AsktheBuilder.com Issue #1245 (I think)

August 13, 2023

Dear ,

Are you a brand new subscriber? Greetings and solutions as my dear departed father-in-law would say.

What's in This Issue

You're about to discover:

• Paint Pail #Hack
• Clay Paver Patio Progress
• New Home Budget - Avoid Financial RUIN

Let's get started.

"In reality, they're not after me. They're after you. I'm just in the way." GOAT

"Your own government lies as a matter of course, as a matter of policy. The Tuskegee experiments on black men in the 30s, Henrietta Lacks...digital money will disappear." Fox Mulder

Paint Pail #Hack

When you use a paint brush to cut things in, lugging around a gallon can of paint is a royal PIA. You can purchase very cool paint pots that have magnetic brush holders and several other great features. Here's one I've used for years.

These fancy painter's pails are also a great cleaning aid. Once you're finished painting and have transferred the paint back into the factory can, you clean the pail out and then rinse lots of the paint out of the brush. WATCH THIS VIDEO to see how to do this properly.

Fill the pail up with warm soapy water to a level where the brush bristles will NOT touch the bottom of the pail but not so high as it floods the metal ferrule. Place the brush in the pail suspending it with the magnetic holder making sure the ferrule is not submerged. Come back an hour later and the soapy water is filled with paint.

Let's say you don't have one of these inexpensive handy paint pails. But imagine you just finished up a pinch-grip container of cashews or ????

These pinch-grip PETE containers make a great in-a-pinch painter's pail. Pun intended! Yuck yuck yuck!!

If you save the cap you can even seal it up while you eat lunch. When I do this, I wrap my paint brush in a rolled up wet paper towel so the paint doesn't dry.

My Latest Project

Here's why this issue is LATE today. I was busy all day Friday and Saturday.

This is what my son's patio looked like when we stopped working on it ten days ago. He took off two paid-time-off (PTO) days from work last Wednesday and Thursday. So as to not burn up all his PTO, we try to work on Friday afternoons and all day Saturday.

His software-engineering job requires that he work a half day on Fridays. 

That said, I was bound and determined to FINISH laying all the brick this past Friday and Saturday (yesterday). I knew I had to get there early and work solo all Friday morning to have a chance.

This is what it looked like yesterday at 3:30 PM.

I cut it too close with the mortar and there were six bricks left to lay! One of the six you can see standing upright in the lower right at the end of the curved border. The other five special-cut thin ones are hiding under the steps. We were too tired to mix a special tiny batch to do this.

I'll install those brick (did you know the word brick is both singular and plural?) next Friday when I come back to start to fill the joints between the brick with a mix of fine sand and Portland cement. That mix will probably test out at 15,000 PSI there will be so much cement in it allowing it to flow out of the grout bag.

Using crude mathematical computations that don't include any algebra, I estimate there are just about 2,000 feet of joints to fill. I'll shoot some great close ups and a short video or two of the process to share with you soon.

Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel - The BEST Love Story of all time - well, maybe a close second...

New Home Budget

Have you wondered how to prevent sleepless nights when building a new home? Not only do you often toss and turn wondering if anyone will show up to work, but you also may wring your hands hoping you have enough money to finish the job.

Here's a house that is being built near me. It was started last fall and SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE by now.

Here it is the middle of August and there are LESS THAN 90 WORK days left to get this house completely buttoned up before winter. They're struggling to get the roof on for goodness sake. That white stuff you see is the new material roofers use instead of traditional asphaltic felt paper.

I'm convinced this is an owner-build with her/him working when they have a chance. I drive past this house going to and from my Tuesday golf league and it's looked like this for the past two months with virtually no progress.

CLICK HERE to discover how to create a realistic budget for your new home. I also share a few somewhat secret tips to lock in prices.

That's enough for a summer Sunday morning.

Peace out.

Tim Carter (PhD, FullyAwakeology)

Founder - www.AsktheBuilder.com

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