If you are thinking about fixing up your house, watch Do-It-Yourself every Tuesday on Country Morning Today to learn some creative tricks. J.R. Havens will work with people from our area, learning new projects that you can do yourself.

Christmas Light Safety

Christmas is just 26 days away and many are decorating the outside of their houses with lights.

Jeff Hinz from Kirkwood Ace Hardware tells us there are some helpful tips and safety measures you should be aware of before stringing those lights.

"With the nice weather we`re having this year, everyone`s out decorating more than normal," says Hinz.

"When it`s a heavy heavy snow we don`t sell as many lights or extension cords, but given the nice weather people are decorating we see the typical things every year people doing some things they probably shouldn`t.

"Indoor electrical cords are too light for the current and they also get very brittle and hard outside and they will crack and break exposing the wire. Second, they`re only two prong and that isn`t safe outside in the moisture. Snow is water folks and that is not safe. We want to look for an outdoor cord, something pure rubber and something of a heavier gauge so it can handle the heavy draw of the Christmas lights that you`re going to put on the cord these type of things will get very hot and cause fires if we put too many lights on them.

"The other thing we want to talk about is what to do if we have a socket we wanna plug a branch of lights in. Typically most guys will start doing this this is not safe for current that`s going to draw out of these, one of the options is to buy different sets of bulbs, LED lights take much less current most sets are three to six lights that`s it.

"The other funny thing is when we get our Christmas lights together people start looking for what is called a double male adapter. something that has male blades for electric on both sides, it doesn`t exist you need to pull these lights off, re-run them or an extension cord around to the other end. This would be a very unsafe item, we have live current going out there that could hurt someone or even kill.

"Length of cord is important so you want a nice heavy cord, keep the length short and keep the number of sets on the cords down to a minimum that`s allowble by the box."

Hinz says the LED lights are more energy efficient, but his store also offers the more traditional lights as well.