And it's time to visit with Bob Jackman from the Valley Middleton Building Supply and you know the other day Bob I was running through a bunch of tapes from back in my radio past and of course I ran across one
Paul Harvey on it. You and I both remember Paul Harvey, the radio legend, and I'm sure a lot of our listeners do too. If you're too young to remember him, well, he was a legend. I'd go Google him, but there's like one quote that you've heard him say once, I guess, at a convention, was it? That's true. At a lumber convention in Boston, he was the speaker, and he began his speech with the following sentence.
Sometimes the difference between a problem and an opportunity is a point of view. Very wise, yeah. Now, whenever I mentioned that, people say, well, that doesn't make any sense at all. And I said, sure it does. I want you to think back to the last day, and I'm talking to parents now with school-age children, think back to the last day where school got canceled because of the snow.
There is a problem for the parents, because what do you do with your kids? You have to go to work. And it's an opportunity because the kids don't have to go to school so they can go skiing. Yeah, or whatever. Yeah. So in this day and age, and I kind of made up a word here, techno sophistication.
That's a good word, sure. That means we've always, all of us, got an electronic device in our hands or in our view that we do. Many of us approach any situation differently than our parents did. Think of the words Google and YouTube. This time of year, many of us are busy solving household problems and putting band-aids on others
until we can address them if we ever do. That's one of the problems with a Band-Aid. If you put it a temporary solution, it'll tend to be a permanent solution. And you know something, a lot of times it's the craftsman who are usually guilty of that. You remember there's the old saying that the shoemakers children always have bad shoes? Yeah. Sure, he'd fix them enough to get them by. Yeah. Never have good news shoes. Yep.
Well, so the next time you have a problem of space or organization in the home, I challenge you. Every home has one of these. Every family has a dreamer. That's right. And that's a person who looks at a situation as an opportunity rather than a problem. Now, we all know problems are pain in the posterior area. I'm just glad I caught myself.
Opportunities are a clean sheet of paper to help you make tomorrow better than today. So everyone likes working on opportunities and nobody likes dealing with problems. So let's take a look at what we're gotta hate to use this word, but we call it progress. Progress doesn't necessarily
to note making tomorrow better than today? Well, progress by its Latin definition just means going forward. That's all. Yes. You could be going forward into a concrete wall.
Yes. So number one, changing rules and regulations and building codes implemented in the last few years and specifically in the arena of fasteners. Oh, yes. There is a situation where the way we always did it is illegal. Right. Yeah. So you need to know what you need to do to make any project you're doing legal.
We've become a fastener destination. If we don't have it, we certainly know of it and can get it. But you need to ask that question. Hey, I'm going to put on a small deck. How do I need to do this?
And where it attaches to the house? That's probably the one that most people listening would be familiar with on their own as a do-it-yourselfer. Decks, people put them in all the time. And oftentimes, well, if they're smart enough, they know. First of all, most places you got to have a permit to put the deck in, and they've got to approve it. But there's so many things more about fasteners and construction that a lot of people, they don't necessarily have that experience.
in their regular day-to-day do-it-yourself products, your adventures, yeah. And the other side of that is someone is trying to repair something that is falling apart on their house. Right.
So come in and tell, take a picture. Again, here we are, techno sophistication. Sure, we gotta use it. Take a picture, bring it in and say, hey, this is going on, how do I fix it? Yeah, what's this, how do I fix it? Yeah, and we'll be glad to show you. In most cases, and especially, the best example is the deck, and it's where the deck fastens to the house. Oh, probably the most important part of the deck. And those, what we used to all do, which is nail that ledger board right to the house, that's illegal.
It's got to go through with bolts. You've got to do it with bolts. See, they have to be through bolts or like bolts are allowed in some cases. If you're repairing something that isn't working, chances are it was nailed in the first place. And so I replace it with nails because you say, you know, you know what, I'm 58 years old and if it's going to get me 10 years, I'm good.
You know what, for probably three bucks more, you could have done it right. Yes, and when the time comes, that won't be a problem for anybody buying it or selling it. Right. You'll get full price. So that's number one. Ask the questions, especially concerning fasteners. Oh, yeah. And number two, we've always been a destination for your kitchen remodel projects, and we're seeing a lot of interest this time of year.
We want you again with that dreamer in the family. What is it that you are trying to accomplish by redesigning your kitchen?
Very, very wise question, yeah. Yeah, and I tell people, and maybe I'm adjusting for my age here, take a yellow line piece of paper, half the people don't even know what that is, and divide it in half and on one side, put your legs, the other side, put your dislikes. And the dislikes are something you want to get rid of, and the legs are something you want to perpetuate. That's right. So then you can start formulating a plan of what it is you exactly want to do with that kitchen.
Again, that family dreamer, the one that says, boy, if we just move that window two feet, we could have a much better kitchen. It's true. And in a lot of cases, that is by far the best answer.
All right, now it's no secret that I love helping people, and I love helping people with specifically sheds and garages. Everyone seems to be able to look at both those projects as an opportunity. Oh, of course. Because you never have enough places to put stuff. Yeah, and when you're talking sheds, guys, I'm talking to you now, this is a place to put your stuff. In my shed right now is my riding lawn mower.
driveway markers, which I did not get out in time, but the guy knows where my driveway is. Luckily, we haven't had that much snow. A generator, a couple of gas cans, skis, all kinds of things. Frames for when I used to go camping and put a tarp up with a wooden frame. Those are still out there.
That reminds me I got to get rid of them. All right. Helping people with a shed. That's one thing. Everybody needs a shed. A place to put your stuff. You're out of season stuff specifically. The garages is to me absolute fun. Just like kitchens. Absolute fun because I firmly believe
that any automobile or truck that you have will last considerably longer if it's garage. Well, one thing's for sure, if you do have a garage, you have a place out of the wind where if something goes wrong, you can fix it. You're not out there cold and, you know, dropping screws on the ground.
And then if you have a little garage heater, nice propane driven thing, you can bring the temperature to that garage up to any any temperature you want it. Don't ask me how I know this. Yeah, and then sometimes once in a while you magically a card table appears and there's a card game going on. There you go. We've hosted a couple of different rehearsal dinner parties for weddings in our garage. Sure. Why not? People love it.
replacing your windows and doors and we've been over this a bunch of times if you get ice on the inside of your windows moisture on the inside your windows typically that is not
A window problem, it's an indoor air quality problem or a leakage of the window. Not necessarily a good reason to go out and replace everything. Especially if you've mentioned this story once a long time ago, a man came in saying he just put in the new windows and they're all fogging up. I need to get new windows again. And no, he didn't. No, he didn't. What he needed to do is take the moisture out of the inside of that house. Open the windows every day for about 10 minutes and you're done.
You know, and I'll use the windows as a kind of a final example because you say we're going to put in new windows therefore we're not going to have condensation on the inside anymore and chances are you're going to have the same problem when you're done and your wallet's going to be a lot later.
Well, that's the other problem. Yeah. We tell people to buy one of these weather stations so you can tell the humidity and the temperature and whether or not it's going to rain or when the sun's going to be out. These are at least as accurate as the weathermen. Oh, absolutely. Oh, we probably shouldn't go there. I got one of those in my house, so I know. You just got to be thinking
that we want to solve the problem. So you ask enough questions to solve the problem. And we are project solution providers, and your project is to stop that condensation in this case.
So ask us the questions, show us the pictures, tell us what's going on, let us help you formulate the best plan of action to solve your problem. And I will say, I'll close with the fact that if you look at every problem as an opportunity to make things better than they were today, then you're gonna become one of those dreamers.
I think so. And those are the people that really, really get what they want. They do. So, again, be an educated consumer and please stay safe out there. We'll do, Bob. Catch you next week. Thank you.