FREE AsktheBuilder Gifts – Part 1 of 2

FREE Gifts from Ask the Builder: I can spot at least two errors in this photo. How about you? What will it cost to repair the defects five years from now when they crop up and the builder's warranty is no longer in effect? Copyright 2021 Tim Carter

Author's Note: This is part one of a two-part column series. It’s quite possible these two columns will have a more positive impact on your life than the sum total of the 1,435 columns I’ve written in the past twenty-eight years. Part 2 is now posted on this website as of January 3, 2022 Here is the link for Part 2 of 2.

Surely you’ve been paying attention to the prices of just about everything you buy. They’re up, way up. The price increases of many of the things I buy are up easily double digits, some triple digits. If you happen to follow some building material prices, then you know that lumber pricing is still up about 150% over it’s normal price that hovered around $400 per thousand board feet for quite some time.

At 5:00 AM one morning about three weeks before the run-up to Christmas, I was laying in bed wide awake looking out the glass door next to my bed. I was worried about a large laundry list of things, including the deeply troubling economic news about inflation.

While gazing out into the inky blackness, I thought, “I'm sure many others, including those who read my weekly column, are feeling similar pressure and stress - especially around Christmas. What in the world can I do to help?”

While curled up under the warm covers, I reflected on the many email requests for help that flow through the Ask Tim page on my website. I’ve noticed an increasing trend of those who mention right away they’re on a fixed income. It’s too late in the game for them to start over making more money each week.

Another slew of emails have a common theme of fear and frustration. You may fit into this group wondering about if the work you’re about to have done on your home will be done right. Will your money get wasted if you discover flaws months after the contractor has cashed your check?

I then thought about a young mom I talked to on the phone a few days earlier. She had invested in one of my phone-coaching calls. She’s tasked with building a new dormer on her house and can’t get contractors to even bid the work. This brave woman is going to build it herself with my help and that of many great videos and books that I shared with her. She’s going to succeed.

At that moment, I came up with a rough idea about what I could give you that might solve many of the above problems. There were details to work out, but I was sure I could make it happen.

Often I refine ideas in the shower. You may be like me. I think the warm water tickles my tiny gray cells stimulating them so ideas become reality. I decided to jump into the shower at that moment to see if I couldn’t figure out how to save you thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of dollars. My hope was to conjure up a plan that would empower you to make correct decisions about any project in and around your home and in certain instances, get you to actually use some tools yourself.

After exiting the shower, one of the last thoughts that was swirling in my head like the last bit of water spiraling around the shower drain was a short clip from the epic movie Field of Dreams. In this scene, the young Iowa farmer, Ray Kinsella, had traveled back in time to have a face-to-face conversation with a small-town physician Dr. Archibald ‘Moonlight’ Graham.

Prior to his decades-long career as a medical doctor, Dr. Graham had a very brief on-field half-inning career as a major-league baseball player in the last game of the season. His lifetime batting average was .000, he had 0 at-bats, and 0 hits. At the end of that particular game, he retired from baseball to become a physician.

The young farmer in the movie asks Dr. Graham about not getting to bat in the major league and he responds, “It was like coming this close to your dreams and then watch them brush past you like a stranger in the crowd. At the time, you don’t think much of it. You know we just don’t recognize the most significant moments of our lives while they’re happening. Back then I thought, ‘Well, there’ll be other days.’ I didn’t realize that that was the only day.”

Unlike the young Archie Graham all those many years ago, I do recognize this is perhaps one of the most significant moments of my life and possibly yours. That’s why next week I’m going to give you, all your friends, relatives, co-workers, neighbors, social-media followers, etc. at NO COST something that will save you vast amounts of money and relieve lots of the anxiety you might be feeling about all the things that need to be done around your home.

Be sure that you read my column next week. In the meantime, watch Dr. Graham in the short video clip just below.

Column 1436