That time we talked about us

This is episode number 1 of The Homeowner's 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 my friend Craig Williams.

I am here as Always.

Well, it will be always.

Will be always. Yes. Maybe forever, but hopefully, I don't know, forever would be good. Yeah.

Forever sounds good.

Yeah. So, uh, this is, this is a new show where, uh, I think we're both really excited about it.

I'm, I'm super excited. Yeah.

So, I mean, we're both homeowners.

Yeah.

We've both done, uh, I think we've had several conversations about some, uh, some crazy home improvement stuff that we've done, some, some projects. That we've taken on. Yeah. And even some crazy people that we've hired. And unfortunately for you, you've actually hired me for some of that stuff in the past.

Yeah, I have. How about that?

Yeah. The warranty was very short, though.

Yeah. I'm going to be looking into that soon, actually.

Some recourse out there, right? Yeah. So this is episode 1, and what we wanted to talk about was why we're doing this show. I want to let everybody know why we're here. So like, why, for you, why was this an interesting show?

You know, I think for me, one of the things that's, um, that's been exciting to me all my life is the idea of owning a home. I bought my first home, um, I guess it was about 9 or 10 years ago, and I didn't know anything about owning a home. And there's a lot that goes into it, a lot more than I think the average person who has never owned a home before has any idea about. And so, you know, there's a lot of things, whether it's, um, whether it's things that I need to fix because it broke or things that I just want to improve in general, um, trying to figure out, okay, is it worth my time and my money to do

this myself or do I hire it out? And because I don't really know what I'm doing. So I either have to go figure out how to do it on my own, or I gotta go hire it out. Both of those things I'm gonna have to do research on. And so, you know, for me, when, when you and I were discussing starting this show, it's kind of like, yeah, I mean, where do you get that type of information if you're not a natural researcher or someone who doesn't have connections? Where do you go to get that type of information? And, um, I don't know that I knew the answer to begin with.

Right. And then like, if you don't have that that natural network built in, it's really difficult to even like, feel like you can jump off into those kinds of projects.

Yeah, absolutely. What about you? I mean, what, what kind of— I mean, you're the one that actually pitched this idea to me to begin with. So what was some of your driving force behind that?

Yeah, I mean, the initial driving force is just really, I want to, I want to help folks get into those projects and have the confidence to do them, to either do them yourself or know how to talk to the professionals that are going to be doing these projects for you? Because both of those can be really intimidating. You know, I mean, one, it can be really intimidating to like just look underneath your sink and go like, I don't really know where these pipes are going.

Sure.

But also, like, when you do bring in a professional, like, what are your expectations of them? Because most of the time it's just like, I want this fixed, or I want this changed. And you don't really understand the process or the language that they're using sometimes. And so to me, it's really valuable to like just sit down with some of these guys and, and pick their brain and, and get inside their head and understand, uh, how and why they're gonna approach the jobs that the way that they're going to approach them. Because I think a lot of homeowners get really frustrated when they have a project out there and they hire a professional. to come in and do that project. And then they don't understand

why they're paying the price that they're paying and what all goes into that. And, and so to me, it was really valuable to sit down with a lot of professionals as I've been doing for a number of years now, sitting down with some of these guys and really understanding their business and really understanding the why, the ways and the whys that they, that they put their prices together. Because I think a lot of homeowners, you know, like when they, when they get that bill, You know, anyone can walk over to like a box store, a hardware store, and go, well, it doesn't cost this much to buy these things that I know that they just put in my home. So why is it like

this? And so like, there is a level of professionalism and, and language that goes with understanding how your home gets fixed. I mean, even with the crazy house that I'm in right now, I had to relearn some of that stuff just because it was a really, really weird house. And so like, you know, professionals were coming into my home and telling me how things were going to be done. And I was like, I don't understand. But then like when I, you know, when I was able to like actually have a conversation with them and go like, okay, why is it this way? It just became a lot more clear that like, oh, okay, like if I were to try and do this, it would take me months. But these, these guys have a

handle and an understanding as to why things work together the way that they do. And And, and can really, you know, bring something beautiful together. And, and your home, you know, unfortunately can be like— no, fortunately can be like one of the most exciting things in, in your life. I mean, like, it— for most people, it is their biggest investment ever. And so with that excitement can come a lot of stress with getting projects done, because no one walks into a home and— or at least Hardly anybody, in my opinion, walks into a home and goes, everything is perfect. Everything is just the way I want it. The tile is perfect, the countertops are perfect, those are

exactly the fixtures I want. You know, unless you built that house.

Right.

Um, and so most everybody wants things changed, um, or eventually wants things changed. Or, you know, if your house is 30 years old, it's like, well, you know, maybe that shag carpeting is just not— doesn't have the same cool effect that it used to. I mean, you can shock people pretty good with it, but, uh, But yeah, so it's— I want to, I want to take the stress out of homeownership. Yeah.

Yeah. And so, you know, one of the things that, that we're going to do in the future episodes is, we're going to bring some of these guys who are doing professional home remodeling, home repair, maintenance, maintenance, Those, you know, the types of things that just need to happen whenever you're owning a home, that the regular routine and super unroutine things that come along with owning a home. Bring these guys in and just kinda interview them and talk to them about, hey, what is this for you? How does this work for you? And, you know, why are you doing this? And how am I as a homeowner gonna benefit from you doing this? for me because I think one of the things that's super exciting about owning a home is when I can get in

there and do the project myself.

Yeah.

There's a lot of pride that goes into that. Like, yeah, when you come over to my house, I like saying, hey man, I did that. Like, I didn't know if I could, but I, I actually did it. But the problem is that I've gotten into some of those projects before and, and made a mess of it. Like, made worse problems out of the situation where if I would have hired a professional for this, I probably wouldn't have had the same issue, may have even saved money by hiring a professional. And then there's other times when I look at it and go, no, I can do that myself. And, um, at the end of the day,

save money, have a little bit of pride going into it. And, uh, that's— it's exciting to me.

Yeah, yeah. And I've even had projects where I've done both, you know, like where I've sort of come alongside contractors and done some of it myself. And then there's parts of it, there's like, well, I either have no interest or I don't have the skill. And it's like, I need you to, to help me finish this.

Yeah.

Um, but yeah, and then there's, we wanna make people aware. I mean, there's a lot of homeowners, there's just maintenance stuff that some people aren't aware of, you know, things that need to be done around the house from time to time, you know, and like things that, you know, I've, I've encountered things with homeowners where there's maintenance issues that have to be taken care of like once every 10 years. years. And that's just not something that's front of mind. And so we just, we want to, you know, bring to the forefront all of these, these issues and these ideas and these concepts and these people, so that people can just have a better idea as to how to be a better homeowner and not have it be this just ball of

stress. You know, we want to coach you through this process and then help you be a better homeowner, because then you can, you can, you know, actually relax in your home and enjoy your home more. Um, yeah, that's— I mean, that, that's definitely what it's been for me.

Yeah, I'm, I'm looking forward to, uh, to getting into some of these things. I mean, yeah, because honestly, uh, there's some—

Sort of selfishly, we want to learn more about them too.

Absolutely.

I mean, we're not experts by any stretch of the imagination.

Not even close. But I am a homeowner. Yeah, you know, I do own my own home, and I want to be able to take care of it. I want to A home has a real opportunity to build equity, to help you out financially, or it can hurt you financially. So at the end of the day, whether I live in my house for 30, 40, 50 years, or if I live in my house for 2 or 3 or 4 years, I would rather leave it in better shape than whenever I acquired it.

Yeah.

And in order to do that, I'm excited to hear from some of these guys and try to get into some, some product reviews and some other things that—

Yeah, which is another thing that we're gonna be doing is looking at new products and, and things for the home.

Yeah.

That, you know, you might potentially be interested in.

Yeah, things that we've either tried or, um, have utilized in our own home, um, on a, on a regular basis that we go, man, this thing was really cool, or man, this was a real bust, you know?

Yeah, in fact, I think in In our next episode, we're going to be looking at a smart thermostat, right, that you actually use, right?

Yeah, I've got 2 of them in my home. Um, so yeah, be interesting to kind of talk through some of those types of things.

Yeah, yeah. Have you ever, uh, we should have talked about this before, have you ever seen that movie The Money Pit? I have seen The Money Pit. It's pretty old. I mean, like, a lot of people probably haven't seen it. It's a great Tom Hanks film.

It's hysterical.

Oh my gosh. But like, I actually think Before anybody buys a home. I mean, that should be like required watching.

The mortgage lenders should actually require you to watch that before you watch this hour and a half movie before you sign on the dotted line.

I mean, like, this could be your reality.

What a ridiculous and awesome thing.

If I had them, if I had a title company, that's what I would do. And I think you should do some popcorn, a couple of sodas. You guys are going to watch this and then we're going to go in the room and sign.

If you're still here, realtors would hate me. Oh, man. Yes, they would. Speaking of, how do you deal with realtors?

Oh, yeah, that— we're gonna bring those guys in too.

Absolutely.

Yeah. And we want to, we want to hear from you guys as well. I mean, like, if you guys have a topic that you're, you're curious about, or that you're wondering about, or you're struggling with, send that to us. You can reach us at info@homeownershow.com. That's also where you can find us is at www.homeownershow.com. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube. We're gonna have videos and all kinds of stuff up for you guys. We'd love for you guys to, to stop in there and say hi, and we can— you can check in with us there and see what's going on with the show. And we'll have, you know, extra stuff on there as well. So that should be a good way. But yeah, so if you, if you have a question,

you know, we— if we have the right expert in the room, or if like we feel like we can address it, Uh, we'll answer those questions on, on air, uh, and get you guys taken care of. Or if you just have an idea for a show or a professional, uh, that you think is worth talking to, we wanna, we wanna interview the best guys in their field. Um, and we—

Yeah, you know, it'll really give us an opportunity. So, so Craig, you and I live in the Houston area, right? And so, um, you know, we got a pretty wide pool of people, uh, and resources in this area to pull from.

Right.

Um, and, uh, you know, give us an opportunity to, to interview some of these people that are doing it professionally and doing it well. Uh, we recognize that you may be listening to this somewhere besides the Houston area.

Right. So we may struggle with things like basements.

Yeah, absolutely. Tornado shelters.

Yeah. I mean, I've been in a few.

Yeah. Well, where I grew up, I took a tour once.

It was short.

Well, they were necessary where I grew up. If you didn't have a tornado shelter, you were, um, you're in bad shape potentially. But we deal with hurricanes.

Hurricanes, yeah.

So, you know, we just, uh, a little over a year ago, Harvey hit down here, and man, it's just—

Right, we learned a lot about home demo work, man, and sheetrock and water damage and mold damage. And we learned a lot.

Hey, you want to talk about stress?

Yeah.

I mean, that's a, that's a super stressful type of thing whenever you, you have a tragedy hit. Um, and hopefully you'll never deal with that if you're listening right now. Hopefully you never deal with it, but, but when you do, and how do you not just throw your hands up and just say, I have, I'm, I'm out of my league? Well, right.

And, and like, you know, uh, I think you and I both have friends in like the insurance business. I mean, like, and having the right kind of insurance for your home, I mean, it's crucial. And so like, we want to bring those guys in too and talk about like, you know, what does it actually cost to, to have these kinds of plans in place to protect you? And, you know, is it worth having fire insurance? Is it worth having flood insurance? And, you know, a lot of those are very nuanced questions depending on where you live. Uh, but we want to bring these guys in and talk about like, what's the, what's the benefit? You know, like, why, you know, why would I have these kinds of things?

Yeah.

Because they're not always required.

No. In fact, I live in an area specifically that does not require flood insurance. But I have to figure out, is that something that I want? Is that something that I need? It's a huge expense. Sure.

Yeah.

But the alternative is, is Pretty negative, right? So, so how do I justify this versus that? And, um, you know, I'm looking at that. I guess that, that is one of the things I'm really looking forward to is having someone who can look at me and say, Kevin, you have got to think differently about the way you're owning your home. You've got to think about these sorts of things and make me just kind of turn a light bulb on in my head and go, you're right. I, I never thought about that, you know. And codes are a big deal. I got— I don't know about like, like codes and permitting and things like that. Like, I have no clue about those sorts of

things. And like, um, I know those are things you have to think about whenever you own a home on some level. Like, I can't just go to Home Depot and just pull anything out and expect that one day when I sell my home, someone, you know, the inspector is going to come by and look at it and go, Man, you nailed it on that one. You know, they may very well say you got to take that out and replace it with something else. And so those types of things, man, I'm, I'm really looking forward to trying to figure some of those nuances out.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, and then, you know, like, you know, like, like you say, when, like, typically when you have an inspector come in, it's you're either buying or selling. And those processes can be vastly different than owning, right? I mean, like, just, I mean, like, Not talking about like maintenance or anything like that, but like how do you prep a home to sell it? How do you prep a home, or how do you how do you look at a house to buy it? You know, that's that's a difficult skill to to really grasp on. But yeah, we so we probably yeah, we need to we need to move on into some some crazy and wacky stuff.

So like so so for this episode. Since it's just, it's just Kevin and I, we just decided to kind of interview each other a little bit as to how we would typically— and this is gonna be a little bit shorter than usual. We're doing a little bit long form when we have a professional in. So today we thought we would talk about, you know, what are some, some weird projects, or maybe like some, some bad projects that you and I have taken on? And so like, so for you, what has been like the, the weirdest home project that you've taken on, either one that you did yourself or you hired somebody to do? do? Like, what would be— what would be like probably your

weirdest? The weirdest?

Oh goodness.

Um, probably—

so, so when you say weird—

Is weird too hard?

No, no, weird, like, because weird can go a number of ways.

Like, weird can go— What's the nightmare project that you take on?

Okay, well, one, one that was just, um, super frustrating because it happened over and over and over Um, at a home that I owned previously was, um, we had a situation where we had a, we had a garbage disposal in our kitchen and it kept backing up. And it was really odd because it would back up into the sink.

Mm-hmm.

And so, you know, that's the most logical thing for it to do. But one time it backed up into the dishwasher.

And so like the, the, the food processor, like not the garbage disposal in the sink sent, like was sending stuff back into the dishwasher.

Absolutely. And so it was, it was really weird because I thought I had kind of taken care of the problem because the first time it happened, um, it, it backed up into the sink.

Yeah.

And so I'm sitting here going, all right, first of all, you can't use the sink. That's a super problem whenever you've got kids at home. you know, trying to cook, those sorts of things. So I thought I had it fixed. And then, you know, like a month later, I mean, this was a while later, it starts backing up into the dishwasher.

Huh.

And so, um, so I'm trying to figure all this out and, um, you know, ultimately the, the thing it needed was we needed to replace some of the piping down below and buy a new garbage disposal. We did those 2 things and we didn't have the problem anymore, but there was, it was just an old, Garbage disposal, the pipes had, uh, had been corroded on the inside.

And, um, so this wasn't like PVC, this was, these were metal pipes.

Yeah, we had some metal pipes down there. Now we've replaced them with PVC, but you know, here's, here's the thing is like, so I started asking friends, right? Yeah. I'm like, hey man, you ever had this weird thing happen? And they're, you know, most people, no, not exactly, but I've had this, right? So they're trying to give me a version of what they had done. YouTube was super helpful cuz I was trying to figure out, okay, you know, has someone dealt with this specific issue before?

Yeah.

Um, ultimately, you know, for, for me, one of the biggest blessings was I knew a guy who was a plumber.

Mm-hmm.

A friend of mine. And I, you know, had him actually come out eventually and he said, all right, I'm gonna let you do this, but, but This is what has to be done. And so—

Which I imagine like YouTube can be kind of tricky for a house because like, if my car's busted, I can go like, okay, well, I got— I need, I need a video for like a 2015 Dodge, you know, like, but like no one's like going in there like, well, I need a 1973 Kenner home.

Yeah, absolutely. And it's not very specific.

I mean, they're pretty, pretty broad.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

So that was That was like a kind of a gross one. Now, now when you say weirdo, it also threw me to another homeowner project that I did one time. And that was that I was installing a surround sound system in my house. And, you know, probably an atypical thing for most people to do, but as people will find out, I just love tech and gadgets.

Sure.

And so I was installing the rear surround speakers, on a wall, but this was an addition to the house. And so when I got up into the attic to drop the wire where it needed to go, I found out that there was an eave of my house up in the attic. And so I'm literally, you know, in— I had about 4 inches of space to try to work this Sawzall, trying to cut through shingles.

Yeah.

That were in my attic, right? Trying to cut through shingles and everything else. And And I'm sitting here going, oh goodness, what am I getting myself into? Like, what, what's gonna happen when I cut through this eave? I don't even know what's, what's here.

What's underneath there?

What's underneath? But I'm up there, my brother's behind me kind of, you know, laughing at me. And I'm going, hey, you just wait. One of these days I'm not gonna help you. You know? So that was a super weird thing that could have been disastrous. Now it turned out really good. But, but it was, man, it was a much bigger project.

It sounds like you were running wire. I mean, being the gadgety guy, I mean, you could have gone wireless. I mean, come on.

Ah, not with these speakers. Good speakers, man. You gotta have, gotta have wiring. So I don't know. Okay, throwing it back to you. Okay, what do you got? Weirdest project that you got yourself into that maybe even you wished you never did?

Uh, I mean, like, that could like describe my entire home.

And you know, it's an unusual setup.

We haven't— we have an odd house. We'll probably discuss that more. Um, so let's, let's just go with like the most recent one because that's, that's probably like more fresh of mind. So, uh, we have a barn and we were doing, uh, an addition. No, it wasn't an addition. It was an existing room that we were just going to convert into an office.

Okay.

And, uh, a buddy of mine uh, was, was over to, to help with the, uh, our mutual friend Jared.

Oh yeah.

And, uh, so Jared was over and we were prepared to get started reframing the walls so that we could put in insulation and sheetrock and all this kind of stuff. The floor was already there, um, and it, it's, it's a good structure. And so as we're getting started, we're kind of looking at the room and, you know, gauging and making plans and you know, here's where we need to start this and here's where we need to, you know, put this, you know, put this wall and, and just, you know, really just putting together like a basic plan. We were, I mean, we were ready to start putting nails in the wall for sure.

So you were getting close.

Yeah, we were. I mean, like, we're, we're very, very close to like, you know, framing this out. You know, we, we had a lot of the materials bought already and, um, up against the wall, uh, where basically the division between the barn and this, in this new room, um, I stepped and there was like just a little bit of give in the floor. It's, it was a block and beam room.

Okay.

Off the, uh, off the barn.

And you stepped and this is not what you were hoping to find?

Well, I mean, like, you know, it's an older building.

Sure.

And so I was like, well, it's got a little bit of give to it. And, and Jared and I kind of discussed it and we were like, man, You know, as much as I don't want to, we probably just need to pull this up and make sure that there's nothing underneath there that we need to shore up.

Okay.

You know, and so like, if we have to spend a couple extra hours, you know, you know, rebracing this floor, no big deal. So like 4 hours later, Uh-oh. We, you know, it was, it was, it was literally like peeling an onion. I mean, like, as we peeled it, we just, the more we cried because it had, for whatever reason, and we don't— we never really figured out like what happened, but like every single joist underneath the floor was just rotten.

Oh no.

And we didn't even know, like, we were walking on this. We don't even know like how it's holding this, how it had been holding this up. Um, and so we ended up having to redo the The entire floor, re— rejoiced the entire floor. And, and so like, as we're pulling up, you know, the, basically the, the plywood, that's the flooring, like that's getting busted up. And so then we're pulling out the joist and it's just coming apart in pieces. And so we, we had to, like, we had to go buy the joist hangers, the, the actual wood for the joist, and then a lot of the plywood. Um, you know, in, end of the day, Yeah, like really happy that we found it.

Blessing in disguise.

Yeah, um, but not what we were planning, not how we were planning on spending our day.

No.

And, and really set the project back quite a bit, uh, both, you know, time-wise and finance-wise.

Sure.

Uh, because of parts and pieces we weren't— I wasn't necessarily planning on, on, on buying.

Yeah.

Um, but man, there's, there's, you know, and you know, as you've been over several times, you know that there's There's lots of special issues with my home. So those of you out there with unique homes, and, you know, you have a special place in my heart.

And it's something that you can relate to for sure.

Oh my gosh. There's, there's literally nothing normal about this. I love this house, by the way. I mean, like, I wouldn't have bought it if I didn't like it. I mean, I like the uniqueness of it, but like, it definitely came at a price.

You just gotta appreciate it.

Yeah, I know. It's, it's my ugly kid.

Hey, you know what? You chose it.

I did. I'm not regretting it at all.

I can tell.

It's more out of like spite than anything, but I'm gonna make it beautiful.

It's honestly, I'll just tell you, it is one of the neatest houses. that I've ever been in. It's super unique, but I know that there's a lot of work that goes into it.

So, okay, so here's what— here's one for you. What is, uh, because we're both married. Yeah, you know, wife and kids.

Yep.

So what is, what is probably the one thing about your house that your wife likes the least?

Oh, one of the things my wife likes The least.

This is a relatively new house for you, so she's probably like, you know, yeah, a little bit of honeymoon phase still with the house, but there's probably something that she's like, I really don't like that.

Yeah, it is interesting because, uh, when we, when we walked into this home the first time, I was sold pretty immediately on this house. Um, she was not. Yeah. Um, there were definitely some things about the house that, that she didn't love. Um, it's an odd layout.

Yeah, I mean, well, I like odd houses, but I like the layout of it. I think it's pretty neat.

I do too. Um, but it is unique for sure. Um, just the layout of the house. Um, I, I think one of the things that she didn't like was, um, there's quite a bit of separation between some of the rooms. Um, we kind of have a front of our house and a back of our house, which I think a lot of people do. But, um, so our house is right around 2,400 square feet, but it's, it's all one story.

Yeah.

So because of that, it's a big footprint. It is a big footprint. And so, uh, we've got a room way off at the back and another room, you know, that's, uh, a living space in the back and one that's in the front. Um, and I think initially she kind of wished that some of that was, uh, more together. We had a larger living space, but, um, So that was kind of initially she didn't really love. The other thing, um, was we don't have a fence in our backyard. So we, we chose to buy this house and it happened to be on a golf course, um, which I'll just tell you, huge upside for me, uh, was to have a golf course in my backyard. But, um, it didn't have a fence. And not only did it not have

a fence, It had to have a certain type of fence.

Oh, the HOA requirements on that.

Absolutely. So it had to be, you know, a black wrought iron fence. It couldn't just be a regular wood fence. Um, and so the cost of that was going to be astronomical. So, uh, it was kind of, you know, trying to figure out, do we, you know, we had a dog at the time. In fact, you wound up keeping my dog.

We dog sat.

Yeah. For like 3 months or more. I don't even want to think about how long it was anyway. But that's the thing is like, you know, what do you do whenever you get into a house that doesn't have all of the things that your house previously had?

Yeah.

Trying to live with some of those nuances. Um, so those were probably the, the 2 biggies.

Hmm.

For y'all. Um, so for me, not y'all, me. So for y'all though.

Wife.

That's— No, you're not. Um, For y'all, um, like we've already kind of alluded to, this house is very different, right? It's got some acreage to it, um, some land. So what was—

I mean, I could have cared less if there was a house on it. I didn't— just let me walk around, right?

Give me some land, right?

I'll sleep underneath the tree, it's fine.

Absolutely. So, so what was y'all's, uh, your, your wife's biggest thing about this house?

Uh, man, initially there were so many things. Well, I mean, several of them have been since addressed. I mean, so probably like the biggest one now, it may be a toss-up between the master bath and then the upstairs ceiling. That's a big bugaboo for her.

Bugaboo. That's a good word.

You like that?

Yeah, thanks.

See ya. It's mine forever. Yeah, no, she— so one is, I mean, it's a functional bathroom. It's fine. I mean, but she just wants something different and I totally— I want something different too. We just haven't had the opportunity to get it done. Maybe we'll meet the right person in the course of doing the show to knock that project out. Yeah, uh, because I'm not doing it.

No.

And I've done a bathroom and I, I feel like I did a pretty good job, um, but I just, I don't have it in me right now. Yeah, to do another one. But the, the ceiling upstairs, I mean, like, that's definitely something I can't do. Um, and our— so our ceiling upstairs, it's, it's weird. And like, I know we keep saying that about this house, but like It— so there's— I don't have an attic, right? So the upstairs, uh, essentially looks kind of like a, like a ski lodge, except for the ceiling. They put in, uh, acoustic paneling like you would see in an office, right?

Like, like almost like a drop ceiling type of—

Like a drop ceiling, except it's not a drop ceiling. It goes right up to the roof, right? Um, and so like you can't even— like if you go up And then some parts of the upstairs, you can actually go up to the ceiling and it's within reach if you're an adult. And like, if you push on those panels, like if you're in an office building, which by the way, that's like one of my favorite episodes of The Office is like when they actually go through the ceiling because they think there's a fire.

Yeah.

So if you've ever seen that episode and you see them go up through the ceiling, you can't do that in my ceiling. Like if you push on those tiles, they're not going anywhere because You know, there's nothing there except for insulation and—

The ceiling, the roof.

Yeah. Um, so I don't even know if one broke how we would change it out, honestly. Um, and so we've had a couple people come out and look at it and see like, should we tear this out and put something new in? And almost everybody's told us like, don't tear it out. Whatever you do, don't tear it out. Um, for a couple of reasons. One, I mean, I think they're afraid that it's like somehow crucial to the structural integrity of the building. But kidding aside, they— whatever most people have told us, like, this is an extra layer of insulation that you have, that if you were to take it out, you would probably have a lot of energy loss.

Interesting.

To the home. So most everybody's just recommended putting an additional layer on top of that. And so we have some plans to make it look nice, but I mean, like, we have a long list of things before this is, like, you know, finished. We've tackled quite a few, but I mean, like, you know, that's— it's like for everybody else, you know, and it can be a really stressful thing, but it's been fun.

Yeah.

Just because we've had access to good information and good folks to help get this taken care of.

Yeah, you know, I think you hit on something there that, um, just kind of jogged my memory about things that I love about owning a home. Yeah, it's like just the, the fun of getting into stuff that you've never done before. Um, kind of go— I guess it kind of goes along with that pride thing, you know, feeling like, you know, I, I did that. Yeah, but, you know, setting out a vision for something And bringing it to completion. Um, sometimes the, the time frame there is longer than you want it to be.

Maybe it never happens, but, um, and a lot of people's, you know, visions and dreams for their home revolve around like, what do you want to have happen here? I mean, like, what do you want Christmases to look like? What do you want Thanksgiving to look like? I mean, is this the place where you want your kids to come home to? I mean, like, in, you know, what kind of home do you want your kids to grow up in? Or You know, if you're just, you know, 2 folks married, or if you're just single, I mean, like, what, what do you want your home to be about? I mean, right? Is it all about the, you know, like the multimedia room? Is it— I mean, do you have like a, like a, you know, an entertainment

area, bar area? You know, if you want to shoot pool in your room, you know. And I have a customer that has turned most of their living room into an arcade. He's a vintage arcade collector. And that's— I mean, like, he's got the fireplace and he's got pinball machines. And what is that? It's not Pac-Man. But anyway, like—

Galaga.

Yeah, I think it is Galaga, actually. But that's his living room. And that's what he wants.

Nice. Yeah.

So that's his home. And so, you know, whatever it is that you want to have happen here, it's fun to dream about how your home can become that over time.

And I guess it is one of the nuances, right? Like, a home was originally built for a person. And unless you're building it, then you're coming into it with their vision of what it is. So when you purchase a home that you didn't build, there is this whole idea of what do I do with this to make it my own? Yeah, to make it feel like home. I mean, I remember, um, when last time we moved, it, it didn't really feel like home until my furniture was in there.

Yeah.

Right? It's like my furniture suddenly made it feel more like home than it did without my furniture in there. So, so I think that's, um, that's a real challenge that we have beyond fixing a house to meet the standard that we want it to meet. whatever that is, but then to actually make it a home, make it a place where your family can grow and feel like it's a place to relax and unwind at the end of the day, um, a place to be, right?

And I think, I think one of the other things that we even talked about before was like, you know, homes are even becoming pretty different for different folks, right? I mean, like, we have like the whole tiny home movement going on, right? Um, and, or, um, I think, I think even treehouses are starting to become more of a normalized thing. Like, yeah, I'm living in a treehouse.

Sure.

Um, you can go on Airbnb and find all kinds of crazy— I mean, people are turning like old airplane fuselages into homes. Wow. And that's, that's another one you can rent on Airbnb is old airplanes that you can go and stay in. I mean, it's crazy. I Like, you can turn— people are turning all kinds of different things into a home. And, and even in our area, we have some guys that we're planning on bringing in and talking to, like, you know, tell us about these tiny homes. So, like, why are people buying these things?

What, what's the appeal?

Right. Um, and I think for some people, you know, then it's obvious. I mean, it's, it's, you know, it's a simpler lifestyle. It's a smaller space to take care of. Some of them are extremely mobile. Um, so there's all kinds of things. We want to get those guys in here and talk about them. Sure. But we're probably getting run into the end here, so we probably need to get to the final four.

The final four.

Final four.

Yeah.

So these are these are the the four questions we're going to be asking guys when we when we bring them in to interview them. The same four questions we're going to be asking everybody every week. So do you want to you want you want to go first or you want me to to kick this off?

Yeah, kick it off for us.

All right. So Kevin. Sure. What is What's your must-have tool? Um, and so I think with the way we talked about this, so you're heading out the door, you're going to do a job at somebody else's house. What's the one tool you're gonna make sure is in, in the truck?

Man, it's so tough because I've got too many tools, I feel like. But they all serve a purpose, right? That's what I tell my wife. Yeah, they all serve their purpose. But for me, probably the thing that I'm gonna make sure I have with me is a drill.

Drill.

A drill. I, I just, I feel like you can conquer almost anything with a good drill. There's so many other things, but you made me narrow it down, man. We're gonna make other people narrow it down too. I'm gonna make you narrow it down right now too. Yeah, you can't choose drill.

I can't choose drill?

No.

It can be like impact drill, right? Let me Like, um, I'm not gonna pick it. I just want to know the rules.

No, I'll let you interpret it the way you want it to be interpreted.

So my must-have tool, I'm pulling it down and put it in the truck. Um, man, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go pocket knife.

Oh man, you just one-upped me on that.

I'm gonna go pocket knife. Now I'm not like, I have a Swiss Army, but like, that's not my favorite. I'm gonna, I'm gonna go Deer horn, 3-blade.

Okay.

Um, that thing has saved me on so many occasions. Um, and the times when I haven't had it is when I've absolutely needed it. Oh yeah, it's, it's, it's gonna be in the pocket in the truck on the way to any, any job.

That's a good one.

And it's gonna be sharp.

Well, it's got to be sharp. A dull knife is the worst. Yeah, that's absolutely the worst.

Spoon.

That's right. What's next? All right.

So what is, what is a job? Not a job. What's, what's a project that you have walked away from? A home project you've walked away from?

A home project I've walked away from? Hmm. Okay, um, this one was actually fairly recently. Um, and it was because I had no idea what this thing was.

Mm-hmm.

Um, it was a sump pump.

Okay.

So I've got a sump pump in my house and, and come to find out in the Houston area, a lot of homes have a sump pump for one reason or the other. Um, we're just pretty flat here, right?

Which, for people who don't know, what's a, what's a, what's a sump pump?

Exactly. That's the great place to start cuz I didn't even know what one was. So, So what a sump pump does is when water gets into an area that it has no exit for, a sump pump will basically suck the water up and exit it somewhere.

Send it someplace else.

Send it somewhere else. Hopefully away from the house. That's right. So somewhat like a French drain might do, but the French drain would do it maybe with gravity.

per se.

The sump pump actually uses power to exhale that water somewhere else. I don't think you can exhale water, but that's what it does. It just shoves it somewhere else. And so last year about this time, I mentioned Harvey earlier, Hurricane Harvey.

Yeah.

I mean, it rained for like 5 days straight and I've got this courtyard area Of my house. It's kind of unusual, but, but it rains inside this courtyard. And so I've got a sump pump to make sure that it doesn't flood in the courtyard. And come to find out, I did not know, I just bought this house maybe, you know, 2 months before Harvey hit. And the sump pump had, had frozen up. I mean, it was completely seized up. And so it didn't work. So you can imagine, I'm out there during, you know, rain coming down during the middle of Harvey trying to get water out of this courtyard. I actually literally started siphoning water out of there with water hoses. Because I was having—

Like a bunch of straws together?

Almost. I mean, I was— it was a, it was a feat trying to get water out of this place, you know, so my house didn't flood. And I've got the tool right there, you know, the sump pump, and it just didn't work.

And so, um, it wouldn't come on.

It wouldn't, it wouldn't come on. It would actually attempt— I mean, you could hear it buzzing, but it wouldn't turn. And so, um, basically, you know, it's got a propeller down at the bottom of this, uh, this device, and that's how it sucks the water up. And so, um, I get, I get into that thing, man. I pull it out, I try to figure out what's going on. But the problem is there's plumbing along with this pump, and I do not know plumbing. But I thought, you know, this can't be that big of a project. It's a device, you plug it into the wall, hook it up to the plumbing. So I went and I bought a new sump

pump, right? I'm gonna fix this thing myself. And come to find out, I was gonna have to redo all of the the connections and the plumbing. I was gonna have to redo it because the sump pump was slightly different. And I kind of threw my hands up at one point and went, I got to get over this. I got to be done. Yeah. So that's mine. What about you? So I—

there was a tiling job one time that I was doing. And it was, it was an odd one because it was was, I was doing a subway tile surround. Um, and it was so for, for a shower, and the wall came up, but then in order for it to work, you— the, the shower had an angle for the ceiling because it was on the roofline.

Oh, okay.

Um, and so I had to turn and started tiling up the wall.

Okay, um, almost behind yourself.

Kind of like that, yeah. And so I kind of like had a Spider-Man up the wall, and like I was able to get the tile in okay, but for some reason I could not get the grout to work right. Um, and I was just never happy with the way it was. I mean, like, just— I mean, just in general, I mean, it's just the whole project. The tile looked great, couldn't get the grout right. Um, and, and so I literally— I just— I literally had to throw my hands up and walk away and just I had to call in a guy to come and finish that one for me because it was like, this is ridiculous. I

can't— and I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna have it be done poorly and then be frustrated with myself and, right, and, and, you know, just have an ugly grout job that's just gonna create mold and moisture issues. And I just wanted it done right, right? So brought somebody in to, uh, to finish that up, up, and I'd never been happier.

Glad you did. Glad you did.

Uh, yeah. All right, so, so here's one. So how do you wind down at the end of the day? Do you have like a, do you have a routine?

You know, I don't necessarily have a specific routine. But it always—

Housewives of—

Yeah, definitely not. Right. One of my wife and I's favorite thing to do is to just, you know, put the kids to bed and just go sit in the living room, turn the TV on, and not think for a while. And so, um, right now we are into the Arrowverse. You know about the Arrowverse with, with, uh, Green Arrow and Flash, Supergirl?

Full nerd on me.

Full nerd, man.

Yeah, okay.

Like, we're watching— and oh, oh, the other one is, uh, DC Legends of Tomorrow. They're like They, they interweave with each other a little bit. And so we were kind of going through this whole series.

And they're drug dealers. They're, they're roping you into all the others.

It's working, man. It's working.

They got a good product, right?

Yeah. And whether it's that or something else, you know, we like going through TV series. Yeah. Um, and just sitting watching an episode or two every night and then, uh, then kind of trying to veg out, not think about anything for a while, and Go to bed, man. What about you?

Yeah, so my days tend to go pretty late. So, you know, I— so typically for me, it's 3 ice cubes with an adult beverage on the porch.

There you go.

That's— that is the— that signals end of day for me. You're done. And maybe, maybe a chapter or 2 of a book, but like, that's usually because everyone's been asleep, right, for a while by the time I get to my 3 ice cubes.

Nice and calm, right?

Yes. And I need calm to have my 3 ice cubes. Yeah.

Yeah.

So, but no, it's just a— it's not like an everyday routine, but it's like, you know, if it's been a long day, sure, and I need to wind down, that's typically how it's going to go.

But that's an important part of your day, winding down. And that's why we're going to ask this question to a lot of people. It's like, You know, you've been working on a job all day. Like, how do you just relax? Because I think it's an important part of our health.

Yeah. So yeah, and a lot of guys— I mean, some guys work so hard that they, they don't get to wind down, right? I mean, they just kind of go to bed and they get up and hit it again.

That's right.

Um, yeah. All right, so last, last, uh, question of the, uh, the final 4.

Okay, hit me.

Yes, best piece of wisdom from your parents.

Who best?

Maybe something that they said all the time that really stuck with you.

Just kind of resonated.

Yeah.

Yeah. That's a good question. Makes me really kind of think. It's been a while since I've lived in my parents' house.

That's a good thing.

Yeah, it is. But I think, I think one of the things, and maybe it wasn't necessarily something that they just said a lot, um, as much as it was just an overall atmosphere that they, they created for me, was an idea of, um, of living life, um, with other people in mind, you know. And so it just kind of, you know, you realize it was almost like you do not— you know, you're not the only person in this universe, right? Like, I think it was kind of I kind of come off that way sometimes, I think, where, you know, I'm the most— I think we get that from you a lot. Yeah, I'm the most important person in the room, right?

Um, and so I think for me it was kind of like this constant reminder of, you know, there are other people around, right? And so, um, you know, just thinking about others as well. So I think, I don't know, is that, does that answer the question?

I think if that's your answer, then yeah.

That's the one I'm going with.

So.

That's all I got. What about you?

So you— so yours essentially is like, Kevin, Earth does not rotate around Kevin. Is that—

Yeah, I'm still trying to, trying to figure that out. To be honest.

We're still, we're still, you know, in the testing phase of whether or not this is actually true.

Absolutely.

Okay. That's it.

We'll find out one day.

Yeah, so mine, gosh, the sad thing is, is like the one that really sticks out in my brain is the one that my dad always used to tell me, which is, and I later found out this was completely stolen, but I thought this was like my dad's when I was a little kid, but like, I brought you into this world, I can take you out and make another one just like you.

Yeah.

Yeah. So like that, it was kind of in the same vein as you that like, yeah, I could— this world would be okay without you.

Yeah.

And, you know, I can make another one. It's something. No, honestly, the, um, the one of the, the best things my— and this, this was, this was my dad, um, when I was a kid, he always used to tell me the story of, uh, the crane and the crows.

Okay, tell me the story.

It's, it's, I mean, it's not like a really long story, but like, it's essentially, there was a crane sitting on a fence and 3 crows flew up and said, hey, crane, we're gonna go eat Farmer McGregor's corn. He's like, that's, that's really cool. Enjoy. And the crow's like, no, no, no, you should come go with us. it's really, really good. And it's like, well, I'm a crane. I don't really eat corn. It's not really my thing. And they're like, no, no, no, it's a lot of fun. You'll really, really like it. I mean, like, we go and we eat the corn and we laugh at Farmer McGregor because, you know, we get to eat his corn for free. And he's like, well, you know, you guys are my

friends. I'll go with you. And so they go and they're in the cornfield and Farmer McGregor sees them in the the cornfield eating his corn. And so Farmer McGregor comes out with a shotgun and shoots the crane. And, um, you know, so like, obviously the moral of the story is like, you are the company that you keep.

Sure.

Um, and that was— I didn't really realize this until I was later, that that's like, that's like such an important lesson, uh, for, for people later on life. And I, um, I think a lot of people attribute like the, the famous saying about that to like, I think it was Jim Rohn, it was like, you are the sum total of the 5 people that you spend the most time with. And throughout my life, man, that has been so true, either in observing other people and the people that they spend their time with, or the people that I end up spending the most time with. And I, I really am like, I am the sum total of the

5 people in my life that I spend the most time with, that I invest, you know, most of me with. Um, yeah, so that's been, that's been an awesome lesson.

Yeah. So, so I guess—

I don't even know where the story came from. I've tried like researching. I think, I don't know if he made it up or if he heard it from somebody. I've been meaning to ask him about it, but I wanted to like look it up first and see, like, I want to Google my dad. Where do you get this thing?

If not, he needs to write it down.

Yeah. Yeah, we need that recorded for sure.

I love that, that both of our parents were kind of like, hey, take care of yourself and we're gonna bring you—

Take you down a notch or two.

That's right, that's right. Oh man, this has been fun.

Yeah.

It's been fun and I'm excited to see what's in store, you know, down the line and the types of people we're gonna be able to bring on and help us out with some things about home ownership.

Yeah, no, I'm really excited about it. So if this has been, if this sounds like a show that's going to be helpful or interesting to you, we encourage you to hit that subscribe button either through iTunes or any other outlet that you may listen to podcasts on. Leave a review, send us a message, all those things help get the word out. So I guess you want to take us out, man?

Yeah, this has been episode number 1 of The Homeowner Show. We're glad you listened and we'll be back next week with a whole new episode. See you then. See you then.