HEATING COSTS

As I'm typing and editing this newsletter, we're having our first cold snap here in New Hampshire. The outdoor temperature is 39 F and my boiler thermostat is set to 61 F indoors. I'm toasty warm in a tee shirt and fleece that is zipped up to my neck. I'm saving big bucks on my propane bill. You can too! Turn your thermostat way down and put on more clothes. When it gets even colder, I'll put on a knit hat or wear my hooded sweatshirt and put on my flannel-lined blue jeans. They're softer than a baby's bum.

LOG-SPLITTER VIDEOS

The high cost of heating fuels might have you looking at wood to heat your home. If this is the case and you intend to cut and split the wood yourself, then you might be interested in a product test I'm about to conduct.

I just took delivery of two different log splitters and we're taping videos about both in a matter of days. I'm pretty sure you're going to be blown away by the one video, especially if you are a true environmentalist. If you are embracing the Green Movement, then you're going to see the dream log splitter. The video links will be in next week's newsletter.

PAINTING KITCHEN CABINETS

Sue England reached out to me with a few interesting questions about painting cabinets. She was having trouble with brush marks while trying to paint her kitchen cabinets. Spraying will eliminate this, but that process requires lots of practice and some special equipment. You can minimize brush marks by adding a product that reduces the surface tension in the paint.  Penetrol is a paint conditioner made for oil or alkyd paints that will really help you eliminate brush marks. There's a similar product made for latex paints called Floetrol. Neither of these products will negatively affect the adhesive qualities of the paint.

Sue also asked about how to make sure water doesn't ruin the cardboard core of paint rollers. Quality rollers have a special core that is water-resistant, but not always waterproof. Higher quality rollers will absolutely not fall apart. I have rollers I've cleaned nearly 50 times that have the cardboard cores. They're all in excellent condition.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

This is going to be a new feature in the newsletter. Feel free to send me your random thoughts. Please change the subject line of your email to me to just these two words:  Random Thoughts. I'll include as many each week as I have space. Here are mine for this week to get this going:

Not every traffic engineer gets good grades when they're in school. Did many of ones who just barely passed getting their engineering degree go to work in Boston?

These two pedestal sinks look great but might not be the most practical thing for a teenage girl. Narrow cabinets hide behind the mirrors, but no way will you or anyone be putting a hairdryer in one! Copyright 2020 Tim Carter

Pedestal sinks look great, but they're really impractical. You can't hardly store anything on the curved edges around the bowl. These sinks seem to be breeding here in my New Hampshire house. The previous owner installed them, not me.

You don't save money on a energy improvement on your home until such time as the cumulative energy savings equal what you paid to achieve the savings. Once that happens, you then start to really save money. In some instances, it can take over 10 or 15 years to break even.

PARTNERSHIP WITH TEXAS A & M

This past Saturday I had an amazing phone call with Kelly Milligan the Technical Laboratory Manager at TEES / Energy Systems Laboratory at Texas A & M University.

We're in the early stages of forming an exciting partnership where we obtain funding for official independent testing of building products and systems. Kelly and I are both in agreement that there's too much questionable information out there about energy claims, and myths that need to be addressed with respect to what does and doesn't really work.

For example, we're creating a wish list of tests that will tell you how much air really needs to pass through an attic to drop the temperature from 140 F to 105 F. I want to know exactly how well continuous ridge vents do at dropping attic temperatures. Do the foam insulations absolutely prevent condensation from forming in exterior walls and ceilings that have been sprayed?  The list of tests that need to be done and funded is almost endless.

My job is to act as the platform to publish these test results. Your job is to help me discover funding sources. Do you work for a utility company, some foundation that provides grants, maybe a large corporation that wants the truth to come out, etc.? Do you have other ideas how we can fund these independent studies? If so, please contact me so we can get this fantastic venture moving forward.

I'm also very interested in the tests you would like to see performed. What questions do you have about building products? The tests don't have to be all about energy. Maybe you're interested in roofing products or the durability of ceramic tile. Tell me what things you would like to see tested.

FOUNDATION PRIMER

You're going to think I'm crazy, but this is a true story. I'm convinced that this story is going to be of great interest to nearly 65 percent of the subscribers to this newsletter. First, there are different types of foundations.

About four years ago, I was a judge on the reality television show The Mansion.

The first time we did a taping, I had to get to the set about two hours before the cameras were turned on to get makeup put on. Yes, makeup. You bet that was strange for me!

The production company hired Lynne Molitor, a local professional makeup artist based in Cincinnati, Ohio, to do this each taping. The first week, Lynne asked me to go wash my face before she started to work on me. I got into the chair nervous as can be and quite embarrassed. Being the pro she is, Lynne could see I was overflowing with anxiety and didn't take advantage of the situation. The first thing she did was spread this compound all over my face and neck. It was clear and cool.

Being inquisitive I asked, "Lynne, what's that you're putting on my face?" She said, "A foundation primer." Not knowing squat about makeup, she could see from my expression I was clueless. She followed, "Tim, I read your column each week and pretty much know what you do. You've written in past columns that one should skim coat an old plaster wall before it's painted. The spackling compound fills small cracks and holes."

Lynne was starting to talk my language. But I still didn't understand the need. "Tim, if you could look at your face with a magnifying glass you would see holes and cracks. Most people call the cracks wrinkles. This clear primer dries on your face and bridges over the holes and wrinkles. By doing this, I only have to put on a very small amount of foundation to get the job done. Women who don't use this primer tend to put on lots of foundation to fill the holes and wrinkles. When you see a woman with too much makeup on, that's the cause", Lynne commented while continuing to apply different types of makeup on and around different areas of my face.

Wow! I knew exactly what she meant as I've seen women with thick amounts of makeup caked on their cheeks and foreheads. I never realized there was an alternative.

I mentioned this on my radio show the week after it happened and the phone lines lit up like crazy. Women called in wanting to know the product. One of the callers even asked me to stop by and show how to apply it. I kindly declined that offer. Well, the magical product Lynne used on me is made by Laura Mercier and is simply called Foundation Primer. I just checked online and there are any number of places you can get it.

So here's my question. How can you give it as a gift to a woman who needs it? You know, without offending her? Any suggestions? I can't imagine there's a way to do that.

The last question I asked Lynne while she was turning a sow's ear into a silk purse was, "Lynne, that wouldn't be eye liner you're applying would it?" Her straight-faced reply, "Absolutely not. I'm just brushing away some powder......."

SECURITY ON YOUR COMPUTER

I belong to a mastermind group made up of very successful and brilliant Internet entrepreneurs. One of them is my very dear friend Leo Notenboom. Leo is a lifelong software engineer who owns and operates a fantastic website that has countless questions and answers about computers and software. I use it all the time. A few days ago, Leo made a post to our mastermind group about the latest security measures one should use to keep their machines safe from all the sinister and nefarious rascals that are polluting the Internet ecosystem. Discover amazing tips that will help keep your computer safe and secure.

NEW WEBSITE

You're the best! I want to extend the warmest thanks I can to you for participating in the survey about the new website I'm planning. Your feedback was amazing. I underestimated the need and desire for this venture. The timing of your comments was perfect as I took the data with me to a special conference I attended this past weekend in Boston. The conference was all about special websites that attract people like you that want exclusive content both written and video.

One of the things I discovered at the conference was a fascinating statistic. People tend to join these websites at first for the deluxe content, but within just three months the community aspects of the website are far more important to them. When you become a part of my new website, you'll soon discover new home-improvement soul mates who are struggling with the same challenges as you.

I'm starting to work on the new website this week. As you might expect, I'm building it around your requests. I'll try to keep you posted each week via this newsletter how things are going. This much I can tell you now: There's going to be video content at this website you'll simply not be able to find anywhere else on the Internet. Many of these videos are going to save you enormous amount of time and money. And yes, you're going to see scads of product-review videos.

LATEST COLUMNS

Have you wondered about the effectiveness of continuous roof or ridge vents?

What happens when you are cleaning your ceramic tile shower and the wall gives or collapses?

THE STORM AND CINDER

The past three weeks have been crazy and stressful for me as I am sure they've been for you. I traveled back and forth to Chicago on business, then five days later went from New Hampshire to Mountain View, California and finally this past Sunday night I got back from Chicago from yet another business trip.

In between all that travel, Hurricane Ike made many people suffer including my wife Kathy in Cincinnati. She, along with hundreds of thousands of other residents, was without power for five days. Millions of people from Galveston, TX to Detroit, MI were affected.

Then just a few days after the power was restored to the house in Cincinnati, our beloved dog Cinder passed away in his sleep. He was a young man - we believe he was born January of 2003. The autopsy showed he had a genetic defect in his heart that made the blood-pumping chambers too small.

Poor Kathy was alone to deal with the storm and all the associated cleanup as well as the shock of seeing Cinder not get up from his bed. I was helpless 1,000 miles away. This situation put me into a deep funk and stressing about how I was only able to offer support over the phone from all the different places I was as all this happened.

I tell you this only to explain my absence from your email boxes. We're starting to feel better, and will be picking out a special spot on the mountain property in New Hampshire to bury Cinder's remains. He never got to play on the land, but will have a fantastic view and be able to watch us live there.

STANDBY GENERATORS

The loss of power that Kathy endured really brought home the need for a generator. Electricity is something you and I tend to take for granted. We shouldn't. You may be one of my subscribers that gets electrons to us, as several linemen, power plant engineers and utility company employees have contacted me in the past. I thank you deeply for all the work you do in all kinds of weather conditions.

Kathy's dilemma has set the wheels in motion for a series of columns and videos I intend to write and tape about standby generators. These devices differ from portable generators. A standby generator typically is hard wired into your electric system and turns on automatically if there is a power outage. They tend to generate far more power than a small portable generator.

I'm doing everything possible to expedite the research and installation so I can share all of the facts before the winter snow and ice storms cause more people to be in the dark. In the meantime, discover more about standby generators here.

NEW WEBSITE DESIGN

A little over two weeks ago, I launched a new design at my website. My guess is that you might not have seen it because of all of the turmoil. You may have already contacted me with compliments, and if you did, I sure appreciate them.

The design was done by my daughter Meghan and the needed coding to make it come to life on your screen was done by Brent Walter. Roger Henthorn, my right-hand man, also worked tirelessly on the launch. These people are very talented, and I deeply thank them. Meghan is rebuilding her own website www.AsktheDecorator.com. If you haven't visited it, you should.

One thing I want to share about my new site design is the Search feature. You can locate the Search box at the top of each page. I urge you to really use that when you are searching for a specific column, topic or category. For example, let's say you want to discover some tips about doors. If you type the word doors into the Search box at the top of each page, you will see at the top of the Search Results the Doors category page as well as many of my columns and videos about doors.  Use that search engine. Rev it up and see if you can blow a cylinder or two. I doubt you can, as it's one powerful engine.

OP-ED PIECE FOR THE WASHINGTON TIMES - WOO HOO ! ! ! ! !

If you have been a subscriber for several months, then you know I had to testify as an Internet expert in front of the US House of Representatives twice this summer and the US Senate on one occasion. Those appearances led to an opportunity to write an op-ed piece for the Washington Times newspaper. The column appeared this past Sunday.

If you are a small business person or work for one (nearly 50% of the work force works at a small business), then you absolutely should read the article and forward it to the person who does the marketing for your company. You should also call your representatives in the House and Senate and let them know how you feel about the matter. Finally, if you like the piece I wrote, please make a comment at the bottom of the column. It only takes a few moments to register and it's free. You can also send a letter to the editor of the paper.

HUGE STAIN SOLVER NEWS

Next week, I will have big news about Stain Solver. I'm introducing a new size and two new containers! To celebrate, I'm having a monster promotion. If you don't know what Stain Solver is because you're a new subscriber, then go here to discover Uncle Tim's Magic Crystals as my good friend Kevin Savitz calls it.

TROUBLING FINANCIAL NEWS

Even if you live under a rock, you have to be aware of the earth-shaking financial news. It's affected everyone I know, and has Kathy and I on edge. The national newspaper USAToday had an interesting article about the economy yesterday.

Here's a small snippet of it:

"And in fact, the economic woes are nothing close to the Great Depression, even if it feels that way to some. We're nowhere near the days of wandering homelessness evoked in John Steinbeck's 1939 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Grapes of Wrath.

Starting in 1929, the U.S. economy shrank for four consecutive years. In 1940, the economy still was smaller than in 1929 before the stock crash.

The economy today, though wounded, continues to expand. It grew at an annual rate of 2.8% in the second quarter.

Unemployment in the 1930s was staggering, above 20% for four years. In 1933, 24.9% of the labor force was jobless. Today, it's 6.1%.

The Dow is down 21% from its October 2007 high. That's less than it lost in the first two days of the rout that brought on the Great Depression."

Even if the facts show that by definition we're not in a recession or depression, I'm starting to see a dramatic increase in emails from homeowners just like you who are facing the likelihood of putting off needed repairs to their homes because of a shortage of money. Perhaps you're one who used to call a professional to do a job, but now can't afford a pro or are thinking of rolling up your sleeves to try to do the job yourself.

The emails I'm receiving all have a common theme. If you're one of the people reaching out to me, you told me that you want more personalized interaction from me and you want a place to hang out with other homeowners who are in the same situation.

I want to do everything possible to make this happen, but I need your help. One of my business associates, Tim Kerber, suggested that I create a new website that is a club or a virtual garage where we can all hang out without being bothered by others. He said that my regular website www.AsktheBuilder.com would remain untouched. You will be able to always access it. All of my existing columns and videos will be there and new ones will continue to be added frequently. Of course I agreed with that.

But this new website would be a special place. Imagine for yourself what it might be. There could be in-depth columns and videos of mine found nowhere else on the Internet. It could have private discussion groups where you could communicate with me and other homeowners who have the same problem(s) you're experiencing.

I tried something like this in the past on two different occasions, and both times it didn't work out. The first attempt was a common discussion board that was open to anyone. Here's what happened. Companies would join the discussions and try to push their cheesy products or services on all who were there. Other loudmouth and boisterous people and contractors would barge into a discussion and offend many there with their rancorous and mean-spirited comments. I received so many complaints from my visitors, I shut the discussions down. The second attempt was a premium content website that faltered because the timing was not right.

But now I feel the perfect storm has arisen, and you and I need to figure out how to make this idea come alive and flourish. Part of the reason I feel the last two attempts failed is because I failed to include your ideas in the planning, and we all know planning is the most important part of a project.

Will you please help me to plan and create this new website? You can do it by just going to this  special page and answer some easy questions. I have also included plenty of space where you can provide me with your feedback. One of the things I would like to do is schedule a conference call with you. Tell me if that is of interest to you when you get to the following page. We could have a brainstorming session on the phone to refine suggestions you will make.

Remember, my www.AsktheBuilder.com website is not going away and it's not changing. It's really important that you understand that you'll always be able to get to it 24/7/365.

You and I need to act fast as many are suffering. Please go fill out this simple survey as soon as you can:

LATEST COLUMNS

Wood deck railings are rarely constructed properly. Discover why they fail before their time.

I don't know about you, but I am really worried about my heating costs this winter. You might be shocked at how easy it really is to slash your heating cost. I'll bet you can't guess what I will suggest.