Tag Archives: home

Product Reviews

Euroflex Monster SC60 steam cleaner

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I and Pat went to the Vancouver Home and Interior Design show at BC Place tonight. The show is a rip off. The show charge us $12 per ticket but it is really a flea market. Most of the booths sell home product or renovation service, but some sell totally unrelated stuff like ear rings, hand bags, artistic cards, etc.

There is a demonstration booth of vapor steam cleaner. I have read about it in magazines and seen it in TV shopping channel. The idea of vapor steam cleaner is really simple. It use pressurized steam to clean dirt and disinfect surface instead of chemical cleaner. The demonstration is pretty amazing. Dirt just come loose under the steam and you can easily wipe it clean with a cloth. Pat is so hooked onto idea of the vapor steam cleaner. She keep thinking about it during the show. At the end, we bought it before we leave.

The Euroflex Monster SC60 steam cleaner output 130C steam at 55psi. It takes about 5 minutes to boil and a full tank last an hour. It is essentially a pressured steel boiler with a hose. It is a mid-range consumer model that does not come with more user friendly features you may find in professional models. It does not have water level indicator nor allow continuous water refill. When the steam runs out, I have to turn off the steam cleaner, wait 10 minutes for it to cool down before I can refill the tank. It does not even have a hook for the power cord. I tried it on the kitchen sink, oven, toilet bowl, bath tub, washroom faucet and mirror. It works as advertised, saves me lots of scrubbing. Just run the steam over the dirt to blow them away. My only complain is the handle gets a bit too warm after a while.

I rarely buy things without first read reviews on internet. After I went home, I search for its online reviews at once. The review for this steam cleaner is mixed. Someone loves it but someone think it is a piece of crap, probably due to the usual made in China QC problem. I also find out we could have save $20-30 if order it online. But we got a box of extra accessories in the show, so we are pretty much even.

Product Reviews

Campbell Hausfeld 1/3-HP 3 Gallon Air Compressor

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This Campbell Hausfeld is an entry level air compressor. It is on sales at Canadian Tires with 50% off the regular price. Campbell Hausfeld made professional air tools. According to online reviews, this model is better than Canadian Tire’s own Mastercraft air compressor or other made-in-China no-name brands. The box comes with basic accessories, 25′ air hose, 2 adapters, inflation needles for soccer and tires, air seal tapes and a blow gun.

When choosing an air compressor, the size of the gas tank, how much horse power of the motor is irrelevant. The most important number is the SCFM (standard cubic feet minute) rating of the compressor that measures the airflow. The higher the number means the air compressor can output more air. Usually, a sander needs 6-8 SCFM, a spray gun needs 1-2 SCFM. My unit only has 0.5 SCFM@90PSI, so it is not powerful enough to drive more demanding air tools like spray guns or sanders. It is good enough to drive airbrush (0.2 SCFM) and nail guns if you don’t fire too rapidly. Or you can simply use it as an old fashion hand pump to refill tires or use it as a replacement of canned compress air for cleaning.

All air compressor are noise. According to the online specification, the noise level is 96dB when the motor is running. I have to wear ear mug to protect my hearing when using the air compressor. It takes about 5 minutes to fill the gas tank to 100 PSI. A full tank is good for 2 car tires or 30 seconds of maximum continuous blowing. (For those who are interested, 3 gallon roughly equals to 0.5 cubic feet. In theory the gas thank should last a minute, but after 30 seconds the air pressure is too low to be useful.) When the air pressure in the tank drops too low, the motor will kicks in and refill the tank. It’s really powerful blowing dust and dirt trapped in cracks. It is also handy in blowing dust on things too fragile for a duster. Having an air compressor is more cost efficient than buy canned compress air, which costs

Here is some maths for those who are interested. A can of 10oz Dust-off costs $6. The content is not air but a chemical called difluoroethane(R152A) with density 2.7014 g/L (from Wiki). A can of Dust-off has about 28 gallons of gas when the chemical is expanded in room temperature. Dust-off blast the gas at 60PSI, so a 10oz can last less than a minute. Oh! Did I mention difuoroethane is an areosol that can produce psychoactive effects and stupid teenagers stiff it to get high and kill their brains? Having an air compressor not only is cheaper in a long run, but also more healthy or maybe even more environmental friendly.

Too bad that the unit does not come with a nail gun. Now I am looking forward to get a nail gun when it is on sale. I still have to do more research about what type of nail gun I need. I think I only need a finishing nail gun, since I am not going to built any frame, dry wall or roof. I would like to have a dual use nail/staple gun and that would be handy.

Daily Scribble

My first home project, install window blinds

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Since I bought a place, I am learning to to become a handy man. Today I just under took my first home renovation project, install window blinds in the garage window. We are replacing the generic flimsy generic vinyl blinds come with the house with wooden shutter blinds. It took me a whole night to dismount the old blinds on the ground floor using hand screw driver, then I bought my impact driver and took down the blinds on the second floor in 15 minutes.

Now I have lots of unwanted blinds and I wonder what I should do with them. I put them up on Craigslist, but so far no one is interested. I notice the garage has a window but it has no blinds. Everyone walking by can peak inside my garage. I figured that if I can take down the blinds, I would put it back up, so I recycle one of the old blind to the garage window. This time I am powered with a powerful hammer drill and an impact driver. Still it took me an hour to figure out how to use those tools.

First, I have to mount the bracket. I have to drill the pilot hole for the screw then use the impact driver to secure the screw. Somehow there are lots of metal around the window frame, I tried a few times before finding some wood to mount the bracket. After the bracket is mounted, the rest is pretty easy. I just have to put the blinds in the bracket and close the cover. I pulled and released the blinds a few times to test it won’t fall down.

I can safely practice my handy man skill in the garage, since even I screw up, my wife won’t complain. Now I have completed my first project successfully, I have more confidence move to more complex tasks. I have a few projects in my mind. The next one in the pipeline is to to install pull out and rotation shelves under the kitchen cabinet. After that I am going to install the closet storage systems. The most challenging project will be building wall mounted shelves for garage.

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Daily Scribble

Picking color

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Color Whell

Designing your house is not an easy task. No wonder interior designer charge a lot to make your house looks nice. My parents are very practical people and since I moved out of their house, I have been living in rental apartments, I always live in places with minimal design. In fact, I never have any colours on my walls except the generic beige colour. The closest design experience I ever have is buying IKEA furnitures and arrange them to fit inside my room.

I am a baby to home design, so I have much to learn. The first lesson in home design is choosing a colour scheme for you home. I found this task very challenging. When presenting hundreds of colour sample from paint manufacturer, I am totally clueless on how to pick the right colour. To make it worse, men is genetically colour insensitive, since we only have 1 pair of X chromosome, which controls the colour sensing neurons.

I have been reading general rules on picking the right paints from BBC Home Design. I know there are three basic colour schemes. Tonal scheme picks colours within the same hue in different shades. Harmonious scheme picks colour next to each other on the colour wheel. Complementary colour picks colour on the oppose side of the colour wheel. Natural colour like black, gray, white or wood colour does not fit inside the colour wheel and they general blend in well with any other colour. I know what is a warm colour and what is a cool colour. I know contrast can draw focus and make the room appears to be bigger.

After picking the right colour, then we have to select where to buy the paint and what finish should we use. I like paints from Benjamin Moore, but it quite pricey and maybe too expensive for my budget. There are 6 level of finish﹐ Matte﹐ Enamal﹐ Eggshell, Satin, Semi-Gloss and Glossy, from flat to shiny. Matte is most common for walls. I would like to try Enamal on hallways and Eggshell on Kitchen. The question is how does it look when mixing different finish.

I don’t have strong preference on colour. I like blue in general but it may not looks very well on walls. I don’t like making subjective decisions. I am happy with Pat’s pick on colour as long as it is not is in pink, which is a girl colour. I tried Pat’s idea to the 3D house model. The colour shows up on screen is not the same in reality, but the program helps me visualize how the paint looks like on wall. We tried a few different colours, but honestly I couldn’t tell what’s beauty and what’s not. I know how to check whether the colour violate the rules of colour wheel, but other than that they all looks the same to me.

Family Room:
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Living Room:
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Daily Scribble

Home sweet home

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After 11 hours of flight, finally I am back to Vancouver, finishing my two and a half weeks HK trip.  I guess I am not compatible with HK.  I have been coughing and have running nose for the whole trip.  It must be due to the heavily polluted environment of HK.  HK is too crowded everywhere, full of people and noise.  I have a sensory overload for the first few days.  It took me a while learn to filter out the background noise.  HK suppose to be a fun city, but I already passed the age to have fun.  I visited many places during my trip, checked out the city, new mega-malls, country side, so-called tourist attractions.  Out of all the places, the most beautiful place is Tsuang Kwan O Chinese Permanent Cemetery.  It is quiet, with ocean breeze and seaside views.  I won’t mind having a house in the land of the cemetery.  It is such a waste letting dead people take over this prime location.

My cousins are visiting HK around the same time.  So this trip is also a family gathering.  I am surprise to see how big my cousins becomes.  For the first 2 weeks of the trip, I am staying with Pat at her friend’s place.  It is pretty good since they have a guest room.  After Pat flew back to Vancouver, I moved back to live with my grand parents.  Their place is pretty small, I have to sleep on the couch.  My grandpa wake up at 5a.m. every morning, so I was woke up 5a.m. everyday as well.  Luckily I cam fall back asleep for another 2 hours once he left for exercise.  I have been sleeping in sleeping bag for the whole trip, I really miss my own bed.  It is time to sleep and have a sweet dream.