaking the bank.

m-door6

Photo Gallery HERE.

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What I Mean

By admin on June 22, 2009

can-opener1A friend confesses; she’s not very “handy.”  The new can opener arrived in the mail, she opened the box, read the directions, scratched her head and read the directions again.  Then she gave me a call.

It’s not something to be embarrassed about.  I understand drills, screws, spacers, cabinet clearances and she doesn’t.  The stuff she does with a spread sheet leaves me speechless.  (Not to mentioned the fact that she doesn’t have a downstairs shop to store tools…)

So… in about half an hour, she’s ready to throw the old manual can opener away!  It’s not “too small to call” when you’re looking at something like this.

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Wordpress Web Design

By admin on June 10, 2009

icon_bigHaving a good looking, functional website has never been easier!

Wordpress is well known as a “blogging” software platform.  Yet it’s much more than just a blog tool.  Churches, universities, professional organizations, and non-profits are all using Wordpress as the one platform for their web presence.

That’s because you don’t need expensive and complicated software to manage it.  You need an Internet connection.  That’s it.  Wordpress does the rest for you.

I’ve built over a dozen sites for people or groups using Wordpress.  Hundreds of customizable themes give you exactly the look you want, tailored to your needs.  And you won’t need to learn Front Page or Dreamweaver to keep your site looking great.

What you get from me is more than just a design.   My services are intended to design a site for you, work with you to get it running, then teach you everything YOU need to keep it that way!  (No ongoing “work” that’s designed to get more work from you.)

A simple Wordpress site can be up and running in a few hours.  The most complicated imaginable are ready in less than 20 – 25 work hours, and you’re done!  At that point, you don’t call me unless you need me.

So… you could pay a “designer / I.T. person” a hundred dollars an hour for as long as you can afford it; or you can pay me $45.00 per hour and have a site you can use on your own.  That’s value… It’s Wordpress… And it’s The Handy Rev.

Some Wordpress websites I’ve designed:

United Christian Fellowship

Christ Presbyterian Church

Johnston Memorial Presbyterian Church

Blog RPS

The Demijon Blog

The Charlotte District of the United Methodist Church

Wordpress Design FAQ:

$45.oo / hour. (Most sites require 4 – 18 hours, including 2 – 3 hours tutorial time.)

You need:  Domain name, Internet Access (Broadband ISP recommended), a hosting account (Bluehost is my recommendation.)  I can help you with all of these as well; it’s not hard.

You pick the theme of your website; then we work with you to customize that theme to look EXACTLY the way you want it to look.

Not sure about Wordpress?  Read HERE what another Rev (who owns his own software company) has to say about it.

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How to save over $2,000

By admin on June 10, 2009

mw1mw21The problem:  Windows that aren’t plumb, won’t lock properly, and have substantial air drafts.  Which is a big issue in a house for sale that every potential buyer sees in the breakfast area.

The bid from a contractor?  Over $3,000 for new windows.

The fix:  I milled additional molding in my shop to inset in the window frame, thus creating a “new” upper threshold.  Once fabricated and painted, the actual installation was about 2 & 1/2 hours.

mold1new-moldingThe final costs?  $435.55 instead of $3,200.  Yes I can:  Save you money, that is!

Once installed, these windows look like they have custom made molding designed uniquely for them.  That’s because they do.

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Civil War Breadboxes

By admin on June 10, 2009

mb1Replica boxes that look identical to the pine boxes used to ship “hardtack” bread to Army units during the Civil War.  One of the needs this client had (a Civil War Re-enactors Unit) was for boxes that looked authentic, yet had enough strength in their construction to be hauled around to outdoor events.

These boxes look exactly like the originals.  However, they have an exterior-grade plywood floor mounted into the side walls. (Not nailed on like the original.)  The result is an authentic replica with perhaps twice the strength – these re-enactors can cram these boxes full of gear without worrying about the floor separating!

A VERY labor intensive project; these boxes came to be $75 dollars per box.  (Still $30 less than others listed on various websites.)

Click one of the photos for the full gallery.mb4

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