Home Improvement 1-2-3: Expert Advice from The Home Depot (Home Depot … 1-2-3)
The first edition of Home Improvement 1-2-3 quickly became a workbench classic. The new edition—with 340 projects, 3,500 color photographs, and more than 100 illustrations, charts, and graphs—offers up-to-the-minute solutions for homeowners tackling home repair, maintenance, and improvement. Chapters cover painting, wallpaper, plumbing, electrical system, walls and ceilings, flooring, doors, windows, cabinets, shelves, countertops, insulation, weatherproofing, exterior maintenance, heating,
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Home Improvement: The Complete Fourth Season
- Power up for season four of the Emmy(R) Award-winning hit comedy HOME IMPROVEMENT! Tim Allen is back as Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor, a loving husband and father who spends his days as the accident-prone host of the popular television show “Tool Time.” The fourth season fires on all cylinders, earning five Emmy(R) Award nominations, including Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Lead Actress in
Power up for season four of the Emmy(R) Award-winning hit comedy HOME IMPROVEMENT! Tim Allen is back as Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor, a loving husband and father who spends his days as the accident-prone host of the popular television show “Tool Time.” The fourth season fires on all cylinders, earning five Emmy(R) Award nominations, including Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (Patricia Richardson). The laughs are hammered home for all 26 episodes of this hila
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Invaluable intro book… to detailed books in rest of series,
As a first time homeowner last year I didn’t have a good sense of maintanence items and remodeling options. I picked this book up after looking at several competing home repair manuals at Home Depot.
The book is very “user friendly” for the new home owner. The book is well organization, offers wide coverage, and is based around photos. The sections are color coded by topic like plumbing, painting, electrical so that you can find your project quickly. Once in the general category the book covers numerous related projects, which allows you to consider whether related projects are also important. Both finding your project and considering related projects are vastly helped by all the pictures. The writers/editors have tried to have pictures (that are all in color) for every major stage of a project, which makes evaluating each project much easier (competing home repair manuals are more texted base with fewer color photos).
These three attributes can lead to “project spillovers” – you find related topics quickly. For example, I was interested in what was required to replace/repair roofing shingles and found on nearby pages how to install vent collars on the roof, which made me realize that I was missing collars on my house. Installing a collar turned out to stop the source of a small leak. I may have never noticed this (or taken longer to notice this) without the user friendliness of the Home Depot guide.
The user friendliness is also the source of its weaknesses. They try to squeeze each project onto one or two pages, which does not allow much detail. Also, the starting point for each project is the interior of new construction – open walls, easy access to services – so no guidance on getting your project to such an open setting if you are not dealing with new construction.
Overall, this book is not meant as the only book you’ll ever need on home repair. Rather Home Depot has taken a “modular” approach: it is a great intro reference that leads into Home Depot’s other related more detailed books on specific topics like “Kitchens and Bathrooms 1-2-3″, “Flooring 1-2-3″, “Wiring 1-2-3″, etc. that are also similarly user friendly. After using this book for general issues, you can buy the more detailed books for topics that you need more depth.
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|Not What I’d Hoped It Would Be,
Very disappointed with the almost complete abscence of “expert advice” being offered by the “Editors at Home Depot” in this purported reference book, so I’m returning it the next time I’m in the store.
Almost every subject area I looked at was as far from “expert advice” as it’s possible to get — unless you consider “drill a hole in the wall and drag your [cable, wire, pipe, etc.] through it” to be a revelation of cosmic proportions. The “editors” seemed to be more concerned with how many flashy pictures and other garbage they could squeeze onto every page, instead of focusing on the technical aspects of the job.
Take “Telephone Wiring” on pages 213 and 214 for example, which in essence says nothing more than “Connect your phone to the wires.”
Well, yeah, no duh! How about telling us which wires go to what posts, and how we can tell if they’re “live” or “dead”, and what the voltages should normally be, and how to hook a voltmeter to the wires to tell if the circuit is wired correctly, and how to connect the wires so they’ll pass through to other phones in the house, and what to do if they don’t work after you’ve connected them, and… well, the list of what you REALLY need to know is why you’d buy a book like this in the first place, isn’t it? And their advice for “Thermostat” on pages 219-220 is just as bad, if not worse — “Contact a dealer for repairs.” Sheesh!
Save your money. Look elsewhere for a home maintenance and repair guide, because these guys are operating without a clue.
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|Recommended,
I found the book very informative. I didn’t know much about home improvement or being a handyman when we bought an older home about six months ago. I mean, I had hardly done anything more than tighten the odd loose screw and certainly had never used a power tool. The numerous pictures in the book were exactly what I needed and I found its humorous style appealing. I recently wired a telephone extension to another bedroom in my house following the instructions, and the phone worked immediately I plugged it in. This book hasn’t turned me into an expert, but I don’t think that is the audience this book addresses. If you already have some technical knowledge and are looking for in-depth stuff, skip this one. However if like me you’re a complete novice with an older home and looking for some basic information then get this book.
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|Season 4 Home Improvement!,
Season 4 had some big changes in the show.
1.) New Graphics to make the show more homey feeling and was was for 3 seasons.
2.) This season’s finale episode launched the show in syndication on Sept. 11, 1995.
Episode Guide.
1.) Back In The Saddle Shoes Again
Jill is laid off and decides to go back to college, causing Tim to become afraid that he will lose Jill to more intelligent men.
2.) Don’t Tell Momma
Jill dents the car, so Tim decides to fix it, but he accidentally drops a three-ton beam on it and tries to hide it from Jill. Meanwhile, Brad and Randy are kicked off of the school bus for gluing Vinnie McGurn’s, a bully’s, butt.
3.) Death Begins At Forty
Tim begins concerned about his health when his 40th birthday nears and Harry, the owner of Harry’s Hardware, has a heart attack.
4.) The Eyes Don’t Have It
When Tim and Jill find out Mark is having trouble at school, they think it is because they neglect him, but the real reason is that he needs glasses.
5.) He Ain’t Heavy, He’s Just Irresponsible
Tim’s brother Marty comes by to tell him that he’s leaving his wife and kids. But Tim’s advice turns Marty against him. Meanwhile, Tim creates a hole in the floor and Jill has trouble working on her psychology report.
6.) Borland Ambition
Harry offers to sell Tim 20 percent of his hardware store (that Harry’s brother is selling). Jill doesn’t let Tim buy it, so Al decides to purchase it. When becomes Al’s obsessed with the store, this drives everyone crazy, even Ilene when he skips a date with her, and Tim decides to confront him about it.
7.) Let’s Go To The Videotape
After taping Jill’s speech, he accidentally leaves the record button on when he critiques her speech. After Jill sees the video, Tim reads some of her psychology books and tapes a fake conversation with his buddies, complimenting Jill.
8.) Quibbling Siblings
Randy feels like the black sheep when Tim spends time with Brad and has him as a special guest on Tool Time.
9.) My Dinner With Wilson
At Thanksgiving dinner with the Taylors, Wilson announces he is moving, but Tim gives him advice in the hopes Wilson will decide to stay.
10.) Ye Olde Shoppe Teacher
Mr. Leonard, Tim’s high school shop teacher, comes to visit, but gets angry and leaves after guest starring on an episode of Tool Time.
11.) Some Like It Hot Rod
When Tim has a shot at getting his hot rod in an automotive magazine, Jill becomes busy and accidentally leaves it out in the snow.
12.) ‘Twas the Night Before Chaos
Marty and his wife and kids, and Jill’s parents come to visit and Tim and Jill try to solve their marital problems. Tim tries to beat Doc Johnson in the Christmas lighting contest.
13.) The Route Of All Evil
After Brad takes a paper route, he has trouble getting up and doing homework but doesn’t want to quit because it will disappoint Tim.
14.) Brother, Can You Spare A Hot Rod?
Tim decides to sell his hot rod and buys one to rebuild. Meanwhile, Jill takes Randy shopping for clothes and he is afraid that Jill will embarrass him in front of someone he knows.
15.) Super Bowl Fever
Tim has a Super Bowl party for his friends while Jill is sick with the flu.
16.) Bachelor Of The Year
When Al is published as one of Detroit’s “Most Elligible Bachelor” in a magazine, women begin flocking all over him and he starts to ignore Ilene. Mark has to write a report on the most interesting person he knows, and he writes it on Wilson instead of Tim.
17.) It’s My Party
At Randy’s party, Tim’s overpolished dance floor causes Michelle, Randy’s girlfriend, to sprain her ankle.
18.) A House Divided
Benny, Tim’s friend, moves into his aunt’s house while she’s away. But a gas leak causes the house to blow up and Benny must stay with the Taylors.
19.) The Naked Truth
When Marty and Nancy are staying with the Taylors, Tim walks in on Nancy in the shower, thinking she is Jill. Meanwhile, Randy goes to a barmitzmah and must come home after he splits his trousers.
20.) Talk To Me
Tim insults Jill on Tool Time, ruins dinner, and drops her ring down the furnace.
21.) No, No, Godot
Tim and Al scalp tickets to a hockey game when Tim can’t go, but they get arrested and Jill and Ilene come to bail them out. Meanwhile, Mark paper maches Wilson’s face for a school project when he watches the boys while Tim and Jill are gone.
22/23.) Tool Time After Dark (Part 1 and part 2 of 2)
Despite Jill’s advice, Tim stays up all night watching Tool Time tapes because of his upset stomach from eating too much Polish…
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|The best season set yet!,
An avid fan of Home Improvement, I had been impatiently anticipating the moment when the fourth season of my favorite sitcom, Home Improvement, would be released.
Call me a weirdo, but I found myself waiting at the Home Entertainment section at Wal-Mart before midnight to get this DVD, and they were stocking it a half hour before, and I grabbed it and attempted to pay for it, but the lady at the register took it and put it up and said I had to wait a half hour. So I waited, impatiently.
I finally got home with it and before I watched it, I looked at the packaging. This time, Tim, Jill, and the kids are featured on the cover, and it looks as though Tim had a mishap and accidentally sawed off part of the DVD cover, because the lower right corner is missing! The inner art is basically the same as the other seasons, with one panel listing the episodes. Disc 1 overlaps 2 again (I hate that!), and Disc 3 gets its own little slot. Jill and the kids are on disc one; Tim, Al, and Heidi are on disc 2; Tim is all by his lonely self on disc three.
The menus are basically the same as season 3, which isn’t a bad thing. The theme music plays on the main menu with the options of play all, episode select, special features (disc one), and set up. The submenus, unlike last season’s release, also plays on the submenus.
The episodes are all presented correctly in the order of appearance. The two-parter of the season, “Tool Time After Dark,” is shown as one 43 minute episode (if you select part one)… if you select part two, you start twenty minutes into the two parter and it lasts about twenty five minutes… and no theme song… this is weird. So your best bet on that episode is to just select part one.
The video quality and audio is stunningly clear, and it does not seem as though the video is over a decade old!
Unfortunately, HI still lacks in the special features. We get a 7 minute blooper reel (which luckily is NOT the same ones you get to see in the closing credits anyway).
Some minor changes and big changes are evident in season four. The boys are older, but still not too old. Jill gets laid off in the premiere and starts back to college to pursue a degree in psychology, and we meet Tim’s brother Marty and wife Nancy (who Tim sees naked in an episode). We also meet the Hardware store gang at Harry’s Hardware. Tim and Al go to prison for scalping tickets to a football game, Tim neglects Jill during her illness on Superbowl day, and Wilson goes on his first date in twenty years.
Another thing you will notice is that Season Four also has a new graphics scheme (the opening theme song credits, as well as the closing credits), but we still have the same theme song. This will remain until Season 7 when the music and the graphics change.
This is a very memorable season and I would give this 5 stars, despite the lack of special features!!
Don’t hesitate buying this.
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|Great show,
Funny show and its great to be able to watch it anytime you want! Who couldn’t use a good laugh once in a while?
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