Wednesday, June 29, 2011

A Few Spots Left for Two-Week Design Build Class: July 11-22

Need something to do during your July vacation in Maine? There are a few openings left for our July 11-22 Design Build class. Call us today or register online.

Our August Purely Post & Beam class is full and closed to new registrations, but you can register online now for our one-week Purely Post & Beam winter session (January 22-27).

Why should you take a Design Build course? Building or renovating a home involves so many decisions. Our Design Build course gives you the foundation for making those complex decisions. More than 20,000 women and men have taken this continually evolving course. The class is carefully crafted to teach building concepts from site planning through foundations, alternative energy, value, framing, wiring, plumbing, insulation, weatherization, roofing, and more to foster the ability to make wise judgments about the myriad alternatives facing prospective home owners today. Timber frame? Straw bale? Truss? Air Concrete? Foam? Stone? Steel? Photovoltaics? Stick frame? Which one, where and why? What works, what makes it work better, where does the truth lie?

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Father's Day is right around the corner . . .

Are you shopping for neckties this weekend for dad? Don't settle for a boring Father's Day gift. Get dad a tool to help him get the job done right. We've got a great selection of tools and products for every dad from woodworkers, builders, boaters, cooks, to dreamers.

The funny thing that happens as we get older is that the people in our life seem to multiply exponentially. Now, as I think about Father's day, I also think of my husband (the father of my two beautiful girls), and my brothers, and my cousins, and my uncles, and some of my great friends who are dads. My Dad is incredibly special to me, but all of those dad's out there who aren't mine are pretty amazing too. Sometimes I end up picking up a bunch of little things just for those other great dads. So if I don't get you on my list this year, type in DAD on your next order by June 20 and we'll take 15% off your online purchase. (We'll apply the discount when we process your order.) 

Here are a few of our favorite new items. Prices start at $8.95! If you don't see the perfect gift here, then please email or call us for ideas. We hand pick and use all of the products we sell, so we are bound to have something that will make your Dad's Day GREAT!

Friday, June 3, 2011

Environmentally Friendly Milk Paint

By Rebecca, Shelter Tools Staff

We get lots of interesting requests here in the Shelter Tools store for products, but one of the most common items asked for is milk paint. After discovering the Old Fashioned Milk Paint Company at a trade show, the store can now enthusiastically answer, “Yes!” when someone comes in asking for the product. But what the heck is this stuff?

Milk paint—distinguished by its lack of sheen and flat, coarse look—has been around for a very, very long time. It was very commonly used in Colonial America and is called for in many reproduction projects. However, it actually covers the oldest known painted surfaces in the world, including some of the artifacts found in King Tut’s tomb. It is so durable and colorfast that your great, great grandchildren and their kids will be able to enjoy it too. The paint’s two main ingredients—milk and lime—were readily available during the era (many communities had local lime pits). A protein in the milk, casein, reacts with the hydrated lime to create a solution that adheres well to porous surfaces and then hardens. As an added bonus, the alkaline lime works with the acids in the milk to create a chemically neutral mixture.