If you've noticed that your oven temperatures seem to be off a little bit, you can check them with an oven thermometer. Just place it inside the oven and turn the oven on to bake at 300 degrees. After the oven and thermometer have had a chance to level out, see if they are the same. Look through your owner's manual or online to recalibrate the oven's thermostat. If you can't adjust it, try to compensate for the difference when you are cooking. If it's way off, replace it with a new one. Just cut the power and unscrew the leads holding it in place. The new one should be easy to install by just working backward.

If your oven is gas, oftentimes you can clean the port holes where the flames come through. Wear gloves and use a piece of wire or a sewing needle to clean grease and carbon away. This works on both oven jets and stovetop burners.

If a gas oven or range doesn't have a steady, blue flame, then it might need a minor adjustment. There should be a control valve behind the control knobs on a range and near the pilot in your stove.

If your gas oven or range has a gas igniter and it won't light, you easily can replace the igniter module.

If your oven is electric and won't heat, the element in the burner or the oven's heating element might have gone out. You can replace it by simply cutting the power, removing the screws holding it in place and installing a new element.

Keeping the oven and burners clean can prevent a lot of these problems. Make sure you take precautions and cut the power to an appliance before working on it. Never use combustible materials when working on gas appliances. If you don't feel completely confident in your abilities to work on your appliance, please don't hesitate to call a pro.

Q: We need to take our old, wooden shutters down off the house to paint them. It occurred to me that they are so old that they may be painted with a lead-based paint. What do I need to do about that? — H.L.

A: It is a very smart thought. Your paint store will sell test kits for testing painted surfaces. Most experts will tell you to seal off lead paint by painting right over it; you don't want to sand or chip off the old paint. You might even consider replacement shutters. The new ones are much longer-lasting, and are easy to maintain.

If you have done a good job of weatherproofing your home, it will be sealed up tightly. This will save energy but may, in some cases, create a mildew problem. Mildew not only looks and smells bad, but it can ruin walls, carpeting and just about any surface it gets on. Learn how to rid your home of this problem once and for all. We've put together a pamphlet called "Mildew Around Your House," and it is full of tips on how to get rid of mildew and how to keep it from coming back. If you would like to take care of this problem in your home, just send your request, along with $1 ($2 in Canada — no coins, please) and a self-addressed, stamped envelope to The Super Handyman here at the newspaper, and we will get yours in the mail right away. Good luck!