How Tall Should a Wall Be? It Makes a Difference Did you know the safest and most comfortable steps to go up or down have 7.5-inch risers and 10-inch treads? Knowing this, how tall should a wall be in a house with a staircase? How do you calculate wall height? Make some room in your […]
Summer's End by John Prine I had the good fortune fifty years ago to see John Prine in concert. It was a small venue in Cincinnati. I'm not quite sure people understood at the time how talented he was. In my opinion, he was in the same class as Bob Dylan. That said, it turns […]
Sewage Ejection Pump - It's a Septic Tank Inside Your Home A sewage ejection pump is normally found in a sealed sump pit inside your home. Solid and liquid human body waste flow into the sump. They're disgusting. The sewage must be pumped up to some pipe where it then flows by gravity to an […]
Color Slide and Color and B&W Negative Scanners In August of 2022, I started a massive project of scanning at least 2,000 color slides and well over 10,000 color and black and white 35mm negatives. Years before I had purchased an affordable miniature scanner, but I had let it languish. It was a Wolverine F2D […]
Septic Tank Installation - It Can Be DIY with Coaching Septic tank installation is not too hard to do. It starts with a septic design which must be done by a professional. What Size Tank Should I Have? The size of a septic tank is usually determined by the number of bathrooms in a home. […]
Haughty Professor Bill Plays Checkers Instead of Chess As you might suspect, I get lots of email from all sorts of people. It's a kaleidoscope of humanity and I find it fascinating. On Monday, August 22, 2022 I received the following email from Professor Bill who lives in Tulsa, OK: Thank you, Tim Carter, for […]
F5 Cincinnati April 3, 1974 Tornado - Stunning to Behold On April 3, 1974 I witnessed the F5 tornado start to break up and go back up into the sky. I was standing in the middle of Riddle View Lane in Clifton Heights. This tornado touched ground at about 5:30 PM just north of Rising […]
Solar Panels Return on Investment - Moving Target In August of 2022, Robert reached out to me after receiving last week's newsletter. Here's part of what he said: "Along the line of conservation of resources, what are your thoughts on solar panels on one’s home? I live in North Richland Hills, Texas and have been […]
Why Exterior Paint Peels Two weeks ago in this column I shared why it’s so hard to preserve exterior wood using any number of products. One of them was paint. You may have been one of the many readers that reached out to me. If I had to boil down all the emails I received […]
What is a Tokonoma? Only one answer below is correct. Do not CHEAT. Trust the force in your tiny gray cells! Loading… Tim CarterTim built custom homes and did ultra-custom remodeling for 20+ years before launching his Ask the Builder media presence. He was selected as one of the Big 50 by Remodeling magazine in […]
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