Talkin’ Banter with Craig and Kevin

This is episode number 151 of The Homeowner Show. Whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Hackett, and here with me is Craig Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. We're glad that you could join us for this episode. Welcome back to the studio, Kevin.

Man, it feels like, uh, Feels like it's been a while. I think that's probably because it has.

It's been a minute.

I've, uh, man, I've been— I've just been gone. I've been gone away, out of state, in state, although that is a long way away sometimes whenever you live in Texas.

So yeah. It's like a couple countries away in Europe.

No kidding. Well, I mean, whenever— if you're— even if you're up in like the Northeast, it— I mean, you can travel, you know, 4 or 5 states in a day pretty easily. So anyway, just kind of is what it is. But I'm back, happy to be back, glad to be— my family is glad that I'm back. Um, so yeah, it's good to be here.

How are you doing, dude? I'm, I'm doing good. Like, I was, I was, I was reflecting on, on, on life today. Really? Yeah, because I— one, I had a really good day.

Good.

Um, you know, and I, I Like, it feels like almost like a confession, but like, I really feel like I'm just, I'm living a kind of a dream to a certain degree. I mean, like, my kids are all healthy. My family's good. I mean, like today I went to a job that I really enjoy.

Hmm.

I got to come home. I took my kids and we went and swam in a lake.

Nice.

We took a boat, we swam at the island on our lake, and we had a great time. And then I took my kids home, we fed them dinner, and we just had a really good day. We just got back from camp with the kids. We took the little ones to kids camp, got to go to that with them. I mean, like, and I was like, man, a lot of parents just don't get to take their kids to camp, let alone their kids going to camp. They don't get to go to camp with their kids. And so I've just had this great several days now, and I was just like, man, I'm lucky.

Yeah.

I'm very, very lucky. And that was coming on the heels of some just terrible, awful stuff going on with our family. My dad was in this really awful accident where it was, I mean, it sounds very Texas, but he was in an accident with a tractor.

Right.

And his leg got— it wasn't broken, but it just got really cut up really, really bad.

He was actually really lucky that it didn't get broken.

Yes.

Based on what happened.

Yes.

Yeah.

And, um, it walked away from it.

Yeah.

And which is—

I mean, from what I understand of what happened, it, it— he's very lucky to walk away from that.

I mean, he survived. The water well did not.

Yeah.

So that was— Are they still without water? No, no, no. They were with water the next day.

Really?

Yeah, you know, and honestly, because of some of our business connections and, and, and some of the stuff that we do with the show, uh, like we have a lot of good relationships with businesses. And when— and, and the guy that came and fixed it, he's, he's been one of our neighbors for, gosh, close to 30 years.

Okay.

Uh, with, with the business. And so when he heard what happened, man, him and his crew were over the next day getting everything fixed up and repaired. And so they had water the next day, which was a tremendous blessing.

Sure.

But anyway, so he walks away from the accident. Well, his leg doesn't get any better. And when it happened, my mom took him to the ER. And the people at the ER, all they gave him was a tetanus shot, which, you know, glad they did that.

Probably needed it.

What'd you say?

He probably needed it.

He probably needed it.

Yeah.

And, but his leg got infected.

Yeah.

And so we took him to the ER and it didn't go well from there. From there, it looked like he had an infection in his blood. They couldn't— they were having a difficult time identifying the bacteria that was in there. And so they didn't know which antibiotic to throw at it. And then when they did identify it, it was a certain strain of bacteria that they were like, oh, well, we can just use this, this particular antibiotic. Well, that was the same antibiotic that I think it was like 3 or 4 years ago, almost almost killed my sister because of an allergic reaction. So we didn't know if my dad was going to have the similar allergic reaction because he has some

other allergies. Um, and so we, we kind of had to wait a little bit and see if maybe there was another antibiotic that would work. But the really horrible part about that whole situation is when he went to the ER, you know, they admitted him to the hospital, but they couldn't move him out of the ER.

Oh yeah. It was full.

The hospital was full.

Yeah.

And, and so he gets stuck in the ER for like 6 days. You know, I don't know if you've ever been to the ER.

I have.

But they don't have bathrooms in those rooms.

No.

And he was basically bedridden for like 6 days, you know, and was having to like move in and out of the hallway where they were having people just wait in the hallway for care.

Yeah.

Um, you know, when you got a bum leg, that's no fun. And so it was, it was, it was just not a fun experience. You know, if you don't have to go to the hospital right now, I definitely don't recommend it.

Stay home.

If you can, I mean, like, you know, do a video consultation or something, because the hospitals are just— and they'll even tell you, like, we were like, is this COVID? And they were like, no, this is just like regular stuff.

We're just—

and I think part of it is that they're understaffed. And because they were so focused on COVID for such a long time, there's certain aspects of the hospital that are not at full capacity yet, where they're not fully staffed. And so they can't fully open the hospital because they don't have the people to, to give the care that they need to because they're, they're recovering from COVID Yeah. Um, and so it's like, I don't fault them. I mean, they've been operating under, you know, these certain parameters for more than a year now. Um, and I think they're even adjusting to the way things are now.

Yeah. I mean, and we're, and we're not in a, um, we're not in a bad place for hospitals. I mean, no, I mean, best hospitals in the world, but there's so many of them too. But I mean, it's also a very large city.

So, well, and part of the issue is, is, you know, he's— what is it? I always forget, it's Medicare, Medicaid. I think it's Medicaid. Yes. And so you can only go to certain places that accept Medicaid.

Right.

And so that, that was a limiting factor.

Sure.

Um, because where he was at, I think there's like 3 or 4 hospitals.

Yeah. Within rock throwing distance. Yeah. I mean, you could throw a rock and hit 3 of some of the best hospitals in the whole state. For sure. Right. You know?

Yeah.

And, um, it's weird. It's weird. Well, like we were going through some, some insurance stuff back at the beginning of the year and, um, it's weird all the contracts that, that are in place, which hospitals you can go to, which ones you can't. And, um, you know, frankly, some of them are all really, really really good. And then there's a few of them, they're like, don't, don't take me there, you know? Yeah, like, don't take me there.

Just, I don't want to go.

I'd rather die. Right, exactly. You probably will anyway, so, um, it's just the way it goes. Well, man, I'm, I'm really glad to know that he's, uh, that he's kind of on the mend. I mean, your dad doesn't sit still very well, I don't think.

No.

He likes to be busy.

He likes to be doing stuff. And I mean, like, it's It's not getting any better at this point. I mean, because like his, his leg is like, the infection is healing, but they're telling him he's, he's not gonna be walking properly for at least 2 months, man.

So, I mean, I'm, I'm a little disappointed because you and I are supposed to go throw axes with him soon. And, uh, I don't think he's gonna be in a position to be able to throw axes.

I mean, maybe from a, like, I think he's gonna get a little more inspired to throw an axe.

Well, yeah, out of frustration. I mean, surely we can get him in a chair, right? Get him in a chair, let him throw that thing.

I mean, what's What's the— what kind of torque can you get from it?

I don't know. Let's find out.

Is that the right word?

Well, I— well, yeah.

Thrust.

It's definitely not thrust.

Thrust and—

Velocity.

Velocity.

Putting velocity on something.

But like when you, when you throw something with your arm, what is that called?

I mean, like propelling? I don't know. You're propelling it forward. I don't know.

We both clearly failed physics.

Well, I know that definitely whenever it comes to like throwing a baseball, it's, it's going at a certain— I mean, you're measuring it in velocity.

Well, that's what it's measured in, but that's not what it's called when, like, that's not the motion.

Or I think it's chutzpah.

Chutzpah.

How much chutzpah do you got behind it?

It's only if you're Jewish.

Oh, well, I don't know. I'm, I'm not that, last I checked. Um, but either way, I mean, your dad's not a small man.

Yeah.

I bet he could put some chutzpah behind an axe.

He probably could from You know, when, uh, when they, when he was, when his foot was getting all, you know, infected and stuff, all I could think about was, uh, have you ever seen Lonesome Dove or read that book?

Yeah. I mean, it's been a long time, but yeah.

So like when towards the end of the book, when Gus has to like lose a leg, right? And then they're like, well, he's, we need to chop off the other one. And he told him no.

Right.

And he's like, why? And he goes, I like the idea that every once in a while I can kick a pig. So help me, if they even start talking about taking his leg, I guarantee you he's pulling that line out.

Oh yeah, it's— that's like a— that's a staple in your family, that movie, that book.

Like, we name all our Aussies off characters from that book.

Exactly.

Yeah. So I mean, I think occasionally we have Clara.

Yeah.

In the studio. Yeah. We've never had Dietz in the studio, but he's always lying outside the door.

Yeah, that's because he's just too big to fit in here. He's the, he's the biggest Aussie I've ever seen. You said he's not the biggest Aussie you've ever owned, but he's huge.

Yeah, a long time ago I had a watchdog Aussie named Rolex.

I see what you did there. Yeah, named Rolex.

He was, he was 100 pounds.

Jeez, that— like, Aussies are supposed to be around 55 to 65. Yeah, like, he was a brute. No kidding.

He didn't live very long though. Yeah.

That's not surprising to me. So, but yeah, I'm glad he's doing, I'm glad he's doing better. Um, but yeah, man, what a, what a tough deal. I mean, basically the tractor drove over him. Right. Right. And, and he's, yeah, he's, he's lucky.

Um, so, but yeah, that's so that, and he's, he's home now, which that's the best, that's the best medicine is getting to go home.

Right.

So. Anyway, you and I haven't seen each other for a while.

It's been a while.

Yeah, so we decided to spend this episode catching up a little bit.

Yeah.

And then hang on to the end of the episode because we're gonna be introducing you guys to a new segment that we're gonna be doing on the show from time to time.

Yeah.

That we're pretty excited about, and we even have an edition of that segment in this episode.

Yeah.

So hang in there towards the end because we wanna make sure you guys meet that.

Right, so one of the things I was gonna tell you is today I was, this evening really, was hanging out with some teenagers and we were playing a game.

Right.

Pretty epic game. One of my favorite games to watch. I don't play it anymore because I'm not stupid, but it's hilarious to watch because it's slip and slide kickball.

Nice.

Okay, so all of the base pads are, I went to Home Depot and bought 6 mil plastic sheeting. And so it's 10 foot by 100 foot. We cut it out and, you know, made, made the diamond pads. Yes, the diamond. And then— I know terms. Yeah, for the, for the base—

Not the one for throwing, but I know that one.

Obviously. So for the bases, they're just these little, you know, the blow-up kiddie pools.

Right.

Right. And, you know, with a little bit of Dawn, soap and water, this game is hilarious. And so, um, but, uh, in preparation for this game, it's actually really— it's like one of the worst setups and takedowns of a game ever, right? Because it takes forever for that stuff to dry, right?

Yes.

You gotta blow up all of these, uh, these kiddie pools. And so, uh, I had some some, uh, people with me and I was like, hey, air those up. They took about 4 breaths and they were like, this is gonna take way too long.

And I was like, yeah.

So, uh, what did I do? I went home and I got my Ryobi air inflator.

There you go.

And I've got a 4 amp-hour battery. I actually got 2 of them. I was like, I'm really curious how long this thing lasts.

Yeah.

So I bought 2, both batteries, because like, I have no idea.

So did you go do the, the battery thing where you buy the 2 batteries and you get the free tool?

No.

Okay.

No, I've had— actually, dude, I bet I've had these batteries for 7 or 8 years.

Okay.

And I use them regularly. They're the lithium 4 amp-hour batteries.

Right.

Very, very good. And these— I mean, these pools are—

I mean, they're—

I don't know how big they are, probably 6-foot diameter, but there's like 3 levels of air that you have to be— you have to put into them. It took me a total of about 25 minutes for 4 pools, but I didn't even use up all of one battery. But it, man, it did the job.

Oh yeah.

Definitely did the job. I was very, very impressed with that thing. I mean, I've used it for airing up tires and different things like that, but I was like, okay, this is, I mean, basically 25 minutes of holding that trigger down, um, which is a hair trigger, by the way. That's such a hair trigger. It'll scare the bejesus out of you whenever you—

You should be walking along.

Exactly. It's like, I didn't even touch it. I just looked at it. And, uh, It'll, it'll take off on you. But, uh, man, I was, I was impressed.

Yeah.

I mean, I, I really thought, I mean, if you've ever used those, um, the, the regular lithiums with like a, with like the old school blower or something like that, like the, the batteries can drain pretty quickly.

Oh yeah.

But it didn't. I still had plenty of power and didn't ever even have to touch that second battery. So I was pretty impressed.

Well, with the, with the 4 amp-hour battery, like I, I've talked about this before because I've got the, uh, the, the backpack sprayer, right? And I, I use it pretty much every day. Um, but if I put a 4 amp-hour battery, that battery with me using it will last me about 2 and a half days.

Hmm. Wow.

Using that backpack sprayer.

That's amazing.

So it's, I mean, like either it doesn't require a whole lot of power or that battery just has a good longevity on it.

Well, I, I do think that that battery is, is really, really hefty.

Yeah. Um, and they make a bigger one too, don't they? Make like an 8 amp-hour?

Uh, or is it a 6? I think it's a 6. That's a huge battery. Like, yeah, it's, it's, uh, you— it's not something you'd want to carry around on the end of your drill. Uh, no, but the 4 amp-hours, it, it's, it's— well, the 4 amp-hour is the size of the old yellow or orangey NiCad batteries. Okay, that's how big the size of it physically is.

I was just thinking, if they do make a 6 or an 8, and I can't remember which it is— I mean, you can probably look it up because I— my computer is occupied at the moment. Um, but I, I think they would probably be more for like the shop vac and the, uh, miter saw. Yeah, the miter saw actually takes 2 batteries.

Yeah, yeah, it— which actually is it is brilliant because it really gives you a really good, um, gives you a lot of power behind that thing. So, um, let's see what they got here. They got a 3 amp-hour, they got a 2 amp-hour, um, there's the 4, and then there's the 6. The 6th is, is the biggest one they've got. But I mean, that's a, it's a big dude. That 6 amp-hour battery is, is big.

I want to see if it's as heavy as the 40-volt.

Oh, it's heavy?

Yeah, yeah.

I don't know, I'd have to, I'd have to figure some of those things out. But I, I mean, it's, it's not a small, it's not a small battery, but it— I mean, if it performs anything like that 4 amp-hour battery, it's gonna, it's gonna do a pretty good job. Yeah, for sure.

Well, and, and so, so last week you weren't here, but I got to, I got to talk with Eric, right? Um, and I Um, I don't know if you heard, but I, I built a table. Really?

Yeah. What kind of table?

I built a 10-foot outdoor table.

Really? For my deck. Okay.

Yeah.

I haven't even been out there to see it.

It seats, uh, I think it seats— it either seats 10 or 12.

Okay. We've got a, uh, we got a 10-foot, uh, picnic table at our house.

Right.

Um, which is phenomenal.

Yeah, you know, it just holds a lot of people.

It does.

So I have— I, and I had 3 benches that fit around the, the edge, the sides of it.

Cool.

So I didn't have to buy a lot of chairs or anything like— I basically disassembled an old crappy table and used the legs.

Well, that's good because I was thinking, well, that was probably about a $450 table just with the materials.

No, well, what I told, what I told Eric is it cost me $100.

Yeah, it's not bad at all.

So, but like what I used for the tabletop Which I don't recommend to people. I mean, it fits our deck.

Yeah.

But I used dog ear fence panels.

Oh.

And they're, I mean, like, they're more expensive than they used to be.

Sure. But they're still pretty cheap. Yeah, I mean, decking, I mean, or fencing is pretty inexpensive.

So I just framed it up really good.

Yeah.

And just decked it out with those fence panels and sanded it down and then finished it with a polyurethane.

Nice. Yeah, and I mean, you're under, you're under a roof out there, so you don't really have to worry about weathering as far as, you know, rain and those sorts of things, right? But, you know, you definitely have to think about just the wear and tear of people, you know, putting drinks on it and that kind of stuff. So the poly— That's what they're—

that's really what more that was for, was drinks and spills and things like that.

So, right.

Um, but yeah, even if it like the tabletop wears out, I mean, just pop it off and put a new one on. It's really not that big of a deal.

Yeah, nice. So I need to go see this thing.

Yeah, it's, it's cool. I mean, like, it's like we've used it a couple times already to have a bunch of people sitting around.

Yeah.

And I, I, and I honestly, it's not even finished yet. I need to brace up the bottom, the legs to the frame a little bit better.

Yeah.

Um, but even without it, it's pretty sturdy.

Nice. I mean, we like— woodworking isn't something that you've spent tons and tons of time doing.

Not at all.

Yeah.

No.

So this is a pretty new venture for you.

Well, I mean, like, for something like this, yeah, it's very, very basic and simple. Like, there's, there's no— like, it's not pretty. It's just a table.

It's functional.

Yeah, that's really all it's for.

Yeah.

Um, and I didn't really care so much. I mean, like, I wanted— I didn't want it to look ugly.

Yeah, but, but it's also on your party deck. Like, this isn't in your house. No.

So no, but like, I actually— we, we had a guy out this morning Uh, we're having all our cabinets redone in the kitchen, and he specializes in live edge tables. And so we had— we were like, well, okay, cool. So like, could you make us a table to match the cabinets so that we kind of have like a cohesive look between the kitchen and the dining room?

Yeah.

He's like, absolutely, I'll make you a bid up for the table. Um, nice. And I was like, I'd really like it to be cedar because I've got a cedar countertop live edge in my bathroom. Um, and he goes, yeah, no, no problem.

Nice.

So very cool. We talked about him coming on the show.

Yeah, that would be great.

So, because we've never done a cabinet episode.

No, we, we actually, uh, had something lined up at one point. It did never work out, but—

What was that one? I don't remember.

With, uh, with our buddy who, uh—

Oh, that's right, that's right. Yeah, yeah. So he kept bailing on us.

Yeah, he did. Uh, but that didn't ever work out. But no, that would be great. Um, I, I mean, well, first of all, I mean Woodworking, I love doing that kind of stuff. I just don't have enough time.

Yeah.

To do it. I've actually got 2, uh, cedar, uh, side-by-side cuts of a tree. So whenever you lay them side by side, they're a mirror image of each other. Um, and they're, they're full 2-inch, uh, slabs.

Like 2-inch thick?

Yeah. And so, um, and they're about, um, probably 8 foot long, something like that.

Okay.

So what I really want to do is I want to, um, to mock those up and put epoxy down the middle of them and, uh, make a, make a table out of them. So it's one of those things I had on my radar to do for a long time, and then we bought that, uh, that picnic table, so did never, did never get to it.

But I still have it. Why do you want to do the epoxy?

Um, because if I if I just put them side by side, um, I'll have to rip them on one, on one edge, right? And the table would wind up being about 22 inches, 20 to 22 inches wide.

Mhm.

And a table is typically 3 foot wide. So if I put the epoxy down the middle, then I can keep the live edge in the middle and on the outside, and I can just make it bigger so I can make it wider at that point. And I just think it'd look cool.

So 22 inches, how many shy are you of 3 foot? Is that 36?

Yeah, 36 is, is full 3. So I mean, it's almost, I mean, it's a foot, a little over a foot, um, to, to be able to—

That's a lot of epoxy.

Yeah, well, it is. Um, but I mean, I've seen some really cool things done and I don't know that I would be able to afford it. Did we talk about this before?

Because didn't you say you wanted like green or something like that?

Yeah, yeah, either green or blue. but like a deep blue. But, um, I, I probably— I mean, I would not put a foot of epoxy in there, but, but I would probably make it closer to— try to make it closer to 30 inches instead of 36. But yeah, um, anyway, I haven't, I haven't figured all that because really what I wanted to make it for was like a bar top, right? To make a bar top.

Because I think, I think the one I ended up building, I think it's like 32 inches wide.

Okay. Yeah.

Because it looks a little narrow. But like, it's, it's functional. Yeah, you can fit a plate on there, no problem.

Right.

Yeah, dude, can you, can you reach that, uh, bottle of bourbon behind you? Because as we get towards the, the last segment of the show, we may need 2 Bourbon Craig. Oh, and right now it's just 1 Bourbon Craig. Okay, let's see what I can do. Yeah, if you can grab that, that would be fantastic. Um, yeah, I mean, like, the The— thank you. The— I mean, like, the, the table itself, I think it took me a day to put it together.

That's not bad.

No, no.

I mean, did you have any sanding that you had to, to do on those fence posts in order to make them—

They're not, they're not completely smooth.

Okay.

But I did have to sand them. Yeah. And it did take me a little bit longer to sand them because I, I thought I had a fully functional belt sander.

Oh.

And I didn't. I was mistaken.

Okay, so I've got a story about a belt sander. So back, uh, when I got married, I got a little jealous. I mean, these, these women, they get these lingerie showers and they get to hang out with their friends and like they bring them stuff for free. And my wife had like 4 of them. Yeah, I was like, this is ridiculous.

She had 4 showers?

Yes, just for her. Um, it was, it was insane. She had, you know, her church people and her school people, and then anyway, she had all these people. Um, which is kind of funny because if you know my wife, she's, she's pretty introverted. So anyway, um, so I was, I was kind of like, I kind of joked to one of my friends, I was like, you know what, like, guys should get tool showers. That's what guys should get.

Yeah.

That, that needs to happen. Um, And, uh, little did I know, he went off, told the rest of my friends, and then they threw me a tool shower.

Huh.

Which was awesome, dude. Like, most of the, the Ryobi tools that I have came from there. And like, I got a, I got a 10-inch table saw, I got a drill, I got all kinds of stuff, man. It was, it was really, really awesome. They, they got me a circular saw, a blower. Um, and tons of other stuff. But one of the things they got me was, uh, was a belt sander. And I was really, really excited about it because I, you know, I love doing woodworking and stuff. And for one reason or the other, like, you have to have the right project for a belt sander because the belt sanders, I mean, they'll take the wood off, right?

Yeah.

Like, they, they will, they'll just flat eat through a board. So you got to be careful. And I bet I didn't use it for probably 5 or 6 years. I had it up on a shelf in the, in the, the shed. And one day I was like, yep, I need that thing. Finally, I found a reason to use it. So I pulled it down and I saw something like crawling on it. And I'm like, oh man, what, you know, it's in the shed. I mean, there's spiders everywhere. Right. And so I was like, what is this? So I opened it up and dude, the entire thing is just infested with ants.

What?

I know, it's the weirdest thing. I don't, I don't know where they came from, uh, why they were there, but they were living. They had made a nest inside my belt sander.

Was this in Arkansas or was it in Texas?

It was in Arkansas.

It was in Arkansas. Okay.

And it was up on, like, up on a shelf.

Yeah.

And I didn't see them coming in. I didn't see them coming out. I just, I opened the box. completely full of ants. They had shredded like the insides of this thing, and I could not— it, it was not functional. Even if I could have gotten them all out, which I don't know if that would have ever happened.

Like, they ruined— they, they ruined the belt sander?

Yes.

Okay, they were probably crazy ants.

Well, they, they were crazy as far as I was concerned.

So certain, certain kinds of crazy ants are known to, uh, strip wires.

Yep.

And disassemble electronics.

That's what they were doing.

Yeah.

Pissed me off.

Yeah. So this is, this is actually how, um, we discovered tawny crazy ants in the Houston area. Um, so down in the Port Authority, they have these massive, uh, x-ray machines that they run a lot of these shipping containers through.

Okay.

In order— I mean, they just use it to you know, sniff out paraphernalia. Let's just put it that way. Yeah. So one day one of them just died.

Okay.

And they're like, well, this is weird. And so they, as they investigate, they find that there's a colony of ants that has set itself up and eaten the x-ray machine. Yeah.

And it's one of those weird things. It's like, where did they come from?

Yes.

Where are they going?

Yeah.

Well, they weren't coming in. I mean, they were there. And they weren't going anywhere.

And, and if anybody's listening to this and going like, that sounds really familiar, so there, there was like this, um, the guy that discovered him, his name was Tom Raspberry.

Okay.

And, and so people thought that we had discovered a new species of ant.

No.

And so they started calling them the raspberry ants.

Okay.

Raspberry crazy ants.

Right.

Well, later found out that no, it wasn't a new species of ant. It was actually the— it was a crazy ant from the Caribbean, the tawny crazy ant, that had been around. I mean, we'd known about it for a long time. It just never made its way to Houston.

Wow. Um, wonder how it got here.

Um, it's the, the ship channel.

Yeah, I mean, it's just swimming.

No, they came in on—

they came in on a ship.

On a ship. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, that's, that's the thing is like the whole colony, or I guess it doesn't matter if it's a whole colony.

If you've ever seen a boat with shipping containers on it, yeah, I mean, like, that ain't the only thing they ship in.

Oh no, no, no, no.

This is, this is the same thing I tell people with Amazon boxes all the time, right? You know, like, there, there are, um, stowaways.

Yeah.

In just about every container.

Yeah.

So, well, I, and I posted this on my business page a while back. I think it was actually week before last. I had a customer call me and said like, I have a crazy beetle infestation in my house. I don't know what's going on. Could you please come and help? No problem.

Yeah.

So when it's, when it's an odd call, I'm usually the one that gets it.

Yeah.

You know, like, because if it's odd, it's usually going to take a lot of time. And, and, you know, I've just been dealing with weird stuff for a long time.

Yeah.

So it took me 15 minutes to figure this one out.

Oh, so that's not very long.

Well, it wasn't, just mostly because I've seen it before and I knew what to look for. Yeah. And so the— she was like, there's so many beetles in my windows. And I was like, okay, like, the reason they're in your windows is because they're flying to the light.

Sure.

That's not— and so because people think that a lot of times when they see the bugs in the windows, they're like, oh my gosh, my window has a problem, or my window has a leak. That's not always the case. It's just like— and so what you do is you start walking through the house and you start looking for concentration. Like, okay, which windows am I seeing more beetles in than I am in the other ones, right? And so that will give you a smaller radius with which to look for the infestation.

Sure.

So I ended up finding these beetles in a drawer in her bedroom, and in the drawer was a plastic bag, and in the plastic bag was a box of Rid-X.

Oh.

And for those of you that don't know, Rid-X is a— I mean, you basically put it, you flush it down your toilet, right? And it's used to deal with— what do you call those things? The septic system?

Yep.

That's what it is. And it's helpful to keep your septic system clean. Yeah, is what it's for. Yeah. Some people, because this house did not have a septic system, okay, some people use it to help keep their pipes clean.

Okay.

It doesn't really work well.

I was gonna say, that's not— that there are better ways to do that than that.

Yes, yes. So anyway, this— as I opened— and if you go to my Facebook page, you can find it. I think I cross-posted it a couple different places. If not, you can find it. It's not difficult. Um, like, as I pulled the box out, there were hundreds of beetles.

Oh my goodness.

that had cut perfect circular holes out from the inside out, holes coming out of the box of Riddex.

Oh my goodness.

And, and so like clearly the box had been infested before she brought it home, and then she brought it home, it hatched.

Yeah.

And then they just started like looking for something else to infest.

Yeah.

So I mean like it took me 15 minutes to find it, and that's how long it took me to solve it too, because The solution is you take the box outside, right?

And, and then you have no more beetles.

And then you're done.

Then you're done.

I mean, there's going to be some flying around, but they're going to die.

They're going to die. They're going to leave. You open the door.

Yep.

They're going to get out.

They're idiots. They're going to fly to the window and, and, you know, die of dehydration.

Yep.

So problem solved.

Yeah.

But if you don't do that and you don't find it, then yeah, you're going to have a massive problem. Yeah.

So, so the moral of that story is leave all the boxes that you can outside.

Right.

And especially the boxes that the items arrive in. So like if you get a box from Amazon or wherever, open it outside, take the container that it was in. Yeah. Out and leave it outside.

Yeah.

There's no big deal.

I'm so proud when I pull up to a lot of my customers' houses and I see Amazon boxes in the trash can.

Yeah.

So, and it's nothing against Amazon, it's just like—

Well, what are they gonna do? I mean, it's all they can— I mean, they've got like thousands and thousands, hundreds of thousands of boxes in a warehouse.

It is unreasonable to assume that Amazon is going to treat their boxes with pesticide because then they're going to be liable for your exposure.

Right.

Like, it's not their fault.

And why would they spend that money?

And all of you people are so litigious. So if you, if you were, you know, just if you weren't so uptight and you weren't so like blaming, like companies could actually take care of you and deal with these kinds of issues.

Sure.

Like, but at the same time, like people, like we don't need to be exposed to pesticides.

No.

And so like that, you shouldn't want them to do that. And obviously I'm, I'm joking when I say like, if you would just stop being litigious, they could take care of this. They still wouldn't do it because it's expensive.

Right, I was gonna say, they're not gonna incur the cost of that.

Right.

And they don't need to.

Yeah, or the exposure. I mean, like, it's just— it's to them or their employees, because then they're gonna have to hire somebody like me to consult on how you would even do that.

No, they don't want to— they don't want to try to afford you.

But they should.

Um, call me, Amazon.

It'd be worth every penny.

Yeah, there you go.

All the millions of pennies.

That's good. Hey, I will tell you this, Um, we— there's a percentage of life left on, uh, the old iPad over here that's controlling a lot of things that people are watching on Facebook. So I'm thinking it might be time to move on to the new segment.

New segment. What are we calling this?

This segment is called Terrible Stories.

Terrible Stories.

That's exactly right. It's, it's simple. But it really, it packs a punch.

So, and honestly, I have to say, like, this, this new segment is actually inspired from one of my favorite shows, The IT Crowd.

Oh yeah.

They have an episode where they talk about a show in Britain called Builders from Hell.

Oh man, that's a funny show. If you like Community, go watch IT Crowd. That's right. Absolutely.

Yeah. But anyway, what we want to do is we want to curate some of the terrible stories that you have. So So, if you are any kind of contractor or service provider, and you've had an experience with a customer who was particularly terrible, we want to hear this story, and we want to share this story.

Yeah.

Now, we won't— we don't want to, you know, we don't want to share any names or addresses or anything like that. We don't want any personal information, but we just want the story. Yeah.

Change the name if you have to.

Yeah, you know, but—

Yeah, if—

Send us the story, how you want the story told. That's fine, but just send us the story. Likewise, if you are a homeowner and you've had a terrible experience with like a contractor or any sort of service provider, don't send us the name of the business because we're not gonna—

We're not gonna say it.

Yeah, so, but like, just send us the story. Yeah, we'll give you credit for the story. We'd love to share the story with our audience because we think this— these are, these are stories that, that people want to hear and As a matter of fact, we even have a story to tell.

Bum bum bum tonight tonight.

So, and this one's a little bit old, but it's still relevant.

Yeah.

So there was a business owner that this this guy had been in another business, and he was looking to get out of that business, and so he looked to buy a small business. Okay. And he wanted to buy one that had been in business for a little bit of. time so that he wouldn't have to build the business when he, you know, he wouldn't have to start the business.

Sure.

So he wanted to buy an existing business.

Yeah.

So he did. He bought an existing business. And, this particular business sold products that had warranties.

Okay.

But the longest warranty on any of their products was about 10 years.

Okay.

So when he bought the business, he had a book of existing customers, because they were all receiving recurring services.

Right.

At least most of them on the, on the books. But the ones that had warranties were basically like one-time service.

Sure.

Engagements. Yeah.

Because those are, those had longer, one-time, longer warranty.

Longer warranty. Yeah. More expensive.

Exactly. Yeah.

And so very, very expensive products.

Okay.

Um, and so when this guy bought the business, he'd been operating the business for about a year and he got a notice in the mail, uh, saying that he was being sued.

Oh, that's not good.

Uh, and, and so it was, uh, I think it was actually one of those deals where he was like served papers.

Oh yeah.

You know, he's like, are you such and such? Yeah, I'm such and such. Well, you've been served. You've been served.

Yeah.

And so he is like, what the hell? Yeah. So anyway, he, he gets, he gets the notice. And so, you know, he obviously contacts his insurance company and says like, hey, I'm, I'm being sued.

Right.

For breach of warranty, basically was the, the claim.

Okay.

His home had been damaged, claiming that what, you know, what his company said that it had done had not done what it said that it was, was going to do.

Right.

And, and so now He was going to sue the company for damages.

Okay.

So new business owner flips out.

Well, sure. I mean, he's only owned this business for a short amount of time. Yeah. Probably has never seen said customer, never been to said customer's home, and now he's—

Yeah, exactly. He was like, I've never even heard of this person. Right. Never been to this person's home. I don't know what the hell's going on. Um, so starts going through the company files and And sure enough, like 20 years ago, the existing company had taken care of this issue. And, you know, charged him and gave him the 10-year warranty. But it's 20 years later. But this homeowner is going, well, look, look, look, you know, like, I feel like this product should still be in use, should still be good. You should have warrantied it for this long. So I'm suing you.

No, that doesn't— I mean, really? This guy sounds like an idiot. I'm just saying it upfront.

So the new business owner reaches out to the customer and says, like, you know, look, I'd, I'd, you know, rather than go through the lawsuit, I'd be happy to come back out and, and, you know, do, do what I can. I'd rather—

Reproduce.

I'll redo the service. And, and see if I can make you happy. And he's like, no, I don't want you to do that. Okay. He's like, okay, fine. And so new business owner turns to his insurance company and says, what do I do? And he says, well, we've got to go to court. So they go to court and the insurance company settles.

Really?

Yes.

Oh my goodness. This— okay.

This— and this is what makes people so terrible is that they know that. Yep. That they know that.

That's right.

And they don't care. What they care is that You know, like, one, hahaha, I got my way. Two, hahaha, I get a little paycheck, right, for something I never had coming anyway, right? And but they don't think about the downline consequences of that now new business owner having to pay so much more in insurance.

Yes. Yep.

Their premiums go up like crazy. And it's because most people don't own businesses and they don't understand understand how that works. And like, you know, this, you know, this particular person that I know, I mean, like they had only owned that business for like a year and then got hit with that. And it's like, what do you do?

Nothing. I mean, you just, I mean, it sounds very similar. You may remember a conversation that we had about my wife who got in a little—

Yes. The fender bender.

Fender bender that didn't bend any fenders. Um, and said lady gets out of her vehicle. Are you fine? Are you fine? Everybody's fine. All right. I'll see you later. Everything's good. And a year later, uh, we're getting noticed that she's had tens of thousands of dollars worth of done, uh, worth of services done on her neck, her back, all these sorts of things. And, um, the insurance company could even see where she had done this multiple other times.

Right.

And, uh, they settled and she wound up with like a $50,000 check.

That's ridiculous.

$50 grand. And, and you, you know what, you want to know like what $50 grand does to your insurance premiums for just auto?

I mean, jacks it through the roof. It does.

I mean, for something that, you know, should have never really happened. And, and this sounds like a very similar situation. It's just so very frustrating. Well, why can't people just be good people?

Yeah, you know, like I, I had a friend recently that her son was about to turn 16, and so she reached out to her insurance company and she was like, hey, I need to add my son to my policy. And she, and she'd had a long relationship with this insurance company, and they said, yeah, it's going to be $12,000. Oh. And she was like, what? And he's like, yeah, it's going to be $12,000 to add your son to your policy. She's like, why? She goes, because he's 16.

Uh-huh.

And she's like, but he's never done anything, right? And they're like, yeah, we don't want him, right?

And that's—

I mean, that's the message that you tell somebody when you're like, hey, it's gonna be 12 grand, right? It's like, who does that? Yeah, well, you know, some of that kind of stuff just, you know, pisses me off.

Taps your hide. Yes.

And man, hmm, so here's the deal. I'm gonna really enjoy this new segment because if you've been a to somebody, we want to share that story.

That's right.

Yeah, and we want to— like, we don't want to necessarily like expose you, but we're going to tell people where the story comes from and you can draw your own conclusions, right?

Yeah, I mean, because listen, we, we have said from day one, our primary thing that we are doing this podcast for is to help people own their homes better. We want people to have some tools in their tool belt that whenever a contractor comes around They know how to talk to the contractor. They understand the plumbing or the HVAC or the pest control or whatever it is that they're doing. Um, do you have some understanding of that industry? And guess what? There are some real rats out there.

Yeah.

And they're, they're looking to just scratch whatever they can find and, uh, eat and devour whatever they can. And they don't really care about you.

So, yeah.

Look, terrible stories are coming your way, Mr. Person That's Bad.

You know what? And if I like— here's the thing, like, for the, for the most part, I don't want to share names, but like, if you run off with some old lady's money.

Yeah.

You know, and just leave her flapping in the wind because you didn't fix her house. I'm probably going to share your name.

Sure.

You know?

Yeah. You deserve that.

Yeah.

By the way, have you ever heard— this is a whole nother thing. I'm like, we're not going to get into it now. Have you ever heard of the gentleman the gentleman bandit?

No.

Okay, there's a whole other thing.

I mean, I've heard of gentlemen bandits. Like, I've heard different stories of like, you know, they steal but like they leave like a nice card or like, you know.

Yeah, so, well, so, so apparently, uh, this is a story you'll now have to talk about on, uh, offline. But apparently there was one in Houston a number of years ago. And, uh, anyway, it'll be interesting to talk about.

Well, we didn't even talk about my car getting broken into weekend?

No, we're gonna have to talk. I mean, we're literally on, on the edge here.

Okay.

Of our, of our show.

Let's wrap it up.

We, we can talk about it. The people online just won't be able to hear it.

Cliffhanger.

Yeah, uh, we will, uh, we'll just banter about that next week and, and find out about your vehicle being broken into because that sucks.

Yeah.

So yeah, but thank you for downloading today's episode. We're glad that you're here. We're both back in the studio, should be here for a while, which really, really awesome. But we're glad you're here. Thanks for downloading. If you haven't already, click the bell, click the like button, click the subscribe button. In fact, Craig, I've been told that if enough people click that subscribe button, some magical things happen.

Yeah? Yeah.

Yeah, click the subscribe button. The more people that do it, magic things happen apparently. And so make that happen. And yeah, we're here each and every Tuesday. Thanks for coming. Until next time, we'll see you later.

See ya.