You've resigned yourself to living with your original cabinetry in your kitchen, but you want to touch it up yourself, hoping to bring your decor into the 20th century without breaking the bank. Whom do you consult for advice on how to tackle this project when your plans hardly match the budgets of a Martha Stewart or Bob Vila? Once again, the Internet comes to your rescue with Home Arts' Handy Home Adviser, a get-down-to-basics site designed to address your home-related questions and solve your household problems in layman's terms.

Handy Home Adviser is an online clearinghouse of sorts that allows users to enter their home-related topics of choice. The site then searches through its database of archived articles from a dozen Hearst publications, including House Beautiful and Popular Mechanics, and produces the most relevant and timely advice related to those topics. Consumers may conduct their searches either by selecting a category from a long list of topics (appliances, cleaning, plumbing and heating, energy efficiency, and roofing, to name just a few) or by entering key words into a search bar. A search under the category "appliances" produced 91 articles -- an impressive total. The articles were not only timely, but diverse, as well.

The site highlights several feature articles, currently about such topics as worn wallpaper (easy solutions); a guide to sources of hard-to-find hardware; advice on how to avoid the top 10 home improvement scams; the top 10 construction-cost overruns and how to avoid them; and even an online invitation into the newly remodeled kitchen of Bob Vila.

Vila also has made his own editorial contribution to the Handy Home Adviser, demonstrating two entirely different "recipes" for country kitchens, one traditional and one contemporary.

Particularly handy is the site's "Estimator," which helps consumers determine how much paint, drywall, tile, wallpaper and other household materials they will need for their next home improvement project. The home improvement encyclopedia, another feature, passes along easy-to-follow solutions to everyday household dilemmas (courtesy of software company Books that Work). From gas leaks to relighting pilot lights to frozen pipes to jammed garbage disposals, you'll find the answers you're looking for here. And most important, the Handy Home Adviser takes you through the recommended procedures step by step, assuming you don't necessarily have an advanced degree in home repairs.

Another feature called "Bloom!" (for the "cultivated gardener in us all," the Handy Home Adviser says) is a unique opportunity for gardeners of every skill level from across the globe to communicate with one another and exchange helpful tips. A Gardener's Library enables consumers to search through reference material related to gardening. A "Seed Swap" invites consumers to engage in a little trading of their own. Web-saavy gardeners may post a listing; browse listings; initiate searches for plants by name, location or zone; or peruse an online plant encyclopedia. You'll find links to Rebecca's Garden (the TV personality) and Country Living Gardener, as well as an interactive window box, seasonal reminders, and more.

Handy Home Adviser is a helpful, consumer-friendly and money-saving resource for those of us who aren't quite ready to call the contractor. The solutions you'll find here have been translated for those of us who are occasionally stumped by the lingo the home-improvement gurus often use. If the likes of Bob Vila and Martha Stewart intimidate you, this is your site.

Published: December 1, 1998

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