Harry Helmet Home Improvement & DIY Blog

Plan your flower beds carefully. Ensure shade-loving plants are not in direct sunlight.  It’s so hot. What can you do on the days when your garden seems like the last place that you want to be? You can make outdoor living more pleasant in the summ …

Do you believe these common gutter myths?  What do you really think about gutters? If you’re like many people, your gutters only cross your mind when you hear dripping – or the torrential downpour of water flooding your balcony or patio due to gut …

Would you like a glorious garden? Use annuals to add seasonal interest. Do you want the best garden on the block? Perhaps you’re not that ambitious, but you would like to have a garden that you love through all the seasons of the year. How can you have …

Create an outdoor room with your awning.  It’s hot outside, and you roll out your awning to provide some shade as the day turns into evening and your friends come over to visit. You draw out your patio chairs and enjoy dinner on your deck. Later i …

You have fall leaves. What are you going to do with them? When the leaves are falling in abundance, what can do with all of them? In addition to getting the leaf blower and rake involved and packing them away, you can actually use a lot of these fall l …

How can you manage your yard maintenance this year?  Do you know your yard maintenance ABCs? This is something that you didn’t learn in kindergarten. Yet many of us are faced with a big yard and a big problem: how do you maintain your yard in a wa …

Overshooting your budget is a common experience on a DIY project. Uh oh: you’re working on a home project, and you’re doing it yourself. What have you missed? If you’re not as experienced with the DIY world, you could forget some key details that could …

What do you know about your roof? What do you know about roofing? Your knowledge could have holes in it. There are a lot of myths about roofing, and it can be dangerous to assume that you know everything about the roof over your head.  1. Covering …

How can you keep your home looking lovely as you age?  Scrub, repair, repeat: exterior home maintenance can be a chore for anyone, let alone seniors who might struggle with some of the more physical aspects of maintenance. How can you make home ma …

If you love gardening but can’t manage the work, how can you make gardening easier?  Flowers and vegetables delight you, but as you age, it can be more and more difficult to manage your garden. However, being outdoors is also excellent for your he …

Home maintenance: how can you make it simpler as you age? You might relish the look of a clean home, but do you enjoy cleaning it? As you get older, the burden of cleaning your home can feel larger. You don’t want home care to feel like an insurmountab …

How can you make your home and garden simpler to care for as you age?  Taking care of your home isn’t always easy. It can involve a lot of organizing and a lot of physical work. If you’re planning to stay in your home as you get older, how can you …

You could choose to add a new retractable awning to make your awnings lower-maintenance. Dear awnings: is it time for us to break up?  Those awnings have been your friend through many a hot summer day. If you’re not sure if your awnings need to be …

Add seating areas for celebrations and dinners with family and friends. It’s party time! Specifically, it’s backyard party time. If you’re new to backyard entertaining, you may have some questions, like, how can you move people from inside to out? How …

Create a gorgeous, weatherproof outdoor space with an awning.  The eyes might be the window to the soul, but your windows are the soul of your home. They draw your home together, and they’re a key design element that people notice when they look a …

Consider how all members of the family would like to use the garden. If you want to fall in love with your garden all over again, turn it into something more than a yard: create your own backyard paradise. What does this mean to you? A backyard paradis …

Plan your garden for all members of your family.  You want to have the kind of backyard that your guests ooh and aah about. More importantly, you want to feel that way when you walk into your garden as well. If you’re less-than-impressed by the ex …

Whether it involves entertaining or family time, create your vision of a backyard paradise. Everyone’s vision of a backyard paradise is different. For some, it’s a space that’s lively and full of people enjoying themselves in the garden. For others, it …

What’s your idea of a backyard paradise? Oh, bliss: you get home and sink into a chair in your backyard, where you can read a book, listen to the birds, and relax. Or perhaps your idea of bliss is the opposite: a party that involves dozens of your clos …

Is it appropriate to paint an old gutter?  Your gutters are looking sad and saggy. Is it time for new gutters, or will a coat of paint do the trick instead? If your gutters have rust or they are looking dirty and old, what are your next steps? …

You’re renovating a home. How do you get it right?  Well, that was a fail. Have you ever looked at a home improvement project and determined that while you tried your best, your efforts fell far short of your original vision? What common home impr …

Reduce the puddles in your garden by controlling how water moves in your garden landscape. How does water move around your home and garden landscape? When you’re looking outside at your garden, you might think that it needs watering, but you’re probabl …

Rainwater is a healthy choice for your garden ecosystem. Are you prepared for a long, hot summer? Saving rainwater in the garden allows you to reduce your use of tap water during the summer months and help your garden thrive. If you want a lush garden, …

What do you do with the rain in your garden? Have you considered a rain chain?  Rain, rain, on the chain: do you use a rain chain to manage water in your garden? The sometimes basic, sometimes beautiful rain chain is a way of controlling the way t …

Whether your garden is large or small, you need to plan for water flow.  If you live in a rainy climate or in a place that experiences rainfall for even part of the year, you know that you sometimes have an excess of water. This is a delightful pr …

Wind and water can severely damage your home during a hurricane. How can you prepare?  How can you protect your home? When you become a homeowner, all of a sudden protecting your home becomes a big priority. You want to make sure that you don’t ne …

The asphalt shingle has been around for more than 150 years. Have you ever looked up at your roof in some amazement, knowing that it keeps you dry through the rain and snow? Many of us take the structures of our homes for granted, but your home itself …

What kind of gutter protection do you need?  Do you need a gutter security system? Do you need to find a knight in shining armor to stand guard over your gutters? Gutter protection doesn’t look like that, but it is still necessary to protect your …

What gutters will best match your home? When you’re renovating your roof or your home exterior, there are many different factors to consider. One of them is aesthetics, specifically the way that your roof, your siding, and your gutters all work togethe …

Roof pitch matters when you’re considering the size of your future gutters. Is a gutter just a gutter? While a certain shape and size may come to mind when you think about gutters, these water-bearing troughs can be many different shapes and sizes. Gut …