September 16, 2009 AsktheBuilder News And Tips

What’s in This Issue?

Roofing Tips
Bathroom Remodeling Rebates
Laptop Incident
DIY Hardwood Refinishing
Massive Stain Solver Sale
Christmas Gifts You Make

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Last Friday, I drove from New Hampshire to Washington DC so I could participate in what's believed to be the largest citizen protest in the nation's capital. Suffice it to say this drive of only 515 miles took me 11 hours, two of which were spent crawling across the Garden State Parking Lot, affectionately called the Garden State Parkway by locals. The traffic from the Tappan Zee Bridge to south below Newark was jammed. Rain, mid-afternoon Friday traffic and just general congestion accounted for the mess.

I left DC on Saturday at 2:30 to drive back to Cincinnati, OH. I'm here now starting the probate process for my Mom's estate. Boy is that a rat's nest of paperwork. Next week, I deliver the speech to doctors and other health-care professionals here in Cincinnati. I intend to share some good stuff about the power of geo-targeted search advertising, long-tail marketing and ways to use video to boost business for these pros. If you want me to speak to your group sharing the skills and magic of what I know about Internet advertising, just email me.

While I'm here, I'll also be sprucing up the exterior of the Cincinnati house getting it ready for sale in the spring.

This Thursday night (September 17, 2009) I'll be getting together with subscribers who responded to my invitation last week. We're going to meet at Molly Malone's at 6111 Montgomery Road in Pleasant Ridge here in Cincinnati, OH. Be there at 7:30 p.m. Philip, from Ontario, Canada, is going to try to make it. If he does, he'll win the Most Dedicated Award! If you intend to come, please email me so I know how many tables to reserve.

Roofing Tips

A crew of roofers is at my Cincinnati home installing new GAF Slateline shingles. Wow, are they gorgeous, the shingles not the roofers!

These shingles mimic the look of traditional slate, and are very attractive on my Queen Anne Victorian home. When they get the front of the home done, I'll upload a new video about the finished job. I could have applied the shingles over the existing roof, but chose not to. I feel it's really important to strip off an old roof so you can see the condition of the wood sheathing. Plus, the new shingles tend to look better when they lay on the smooth wood.

I urge you to take the time to read the installation instructions of whatever roofing product you intend to use on your home. Be sure that no shortcuts are taken on your roofing job. This roof of mine is very complicated, and it's a challenging job for the roofers. Watch this video showing all the different angles of the roof.

Bathroom Remodeling Rebates

You can tell the recession is deepening. Deflation is becoming more apparent. Prices of things are dropping. In fact, just yesterday I got a depressing email that the local granite fabricator I used for my own recent bathroom remodeling job went out of business. How does this relate to a rebate? Overnight I received a press release about a rebate program if you are thinking of doing a bathroom remodel. You can get up to $500 in rebates, the news item said. Rebates are not only incentives to buy, but they are a form of deflation. I can't vouch for the quality of the items that have the rebates. You need to do your own due diligence on that. When it comes to fixtures in a bath, I tend to go with a sure thing. I want quality and parts availability down the road. In my own bathroom remodel, I used faucets from the Moen Showhouse collection. Kathy loves them and so do I.

Here's where you need to go to get information on the $500 Rebate Program. (Rebate program has ended.)

Laptop Incident

This newsletter was supposed to go out yesterday. For two years now, I've been using a wonderful Apple MacBook Pro as my computer. One of the software packages I have is iWork. In it is a word processing program called Pages. I use that to write my columns and this newsletter. Well, let's say I *used* to. I had been plugging away for three hours and was just about finished. All of a sudden my laptop completely shut off. The battery had died, and I didn't get the warning the battery was low. Poof! All of my writing was gone. Can you believe that the Pages software has no default AutoSave feature built into it? That's insane. If you are an Apple employee and have access to the software engineers, please tell them that's UNACCEPTABLE. I used to be a WordPerfect user for years and well over 15 years ago WordPerfect had autosave built in.

A buddy of mine who is an Apple expert said I should start to use Google Documents as it autosaves your work every couple of minutes. I've used Google Documents for a few years, but mostly to share documents with others. But from now on, it's going to be my primary word processing software until Apple gets a revision done to Pages. Shame on you Apple.

DIY Hardwood Refinishing

Money is really tight now for many. If your hardwood floors have some minor scratches, you may be able to restore them with minimal effort. Remember, you walk on the floor finish, not the wood. If you allow the finish or urethane to wear away, that's when you have to sand floors. If you periodically add a new coat of urethane, you never really have to sand your floors. Read this past column to get an idea of how easy it is to keep your floors looking great.

Massive Stain Solver Sale

As I said earlier, I have a new roof being installed on my house in Cincinnati getting it ready to sell. I installed the original roof myself with three helpers 23 years ago. You can imagine the shock I had when I opened the bid. I'll scan it and share it with you next week. It took my breath away, and when you see it, note that I had to supply the shingles and felt paper. All 60 squares worth! But to pay for the roof, I need to convert bags of raw materials in the warehouse into cash. My pain is your gain. Kathy and I are deeply discounting the price of the 16 and 50-pound size. The sale will only last three days. You must be prepared to act next week.

When I told this to Ellen, she heads up the Stain Solver operation, her words were, "You're nuts. You'll not make any money lowering the price that low." Well, I need you to make me look good. Watch for the next newsletter.

Christmas Gifts You Make

While on the topic of shrinking household budgets, look at the calendar. Yikes! Christmas is just around the corner. Instead of buying gifts that may put tons of financial stress on you, why not get creative and make some gifts of your own? This past spring I used a very simple tool to make a stunning window seat bookcase frame and two tables.

You can use this same tool to make smaller items out of wood. The possibilities are endless. I'm talking about a pocket-hole jig. Watch the video at this web site to see the pocket-hole jig I own.

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