Great How to Videos for Women

No matter what you or I do, we only have 24 hours each day, which isn't enough time for everything we'd like to do. That's why I'm excited to have found a great source of how to videos, ones that are consistent with our philosophy of sharing homeowner information in a female friendly way … so you can manage your home the way you want to.

There are hundreds of thousands of videos on YouTube. The problem is figuring out which ones you can trust. For example, when searching for a good video on repairing a garbage disposal, I found you needed 3 videos to get the complete story. Only 1 of the 3 videos I liked (there were quite a few I rejected right away), explained that you have to shut the power off. And a different video explained how to start with the reset button.

So I'm excited to introduce a website with great how to videos, one you'll come to cherish if you're ready to learn a lot more about your home and how to manage it. It's SeeJaneDrill.com, founded by two women – master craftswoman Leah Bolden and technical writer Karen DeVenaro.

How to Videos on Using Homeowner Tools

There's so much you can do with your home but unless you have buckets of money, you're going to want to do some homeowner projects yourself … and that's great! Like most things in life, your homeowner journey will be most successful when you invest time and money in good planning, the right tools and materials, and following the right steps to get the job done.

Home Tips for Women focuses planning your projects, from ideas to buying the right products. We also help you decide when to do-it-yourself versus hiring a professional for an HVAC tuneup or roof repairs. We never wanted to duplicate the “how to” videos online, and finally found the SeeJaneDrill videos which we're ready tto recommend to the Home Tips community.

The founders of SeeJaneDrill understand that women are starting with little or no hands on experience. The tool videos run 4 to 6 minutes, and the bite size chunks are perfect for new information that might be challenging to swallow. You can jump right into the project videos too, as Leah explains the tools at each step, like the mixing paddle in the tile video below. Before you think you know all your tools, learn what you didn't know about tape measures.

How to Videos Help You Get Your Projects Done

You don't realize how complicated a house is until something stops working and yikes, you've got to fix it or find someone else to do it. That's one of the reasons I really appreciate how SeeJaneDrill covers the nuts and bolts of home maintenance and repairs, along with fun projects like installing slate tile (below).

These how to videos do a really nice job of showing you step-by-step how to get basic jobs done. Of course we're biased and still believe we do a better job of explaining your choices (my favorite home repair book) and how to decide which projects to do yourself, and when it makes sense to hire a handyman (how I got started) or specialty contractor.

Here's just a sample of their different how to videos:

• Home maintenance – fixing a leaking toilet flapper (everyone has to learn this one), reglazing windows and installing a new keyed door lock.
• Home repairs – sanding drywall, tearing off an old roof and repairing old window sashes.
• Home improvement projects – installing a new light fixture, laying slate flooring tiles, painting an exterior light fixture and how to cut perfect outside corners for baseboard or crown molding, chair rails and more.

Which how to videos have you watched (find them all at SeeJaneDrill.com)?
What's your biggest homeowner challenge?