That Time We Talked About a Renovation Partnership (Part 1)

This is episode number 109 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 Haggett, and here with me is Craig Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. We're glad that you could be with us, even though our guests think that no one is listening.

Well, no, they didn't say that they weren't listening. They said that they weren't watching.

No one's watching. So in order to prove them wrong, we need you all to go over to the YouTube channel and hit the subscribe button and the bell. Yes.

And how will we know that they watched?

By the comments.

Oh yeah.

Okay. They're gonna challenge you. I'd like to see if you guys can make 100 comments. That means people are watching. Okay.

100 comments.

100 comments.

We need 100 people to do this just so that we can prove her wrong.

Yeah.

And I'm fine with that.

I'm good with that.

Yeah.

We can do that. Or we can pay someone to do that.

Right. I mean, not a lot of money, but we could pay somebody something.

Yeah, well, to make 100 email accounts and then— Exactly.

That's right. It's gonna take some time, y'all.

We're gonna make it happen. So we have some, we have some Homeowner Show veterans with us tonight. We've, we've got Mel and Christy on the show. And before that, we promised to do a short bit of banter and Kevin, he made me promise not to tell him about my shirt. Yeah.

Before—

Well, and that sounds weird, but what I meant was you've got a shirt—

He was eyeballing me, you guys.

Yeah.

I've never seen the shirt that you're wearing and it's personalized.

It is personalized.

So like, you know, that whole— I always told you that you were cut out for you know, a job with your name on your shirt, but that's a whole different conversation, right? So now you've got it. Yeah. And but over on the other side, there's this logo that says Ink 180.

Ink 180.

And I don't know what that is.

So, so Ink 180, um, I've known Ink— I've known and been working with the guys at Ink 180, let's see, gosh, close to getting close to 6 or 7 years now. Um, he— this is a ministry up in Chicago And not a lot of people are aware. There's, there's this human, human trafficking in general is a, is a dark part of our society.

Yeah.

What he does goes after an even darker part of the human trafficking side of things. A lot of people don't realize that, that a lot of victims of human trafficking are tattooed and barcoded. And he became— he's a, he's a tattoo artist and he had started a tattoo shop and he had been helping. His name is Chris Baker, by the way.

Fantastic guy up in the Chicago area.

He'd been helping gang members remove gang tattoos because guys that try and get out of gangs that still have gang tattoos will be attacked on the streets and everything. So he was helping gang members get out of that lifestyle. The FBI found out about it and approached him and said, hey, we want to show you some stuff. So they brought him into the office and they said, these are the kind of tattoos that we're looking at. He's like, what is this? Well, these are barcodes. He's like, what are the barcodes for? Well, they're for tracking people. He goes, we need you to help us. know, witnesses and people that are, you know, being rescued out of these situations,

they either need them covered up or removed. Can you help them?

He's like, yeah, how—

where do— where do I sign up? And he's been doing it ever since.

Cool.

That's awesome. Um, so I, I met him and we, uh, we actually helped him get a, uh, like a mobile unit so he could actually go into some of the more dangerous neighborhoods, pick people up and drive them around while they do the removals and the cover-ups and different things like that. So he's, he's been at it for a long time. He's actually had some health issues recently, so he could use some prayers and support, but, uh, it's Fantastic ministry. And when we started helping him out, when I met him the first time, he had this really cool shirt with his name on it. And I said, how do I get one of those shirts? He sent me one the next week. So he was a really, really cool guy.

'Cause Kevin said I needed to have one with my name.

Yeah.

I mean, when you're good at something, you're good at something.

Yeah. So he's— and he does, he does really, really good work.

Yeah.

I think you've actually told me about this guy, um, because y'all been like working with him for years at this point.

We don't do as much with him anymore.

Um, but y'all really helped him out. You helped him get started in some of this a while back, didn't you?

Yeah, absolutely. He was actually thinking about— and this was back when— a lot of people don't know that human trafficking really boils to the surface anytime the Super Bowl's anywhere. At that time, the Super Bowl was in Houston, and he was thinking about opening a Texas branch of Ink 180. So, we were trying to help him get that started here. It didn't ever come to fruition, but he's still operating his shop in Chicago.

Nice!

Fantastic organization! Check it out, ink180.com.

That's like ink with the number 180. Yeah, .com.

Yep.

So, well, um, my beard's gone.

Yeah, you are, uh, looking, looking slick and officiatingly. Is that the word?

Like I could do a wedding? Officiatorial.

It's the dimples that are standing out now.

Yeah, something like that. Um, Yeah, it's football season. Hey, we're actually playing football, y'all. Well, everybody in Texas knows we're gonna play football one way or the other. And it's kind of weird, like tonight I did a couple of 9th grade games, um, doing some sub varsity tonight, and one of the teams have like their entire face mask is, is covered.

They have like a face shield.

Yeah, on the, on the inside. It's like completely shielded. And how does that not get foggy? Well, it does. That's actually one of the things— that's actually exactly where I was going with this. I was like, okay, um, y'all's whole face is fogged up, you know? Uh, but the thing is, like, the way it works for their school district, um, and, and all school districts are different. It's kind of interesting the way, the way everything is working around here. There's certain mandates and then there's, there's leverage that each district has and their district says that if someone gets, uh, gets COVID, then everybody that they've come into contact with has to quarantine for 14 days. Okay, so that's inclusive of the

football team. So if someone got the— got, uh, you know, COVID on the football team while they were playing, then everybody they came into contact with on—

on—

in their school on the field would have to be— well, that would shut their whole team down. The whole team. So what they said is if if we have these face shields, then only the person who got COVID would have to quarantine. So it's actually saving their team by doing that. It's just the way their school district is handling things.

Yeah, but the masks are so foggy. Instead of looking like 9th grade football, it looks like 6th grade football.

Oh man.

Everybody's running, they don't know where they're going.

I know.

Well, they did lose.

But they were safe doing it.

Yeah.

There's the proof.

But they don't have to quarantine for 14 days.

Keep losing.

That's right.

So anyway, that's where we're at so far with life, one day into football.

One day into football.

So we'll see how it goes.

All right. So like I mentioned, we've got, we've got Christy and Mel in the studio, Design on a Dime, Expressive Builders. It's going to be fun, y'all. Are y'all excited?

Yeah.

We've already had like a good, a good pre-show. So that was my fault.

Somebody was late. Well, I was at a football game. Oh, okay. Watching them lose. Yeah. Well, one of the teams scored 50 points on the other.

Oh, wow.

No wonder the other one.

Wow.

Yeah. So anyway, it took longer than it should have.

That's an impressive score.

Yeah. Are y'all's kids back in school?

So my daughter, before COVID she switched over to online learning on her own. So she just continued back in to the online learning. And she actually is taking— she's a senior, so she's taking 3 classes online through Lone Star. And then she has 2 classes that she takes through her high school that's all online. So, yeah. So, she'll stay on at the online school. Yeah.

Nice.

Yeah, she likes it.

What about you, Mel? Kids in school?

Yeah, I have a 13 and a 10-year-old. And I decided that I wasn't going to send them back because COVID and I didn't want them to get sick.

Sure.

So I did the homeschooling for an hour and I called the school and I was like, listen, listen, listen, can I just tell you something? I'm okay with them getting COVID. I'm okay with it. What time does the bus come? Can you come and get them? So yeah, it was a hard decision to make, but let me tell you something, truly grateful for those teachers in schools because it is not pleasant.

Yeah. You're like, whatever you got, just give it to them.

Just go, just go, please. So yeah, no, they're back. But they've been okay.

They have been.

My son actually plays football. They don't have the shields, but they're back playing.

Great. Have they already played a game?

He has. He's at Irons Junior High.

It wasn't tonight, Christy.

I don't think. Yeah, no. So yeah, he did. He has. And he plays in little leagues around town.

But you still didn't answer the question.

Which was?

Did they lose?

Oh, again, this is where I excel as a parent.

Don't worry, he doesn't listen.

Yeah, nobody listens to this anyways.

Nobody will hear you. He's commenting right now. He's got like 10 comments in.

It's okay. My wife has never listened to an episode. So if it makes you feel better.

Oh my gosh.

That's not supportive.

I've listened to 2.

Oh, well, thank you.

Mine and Mel's.

Well, Craig's wife has listened to 1, so maybe 2.

Yeah, and I think it was the one where I said something I shouldn't have.

Oh, of course.

I don't know what it was, but— And I probably agreed.

What she doesn't know is that's every episode.

Exactly.

She won't know. Well, so, um, one of the things that, that Craig said to me is he's like, listen, uh, we got Christie and Mel coming back on the show. And I was like, really?

Together?

And he's like, yeah, they got a project they're working on together, so I guess you need to tell us a little bit about how this came to be.

Well, but before that, for the people that haven't ever met them before, which is everyone because no one listens, um, for the first-time listeners, geez, you guys, all 5 of you. Yeah, this is— we're on this horse, we're gonna ride them all show long.

That's right, that's right.

Why don't you guys refresh everybody as, as to Okay.

So, my name is Kristi Dupuis. I own Expressive Builders and I do design-build, new construction, and luxury remodeling. We do it with a twist though because we have on-staff interior designers and we work with interior designers and they help pick out all of the fixtures and finishes from start to finish. So, all female.

Awesome!

So, yes, female general contractor.

Yeah.

And my whole team is all female.

So—

Impressive.

Girl power indeed.

Yeah. Wonder Woman.

I know.

I mean, I'm fine with it. Mainly because I don't want to be a designer.

There you go.

And I don't need a job.

They've been waiting for your approval, Kevin.

Right.

Well, now you have it.

All right, Mel, what you got?

Mel Stevens, and I own Design on a Dime Interior. It's a flat fee of $545, and that's why I started the company, so that any and everybody can afford to have a beautiful home. Because you work hard, why shouldn't you enjoy it?

Wow.

So yep, I do it all from top to bottom— lighting, carpeting, um, bedding. What else does an interior designer—

She will not build an attic though.

I— Lord, no, I will not.

That's why I have Chris If you want an addict, talk to Kristy. Yeah.

That may have been an inside joke.

A little bit. Yeah. Get on social media, people.

That's right. If you want to know what's going on with The Homeowner Show, get on social media because we're there.

Except Twitter.

We are definitely not on Twitter. We have Twitter.

But why are you not on it?

Well, that would require us to like Twitter and to think that Twitter is useful.

It's not useful.

I don't think Twitter's listening. But I think it's useful. Yeah, you use Twitter?

Of course, on purpose.

I did not know that.

Well, I mean, I don't do anything on it, but there it is.

And there it is. Like, it's super helpful if you want to like not watch something and get updated through the whole thing. That might be super helpful.

But beyond that, like, or if you're just angry about something, it's an excellent place to vent.

Well, and not only that, like, there, there are a lot of companies that are actually on Twitter. And if you say you're the worst company ever, yeah, this, they respond.

Yeah, yeah.

But there are some funny tweets about that where like Chick-fil-A and Wendy's or where they go tweet back and forth and kind of fun.

That is fun, huh?

Except I'm gonna start a Twitter just so like any other construction company, you guys can— let's banter.

Yeah, well, there you go.

There you go. You can corner the market.

Yeah. And then like us, you can be surprised if someone actually contacts you through Twitter.

You're like, right, I don't want nobody to listen to this show.

It's funny, honestly.

Like, and like, here's the The honest truth, the reason that we have it is because the platform that we use pushes our content to it.

Oh, that's interesting.

So I could follow you on there.

Yeah, like, I don't even follow me.

No, but you don't follow on Twitter. It's a different term. It's not called follow. What is it?

Well, what is it called? Kevin took my phone away from me, so I don't know. That's true.

I don't.

I wouldn't know.

You don't follow on Twitter. I think you tweet on Twitter.

No, tweet is when you like actually like put a message out there.

Oh, you get your tweet answered? Wow.

And those people that are listening to us Are laughing, going these people are ridiculous.

Y'all both have your phones. Do you even have the app on?

No, I do not.

Do you have the app?

We're not going to talk about that because listen, I am a Twitter.

I have to be well.

I am a Twitter. She said I am a Twitter. I am a Twitter.

And I believe it. Yeah, there you go.

I believe that too.

Me too. It's working well.

Oh, you said Twitter.

Oh, okay. Yes. Oh, Insight? No. Wow. You think you know somebody until you come on up. What is this thing called? It's it's um.

A podcast.

Oh, it's not like Twitter.

It's a blog. A blog.

It's a blog. Nobody listens to it.

Call it what you want to, because nobody cares.

It's an audio blog.

How many comments are you up to right now?

This is a recording software.

Oh, okay. I thought we could just edit it on there.

Kevin has a computer.

Yeah, we'll edit it in now. How many are you up to now? Hmm, one moment.

We are at 5 comments.

Okay. That sounds good.

It's like the Seinfeld, how many comments do you want to have? Why don't you just tell me? Just tell me.

Oh my goodness.

1 million. You can't look at it though.

Oh, okay. That's right.

There you go.

Yeah, it's like a, like a watched pot, right?

That's right. All right, so we, we put, we put the picture that, that even, that inspired the invite up. And so, so there it is. We can all, we can all take a gander at its gloriousness. that you are going to apparently be fixing together. So tell us what we're looking at here. Okay. Because I have many questions.

Oh my gosh.

Small questions or a lot of questions? Really small.

Many or many?

I was going there in mind.

I got you.

That's why we put you guys diagonally across the table from me. We don't need you feeding off one another.

That's right.

Well, so the way Christy and I work is that whenever I have a project and my client needs more than just me, making it pretty, I call my general contractor. So we're a team in that aspect. And then I tell her how I'm going to make it pretty. And then she tells me realistically what I can and cannot do and why. And she also educates my clients as to the construction phase of it. You know, why are we not doing it or why should we do it and yada, yada, yada. So this is a project that I went to that's in the Galleria area and a gentleman, young, Single. I did say it.

This is irrelevant information to the project.

I didn't tell you what I was wearing when I went to the project, but anyway.

He's available and he's about to have a nice place.

That's right. Right? So why not? So when I got there, he actually flooded and he needed to get it redone because insurance was going to pay him for it. And he had had another general contractor come out and take a look at it and they had given him a bid. for what they were going to do. So when I got in, obviously, I don't know anything about building and putting it all back together, but I know how to make it pretty.

Yeah.

And I know how to make use of the space. And I said to him, why are we not taking this wall out? We've got to take this wall out and make it open. And we've got to do this, and we've got to do that. And I got really hyped and excited about this whole entire project, completely gutting out the place and redoing it. And so he thought, wow, well, the other one was just going to come in. And what he wanted to do was fix it like the insurance company had told him which was just putting the sheetrock— that's what it's called— sheetrock back.

This is the homeowner's show. You need to at least know that.

English is a second language. Work with me. Stop using that excuse. Oh my goodness. So I go back, and I'm excited. And we office together as well. And I was like, Christy, you won't believe this. This is an awesome project. This is what I want to do. And I'm going crazy. And she says—

Okay.

No, you didn't. You said, calm down, calm down. What exactly are you saying? Say it in English. And so, you know, I told her this is what I want to do and how I want to get it done. And of course, she asked me all the relevant questions and we figured out, man, we got something great here.

Yeah.

So, so, I mean, so did you have like a very specific vision that then you took to Christy and then she was like, well, we, we can't do this, but we could do this kind of a, kind of a situation? Or how did that work?

Yeah, I mean, she came to me and said, you know, that she wanted to take that wall there behind the chandelier out.

Thank you.

Um, wanting to know— are you saying thank you because it needs to be taken out?

Yeah, I mean, it's, it's weird. I mean, for those of you that can't see it, I mean, I don't know, I don't know if there's a way.

I'm gonna put it in there.

Okay.

And just so you can see how ridiculously horrible that wall is. Yeah, you're welcome from me.

Well, and there's a pantry there on the other side. That's the pantry. So there's actually something. There's There's a reason for it there, although—

Okay, so like, then why is it curved?

Because that was their little detail. That was their architectural detail in the place. So—

Also the gap at the top, that was an architectural— okay.

Yes.

Oh, so that was on purpose?

That was on purpose, yes. So he's in a condo complex, is that a thing? And all of them pretty much, if they haven't redone them, look exactly like this, which is why he was also intimidated to do anything different because he said, but it's not going to be like everybody else's. Well, duh, you paid like Yeah. You can do whatever you want inside. And he didn't understand the amount of space he was going to get if we opened it up. Because one of the things I told him is it's a young couple, either with a new baby, but it's, you know, they're young couples that live downtown.

Yeah.

And if I have a child in there, my kid cannot play in the living room because I can't see the kid.

Right.

Yeah.

So you're closing up real estate that you could make Open.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, how many, like, in total, what's the square footage on this, on this condo?

Uh-huh. In total, the square footage on the condo is 1,200,000 square feet.

1,200,000?

That's really big. What's the largest condo? That's the largest condo I've ever seen in my life.

1,200. I went to the condo. Why is everybody questioning me? I said 12,000.

12,000, also the largest condo I've ever seen.

These are some big condos.

This is Trump Tower, y'all.

This is huge.

What she's saying is it doesn't really matter. It could be 1,200, it could be 12,000, it could be 1,200,000.

It's still $545,000.

It's still $545,000. $12 trillion million.

And the loss of a job.

It is what it is, okay?

No, honestly, I didn't, I didn't measure it and I didn't ask him because I was just excited to, um, change it.

I mean, is it like a, is it like a one-bedroom?

It's a 2-bedroom, 2-bedroom, and it's a 3-story.

Oh, 'cause— oh, okay.

I see where there's a staircase right there.

Yeah.

That goes upstairs.

Okay. So this, is this the first story then?

The second, the garage is at the bottom. Ah, okay.

I gotcha.

So, I mean, the point of you working with a designer that has a general contractor on the team or vice versa, general contractor that has a designer on the team, We don't just do what's there. Our minds are creative and we see beyond.

Right.

And so when Chrissy and I are done with your project, honestly, we transform it. We actually had a client in The Woodlands that we did her kitchen for her and the kids. Single mom, 2 kids. And one of the reviews that she wrote is now her and her children are eating meals together. And she said, we've had this space forever, but nobody ever sat together and ate in it. You know? And so when we came in there and we changed the way they use this space, man, you've gained a lot, you know, by just hiring the right professionals.

Yeah.

That one, take interest in, um, in your project and want to give you bang for buck. And I think that's where she and I work really well together because she's also a designer. So when I'm coming to her and I'm telling her, hey, I want to take this wall out and I want to do this, she'll say, yeah, you can, but maybe we can't take the whole thing out.

We can only go pony.

Or, okay, if we do take this one out, have you thought about this and this and this? These are the other expenses.

So it's helpful to have someone to bounce that off of rather than—

well, and since y'all work in the same office, like that makes it pretty easy. You can just walk next door or whatever, next desk and figure out like what's—

You haven't seen our office yet. It's literally like, hi.

Yeah.

There is no next anything. We're on top of each other. But yeah, I mean, it works out really well for both of us because even if it's a project that we're not working on together, we can still, you know, I mean, we've got tile and, you know, in the back, so we can bring tile in and we can set it out on the desk and she'll show me, oh, hey, what do you think about these 2? And I'm like, oh, I like this one, but I don't like that one. And then, you know, we can just kind of bounce things off. I just showed her pictures of a project that I'm bidding. And we just talked about how beautiful it was and the things that they were going to do. And it just really helps to be able to have

that other person to just kind of really talk things through with, because she's going to think of things that I didn't think of. And I'll think of things that she didn't think of. And sometimes they're both design ideas. And sometimes it's just construction stuff because, you know, I can see what construction obstacles we have to go through. So.

Well, let me add based on what you just said, because I can see how that could be super beneficial to have a second opinion, But so here's just an off-topic question for a minute. Like, do you ever get into something and you're like, hey, check this out. And the other person's like, oh, don't even— don't do that.

Child, if I tell you how many times this lady has done that to me. And she would— this is, this is what she says. It's not my style, but I, but I like it. I mean, I see where you're going and I huff and I puff and I walk back to my station. I cannot believe she just said that about my project. So I'm glad you said it 'cause I've been wanting to get this off my chest. You're welcome.

And I know, and I tell her my opinion all the time and then I think about it and I'm like, oh, that might've been kind of rude because it's so personal. Design is so personal. So you put so much of your heart into it and I forget that a lot of times. And so you will come to people with their ideas and then I'm like, eh, I don't really like that.

This is like a confessional all of a sudden.

I do declare because she used a lot of time When she talks, she goes, "I tell her a lot of times," implying. And then she goes, "And sometimes I go and I think about it." I'm like, "This is too much.

A lot of times." Like what?

You only said it one time. What do you mean?

Maybe I did that in my head.

I did it out loud once.

Right.

Nobody's listening to this.

I don't care. But like even on this project, and you guys. can't see the other side. So originally—

Do we have a picture of it?

I did.

Yeah.

Nope, going the wrong way.

Oh, let's see.

Keep going.

Keep going.

No, one more. Two more.

Right there.

Okay.

So, okay. Where—

so that's looking out from there.

That's looking out. And that's his living, living room area. Okay. So my proposal was to take all that flooring out and run the flooring from the back all the way into the kitchen.

Okay.

However, the floor that he has on there now is engineered wood. And I was going to take it out because I want to use vinyl. So today when we were talking, because we met with him— well, I met with him today and we were going over budget and I need to cut back money on some of the things in order for me to get him everything that I envisioned. So today Christie says to me after looking at this, okay, so what about if we just ran that, you know, all the way through and then now figure out what you can do in the kitchen area? And like that, boom, you know, the light bulb, because oh my gosh, you just saved me money on here so I can get him the

granite that I want.

Mm-hmm.

I can get him these other things. As to where I was just design-oriented and I wanted new and I was just going to bang it out. But he didn't have enough money to see my vision through. So this is where she's a huge asset because I would have missed that. And I would have been trying to figure out where to cut because already I had said to him, well, we're not going to have money for furniture. So maybe we'll save—

So now she could do that a lot of times.

A lot. Like, a lot.

That would really help if she could save you money a lot of times. A lot.

A lot. A lot. If she would just listen to me a lot, I wouldn't have to tell her so many times.

A lot.

Just listen.

Oh my goodness.

So are, are you talking about matching, matching the flooring?

Yeah, possibly. I mean, it's not always doable. I mean, depending on how old the flooring is, or, you know, sometimes people have a box laying around in their attic because, you know, you just have leftovers, which is always a good idea. Always, always, always get extra. Um, But, you know, I mean, we can take it and see if we can't find it. And if we can't, then we know. But if we can, then, you know, we have some other options instead of, you know, spending so much money on replacing floor that's never been damaged. I mean, there's nothing wrong with that flooring.

So, and my argument is I just want new. Like, I've already created new Christy. Can we move on and do new? But there's no money. So, yeah.

And you want—

I mean, clearly look at the table.

Yeah. Client, if you're watching this, You're watching this. I know.

I was like, okay, this is— I'm not, I'm not gonna be a part of this. I love that table.

I don't know what you're talking about, y'all. It came from Sam's.

That is the best table ever.

And when I say it came from Sam's, that you had to unfold it.

Yes. Oh yeah, definitely. It has a handle too somewhere.

Oh, it folds up. It's like, yeah, okay.

Yeah.

Oh, so it's also convenient.

Yeah, same. I mean, like, what are you complaining about? You can move that anywhere in the house.

And you see, that's what I was telling you about her, is she will find things where she'll highlight, and all of a sudden I'm like, yeah, if I just put a placemat on it. I think it'll be fine.

A couple of doilies and we'll be good.

A tablecloth and nobody would even know.

Yeah, you'll be okay.

Get some nice chairs and we're done.

I like the legs on it. You're right. That is pretty.

I can paint that.

But I'm telling you, not a lot of people realize the value there is in getting a general contractor that does have a design team on their, um, On their what, Kristi? Finish the sentence.

Staff.

Staff.

Staff. I like that.

That's a big word. Yeah, on her staff. Because you're getting 2 brains for the price of one.

I need 2 brains sometimes.

Is Craig not working out?

Well, I need 2 brains.

A lot.

Whoa. A lot.

I'd settle for one.

A lot.

I have been settling for one.

Oh my goodness.

Well, when I, when I look at this, like, I, I mean, it's easy because there's, there's a lot that's not in this picture. And so we're going to put the picture up so people see. But there's— because it's been flooded and because it's, it's halfway done, it's almost easy to look at it and go, what can we change?

Right.

Because I think sometimes you get into a space and you're like, it is what it is, right? But whenever it looks like it does right now, it's unfinished. It's easy to go, okay, since it's unfinished, surely there's something we can change about it. So it's easy for me or Craig to look at this and go, oh yeah, that wall needs to go.

Well, but I mean, it just makes sense. I mean, overall, because even the opening of where you would walk into the kitchen is so narrow and that just really boxes you in. It just, it doesn't make sense to have it so cramped like that when you don't have to.

So is he going to lose his pantry altogether? Like, are you building a new pantry? Because I mean, where is he going to keep his canned goods during a hurricane?

That's what I was just going to say is, you know what? That was one of his concerns. Because you're right. Once you're used to living the way that you live and everything functions that way, you can't see past that. And so he said to me, well, if you take the wall down, then where do I put my food? And I told him, I mean, there's a bathroom right around that corner. I don't understand. Like, what is the problem? In the garage downstairs.

I mean, you only have to go up and down the stairs 25 times a day.

You have this stylish table.

Yeah, right, the table right there.

Yeah, no, so we are building a new pantry and you will have to follow us to take a look and see what's going on.

Oh, all right, it's gonna be like that.

Yeah, here, I'll just tell you everything about it.

Oh wow, really? There's always one in the family.

Oh wow, now we're family. We're from staff to family, right? Because now I can talk bad about you. It's fine.

No, I just remember I gotta be in the office with her tomorrow, so I'm okay with all of it. It's all right.

Well, so is, is it actually— is it easier or more difficult when, when it's kind of stripped out like this and it's kind of bare?

It's easier because I can— I mean, especially for me, because I can see what's in the walls. Okay, so when she says I want to take that that wall out if it's sheetrocked all the way around. And we don't know, is, you know, the end of that wall has like a weird chase in it, and we never know if there's any kind of weird wiring or—

Oh, the floor too.

HVAC. I mean, I've seen some crazy stuff with, with, you know, ductwork and stuff, and I'm just like, why? Why would you even do that?

So because there was a wall already there.

That's right.

Yeah. So I mean, obviously there's nothing like that going on here. It's just, it makes it a little bit easier for me to kind of see inside the walls. So anytime I can see inside the walls, it's better.

Yeah. But I mean, if it wasn't like that, you've gone there before and you've taken a look, you've opened it up to see.

Yeah. I mean, we always just, we did, I mean, we have to put holes on the wall, but it's not a big deal because we can just sheetrock, you know, repair it. But so we, I mean, we do exploratory stuff all the time. If we have an idea of taking out a wall, that one's really easy to know because we know it's not load-bearing. There's no, I mean, I don't know what it's there for.

If it is, you're in trouble. That is the weirdest load-bearing wall ever.

That's right.

Yeah. So, I mean, it just makes it a little bit easier when everything's open.

Yeah.

But I mean—

Yeah, it's going to be a good project. I'm excited about it because when my vision can be realized and I am within budget, I know it's quite exciting. So I went shopping today and I don't think—

So premature. We haven't even started construction yet. She's already shopping.

A lot, a lot, a lot.

Okay, well, I got a question based on that. Do you have specific places you like to shop for stuff? Or do you just kind of like, you know, based on the client, there's these options out there for places to shop?

First place she likes to shop is Walmart.

You go to Walmart a lot?

In the storeroom, because that's where all our tile is. We have a lot of tile in the storeroom. That's kind of where we both start is what we have in there. And then she has her places, I have mine.

Yeah. But I mean, Christie's really good about collecting tile from— I mean, a lot.

I love tile. I have a lot of tile. I love tile.

A lot.

Yeah, a lot.

Well, I used to work in a high-end tile showroom, and that's what I did was tile design and sales. We had, you know, a lot of tile that was handmade or stuff that was exclusive only to us in the entire United States. We would import stuff from Italy and France. And I mean, we just had like some really amazing tiles. So I mean, we wouldn't— we even would do like the Saltillo tiles. We would get those like imported in, like they would actually pull them out of like churches that they were reconstructing, and then we would get those at our shop. So I've just always had like—

I, I have a quick— what actually makes it a Saltillo tile?

Oh, you know, you're gonna ask me that?

I don't know. I hear people call it that all the time, and I'm like, is it because—

It's more like a red— it's a red clay.

Like a red clay. Okay.

Yeah, that's what it's a red clay tile.

And they're usually, they're usually pretty big, aren't they?

No, they come in all different sizes. So like, um, my, my mom actually has them in her house. My parents built their house in 1973, so they have the hexagon— they have the hexagon Saltillo tiles in their house, and they, they're really thick. So whenever you Pour your concrete, you have to pour your concrete lower in the areas where you're going to actually have the tile. So interesting. Yeah, because they're probably like half-inch thick, the ones that she has at least. So yeah, but they're just really, really interesting to have. I mean, it's such a natural material.

And now they can never change it because they'd have to pour more concrete.

Yeah. And they have it like they even had a fire in their house and it actually like ate at the finish on top of it. My mom had to refinish them. And so, but I mean, they've They look, I'm sure, the way they were the day they were put in. I wasn't born yet, so.

What?

I'm so much younger than you are.

Oh my gosh. Another one of those. A lot.

I'm a lot, a lot, a lot younger than you are.

Craig, now do you understand why she judges my selections? Because she worked for a high-end top. Was it Ceriro? What was it called, Craig? But you still not answered my question. What was your question?

Where do you like to shop?

Because you shop in the storeroom.

Well, yeah, no, um, I like to go to—

She doesn't want to give up her secrets.

No, I, I'm not even necessarily interested in secrets.

I'm just curious.

Oh, I'm sorry, let me— like, can I answer?

Everybody, I mean, okay, fine, okay.

Go ahead.

Your turn. Okay.

I like to shop. No, I like to go to ProSource.

Why?

Because they have a beautiful showroom. And so there's so much for me to pick from and I can get it all done there. Now, ProSource, close your ears. Do I always buy there? Maybe not. But it is a beautiful showroom to go to.

Okay. So you get in and it inspires you. And you get more ideas to go somewhere else and buy it sometimes.

No, you know where I get it?

I know. She just finds it cheaper somewhere else.

Yeah. No, you know where I get inspired? Like really, really?

Mm-hmm.

I'm trying to figure it out.

The storage at the office?

Well, yeah.

No, Pinterest is a great resource.

Sure it is.

I mean, in real life, it is a great resource. Not only that, um—

There's a lot of people that are really smart Interesting.

This is why I don't. But yeah, I'm intimidated. I'm like, the stuff they're putting on there, can I compete?

You can.

You think so?

Yeah, absolutely. Because I mean, it's like Twitter, everybody's on it.

Oh yeah, there you go.

I do have a Pinterest account, unlike this show.

Right, that's right.

There's nobody.

Nobody's listening either. Yeah. But well, that's good. I mean, the reason I asked that is because I think a lot of times, Um, there are people that are— they would like to do some design on their own, but they don't even know where to start because, like, do I go to the at-home store? Do I go to, you know— and, and, you know, most people cringe whenever you say that. Um, but it's like, but it's what I know. It's in my neighborhood. It's right over there.

That's why you hire a designer.

That's why you hire a designer at that $545, because guess what? Full of knowledge. It is well worth the investment for you to do it right the first time and for you to get value for your buck.

Yeah, because how, how long does it take you to go— okay, first of all, you go to the at-home store and then you're like, this stuff sucks, I'm going somewhere else. And then now you go over to, I don't know, Target, and then you're like, this stuff sucks more. And then you go wherever and all of a sudden you've wasted 14 weekends and you still don't have what whatever you actually want, and Mel could have done it in a week.

Or you've taken it home and you tried it and it didn't work and you've returned it.

Yep. And now you got all this money. It's like, okay, did I get a credit for that yet? Did I not?

$545, folks. Honestly, $545. And if you're going to do any kind of renovation or construction, please, I beg you, get somebody that has a designer on What is it called, Christy?

Staff.

Staff. Get somebody that has a designer on their staff because it saves you so much money at the beginning and you're not going to end up with mediocre. You just— you're not.

Yeah.

So I have a lot of clients that will call and they are doing a bathroom renovation or what have you, and they just need me to go there and help them select and pick the tile. Okay, so I go help select, pick the tile. Now you're going to have Joe Bob because you're saving $50 if Joe Bob does it for you.

Joe Bob, if you're listening to this, Always a problem. Please.

Change your way.

This is not directed to you. Joe Bob does not have the podcast app.

Yeah, no.

He just commented, so you might want to change the way you speak of my friend Joe Bob. No, but I mean, even with the tile, like I was saying, after I have selected it for you and I go to Christie and I show her the tile, she has told me a hundred times— a lot of times, okay, Mel, I can't put that in the bathroom. bathroom, your client's going to fall. It's not— it shouldn't go on the floor. Okay. With the scale on this, once you lay it out, you're not going to be happy with the pattern. Right?

Mm-hmm.

So just because you hired the designer and I came up with it, it still pays to have the team come together that's educated, professional, and we pull the look together. So when it's all said and done, yes, I know we're a little bit more than everybody else and you don't understand why all the other bids came in lower, but I'm telling My friend, I'm telling you, it is well worth the investment to get it done right the first time.

Yeah.

Well, because I'm imagining the alternative scenario is where you have a designer and then, you know, the homeowner gets the design, you know, from you and then they go and get their own contractor and then the contractor comes in and just blows up everything that you did because they're like, we're not going to do that. That's not going to work. And then you end up fighting with the contractor, whereas if you have somebody that is on a team already, you guys can kind of iron this stuff out in the background and then present a good idea to the homeowner.

Well, there's always a disconnect too. I mean, you really— I mean, that's how I got started in this industry is I did murals and faux finishes, but I got my degree in interior design and I worked for contractors and I would pick out everything like Mel does. And you really can only work with contractors that you trust because you're putting your vision out there and you need to make sure that they're going to be the ones that can like bring that to life. And you need someone that, you know, hey, I can come to you with my ideas. And, you know, sometimes the contractors will say, well, yeah, we can do that, but that's not in

the budget. You know, because living— these are living projects. They always change as we start pulling walls out. We think, oh my gosh, it'd be fantastic if we put this cabinet here. And, you know, so you always need someone that you can go to and say, hey, this is the great idea I had. Can we do it for them?

Yeah. Remember the one project that we did the bathroom? that I called her in on. And I—

Nice.

Was going to move the tub and put it over here. And I was going to move the vanity and put it over here. And I was going to move the shower and put it over here. And the client and I worked it out. And if she had just hired me to go to somebody else, the conversation would have ended there with me just putting it here, putting it there, putting it here. So, I bring Christie in and she says, yes, we can. But you guys budget. If you move this to here, if you move that to there. So, she brings Wow, thanks, Christy. I don't think I've ever told you how much I appreciate it.

Oh my God, she helps you a lot.

A lot.

I mean, really.

Now we're seeing how this relationship really works, aren't we? That's right, yes.

Well, I just, I mean, I think that one of the things that a lot of people that are working on, on trying to figure out how am I going to make this project work, they're talking with their spouse or their friend or whoever, and they're looking at the space, they're like, how am I going to make this work? they say, we need to hire a general contractor because a general contractor knows people. And, and so rather than me going out and hiring the plumber and hiring the, you know, the sheetrock person and then hiring the painter and hiring all these people, they know the right people. Like, that's why I hire a general contractor. But I don't know a lot of general

contractors that work specifically with designers.

Very few.

And so maybe I'm just I just, well, I realize I don't—

Yes, yes.

Yes, I don't know what I'm talking about, but I just, I've not heard of that. Like when you talk to a general contractor and you're like, can you help me understand like the type of people that you use or whatever? Most of the time they're not like, well, I have this great designer, you know? And honestly, whenever you really start thinking about what you, you really kind of have to start with the end and work backwards, don't you? Like you look at it and you go, okay, what I really need out of this space, like this space right here that we're talking about, I need out of this space is I need more of it, and I need to be able to see my child, and I want to be able to do this while

they're playing, and I want to be able to, you know, whatever. So you really are already working with the end in mind, and so you need that designer to say, yeah, and here's how it could be the most functional and look the best.

Mm-hmm.

And then you— I mean, without that person, you're just— you, you have these ideas in mind. I mean, I would, I would love to hear how many people look at a project and say, oh, I just want to do this, this, and this. And then you wind up going and saying, hey, I want to do this, this, and this. And someone says, sure, I can do that, but it's going to cost you this much money.

Right.

Well, and you know, the thing that you brought up was people trying to do like hiring a plumber and then hiring a tile guy. Like when you hire all the trades yourself, instead of using a general contractor, A, you're not getting the best pricing because Because they are charging you homeowner pricing. They're not charging you contractor pricing. And the second thing is, is there's so much that happens in between those trades. So your plumber can come in and he can, you know, do all of your, you know, plumbing valves and all that kind of stuff. But then what happens next and who comes next and how does that process work?

And most of us don't know the answers to what comes next. We just assume.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You think, oh, okay, now we do this, you know, And so, um, it really helps to have someone that's there that can say, okay, you know, this is your next step. This is the next guy that's coming in. This is how we're going to handle this part of the project. Um, and then when you have a designer on, on the project as well, they can answer those little questions like, how are we going to finish this tile off? How is this, the edge of this going to look? What happens if we turn this tub on an angle instead of straight? Um, and so those are really important factors because what we always want to do is take what the client wants and

give that to them, but we want to give them what they didn't know they wanted.

That's right.

I don't think that most clients know what they want.

They don't. I mean, they think they know what they want a lot of times. They have ideas.

And then, um, cause I mean, I'll just tell you from, from my own perspective of my own family with my wife, cause she doesn't listen anyway. There's been a couple of times whenever we've made some renovations, I've been like, hey, we need to do this, this, or this. And she's like, I don't know. Like, she is a very visual person, and if she doesn't see it, then she doesn't know whether or not she's gonna like it.

Mm-hmm.

And so I'm, you know, there's been times I'm like, just trust me on this. And she knows that I'm a researcher, and so she tends to be like, okay, fine, I will, I will give you the opportunity to check this out. And then she winds up liking it. But I think so many people are visual people, and they think, oh well, I saw at so-and-so's house they did this And then your house just doesn't— that doesn't work.

It's not the same thing. It's not the same scale. It's not, it's not the same thing. You cannot do that. So when you do have your designer, that is her job to make sure that the scale is correct. Okay, show me what you like. Show me what you're working with. Show me what you like. And then now let me put it and size it for your house, for your personal Christy, your personal what?

Staff.

Style? Oh.

I know every time it's been staff. I'm not quite sure. A lot or staff. Those are the 2 keywords of this entire podcast. So if it doesn't, I don't know.

Oh my God.

You guys, this is us all day in that studio. I kid you not. Because I'll be talking and I'll, Christy, what is that word? And she'll finish it off. And wow. Yeah. So a lot of people, they just—

We're such a great team.

Yeah. My brain hurts.

We are very good staff.

Oh, yes.

We're good staff.

Yes.

But yeah, no, it does. It's definitely— I can't stress it enough. It's definitely worth having 2 heads than one. It just is.

Period.

And the other thing is, you know what you know. No, you know what you don't know.

You don't know what you don't know.

There it is.

Did she just fix it?

She did.

She did a lot.

She helped me a lot.

She helped me a lot. But yeah, you don't know what you You don't know what you don't know. You don't know.

We'll get there.

Yeah.

I don't think she knows.

You don't know this, so therefore you cannot actually speak on it.

You cannot actually speak on it. No, you don't. Because he was content with having the first contractor come in and just do enough. Like, thinking of even doing anything different was nowhere near the spectrum. And the best part of the story, which I totally forgot to tell y'all, is that the insurance The insurance company gave him enough. They did not account for, for example, once he puts the sheetrock around, the insurance company gave him money to pay for the sheetrock that they just installed, the new sheetrock. Well, what happens to the rest of it? Because the color's not going to match.

Oh, they didn't account for painting and taping and—

No, they gave him, I think in the living room, they gave him $2.67 to do primer.

You can't even buy.

Right. You know, I mean, you know, and the way that insurance companies do is they break every room down. They break it. I mean, they have a science to it. So of course, when you put it all together, the numbers make sense. But, you know, if you were just thinking, okay, you can't pay somebody— $2.67 doesn't even pay for the material.

Right.

So, but overall, you know, it would. But, you know, like Mel said, they're not really giving him enough money to paint the entire space. they're giving him enough money to paint the new sheetrock. And paint colors, I mean, within a year your paint color is already changing. Yeah.

So you have to paint the whole thing anyway.

Yeah.

You're just going to be able to see where we've, where we've painted it. So, you know, that's just something that you have to take into account whenever you're, whenever you have an insurance claim like this, you know, there are other factors too. They're not going to pay you to upgrade. They're going to pay you to put it back the exact same way it was. So if you didn't have granite counters, Countertops, you're not getting money for granite countertops, which is, I mean, that's sad.

That's legitimate.

Right.

But that's why you need a team that really cares about you and your project and will go digging deeper to find all those little loopholes, bring them up to you, tell you what we can do to change it and how we can make it all work out for you, than to just say, oh yeah, that's what they said and that's how much you're going to get. Yeah, we got it. We can do it. And not knocking anybody, but you just, you have to hire the right people. It just costs you so much at the end. And sometimes I find clients go for the less costly project. And when you do that, what exactly are you missing out on? Why

is it less?

Mm-hmm.

You know what I mean? Like, where's your person saving money on? Is it on, okay, we'll just paint from here down. And as a client, I don't know. So to me, that sounds fair.

Oh yeah.

You just— this is new, so you're going to paint that. That's fine. After you're done and you've painted, I'm not happy with it because it doesn't match.

Yeah.

So who am I mad at now? I'm wanting to write a report saying, hey, you did crappy work.

No, you paid for that, right? So you got what you paid for.

You got what you paid for. So when we go in and we do it, it's right the first time. Yeah, very detail-oriented. We take the time to study our projects. When I tell you we discuss the projects, we discuss the projects.

Yes.

A lot.

We have discussed this project. Over and over. Even before we came here, we went to have— I was just going to say, we should talk about that. We went to have dinner before we came here at Salata. It was Mel's first time at Salata. My first Salata.

Your first salad?

Well, I had to have a salad because my friend here is vegetarian and I'm slobbering over the meat, but I couldn't in support of my friend.

You can always eat meat. It doesn't matter. I mean, last night at the networking thing, I mean, y'all were talking about, oh, I like my beef still mooing and nobody cared about that.

You're bringing it up though, so you must have cared.

No, I cared. Nobody else cared.

Oh, okay.

That's the whole point of the story.

Oh, wow.

Bringing it back around. Anyways, but yeah, at dinner she pulled her—

Demarcation in the middle of the table here. Stay on your sides.

She pulled her iPad out and we started looking at pictures again and discussing the project. And I mean, cause you never know. I mean, you could come up with like, that's why I say they're all, all these remodels are always living projects because even when we take that wall out, we may go, hmm, maybe we should do this. You know?

Well, and one of the things that you said, Mel, was that, you know, you go for the cheaper option. Okay. That is a super legitimate problem, right? It's a legit, super legitimate problem of I've got this much money.

Mm-hmm.

I can only do this amount of stuff. So I think a lot of people wind up looking at their situation and thinking, I can only do this much, or I have to wait. And if I wait, then there's these whole other issues. And sometimes things are time sensitive, right?

Mm-hmm.

Um, but I also want to just throw out There are a lot of different ways to accomplish a project than just simply the money you have in your bank account. And, you know, whether it's taking a home equity loan out, you know, you know, a HELOC, we've talked about that. Yeah, go through that.

I offer financing now.

So there you go.

Yeah, since I met with you guys last time, we started offering financing.

That's awesome. And I was just talking to Jehu the other day. He's our AC guy, right? And he was like, Kevin, all right, dude, you're gonna need a new air conditioning system soon. And your ducting is horrible, never been replaced in a 45-year-old home. You need new insulation. And I'm like, dude, how much is that gonna cost? And he's like, it's gonna cost a little bit of money. And he's like, probably about $15,000. Kevin obviously is rich, but he doesn't have that much money just laying around.

What Kevin? I thought he came to your house.

Well, yes. And so, but I'm like, JJ, how am I supposed to do this? Like, I just need you to help me understand. And he said, well, I offer financing. And so, you know, it winds up if I want to take that chunk out it winds up becoming affordable. And so I think that it's worth looking into what your options are.

Yeah.

And until you have someone come out and look at the situation, help you analyze the options, then I think you wind up painting yourself into a corner, no pun intended, that you didn't really ever intend to get yourself into. And at the end of the day, how— you don't really want to look at a project and go, I wish I would have just done a little bit more, you know, because at that point It's more, more likely than not that you are going to have to pay more now.

That's right.

Because you have to undo something that you already did.

You know what, Kevin? This is what gets me. So when I ask you for your budget, it's not because I'm going to spend all of your money. I just need to know realistically, where are you in that budget? Then now when we get together, we give you the dream, the full picture of how this whole thing is going to work out. Yes, it's over what your budget is, but this is the whole entire vision, right? Now let's go step by step by step. What can you afford to get done now? So if the whole thing was we were going to paint the walls, we're going to put granite flooring— I mean, granite flooring, that would be amazing.

That would be cool.

Backsplash. But you only have $5,000. And we say, okay, looking at this project, so why don't we start with just demoing the walls and giving you a floor? That's our first. Then now let's go for the cabinets. Then now let's go. But you have the full picture and you can go at it little by little. But if I come to you and you say to me, well, my budget is $5,000, you've shot yourself in the thing, in the foot, because you think I'm going to spend $10,000. Tell me the $10,000 that you have and let me tell you realistically what can you do with that $10,000. Then you decide, do I want to spend the full $10,000

or do I just want to go to the $5,000? Right. Does that make sense?

No, it makes a lot of sense to me. And I get— I think that's kind of my point is, you know, I don't, don't sell yourself short. And, and maybe it is that you need to wait a year, and that's okay. Wait a year if you need to. But if you don't have to wait a year and there's a way to get it done now— I mean, Craig and I talk about this a lot on, on the show, just in general. It's like, yeah, a lot.

A lot.

Is, is the fact that your, your time is valuable and it goes away quickly, especially if you've got a family. Like, I, I can't tell you how many people I've heard say, yeah, like, I've got my dream house in mind, and in 5 more years I'm gonna, I'm gonna have that. I'm like, your kids are 12 and 10, so in 5 more years they get to enjoy that for 2 years, and, and then you've got a 4,500 square foot house that you got to maintain, and you really probably only need about an 1,800 square foot house because your kids are gone, you know. So like, what can I do now to, to get me into a place where I can

really be the family that I want to be?

Mm-hmm.

And if we can inspire people to look at life in that, that way, then we get a chance to hopefully help people on a whole different level than what they think their, their ability to do something is. And I think that's one of the things y'all are really helping with is like, we're giving you options.

Well, and I think COVID has kind of done that to the industry because it's like now people are realizing we're spending so much time at home, we're spending so much time with our family and they really want to enjoy the spaces they're in. That's why everybody's building a pool.

That's right. Yeah.

I mean, pool builders are like 24 hours. They have no, I mean, and we're the same way. I mean, we're constantly just turning over projects. I think we're at 17 remodels right now.

Wow. Good grief.

So yeah. And it's as soon as 2 of them fall, I mean, we've got just—

Revolving door.

Yeah. And it's because people are looking around in their spaces and they're like, well, for some people, they're going to continue to office from home. They're never going back to an office.

Right.

So that's crazy, though, isn't it? That this is where we're at. Like, never going back.

Yeah, they're all— I mean, well, I mean, if you're a huge corporation and, you know, for the last 6 months your company has been doing just fine and everybody's working from home, then why am I renting out a big, you know, high-rise office building? Y'all work from home. So, but you want your space to be amazing and beautiful. And so, I mean, do it. Like, like you said, there's the rates right now for equity line of credit is amazingly low. I mean, I have clients who are telling me that they're taking cash-out refis, they're dropping their mortgage payments, and they're using that cash to remodel So they're just building more equity back into their home and their mortgage is

less now.

We actually just refinanced ours about a month and a half ago. It took 4 months to do it.

It takes a while.

I was just talking with a lender the other day and they were saying, normally it's like a 30-day turnaround. But now, just to get an appraiser out, it's 30 to 45 days. days out just to have an appraiser come out and look at your house.

Well, and they like, they have no incentive to refi, so they drag their feet on it. But anyway, we ended up with like a 2.8 on a 15-year note. It was nuts. Like, why wouldn't we do that?

They might as well just give you zero at that point.

I have my own thoughts as to why that's just terrifying, but yeah, I mean, I'll take it. But yeah, I don't, I actually I actually don't want that to happen. I want— I kind of want to see them go back up again.

Um, as soon as I refi.

Yeah, I'm good now. You guys can do whatever you want.

You know, reap the rewards. So yeah, sure.

Of course.

Yeah, why not?

It's all about me, Christie. Don't we know that?

A lot. A lot. Exactly. Well, and, and so I, I guess I just wanted to kind of throw that out there. Don't, don't get to the point where you wish I would have done more, right? And honestly, when you look at the cost of a project, $545 is a drop in the bucket, right? I mean, it can be. Now, it could be that that's not the case. But in so many, so many cases, when you're doing a major remodel, especially $545 is probably not anywhere close to— it's nothing. But you get a small percentage. What you get Like, time is money. Go to our DIY calculator if you don't believe us and try to put in all of the variables. Time is extremely

valuable. And the thing that you think is going to take, oh, I'll have that done in a few months, you know, a few years later you're looking at it going, I guess I should hire someone to finish this.

You just wasted all that time. You could have been doing something else with that time.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Well, and also, I mean, using someone that, you know, using a designer to help you is going to save you money in the long run anyways, because you're not going to make costly mistakes. I can't tell you how many times we go into houses and they're like, yeah, I picked out that backsplash and I hate it. I don't know why I picked it out. I hated it, you know. And it's like, well, now we're redoing a backsplash that's— there's nothing wrong with it except for that they don't like it.

They don't like it, right?

So you're paying for it twice, you know. Or, you know, they say, well, I thought I liked this faucet, but then we got, you know, the handles and we really loved the gold handles and our faucet's not gold, it's, you know, world rub bronze. And so a designer is going to put that all together for you and keep you from making those mistakes.

And you just didn't think about function. Remember when the whole faucets came in that had the glass plate at the bottom? And so when you pulled the faucet open, the water kind of cascaded.

Oh yeah, right.

And everybody was buying those, but if your water does not have that water softener on it, that's the ugliest, dirtiest thing you've ever seen. But everybody was They're drying up. You can't clean it.

No.

And they become green.

They become green and nasty. Or even when we did a kitchen, the client was gung-ho on getting the— is it the tray sinks? And we were like, yeah, but dirt goes in these little corners. How are you going to clean that? So we researched the ones that would not hold the dirt. I mean, there's so many things that go into it that you don't think about because if you look at Pinterest, and you see it, it's aesthetically pleasing. Yeah, you want that in your house. But how does your family function? You know, do you have little kids? Is opening and closing this thing going to really work for you? Yes, it's beautiful, but does it work?

Yeah.

Or do you have the water softener? Now you're stuck 3 months down the road with this dirty grime. Oh, that's gross, right?

Or, or you go, okay, well, I like it enough. Now I gotta spend $5,000 on a water That's right. Again, we could have had this conversation if you would have just asked me. Yeah.

Amen.

Yeah.

A lot.

I think I like saying that now. I'm afraid.

Why? Why do we start stuff like this?

We can do that for you. We can put a t-shirt together for you.

Please, bring it to the studio. A lot.

It should say Christy, a lot. That would just make my day.

Hey, everybody. This is Craig.

Thanks for tuning in this week to our episode.

We were having so much fun, we decided to keep the party going. We got part 2 coming at you next week. Until then, be sure to leave us a review, click like, share on Facebook, do all the things that help us promote the show. As always, have a good one.

Have a good one.