Let me begin by saying that I'm a huge fan of the TV show CSI, so much so, that I watch the nightly re-runs on cable as well as the originals on Thursdays. I'm not talking about the spin-offs that take place in Miami or New York, but the version based in Las Vegas.

Oh sure, some of it's pretty gory, but as a police reporter with several years of experience I know the difference between 'real' dead bodies and the ones used on TV. So believe it or not, I can actually eat dessert and watch my favorite show at the same time. Ice cream anyone?

Except for the dead bodies, the crime scene investigations, as portrayed on the show, are very much like trying to find the source of some problems that may arise around your home.

For example, a couple of nights before I left for the Builders Show in January, I found a mouse sitting in front of the furnace in the basement.

I couldn't recall having ever seen a mouse anywhere in the house, so I immediately began trying to determine if (a) the intrusion was accidental and (b) why.

It became clear, almost immediately, that the mouse was sick as it didn't try to flee when I approached it. Wearing a pair of latex gloves, I put a small pail over the mouse and slid a board underneath him to carry it up, out of the basement, and into the backyard.

I then examined the perimeter of the basement for openings tiny enough for the mouse to have squeezed through. I found a spot between the floor joists and the sill where some insulation had been disturbed and right behind it was a small gap, which I closed quickly, first with caulk and then with a layer of quick drying concrete.

So far, I have not seen any other rodents, which is good because mice are not solitary creatures, they usually travel in nation-states.

Armed with the information obtained from CSI, I set to work finding uses for these techniques around the home.

The burners on our gas stove have an electronic ignition. One day for no apparent reason, the front burner began clicking as if the gas was being turned on, but the gas was on and the burner was working.

I shut off the burner and once it cooled, examined the areas around it and yet, found nothing. I then examined the other burners and compared it to the problem one.

There is a heavy metal cover on each burner that has to sit, just so, for the burner to function properly. Once I adjusted the cover on the errant burner to match the other three, I had no problem.

If I hadn't found the problem after a visual examination, I would have contacted the manufacturer immediately. Mice run away, but gas stoves explode.

The previous owners of our house showed incredible taste in their choice of paint and kindly left us most of the cans of what they had used.

I say most, because when we had to repaint the library after some renovation work, a search of the paint cans in the basement yielded nothing.

I took a razor blade and carefully scraped a couple of samples from the wall that had been disturbed during the renovation, because that is where the paint was the loosest and thus easiest to remove.

I carefully put the chips in a bag and took them with me to a couple of home centers, and paint stores, and tried to match the colors to the paint samples.

After several futile efforts, I found the color -- eucalyptus -- at an outlet operated by a regional paint manufacturer.

What I did learn in the process is that paint is made in batches that differ ever so slightly from the previous batch of the same color. One solution is to repaint the entire area. The other is to find a way to apply the new paint so that it matches the old enough so that the difference between the two is minimal.

There are times that you will need the assistance of a professional to help you solve the problem.

For example, if you are removing plaster in a house built before 1978, you'll need to send a sample to an approved testing lab to check for asbestos before you proceed.

The same rule applies to lead-based paint.

These are jobs you wouldn't want to tackle yourself, even if, you were to find them. There are rules governing remediation of household hazards, and even if there were none, a professional usually does a faster and more efficient job than the typical homeowner ever could.

Especially the ones that may be a matter of life and death.