As an incurable do-it-youselfer, I'm always in the middle of two or three home-improvement projects. And what I've learned over the years is that you can never start a project too early. Even the simplest DIY tasks take twice as long to complete than you'd ever think possible. And that's why I didn't wait until winter to upgrade the heating system in our bathroom. If I had, chances are it wouldn't have been ready until next spring. So, last week, prior to putting down a new tile floor, I installed a Nuheat electric radiant-floor heat mat. The thin, woven mat has flexible heating cables embedded in the fabric. It delivers about 41 Btus of heat per square foot. Nuheat offers several standard-size mats, which are suitable for most installations, but I ordered a custom mat that was specifically designed to conform to the layout of my bathroom. Installation was fast, easy and virtually impossible to mess up (always a selling point to me).