Questions to ask references for building contractors

It's best to hire contractors recommended by other people. Ask your friends, neighbors, and co-workers. Some companies have mailing lists or discussion boards about contractors. Try that first.

Before you hire a contractor to do significant changes to your house, you should ask at least three of his or her former clients about his work. He should be able to give you names upon request.

It seems like an overkill, but be diligent about checking references. We avoided hiring terrible contractors and a lot of pain because of diligent checking and friend's comments. Yes, Virginia, people will lie to you to get your money.

So what do you ask the references? The following are questions recommended by the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI):

1. Could you communicate well with the remodeler?
2. Were you pleased with the quality of work?
   This is a tough question, however, since everyone defines "quality" differently. It is much better to ask to see the completed project to determine the level of quality for yourself.
3. Were you satisfied with the remodeler's business practices?
4. Did the crew show up on time?
5. Were you comfortable with the trades people the remodeler subcontracted to?
6. Was the job completed on schedule?
7. Did the remodeler fulfill his or her contract?
8. Did the contractor stay in touch throughout the project?
9. Were the final details finished in a timely manner?
10. Would you use the remodeler again without hesitation?
11. Was the job site kept clean during the project?
12. Was the remodeler professional, ethical, honest and fair throughout the process?
13. Did the remodeler manage the overall project and process in such a way to ensure your satisfaction?
14. Did any issues arise during the project? How did the remodeler handle them?

Picking the best leek

Leeks are the thick-necked jock version of scallions. Europeans love them because they're milder and sweeter versions of onions. They're great with sauces, soups, and side dishes. Whatever works for onions works for leeks, too (except maybe in hamburgers and some types of sandwiches).

You can get them from farmers' markets from spring to fall (although the spring ones tend to be more slender). As with all vegetables, the fresher they are, the sweeter and more flavorful they are. Pick ones with vibrant leaves and a lot more white parts (which is what you use for cooking, although you can use the leaves for making stock).

Refrigerate in an open bag.

Picking the best artichoke

Artichokes are neither fruit nor vegetable. They're delicious flowers!

Picture by Matthew Wallenstein 

The tastiest ones have the following qualities:

• Fat stems (the fatter the stem, the bigger the heart 
• Bright, shiny leaves 
• Dense weight (heavy for its size)

Fresh ones give a squeak when you squeeze gently.

If you are not eating the artichoke right away, seal it in a plastic bag with a few drops of water before refrigerating.

Relaunching Mac Finder (10.6)

Finder, like Sarah Palin, is always on. (Is that woman ever not hamming things up? I mean, honestly!) It always runs. You can hide it, but you can't quit it or anything. You can, however, restart it by doing the following: 

1. Press and hold the option key while you click the Finder icon on the desktop dock.
2. Click Relaunch.
3. Press command + tab to toggle to the relaunched Finder.  

Showing hidden files on the Mac (10.6)

Mac hides some files in Finder so you can't muck around with them and mess things up royally. But if you know what you are doing and want to see the hidden files (they usually start with a period, for example: .hidden), you can open Terminal and run this command (in a single line):

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

To reverse the operation, just change YES to NO, as in the following:

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles NO

You have to relaunch Finder to see the hidden files. To learn how to do that, see Relaunching Mac Finder.

The dimmed folders were hidden files, now exposed.

Building a bedbug detector for under $20

If you think you might have bedbug infestation (you have insect bites that are arrayed in a row or cluster), you can create a MacGyver trap that is just as good as the ones used by professionals. You cannot exterminate the bugs with this method, but you could detect them and contact exterminators.

The folks are Rutgers University experimented with various homemade contraptions until they built a trap superior to the ones used by exterminators for detecting an infestation. (They presented at the 2009 meeting of the Entomological Society of America)

Here are the stuff you'll need:

• Plastic food and water dish for cats (or a similar plastic bowl with smooth lining)
• Insulated 1/3 galloon jug sold in camping-supply or sports stores (Yay! to another excuse to visit REI!)
• 2.5 lbs of dry ice (~$1/lb). The dry ice is the bait. The CO2, which is mistaken as human breath, lures the bloodsuckers. 
• Gloves (because you should never handle dry ice with your bare hands!)
• Sandpaper
• Talcum powder
• Tape

Build the contraption with the following steps:

1. Put on gloves and place 2.5 lbs of dry ice pellets inside the insulated jug. 
2. Leave the spout open to let the CO2 evaporate. It should seep out completely in 11 hours at room temperature and no faster.
   If the CO2 is seeping out too rapidly, partially cover the spout. 
3. Overturn the food dish, scuff the outer rim with sandpaper to give the bloodsuckers better traction. 
4. Create a paper ramp on the food dish by taping the sandpaper (or other pieces of paper) to the dish. 
5. Make the inside of the food dish even more slippery by dusting it with talcum powder.
   Once the bedbugs get into the moat, they can't scuttle out of the steep, slippery rim. Bwahaha! 
6. Place the bait, which is the thermos/insualted jug with dry ice, in the middle of the overturned food dish. 

Bedbugs: Non-emo vampires that like the dark and won't sparkle in sunlight

Bedbugs give us the heebie-jeebies. These vampires were wiped out from the United States back in the day when people sprayed DDT on anything that scuttled or moved, including pesky coworkers and overly smelly men. But they (the bedbugs, not the smelly men, who—to the disappointment of women in that era—never disappeared) were reintroduced into the country when international travel became common.

Photo: Visuals Unlimited / Corbis | Source: New York Daily News

Like Jason in Friday the 13th, pesticide-resistent bed bugs are notoriously difficult to get rid of. If even a single female with eggs survive the extermination, you have another infestation in your hands. Temporarily moving out of your house won't help since a bedbug can survive for up to 18* months without food [ This is your cue to run to the showers screaming. ].

The best way to deal with bedbugs is not get them in the first place. Here are a few precautions you should follow when you travel:

• Before you book a hotel, check with the Bedbug Registry. 
• When you arrive at the hotel, do not put your luggage and stuff on the bed. Put them on non-upholstered furniture (the luggage stand, for example) instead.
• Do not lay your clothes in the drawer (bedbugs like wood, crevices, and protected areas). Instead, keep your stuff in your luggage or hang your clothes up in the closet. Keeping them in the bathroom works. 
• Learn what bedbugs look like.  
• Take out the bedsheets and check the mattresses (all of them, not just the one you are laying on) for signs of blood or bedbugs. Lift the mattress over your head to check for signs under the mattress. Carefully inspect the folds and creases of the mattress. Check the entire length of the fold around the mattress, both top and bottom. 
• Check the headboards. Lift them off from their hinges and inspect the crevices. Headboards are unwieldy, so it's easier to work with another person, but one strong person can manage it.
• Use a very bright headlamp (like the kind they sell in outdoor stores) while doing the inspection.

Other tips:

• Avoid used stuff. 
• Be aware that they're not just in hotel rooms. They have been discovered  in offices, stores (Abercombie in New York had to close down for fumigation), theaters, trains, hospital waiting rooms, and gyms. No need to be paranoid, but just keep an eye out for itchy welts, so that you can take precautions (described next).   
• If you discover itchy welts that you suspect are bedbug bites, take precautions before you return home. Heat will kill them. Bag all your clothes, wash them (including ones you didn't wear) and dry them in high heat (greater than 125 degrees Fahrenheit). Bag your luggage and leave them in the back of your car under the hot sun for at least a day. Once the infestation starts, the nightmare begins. 
• See our article on spotting an existing infestation. 

For a more thorough article, see the University of Kentucky: College of Agriculture site. 

* This figure is based on older records about earlier infestations. Some reports recorded 12 months, which is still creepily long. The pesticide-resistent strain in our era might live to only 2 months without a bloodmeal. But still. Eww.