That time we did a live show: part 2

I got it.

We are rolling, rolling, rolling, rolling, rolling, rolling. It's called a different way. Podcast rolling, rolling. That's what I was going. Rolling. Roll high. Yeah, that's the one. All right, well, we are, uh, we are back after a little short break.

Hey, Thistle!

Hey, Thistle! Hello! Hello! Can you hear us?

I just—

we're just waving. It's time. Hey, everybody at the bar!

Yeah!

We got a special guest with us now. Yeah! Yeah, absolutely. So we, um, we had a good time talking with Charles. Glad he was with us.

Yep.

Um, but we got a new guest. Uh, would you mind introducing yourself?

Yeah, uh, this is John from Spring, Texas.

John from Spring, Texas. John from Spring. There's— he's He's like the only John in Spring. It's not John Spring, but you're John from Spring, right?

Of Spring, correct.

Of Spring, okay. How long you been in Spring?

Oh, about 5 years.

About 5 years? Where were you before?

Oh, I came here from Virginia.

Virginia? Virginia, all right.

Nice. Cool.

We got another northeastern migration going on.

That's, uh—

Everybody's coming to Texas. Everybody wants to be in Texas. They actually don't want to be cold anymore, that's all it is. It's like they're flying south for the winter. You got a hat and boots yet?

I got the hat, not the boots yet.

Not the boots, okay. So we're halfway there.

Yeah, you'll—

Hey, that's all right. Whenever you— when you already got a— you can't see him, Facebook, but he's got a 'do like me. He needs a hat. I think I need a haircut. I think you need a better barber, man. Yeah. Man, I hadn't been to a barber in 12 years.

Yeah?

No. Is this self-maintained?

Absolutely.

Yes.

I haven't been either.

Yeah. It's just too much trouble. Too much trouble. Well, we're glad you're here. So, so we are at the Homeowner Show and, uh, live at the Thistle, live at the Thistle in Spring, Texas. So did you just have dinner?

I did, yes.

What'd you have?

It was delicious. Uh, oysters.

You had the oysters?

Brought.

Yeah, 75-cent oysters tonight. How about that? If that's your thing. I mean, I don't really like oysters.

Come on.

Just because I don't like them doesn't mean that I— You're gonna pay double for all the food you ate tonight.

That's a lot.

Yeah, I know. 75-cent That's a lot of oysters though, if that's your thing.

Yeah.

You can eat a lot of oysters. How many did you put away?

I only did 6 tonight.

6?

Yeah.

So you like hot sauce and how do you take it?

I put everything on it. Hot sauce, horseradish, cocktail, everything.

Nice. All right. Okay, cool. Did you share?

A little bit.

All right.

They're only 75 cents.

That's my point.

This is date night for us.

Well, yeah. Okay, cool. Excellent. Have you been here before?

Oh yeah.

Yeah?

Last Monday. Okay. More oysters.

More oysters, yeah, come back for the oysters.

There you go.

Yeah, awesome. Well, yeah, so, you know, John, we talk about primarily things regarding your home, and there's so many things, if you're a homeowner, there's so many things that go into buying a home, into owning a home, into maintaining a home, repairing a home. It's a lot more work than a lot of people give it credit for. And I think that in some ways, that's why a lot of people don't want to own a home. They just rent or, you know. It's a growing trend, people not buying homes and more renters. Yeah, it is. And, you know, I think that it can be a really good opportunity and it gives you some pride, you know, and say, I can do this a little bit. And so,

you know, we just like to interview people and talk to them about, you know, projects that they've done and just kind of see some experiences that they've had. And so we're interested. You own a home, right?

That's right.

How long have you been a homeowner?

Oh, about 5 years. 5 years?

Since you moved here?

Since I moved to Spring, yep.

Was that your first home?

First home.

Yeah?

Yep.

How was the process of buying a home for you? Did you enjoy that process? Was it stressful? How did that work for you?

It wasn't too bad because I was single, so I only had one person to please, and that was myself. There you go. So I picked what I liked.

There you go.

That's easy then.

All right, well cool. So tell us a little bit about your home. I mean, what have you done to it or, you know, found that needed to be done to it? Did you buy a home that was newer? Did you buy something older knowing it was gonna need some repair?

It was newer, so I guess I haven't done a whole lot of home improvements. It's mostly home repairs.

Okay, what kind of repairs have you run into?

Mostly plumbing. Oh, okay.

All right, what kind of plumbing jobs?

Leaky PVC under the sinks.

Under the sinks. Like, was this a bad job to begin with? You know, the home builder just didn't do a good job building this, or were there other issues?

Must be the home builder.

Yeah. Okay.

Definitely wasn't me.

It wasn't you. So was it something you caught pretty early on, or did this sort of morph into, okay, that was leaking and now I have to replace the cabinets and other things like that, or?

Well, I haven't replaced the cabinets yet. But, you know, the way I find it is, is the black mold underneath the sinks. When it starts to turn black, that's when I realize something's wrong.

Okay, so it was a slow leak?

It is a slow leak.

Okay, yeah.

Wow.

So was it leaking from like the faucet? Was it leaking from the drain? What was going on?

Yeah, the most recent one was leaking from the drain.

Oh, so there's been multiple?

Oh yes.

So the most recent one was from the drain, but so what were the ones— how many are we talking about? Oh, 3 or 4.

Really?

The same sink or a different sink?

A couple of them are in the same spot and, you know, one or two are in other sinks. They're spread around.

Wow, this guy did not know what he was doing when he built your house. Man, they must have got a guy that wasn't licensed or something. That's crazy. So was it— I mean, so you mentioned mold. I mean, was that something that the insurance company kind of came in and did you have to have like any testing done or?

Well, it wasn't bad enough to get outside of under the sink, so I decided to do insurance No insurance or any of that. It was just eventually I noticed it's not the right color for the wood and, uh, so I started wiping it off and— Yeah.

So were these things that you— did you fix these on your own or did you bring somebody in?

I managed to fix them on my own.

Really?

I did, yeah.

So you managed the mold and everything?

I just got some Clorox wipes. I guess that was good enough.

With the bleach route?

Yeah.

Bleach is good on mold?

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

It'll kill it.

Yeah.

Where did you learn to do plumbing? I mean, have you, do you have a background in plumbing or did you YouTube this stuff or?

I literally learned everything on YouTube.

Hey, that is not a bad place to start. You know, this, this is, I think, I think this is actually interesting. Like YouTube right now statistically is like 70% male viewed.

Really?

Yeah. It's like, it's, it's very much like a male dominated market. And so like, they're like, so obviously they're going to be creating content that's more geared towards guys who want to fix things, guys who want to learn how to I mean, like, guy-oriented kind of things. And so, like, I mean, like, and so typically around the house, traditionally, the male fixes things. Yeah, most of the time. So, I mean, like, it's just natural that that's the content that they're going to be putting up. I mean, like, we talk about, like, 70%. I mean, like, that's a lot. It's, it's huge. And there's a lot of content on YouTube. I think they said it's like 300 hours worth of

content every hour that's uploaded. Oh my goodness. Wow. Statistically, you can never watch that much, Craig. I could try. So, so you're looking at YouTube videos here. How did you determine— because I think this is a good question, that's why I'm asking it— why, how did you determine that this YouTube video was better than that YouTube video whenever it comes to this is gonna help me fix the job that I need fixed? Are you looking for like missing teeth or what?

Well, you just got to go with the number of likes.

Oh, okay. It does help. Yeah, definitely. How many people have viewed it? How many people like it? Let those fools who have gone before me. Yeah, well, and I— it is interesting because there's definitely— I find this real interesting. I was watching a guy who's a painter. He's got this huge following, and he calls himself the state that he's from, that state's painter, right? And so he basically He basically tells all his tricks about how to do it.

Yeah.

Which is bizarre to me because I think historically, you know, a lot of business owners have kind of been like, okay, whenever I do something really well, I don't want to tell other people how I do it because that's then going to hurt my business, right? But somehow that's not the case with these guys because what winds up happening is they just get people that are more interested in them and then they generate, like you said, more and more likes, more and more views, and they're the go-to person all of a sudden that people want to use, even though they're giving away all their tricks and tips. So like on this particular leak, were you— were there multiple videos that you ended up looking at, or did you end up having different search queries for

these?

It took a few videos. I like to confirm.

Okay.

Once I watch one, make sure that—

And what does this guy say over here?

Exactly.

Okay. So what— if you can remember what What did you search for in order to find the right video?

Probably, uh, how to fix leaky kitchen sink.

Okay.

Okay.

So it was the kitchen. We now know it was the kitchen.

That's right.

Okay. Was there a garbage disposal involved?

No, fortunately, on the other side.

Nice. Yeah, that's helpful. This is gonna be a booger.

Slightly easier. One less piece of equipment.

No kidding. Yeah, we had a situation once under our kitchen sink, and the problem was from our dishwasher dishwasher to the garbage disposal. So it was actually through a wall. It was a mess. Is that, is that the one you were telling me about where like it fed back? Yes, it fed back into the dishwasher, which is just disgusting and awful. It's the opposite of what I wanted to happen. Exactly. But it was PVC, so you weren't having to deal with, um, you know, with any type of metal down there, which makes it a little bit easier. Yeah, right. So did you feel like you had all the tools that you needed in order to make that Did the project go smoothly, or was there stuff you had to go pick

up?

Barely. I went to the home improvement store, fixing to spend a bunch of money and buy new parts for everything, and surprisingly, the guy there helped me and said, hey, I think you got what you need already. Yeah, a couple pairs of pliers.

That's awesome. So were you able to do this in one trip?

That was the most amazing part.

What? I can't believe it. I never get to go in one trip. It always takes multiple trips to go to the hardware store. What's the name of this guy? We need to, we need to, we need to interview this guy. Yeah, not only that, like, yeah, like, obviously he was good at what he was doing, and sometimes those guys really are very, very helpful, right? But more often than not, I just like going back to the hardware store. I think I have everything I need, but I want something else. Rite of passage. Yeah, I don't know. To make the return trip of shame. Yeah, exactly. I just like hanging out at the hardware store just because.

Sometimes I act like I'm the guy that knows everything. I don't. Okay, well cool then. So, so at this point, have you worked on every sink in your house?

Only 2 out of the 3.

2 out of the 3. And are they pretty good? Like, did you do a good job, a good enough job that it's— you feel sufficiently like, I, man, I did this?

Oh yeah, they're solid.

They're solid.

Improved the resale value.

Yeah, people are looking under the sink going, this is good work. That's awesome. Realtor comes in the house, let me open these cabinet doors for you.

Yeah.

Look at this. You wouldn't believe how good this piping is. My problem is the glue. I'm never good at like the glue part of the plumbing, and I feel like that should be the easiest part, and I'm never good at it. You glued your hand to the pipe, didn't you? Yeah, you know, there's like glue dripping out of it, you know, 'cause they say put, I think the word they use is liberally, liberally apply the glue, and it's just a mess after I get done with it. So you just, you sort of cower at that, don't you?

Yeah.

You don't want to do anything liberally. I'm gun-shy now. So have there been any other projects around your house that you've had to work on?

See, my, uh, my sprinkler system.

Oh, more plumbing. You're right, you're just like the plumbing guru.

I like the PVC.

All right, so what was going on What's going on with the irrigation?

I've hit it with the lawnmower. I've driven stakes through it.

Oh no. Oh man.

Hit it with the weed eater too many times.

Oh goodness. So are these like the pop-up ones that won't go back down?

Oh yeah.

Yeah? That can be a mess. So did you ever have an issue where water was just spraying out?

Yes.

Okay, so what was the process that you went through? Because you can't really work on those things with water just spraying out. So what was your process?

I taped it up with some duct tape to kind of bend it a little bit and make it not spurt out as much. So I made a big leak into a small leak.

Okay. Slowed it down to a trickle. That's right. Yeah, more manageable.

Let that go for a couple days until I could get to the store and get back.

Okay, so at that point you kind of got to dig it up, don't you?

Eventually, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I had to buy a shovel for that and So he did have to go back.

He did have to go back. Yeah, that's a different project though.

Yeah, this first project was the only one that didn't require multiple trips. I'm very familiar with spending the whole weekend back and forth, back and forth.

More time driving and at the hardware store than actually doing the job.

Oh yeah.

Yeah, I think that's a typical thing. So, well, I'm curious about this because you mentioned a hardware store and I'm gonna make you name names. Was it Lowe's or Home Depot?

Oh yeah, it was Lowe's.

It was Lowe's, okay. So do you prefer that over the other one for any particular reason, or is it just closer, or?

Only 'cause it's closer.

Only 'cause it's closer. Now, so if you were out, so you know that like out on 45 over here, they're like right next to each other, right?

Yes.

So if you were over there and you pulled in, where would you go?

There's always one that's closer.

It might be a right turn versus a left turn, Left turn, but one is always closer. And so that's, that's the decision maker.

It's the decision maker.

I love it.

Red light versus green light.

It had nothing to do with the guy that was really good at helping you with plumbing the first time. It's all proximity based. I love it. We can be friends. That's cool. No, that's good. I feel like, I feel like there's something about the water sprinkler systems, the irrigation systems. It just, there's such a bigger problem than a sink because there's always You're always digging. There's always stuff that you can't find because when you get down in there and it's like a puddle all of a sudden.

Yeah.

You can't see through the puddle. It's just mud. You can't dig past the water.

Right.

So you like siphon it out of there somehow and it fills back up. It's just a big problem. I hate working with irrigation systems.

Yeah.

Well, so other than plumbing, which you're obviously pretty adept at repairing, is there anything in your house that you would be like afraid Of tackling if it were to kind of go south?

I, I wouldn't touch the electrical stuff.

No, no electrical. I'm with you there, man.

Me too.

Not worth my life. I'm out on electrical. Have you ever done any electrical repair?

Uh, did replace a light switch once.

Light switch, yeah. And even that, man, if you like— I mean, like, you don't know even kind of what you're doing, you can hurt yourself. Yeah, I mean, I'll, I'll, I'll— I've replaced all the outlets in my house before, and I've replaced a light fixture and I've replaced quite a few fans in my house. But like, there's some things that I'm just, I'm not interested in tackling. And there's so much that can go, in my opinion, there's so much that can go wrong with electrical, which is funny 'cause I think a lot of electricians are like, well, it's pretty simple. And it may be, but I feel like somehow I'm gonna blow my house up. I'm glad it's simple for them. Yeah, it's simple for them. That's why I pay them so much because it's simple.

Yeah, so do you do a lot of the maintenance around here? Do you keep up the lawn? Do you do all that kind of stuff?

I do. I do the yard work and everything.

Is that something that you really enjoy?

Not anymore.

Not anymore? Why is that? Probably because he's in Houston and it's hot.

That would be correct.

Yeah, so yeah, after 5 years, still not used to it, huh?

No, you never get used to it. It's fun for the first week when I had a brand new lawnmower and everything, but after that it's Okay, been there, done that.

Yeah, yeah, you're still, you're still pressing on, right? Or did you get somebody?

I'm cheap, yeah.

My pain means nothing to my wallet. Have you seen how much plumbing this guy's done? He's not paying somebody. No, but that's good. I, I'm, I'm all about that. I, I don't know, I like doing yard work though. I think I'm weird. Yeah, well, so is there, is there something around the house that you like really enjoy doing?

Like, like sitting on the couch, sitting on the couch, relaxing.

Yeah, I'm with you on that. Yeah, absolutely. Well, cool. Well, uh, is there anything else, uh, you know, house-related, repair-related that, uh, you haven't mentioned that you've done before?

I think those are the main things, but there's always something else that's broke that I hadn't done yet.

Oh yeah, do you have any of those right now?

We got the fence and we got the fireplace.

Oh, so is this gas, traditional wood fireplace?

It's gas.

Ooh, man. Yeah, don't touch that.

Yeah.

No, I wouldn't. If there's one thing that I'm gonna touch less than electrical, it's gas.

Yeah.

Yeah, but that's plumbing, so it might be right up his alley. So speaking of that, I mean, like, do you, do you have any good advice or tips for people who try and take on plumbing issues themselves?

All my advice goes to point to the internet. Point to the internet. Get on YouTube and start Googling stuff.

Yeah, so test and verify, I guess, would be the— Yeah, that's where I learn all my stuff.

my stuff.

Yeah, and you found the information there to be pretty reliable?

It's been mostly helpful, yeah.

That's awesome. Yeah, that's good.

Cool.

Well, and I just want to put something out there because I actually did not know this. I mentioned it just a minute ago, but we had a gas fireplace issue at the last house that I owned, and I didn't know who to call. Yeah, so I called the gas company. I mean, I didn't know who to call. And, um, I mean, it just electrical, you call an electrician. If it's pipes, you call a plumber. But gas, there's like a whole different— that's just completely different to me. Seems like it ought to be, but it's not. Yeah, but come to find out, it's a plumber. Yeah, plumbers take care of the gas lines. And so just a little tidbit that I learned.

That might be my next call.

Yeah, if you've got gas issues, well, call a plumber. You ready to get some Final Four action?

Yeah, the Final Four.

You want to try to hit them? You think you can remember them? I think I can get past one. Okay, so these are the 4 questions that we ask all of our guests, and the biggest test here is not your answers, it's whether Craig can remember the questions. So we're already off to a fail. So what is— you gonna make me do all 4 of them? I'll do all of them. Alright, we'll see. What is the one tool that you won't leave the house without?

I'm gonna count my cell phone on that, 'cause obviously I Google and YouTube everything. I got the YouTube app, I'm ready to go. I'm sitting in Lowe's Googling what I need to buy.

This is a really underrated tool. Whenever we talk about tools, that's like the thing. We've had one guest who said cell phone. I think most of us never leave without a cell phone. And I will say, like, I don't know about Home Depot, but I know like on Lowe's app, like if you have an item that you want to find, it'll actually bring up a store map for the store that you're in and show you where it's at in the store. It's super helpful. And most of the stores now, they offer free Wi-Fi. So yeah, it's a bonus for them to actually— for you to have it. Absolutely. All right, I can do this now.

All right.

I think it'll be like the first time in the Homeowner Show history I can do all 4. Especially without notes. It's a special night. What's a job that you've walked away from?

Let's see, roofing repair. I gave up and called someone on that.

Oh yeah?

Leaky roof.

Dude.

Shingles and—

You gotta get somebody on that quick too.

Too hard, yep.

So how did you find the roofing guy? company?

Google.

Google?

Yeah.

He pulled out his tool.

Yeah.

His phone. Yep. Yeah, I couldn't do that either.

I don't know.

In fact, I couldn't. I had a tree fall through my house. I had to call a roofing company. I feel like that's a really important thing to not screw up. The tree or the roof? The roof. It would be better if you didn't screw up on the tree so you didn't have to redo the roof, but obviously— no, the roof. That's important, man.

Yeah.

All right, so So how do you wind down at the end of a long day? I'm gonna do this, Kevin. You doubted me. I'm gonna get these. Alright.

That was an easy question.

Yeah.

Grab a beer. Grab a beer.

Grab a beer. So what is the go-to beer?

Go-to beer, uh, favorite brewery gonna be Brash Brewing.

Okay.

Hammer Smash Face.

Okay, what kind of beer is that? Is that what you're drinking right now?

That's not what I got now. It's a little lighter. It's IPA, but, uh, after a long day, Hammer Smash Face.

There you go. Alright. I've never heard of the Hammer Smash Face. I can't imagine that you haven't. I mean, I'm just imagining you in middle school. I've seen your smash face. Alright, you got one more. Can you get it? I do. What is the best piece of wisdom that someone has ever given you?

I'd say, uh, don't be afraid to ask for help.

Ooh, nice. That's a good one. That's a really good one because I think as guys we don't like asking for help.

Nope.

Or directions. Especially since we all have Apple and Google Maps now. That's right. No, it's great. We got a lovely crutch. We've got all the answers, but that's really wise. I think that's wise.

Absolutely. For sure.

Well, man, I appreciate you coming and sitting down with us tonight.

Thank you very much.

And taking time out of your night.

Yeah.

Yeah. So we're the Homeowner Show. So this is gonna go up on Christmas Day and— It may go up the week after. Week after, yeah, sure. I'm not exactly sure. It depends on how we end up cutting the show up. Yeah, okay. So it's gonna go up either Christmas or after Christmas. You can find us on iTunes.

and Podbean.

Do you listen to a lot of podcasts or anything like that?

Yeah, yeah, I do.

All right, great.

I'm gonna look y'all up.

Yes, absolutely, we would love that. That'd be fantastic. Tell your friends and, um, yeah. Thanks for joining us. You want one of the free stickers that we brought tonight? We got free stickers. He already slipped it in there. Awesome, cool. Well, display it proudly. All right, well, thanks for joining us.

Thank you.

We're gonna take a break and we'll be back in a few minutes.