That Time We Talked About Tales From The Pit

This is episode number 42 of The Homeowner Show. Whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Hackett, and here with me is Craig Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. We are so excited that you could join us today because we got a great show for you guys. Uh, if you have not yet, go ahead and hit the subscribe button there in, uh, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, whatever it is you're using, wherever podcasts are available, hit that subscribe button, notification bell on YouTube, all the good stuff. How you doing, Kev?

Man, I'm just glad to be here. Oh, I missed last week.

Yeah, well, you know, we got along without you.

Obviously you, you got along without me.

We hit, we hit a record last week.

I'll just tell you this, I went back and I listened to it and I loved every minute of it. I'm not gonna lie. Yeah, um, that was a really good episode. Like, the, the information in that episode was really, really good. If you haven't gone back and listened to episode number 41, people, you need to go back and listen to it. Stop this one, go listen to 41. Really, really good. But just put your, uh, put your easy pants on.

That's right, it's gonna be a long ride.

Hour and a half.

I'm glad that you finally agree with me about Nolan Ryan.

Not— you know what, I about came through my radio when I was listening to that. I was so mad. Yeah, I, I punched something.

You punched something?

Yeah.

Was it like a batter?

No, although that would have been hilarious. Yeah.

Did— so you were there for the game? Did they win?

We did. Yeah, they did win.

Who were they playing?

They were playing the Indians.

It wasn't like some AAA ball or something? No, no, it's the Indians.

I mean, well, but We had, we had lost the previous 3 to them in the series, so it was nice to get one.

Little, little vengeance. Yeah. All right.

Yeah, it was good.

Yeah.

So at least they won. What, I mean, when are you gonna travel to a game? And it's one thing if, you know, it's in your hometown.

Sure.

You know, you get, you get to see 'em every once in a while, but whenever you travel to a game, you, you kind of wanna see a win.

Yeah. So what, what, what's, what's your go-to snack in the ballpark there?

Oh man, they got, they got some really good ones.

Yeah.

The, the problem is I was on a diet whenever I went, so, so it was a problem. Okay. But baseball games don't count.

Yeah, they, The Cracker Jacks, man. You can have whatever you want.

Yeah, I guess. Uh, probably the, the thing I love most there is they're— they've got some garlic fries that are so good. Yeah, but what— let me tell you what's really weird though is I just don't get this. Uh, ballparks now, they feel like they've got to cater to everybody.

Sure.

So I mean, they've got some really, really interesting things at, at the Rangers ballpark, but like What are they— they've got a vegan stand.

Gross.

I know. Okay, okay, if you're vegan out there, that's your thing. It's not my thing. That's fine. But I'm shocked at how many places are catering to— I mean, you're not supposed to eat healthy in a ballpark, just like you said, right?

I don't go there to like have a salad.

Right. Oh, there's a salad place there too. And, and then there's, there's a vegan place. And like, anyway, it's just kind of interesting as I was walking around. It's a little nostalgic for me because, uh, this is the last year that park's gonna be up.

Oh, really?

Yeah, they're gonna, they're gonna demolish it because they're building one next door to it with a roof. Thank goodness.

Uh, but it's still gonna be in Arlington?

Still gonna be. I mean, it's right next door.

Okay.

But right across the street, it's right there. But I, I took that one last stroll, and maybe I'll go to another game This season, but, but that one I made sure I took the stroll.

Yeah.

Walked all the way around.

Yeah. Like we don't, we don't believe in tearing down stadiums here in Houston. Even if you should. That's right. I mean, we, we sort of tease the idea of turning it into a hotel.

Or, or like a skate park.

But it's just like, it's that old stadium that's still over there. Yeah. We're not gonna use it.

Well, it's, it's, it's funny 'cause it's like this catch-22. We wanna tear it down, but there's asbestos.

Well, anytime Anybody mentions it, there's like a march.

Oh dude, you either— yeah, you either love that place or you hate that place. Most people love it.

Yeah, it's got a lot of nostalgia.

We're talking about the Astrodome.

Yeah, if you don't know, 8th wonder of the world.

Yeah, I mean, it's, it's an incredible building.

Yeah, um, but I mean, at the time it was built, it would— there had never been anything like it.

Exactly. Yeah, but you walk next to it and it's— there's just this little sidewalk between it and NRG. Yeah, and it— the NRG just looks tiny now. Yeah. Yeah.

It's crazy. So that's it. That was a fun tangent. Yeah.

Well, it wasn't the way it started.

Yeah.

In case you people out there don't know, I've got a little bit of a love affair with, uh, with Nolan Ryan. And, uh, I, uh, I love that guy, but I've never met him. So here's the thing. If you're out there and you have a way To get me in the same room with Nolan Ryan, I, I need you to send a message to info@homeownersshow.com or kevin@homeownersshow.com. Leave Craig out of this.

Yeah, I don't care.

And, and I will, um, I will gladly find a way. I'll take you out to a nice dinner.

Um, I'm fairly confident I can outpitch him at this stage of my life, or at this stage of his life.

Really?

Right now?

I would love to see that.

He's gotta be like in his early 70s, doesn't he?

No.

How old is he?

He's in his 60s.

I can take him.

No, he's Nolan Ryan.

I mean, I got the whole lefty thing going for me.

That's true.

I mean, if nothing else, I can throw some wicked junk.

He's got a left hook though.

I'm not gonna charge him.

Robin Ventura would tell you not to.

Oh yeah, that's good advice. Yeah, video evidence.

Yes, there is! And it gets replayed about once a year over and over and over that day.

Yeah. So, wait a minute, we're going to be kicking off what hopefully is a fun series for everybody, what we're calling Tales from the Pit. Yeah, this is going to be interesting. And so, what we're talking about here is, I think a lot of people sometimes run into issues where they really feel like their home is just an ever-sucking money pit. And, uh, which is a great Tom Hanks movie, by the way.

Yeah, if you haven't seen The Money Pit, go see it.

So we may need to do like, you know, like a live broadcast of that movie or something and just like, you know, Craig and Kevin commentary as we watch it.

That would be fun.

That would be fun.

Yeah.

Um, maybe we could do like a— rent out a theater for all of our, all of our folks and just have them come join us.

Deal, I'm in.

All right, with the chili— with not the chili fries, the garlic fries.

The garlic fries. Yeah. Gotta have them.

It'll be good.

Yeah.

We'll have Tom Hanks come too. Okay, if you have a way— Nolan's not invited.

If you have a way to—

Unless he wants to provide the beef.

Tom Hanks in the same room. Yeah, Nolan can bring the beef.

That would be fun. We could live comment with Nolan and Tom.

I'm in.

All right, let's make that happen.

Okay.

So anyway, Tales from the Pit. Kevin and I have had a couple of things happen this week. We thought we'd share with you guys just some issues that we've had around the home. And so at the end of the show, We're going to talk about how you can share your stories with us, how you can get on the show to share maybe your tale from the pit. And it's really just to help encourage people that, you know, you're not the only one going through this. Other people have experienced this problem too. Maybe this is— these are some creative solutions that you haven't heard about before, but, but here's what we've dealt with.

Yeah.

So I'll go ahead and I'll go ahead and kick it off. Uh, so mine this week actually had to do with my lawn.

Okay.

Um, and I think I've talked about this before. I just, I have a larger than average size lawn. Uh, and I was telling Kevin before the show, uh, before we, uh, before we got the lawnmower that we have right now, it used to take me like 2 days to mow the lawn because I was push mowing it. And I was, it's basically like, I mean, the area that I have to mow is like 3.5 acres.

Yeah, and it's obviously you had a self-propelled mower, right?

I did not, no.

What? You push mowed by your legs?

Yes.

Oh my goodness. That sounds awful.

I have some shapely legs though, so.

Yes, you do.

So I'm still living in the residual of that today. But anyway, so we finally, after about, 6 to 8 months of me push mowing this lawn, which was just grueling, um, but also rather satisfying at the same time. Well, sure. Um, I decided when you were done you had to start over. Oh my gosh, especially in this— yes, just the worst. So anyway, finally broke down and got a zero-turn mower. You could knock it out in a few hours. Yeah, and, uh, you could just power through it. Um, because man, when it got thick and I was having to push mow it, that was Just, yeah, it took me 3 days.

Yeah.

Um, anyway, I've now had this issue with the zero-turn mower twice, and I'll just tell you, I've got a Cub Cadet zero-turn. I think it's a 46-inch deck, so it's not huge, but it's big enough to do this property rather quickly. But the drive belt on it has gone out twice. It went out the first time, and I didn't really know what happened. All of a sudden, the mower— the motor's still going, but like, I can't make it go.

Okay.

And like, the mowing deck itself is still going. Like, what's going on? So I finally—

So the blades are turning?

The blades are turning, but like the mower, the wheels won't turn.

Okay.

And, you know, which is kind of like a jarring feeling.

Yeah.

On, on one of those.

So, so it's similar to if you have a self-propelled mower, it just wouldn't go on its own.

It just—

Okay.

But like, it just, yeah, it just literally just stopped in the middle of a field.

Oh goodness.

Um, and so I turned it off, got off, and looked underneath, and sure enough, the drive belt had just broken. Um, which, if you've never taken the drive belt off, it's kind of tricky to go back in and figure out where it went.

Oh, because it was— you didn't see it before it came off, right?

Because there's a, there's a tension pulley that, you know, pushes it one way or the other in order to make everything kind of sit right.

Sure.

So anyway, so I called in the big guns, called my dad. Yeah, he was, he was really good at working on mechanical stuff. And I was like, hey, Dad, I've— I haven't done this before. I really feel like I'm gonna need an extra set of hands to, to do this. So we ended up getting the part, and I think the part was like $40 just for the belt. But man, it took us like 6 hours.

Hmm.

To figure out this, you know, and watch some YouTube videos and look at some diagrams. And which, which, by the way, Cub Cadet out there, there's no diagrams for the drive belt. You put out tons of diagrams for the The deck belt, which, you know, turns the blades. Um, and so it's real easy to find this, even like on a picture on the mower, but there's no diagrams anywhere for the drive belt.

And that's the one that breaks.

And that's the one— well, at least for me, that's the one that's broken. So, and while I was there, I went ahead and replaced the, the deck belt because I was like, well, I'm here, might as well. Yeah. So, and part of that is because we had to drop the entire deck and take it off the mower to even get to the drive belt. So after, after that 6-hour, you know, trip to the carnival, you know, I was like, cool, I fixed the mower. We fixed it. It was running great. Well, about 3 months later, the drive belt breaks again.

No, you've got to be kidding me.

And so, and this was, this was just like a week and a half ago now.

Oh.

And, and so today I actually went back out and I was like, and I I inadvertently bought an extra deck belt and I'd hung it up in the garage thinking, you know what, if it ever breaks again, I'll just have one. 'Cause they're kind of hard to find too.

Okay.

Um, so I had the part already. Um, and so I was like, today I was like, you know what, I'm gonna go up there, I'm gonna get started on it. 'Cause I know last time it took me like 6 hours with 2 people, so it's probably gonna take me like 10 hours to do it just by myself. Well, I got out there and I started working on it and man, I knocked it out in like 3 hours.

Wow.

And part of it was, is I'd done it before.

Okay.

Yeah. I knew what needed to happen. I didn't have to like look that up as much.

Right.

I knew the tools I was gonna need and the process it was gonna take. And I, you know, I just had more of a familiarity with what I was doing. So I was able to actually knock it out pretty quick. But like, man, I was living in like full anticipation of this like, my lawn just getting out of control over the next— because, you know, I typically only have like Saturdays to really like do stuff around the house. And so I was like, well, I better take advantage now because I know I'm gonna have to like finish this up next Saturday. Or, you know, well, that wouldn't even happen. It'd be like the Saturday after

that because I'm not gonna be in town this Saturday.

Sure.

And so I was like, I just got to get it started now. Um, but man, I felt I got done and I was like, man, there's no way I actually did this right. So like, you know, I was going around double-checking. I had time to double-check to like see that I'd actually done this thing. Um, and it fired right up. Um, I don't know what caused the second break, but man, it was just, it was just a pain, you know. But like, it still set me back quite a bit because I mean, like, I should have spent this morning mowing the lawn, right?

Right.

Um, that's just something, especially this time of year, you just gotta, you gotta keep a handle on it because that St. Augustine will just get out of control really quick.

I know.

Um, I think you were telling me yesterday you had to knock your lawn out and it was—

Oh, it was, it was awful. Yeah, I almost called you because I needed a zero-turn push mower. Wasn't cutting them.

You would have been sorely disappointed.

Wouldn't have been good.

Come over with my weed whacker.

Oh, I almost need it. I, I actually thought about coming out at it with that. Because, I mean, mine was— I mean, it had been a couple of weeks, and the problem was I was gone for a week, and then when I get back, between, you know, the catch-up schedule and, um, rain— we've had a lot of rain the last couple of weeks.

An unusual amount of rain for the summertime.

Exactly. I mean, most of the time that really does come at the end of the summer, but the beginning of the summer, not so much. And so it's been crazy. And so that made it actually, you know, grow faster. And so, um, it had been like 2 weeks since I had mowed my yard, and it was— oh, it was so super tall. So yeah, it was, it was gnarly whenever I finally cut it yesterday.

You're sending seed out all over the place.

Yeah, yeah, I was using, I was using the, uh, you know, it was spitting it out the side because it's hard to clog it up whenever it's just shooting it straight out the side. So I was like, okay, we'll do that. I thought I'll come back and mulch it. Yeah, after I'm done, which I've done before, uh, you know, twice the amount of time, but Uh, you know, I'm not bagging this stuff at this point. And, um, it, man, it was, there was so much that it was really tough to even mulch it the second time. So I was like, man, I need one of those ride-ons that'll just, man, those things are powerful.

Yeah. You ever done one of those where you, you build your own grass trap? Like you, cause like the chute is like on the right-hand side and it's like you're working yourself in kind of like a square or a circle and like, but you keep shooting it all in the middle.

Yes. Yes.

That pile. It keeps getting bigger and bigger that you're trying to mow. That was yesterday.

That was last night whenever I was trying to mow. In fact, it was one of those deals. It's like, okay, this thing shoots out on the right. So if I go the traditional direction, okay, then it's gonna throw it all into the middle. If I go the opposite direction, that's ideal, but that's where all of the flower beds are. So I'm just gonna shoot it into the flower bed.

And the street. Exactly.

So it's like, uh, I couldn't win. I was trying to strategically figure this out in my head and I just made myself tired. Yeah.

Let's just mow the lawn.

Exactly.

So I've, I've had it so big before where like I, I finally get that pile big enough and like I have, if I'm using like a push mower, like you push down on the back of it to kind of lift the front end up so you can like attack that pile and like slowly lower it down on top of it so that you can.

Yeah. It's like, it's going along. It's like, then you gotta push down. It gets going again. And it's like, that's my, That's my lawnmower sound.

Yeah. If, if you're laughing along, it's cuz you've done it too. That's right.

That's right. It's like, I don't want this thing to clog up. I don't wanna have to yank that cord again.

That's right. I don't wanna have to start this thing. I mean, come on, baby. Just, that's right.

Just a little bit.

That's right.

I will tell you this, uh, since we're talking about mowers for a moment, um, I bought a new mower last year.

Okay.

And it was, it was, it, I, my first brand new lawnmower. The one I had before was actually a Cub Cadet. Um, okay. And I bought it. Man, I, I almost stole it from this guy. Paid like $75 for it, and it was still in really good condition, and I had it for 10 years.

Oh, wow.

Um, and it, it was really, really good mower, but finally, uh, some things wore out on it, and I decided to buy me a new one. And I was like, I'm not going back with the kind that I had. Um, it was self-propelled. It was a, it was a great mower, but, um, I wanted one of those with a blade stop on it. You know what I'm talking about?

Yeah.

So if, if you've never used a mower with a blade stop on it, it's, it's pretty simple technology. And that is, it's you, you, you start the mower up and the mo— the motor begins, but then you have to engage the blade.

Right.

And so whenever you let go of the blade, the, uh, you're not technically holding the blade, but the lever that makes the blade turn when you let go of it, the blade stops, but the motor still goes. So you don't have to keep, you know, pulling the string every time you're trying to start it back up. So it's just, it's a lot less wear and tear on that, on the pull cord, first of all, and on your back.

Yeah.

Um, and so I went ahead and bought one of those, and it's self-propelled. And let me tell you, that is a route you want to go. It, it might cost you another $100, to find one with a blade stop on it. Sure, it is worth the money. So, so just do it. If you're, if you're gonna buy a walk-behind mower, go with one that's a little bit more expensive and get that blade stop.

Yeah. Have you seen these new robot mowers? Yes, dude, those things are crazy.

In fact, I, I'm, I'm trying to figure out in my head how I can, because the one that's out there that I've got my eye on is a Husqvarna.

I was gonna say, that's the one I've seen.

Yeah, and so it's got really amazing—

They're like $2,300 right now, aren't they?

Yeah, well, I think you can start— they start out somewhere around $1,500.

Okay.

But that's installed because, um, I mean, you have to have a professional wire installed. You could probably do it yourself, but you're probably not gonna want to.

Right.

Um, but, but these things are a lot different than what you expect they might be. The technology has been around for a long time. In fact, um, I did an internship when I was in college uh, back in 2003 that, uh, the, the family that I lived with, they— the guy worked for a robotics company and he, he owned one.

Oh, okay.

He owned a mower in 2003 that was essentially doing what these are today. Um, they've just made them a lot more commercial and put some really cool features on them. Um, so yes, they're very expensive, but you know, people are commenting, oh, so just someone's gonna go steal my llama or whenever it's running. But they've got like, they've got sensors on them to know that if it's been picked up, it's, it just shuts itself down. You can't start it up again unless you have the code. And, um, you know, they've got GPS on them so that you know where it's gone, but you also know if it's gone. Um, so I've looked into these things extensively

actually and tried to figure out, okay, If I were paying someone to mow my lawn, which I don't, but let's just say I did, and I, I don't know, let's be fairly reasonable, $50.

Yeah.

For someone to come mow my yard right now, it's gonna have to be done once a week. So it's, you know, it's $200 a month.

Yeah.

I mean, we're only looking at 10 months before that has paid for itself.

Yeah.

And, and around here you almost have to mow 10 months out of the year. And so I'm thinking, okay, in, in 2 years, I got this thing paid for.

Yeah.

And, and at that point, I don't have to mow. I don't have to worry about 8-inch tall grass. Like, it's doing it for me every couple of days if I wanted to.

Yeah.

So I don't know. I—

so like, they're incredible. You've looked into them. So do they also do the edging?

No. No, that's the thing.

I'm out. Yeah.

I mean, that's the thing that I, I think— I don't know how they could, uh, but like I, I, I have thought, okay, if all I have to do— I, I can go around an edge with a weed eater edge and weed eat my house, which I've got quite a few flower beds. And, um, you know, my property is not small for a, for a residential. It's like 12,000 square feet. Um, I can do that in 20, 30 minutes.

Sure.

So if all I got to do is 20, 30 minutes a day— I mean, a week—

yeah, I can do that. Yeah, because I mean, like, I spend a good hour. Well, sure, edging.

You got a lot more property than me.

I don't even necessarily care as much about some of the edges as most people. Sure, it's just like the ones—

you got to get around posts.

I got to get around posts. I got to get around the house. I got to get around all kinds of stuff. But like, you know, to make sure that the fence line's cleared and all that kind of stuff. But Um, I have looked into like one of those push edgers.

Uh-huh.

Those things are awesome. Yeah, I would love one of those.

Yeah. Yeah, those are, those are pretty cool.

So if nothing else to do like my ditches and stuff like that. Yeah, but you know, one day.

I mean, you can, you can really spend a lot of money on lawn equipment.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah, but, but I will tell you that the better lawn equipment you get the happier you will be. Like, I mean, the amount of wear and tear you can put on it, the, the speed. I mean, you're telling me that that push mower you had, what kind of deck was that? Was the deck— what was it?

I want to say it was like a 16, 18-inch deck. I mean, it was nothing.

And mine's a 22. Yeah. And you think that's like, that's, that's 4 to 6 inches every single swath you're taking.

Yeah.

That adds up quick.

Well, I went from that to a 46.

Yeah, that's exponential.

And that's not even like— that's not the— that's not even like the one I wanted. I wanted the 52.

Yeah.

Have you—

have you seen these bad boy mowers?

Oh dude.

The bad boys are awesome. Those things— okay.

So like, here's the deal. If money was not an issue, yeah, what I would have Is, I think it, I want to say it's like 72.

Oh my goodness.

And it's like diesel operated. And I'm trying to remember if it's Kubota that makes it.

Does it cut down trees? Sounds like it might.

Um, well, I will say this, like one of the reasons I ended up getting the one that I got is, is because I do like, I do like some technological innovations in my products. And this was one of the first ones that had Bluetooth connectivity. And what's neat about it is it— I mean, like, and you— so like you say Bluetooth and you're like, why are you streaming music on your mower? And it's like, I'm not. What happens is, uh, my mower actually connects to an app on my phone that tracks my mower for me. And so it tells me when I need oil changes, it tells me when I need— when I need to do

belt and blade sharpening. And like, you know, when, when usual usage You know, it tracks the hours basically, and based on the hours, it'll send me reminders and part numbers for things that I need in order to do the maintenance on my mower.

That's handy.

It's very handy. And you can actually order the parts through the app if you want to. Um, so brilliant. Yeah, it's a really, really smart thing that they did. Yeah, I haven't seen the other mowers that do. I'm sure there's other ones that have it. Sure. Um, but this was just the first one I found that could do it because my mower's I think it's 2 and a half, 3 years old now.

Sure.

So, which it still shouldn't be having the issues that it's had.

True. Not this early.

Yeah. And it's had some other issues that weren't its fault. Also weren't my fault, but c'est la vie. Yeah.

You have kids. Speaking of, one day, you're not too far away from when you can get your girl on that thing, right? Oh, they're all, I'm like, they think it's cool. I'm sure they do, but I mean, like, get them on there to do the full project.

Well, eventually. Yeah. But like, man, if you've— like, driving a zero-turn is like fun. Like, people think it is fun, but like, people think that because they've driven like a car, they're gonna understand it, and they don't. It's, it's a completely different animal.

Yeah, it's very, very different.

So, but like, once you kind of get the groove of it, it's, it's really fun and, and neat because you can You can maneuver like you don't in a vehicle.

Right.

So anyway, pretty cool. Yeah, so you, you had a, you had an issue this week.

Yeah, but I, I've had a couple, uh, that I could talk about, but, but the thing that I want to talk about first is my garbage disposal.

Okay.

Do you have a garbage disposal?

I do not.

You don't?

No. And well, part of that is because our kitchen is on the second and a half floor. Which is a whole other, a whole other conversation.

I'm tongue-tied for the moment. I mean, I know this, but just you saying second and a half, yeah, is— you, you would have to really see his house to understand what that even means.

It's, it's kind of easy to explain. I know that my kitchen's on the second and a half floor because it's between the second and the third floor.

Yes.

I can see the second and the third floor from my kitchen.

Yes. And it is higher than your second floor and lower than your third.

There is a staircase that goes to the kitchen. Yes. It's not quite as tall as the staircase going to the third floor. There you go.

That's how you get 2.5.

It's the second and a half floor. I don't know any other way to describe it. Am I describing it? I mean, like, that's the best way to describe it, right?

Yes.

All by itself?

Yeah.

So there's no garbage disposal?

I can see why that would be a problem.

Yeah, I mean, it's a long way to the septic from there. Sure.

Um, so, so we've got a garbage disposal, and I, I, you know, Ryan Burke, please close your ears because I know you hate garbage disposals. All plumbers, I think, hate garbage disposals.

Sure.

Um, because You know, pipes are supposed to have water in them. And, you know, I mean, this is about it. I mean, yeah, you're not supposed to put food down your, your drain. That, that, that's not what they were created for.

I will say this about garbage disposals. I, I do think that it amplifies sloven behavior.

Oh, I— there's no doubt, because I mean, there are certain things you should not put down a garbage disposal, right? I mean, like, if you're putting potato peels down your garbage disposal, Stop. Just don't do it anymore. You let me save yourself a lot of problems, right? Don't, don't do it. Yeah.

Um, and like, to be clear in that, like, I'm not saying that if you have a garbage disposal that you're sloven.

Uh, right, right. I didn't hear that.

I'm not saying that about you. I'm just saying, I'm just saying not all people that have garbage disposals are slovenly people.

Sure.

It just, you know, if you have those tendencies and you're an undisciplined person, I think that's That's— it's gonna bring that out in you.

Sure. And, and it is a whole lot easier to shove food down the garbage disposal than it is to scrape it off into the— right, into the trash can. And I get that. Um, but I go to turn my garbage disposal on the other day and it just doesn't come on. It, it hums.

So like seized up? It—

yes, it hums, but it, it's not turning.

Right.

I do know from a, from a sump pump that if it is humming, but it's not working, then it's seized up somehow.

Right.

Most likely there's something lodged in it. So I understand all of that. But I, I'm still without a garbage disposal. So I tell my wife, hey, we're gonna plug that up. You know, we put one of those, um, the drain catchers in there so that nothing goes down it because it's, it's habit for us to put food down it. Right. Yeah. So I don't want to dig it out. So put one of those drain catchers in it. I said, we, we've got 2 options here. I can go buy a new garbage disposal. It's a half horsepower than what I've got. They're about $100 at Lowe's, Home Depot, wherever you want to buy them. Um, different brands, they essentially all do the same thing.

Yeah, uh, chew the food up.

Yeah, you can do your research on which one you think is better than others. Uh, but, um, I look at this one and I go, dude, this thing is old. Um, in fact, if you go to Lowe's or Home Depot, you're not gonna— you're not gonna find a KitchenAid brand garbage disposal.

It was a KitchenAid.

But it's a KitchenAid. That's what I got.

Yeah. So She's a good brand.

Absolutely. And it's obviously worked for a long time because it's obviously been there for a long time.

It's actually like one of the ways I, I can tell whether or not somebody's like actually a serious cook in the kitchen, if they got one of those KitchenAid stand mixers.

Yeah.

Those things are awesome.

Oh man, I'm thinking about cookies right now. Anyway, so, um, so I told my wife, okay, I can— we can either just go buy a new garbage disposal, be $100, And then I'm gonna have to take, you know, an hour to put this thing in. Maybe not even that long. They're fairly easy to put in.

I've never done one.

Yeah, I've had to put one.

I imagine there's an in and an out.

There is. There's also one from the dishwasher if you've got a dishwasher.

Okay.

So, um, you know, there's a couple of pipes in there that you got to make sure water's, you know, not coming through.

Do they have them now to where like the garbage disposal comes on when the, Dishwashers pumping out?

I don't know.

That'd be kind of cool.

Mine doesn't, but yeah, I could see the value in that. Yeah, but the problem with that is you'd have to make sure that you're— like, most, most, um, dishwashers don't allow food of any size down it.

Sure.

So that would have to kind of work hand in glove. Yeah. In order for that to work. Um, One thing you might ought to do, that being said, people, is go look at the bottom of your dishwasher. You might have a lot of junk down there that you might want to clear out.

They do have filters on them that do need to be cleaned from time to time.

Absolutely. So go check that out. Um, but there, I mean, it's really not rocket science to, to change out a garbage disposal. It just takes a little bit of time and make sure you got buckets under there to catch, you know, excess water that might come out. There's a few screws. It helps to have another person there with you. So I'd tell my wife, I can do this. I mean, it's not that big of a deal, but we have a home warranty, right? And it covers appliances because we paid for that, um, when we bought our house. A lot of things— a lot of times people will add a home warranty on it just as an incentive, right?

Right.

And these things can cost anywhere from $400 to $1,000 a year. Um, and then you've got a deductible, and then that should be it.

Right.

If, if something's not covered, they'll still do it, but you're gonna pay for it. But, you know, supposedly you've paid for the service, and then you've got your deductible, you're good to go. It's basically like insurance, right? So, um, we've got a $75 deductible. And I can do math. And so I'm going, $75 is less than $100, and having someone else take care of the situation is cheaper than— and easier. You know, use our cost calculator on homeownershow.com to find out.

Yeah.

It's a whole lot cheaper to have someone else do it than to do it yourself sometimes, whenever you've already got it paid for.

So pretty much anytime when the price is lower for someone else to do it The calculator is going to push you towards letting them do it.

Absolutely. So I make the call. Thankfully, my home warranty is pretty easy. I can go online, tell them I got a garbage disposal issue. They set up a ticket and it's taken care of. They send a dispatch, call me, hey, so-and-so's coming. So they send them out. So this is on a Monday. Uh, scheduled for a Wednesday. And man, they're like the cable people, right? We'll give you a 12 to 4 window. Okay, you'll be here from 12 to 4. That's in the middle of the day. Fantastic. Uh, thankfully my wife's off during the summer, so she's home, she can take care of that. I'll get there in the evening, you know, whatever. So 4 o'clock rolls around.

No one's there. At 3:30, I had called and tried to find out, hey, how am I supposed to, um, how am I supposed to know when this person's coming? I mean, you gave me a 4-hour window. I can't imagine you're going to be here in the next 2 minutes and that you're going to be able to fix this in the next 28 minutes, right?

Right.

Like, you're, you're, you're bumping up on your time here. Well, long story short, They ran long on a, on a job that morning, and rather than being courteous and calling me and saying, hey, we're gonna be late, or we might need to reschedule, uh, they just didn't do anything. So finally, um, I got a call about 4 o'clock and said, we're an hour away, we'll be there in an hour. So, okay. You're All of a sudden we're turning into a 5-hour window instead of a 4-hour window, and that's just for you to get here, let alone for you to take care of the problem.

Yeah.

So, uh, this guy shows up at my house, 5 o'clock. He was on time according to whenever he said he would be there. Yeah, um, once he called. So I let him come in, and he goes in, looks at my garbage disposal. And, um, he said garbage disposals are really hard to warranty out. Okay, what does that mean? He said, well, the likelihood of a, of a garbage disposal fitting the warranty specifications are pretty small unless it's leaking. Is your garbage disposal leaking? I said, no, it just won't turn. He said, ah, it's probably seized up then. I said, yeah. It's not working. He goes, warranty doesn't cover that. Okay, would you like to look at my garbage disposal? Like, let's, let's

look at it before you make this determination. So he goes up there, and I, I did not know this. Apparently, uh, most garbage disposals have some sort of a release on them to where if something is seized up in there, something's stuck, it will basically open it up.

Mm-hmm.

and allow that to pass through.

Okay.

Which honestly, if something's stuck in there, it's probably large enough you might not even want it to pass through. But if it's causing your garbage disposal not to work, hey, let's figure it out.

Right.

Basically takes an Allen wrench and sticks it up in the middle of the garbage disposal from the bottom, right, from the underside, and starts shoving that thing to the left and the right, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, trying to get this thing to release. It doesn't release. He can't. He does get it to start, and then, you know, a couple seconds later, it just starts humming again. And so I'm, I'm frustrated, you know. I'm going, man, I could have stuck an Allen wrench up there and wiggled it back and forth and been able to tell anybody this thing isn't unsticking itself.

Right.

So the guy tells me, um, yeah, man, this isn't gonna work. It's— you need a new garbage disposal. I said, right, that's why I called you. Well, warranty's not going to cover it. Um, why not? Well, because there's something stuck and we— it's a foreign object, and so it will not be covered under your warranty. Okay, what does that mean? Well, uh, it's gonna be $199 for you to get a new, a new, uh, garbage disposal. I can put it on right now. I said, well, are you sure that's a problem? Because I need a new garbage disposal. You just said I need a new garbage disposal. You and I are in agreement about this. He said, yeah, boss man

told me I couldn't take a garbage disposal off my truck today. He, he told you what? Yeah, he told me I probably wasn't gonna put in a new garbage disposal no matter what happened. He can be mad at me if I come back tomorrow and I don't have that brand new garbage disposal, uh, either on my truck or $199 in the bank account. And now I'm really frustrated because you're an hour late in a 4-hour window. And now, whether this is what you mean or not, what you just said is you're not going to help me because your boss is going to be mad at you.

Right.

I feel like you're very unprofessional at this point.

Right.

And, uh, and I told him that. I said, it sounds pretty unprofessional for you to even tell me that. Well, that's probably— it probably came out differently than I meant it. Well, no, it came out exactly the way you said it. So, uh, anyway, the end of the day, he leaves and I still don't have a garbage disposal that works, right? Um, let's take a timeout.

And you're also out $75.

I'm out $75. Because—

to watch somebody jiggle an Allen wrench.

Absolutely. He's there for about 7 minutes, right? Even though he's already 5, you know, 5 hours into this, uh, window. So I call my home warranty company and I say, listen, here's the deal. This guy just left my house. He tells me that this is the problem with the garbage disposal. I understand that. I, I wholeheartedly Understand the situation, right? If there is a foreign object in my garbage disposal and you say under the terms of the warranty that it is not covered, I understand that it's not covered. Let me tell you my frustration. I— the guy's late, he's unprofessional when he's there, and I had no control over the person you sent. I had no control over the company.

Right.

that you sent, and I'm not happy with the service that I was given by your company, and I just want to know what you're going to do about it. Well, we can put a, we can put a note in their file that will reflect poorly on them. Okay, that sounds like a great idea. Now what about my $75 that I paid for waiting at my house for 5 hours for a guy to come into 7 minutes and be unprofessional and kind of rude to me. Well, we can't— long story. I mean, I was on the phone 3 different times to 3 different people, one of them being a manager at this company, right? And he told me,

yep, there's nothing we're gonna do about that.

Hmm.

So word to the wise, these home warranty companies out there are not gonna have your best interest in mind. Now, it was under the terms of the warranty. I get that this is not a serviceable issue.

Sure.

I get that. But you have no control over who they're gonna send you, right? Or when they're gonna show up, or what kind of people they're gonna be when you get there. So, um, at the end of the day, I'm out $75 for this service call, and now I've got to go to Home Depot or somewhere and buy a garbage disposal. That's gonna cost me $100, and then I'm gonna have to put it in myself, which I should have done to begin with. And I get that, but I have this other thing. I should use the other thing.

Yeah.

And it didn't work. So now I'm out money, more money, and more time.

Yep.

And more frustration, because I was on the phone with these people 3 different times. You know, I, I was, you know, there's a sizable amount of time there. And, um, so the garbage disposal, not that big of a deal. In fact, if, if you need a garbage disposal replaced or you'd like to install one, they're not even that difficult to install. They're more difficult to install because you've got a few extra pieces that you're gonna have to put down there that aren't already in the plumbing.

Sure.

But to just switch one out, It's very simple. You can YouTube how to do it. Very, very simple to do.

Um, actually, I enjoy doing like some light plumbing.

Sure.

It's fun.

Yeah.

It's kind of like a K'Nex set.

It is. You put the pieces together, screw them together, you're good. Um, but here's the other thing. Let's say you don't know how to do that. Call Ryan Burke and his family. Yeah, call somebody you know, call someone you trust. And you're going to get a much better experience, um, with someone else coming into your home and doing the work and you feeling confident about it, that they're going to stand behind their product, uh, they're going to stand behind their service. Um, and, and honestly, I have no reason to believe that, that I would get any of that with the company, with, with the guy that they sent out.

Yeah.

Um, so, um, Anyway, yes, my rant here is about a garbage disposal and the frustrating pit that that is. But maybe even more so, maybe we need to do a whole episode on home warranties because I'm not saying they're all bad.

Sure.

I mean, goodness sakes, if you had an air conditioner go out, whew, those things can cost $5,000, $6,000, $7,000 easy. And, um, if it's in the middle of the summer like it is right now, you might be 3 or 4 weeks before they get to you.

Yeah.

I mean, think about that in, in this humidity, this heat. That would be devastating. But it would lessen the blow if you know, all I had to pay was $75 deductible and my $7,000 air conditioner was replaced.

Yeah, I was gonna say, we actually had a— I think I've told you about this before— with our dishwasher. on our— we, we have a, uh, a warranty as well. Um, and we've, uh, for years been with, uh, HomeShield.

Okay.

And this was an instance where, like, their own practices and policies worked against them. Uh, and because we, we had an issue with our dishwasher, and so, you know, we called them. And I think, I think ours is like $100 to have somebody out, which is— I mean, like, for typically when it's an issue where I need somebody to come out, it's worth $100 to have somebody come out and deal with whatever's going on.

Yeah.

You know, it, it, and it's $100 on top of whatever our monthly whatever it is.

Yeah.

Um, so anyway, dishwasher wasn't working. Guy came out and said, oh, no big deal. I know exactly the part to replace. I'll be back tomorrow with the part. Cool, man. Comes out, replaces the part, leaves. My wife does a load of dishes, still doesn't work. So we call, call the company. We say, hey, uh, hate to call you guys, but, you know, dishwasher's still not working. Guy comes back out. You know, we don't have to pay the $100 again, right? Because it wasn't resolved, right? So he comes back out and he goes, oh yeah, yeah, it must be this. This happens 8 times.

Oh my goodness. Is this guy dumb?

No. Oh no, he's— I mean, like, he's, he's a nice intelligent dude. I mean, we had the same guy come out And he ended up having another company come out to like look over what he'd been doing. Because after like trip number 4, I was like, hey man, at this point, shouldn't we just like replace the dishwasher? Yeah. And he's like, no, they have a policy. If it's repairable, we have to repair it. Wow. And so like, I basically get a brand new dishwasher.

Because every part is new.

Yeah, they replace every single part on the dishwasher other than like the exterior. Sure. You know, stainless steel or whatever it is. And yeah, I mean, like, and then I bet you that whole ordeal probably cost them 3 or 4 grand.

Sure.

Which the dishwasher didn't cost anywhere near that.

No.

I mean, no, it's like, guys, I mean, like, after trip number 4, we've already bought a new dishwasher, right? Let's just call it a day, right? Put her to bed.

They're a few hundred dollars. Go get me a new one.

But it was like, no, no, you have a policy. Yeah. And so like, they just— and, and so those repair guys just kept charging them.

Wow.

So, and like, well, it's not cheap.

No, it's not. And, and I'm gonna go ahead and call these people out.

I'm—

are you ready?

Sure.

Fidelity National Home Warranty.

Uh-huh.

I'm calling them out right now.

Yeah.

So if you have them Good luck. I'm not renewing. I'm up for renewal next month. I'm not renewing with them.

Yeah.

Uh, you know, and here's my deal. Again, I understand my issue wasn't resolved, right? The bigger issue I had was with their customer service.

Sure.

I mean, you, you, again, you send me someone that I don't know. I have no control over them. Um, they're, they're late. They did— they weren't courteous enough to even— I mean, if you're, if you're on a call that you know is lasting hours longer than it should, right? You should know my later appointments either aren't going to happen or they're going to get pushed back. Yeah, a simple courtesy call or text, hey, we're going to be late, or can we reschedule? I would have been really happy with that. Probably would have changed a lot of how I felt about the interaction that I had with the guy whenever he got there.

Communication's huge.

It's huge. But then on top of that, I'm already frustrated because of how late it is. You come in, you're rude. I'm sure it's at the end of your day too. I get all of that. But I, I feel like you as a warranty company should have had a little bit more respect for your customer who's paying you hundreds of dollars every year just to own the policy, right? Let alone to use the policy. Um, to, to do something here and at least give me a bone, throw me a bone, something.

Yeah, you know, and I don't know what the bone is, just— A bone.

A bone would have been nice to, to have been thrown, but, but it wasn't.

Did you get an I'm sorry?

Uh, yeah, he said, I'm sorry, but I can't help you. I'll just tell you right now, people, pet peeve of mine. Don't say I'm sorry if your next word is going to be but, because that's not an apology.

Yeah.

I mean, that's not an apology.

So would it have been okay? I'm sorry that I can't help you.

Sure.

Okay. Yeah.

But whenever you qualify it with, yeah, I'm sorry, but there's absolutely nothing that I can do for you.

Okay.

Who can? Well, I'm the guy that makes these decisions. Oh, so it is your fault at the end of the day. So anyway, that's my rant. I'm a fan of garbage disposals. I really am.

So did you get it replaced?

Not yet.

Not yet.

I had to mow my grass.

You've been in there jiggling an Allen wrench?

No, I just— we got the, we got the little stopper in there to make sure that, that, that doesn't happen. And it's probably gonna be 2 or 3 weeks before I actually get to it.

Oh wow.

It's just my, my summer schedule is, is such that—

Time to start a compost pile.

Yeah, I guess so. That'll be, that'll be the next project.

Yeah.

But hey, honestly, I'm, I'm, I'm not averse to putting in the, the garbage disposal. It's, it's a pretty simple fix.

Sure.

Um, but it just goes to show you that there, there are moments whenever you get into home projects and it is just frustratingly difficult.

Yeah.

To get stuff done. I mean, all you wanted to go out there and do was mow your grass and you couldn't do it. All I wanted to do was Get this garbage disposal fixed and throw that strawberry stem down the drain. Yeah, I mean, think about it this way. Think about it this way. I, I'm not kidding. If, if I didn't call the warranty people, right, I had 5 hours to fix it, to fix it. Yeah, that I had taken out of the day to make sure that somebody was home I could have fixed it easily within 5 hours. Yeah, and I would have been done, man. But here we are.

So, um, but we'll get that good story about the install.

Yeah, there we go. That'll come. That'll, that'll come. Hopefully that won't be more Tales from the Pit.

Yeah, well, I imagine you'll be giving Ryan a call if I—

Oh yeah, if, if it comes down to it and, and I have an issue Ryan's my guy. Yeah, he's awesome.

Which, by the way, I just, I just saw the house he built. Oh yeah, dude, it's awesome.

Yeah, they, they put a lot of cool, cool little details into it too.

So really, really cool. Yeah, I was going around checking all the water. Yeah.

Oh yeah, so, so between him, you know, doing, doing the plumbing gig and, and his wife being a realtor, they, they've seen some homes. Oh yeah, so they, they built a cool one.

Very cool. So anything else we got for today, man?

I think that's about it. I think we're running out of time anyway.

Oh yeah.

We don't want another hour and a half episode today.

Well, not today.

Maybe later. In fact, I think if you have, uh, him back on and we have— I guarantee there's more of that stuff to talk about.

I guarantee we could go 2 hours.

Absolutely. Let's not. But I know we can. I know we can.

Just gonna push the envelope just a little bit.

Just a little bit further. Let's see how many listeners we still have. Oh, the 135 mark. That's it.

Yep. Everybody's out.

Peace out.

Nobody's listening.

They turned us off. Yeah. Well, uh, yeah, we, we appreciate everybody listening in, tuning in. And, uh, if you do have, uh, a tale from the pit, so to speak, if you, if you've got something that, that just, and just didn't turn out the way you wanted it to, and, and stuff like that happens, uh, we, we want to hear about it.

Yeah.

Send us an email. Give us some details. Uh, you can send us an email at info@homeownershow.com. And give us some details about what's going on. Uh, if, if it's a really good story, we may even find a way to get— either get you in the studio or get you on the phone so that we can do an episode with you so we can hear about it.

No, if you just want to record it yourself, send it to us.

Yeah, that's a great idea.

We'd love to have you guys. You can post a video up on YouTube, tag us in it, voice record on your phone, tag us on Facebook. We'd love to hear these stories. Sure, Tales from the Pit.

That's it. So we'll have a part 2 and 3 and 4 eventually.

Yeah, cool, cool, man. Anything else?

No. You got anything else?

No.

All right, well, until then, we are here every Tuesday, so hit the subscribe button, don't miss an episode. Thanks for listening, we'll see you later. See ya.