That time we talked about Air Conditioning

This is episode 58 of the Homeowner Show. Whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to bring you the best options and information for you and your home. I'm Craig Williams, and Kevin ain't here because he's sitting at home. I don't know what he's doing. He's probably listening to some other podcast tonight. But tonight it's just me in the studio, but I have Some tremendous guests that I'm going to bring on here in just a second. But if you guys have not yet, you're probably listening to this show because you've already experienced the amazing content that The Homeowner Show is bringing you. So go ahead and hit the subscribe button because you're just going to download the next one anyway. And you can go follow us on Facebook, Instagram,

Twitter. And as always, we're at Twitter, but we're probably just not going to engage you over there because we're not hanging out on Twitter, but we're there. If you just like want to you know, send us something over there. I mean, like, we'll, we'll look at it, but we're probably just not gonna respond. Facebook and Instagram are a much better bet. You can find us on YouTube, you know, so hit all the notification bells or, you know, that goofy app that Kevin's using. You can click on the donkey. I don't know what it is. But anyway, tonight, this is the long anticipated, particularly here in Texas, the long anticipated air conditioning episode. Uh, yeah. We've got affordable air repair. in the

house with Jehu and JoJo. How you guys doing?

Doing wonderful, my man. Glad to be here. Thank you for having us. It's a, it's a pleasure to be here and, and help you guys out, you know? So we're, uh, this is my wife JoJo. You know, she's helping me in the office and, and everything that we can do to provide Conroe, Montgomery, Spring, the greater Houston area affordable air conditioning, you know, and really help and go above and beyond for the clients out there.

Yeah. And so by, by helping you in the office, you mean in charge?

She's the boss.

Okay. Pretty much.

Okay. Awesome. So I still, still have the boss that I answer to. You know, I, we've been running this show for 2 years now. So, you know, I still, uh, still have that one that I answer to every day on a day-to-day basis.

He likes it. It's okay.

It's, it's consistent. It is. Yeah.

Consistency is key.

Life and business, they just, they're just merged right together there for you.

Yep.

Yeah. So, so how long have you guys been at this now?

2 years. So we started this, I was in full-time operation, and then I was also working 40 hours for another company trying to grow as much as we could. And, you know, really just—

Well, so you were, you were doing AC work for like your, your business, and but you were also working for somebody else at the same time?

Oh yeah. Yes.

That's like 80, 90 hours a week.

I mean, it's a lot.

Yeah, that's crazy.

The moment he'd get off work, he'd go to work.

Yeah.

So I mean, you'd run 4 or 5 calls a day and, you know, come home and have those 2 or 3 at night that you're having to take up and pick up in the subdivision or in the area. And, you know, really just trying to help people out.

Yeah.

And, you know, busy is everything for sure. It's hot here in Texas. Everybody needs air conditioning.

Yeah.

You know, how far you can stretch yourself is, is really the name of the game.

Yeah. So how, how long did it take you to, to eventually make the leap to, you know, full-time? Yeah.

So we were— now is our second year. So our second year, January 1st will be our third— the first quarter of our third year. And then I would say we were in business for about a year and a half working for another client, a commercial company, so a larger company, just learning, gaining wealth and knowledge as we went. And really, we got pushed out of the nest and told that it was time to go out on our own.

Yeah.

So here we are.

Thank God we did though.

Yeah.

Honestly.

You know, it's been fruitful for sure. You know, taking care of people has always been my motto in anything that I do. And you always get taken care of when you take care of people.

Yeah. And well, and I know for our show, I mean, we have a lot of people who are homeowners, but we also have a lot of guys who are business owners.

Sure.

That listen to this show. And for those guys, like what for you was, What was one of the more difficult hurdles to get over to start your own business, to get out on your own?

Walking away from the guaranteed money of working for somebody else, having the Monday through Friday job, the 8 to 4, whatever you want to call it, it's scary. It's a scary transition. She came from bartending and that was kind of a what-if paycheck. Now she's a teacher, so she kind of feels that comfortable paycheck that's there. It's always scary. And it's like taking a step of faith. You got to walk on water like it says in the Bible and just trust. Trust that at the end of the day, you're going to be taken care of if you do what's right. And that's what we live by.

Yeah.

I mean, every day we're wondering, hey, is the week going to fill up? Is things going to happen like that? And for instance, today we had a slower week at the start. Today's only Monday. But slower week at the start on our books. And then, you know, Monday came and we filled up our whole week like that. So, I mean, it's, it's things like that that happen that keep you, you know, hoping and praying and keep you humble.

Really. Was that one of the scarier things for you?

Yeah, definitely. Yeah. But it was like, it, it's the risk you gotta take. You know what I mean? You gotta risk it for the biscuit. That's how I felt about it. I knew we were going to make it because even with my paycheck still, like, if you project what you want, you'll get it.

Yeah.

It's a sense of how bad you want it and what you're willing to do. And since he does such good things and he helps the community, I knew it'd come back our way.

Yeah, absolutely.

It's full circle.

Yeah. And actually, that's one of the big reasons we wanted to have you guys in the studio. I mean, we actually connected over Facebook. Sure. And a lot of mutual friends that we kept seeing kept referring you, kept referring you, kept referring you, referring you. So much so that we, I mean, we actually had you come over and do a project for us.

Absolutely.

We'll get into that here in a minute. Absolutely.

It's a good project.

Yeah. And so, but, but I mean, like, has that been, I mean, from the outside looking in, From, from my perspective, it's like, oh my goodness. Like, you know, affordable air repair is just absolutely beloved in the community. I mean, has, has that been a fruitful source of business for you?

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Facebook.

Yeah. 100%.

You know, and I tell my clients this a lot, you know, we as a company growing, we try to utilize where we spend our money correctly. Right. So advertisement is always something that people look to put money into.

Sure.

And we try to figure out the ways to be the most cost effective with that. So we have been very successful with Facebook and, and trying to advertise and market on those avenues and things like that. And, you know, for the most part, we don't have the, the marketing dollars that are put in place. A lot of it's word of mouth, you know? And that's where our biggest, biggest attribute to our marketing is, is word of mouth.

Is our clients. Yeah, absolutely. We're forever grateful, you know, because it's so hard to take a chance on somebody that maybe you don't know professionally. Or, you know, you'd rather go with, oh, well, everyone goes to Walmart. Why don't I just go there kind of thing?

Right.

So it was a big— it was a leap of faith for us, but also for them.

So—

Trust is everything. We're grateful, yeah, that we're at this point. We want to go further, you know?

Absolutely. Well, I mean, like, and you guys are obviously in a great market.

Sure.

I mean, it gets ridiculously hot.

Absolutely.

Crazy hot in Texas.

Every building has air conditioning.

Yeah. And, and when it goes down, I mean, people revert back real quick, right?

Oh my gosh.

I mean, I imagine you've experienced that, like people, like you've never even met 'em, they might get angry just cuz it's like, and it's not, they're not mad at you. They're just like acting primally cuz they're uncomfortable.

Right.

And that's, that's something we deal with a lot. You know, you have every type of people or persons in this world that, you know, you never know what you're gonna run into, you know, for sure. And having parts on hand on the truck, that way we don't have to go out and get repair or parts at a supply house and things like that. I mean, we can't stock it all, obviously.

Right.

You know, we're going to have the majority of the stuff out there that continues to break down and it speeds up our process. So it keeps our clients happier because we don't have to wait. They don't have to wait in order for us to come back and make that repair. So it saves trip charges, it saves days, it saves people missing work. I mean, a lot of things get played into that for sure.

And if he doesn't, we've brought portable air conditioners to people's houses to make sure at least they're cooling for at least one night until we can get everything ready to go for the next day.

So yeah, having portable air conditioning in Texas is important as an air conditioning company because there are those special times where you can't make that repair that same day. And giving somebody that option, I mean, we have home air conditioning portable units, larger commercial units, Those are something that we're still trying to get funds for, you know, because larger commercial units, they cost a little bit of money.

I would imagine they cost a bunch of money.

So having that option, that's something that we will get to in the future, but we always want to be able to give our clients the best, you know, whatever that may be. We go above and beyond in anything we do, and I feel like that's what you should offer to every client every time.

Yeah.

A lot of people in Texas don't get that anymore. You know?

Right.

I've seen, I've come from a lot of bigger companies, the high, well-known companies. And you know, you, you learn, or in, in my terminology, you eat the meat, spit out the bones.

Mm-hmm.

You know, you, you figure out the good things about the company that you want to pursue in your company. And you know, the bad things, you obviously learn from 'em. You learn how to implement changes in order to not make those things happen. And then, you know, you try to be the best company you can be. You know? It's a growing thing for sure. No company's perfect, no matter who you are. That's for sure.

Do you guys tend to— and you may not do one or the other, but do you focus more on residential or commercial? How do you guys go about that?

We do a little bit of both. So, I mean, in the commercial aspect, we can do it all. We can pull resources together to make any project happen. So I don't want to say that I'm not capable of doing it. It's just a matter of getting the right minds together to make the project happen.

Right.

But when it comes to commercial, we do a lot of maintenance and service for the commercial realm, and then a lot of maintenance and service and installation for the, uh, residential side. That's kind of where our bread and butter is right now.

Okay.

You know, when we grow this thing and we get a little bit more techs and more trucks on the road, the right people, you know, we're obviously gonna look at doing things a little differently, you know, with the commercial side. And hopefully that will bring some more installs and things of that nature. But, you know, yeah. Residential, that's our bread and butter. That's what I've done for 13 years nearly. So I mean, yeah, you kind of go with your gut and you know what to do.

Yeah.

So what should people be looking for? I mean, because not everybody, you know, can, you know, at least not yet hire Affordable Air Repair because, you know, not all of our listeners live in Houston or even Texas.

Absolutely.

You know, what, what should people be on the lookout for when they're, when they're trying to hire an air conditioning company? And what, I mean, what are like some of the, the key you know, signals that, you know, like, this is a good company?

Good question. So license, number one. I mean, here in Texas, and I don't know how other states are, I've only lived in Tennessee and Texas, but yeah, uh, it requires a license to do my type of work.

What's the license here?

It's a tenant—

or Texas, it's TACLA.

So it's Texas Air Conditioning Refrigeration license. So it's basically company or accredited place out there that you have to go take tests. You have to get these books and study. And once you pass the test, there's hoops that you have to jump through for sure.

Yeah.

So once all of those hoops are jumped through and you get your card and you get your license number and that's advertised on your trucks and things like that, and you see the documentation of this company's legit, they're giving me their information. It's not just a title head of a business name and some chicken scratch on the side. They will give me formal quotes printed out or emailed or stuff like that. And always having the visualization, because a lot of companies out there, they'll, they'll try to have the good look, right?

Sure.

And things like that. But Facebook reviews, you know, all of your reviews on your social media platforms and things like that, that's key. Calling them up, seeing how they respond on messages and phone calls and, and things like that. I mean, I think that would be important too. What are your thoughts, babe?

Right. And make sure they have a logo on their truck, they're familiar with the codes and everything. And there's a website, it's texastdlr.gov, that you can look up any license in the state of Texas. Totally, like cosmetology, plumbing, any license. So you can look it up through there as well. You just type in the technician's name. Or whatever the company name would probably populate a little faster.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I imagine that's done through like the Secretary of State. And I imagine that's, that's most, that's most states.

Maybe.

I mean, because that's where you have to register your business usually.

Right?

Yes. Yep. So I mean, registering your business, you got business insurance. So I mean, that's something that you need to absolutely offer your clients as well because accidents happen out there. You know, we're all human beings and, you know, The worst-case scenario could happen one day, and you want to make sure that your homeowner, number one, is protected, but not to mention your business is protected.

Absolutely.

So having all of those things implemented and being able to offer your clients discounts if they're military members, nurses, teachers, first responders, that's a good thing to help out in the community. And we're big on helping out the community.

Yeah. Yeah, I actually— I think it was a couple episodes ago, and I may be getting this wrong, but I, I was talking to somebody recently where they were telling me they were doing some background checks on a company they were looking at hiring. And, and so they went to the state registry to look them up, and come to find out they weren't an actual business.

Oh wow.

And, and so like just, just that little step, yeah, that like most people don't take saved him from getting involved with a business.

Sure.

That, you know, may have not treated him right or legitimately been able to do the job right or all that kind of stuff. Or, you know, and because if you're not If you're not— if, I mean, at minimum, if you're not incorporated, you're probably not insured, potentially. I mean, like, there's, there's ways to do some of that, but like, you know, like you say, do your diligence on this stuff. Absolutely. You know, and I think—

important.

I think a lot of people feel guilty about calling up companies and like questioning them. Yeah, you know, not like accusatorily, but like, you know, honestly, you shouldn't—

you, I mean, you shouldn't be scared to ask that information. Yeah, that information, especially if someone's coming into your house and your home, like Yeah. I mean, that information should be publicized, you know, because it's code and code books for that information to be public information.

Yeah. Right.

So, I mean, with that, homework is key, no doubt. Seeing the— and sometimes you don't catch it until they're in your house and you see the work that's being done. And, you know, you can kind of second-guess yourself and be like, man, are they really the type of people that I should have hired off of the work that's being produced? Because that happens a lot in air conditioning in general. It's hot here in Texas. It's hotter in the attics whenever the work's getting done.

Oh yeah.

So certain steps have to be taken in order to make sure that that job's getting done correctly and your guys, number one, aren't killing themselves. Because that can happen. Heat stress and heat stroke is a very serious thing here.

Yeah, we've had to deal with that with him. Bless his heart.

She was, she was telling tales on you last time we talked.

Yeah, I mean, well, it was these two, um, it was this old couple in our neighborhood and they were so sweet, but their house was like above 80 degrees or something. And he just told me, he was like, well, I just couldn't quit. Throws up again. I'm like, no, babe, please. Like, I know you care, but like, I care about you too. Like, I want you to be okay. We end up at the hospital. I mean, it's sweet because like he really, he really truly cares. Like that's not a—

Sometimes you got to do what you got to do.

Sure.

You can't leave people in situations without air conditioning.

But bring Gatorade or water. Just let's be safe too.

I know. I mean, like, you know, just, just spending time with, with, with you guys so far. I mean, like, I mean, just the service aspect is like, I'd rather me feel that way than they feel that way.

Yep. Sure.

You know, yeah, that's, that's, that's where that's coming from for sure.

But man, I, I could not be up in the attic that long. I do a little bit of work up in the attic, but I get out of there as quick as I can.

It's tough, but it's tough. I mean, and I have like cooling vests that pump water through the vest and stuff, because keeping your core temperature is important. Yeah, that's where all of your vital organs are. So if that gets hot first, then you're done.

You're toast.

Yeah, you're done.

Yeah, Kevin, Kevin was actually telling me he had a, uh, a solar fan installed in his attic. Yep, that really significantly dropped the temperature and decreased the amount of power he was using to cool the home, but also kept the attic at a lot lower temperature. Have you run across that?

Oh yeah. So we actually can install attic fans as well. We have contacts with roofers, great roofing contacts that can ensure that once the fan's in, the roof is sealed up and it's not going to have a leak or anything like that once we come back. We can do solar or we can do the wired-in ones. So as long as anybody wants that done, we do blown-in insulation. Install air conditioners, mini splits, air conditioners, commercial air conditioners, and, um, you know, pretty much anything in that realm. Custom houses, you know, that's something that there's a big need out there for. People have these custom outlooks that they want in their house, and, you know, it takes a

certain design to make that happen, a certain engineering mind to see that project through.

Yeah.

So that's something we specialize in. You know, we have a lot of people that we can pull in together to utilize Mitsubishi equipment or, you know, ducting. Specialized ducting can be installed in houses and things like that to really increase the airflow and increase the comfortability in your house.

Yeah, for sure. I mean, and I'm glad you, you mentioned that because it's something I try and ask all my, my AC friends is like, what is, what is your genuine opinion on the mini splits? Because I know with, you know, the tiny home movements going on, I'm like, this is what they're putting in these things.

Absolutely.

You know, what are your thoughts on them?

I think it's the way the world is going to, you know, because they make some that you can— say you have 4 rooms in your house and you have this air conditioner that's utilizing 4 different fan coil boxes inside with 1 outdoor unit, and you can heat and cool each room simultaneously.

Right.

So it's a, it's a very neat thing. A lot of technology out there, a lot of high-tech, you know, schooling and training that has to be done in order to be able to install these systems correctly, not to mention service them.

Yeah.

And, you know, I love them. I mean, they're, they're great systems. They come with great warranties, you know, from reputable manufacturers. And yeah, you know, you, you really can't beat them because they can utilize areas that, you know, you wouldn't normally be able to put an air conditioner.

Like the one we're sitting in right now. Yeah, we're receiving the benefits of it right now.

Absolutely cool and comfortable in here and no ductwork. Yeah, it's huge, huge things.

So, and this, this was a weird room to cool. Yeah, I mean, just because of the angles of the ceiling and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, I was lucky to get hooked up.

No doubt. It's a great thing. You know, air conditioning. I couldn't— Carrier, Lewis Carrier, or whatever his first name is. Don't get me lying to you. He's a great man for inventing air conditioning.

Oh yeah, absolutely. Especially here.

I couldn't live without it.

No.

What was— I mean, and you may not know, but like for some reason I seem to remember it was invented for something specific.

It was something about that had to do with newspaper ink.

Was that what it was?

I'll have to look it up.

I'm going to Google it right now.

Don't hold us to this, guys. But she found something on it one time. And I don't know. I remember back talking to my great-grandma and great-grandpa and stuff, and them saying that they used to use a block of ice and a fan to cool with. And I mean, that was something back in the day.

Oh yeah.

But it's crazy to think where the world's came since then.

Oh yeah.

It really, really is.

I mean, I still see some people innovating a little bit with it. I mean, the people using misters.

Yep.

To cool off outdoor spaces.

Yep.

Um, and I mean, it works.

Yeah.

Um, absolutely. I actually know that's what they do at Disney to actually keep the parks cool. They have like a sophisticated misting system throughout.

They had that in Mexico. Oh, did they?

Yeah, it's cool. I mean, any way you can bring down that temperature, you're, you're working wonderfully.

I'm a happy girl.

Yeah, no doubt.

Did you find it?

Yes, actually. Yeah, it was, it was about controlling the humidity in a printing plant.

Okay.

It was.

Yeah.

Boom.

Yeah, nice. Was it, was it like newspapers or was it like books or does it say?

I'm sure I could find out.

But that's just interesting to me. It wasn't, it wasn't for people.

Carrier worked in that newspaper plant apparently from what it said, and he invented that air conditioning to reduce the amount of moisture in there because they were printing paper.

Oh, and allowed the, allowed the ink to dry quicker, I guess. Yeah, because it was pulling the humidity out.

Yep. It's crazy, man. I mean, it's a science.

Yeah, for sure.

It's, it's not something that can just be thrown in, and unfortunately it happens a lot here in Texas.

Yeah, a lot.

Yeah. Which then the client pays, has to pay for it in the Oh, don't I know that. The sad part.

Oh man. Well, and that's something that you told me repeatedly is like, this is a science.

Absolutely.

And that it's not a cooling system.

Right.

No.

And what you told me it was, what?

We remove heat.

Yeah.

We don't create cooling. So that's something that a lot of people don't understand that they're like, yeah, the vents are blowing cold, it's working. Well, yeah, it's blowing cold, but we're also removing the heat in the house. So a big misconception, a lot of people will close their doors in their bedrooms bedrooms and stuff like that, and they'll be like, it's hot in this bedroom. Yeah, well, it is because you don't— the return may not be in that bedroom and it's not bringing that air back through the system. So airflow is a science, refrigerant's a science. I mean, you have to understand air conditioning to truly be able to give your clients the benefit that air conditioning was invented for. Yeah, it's not just buy an air conditioner, buy the ductwork, put

flex runs here and here, and hope for the best, right? And a lot of people out there do that.

Sure. I mean, if they're doing it, if they're DIYing it, right? Kind of what you're describing.

Sure.

I mean, or finding somebody that's put them in before. And, you know, it's, you know, our cheap bids. You know, we fight it all the time, cheap bids. And I'm sure you find it in pest control. I'm sure you see it in other areas of your life. But, you know, I've had to learn a lot from life in general and cheap bids and paying for what I get. And, you know, I've— I refuse to have this company give an image that it's— you're not going to get what you pay for. You know, I— if I have to go above and beyond and make sure that that happens, you know, which we're in business to make money,

obviously we're— yeah, we're going to try to do the best to make that happen too, but we're not going to get greedy, you know. And sure, we've seen a lot of those companies. I've worked for a lot of those companies that they grow really quick and they, you know, their morals and their ethics go out the window with it.

Yeah. And you may have had the same experience with me. Anytime you watch a company that's grown really fast, I mean, from my experience, it's been because they're looking to sell it.

Yeah, that's possible too, you know.

Um, and that's— I'm not saying that's a bad thing. I mean, like, you know, no, good for you if you can sell a company for a profit, and that's what you're in the business to do. But, you know, it doesn't really serve the customer.

That's correct. Potentially, you know, because what happens when that new owner doesn't have the same ethics and morals that the previous owner did?

Or standards. Yeah, standards and quality of work.

Yeah.

Because then, I mean, and it happens, turnover in this industry for employees and employers is very high. It always has been in air conditioning. But trying to find that right person, it's key. That's where we're at. We need to find the right people to bring into this avenue to truly give the benefit that everybody out there deserves.

Yeah.

We can teach people, we can help people learn this industry. I came from the bottom. I started out installing air conditioners, sweeping the floor in the shop at the company my dad worked at, and moved into service, moved into sales, kind of did the commercial aspect, and running my own show now. I've seen nearly every side of this industry, and I'm still growing every day. I'm still learning.

Yeah.

I'm not to say that I know it all, but I have enough knowledge and skills that could be passed on to people who are truly wanting to learn and truly wanting to come up in this industry.

You hear that, people?

Yes.

I'm looking at you right now. The ones who want to make the change, come on with it.

I mean, we could always use good people. Yeah, the world could use more good people.

Absolutely.

So more good tradespeople.

We need a lot of those, you know.

Absolutely. Yeah, I think it's a dying art. Well, the DIY is coming back, but I'm talking like truly dedicated to your craft. Yeah.

Yeah.

Like Jehu is, you know?

For sure.

We need more of that.

Absolutely.

That's been our kind of holdup on him getting an employee and everything. 'Cause he's so, I mean, he's top-notch in his work. So he expects that if you're gonna carry our name.

Right.

Yeah.

No doubt.

So it's trying to find that person to kind of like hold the torch, you know?

Yeah.

Maybe someone we can train or—

It's one of the hardest things to bring on people and get them to operate at the level that, you know, you as the owner-operator have been doing.

Yes.

And it's almost like letting other people take care of your children.

Correct.

Pretty much.

Yeah. Correct.

It's hard. I mean, they have control over your clients if they're in their houses and stuff. I mean, and you want to make sure that you have the right people in that piece, in that puzzle. So yeah, relinquishing control, it's difficult for sure. You want to mentor and you want to nurse this thing that you're growing and try to make sure that it's protected and it's safe and things like that. But I mean, your arms can only be stretched so far.

Yeah.

And eventually you're gonna have to have the trust to put into other people to help you grow more.

Yeah, hiring employees is really hard. One of the other hardest things to do when you own a home is to get a new roof or to bid out solar.

Yes.

Uh, and DroneQuote is the company that can bring these numbers to you, that can bring these companies to you, and actually get you 3 separate bids For each of these things for your home, and it doesn't even require an appointment. What they do is you send them the numbers, you send them copies of the bill, you send them a picture of your electrical panel, and then they figure out what you need. Then they send a drone out to do a survey of the property, and they get you the quotes from 3 companies in your area that are local, like Affordable Air Repair, except for roofs and solar. To get these systems installed on your house. Let me tell you guys something.

One of the most difficult things to do is to have appointments with salespeople. It's the worst!

Gotta love it!

Because most of the time, they understand that you don't want to meet until you get off of work. So, you're having appointments between 5:00 and 8:00 in the evening to make decisions about a $30,000 roof, or a $60,000 solar system, or a $20,000 roof. These are big financial decisions. And so Drone Coat wants to come in and be that gentle intermediary that does the work for you, makes the meetings with these salespeople. They're actually not meeting with salespeople, they're just going directly to the company and getting the prices for you. And then you can make a decision without ever having to talk to a salesperson.

It's beautiful.

It's a beautiful thing.

That's a beautiful thing. And you get to see a drone.

Yeah, it is. You get to see that cool drone. You get some cool photos of your house too. Yeah.

Awesome. You can't beat that.

Yeah.

So if, if you guys need that, if you, if listeners of The Homeowner Show need that, you can go follow the link in the, uh, in the show notes, or you can sign up for the email and that comes out in their email every week. So what is, in y'all's opinion, the most common breakdown in the air conditioning system for the homeowner?

That's a good question. I mean, you have, you have different parts that you, you try to teach your customers out. That way they can be aware of problems that could happen down the road, right? So such as capacitors. Capacitors are like a built-in battery backup for— or built-in battery for your motors. So your compressor is a motor, your fan motor that spins on top is called your condensing fan motor, you have a blower motor inside, and all of those motors take an initial jolt of energy to start them, which is where it comes from, that capacitor.

It's almost like a starter for the—

Correct, that's exactly what it is.

Okay. And once— I know it's Yeah, just enough to get into trouble.

Once they get weak, I mean, obviously it's not gonna start. So, you know, whether that leaves you without cooling or heating or both, or, you know, things like that, you know, that's a very common repair out there, is a capacitor change out.

And usually when that happens, you'll almost kind of hear like a humming noise.

You can, right? Absolutely. That's your motor trying to run, but it's not, which is in theory damaging that motor because it's getting hot, sending current through it and not spinning. So yes, that's why we always tell our customers, if your air conditioner isn't working properly, if it's not blowing cold air and you notice a problem, turn your system to off and your fan on on. And if you can hear your indoor blower motor running, then that's a good sign.

Okay.

You know, but what that's going to do, if the system's froze up, that will give it enough time to unthaw until somebody can get there to look at it. They don't have to spend extra time on site. waiting for a system to unfall.

Right. So like, I have a bad capacitor. Is there something I could have done to prevent that capacitor going bad, or is that just like, look, things just break down over time?

That is a little bit of both. Okay. So we have maintenance plans that we offer to people locally in our area, and we, you know, we travel kind of wherever, but depending upon where the area is, there may be a trip fee or a trip charge. But maintenance is key, you know, maintenance on anything. You get your truck or car maintenance, you get your oil changed, you get your filters filters changed, your tires get changed.

Yeah.

So eventually, you know, things inside your air conditioner are going to need to be either one, inspected and looked at and, you know, instruments hooked up to it to test them to make sure that they are okay, or, you know, change them out. You know, capacitors are— I tell my clients they're a consumable. So it's a lot like a battery. They will need to be changed out periodically.

Yeah.

But if they're failing quickly, then we know that there's a bigger problem out there.

Yeah.

We know that we need to find that root problem in order to ensure that these capacitors aren't going to be kept and keep needing to be changed out. Yeah, because nobody wants to spend money on air conditioning. Let's just be honest, you know, it's out of sight, out of mind. But I mean, when it's down, you know, that's usually when your rush is in, you know, and then that's when people feel obligated to have to spend that money. Yeah, we want to make it as painstaking as possible. You know, we try to educate our clients into what you're spending your money on, why it broke, why— what we could do to prevent this from happening in the future and you having to spend this money

again.

Yeah.

You know, and you know, you may have to get some accessories and some things to make that happen, but you know, it's protection. You know, you're protecting your car from things happening down the road by getting better filters or better tires or using the better oil and things like that. So why wouldn't you do that for an air conditioning system that costs almost as much as vehicles?

Now, sometimes a little bit more.

If you're a service club member for us, you get You get like priority scheduling, you get discounts on repairs. We just, we hook you up.

Yeah.

Yeah. We take good care of you.

And so like, and, and you know, you know, this, this episode's gonna be up forever, so no one's gonna hold this to you, you guys right now. But like, what is your service club like? What does that cost?

So annually right now for, for one system for the seasons here in Texas, we technically say we have 2 seasons.

Okay.

Winter and summer.

Oh, cool.

Okay. Yeah.

So yeah, $50 per season per system or $100 annually for one system. or $200 for 2 systems.

Okay.

You know, it kind of goes from there. You know, we do, do some discounts if you have multiple, like 5 or 6, 5 or 6, 7 systems.

Especially commercial clients.

Right, right, yeah.

You know, and we definitely do some, some good maintenance for our commercial clients.

There's plenty of residential homes around here that have 4 and 5 systems.

Well, I was gonna say, we had a big custom home that had quite a few systems.

Yeah. Yep, I mean, we, we do anything to, to make ourselves stand out and be a little bit different from the current competition that's out there.

Yeah, right.

And so aside from like the scheduling and the, And some of the discounts, what else do you get with that?

Okay, so you get energy efficiency. So a clean unit is a healthy unit, is a unit that's going to run smoother, better, use less power, things like that. So we water wash outdoor coils, make sure that the grass clippings and stuff, whenever your yard people or you come and clean your yard and, you know, all of that stuff that can get sucked up into the unit, we want to make sure that that's freed up and clean.

Okay.

So you get an inspection report of a full write-up of your system. So amperages, pressures, temperatures, the works get written up on this. And we look at cleanliness. Cleanliness is always on our mind when it comes to air conditioning. If the unit's dirty, we give you a write-up of repairs. And then with that, you get a 15% discount on price guide repairs, which we have a level 1 through 7 price guide repair that, you know, you have straight pricing and discounted pricing for all of our club Okay. So huge benefit there for you having a professional come out to your house twice a year, check the things, you know, that could cause potential problems and, you know, cost you a lot of money in the long run, trying to

save you money and keep things running smoothly and efficiently.

Preventative maintenance.

Yes.

Yes, ma'am.

Absolutely.

I mean, it's— everyone hates it.

Yep.

Until they have a problem that could have been prevented. Spend a little bit now so you don't have to spend a lot later.

Yeah, absolutely. It's tough. I mean, everybody wants to know where to spend their money the right way.

Yeah.

You know, that's for sure. I do. It's hard for me to spend my money on things that I can't see something coming back to me or me getting my money's worth. And, you know, that's everyone. Everyone wants to feel like they got what they paid for.

Yeah.

Why wouldn't— why shouldn't they get that? You know, and that's what we live by. You know, we Well, if the leaf clippings inside of your condensing unit are thrown out, you know, we don't want them to get sucked right back up into the unit. So we'll bag them up and put them in your trash can and make sure that they are away from your air conditioning unit. So just little, little ways to go above and beyond finding things that could be potentially dangerous.

Yeah, for sure. And it, it helps keep our clients' loyalty, which helps keep us going. It's just the circle of life, you know. Yeah, we give back, we get back. It's all good.

Awesome.

It helps.

Yeah. So another one that I've run across a few times at friends' homes, and I think I've had it at mine, is when you get ice outside on the, on the unit.

Yep.

What's going on there?

So a couple things can cause the unit to freeze up. You know, you have lack of airflow, you have dirty filters in your house, which filters— depending upon what the quality of your house is, if you have animals, obviously they're gonna bring and produce a lot more Right. Change your filter. Change your filter. You know, monthly is key.

You're listening to this. You've probably forgotten.

Yeah.

Change your filter.

So change your filter. You know, you wanna make sure that your blower motor is working correctly and that's spinning and forcing air, 'cause that will cause your system to freeze up as well.

So where do you— where's the blower motor?

That's in the attic.

In the attic. Okay.

Yeah. So typically in the attic or sometimes a mechanical closet, it's gonna be your indoor unit.

Okay.

If you have a unit that's separated indoor and outdoor.

Right.

They make all types of air conditioners, so your blower could be outside. You know, it could be a self-contained unit outside as well.

Sure.

So, you know, your blower motor in general, airflow has to be moving in order for refrigerant to not freeze. So that's number 2. You know, you check those things, make sure that those are working, and then if those are correct, then you move out to the next step, which is your refrigerant. So you hook up your gauges and you make sure Make sure your pressures look okay with it running. And if you're in freezing temperature, which Fahrenheit 32 degrees, everything below that freezes. Same thing with refrigerant. So certain steps like that can cause a unit to freeze up. Dirty is one thing. So that's why we always look for that cleanliness like I was touching on before.

Yeah.

And refrigerant is something, you know, I think a lot of people go, you know, like nowadays if you're kind of a DIYer, you're going to go to YouTube.

Sure.

And they're going to, you know, be telling you, yeah, hook up these gauges, you can put this refrigerant in here. Should people really be messing with refrigerant?

Absolutely not. So you have to have certifications to handle refrigerant. So different types of certifications from the EPA, you know, that's the people who monitor and regulate our atmosphere, if you want to call it that.

Sure.

Yeah.

You know, they're environmental protection.

Yeah. Environmental Protective Agency. So loving That's a test as well.

Yeah, it's the EPA. I mean, like, for, for guys like us, like, we love and hate them at the same time.

Yep. You know, sure, because I love-hate relationship.

Yeah.

And everything you have to use.

I mean, it's, it's tough because you have to be certified to handle different types of things. I mean, if you're not, there's big penalties that can come into play for that, you know. And if you're not handling those correctly, not to mention just being able to handle them Right. You know, that's, you know, it's big-time penalties for sure, and nobody wants that. Nobody can afford that.

Well, and it's because you could potentially be creating an unsafe environment for you and the people who live in your home.

Absolutely.

Is there something getting phased out in 2020?

So yes, EPA has talked, and there's always been rumors spread of the old refrigerant, the R-22. Okay, yeah, so I don't have the notes or anything on that. She may be trying to find it online, but until that comes, you know, there is word out there that R-22 is going to be phased out come January 1st, 2020. So whether that happens, you know, we— it's kind of in the air at this point to me. I haven't heard from like my parts houses and things.

Yeah, you're right. It's January 21st.

So, so what, what, when that point comes, you won't be able to add refrigerant to those units anymore because more than likely they have a known leak. And, you know, the Environmental Protective Agency doesn't want more gas being dispersed into the atmosphere from a known leak.

Yeah.

So, you know, that's one thing, and they'll probably force their hand on trying to get people to change their units to the new stuff.

Yeah.

Which is what I foresee happening out there.

What's the new stuff?

R-410A.

R-410A. Okay.

So it's technically cleaner for the environment and things of that nature from what the EPA says. But this isn't the first time that they've changed refrigerant. So if you look at automobiles, they changed automobile refrigerant and things like that. So don't be surprised if this is not the last change in refrigerant. So I mean, As the world grows, we all learn. We all learn better practices, better techniques, better things that need to be implemented. Yeah, you know, we all have to learn from mistakes too.

Well, and so if I understand what you're saying, you know, people who have systems that operate on R-22 are not going to be able to use the new refrigerant in their old system.

That is correct. R-22 and R-410A refrigerants do not mix. Yeah, so you're gonna have to buy a whole new Yes, technically, you would have to buy the air conditioning side of your system. That would be the outdoor unit and the indoor coil, whether you're utilizing electric heat or gas heat. You can build different packages for that. So, yes, in theory, you're going to be required to step up and get the new unit. At that point, I would think they would have no other way to do that.

I don't know what refrigerant my system uses. You may know.

R-410A.

Oh, does it? Well, let's, let's just say in theory it was, you know, the, the older one, and I have a, I have a gas furnace. So I would just have to replace the outdoor unit and the indoor coil. And the indoor coil.

Unless— so certain coils, they have stickers on them and they'll say that they can utilize R-410A or R-22, you know, and things like that. You have to clean the coil if you're going to utilize 410A with a 22 coil. So you have to make sure all the oils are out. And then the metering device, or the expansion valve, or piston, whatever you want to have installed there, has to be R-410A capable.

Okay.

So that's what meters that flow of refrigerant inside. So yes, your outdoor unit, your indoor coil, and the metering device have to be R-410A in order to use it, and then cleaned.

Awesome. Well, so are there any other refrigerants that they're using in, you know, systems like what we use in the home?

In the home, typically you have some conversions from R-22. I mean, they're not the best conversions out there. And like, say if you have a leak, you're gonna leak out some— they're a blend, so they're a blend of like 4 different refrigerants. Some will leak out at different boiling points, and then you'll have to take it all out and put everything new back in.

Yeah.

So it's not the best thing to do out there. Of course, they're gonna sell it to you because they want to make their money as well.

Sure.

You know, utilizing that the brand-specific is always important to us. Getting parts from the manufacturer, not off-brand parts and things like that. Using parts that are made in America, you know, that's important to me. So, you know, having things like that just to ensure that you're getting what you want.

Yeah. And is there, is there, I mean, other than just being patriotic, is there, is there a reason you like using American I mean, patriotism, I guess, is one big thing for me.

Knowing that, like China, for instance, there's a lot of stuff that's made in China, and you hear the tale that it's cheap Chinese junk and stuff like that.

Yeah.

So, I mean, you get that, and you always want to hope that America makes things better, stronger, faster, whatever you want to call it. I don't know. I guess it's keeping things here local as well too, because there's been a lot of manufacturing plants that have been moved over to Mexico.

Sure.

I mean, and that's a big thing. So keeping jobs local.

We like people having jobs.

Yeah.

Right. And we're a local business too. So it kind of just, we want to put out into the universe what we receive.

Sure. Yeah.

So that's just kind of always been our brand, our thing.

Yep. I mean, if we could find people that was making it in Texas, we would do that as well. That's why we use Goodman equipment.

Hmm.

Goodman equipment is made here in Houston.

I'm glad you said that. I was fixing to ask like, what's your favorite?

Yep. Goodman equipment. I mean, it's our brand that we've chose to install in homes. I mean, all air conditioners are technically the same. They all have the same internal components.

Sure.

The first and very most important day of that system's life is the first day it's installed. And then after that, has it's maintained?

Mm-hmm.

You know what I mean?

Who's maintaining it? Who's taking these steps? But no, I mean, your, your warranty's key with equipment. You know, who— what warranties you have from the manufacturer with your parts and what warranty you have with the contractor for your labor.

Yeah.

You know, so those are big things with us. Our new systems come with 10-year parts warranty, 5-year labor warranty, and then we can also step up and give your system clean coil guarantees with adding some accessories. So those are always things that we tell our clients about because it's huge benefits to you. It's free money that you can register. I mean, we register all of our equipment for our home That's a thing that a lot of contractors out there, air conditioning contractors in general, do not do.

Just leave it to the homeowner.

They leave it to the homeowner and then the homeowner typically doesn't understand it. They'll forget about it. They'll think, what's the importance of that to me?

That would have been me if I was not with him. Absolutely. So I personally can appreciate that and that helps. He'll come to me and speak on like, well, does this help this? Because I'm the quote unquote common folk. Because sometimes when he speaks, like God bless him, I don't know what half he's saying. I love him, but it's just, it's a true science. And for as long as he's been doing it, it can be a little hard to follow because he's so like, he'll— yeah.

I think everybody knows what I'm talking about. I don't know. I mean, I have to definitely simplify things sometimes too.

Right.

Yeah.

But, you know, it's—

But he does that for our clients too. And that's big for me as well because I would want to know, like, I just want that piece of mind that some— it's not some Joe Schmo coming in, oh look, look at this person, she doesn't know what she's talking about, so let me just go ahead and charge her this, charge her that, tell her this is wrong, everything like that. He does the total opposite. He'll tell you what's wrong, he'll give you options to fix it, and like, this is— if this is what you have, we can work with your budget on this. And he can like, even if you want to go up there with him, he'll show you things.

It's cool.

Give you the true—

Very hands-on.

School of hard knocks. Yeah. A little bit.

I think, I think probably just about everybody's had the experience of, of going to like a big box store and buying something from someone who has told them, oh, this has a 2-year warranty.

Correct.

If you register it and go through the rigmarole. And, you know, and but they, they end up just sending you home with that paperwork, right, that you just stick in a drawer and do nothing with.

Yeah.

And so you're actually like saying like, look, I'm going to advocate for you by just— I'm just going to take care this for you.

Correct.

Yeah.

Yes, that's fantastic. I mean, so, so a big thing, you know, with air conditioning warranties in general, okay, say a contractor installs an air conditioner in this location. If they don't register the equipment, it comes with a standard 5-year warranty. If they register the equipment, you have a 10-year warranty.

Yeah.

So it's a whole nother 5 years that you get for parts if they break.

Yeah.

It's like, it takes 10 minutes. I mean, it takes 10 minutes to register that warranty.

Yeah. And so like, what, what's, what's like the most expensive What's an expensive part that would be covered on there so people would have an idea of what kind of money they're potentially saving?

Compressors, coil changeouts, and things of that nature, depending upon manufacturers obviously. But compressor changeouts can be over thousands of dollars. Depending upon what ton it is, you could be looking at $1,000 to $2,000 or sometimes more.

And that's just for the part?

That's just part and possible installation too. There's variables that play into it. Is the refrigerant clean? Can we utilize the same refrigerant, things of that nature. Yeah, typically when a compressor fails, you always swap out and get new refrigerant. You clean the system up, you put new filter dryers in, and just make sure that it's as clean as possible because you're spending a lot of money on a repair. You want to make sure it lasts.

Yeah, awesome. So before we get into talking about my weird house, I definitely want to— want the audience to, uh, to have a chance to hear about what you had to deal with up there. Um, what's, what's, you know, and so if it's me, that's fine, but what is, what has been one of the, the more odd situations that you, that you've run into that you've been able to, to help out with?

Sure. So I mean, your house is a good instance for sure.

That's encouraging to hear.

We had custom home build clients that reach out to us, and you know, there's certain jobs that some people don't feel comfortable doing as air conditioning contractors, and I understand it. You There's certain steps that have to be implemented in order to do things correctly.

Right.

But custom homes where spray foam, for instance, I mean, those are big jobs that a lot of people scurry from. But we like to give people resolve. We like to give people ideas. We like to come up with a plan of action so you can move forward with your life. I'll tell you straight up, my company is affordable air repair for the quality and the service that you get with my company, it's affordable in regards to these other companies that are out there that are offering you and telling you that this is what they're giving you. And we're not the cheap company out there. Affordable is not cheap.

Right.

But giving you that peace of mind, our logo and our slogan says it all, service done right so you can sleep at night. You wanna make sure at the end of the day, you lay your head down on your pillow, you know that you've been taken care of. You don't have buyer's remorse, you don't have that gut feeling that, oh man, did I get screwed over? I mean, for real. I mean, we try to give honesty. Honesty is everything to us. So I kind of forget what we were touching on there.

No, it was, what's one of the more weird or awkward situations?

When you had to take a boat to get to a house. Yeah.

I mean, we've done those.

Yeah.

Was that here or?

Yeah. So I mean, you have houseboats. Yep. So, and when, when the floods happen and things of that nature, so we have this gentleman that has houses on stilts and, you know, it rains a lot and Trinity River floods a lot. So we go out on boats sometimes to go service his unit.

Yep.

I mean, you do what you have to do for your clients, no doubt. But weird, weird projects, I mean, shoot, man, yours is a doozy for sure. I mean, we, we had to put a lot of thought, a lot of time into coming up with a design that, you know, both of us could live with. In other words, you know, it's your home, obviously.

Yeah.

But making sure things got done right without compromising the integrity of the duck design.

Yeah.

You know, that was very, very important.

Well, let's just go ahead and get into it then, because—

yeah, let's do it.

Well, because one of the things that continues to come up on, on our show is my, my house ends up being thrown up as like this, this token beacon example of weirdness.

Yes.

I love it. So it's definitely an unusual Yeah, and so I'm glad that we have somebody that's actually like come in and done some work on it so you can like, you can testify. Yes, that I'm not just like blowing smoke at people.

I mean, without, you know, touching too much on, you know, who put the system in and things like that, which we don't even know, we have no idea, so we can't even, you know, put a definitive answer, right? No. So I mean, with that, can you besmirch them if we wanted to. There was some huge no-nos that took place in that house. You know, anytime you, you look at cutting joists to run ductwork through, yep, it's always something that you want to be afraid of, you know what I mean? Because—

Avoid doing.

Yeah, some of them are structural, some of them aren't, you know, and you always have the things that you can re-brace and stuff like that, but you know, coming up with a design to beat the joists and to get past the joists, you know, that's just— yeah, it's, it's an engineering type thing. So, you know, with, with how your house was ran before, you know, it was, it was definitely interesting, you know, for sure. It was—

I mean, it took us several weeks to kind of like come to a consensus on like, yeah, what do you mean?

I mean, coming up with multiple options, you know, for a house such as yours is, is difficult, you know, especially because certain things you can't do.

Yeah.

You know, certain houses require certain steps to be done in order for you to get your end result. So, you know, yes, your house was very unusual in the realm of how they ran the ductwork trying to get up to the upstairs.

Yeah.

You know, and if you do look on your Facebook page or my Facebook page, you know, it's one of our jobs that we've took a lot of pride in, you know, showing off and things like that, because not a lot of people in our area perform perform and do duct installations such as that.

Yeah.

So I mean, it's— you have duct calculators. I don't even know if most air conditioning contractors know what a duct calculator is, but it's how you size ductwork in order to make sure that the air at the end of the run is going to get the required amount of air that it needs before it gets to that system.

Yeah.

So that knowledge, that skill, you know, and coming up with a design, you know, that you as the homeowner can live with, that's very, very important.

Yeah.

And like the budget they can live with.

And like you've experienced, it's not easy. No, it's not something that happens overnight. It's something that takes, you know, sleeping on sometimes and talking it over with your wife or your, you know, better half. And, you know, having to live with some things that you didn't think you would have to before.

Yeah.

You know, for sure.

Yeah. No, this was, I mean, this was definitely an aspect of like the whole project that we were not Sure.

So, uh, nor was I. Yeah, nor was I. I mean, you know, once we gave— we gave the initial bid like we talked about before.

Yeah.

You know, I was assuming that that was everything, you know. But like I said, you know, I need to see what's going on above the ceiling in this master bedroom area to see what they did.

Yeah.

Because it's hard to see behind sheetrock. Yeah, period. You can't do it. I mean, and And in order to make that design happen, you have to poke holes in floors and spot where things are going and measure and—

Do your homework.

Do a lot of homework, a lot of design, a lot of calculation.

Yeah. So yeah, it was, I mean, it was, it was a huge, I mean, I know it was a huge undertaking on your part.

Sure.

So we had, we ended up having to make some tough decisions as well.

Sure.

So, I mean, and you know, again, decisions we ended up having to, I mean, just to kind of, we ended up having to build a whole other wall just to accommodate what had to be done.

Yeah.

And we have another wall to build.

Yeah.

Um, because of it, but it's, I mean, but now it's right.

Correct.

You know, and not like running rampant through voids in the wall.

Yeah.

So to speak on right and wrong, I mean, to touch on, cuz not a lot of people know what we're talking about with his house. They haven't been in it to see the pictures.

Right.

And the pictures may not do them any justice, but anytime you're running cold supply air or cold air that, you know, comes off of your evaporator coil, it's usually about 52 to 56 degrees depending upon the indoor temperature of the house. When you have that in spaces that are not insulated and it gets hot, that's going to condensate just like you setting a glass of iced tea outside, right? And what happens when condensation's in cold, dark, damp environments? It starts to grow things.

Yeah.

So, you know, in, in your houses, and for instance, they cut a 12-inch hole through a structural land beam and ran their supplier through it in a joist cavity with sheetrock on the ceiling in the basement and then subfloor for the second floor. And that was what they were using as their trunk line. And it's scary. I mean, it's scary to think who was in the house. Is the growth that's in this house, is it harmful to my breathing?

Yeah.

Is it harmful to your kids that are in there? I mean, those are all things that you want to worry about.

And I'm not trying to put scare tactics There's a right and a wrong way to do things.

Yeah, absolutely. So, my man, and, you know, we were happy to help and come up with an idea to make sure your house was right and make sure that it was airtight and, you know, susceptible to— able to, you know, have your remodel done correctly for you.

Yeah, and we're hitting the tail end of it now.

That's good. I was fixing to ask. No doubt.

So if you're listening, you're invited to his welcome party.

Yeah, it's coming up. Soon.

Yeah, we'll be there.

There will, there will need to be many libations.

Because it is beautiful.

Thank you.

It is really cool.

Yeah, we're excited about it.

I am too. It's cool.

Uh, it'll be, it'll be nice to— well, at least it'll be nice to have my wife enjoy her home.

Yes.

Yes.

So important.

We need that.

Happy wife, happy life. Yes.

So it'll just, it'll just be nice to like, you know, we, we just, you know, I think, I think we kind of feel like because we're in the midst of it right now that it feels like we bit off more than we could chew.

Absolutely.

But, you know, I think looking back on it, we'll be like, I'm just glad that we knocked it all out at once.

Yeah. Heck yes.

So. Yeah, because you can enjoy it. I mean, things don't last forever. Everything needs a touch of work here and there, but getting things done at the same time, at least you can relax for a little bit.

Yeah.

Or hopefully, you know, relax for a little bit.

Do you think y'all will be done by the holidays?

Oh yeah.

Are you planning on having in-laws and everybody in?

Well, I mean, like, well, some of them are already here. Right, right.

So they don't have to drive here.

Yeah, that's right.

They don't have to go that far.

But like, well, most of our family lives in town.

That's nice.

That's nice.

Awesome. Yeah. One of the big motivations for us is we actually went to a family reunion in Louisiana this past year. And we left going, we'd really like to be able to host that on our property.

Yeah.

You know, and but we also kind of walked away with the honest feeling like we really have a lot of work to do before we're ready to have that many people come out and enjoy the property like we would like them to.

Sure.

And so that—

Hosted listeners, it's okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Um, you know, but that's what we chose. We chose a project. Um, you know, and, uh, but like, I enjoy projects, so it's—

No doubt. Yeah. And we have a little home. I mean, our first house, it's a project house too. You know, it's something we're gonna put a little time, a little investment into. And, you know, it's, it's never fun, you know, tearing into something that was working before and making it new. Mm-hmm. But you know, the, the end result is always—

You love it. You love the demolition part.

I love demo.

I love demo. Yes. He's a demo guy. Yes.

I love wrecking stuff.

I am rather talented at it. He's a wrecking ball. We got to do some together.

Yeah.

We ripped, we ripped some ceiling down, bro.

That was nice, dude. All that wood on the wall and just be able to—

ah, exactly.

I mean, it was, it was, it was gym and therapy. The present I didn't wanna unwrap.

Right.

But, but it was still fun to do it.

No doubt. I'm just glad. I mean, I'm glad it was fixable. Yeah, you know, everything's fixable. It just depends on how much time you're able to put into thought and planning it out, for sure. You know, there's, there's an idea out there. Yeah, for sure, they can come up with it.

Well, is there anything we haven't covered yet that you guys wanted to make sure we talked about?

I think not. I think we're pretty much covered at all.

All right, good, because if so, it's gonna be time for the final 4. Are you guys familiar with Final Four?

No, sir.

Fantastic. Even better. That means that you're going to be hit with like the fresh question and you're going to have the fresh answer right on your mind. These are the, these are the 4 questions that we ask all our guests.

Nice.

And so because there's 2 of you, you're going to be expected to answer them individually. I would separate you to see if you guys got the same, you know, we could do like a fun newlywed game. Yeah, that could be kind of fun.

Oh God.

But we won't do that. We won't do that.

Next time.

Yeah, next time. All right.

There you go.

So first question, what is the one tool you won't leave the home without? So here's kind of what we were thinking when we asked this question. I called Jehu on the phone. Jehu, I got a problem. I need you to come over right away and help me out. I don't tell you what the problem is, but you're going out the door. I gotta go help Craig. I wanna make sure I got that tool in the truck.

So— So a big tool for me is my truck. So I, I have all of my tools on my truck. But I mean, that's, that's kind of vague, but— That's a, that's a good one.

That's a good cheater answer right there.

It's a very good cheater answer.

So, um, I don't know. I mean—

And you know what stinks about that? Because she can't use that now.

Well, if you were asking for me, I would say business cards. Oh, 'cause I'm that side. Can I go that way?

Or your cell phone.

Or for you.

Yeah. You know, even your phone is a very important tool in technology nowadays.

The cell phone is our number one answer by far.

Right.

Internet's very important. I mean, it, it solves a lot of problems and gives you a lot of answers, whether you trust those answers or Yeah. It's out there for you. It's a tool, no doubt.

Yeah.

But I mean, you try to give a general answer for that. I mean, it's good to ask questions when you're in those situations. What's going on? What's happening? That way you kind of know what to bring.

Yeah.

Right.

For sure. Getting some insight.

Yeah. All right. So question number 2, what is a job that you have walked away from? Now people take this, this question a couple different ways. So it could be a profession that you walked away from, or the way we originally intended is dishwasher broke, I tried to fix it, messed it up even worse, I had to call the repairman.

Gotcha. So my garage door.

Oh yeah, what happened?

Shout out Justin Robin Hodges.

Oh, okay.

So shout out The Woodlands Garage Door. They came in and they fixed me up. But when my door was installed from— I'm the first homeowner of my house. When it was installed, they kind of just shot some self-tapping screws into this metal, and I think they stripped it out.

Okay.

So with the weight of my door being pulled up, it ripped that arm out of that metal multiple times. So I've tried to fix it multiple times, and eventually it just got to the point where metal was bent and contorted in ways that Had to have somebody else come fix it.

How long did it take them to fix it?

It was probably an hour and a half, 2 hours max.

See, that's the part that's frustrating me. It's like, oh, you fixed it so fast!

Yeah, I know. I mean, I probably had a little bit to do with it. I insulated the door, made it a little bit too heavy.

Okay.

But they taught me. They taught me something that I didn't think of.

Nice. All right, JoJo, what you got? Are you going to piggyback on the garage door? You got Something else.

Well, on the other half of the coin, I left bartending for teaching.

Okay. Yep.

So there, there you go.

Yeah.

Because I'd like, I mean, bartending was awesome and everything, but it was a what-if with money. And then like, it wasn't feeding my soul.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

I felt like I had like a purpose and that getting people drunk was not it.

Sure.

So I like completely, I traded booze for books.

There you go.

And now I like help kids and I feel like that's where like God has placed my heart. So.

That's fantastic.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's awesome. All right, question number 3. You guys ready? We're ready.

Drum roll, please.

What— or not what, how do you guys wind down at the end of a long day?

Hmm, that's a good question.

Netflix and chill.

Oh man.

Our dogs.

I mean, our dogs are—

Play with our dogs.

Okay.

Yeah, take them on a walk.

What kind of dogs? We were What are we rocking here?

So we got 3. We got a Min Pin mix of some sort and a Rat Terrier mix of some sort. And then we have a Boxer mix.

Okay.

So big, little, small, big, medium, small.

What names? Come on.

Rocco, Pixie, and Arrow.

Love it. Yes, sir.

So, you know, just that, you know, glass of wine every now and then, you know, sitting outside on our swing bed out on our back porch, or, you know, depending upon the season, a fire pit in the backyard, you know, just things like that, sitting there talking with each other, depressing from the day.

Like bounce ideas off each other.

Yeah, for sure.

It's nice.

Yeah.

All right. So you got Netflix and chill. What's got your attention these days?

Well, we just— okay. It was Amazon Prime and chill these days.

Oh, okay.

It was called The Boys.

Okay. Is that the superhero one?

It is.

Yes.

Okay.

So good. So Arrow is Green Arrow, except for our newest dog. Like he got me into the superhero world.

Okay.

Yes. So we just watched that. It was It was really good.

Nice.

We like dark, morbid stuff.

I'm trying to remember who the guy is that's starring in The Boys. He's an actor I really like though.

What character does he play?

I actually haven't watched the show, but I've just seen the previews for it.

It is so good.

But he's been— he was like in Lord of the Rings. He also was in one of those Lonesome Dove series. What's his name? It's not important. Nah.

Good show.

Tell us on Facebook or Instagram.

That's right. Quiz up. Who was this guy?

Exactly.

Yeah.

But not Twitter. It's okay.

That's right. We don't— we'll put it there, but like—

You can put it there, but we're not gonna look.

We're not gonna look. Yeah. All right. Last question. What is one of the best pieces of wisdom or advice you have ever received? Hmm.

Okay.

So I had a spiritual grandfather of, you know, the sorts back in Tennessee, and I used to meet up with him in my younger days, and he told me one thing that that'll always stick with me. And I'm pretty sure she probably already knows what I'm gonna say. He says, no matter what you do, whether you're flipping hamburgers or bagging groceries, he says, you'd be the best hamburger flipper or bagger that there is. You know, it doesn't matter. So putting your all into everything.

Yeah.

That's one thing. It's, it's stuck with me. That was probably 15 years ago or more.

Yeah.

And I still remember like it was yesterday.

That's awesome.

He's no longer with us, but you know, Yeah, he's a great man.

Great, great man. Are you familiar with the— and I think it's Abraham Lincoln, the Abe Lincoln quote that's similar to that, that whatever you are, be a good one?

Okay.

Oh, yes. That's a good—

I like that too. You know, just being a good person, man. There's not enough of them in this world. There really isn't, in my opinion.

Yeah, that's pretty much what I'm gonna piggyback off of, is just like, whatever you— I'm a big believer in whatever you put out in the universe, you'll receive back. So that's just kind of been our brand. And really, it's been going very well.

Sure.

And we felt blessed to have that opportunity, you know, because it— I don't know, it's just, it's good. It's like, it's awesome to see him like come into his own best version of himself. Because I felt like at other companies and stuff, like he wasn't serving his full purpose. And me bartending, I'm not serving my full purpose. But I finally feel like we're at a place in our This is where we're supposed to be. This is where we're meant to be. Like, we finally found the starting line and now we're off.

It's an incredible groove to hit for sure.

Yeah, 100%.

And, you know, we're faith-living people. We believe in God and stuff. And, you know, God's taking care of us. You know, he takes care of those who, who work hard, you know, and, and do what's right by him.

So awesome.

We definitely want be those people.

Yeah. Living it out.

Amen, brother.

Yeah.

All right.

So the secret last question that's not— I mean, there's 5 questions. That doesn't have the same ring to it.

It's still an alliteration. No, it wouldn't be an alliteration.

But it's fun. If people want to get ahold of you, how do they find you?

Okay. You want to handle this one, babe, or you want me to?

I got you. Let's go.

That was like a Sonny and Cher moment there.

Yeah.

I got you, babe. I got you.

I got you, babe. You can go to Facebook and look up Affordable Air Repair, or our URL is facebook.com/affordableserviceguys. Our email is affordableserviceguys@gmail.com. Our website is affordableairrepairs.com. And our phone number, I'm gonna give you a second. Go ahead, get your pencil, get your pen. No, really. Okay. It's 2019. Get out your phone.

That's right.

Okay.

936-446-9329.

That's it. That's all the good stuff.

And you guys are on Facebook, Instagram?

Facebook, Nextdoor, uh, Instagram we're working on getting set up on. You know, we've been—

We'll link it to our Facebook. So you gotta go check that out. out to find her Instagram.

Okay. There you go. There you go.

Give you a little homework too.

We'll link all that stuff up in the show notes for you guys as well.

Awesome.

Cool. Yeah.

Awesome.

Yeah. Anyway, I mean, reach out to me anytime you call that number. You're speaking to the owner of the company, so I'd love to hear how we can help and, you know, put our knowledge towards making you comfortable in your business place or your home.

Fantastic. Thank you guys for being with us tonight.

Thank you.

This has been an awesome episode.

Yes, sir.

All right, everybody, if you haven't yet, hit the subscribe Subscribe button and check in with us every Tuesday for new episodes of The Homeowner Show. Thank you for listening, and we'll see you next week.