December 14, 2011 AsktheBuilder Newsletter And Tips
What's in This Newsletter?
Latest News
Teaching Moment From Marjie
Buying Building Products Survey
LIVE TV for AsktheBuilder.com!
Lot Of New Videos
Facebook News
We're bearing down on Christmas. It's now less than two weeks away. If you're looking for some great tools for that special someone, you should look at my Christmas Gift Guide. I link directly to it at the end of a VERY COOL survey about online shopping. Please give me 90 seconds of your time and take the survey. You'll see it below.A close friend of mine is in distress right now. It's a very long story, but it's about a battle going on between he and his siblings over their mother's estate.
This friend of mine deals with attorneys all the time in his business, so I asked him what advice he would give to others so they can AVOID all the heartache and stress he's experiencing. His answer was so obvious I shouldn't have even had to ask it.
He said, "Tell your subscribers if they have a will they should spell out exactly what happens to all property. They should NOT assume that their children get along and will divide things peacefully. If you want the china to go to daughter #2, then say so in the will. If you want certain guns to go to certain children or friends, say so. If you leave it up to the kids to divide property, it can get ugly."
Think about dealing with this on a personal level after the New Year. Don't hope things will work out after you're gone. Don't drive a wedge in your family after you've been sent back to Heaven.
Oh, the Wet-Dry Vac Guide! I PROMISE I'll have that for you next week. Each day some great new tips come in, so I'll finish it today. In fact, I'll send you the link to it tomorrow. It'll be a VERY short email. Watch for it.
Teaching Moment From Marjie
If you're offended in the LEAST with a small common curse word, stop reading now. One of my subscribers exclaimed it last week.
Marjie Darling wrote to me after the last newsletter went out:
Then when I got the dangerous ice dams that finally slid down and ruined my porch roof, I went online and was rebuked by so many that I was almost convinced that it was MY fault.....
.... THANK YOU for finally validating my experiences. (I had a simple line in my last newsletter that said regular gutter guards actually accelerate the growth of ice dams. I was talking about in the last newsletter a Heated Gutter Guard that melts snow and ice.)"
Marjie, you could have avoided all that pain if you had just come to AsktheBuilder.com BEFORE you signed the contract. If you would have typed: gutter guards ice dams into my search engine, you would have discovered my past column about Ice Dams and Gutter Guards.
Please, please, please, take the time and do research at AsktheBuilder.com before you sign a contract or BUY a product.
Buying Building Products Survey
I'm curious about how you shop. Unless you live under a rock, you know more and more people are buying things online. The more I know about how you do things, the BETTER job I can do in this newsletter to satisfy you.
Would you please take just 90 seconds and complete a quick survey for me? I sincerely appreciate it.
Once you complete it, I link you to my Christmas Gift Guide. You'll LOVE seeing all the great tools in it that I use just about each week. Wait till you see the very cool flashlight and the decorator sledge hammer. It's so fancy, you'll keep it in your living room.
LIVE TV for AsktheBuilder.com!
After the New Year, I'm going to start to do LIVE streaming video. I've not decided on the format, because I want you to help design the show.
I'll be in a little indoor studio, not at a job site while doing the LIVE show. I'm building the set right now and I chose to use a product that you should use in your home - Wall Control!
Wall Control makes, perhaps, the coolest metal pegboard in the world. I love this product. They were kind enough to donate the product for the set. If you want in your workshop, garage, garden shed, etc. what I have, just go to the Wall Control website. I do NOT get a commission from Wall Control for anything you buy from them. It was in my last home and I have it here in New Hampshire in my garage.
Doing live TV on an indoor set limits what I can do to a large degree. In other words, I can't show you how to build a house in a little studio. I can't show you how to lay brick or finish concrete either.
Just imagine me being at your house and sitting at your dining room table with you. What do you think I could demonstrate there at your table that would be of great interest to you? Please reply but change the Subject Line to: LIVE TV.
What simple projects would you like to see me explain? Or, would you just want me to answer YOUR questions live like I used to do on my live radio show for twelve years? Maybe you want to see new products.
Tell me what you want to see me do on LIVE TV. The shows will be recorded so you can watch them later if you miss the LIVE event.
Lots of New Videos
Oh my do I have some videos for you to watch! I was at a new home construction site over the weekend and tried to capture some of the great things I saw.
I often forget that much of what is second nature to me fascinates you! This is why I'm going to try to tape more and more videos like this.
Here are the latest videos:
Garage Design Video
Basement Insulation Tips Video
Door Framing Tip Video
Lally Column Video
Prefab Frame Walls Video
Framing a Door Video
One last thing, PLEASE consider taking my Shopping Survey before you go.
Facebook Fan Page
Are you a Facebook user? If so, you'll probably love my AsktheBuilder Facebook Fan page! I try to do things there each week that don't appear in this newsletter. I'm also on Twitter if you do that.