Home Repairs

Pledging a thorough investigation into the troubled $25.6 million program to fix up homes for the poor, Baltimore City Council Vice President Vera P. Hall is calling local and federal housing officials, as well as lawyers and tenants, to a hearing next week.Mrs. Hall, who chairs the council's housing committee, said she is "trying to cover the waterfront" in soliciting testimony from people involved in the no-bid repair program that has come under fire for shoddy work and inflated costs. The hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday.

IN THE FIGHT with your house, you win few rounds, you lose a few rounds, but you never stop repairing.I was reminded of this yesterday when the ice maker in the refrigerator decided to stop make ice cubes.The ice maker and I have gone around a few times before. Two years ago it suckered me into buying a replacement ice maker. When I got the new unit home and read the instructions telling me how install it, I discovered the old one wasn't broken, it had just tricked me.It was the old stuck-wire ruse.

The Enterprise Foundation has gone upscale.The foundation, which helps low-income people reduce the cost of homebuilding and repair, is letting the middle class in on some of its tricks of the trade."

I was nine years old when I was introduced to the world of wall repairs. In a tantrum over an infringement of my civil rights (I was not allowed to watch television for more than 10 hours that day) I savagely kicked open the door to my bedroom and heard a sickening crack. The doorknob had stuck into the wall. As I gingerly pulled it away, a shower of white flecks tumbled out all over the floor.I was terrified. Not only had one of my civil rights been rescinded, but now I was going to experience capital punishment.

A Pasadena contractor accused of cheating homeowners out of more than $120,000 pleaded guilty yesterday in Anne Arundel Circuit Court to felony theft charges for taking money to build decks, piers and docks but doing little or no work. Donald E. Berry, 44, of the 8100 block of Bodkin Ave. is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 28 by Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Joseph P. Manck. As part of a plea agreement, Berry pleaded guilty to 10 counts of felony theft and was given 30 days to pay more than $83,000 in restitution to 21 Anne Arundel County homeowners who fell prey to the home improvement scheme.

Q: The windows in my older house need new putty. The old putty has deteriorated, and each window has many small panes of glass. How should I fix this?A: The most difficult part of the job will probably be the first step -- removing the old putty -- since the glass will crack unless great care is used. Also, if you plan to do the work yourself, you probably will have to do much of the work from a ladder, which also requires great care.An ordinary putty knife, used as a scraper, is often adequate for removing old putty, but my favorite tool is a combination tool sold at some paint stores and home centers.

The one-day blitz motto is a modest one for Christmas in April volunteers who launched the new chapter's first event yesterday.About 100 volunteers spent yesterday fixing up five homes belonging to people who are elderly, handicapped or otherwise unable to get the work done alone.But several of the volunteers plan to return this week to finish what couldn't be done by the time it started raining in the late afternoon.At many of the homes, the first step was clearing away accumulated garbage, crates, broken appliances and furniture and piles of wood, to make way for the construction improvements.

Since tomorrow is Father's Day, I'm sure a lot of folks are frantically trying to come up with home-repair type activities they can do with their Dads.Well, worry no more. Here in convenient list form are six activities that will please the old man.First is that ever-popular undertaking, Mapping Your Home's lTC Electric Circuits. This task doesn't merely allow every member of the family to participate, it requires it.It works like this: The Dad, armed with a pencil and paper, takes up his position at the circuit breaker box, also called the service panel.

A JOURNEY of a thousand miles begins with the first step, unless that step resembles the one sitting outside my back door. In that case, there is a strong chance that rather than landing 1,000 miles away, you will land on your backside. The step is loose. It rocks. It rolls. If you don't step on it as lightly as a cat, you can easily end up spread-eagle.I got a telephone call at work the other day telling me I should fix the step. The call came from one of my kids. It wasn't a suggestion.

After years of staff cutbacks, Bell Atlantic Corp. has been falling short of its own residential repair service goals in most parts of the Baltimore-Washington area, an internal company document shows.As of Aug. 10, the regional phone company's Service Quality Index (SQI) for residential repairs over the previous three months in the combined Baltimore-Washington region stood at 83.6 -- short of Bell Atlantic's "threshold" of 87 percent of customers being satisfied.Service in the Baltimore metropolitan region was only slightly behind the Philadelphia-based company's goal at 86.2 points.