AsktheBuilder.com Issue #1293 (I think)

August 25, 2024

Dear ,

Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.

(Helen Keller)

Best Battery Charger and Batteries

You may have all sorts of things around your home that require AA or AAA batteries. I use them in my iMac wireless mouse, several analog wall clocks, flashlights, a digital voice recorder, voltmeter, etc.

Kathy uses them in a small hand-held whisk to blend a rich chocolate milk each morning. She also has other tools she uses in her orchid hobby. All are powered with AA and AAA NiMH rechargeable batteries.

Several years ago my very good amateaur radio friend and Morse code student, Wayne - KA1CPR, introduced me to Maha. "Sensei, if you want the best battery recharger, you need to buy a Maha Pro. You can refresh worn-out batteries. It will do four separate functions at the same time on four different batteries. It does so much more than a silly recharger you get from Energizer or Duracell."

As with just about everything, it turns out Wayne was right. I bought one and holy moly, it can indeed restore and revitalize batteries you might have taken to the recycling center.

My charger is just below working now to refresh and analyze two AA batteries. Note the four different modes on the left. My guess is your charger can't do these things.

The charger screen is not cracked, that's some odd reflection. CLICK HERE to go to the MaHa website to see all they have.

Moments ago I just ordered eight Maha AA batteries. I'm convinced they make the best batteries in addition to the best chargers. I get NOTHING from Maha for bringing this to your attention.

A Very Busy Past Two Weeks

Holy tomato! I've spent quite a bit of time the past two weeks on the phone. You may have been one that took advantage of my 15-Minute Consult Call.

I took some time and did some math. I estimate I saved each caller, on average, about $7,500.00.

San Francisco Driveway

Tom's dilemma was a steep section of his gravel driveway. His wife and some of his visitors find it unsettling. I offered up two viable solutions that would work.

The first idea is an elegant solution to a gravel driveway. Do you know how paved roads were built in the early 1900s? Blacktop, or hot top didn't exist. Blacktop started to become mainstream in the 1930s. GO HERE to see what I shared with Tom.

My second idea involved no money, but required some patience. This idea bubbled to the surface after asking Tom a few questions about his long-term plans for his house.

Have Flood WILL Happen

My conversation with Allan was rewarding for both of us. His daughter wants to buy a house that will be flooded in the future by a branch of a river in a major Midwestern city. I think he was surprised by my answers to his questions.

Yes, my first advice was to tell his daughter NOT to buy the house, but that option is not on the table.

All of my answers were based on the fact that when the house floods again, which it WILL, the floodwater will be polluted and contain raw sewage.

Wretched Puddles in New Concrete

Next up was Sydnie in San Diego. She had water puddles in her brand new exterior concrete work. I saved her $8,000 after discovering she had a battery-powered leaf blower.

Rotating a Vanity 90 Degrees

Jeff hired me to help with the plumbing design in his new home. He had labored over his plans for months and said, "...if you can make any suggestions about how to improve on the home, please feel free to share them."

Within 90 seconds of looking at his plans, I couldn't understand why he wanted guests to go through his laundry room to access a bathroom. Rotating a vanity just 90 degrees would allow for the door to be in a hallway.

Once he told me WHY he designed it that way, I said, "Oh, why would you take the dogs inside to clean them off? Why not get one of these hot/cold hose faucets and wash them in the garage? You then just have to put a floor drain in the garage to get rid of the water."

Should I keep going? I could devote the entire newsletter with a play-by-play of all the other calls I fielded.

The common denominator is each and every homeowner ended the call happy and with a much lower level of stress. 

I feel you're making a big mistake if you don't get me on the call before you start a project. After all, I already know you CAN'T AFFORD TO LOSE ONE DOLLAR WITH A CONTRACTOR!

Invest a paltry $60 to save thousands of dollars.

Old House Plans 

I stumbled upon an invaluable resource. I spent about an hour browsing through hundreds of front elevations and floor plans of pre WWII houses. Many have excellent circular floor plans.

A circular floor plan has two entry/exit points in the rooms on a given level. This works well for common areas of a home. Bedroom levels are not suited for circular floor plans.

The best circular floor plans have a central hallway that connects to many of the rooms. It allows you to cut the circle trip in half.

One thing that caught my eye while looking at the plans is how the architects knew what the plumbers needed to get large cast-iron pipes down from the second floor to the basement.

Walls, closets, or small chases are visible under and close to where a toilet was located. You should do the same thing in your home.

You may have grown up in one of these magnificent old homes. Have FUN paging through them trying to locate your house! I tried finding the plan for my own childhood home, but came up empty-handed. I'll have to look again.

I saw one plan that reminded me of one of my past girlfriends. Her house sported a center hall with the living room off to the left. The kitchen was in the back left corner if memory serves me right.

Her father hired me and my partner John to paint the exterior in the late summer of 1973. The house needed to be in great shape for my past girlfriend's impending wedding. How her father knew I was in the house-painting business I'll never know as I hadn't been to the house to pick up his daughter for over four years.

John and I were hard at work the month of August preparing the house for the nuptials to be held on the last day of the month. One morning the bride-to-be noticed I was on a ladder painting a second-story window in the rear of the house. She opened the window, sat on the window sill, and chatted me up while I painted the steel-casement window.

I hadn't seen nor talked to her for at least 55 moons. We chit chatted for about 45 minutes going over some of our silly high school dates. She also gave me a full report about her beau and her upcoming move to Pennsylvania just after the wedding.

I discovered the wedding was a private affair and going to happen inside the house. That explained why her dad made it clear the job had to wrap up by the end of the third week of August. John and I met the deadline with days to spare even though she slowed my progress on that sultry Cincinnati morning.

Yes, the first business I started was a handyman and painting business. Here is the handout we passed around in different neighborhoods where we worked. Thanks, Mom, for saving it!

I guarantee vivid memories will wash over you like a giant wave once you find your childhood home in this amazing book.

The last pages have fun plans for all sorts of garages. It appears the architects of old made the same mistake about the wing walls on each side of the garage door that I see in modern plans. Note how SMALL they are.

Wing walls on either side of a garage door should be a MINIMUM of 4 feet. Five feet would be much much better.

If you happen to have a hard copy of this book and no longer want it, I'm happy to become its new steward. I'll pay the US Mail media rate to get it on its way to New Hampshire.

Bogus Expert Advice

I've worked with public relations (PR) people for over thirty years. Their jobs can be tough. They can also have ethical challenges.

I'm not always sure these professionals know much about the products or people they pitch. The PR person's job is to build awareness about a person, product, or service. They're not tasked with investigating if the claims the client shares with them are accurate. The PR people often trust the client and what they say.

A few weeks ago I almost spewed out my morning coffee on my monitor as I read a PR pitch. The following is a pull quote as I don't want to mention the name of the "expert" the young woman was pitching:

"...Much of the nation is experiencing an extreme heat wave.  While many people know that we need to take precautions for ourselves, children, seniors, and pets, during high temperatures, what many don't realize is we need to take precautions to protect our homes from severe heat damage. The severe heat can cause immense damage to homes.  We not just talking about a strain on air conditioners.  The heat can damage hardball, hardwood floors, door and window frames, roofs, and much more..."

 

WTH?

I copied that part of her pitch word-for-word. Maybe the PR person actually is talking about a baseball. Maybe she made a troubling typographical error. She also forgot the word are in the second-last sentence. I know all about typographical errors, that's for sure!

I responded back to her sharing I went to Death Valley National Park about five years ago. I spent a few hours at Furnace Creek doing research. I was looking at older cabins, newer buildings, commercial buildings, the post office, etc. to see how the heat there damages exterior products.

I couldn't uncover any heat damage. I don't know if there's a hotter place in the USA than Furnace Creek, CA. It's just a few miles north of Badwater Basin.

I then told the PR person that when she does get a news outlet to interview the "heat expert", who is a masonry contractor from southern CA, to please pass it along so I can see exactly what he has to say. I guarantee you she'll not send me anything.

My email response to the PR person also included two links in an effort to give her a wider data set. I was attempting to get her to use some invaluable common sense as she travels down the timeline.

I sent her my findings about metal roof temperatures and another one that shows any number of exterior temperature readings of common building materials. None of the materials I photographed have experienced heat damage. 

How about you? Do you have HEAT-damaged things at your home? I'm not talking about ultraviolet-light damage. Just plain old heat-related damage.

I'm sharing this with you as a stark reminder. Keep your guard up about bogus information. It's proliferating like rabbits and not all PR people are filtering out the bad stuff.

Be careful out there. Engage your tiny gray cells as often as possible.

Ocular Assault and Battery

My son and I were discussing Hawaiian shirts last weekend. Eighteen years ago he borrowed one of my favorite ones without my knowledge or permission. He says to this day all his shirts were dirty. I can believe that.

It was his junior year in high school. His music teacher thought my shirt was so obnoxious he took it from my son and stapled it to the tall ceiling of the music room. The teacher gave my son a St. Xavier polo shirt to wear the rest of the day.

We wonder if the shirt is still there and if the story has become legend or myth. I suggested he reach out to the principal of St. Xavier.

This tale of theft produces scads of laughter at the Carter house at least once a year. I lament each time about how I miss the shirt.

Anytime I see a wonderful Hawaiian shirt, I send it to him hoping he might buy it to replace the one that he absconded with. That old shirt is now either in the landfill and riddled with at least 20 staple holes in it rendering it useless.

I showed my son the following photo and he said, "That shirt is guilty of color assault on the eyes." I disagree.

This fine shirt would look amazing on a golf course. The blue goes so well with the lush verdant grass one wanders across while chasing small white orbs. The blue background would really make my eyes pop too.

Yes, my son knows my size. So maybe, just maybe, I might get it for Christmas this year!

Did you know  I offer TRANSCRIBED phone calls?

Yes, there's NO NEED for you to try to remember what I say OR to take notes. Within an hour of us talking, I can often send you a transcription of the entire conversation you can print out.

Pretty cool, right?

Do you need me to come to your home? I can do that too.

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"Yeah, right. That's the way it is. It's down there and I'm in here. I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy livin' or get busy dyin'.

Andy Dufresne just before he escapes from Shawshank prison.

CLICK HERE to see this classic movie scene.

#DoNotComply

Once bitten, twice shy...

Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel

The BEST Love Story of all time - well, maybe a close second.

That's enough for a Sunday morning.

Peace out.

Tim Carter (PhD, FullyAwakeology)

Founder - www.AsktheBuilder.com

Electromagnetic Adventures: www.W3ATB.com

My Pronouns: Told/You/So

Do It Right, Not Over!