That Time We Talked About Top 3 Outdoor Kitchen Must Haves

This is episode number 113 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 Hacken, and here with me is Craig Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. We're glad that you could join us for this week's ultimate drop of knowledge. The tunage.

Well, the question is, did you drop the bumpity bump?

I did.

Oh, okay.

I did my job.

It's not gonna happen this time. Sorry, folks.

I did— the cuts in pay finally got to me.

So— Yeah, yeah, you were losing so much money that you remembered this time.

Yeah, we put it in a— I don't even know what the word is, like a penalty program or—

Yeah, you started getting docked.

That's right.

Every time you left it in.

And it just became too much to bear.

Of course.

So, in light of this political season that we're in.

Yes.

Yeah, and you and I just got done listening to the debates. We're recording this on the night of the last debate.

Right.

Which was hilarious.

Oh, how many times did we just like, we have no idea what was said for like 30 seconds 'cause we were just laughing.

We were just laughing.

Yeah.

So in light of the tense political season that we're in, I have a very— what I imagine will be an unpopular opinion that I feel the need to share with the world. Okay.

This is breaking news, folks. Craig is about to release his unpopular opinion, which is most of his opinions.

Most of my opinions.

But here we go. I'm ready.

And this is— it's my opinion. But it's also true.

Oh. So, it's a factual opinion.

It's a factual opinion. That opinion is whipped coconut substitute whipped cream is way better than the actual stuff.

Oh. Oh, but it's got to be a specific flavor?

No, it's just— there's no dairy in it.

Oh, I see what you're saying.

It's, it's, uh, it's actually made by, um, there's a company, So Delicious.

Okay.

And they make substitute, uh, like, uh, coconut cream and coconut dairy product, like coconut dairy substitute products.

Okay.

So, and my sister came over last night for dinner and, uh, we were doing, uh, she wanted to have like berries and cream for dessert. I made dinner, she was making dessert, so she had berries and cream and she busted out this tub that looked like whipped cream. And I was like, well, that's a weird label. What is that? And she goes, oh, it's a coconut substitute.

And I was like, what? Why are you making me eat this crap? This sounds horrible.

Right.

And okay.

So I opened the thing and I was like, it looks like whipped cream.

Yeah.

Put it on the berries. I eat it.

Yeah.

It is so good.

Really?

Yes. It's like, it has like the same texture, and consistency of whipped cream, but like just with a little bit of hint of coconut. And it just tastes better. It has a better mouthfeel than regular whipped cream. It's not as heavy, but it's, man, it's so good. And I was like, is this stuff a lot more expensive than like regular whipped cream? Surely it is. And she goes, no, it's about the same.

Really? Get out of town. Like, is this, okay, so your sister works at a restaurant.

Yep.

and bar. And so I would assume, like, she, she has vast knowledge of this type of thing, I would think.

Sure.

Well, she— where did she come up— where did she learn about this?

Well, so she, she actually has some pretty strict dietary restrictions because of health reasons.

Sure.

Um, and, and so she's had to, over the years, get really creative with the different kinds of foods that she eats.

Okay.

Um, and so for a while, she really had to cut dairy completely out of her diet. Ugh, that's hard. It is. And so she was always looking for substitutes because she enjoyed dairy.

Yeah.

And this was one of the ones that she found and I was like, well, darn, this is— I'm like, you're not losing anything. You're gaining.

You're gaining something. That's interesting. My— I've got a nephew who has a dairy allergy. He can't have any dairy. It's very, very— what it does is it gives him really bad eczema.

Okay, yeah.

And so there's a couple of other things. Gluten does it to him as well. But so it's just— He's gluten-free and dairy-free, which is a really difficult combination.

Right. And so that's actually what she is as well.

Yeah, interesting. So that'll—

that—

I mean, I may, I may throw that out to my brother and be like, look, this might be an option. It's—

man, it's tasty.

Okay.

I mean, like, and like, is it, is it frozen in the frozen section?

I mean, I don't mean—

I—

well, isn't that where like—

That's typically where whipped cream is. I don't know, um, if that's where that particular item is located.

It could be.

Could absolutely could be. Okay. Um, but I mean, it came in a tub that looks exactly like Cool Whip.

Interesting.

Um, but like, man, is it better.

Okay. I mean, you heard it here, folks.

Yep.

All right. I mean, here's the thing. I don't know if it's an unpopular opinion because I would guess that most people don't have an opinion on this.

Well, because they haven't tasted it yet.

Because they've not tasted it.

Like, even—

but like, let's be fair.

Like, even if people haven't tasted it, they're gonna have an opinion on what I just said. They're like, you're a fool, cream is amazing. And like, don't get me wrong, cream is amazing. Yeah, whipped, buttered, I don't care, it's delicious. Yep, yep. This stuff is just better.

Okay, so, um, like, I, I know people that legitimately think that like Reddi-Wip is better than whipped cream.

I don't know if it's convenience or what, they just spray it, that it's an aerosol can.

Yeah, yeah. Or, or what, but So, okay. Yeah, well, I, I, I think you're probably gonna have to prove it on the show at some point. Like, I'm gonna need to taste this.

Well, I, I finished off the tub this afternoon, so—

I'm fine with you buying more. I'm totally fine with that.

We'll see what happens.

Okay, cool.

Yeah, no, it's good, good stuff.

I, I will try it.

Okay.

Um, mainly because it's food.

You know what might be fun is to do like a blind taste test.

Oh, but yeah, because we would probably have to add like Reddi-Wip in there, like, because otherwise I'm like trying to figure out which one tastes more like coconut, you know?

Well, and I, I say blind because I don't, I don't know that you could actually distinguish between— unless you like were just like really concentrated on finding that coconut flavor, because it's not like intense.

Sure.

Um, but like, yeah, interesting. So anyway, got a cool episode for you guys today. We're going to be dipping back into the pool of Kevin and Craig's top 3. Um, we're going to be doing a fun one because this is actually the time of year when I like to enjoy these kinds of amenities.

Yeah.

Um, as the, as it begins to cool and the leaves begin to change and there's less rain this time of year too.

Yeah. It's just being outdoors is Way more pleasant. Folks, we live in Houston. In Houston, if you've never been to Houston or never lived in Houston, Houston is hot.

It's a hot, bubbly swamp.

And it is muggy.

Yeah.

And, you know, I mean, those of you who may live in Florida, you know what we feel like. Those of you who live in Arkansas, you know what we feel like. Um, those of you who live in California, you have no clue.

No clue.

No clue.

Yeah.

Because California's climate, it's awesome.

All those people moving here right now, they're just like melting.

Yeah, they don't—

It's like, what, it's 80 degrees?

Exactly. They do not know what they got themselves into. It's like, this is actually amazing. In fact, tonight I was on the football field and one of the other officials said to me, he's like, man, it's absolutely beautiful out here. And I was like, yeah, I guess it is. There's a little bit of a breeze. It's 85 degrees and humid. But I guess it's kind of nice.

It's kind of nice.

But next week, that's when it—

that's— oh yeah, that's the money week.

We're dipping down in like the, the highs are in the low 70s. It is gonna be gorgeous. So we are going to talk today about our top 3 outdoor kitchen essentials.

Yes.

So in order to do that Uh, we discussed this before the show. We did not discuss our answers except I brought up the grill. Right, right. Because we, we— I, I basically said like you have to have a cooking source, right? If an outdoor kitchen should have a cooking source, so we are taking grill off the table and saying your outdoor kitchen should have— our outdoor, our outdoor kitchen will have, yes, a grill. But I want to know what type of grill— I mean, we had a whole episode on grills, right? I don't remember the number off the top of my head. We did a whole episode on grills. But what type of grill would you, Craig Williams, have

in your outdoor kitchen?

Are you gonna make me go first?

Yeah.

All right, I'm gonna blow your mind.

Oh, I— well, I hope so. Do it.

So I'm actually gonna go with a flat-top griddle.

Oh yeah.

Okay, I'm going that route.

So I— my next-door neighbor that moved away, that I'm really kind of still pissed at him for because I liked him, um, just before he moved away, he bought, um, I don't remember the— I don't remember if the brand is Blackstone or something like that, a flat massive griddle. And that— he got rid of everything else. He just had a griddle.

Yeah.

And he loved it.

Yeah, no, they're amazing. Yeah, like every— my— every Every burger I've ever had in my life that was my favorite burger was pretty much cooked on a flat-top griddle.

Yeah, well, okay, newsflash, burgers at restaurants are grilled on a griddle most of the time, you know?

95% of the time.

Exactly.

Yeah, Burger King's a liar.

Right. So they infuse smoke. That's what they do.

They do something.

I don't know what they do either.

No. But okay, and so an open fire is not bad, but like, I want a griddle.

Yeah.

And like, because if I'm gonna do an outdoor kitchen, I want to be able to do breakfast out there, I want to be able to do lunch out there, I want to be able to do dinner out there.

Okay.

And you know, if with the flat top I can even like, you know, pretend to be Hibachi Joe.

No doubt. So I mean, are you gonna do the full-on volcano, the trains leaving the station? My kids are gonna love it. Yeah, that's my favorite part. Yeah, I'm like You know, I actually had—

Kind of throw shrimp at him?

Yeah, I actually had a, uh, a cook at one point in one of those places didn't do the volcano.

How dare he?

And I didn't tip him. I was like, you obviously are no good. Yeah, you need to find a new job.

So, so anyway, probably should have stolen his knives.

Yeah, I mean, the guy was terrible.

Yeah, so he didn't deserve those knives. Those knives are expensive.

They are expensive. All right, do you want to know what mine is?

No.

All right, so going to the top 3. So, so here's what's interesting. Um, my very first grill was a birthday present from my wife, and it was just a gas grill, and I was so happy to have it. It was, it was a grill, and I was so excited. Well, when it was done, I did a lot of research on grills, and I decided that I wanted an egg.

grill.

And so I didn't, I didn't buy the Big Green Egg because frankly I didn't want to afford it. And also they have not kept up with the times, and the eggs that are available today are— they have a lot more features than the Big Green Egg, which is still the same as it was when they built it like 30 years ago or whatever.

Yeah.

So I went out and I bought one. And I absolutely love it. I mean, there's so much that I love about my Egg, but if they were available and if I would have— and if I could do it over again, 100%, I would buy a pellet smoker. 100%. And part of it is because, um, I— and I understand your point about wanting to be able to do everything outside, you know, breakfast, lunch, dinner, whatever.

Yeah.

But for me, I just, I love smoking meat and I love, you know, I still love grilling and those sorts of things, but the thing that I love most is to spend time smoking stuff.

Yeah.

And so for me, I need a smoker and the pellet smokers are, they make it doable whenever you really don't even have time to do it. You want the food, but you don't really have the time. You can set those things and forget it. I mean, maybe you have to do something every few hours or something. Yeah, you know, but I mean, as far as temperature control, they're unmatched.

So, well, yeah. So, and I will say, I mean, like, I probably want the top because, you know, my inclination is towards what I don't have, and I have a massive smoker already, right? So it's like, oh, I've already had that. Yeah, I want the other thing.

No, I completely get it. And so, so we kind of have to, we kind of have to put that in there, like These are— if you go, I'm sure, and Google top essentials for an outdoor kitchen, it's probably going to be like top 10, top 5, right? We're doing 3.

That's right. And that makes it harder.

It makes it very difficult.

Yeah, all you slacker bloggers out there, you don't know what we deal with.

No. So, oh, the woes. We have to walk out there without any shoes backwards. Up the hill to our outdoor kitchens.

So anyway, it—

we're taking— so, so a grill is an understood, right? And it's a given. Yeah, it's a given. Um, but now we're going to step into the top 3. We're going to start with number 3 and work down to our most important. Okay, are you good with that?

So we're gonna start at number 3, we're gonna work down to number 1.

Exactly. Okay, so Do you want to go first? You want me to go first?

Um, well, you made me go first on grills.

You go first now. Okay, deal.

Um, all right, 2 minutes uninterrupted. That's right, uninterrupted.

2 minutes uninterrupted.

Sorry, we're in debate mode, y'all.

Exactly. All right, so there will be interruptions. There will definitely be interruptions. My number 3 is a sink.

Oh yeah, going to that, are we?

Yeah, we're going to a sink.

And an appliance sink or just a regular sink?

It's, it's a non-appliance sink because I'm still holding that candle.

Uh, so not a real sink, just like a—

Okay, if, if you don't know what we're talking about, please go listen to our previous episodes, um, specifically the kitchen episode, uh, top 3 kitchen. Uh, but yeah, I'm going to the sink because when When you're working outside, when you're, when you're using that space, the thing that you, the thing that you don't want to have to do is traipse back inside. If you've got grease on your hands, you've got rub on your hands, or you've got, you know, sauces on your hands, or just meat juices on your hands, blood, whatever, you don't want to traipse through your house to your kitchen just to wash your hands.

I never traipse through the house.

So you should.

What's wrong with you?

It's wonderful.

Um, do you like have a mustache that you put on to twist with like a little hat and a cape that you like—

Well, for a while I had the mustache grown but don't have it today.

Well, yeah, that's why I'm asking if there's costumes involved.

Oh, there's always costumes involved. There's— that's another topic. All right. Um, so yeah, but I— you don't want to— you you want to be able to wash up there without leaving the space and dripping along the way. So for me, my number 3 is a sink.

Sink. Gotcha.

Yep.

I'm with it.

Okay, cool.

An official sink.

And yeah, a real—

You're talking like stainless steel?

Yes, stainless steel. I honestly, I don't even necessarily care if it has hot water to it, which That does bring a whole nother element. I mean, hot water versus cold water, because you could potentially just hook up a sink to a faucet outside and not run the, the quote-unquote—

Like one of those laundry room—

Yeah.

Or like those deep basin or plastic sink.

Yeah, exactly.

It's like a utility sink, that's what it is.

Exactly. So I, you know, for example, we, we built an outdoor kitchen playset for my children, and I put a residential sink in there. It's a stainless steel residential sink. You've probably used it before, um, when you were over at my house sometime. But it's—

Excuse me.

It is, um, it's just hooked up to the faucet. Now there's like 4 connections you have to make in order to make your kitchen's— a kitchen faucet work from your spigot outside, right? But it can be done. And at that point you've got running water, but it doesn't necessarily have to be hot. So I don't really care if it has hot water. It would be preferable, definitely. Definitely preferable, but I just want some running water with a sink.

I got you.

So cool.

All right, my number 3.

Yep.

Uh, I'm gonna go with a kegerator. Oh yeah.

Yeah, you know, I— it's funny that you say that because I debated on this one, but that's a really, really good one.

Well, and part of the reason is it's kind of cheating because you could use it for double. Yeah, it can work as a regular refrigerator.

Yep.

Um, and if it's like the one that I have, you have fridge and a freezer, right, in that outdoor kitchen. But I've also seen them where they're like— I helped a buddy put one in underneath a counter and it was just like a regular fridge, like an office fridge.

Yeah.

And then we drilled holes through the top of it and installed it like that. And that'd be fine too.

Put a tap on the top. Right.

Yeah. It's just, I mean, it's a really cool feature to have it in your outdoor kitchen. It's a— and I think you and I talked about doing a feature episode on homebrewing, but it's, I mean, like if you're into that, It can be a really cool feature and gathering spot for, you know, your, your social meetings.

Yeah, I mean, if, if you, if you walk out into someone's outdoor kitchen and you see a tap, yep, that you— that's a conversation piece.

You just leveled up your outdoor activity.

No doubt. You, you are now at level 10 without even knowing what's on the grill.

Like And so like we, we have a unique space here. Yeah. For that's for outdoor entertainment.

No doubt.

Um, and it has lots of pieces to it. Um, and you have to walk past several features to get to the kegerator. And 8 times out of 10, every guy walks past all of them and is like, what's that? And it's, it's the kegerator.

Yep. Um, and, and you specifically have 2 taps on the outside of that one, right?

Yeah, that's a 2-tap kegerator.

Yeah.

I could add a 3rd. It wouldn't be difficult.

Sure.

I just, I don't wanna make that much beer.

Right.

And I don't—

Or buy the kegs.

Well, I have plenty of those.

No, but I mean, with beer already in them. Oh, with beer already in them, yeah. From somewhere else.

Oh, that's expensive.

It's super expensive.

Yeah. It's very hard to find, actually. No, no, like, And I'm all for supporting local breweries and things like that, but like, it is ridiculous what you pay for that stuff.

Yeah. Um, not worth it.

So, I mean, just, just to give people idea, and we'll talk about this later episode, but like, my most expensive beers that I've ever made cost like 20, 25 cents a bottle.

Wow.

To make.

Well, they taste way better than 25 cents a bottle.

So So that's my number 3.

Okay.

Kegerator.

That's a good one. I, I, um, I like how you worked 2 into 1 there.

Yeah.

Yeah, which I'm about to do.

Okay, bring it.

So, um, my next one is a countertop.

Okay.

So I know this seems interesting to some people, but for me, again, we, you know, I was talking about needing to wash up and everything.

Yeah.

I wanna prepare as much as I can outside.

Okay.

And in order to do that, you have to have some, some table space, some countertop space.

Okay.

Would be beautiful. So, you know, if I've got a sink, I gotta— it would be helpful to have that in a countertop, right? But for me, I'm probably doing, uh, some sort of a butcher block and making that a cutting board.

Yeah.

As well. So I'm kind of doing a little bit of a cheat 2-in-1 cutting board countertop space. You know, I want to be able to prepare everything outside. If you've—

Just make a massive butcher block and it's like a countertop butcher block table.

Exactly.

Yeah.

And especially if you can position it in a way that it becomes the bar top as well, right? You know, whatever that looks like. But, but an eating space, sitting mingling space, it's very doable and really a lot less expensive than people would think. If you— I mean, if you're willing to mill it down a little bit and, and do the work, uh, which for me that would just be, you know, playtime.

Sure.

To do that.

You know, like 9 months ago that would have been like a cheap venture. Nowadays, I mean, like, wood's crazy expensive right now.

That's true, that's true. But, you know, for a lot of people, if you're, if you're able to do that kind of thing, I mean, you might have—

no, yeah, you can still, you can still get a really nice piece for a lot less if you do it yourself, for sure.

Exactly. So anyway, I, I need a countertop prep space. I want to be able to do everything outside. I don't want to traipse back and forth from the kitchen back outside, holding all the utensils, holding the meat, trying to carry all the thermometers and all that kind of stuff. Like, I just want it all in one space. So for me, the prep space is really crucial.

So let me ask you this, uh, cause I have a, I have a buddy that's doing this now and you're not going to hurt my feelings if you Say you don't like it. Um, but he's, uh, he's making tables and cutting boards with, um, oh, dadgummit, I'm gonna lose the word. But you like, you take 2 rough cut pieces of wood and then you fill it, the gap in between with, um, what is it?

Epoxy.

Epoxy, thank you. Yeah, would you, would you wanna do like, would you, would you be into like an epoxy table or a countertop or something like that?

So I've actually got 2 side-by-side cut, um, cedar planks at my house right now. They're full 2-inch thick and they're side by side, which means if you were to put them together, they would be mirror images.

Okay.

And it would look really cool. But if I did that, we're talking about like a probably a 2-foot wide table. So in order to make a 3-foot wide table, which is what most tables are plus, right?

Yeah.

Um, I would have to figure something out. And a really cool thing to do in that moment would be to leave the rough cut edges and fill it with epoxy.

Yeah.

So yes, and not only that, you can do it with, with color. Like, you can make it blue or green or purple or black, right? You do whatever color you want with this epoxy. Um, so to answer your question, I, I do like the look. I think it's, I think it's super cool. It's very trendy right now also, um, which I'm not always into trendy stuff, but I, I think that's something that would be cool for a long time.

Yeah.

The thing that I don't know, so what I don't, I don't know how to answer this question fully is because I've never worked with epoxy But how durable does that— would that make my butcher block, for example, more functional, or would I be cutting into the epoxy and then it would—

That I don't know.

So I don't know either. I mean, I would think—

Well, well, let me say this. I do know that he's specifically making cutting boards.

Oh, okay. With epoxy and wood.

So I would, I would imagine it's pretty durable.

Okay, yeah, if that's the case I would totally do that.

Okay.

Because for me, part of that— part of an outdoor kitchen is a little bit of a presentation piece.

Yeah.

Right? And so if you walk out and you see a, a butcher block cutting board, you know, prep space that has epoxy, you know, in the center or filling in holes or gaps or whatever and, you know, the beer tap on it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean, people are gonna be like, they got it going on.

Yeah, that's right.

They're the people that I wanna be with.

So I'll tell you from my own personal perspective, I think they look cool.

Yeah.

I don't like it when they have bright colors in the epoxy.

So what is it that you like?

Oh, I like the look. Like, I've seen ones with like a black epoxy on like, with like walnut wood and things. And I like that look. I like a very muted look. Um, because epoxy is going to be shiny. Yes, no matter what. But like, if you make it like neon blue or like, you know, sparkly green, or it's like, it irritates me for some reason. I'm like, I'm fine if you like it, that's your thing. But like, it's just not what I want. I want muted, uh, when it, when it comes to— I don't like, I don't like that high contrast with natural wood and like some like synthetic thing.

I completely get that. My— the, the color that I found that I like the best are very dark colors.

Yeah.

Um, I do like the black. I really— my— so my favorite color is like a forest green, and so I could, I could really enjoy something like that, or like a dark navy that, that has like a dark navy.

You're not gonna go like Red Raider?

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, definitely not red. Um, but yeah, so I, I could I would— I could go with a color, but it would have to be— I like those darker colors. Like, yeah, like you said, I don't think the contrast would be quite the same. Yeah, so they're cool. They are.

Yeah, yeah. And like you said, they're very trendy right now.

They are.

All right, you ready for my number 2?

I am.

All right, my number 2 is premium outdoor sound. Oh, uh, so for me, uh, any— like, particularly when you're talking about like outdoor kitchens, because, you know, I, like you, usually when I'm at my outdoor kitchen, I'm usually smoking something, grilling something. I'm gonna be out there for a while.

It's gonna be hot.

Music to me, good music is part of the outdoor chilling experience.

Maybe even bigger than that, music to you is life.

Very, very much so. Like, I irritate my wife to a large degree with the amount of time I have music on when I'm doing things.

Sure.

Or, you know, just in general, like it's just, it's part of our family culture. And so like, I always have music on when, with whatever I'm doing.

Yeah.

If it's a task that doesn't require like my immense concentration.

Sure.

And so like when the kids are at the pool, when we're doing stuff in the yard or when we're hanging out on the deck entertaining friends, we're gonna have music on even, and like I'll even, you know, turn it down towards just sort of, you know, mood music and different things like that. I'll even turn— this will just kind of give you an idea as to how it goes at our house. I will sometimes theme the music based off the food that we're eating.

Oh, so like if you're doing like Mexican food, you're gonna play a little mariachi?

Yeah.

Okay.

We will.

Cool.

Or if we're having Italian, we'll, you know, we'll put on some Sinatra or put on like some Italian guitar music or Yeah, and so we'll do— we'll sometimes do that, and it's not like overpowering, it's just kind of playing in the background.

Well, I kind of see that like as like, you know, like, like a drink pairing with a meal. Yeah, like you're, you're pairing mood. Like, so much of— to me, so much of food is atmosphere, you know? Like, if you walk into an Italian restaurant, it's completely decked out, looks like Italy, the food could be mediocre and you could still be like, I want to come back here. Yeah, you know?

Yeah. And, and so like, so I say premium sound because like I occasionally really like to crank it up.

Yeah.

And in order to be able to do that without much distortion and, you know, you need a good system.

Yes.

Um, so we kind of have a funky one out here that I enjoy. It could be better, but I like it.

You've got some, you've got some really unique speakers.

Yeah.

Out there.

They're, you know, one of the things that if they ever go, I'm just gonna have some custom built because I don't know that I could do that again.

Yeah, yeah. So, so, so the ones you have— most of the time when you see Bose speakers, they're tiny, you know, um, that— and which is kind of their, their thing. Yeah, you know, you don't— you rarely see floor-standing, uh, Bose speakers, which yours aren't floor-standing, but they're—

They were.

They were. You just chose to hang them. But so to see those are, are unique. Yeah, sure.

But dude, I think, I think we picked those up for like $75.

That's crazy.

Like 5 years ago. And they're— I mean, they're still kicking it.

Yeah, they sound great. So cool. All right, you ready for my number 1?

I'm ready for your number 1.

Okay, so this is probably not gonna be what you think it's gonna be, and I don't know if you have a thought in your head, but—

Never.

Verified. Um, so So you have to know something about me in order to fully appreciate this.

Which no one wants.

No one wants. Um, but so if, you know, there's, there's an age-old question, like, if you had to eat the same thing for the rest of your life, what would you choose? I would choose pizza because I love pizza.

Okay.

And yeah, I love it too much. And so for me, my outdoor kitchen is gonna have a pizza oven. Ah, yes.

So you double cheated.

Double cheated. So I'm gonna have 2 cooking sources.

I will say, like, those— are you talking about like a brick oven?

Yes.

Nice.

That's what I—

wood-fired?

Yes.

Okay.

I want, I want a wood-fired brick oven pizza thing that is like, you know, takes up a corner.

So I'm actually with you. I mean, like, I think that's a—

I love those. Yeah.

Because they're not— I mean, you, you can cook more than just pizza in them.

Yes, you can.

I mean, like, you can cook real— I mean, you can cook lots of good stuff in there.

They're fantastic for breads.

Yeah.

In general. Now, there's other things you can do with them, but for breads, all kinds of breads, they're fantastic.

Have you spent much time looking into this?

I've spent enough time to know that I can't afford it the way I want to. Well, like, you can.

I mean, I've read several DIYs on this.

Okay.

It's an extensive project.

It is.

And what the problem is, is most, you know, most guys try and do it and cut corners.

Well, so part of, part of what makes the oven itself so great is the dimension. Yeah, the dimension has to be right.

Yeah.

And it doesn't matter how big or how small it is, the ratios have to be correct. And so it's hard. You can't just bring in the, the local guy that lays brick.

No.

And, and have him build this.

No, they're like, there's specific plans that you have to follow. Um, and it's tricky.

Yeah, I, I, I would totally be up to the task. And they take up a lot of space. That's, that's the other thing is they, in order to have the space that I want it, I mean, that type of thing probably is like a 4-foot by 4-foot easily type of thing.

If not more.

Yeah.

I mean, just because of the base that you need to build to support them, because not only are they big, they're heavy.

Yeah.

So once it goes in, like, it ain't coming out.

No. And, and, you know, we— I mean, so around my house, when it's not football season, every Friday night is pizza night. And I, like, I make the dough, which I cheat because It's fantastic, but I use a bread machine.

Okay.

Um, but I, you know, we make scratch dough.

Like mix it? Is that what—

Yeah, well, so, so yeah, so bread machines, they, they can do a variety of different things. They can go start to finish. You put the ingredients in, you come out with a loaf of bread, right? Or you— like ours has a setting for pizza dough.

Okay.

And so what it does is it just— it, it has a mixing cycle. It does the whole, you know, pounding and all that kind of stuff. Um, it does that inside the thing, and then it rises. The whole process takes 55 minutes. So it rises to the right size, and then you take it out, you, you— and then you stretch it.

Okay.

So, but I love the stretching process, and I love the you know, finding the ingredients and doing all of that. So it's something that is a family project.

Mm-hmm.

Like, we do it together. My daughter's gotten really into like coming in and she wants to spread the sauce. She wants to put on the meat and the cheese. And so I let her do theirs and I do mine and my wife's. And so to me, it's more than just a pizza experience because I love pizza. It's a family experience. It's a communal thing for us. And I, I think just having that outdoor space could just completely accentuate what we already do. And, and my love of pizza is so great that, like, a lot of— I kid you not, a lot of times when I go to Italian restaurants, I order pizza instead of pasta.

Mm-hmm.

I love steak at Italian restaurants too, but A lot of times I'll order pizza because I just, I love it.

I love pizza too. It does not love me back.

Oh, really?

No.

That's so disappointing. I would hate to be you.

No, I mean, like, no, like, it goes fine. It's just like, it makes me fat.

Sure.

So.

Oh yeah. Well, that's evidenced right over here. So pizza. So yeah, I'm My, my number one, and again, pie in the sky, yeah, is a pizza oven.

All right.

I, I would not— this is, this is the crazy thing though. I would not sacrifice a grill for a pizza oven.

Hmm.

Which, which is crazy.

I might. Well, I might.

It's, it's crazy because I, I'm telling— I'm sitting— I'm literally telling you that my, my favorite food is pizza, and I would eat that more than anything else. But it's less versatile than a grill is. And so for me, I still want the grill. I don't think that I would ever have to sacrifice a grill for a pizza oven though. So I mean, I'm just thinking like an option.

If you have a, if you have a pizza oven, just put a grate in there. It's gonna do the same thing.

I guess it's, it's—

I might make that choice.

Yeah. I mean, you— I, I, I mean, I guess you Theoretically, you could smoke in there. I mean, you're doing— you're— it is— you're putting wood in there. Yeah, you could probably figure it out.

And just to put a damper on the—

Yeah, you'd have to put it like a door. Yeah, like a door.

You could do it.

Yeah.

Anyway, I'm in.

Okay, sweet. Craig approves.

All right, my number 1. Yep, effective fans.

Oh, okay. Yeah, okay, so you, you qualified it. Oh yeah. Uh, not just a fan.

Not just— I mean, like these stupid box fans that do nothing.

Oh, they're loud.

They can be.

Yeah.

Um, but like most of them are just little piddly things that don't put on you. I want like full rotating, okay, pushing air through the, you know, like, or one of those big-ass fans.

Yeah.

And like, I'm not cursing on the show, like that's the brand name.

Um, don't shut us down, iTunes.

Um, Apple Podcasts.

Yeah.

And I mean, and they're great. Yeah, they are. But I like these, um, they're kind of deep, but then they also oscillate.

Oh yeah, yeah.

And you, you mount them on the wall. And I—

Like, is Volcano one of the brands? Uh, it could be. Or Tornado?

Sure, why not?

Some sort of natural disaster.

Tsunami, right? Yeah, it's one of those. Um, but yeah, yeah, yeah. And I— this is actually something I've been looking into, like, just our, for our porch.

Yeah.

Um, and the, the struggle we have is we actually have a bunch of fans on the deck, um, but they're most— I mean, like, they do move air, but they're pretty ineffectual. Yeah. They just— you don't— you're not going to stay cool underneath that fan.

No.

Um, even, even when it's like tepid outside like it is right now.

And really, for, for fans to do what you need it to in your space specifically, They need to be strategically placed. Yeah, like you can't just put a bunch of fans and like position them all at you.

Yeah, and they are positioned weird. Yeah, where they are right now. Um, and so it could be done a lot better. Yeah. Um, I don't know if you've looked, but like we— there's actually several wire boxes in the middle, uh, for additional fans.

Oh yeah, no, I've not looked.

Um, so we've just whoever started it never finished it, and we haven't done it either. So, um, but I mean, I'm waiting for— I want the fan technology to become more affordable. Yeah, because they're really, they're really good fans. I mean, like, they're just— I mean, like, like I was talking about those, those big-ass fans, I mean, like, they're like $3,000, $10,000.

Yeah, I know. Well, I'll tell you this, so we just throwing it out there, we— you've, you've been in our courtyard, right? We have a— we have one of those 6-blade fans out there. Uh, 6 or 8? No, it's an 8-blade fan. Okay, it's, it's 6-foot diameter. That's what I'm getting confused. So, um, it's a full wet, uh, setup because it rains in there.

Yeah.

Um, we paid $299 for that. $299. Like, it's, it's got the, the full 8-blade with the, you know, pretty pitched, um, blades on it. I really wish I had 2 in there, and I'm probably gonna put another one in there at some point. Um, but they're— I mean, 6 foot, I mean, it's a pretty, pretty big diameter on that thing.

Yeah.

Um, and for $299, it's, it's not bad. Now, it still can't hold a candle to what, like, those big-ass fans do.

Yeah.

Um, but it's not a bad alternative.

Yeah, you know, and I, I My idea in my head has always been if I could like buy in bulk those wall-mounted oscillating ones.

Yeah.

That are really powerful. I think that would be a— I mean, for my porch and for the deck, it would be better. But like just, just having good fans that are, you know, in place to help keep you cool while you're hanging out, you know, listening to music, drinking from the kegerator, right, grilling on the grill.

Sure.

You know, it's, um, And we actually use fans to kind of keep the smoke out of the deck as well because they're, you know, the pit that—

Right. So yeah, and one of the things, like, if, if you're out there and you're going, yeah, we really need a fan, you can go to a box store and you can go to, you know, Lowe's or Home Depot and, and find fans. I would encourage you— and that's where I'll, I'll just tell you, the Home Depot is where we got the one I was just speaking of. Yeah, I would encourage you to look at, um, commercial grade, grade type thing. Like, we, we bought some for, uh, for my work from a place called Global Industrial. And how much were those, by the way? They were—

I've seen them.

Yeah, they're, they're fantastic. Yeah, no, they're very cool. They were $300 apiece.

Okay, that's actually not too bad.

Not bad at all, because one of the things that's— I mean, they're, they're big, they're 24 inches around, um, And so you get, you get 2 feet, but they, they're fully enclosed inside a cage, and there's 3 speeds, and it, it also oscillates inside.

Yeah.

So you could wall mount this thing and it would never— it wouldn't pivot. It doesn't pivot.

Yeah.

Um, on a, you know, like a typical oscillating fan pivots, right? This pivots inside its own cage. I know that sounds weird. But you've seen it, you know.

Yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about. It's hard to describe.

Yeah, it's hard to describe, but they're quiet and they push a lot of air.

Yeah. So yeah, those things would definitely help me solve that problem.

Yeah, Global Industrial, that's where we, we got it.

So anyway, we would love to hear from you guys. What are your top 3 choices for your outdoor kitchen?

Do you—

did you, did you have different ones going in and did we change your mind?

Yeah.

So that's great. Um, so I enjoyed this one. Yeah, I, I, you know, I, I walk away thinking I, I didn't think you're any more of a terrible person than when we started.

Well, that's my only accomplishment every time we hang out, it's for that. Uh, but yeah, no, I thought it was good too. I, I, I always find it interesting that you and I come up with different things, and which, which again is why home buying and owning things related to your home is so personal.

Yeah, it's, it's different for everybody.

It's different for everybody. And make it your own, make it fit your lifestyle. And, you know, if it— you know, you don't have to keep up with your next-door neighbor, you don't have to keep up with someone else. Just do you and be satisfied, you know. So anyway, thanks for downloading today's episode. We hope you enjoyed it. It's been fun for us. So we're here every single Tuesday. So thanks for downloading. Please, if you have not, go ahead and subscribe to the channel. Subscribe to our YouTube as well. We're putting that out every Thursday. And so yeah, send us your information for what you think are your top 3 at info@homeownersshow.com or find us on Facebook or Instagram. We do not check Twitter. Um, and, uh, let us know what you

think.

So, and the kindest thing you can do is to share our content. Yes, put it on the Facebook.

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Put it on, you know, put it on Twitter. We don't care. Yeah. Um, you know, just share.

Do that. Leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts would be also fantastic. We would thoroughly appreciate it.

I need to check that. I haven't checked it in a while. You guys could have been saying all kinds of stuff. I just, we wouldn't know. I haven't checked it in a little while. Let's check it— shame on me.

We'll check it later.

We'll check it out right after the show.

That's right. So yeah, thanks for downloading. We hope you had a great time, and until next time, we'll see you later. See ya.