October 16, 2008 AsktheBuilder News
What's in This Issue?
BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK FOR
MEET AND GREET
THE GREEN MOVEMENT
TALE OF WOE
FINAL CALL FOR STAIN SOLVER SALE
LATEST COLUMN AND VIDEOS
BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK FOR
Four days ago you tilted my email Inbox. I asked for your suggestions about the booklets that are needed to get all of us through these tough economic times. I got so many responses that I'm still sifting through them. I can't thank you enough. Already I'm able to see some clear patterns with respect to where you need help. This is going to be an interesting project.
The ideas you came up with are fantastic. Some of the projects you suggested are really ambitious in that instead of being a booklet, they would become 1,000 page encyclopedias! Those will have to wait, as my intention is for these short booklets to be no more than ten or twenty pages of text with a few photos to show the mission-critical steps.
I'm trying to write about things I'm confident you can do with little help from others. Money is tight so I want to create a product that shows you how to do the job yourself, will save you hundreds of dollars and empower you with a series of small successes. Once you gain confidence with some of these smaller projects, then you can move on to bigger jobs.
I was very surprised at the number of projects that were suggested that I've already covered in either past columns of mine or EBooks I have already written. For example, you may have asked me for a booklet on installing Crown Molding. I've had that available for nearly 8 years. I got many requests for booklets on what it takes to Paint Kitchen Cabinets. I wrote that one about 7 years ago. You may have asked about the newer Instantaneous Water Heaters, well I wrote all about those six years ago.
It's tough to market all those things on one page of a website. I urge you to always use the search engine at the top of every page of my website. If you dig down into the search results, you may be amazed at what you will discover. As for completed booklets, my suggestion to you now is to check to see if I already have what you need. You can do that at this page of my website.
The booklet titles on this page will soon start to grow, and as I complete each title, it will be offered to you first here on this private list.
Once again I thank you for emailing me. It's a joy to read your emails so keep them coming.
MEET AND GREET
I would love to meet you. Do you live within an hour's drive of Concord, New Hampshire? Would you be interested in coming to a local hardware store in Concord to hang out with me for 90 minutes or so? We could talk about a project you're planning or maybe I can help you selecting a product or tool. The only cost would be your time and the gasoline to get you there. If you're interested, I need to know as soon as possible. I was thinking of doing this on Saturday October 25th. Please email me now so I can tell the store how many people will be coming. Once I pull this together, I'll send a notice as to the time, place, directions, etc.
THE GREEN MOVEMENT
I've been slow to jump into the fray about the Green Movement that many are smitten with. This isn't because I'm anti-green. Anyone who knows about my recent move to New Hampshire knows I purchased 10,000 years or more of *carbon offsets* when I purchased my 90 acres of dense woods. I have tens of thousands of trees on the property now and 1,000 or more new trees are planted each year. My guess is my trees are manufacturing enormous amounts of oxygen each year by consuming tons of carbon dioxide each day. I have a mix of hardwoods and evergreens, so the evergreens can be true workhorses each day of the year.
I absolutely feel you and I need to do everything to conserve natural resources. Common sense tells us that each year there are more people on this fragile sphere that's hurdling through space. We have a finite amount of space and resources. We must limit or eliminate polluting our ecosystem. That's non-negotiable.
But what's been troubling me is the marketing I see. Some manufacturers are jumping on the green bandwagon using the green movement to sell. A product that's the same thing it was five years ago is all of a sudden green. That makes me lift an eyebrow as well it should with you. I ask all the time why it wasn't important five years ago to talk about these things, but now it is.
My daughter Meghan interviewed a green expert, and taped two videos with this amazing woman, Debra Green. Seriously, that's her name. Here are the two videos:
To discover more about the Green Kit, check out the Eco Starter Kit from eco hatchery.
TALE OF WOE
Steve Kennedy lives in Cincinnati, OH. He contracted to have some colored stamped concrete installed at his house. He had some issues with the quality of the concrete. You should really watch the amazing video he produced.
The lesson here is that exterior decorative concrete, while gorgeous and amazing, can be very unforgiving if things go wrong. In Steve's case a hammer drill and some colored cement stucco will solve the issue. The repair will never look perfect, but it will look lots better than it does now.
If you are a contractor who does work for homeowners, you absolutely positively MUST watch the video. If this doesn't teach you to be responsive to your customer's requests, nothing will.
FINAL CALL FOR STAIN SOLVER SALE
The huge sale I announced four days ago about Stain Solver has been such a huge success we are nearly sold out. If you want to get the 25 percent discount you only have three days left. The same goes for that classic 6-pound size. We're nearly sold out. If you want only six pounds, you have to act now. Once we sell out, the next size up from 4 pounds will be 8 pounds. If you are a new subscriber in the past four days, go to the Stain Solver website to see what the buzz is all about.
The promo code for the 25 percent savings is: kathy25 Remember, use lower case. (Offer expires October 19, 2008)
LATEST COLUMN AND VIDEOS
Hardwood repair to flooring is a tough job. Read why you may want to hire a pro for this job.
Log splitting can be fun and hard work. Discover what is the best way for you to do log splitting.
Have you seen the cool Manual Log Splitter? It's a great way to contribute to the Green Movement.
Index of past newsletters.