Hello. I love your magazine but I have a question about the floor. I’m disabled. I have several diseases in my back and it’s impossible for me to sweep. I can push a broom, like the swiffer sweeper types. My son has to do the sweeping for me now, and my husband and I would like to find a way that I can do it myself. We are in the process of remodeling and I ran across this article by David Lee in issue #92. My husband got a scrap piece of the roofing and we painted it to see if the swiffer sweeper would go across it or not. Well, it works fine, but my question is how does he recommend mopping with this floor? I mean, I usually use the solution that comes in the swiffer. Will this hurt the paint? Will it clean my floor? Or do I have to use a regular mop with just water? Won’t the cleaners hurt the paint? I’m so sorry to bother you all, I know you must be terribly busy, but we’re trying to decide on this floor or regular linoleum. This floor would cost us $120.00 without the price of the paint, over $330. for the cheapest linoleum. We have a big kitchen and I do alot of canning and cooking in there, and have to clean the floor a lot. Any help would be so appreciated. God Bless you and your staff. And I do really enjoy your magazine. We live on our own little 2 1/2 acres of God’s beautiful land in southern Ohio. I raise most of our food in our garden and love to make homemade bread and can our goodies. Everyone loves my Christmas presents, they usually get canned goods or my famous homemade strawberry jam. Sorry I’m rambling. Any advice would be so appreciated. Thanks. Gail

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Gail,

The Forever Floor has been a popular floor covering solution since the article came out. www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/lee92.htmlarticle

I used the method for years on balconies and small decks. It wears very well when exposed to rain and snow.

We clean our indoor Forever Floors with bucket, mop and and whatever cleaning solution was on sale at the store. None have ever hurt the floor. We have not used the Swiffer solution but I doubt it would be a problem. I suggest you do a thorough test of the Swiffer, with its solution, on your sample of Forever Floor (smart thinking by the way) and see if anything bad happens. That should answer your cleaning question.

If you want extra protection on your kitchen floor you may consider using a high quality exterior latex deck paint for coats three and four of paint on your floor. This might increase resistance to wear and washing somewhat but most latex paint is washable.

When you and your menfolk install the Forever Floor be sure to follow the directions in the article very carefully, especially the part about using just enough, but not too much Plastic Roofing Cement. Too much makes the floor “mushy”, too little means the roofing won’t stick properly.

Since writing the article I have learned a couple more things about this flooring method that may help you. When the granules start to show and it is time to add new paint, you must thoroughly clean away any grease or oil and the floor must be very dry or some of the new paint will come off when exposed to water.

In the pictures of my version of the Forever Floor you may have noticed that I use a rather colorful mosaic pattern. This is for good reasons. It disguises little stains and wear marks. It allows me to only have to repaint the areas of the floor that get the most wear, postponing the need to redo the whole floor. If some damage occurs, like the time we gouged the floor when our refrigerator was moved, it is easier to disguise the repair with a mosaic theme.

One other thing. Oil paints would seem to be better for this floor method. I did a small section in my shop to see how it would work. It took three days for each coat to dry, all the while collecting dust on the sticky surface. One of our cats put paw prints in it. It did not level out very well around the granules. It made the floor slippery when wet. It got dull in the high traffic areas. It took 20 days (!!) to install but I finally tore it out because of its poor performance.

So Gail, I recommend that you install the flooring, give it two coats of mismatched paint, two coats of deck paint, then create a pattern of some kind in various colors, using less expensive latex paints, for the mosaics and get on to making all those goodies.

David Lee

Today I am raising Alternative Building Ideas to new heights and taking a little break from the Home Made Ph.D.

About 15 years ago I had an idea about airline safety - specifically, concerning bombs smuggled in luggage taking planes down . Since then you can’t avoid reading, or hearing first hand, stories of passenger inconveniences, hours of waiting around in terminals and…well, you know the mess that has been generated, and continues, at airports by the threat of terrorist acts.

Instead of all that, imagine this. You arrive at the terminal with your luggage. You go to a counter and check in. Then you walk to a special container full of storage compartments and place your luggage in one, shoes too if the terror alert is high. Possibly your carry-on bag would go in there too. Then you proceed directly to the plane and take your seat.

At your destination you exit the plane, walk directly to this special container, retrieve your luggage and you’re on your way. No waiting on either end of your journey, no baggage searches, x-rays, body pat downs or stress, other than the natural fear of flying many of us have.

The special container is a sleek little glider towed behind the passenger plane. With the baggage in the glider the worry about a suitcase, or anything big enough to be a bomb, is gone. If the glider blows up you lose some luggage but the airlines do that all the time anyway. In fact, since no one handles your bags except you the chances of losing luggage is pretty near zero.

When I thought of this I wrote to several airlines and the President of the United States, at the time, George Herbert Walker Bush. All I got were polite but condescending letters of thanks for my interest from low level staff people. One airline did send a $25 gift certificate. You can understand what a waste of time that felt like.

Since then I have brought up this subject with most anyone I’ve met who has anything to do with the airline business and not one person has had a logical reason why it would not work. Some even had good reasons I had not considered.

Next time I’ll talk about the benefits of the Luggage Glider. For now, if you have constructive thoughts on this send them along. I have to believe there other people out there who can think outside the flight envelope.

It was fun getting to know my truck when I first bought it. As I said, I knew it had the basic requirements I wanted. I had the general maintenance book for 1961 to 1971 Dodge trucks which let me know its internal secrets. Next I bought the specific engine repair manual and the chassis manual for the 1971 D200 model. These told me everything I needed to know about the engine, transmission, brakes, body and every little piece of chrome. I specialized in knowing all about this one truck.

I did not expect everything, or anything, on the truck to work perfectly. As problems arose I consulted my manuals and figured out what to do. This saved me serious amounts of money over the years. Gradually all systems were brought to good working order, which gave me more confidence about returning home with no breakdowns when I took a trip. Even when something went wrong I became increasingly skilled in taking care of it on the spot.

My truck was my hobby. Each year I brought it into the garage to do some upgrading. I cleaned up the body, hammered out and filled dents and gave it a paint job using Rustoleum gloss black paint applied with a brush. I think there are about nine coats on there now from those bodywork sessions. Someday I will have it professionally painted. The Rustoleum preserves it until then.

I considered the cost of such things as rebuilding the brakes one year, a new exhaust system another year, rebuilding the transmission, new suspension bushings, dual batteries, an electronic ignition, a sound system, and two-way radio as my version of car payments. Instead of my vehicle becoming worth less after each ‘payment’ it was becoming more valuable in practical ways.

When the government, in its wisdom, outlawed lead in gasoline, condemning older engines to early deaths, I took the cylinder heads to an engine rebuilder and had special valves installed so I could use unleaded gas. My research had also led me to one of those rare 245 horsepower engines I mentioned earlier. I bought it for $75 from a junkyard, had it rebuilt, and bolted it to the heads. Now I have a customized engine. It is not a racing engine, though I could have gone that route. My engine is meant to have extra torque at low RPMs. With a load of rocks in the back I can drive slowly up a steep hill out of a quarry without straining the engine.

Over the years I have collected strategic spare parts for my truck. Water pumps tend to wear out on these engines so I have two extra ones in storage. I have extra carburetors, starters, fuel pumps, a distributor, and lots of odds and ends. Since the parts are also antiques they increase in value too.

As an Alternative Builder I could not resist giving my truck some custom touches. I built in a console, storage compartments, a dashboard and other projects out of wood. I moved the gas tank from behind the seat into the bed of the truck for safety reasons and enclosed it in a wooden case.

The lesson for you to take away from all this car talk is that you consider a new perspective regarding your choice of vehicle. Lose the Lexus and the monthly payments, set a budget for a vehicle and spend half of it buying one you can love that fits your lifestyle as a builder. Spend the other half of your budget getting the vehicle in good running condition for your work, and learn about its innards from the manuals that you buy. That should set you up with economical, practical transportation for Year Two of becoming a builder. Later, when you have more money, you can increase the worth of your chosen oldy and enjoy it as a hobby and an increasingly valuable asset.

So, this vehicle investment course during Year One will save you money, get you practical transportation and give you knowledge that you can use for life.

Buying a used, perhaps even a much used, vehicle has benefits.

First, you save yourself from buying a new vehicle. A new truck, equal in performance and amenities to my old Dodge, costs a minimum of $28,500! I have kept records on how much money my truck has cost me over the 27 years I have owned it. Not counting gasoline, I have spent just over $4200. I just noticed. That is only a dollar a pound.

Insurance premiums on new trucks are much higher than on my Dodge. Add in “scheduled maintenance” visits to maintain the warranty, interest on the loan, high registration fees and taxes and it comes to so much money I can’t even count that high. Plus (I should say minus) as you are driving home in your new truck its value drops 20% while you are just beginning to enjoy the new car smell! Even with those penalties some people trade up to new every few years. What are they thinking?

My Oldy is insured against damaging people or other vehicles and the policy is not too expensive. If I damage my truck I can fix it myself. Since it is an antique I do not have to submit to yearly or semi-yearly vehicle inspections, those creative income opportunities for repair shops. By the way, that new car smell comes in a spray can.

I am proud of my truck and keep it in top condition. It gives me satisfaction to own a classy old vehicle and I enjoy the friendships I have made when someone comes along and says “Nice truck.”

Another good thing. As my antique truck gets older it becomes more valuable. There is a market for old vehicles just like any kind of artwork. If I had kept and maintained my 1965 GTO it would now be worth $40,000 to $65,000 according to Hemmings Motor News listings.

1957 Chevrolets have always been classics. Even ‘junkers’ cost thousands of dollars just for their parts. Restored to stock or hot rodded, they are among the most valuable classic cars in the world. Imagine how much money GM could make if they reproduced that 1957 body style with modern engines. Too bad…Toyota will probably do it. American car company executives seem to be asleep at the wheel.

Make a cup of coffee, more auto tech talk coming.

When I was searching for my Dream Work-Truck, my first consideration was to find one with minimal rust on the body or frame. The Dodge truck from Tennessee (where they do not use salt on their roads very often) had no rust. There were some dents but I could straighten those. Vehicles from southern and southwestern states and ones not driven much during winter in other states are often free of rust.

Next on my want list was finding a heavy duty truck. Not too heavy, not too light. 3/4-ton was just right.  3/4-ton trucks may look like 1/2-ton models but they have heavy duty suspension parts. I also wanted real bumpers which most of these trucks had. If I have a fender-bender with my truck it’s not my fender I worry about.

I wanted an engine in my truck that was made by the millions so parts would be easy to find. The 318 cubic inch Mopar engine was my choice. It has been around for decades and used in just about every full size vehicle built by Dodge, Plymouth and Chrysler. New and rebuilt parts are inexpensive and easy to find. There are stock and after-market parts to customize performance if you like. Chevy and Ford have engines of similar displacement and truck model choices as good as my Dodge. I just like Dodges.

It is not politically correct or “green,” but I wanted a vehicle built before the hysteria of emissions controls came along. That meant finding something made before 1976. An engine with so many wires, tubes and inexplicable little electric and mechanical gizmos attached that it looks like it is on life support violated my simplicity requirement. Fortunately there were untold numbers of vehicles like I wanted available in 1980. It is a little harder to find them now.

Next time I’ll give more reasons for adopting an elderly truck into your family.

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Reader Bob Taylor has a 1991 Nissan pickup with a gas engine and wants to investigate getting a small diesel pickup with better mileage. He remembers Isuzu selling such a pickup that got 50 miles per gallon.

Bob, Isuzu has been around since 1936 and they are still here. I know general things about them but I always had trouble getting my fingers into those tiny engine parts and using those odd sized little wrenches they need.

If you want an Isuzu engine you will find them under the hood of Chevy trucks and cars these days. Google Isuzu Diesel Engines and you will find plenty of information to start your search. You will find contacts for technical information, history, vehicles for sale and parts to fix them.

In these latest posts I recommend specializing in one brand of vehicle, even one particular model year. If an Isuzu diesel pickup is your Dream Vehicle then go for it. However, read my next post or two and maybe you will be converted to an alternative vehicle buying philosophy. You may decide to consider something as tempting as the 1930’s vintage beauty in the above picture to use in your business. Notice the resemblance to the PT Cruiser which is so popular these days? Retro styling means old will be new again.

This is my work partner. It’s been with me almost as long as my wife. It is a 1971 D200 (3/4 ton) two wheel drive Sweptline Dodge truck that started life as a ‘Camper Special’. It weighs 4200 pounds even before I get in it. I have loaded as much as 3000 pounds into it, though not often. It complains if I do.

It was not nearly so pretty when I bought it in 1980. The color was that icky blue/green often seen on these trucks back in the late 1960’s. I got it for $750 from a racing team in Tennessee. The engine was from one of their race cars, a 383 cubic inch thing with all kinds of leftover racing parts installed but worn out from abuse. It either stalled when I stepped on the gas or took off in a cloud of smoke and burnt tire rubber.

I sold the engine and its equally racy transmission to a local hot rodder who paid me more for them than the truck cost me. Then I bought and installed a modest 318 cubic inch engine and a more civilized transmission that I got as a set for $150. After I bought new tires, rebuilt the brakes and fixed all the minor problems on the truck I broke even. Well, not even, I actually had a great truck that had cost only my labor.

Long before I bought this truck I did a considerable amount of research on the vehicle I would need for my career as a builder. I preferred Dodges so I bought the repair manual for Dodge trucks built from 1961 to 1971 and learned all I could about engines, chassis and available equipment.

From what I read I decided I wanted a 3/4 ton truck with two-wheel drive. Four-wheel drive may seem useful and has that macho aura but I did not plan to plow snow or go where no man has gone before. Neither did I want the lowered gas mileage nor all the extra mechanical parts that could breakdown.

I decided on the 318 engine for its economy and because it had sufficient power for my needs. I learned to decipher the vehicle identification numbers which gave me information about horsepower, quality of internal components and lots more. I learned that one particular model of 318 engine came with 245 horsepower compared to the 150 to 200 horsepower of the others. Just knowing where ID numbers were located on the engine impressed junkyard dealers and helped when haggling prices.

I would have preferred a four speed standard transmission but I never found one I liked. I did learn that Dodge trucks of that era come with one kind of automatic transmission but there are subtle differences in the performance of various models and I made sure I knew which was the best. Identification numbers helped with this choice too.

The rear axle ratio is important knowledge to learn about any vehicle. How many of you knew that? The axle ratios (there are many) make your vehicle the fastest drag strip racer in town with the worst mileage or one with really good mileage but a little poky off the line, all with the same engine. My truck came with a heavy duty rear axle built by the Spicer company. With the 318 engine, an automatic transmission, a 3.54 rear axle ratio and slightly over-sized rear tires I got 26 miles to the gallon the three times I drove it from Maine to California and back. That was with the back loaded with stuff.

Okay, I sense some of you are getting sleepy from boring gear-head tech talk so I will stop for now. But I’ll be back, because there is more.

First the bad news: the housing market is falling apart. And it is going to be in trouble for at least another year. Lenders have made so many risky loans, mostly of the deadly “interest only” type and adjustable rate mortgages, to people who do not qualify that it threatens to put us into economic collapse. Foreclosures are rampant and sales of new and used homes are way down all over the country.

Along with that are problems for businesses related to housing. Home Depot, Lowes and other companies that supply products for building, furnishing, and maintaining homes are losing money and letting workers go.

Listening to any news broadcast will show you how bad things are and how bad they will get. So…that is the bad news, but maybe not for you if you are starting your homebuilding Ph.D now.

Here is the good news: the housing market is falling apart. And it is going to be in trouble for at least another year. Why is this good? Well it is not good for many but it can be for you. This gives you time to do your studying. A large part of that study is going to include learning about the real estate market in the area where you intend to do your house project.

You will learn important facts by reading the real estate section of the newspaper. It will tell you the high and low value neighborhoods in the area. The site for your project must be where you can sell it to people who have the money and desire to live there. Figuring out the best locations to attract customers like that is something to do during the first year of your quest.

After a year of study you can make an informed decision on where to invest the money you have earned and saved. By then prices will be even lower. Tracking real estate prices will help you know when the market ‘bottoms out.’ Knowledge is power. Learning real estate trends and tactics is very interesting, even more fun than gossip because it has a direct, meaningful effect on you.

As the market goes down so do prices of materials. With an original budget of X number of dollars, during a time like this you might be able to save half. I will talk more about this later. Plywood here has already dropped 20%, maybe more. I have not checked this month. Frugal shopping, low prices and a year’s time equals good news for you.

Here is something for you to think about. The best area to do your house project does not have to be your own neighborhood or even your own town. There may be another location some distance away, maybe 20 or 50 or ?? miles. I’ll help you with a strategy for starting the physical work of your project, if it is at a distance, as these lessons continue.

Start looking at home prices and relate them to the location where you plan to build your project. Recording this information on a map is helpful. Read news stories to become familiar with good and bad parts of town and why they are that way. The police blotter tells you a lot about crime and where it could be a problem. Map out businesses that make noise, have heavy traffic or cause air pollution. Know where schools, stores, churches and other services are located.

Well, you get the idea. It may take studying several locations before you find one you have confidence in, but it is fun to do. As I said, even more fun than gossip, although Brittney forgetting her…. Never mind. Have to go now.

It is raining nice and steady today. It will help the garden. This reminds me of the time I was preparing to do my first house project. It was a particularly rainy year and I was worried that when I was ready to start building the weather would hold me up.

I was collecting house building information from every place I could find it. This was during the era of ignorance before computers and the internet. I bought and borrowed books and magazines, got subscriptions to the best ones, and read them over and over. If I didn’t have firsthand experience at least I would have some knowledge, and references to the information I would need. The rain gave me incentive to study.

Then something happened that I took as a great omen and boosted my hopes that I could actually succeed in building a house. It rained so much that spring that there was serious flooding. In Vermont that means brooks swelling to rivers moving very fast down through the hills. The floods washed out bridges. Buildings next to usually placid streams, even a whole lumber yard at a mill, floated away.

It so happens my little house was on property near a 600 acre lake. I was safely high enough to stay dry, though the roads coming and going from there were washed out for a few days. It was an exciting time. We were declared a disaster area and a great time was had by all.

About three weeks after the flood waters subsided I walked down to the lake. The area where the river enters the lake had been one of my favorite places to visit. It was devastated. However, the devastation turned out to be a godsend. Every tree that had held its ground snagged huge piles of logs, boards, beams, bridge timbers, all that lumber from the washed out mill and much more. When I saw this I had one of those moments when your whole body quivers like it would if you had just won the lottery big time.

There was so much treasure I called up two friends who had been thinking about building their own homes and we spent a month collecting materials from that area. Three houses were built from that collection of goodies with tons of stuff left over. And it was quality lumber. I got a 14″ square by ten foot long hand-hewn beam for the mantel over my fireplace. There was 2000 square feet of 2 1/2″ thick tongue and groove yellow pine flooring. There were so many 4″ x 8″ mill-sawn bridge timbers one guy built a whole cabin with them. Lumber of every dimension was so plentiful we were picky about what we chose.

Unfortunately, word got out about what we were doing and the town fathers kicked us out, hired a contractor, bulldozed the remaining treasure into piles and burned it. They said it was done to clear the water shed area for safety during the next flood. Hogwash!!

However, we weren’t dumb. After finding all the places on the map where similar land/water relationships existed we roamed the countryside, gathering more materials. The locations weren’t as productive but we weren’t wasting our time.

So, Lesson One: arrange your money. Lesson Two: study hard. Lesson Three: pray for rain. I’m kidding. Lesson Three: look for deals on things you will need. You will be doing all this and more during Year One of your homemade Ph.D.

It was good to visit with our old friend Robert, and the Amish couple he brought to meet us are interesting people. We talked about farming, gardening, cooking, herbal remedies and building. They can build just about anything, and they have. They are also adventurous, traveling here from a thousand miles away to look for a new place to settle. Their journey was difficult, traveling by horse-drawn wagon, earning traveling expenses along the way. Unfortunately they had bad luck. Their life savings was stolen by a land swindler and they may lose their beloved horses. They are resourceful, decent people with personalities that make them a joy to be with. I hope they find Maine a good place to live, despite their present difficulties, because neighbors like these are very rare. I hope their fortunes improve.

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In the last chapter of my story I was at the point of focusing on The Facts of Life and realizing that total dependence on money as the only control over my food, shelter and security was not a wise life choice. That is when I decided to pick a career that would give me physical control over at least one of the three Life Facts and, hopefully, provide income for the other two.

I chose shelter because I had some skills and experience in that category from my full- and part-time work over the years. Choosing is one thing. Getting it to work is another. I knew I needed to learn a myriad of things to make it happen. So I told myself it was time to become a student again, get books and study. I also started making friends with builders, plumbers, electricians and real estate dealers.

I moved back to my home town, took what I intended to be my last “job,” and began to study and plan. And that is where I would like you to picture yourself now if building is a career you want to take seriously. It took me the better part of a decade to reach the starting point. Hopefully, telling you about my experiences will give you a head start.

Next post I’ll give you some subjects to look into for your year of preparation. Meanwhile I am going to go collect the special herbs the Amish lady says might make my fingernail grow back.

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A note: Scroll down this website and find, From the Library/Making and Saving money. Read Darlene Campbell’s article, Get Out of Debt - Stay Out of Debt. It is excellent and will help you during Year One of what we are discussing here. She tells you things I didn’t think of. She is a smart lady.

In my last post I told how I first began to suspect there was more to life than having a job and making as much money as possible as fast as possible. First, because of the hemorrhaging of money from my paycheck before I got it. Second, because of the cost of things I needed just to have the job.

I kept working at the factory because I applied for and was accepted into an excellent apprenticeship program and got a valuable education. I took part-time jobs for extra money and for interesting new work experiences. I was smart enough to know I needed skills in order to get jobs. After about seven years I had worked four full-time jobs and more than 20 part-time jobs.

There were usually part-time jobs available which required the skills I had learned. I felt safer in knowing that I could do a variety of things to keep the money coming if I lost my full-time employment. A good strategy, but I still had not put the best plan together.

Eventually I realized that fear of having no money was influencing me too much. What I lacked was security. Even with some savings in the bank the fear remained because something could so easily happen that would take it all away. Everything I did required money. Without it I was sunk.

That was when the fog began to clear. It was during the back-t0-the-land movement and I was reading all I could about it. The Nearings and Ken Kern were my favorite authors. What came through to me was how successful these people were with so little money. They, and many others, were doing well because they did things for themselves instead of paying for it with money from a job.

I could write all month about my revelations but it boiled down to what I call “The Facts Of Life.” I asked myself, ‘What are the basic necessities of life?’ After making long lists and distilling them down I came up with three categories: Food - Shelter - Security. All other subjects fit into one of these categories.

Food is obvious. It includes all things concerning food. Shelter is about a place to live and all things relevant to that. Security is the biggest category because so many matters in life involve staying safe. I am sure readers of this website and BHM are very aware of these three Facts Of Life or something close to them.

We have visitors coming today, new ones and an old friend. We are going to discuss self-sufficiency. I look forward to learning some things. The new friends are Amish and have generations worth of knowledge.