Here's another great tip from BobVila.com. You can get several years worth of grime off your deck and your home s exterior in an hour with a pressure washer. Whether you buy or rent, it s a great tool to have. But go easy. Pressure washing with more than 1,200 psi is useful for stripping loose and flaking paint, but it can easily damage your siding. For cleaning, volume is more important than pressure. When using a pressure washer, stand several feet from the house and work from the top down. Use a wide-angle spray nozzle and keep the spray at about 30 degrees from the surface to avoid leaving marks. Narrow nozzles and high pressure at a right angle to the surface will damage your siding and can hurt you, too. Always wear safety goggles and protective clothing when you re pressure washing. Unless it s specified by the decking or siding manufacturer, avoid using chlorine bleach, which can be harmful to wood surfaces. It ll turn cedar and redwood black, and your plants won t like it either. Instead, spray any mildewed areas with an oxygen-based bleach solution or other natural cleanser to loosen the grime before pressure washing. If all of this seems like a lot of work, your local pressure-washing service can clean and finish a standard deck for $200-$300 in a couple of hours. Find out more at BobVila.com: The ultimate home improvement web site! BobVila.com 2008

If you need to insulate your attic, blowing in cellulose insulation is an easy job you can do yourself by renting a machine at your local lumberyard. To install the insulation, blow the cellulose in up to the level of your floor joists. Cellulose is made from recycled newspaper and treated with Borax, a natural pest repellent and fire retardant. For best results, be sure to distribute the cellulose in an even layer. In an attic with two-by-six joists, you can achieve an insulation factor of R-19.

Attaching heavy-duty industrial shelves to concrete or cinder block walls requires special tools and fasteners.

Here's another great tip from BobVila.com. As green building hits the mainstream, you ll continue to hear many new terms. One of them is LEED certification. L-E-E-D, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a set of green building techniques and standards that make it easier for state and local governments, builders, architects, designers and homeowners to build sustainable and healthy buildings. LEED rates the whole building in five key areas: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality. LEED-certified buildings conserve energy and water and cost less to operate. They send less waste to landfills and less greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. Best of all, they re healthier and safer for the people who live and work in them. As an added bonus, LEED-certified projects also qualify for tax rebates, zoning allowances and other incentives in hundreds of cities nationwide. LEED certification program standards are set by committees selected from all parts of the building industry and administered by the U.S. Green Building Council. These standards can be used in both existing buildings and new ones. LEED certification doesn t just make homes, schools, commercial buildings and neighborhoods more efficient and healthy. It also makes them more profitable and enduring. So, hiring a LEED-accredited professional for your next big project can be a win-win situation. Find out more at BobVila.com: The ultimate home improvement web site! BobVila.com 2008

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…Schmidt. For the Schmidts, whose wallpaper is attached to plaster walls, Westley urges the couple to score it first. The wallpaper will come off easier on plaster than on drywall and the scoring won t hurt the wall…