That Time We Talked to a Home Builder

This is episode number 95 of The Homeowner Show. Whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Hackett, and here with me is Craig Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. We're glad that you could jump on the old bandwagon.

Jump on the bandwagon. Here you are. Glad you're here.

For The Homeowner Show.

That's right.

So how you doing, Kev?

Man, I am fantastic.

Yes? Yes.

Why? I don't know.

I just, I need to know what it is so that I know if I have the power to take it away.

All I know is that today was one of those days where you're in the office and you're like, I, I got nothing to do. Like, so I, I got an intern now. And so, so you've got— I just let him do all the work.

You got every reason to slack off now.

Yeah. So I'm, I'm letting him do all the work and I looked up and I went, well, we don't really much to do today because it's already all done.

So all you got left to do now is get the old corona.

Well, you know what, if that happens, I'm blaming you.

Okay, I'm, I'm cool with that. Yeah, I could be a— what, what is it when you asymptomatic, right?

Oh yeah, that's probably me anyway. I think I already had it back in February, not real sure, but I couldn't breathe and I coughed a lot. There you go. So anyway, I'm probably Corona Kevin. Corona Kevin.

Yeah. I actually heard a deal today where a doctor was saying— I can't remember who it was. Don't ask me to remember facts, folks. But the general idea was, look, at this point, you've been exposed to it. It's not that you haven't been exposed to it, it's that your immune system worked properly.

Yeah. I would hope that my immune system worked properly. I'll tell you, for me, I'm the guy that, if I get sick, I get really, really sick because I don't get sick. And so whenever I do, my body's like, and I hate you. So you're gonna get sick. You're gonna be done for like 3 days. You're gonna run a high fever. I mean, I was a kid that, as a, you know, at one point I was running like 105 fever, right? Taken to the hospital type of— that was me, you know? I just didn't get sick that often. When I did, it was bad.

So all this corona stuff is front of mind. We just got back from a trip to Arkansas to Fairfield Bay, Greers Ferry Lake.

Which I love because I moved from there basically.

It's beautiful. It's absolutely good. Which according— I talked to several locals while I was there and apparently they were like, according to like active cases of coronavirus, they're like number 2, like next to New York.

That's crazy.

And here was the other crazy thing I heard from that doctor was like apparently like 70% of Americans are vitamin D deficient. And so—

Is that just because we're not outside enough?

Well, that's part of it. But then what happened is, is you put everybody in quarantine and tell them, don't go outside. So, then they're still not getting vitamin D, which compromises their immune systems even further, which makes them more vulnerable. All this kind of stuff.

See, I don't know. My kids ought to be fine, then, because I was like, go outside. You need to go outside for a little while.

And we're not giving you the code to the electric lock.

That's right! Those Schlage locks that we reviewed way back when, they did their job.

Kept my kids outside.

That's right!

But no, man, we, uh, we took a trip, you know, which is, uh, we didn't fly, so we didn't have to like quarantine ourselves.

Right. Um, but congratulations. That's a— I mean, being able to go somewhere, huge accomplishment.

Yeah, no, it was. There wasn't— they were still in phase 1, so there were no restaurants really open. You could go to them, but you had to have face masks, and we didn't have any face masks because we were planning on hiking the whole time we were there. Didn't really occur to us. Um, but, uh, man, what a fun trip. And so my, my big thing, um, was waterfalls. I just wanted to go see a bunch of waterfalls. There's a ton of waterfalls there. Honestly, the first one we went to—

Did you chase them?

I did.

Did you?

I did not follow the advice of TLC. Sorry, girls!

I'm sure they're listening right now.

They're huge fans! Although, they probably ran out of their one-hit wonder money. I don't know if they own a home or not.

Who knows?

But yeah, so I chased the waterfalls.

Yeah, good.

Congratulations. And it's not as bad as they made it out to be. I may do it again.

Yeah, they—

well, you also found the rivers and streams, didn't you?

I did.

Okay.

Which is how I found the waterfalls. The song makes no sense.

Yeah, no, there you go.

Yeah, I don't know what they're talking about. But anyway, the first one that we went to was just a— and it wasn't really a waterfall as much as it was a massive spring just shooting out of the side of a rock that met up with a stream that was already there, and the water was probably like 55 degrees.

Yeah.

Um, and we went in, me and my son kind of went up to about our chest, um, but there was a huge disclaimer, uh, by the, uh, uh, by the spring that said, whatever you do, don't drink the water.

Ah.

Um, and then it went on to explain because the, the mouth opening of the spring was massive, um, and it was, it was probably 15 feet in diameter.

Wow.

Yeah, it was big. And they said what's gone on over the years is it's become a bat cave. And so as the bats die, they fall in the water and then they poop in the water and they do all this, you know, all the guano in the water. So it's really not healthy to drink that water.

Unless you want the 'rona.

Yeah. Unless you—

yeah.

The bat 'rona.

That's what— that's where it comes from, y'all. Comes from bat 'rona.

So we didn't drink the water, but we got in the water. Yeah. And man, I love getting in cold mountain pools.

Yeah.

Yeah. So I climbed all the way across it. Yeah, we did a lot of hiking.

How did you keep your youngest daughter out of the water and safe?

I did tell you about that. Yeah. So there was a second waterfall after that one. And my youngest is 5 and is an extremely good swimmer. She actually prefers to go underwater. And she can probably go, I don't know, 30 or 40 yards holding her breath.

Yeah.

I mean, she's an incredible swimmer. And so she saw the second waterfall and just wanted to get in the middle of it. And so I had to like latch my arm onto a rock and hold on to her so that she could get out in the middle of this waterfall. She just wanted to get out in the middle of the water. And so like my wife's over here, she's like, I'm not looking, I'm not watching. I've already told you not to do that. You're obviously not listening to me. So I'm just dangling this 5-year-old because she was gonna do it regardless. I was like, well, you got to hang on to Dad.

Yep.

So we did. And we got some good pictures of it.

Yeah. So Well, she's gonna do what she wants to. I mean, she's got a mind of her own, as most people do. She just really listens.

We don't call her Porcupine for nothing.

That's true.

So that's true. She earned that badge.

Yeah, definitely. Well, cool. It sounds like a fun trip.

It was a fantastic trip. I highly recommend it if you ever get the chance. Greers Ferry Bay, uh, Mountain View, Clinton, Arkansas. It's a, it's a fantastic resort destination, honestly.

Yeah. So y'all did one of the things that I kind of recommended. I mean, I didn't really, I didn't really realize where y'all were going, but once you got there, I was like, ah, you got to go to Mountain View.

Oh yeah.

Which you were already planning on kind of going through Mountain View. But like, I was like, you've got to go to Mountain View on a weekend in the evening and go downtown because it is one of the most unique experiences that you will ever have. Because when you show up there, depending on when you get there, there are probably already people there in just like these locations around this downtown area and there's people circled up around them. They bring their chairs. There's these little gazebos everywhere and they're all playing bluegrass music.

Yep.

They're just all, you know, singing and—

Well, they might be offended by that. I mean, actually, because it's folk.

It's folk.

Folk music is what they say.

It's definitely folk music, but it's bluegrass.

It is. They're playing a lot of bluegrass.

Yeah.

So, yeah. And I actually had a lady— I posted some pictures up of that and I had a lady reach out to me saw my pictures from Mountain View. I was, I was sitting around with some, uh, some guys playing, and she sent me a little note and said, yeah, my, uh, my uncle is so-and-so, and we used to play with him there all the time.

Wow.

And she said it like I should know who he was, and I was like, so I better look this guy up. And I looked him up, and he's like this famous folk songwriter. He's written like over 6,000 songs.

What?

Yeah, it's crazy. I'll have to, I'll have to show it to you later on after the show. And she was like, yeah, we used to— me and my sister used to go sing with him all the time in Mountain View.

That's crazy.

It's like, it was, it was crazy Saturday night. I mean, I bet you there was 500 or 600 people in that town. Oh yeah, like 200 of them had guitars and fiddles and upright basses. And so cool.

And I'm kind of sad you didn't have your guitar with you because you would have been welcome to join in.

So I'll tell you real quick, just short. I went to the music shop Because once I saw what was going on, I was like, all right, maybe I do want to join in.

Yeah, I'll buy something if I have to.

So I walked in the store and I kind of walked around for a minute and I didn't see anything my size. And so I kind of walked to the front and I was like, so don't have many lefties come through here, do you? And she goes, no, we make left-handed people learn how to play right-handed, you know, the right way. And I was like, all right, peace out, lady who doesn't want my money.

Wow.

I'll take your guitar bigotry elsewhere.

Yeah, you might as well bind your feet while you're at it, you know?

Wow.

Oh well, Mountain View, hey.

Yeah, I may not have been welcome. I could have been like, you know, the devil guitar player. I don't know.

Oh, they like that song actually. The one that went down all the way down to Georgia. They like that song.

They like that song. They've got the people that can play it.

Oh, I know.

So it's incredible. Anyway, we had— I just did that again. I made that loud noise. I'm gonna stop. I'm gonna take my ring off.

Sorry everyone.

I already scared our guest once.

That's right.

So, all right. We have a really cool show because we have my friend Christy in the studio to join us and talk about building homes.

Yes.

This is so cool. How are you doing, Christy?

I'm good. How are you?

Awesome.

We are so glad that you could join us. We've been, we've been talking. We had scheduled this pre-Rona.

That's going to become pre-Rona.

Pre-Rona.

Pre, pre, pre, pre, pre, pre-Rona.

We need to like hashtag that. We need to, we need to get that rolling.

Hashtag pre-Rona.

That's right.

So, so we had this, we had this interview scheduled pre-Rona and then everything blew up and, and stuff. So we had to reschedule. So we're excited to finally get to be doing this because this is, this is not a topic we've, we've covered in the soon-to-be 100 episodes.

Woohoo!

So, I mean, we've talked about pieces of the house, right? But, and I told you when we were kind of doing a little bit of pre-show, I was, I was going to go ahead and just address the elephant in the room, right? So you're a home builder.

I am.

But you're not a dude.

I am not a dude. Not a dude. Don't even look like a dude.

Not at all.

Not even close. No.

So, so, so this is, this is kind of like a unique thing. I mean, like, there's, there's not too— and have you ever met another woman that's—

I have not. I'm, and I'm actually on a Facebook group that is, um, like Lady Pros is, I think, the Facebook group, but it's mostly HVAC plumbers, um, that, you know, just tradespeople. But I did I did post the question out there one time and said, how many of y'all are actually general contractors? And I got a few responses back, but the responses were, it's me and my husband.

Okay.

So, um, it is not me and my husband. My husband does not— yeah, no, it doesn't count. No, no, that's right. I mean, unless you think it counts, then of course it counts. Don't want to offend anyone out there.

Let's, let's just go ahead and pull that bandaid off.

Yeah, right.

No, but Vince, that's right. Right off the bat, huh? Yeah, no. So, um, my husband doesn't work with me. He doesn't really know much about residential construction at all. Um, but yeah, so it's just, just me. All right.

So, and, and how long you been doing this now?

So, um, I started my own business probably about 17 years ago.

Okay.

Um, but I started in different facets. Um, prior to that, I had worked in construction industry for different people and, and doing different things. But I started doing murals and faux finishes, and then while I was doing that, I also had my daughter. She was a baby, so I was taking classes online through the Art Institute, and I got my degree in interior design.

Okay.

And the thought process was that I would be picking out draperies and furniture and, and that sort of thing, and Then, I started working for other contractors and I would help their clients pick out plumbing fixtures and lighting fixtures and just helping them kind of do the construction part of the design work. But I had so much knowledge in the construction industry that it just very easily moved over. So, I started doing the remodeling. And then, last year is when we started doing the new construction as well.

Okay.

Yeah.

So, I mean, you have done several ground To sealing now houses, right?

No, this is our first one that we're doing now. Yeah, we haven't broken ground on it yet. We signed a contract with the homeowner last June. Okay, so it's taken a while, but it's an amazing home that we're going to be doing. It's in the Bellaire area. It's in Meyerland. Yeah, but it's a way to overcome the flooding problem that they have in Houston. So this is a Harvey flood.

Okay.

And the house was completely destroyed. Yeah. So it's demoed, and the house is actually going to be framed with a pre-engineered metal building.

Okay.

And then underneath is basically storage, parking, and an elevator, and the elevator takes her up to the homeowner to the first floor. It starts— yeah, the first floor is actually 11.5 feet off the ground.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

Well, I don't think we're gonna have a problem with that flooding.

No, it won't. She can stand on the balcony and watch the floodwaters go underneath her and The only thing that would have any damage would be vehicles.

Quick shout-out to the closed-minded lady in Mountain View. The largest left-handed guitar shop in the world is in Bel Air.

Take that!

I hope you're listening. I don't need you! My daughter's a lefty.

Is she? Does she play?

She plays the ukulele.

OK. Those are not easy to find, either.

She has 6 ukuleles, but I think she plays right-handed.

Oh, yeah? I'm left-handed, as well. Bizarre fact, Craig and I are both left-handed, but I play right-handed.

Okay, so she does mostly everything right-handed except writing. Yeah, and I even noticed because she works with me in the office now, she's my newest employee and she works with me in the office, and I noticed that she even like uses her computer mouse right-handed. Yep. Yeah, but I mean, it actually makes sense if you think about it because you can— she can take notes with her left hand, mouse with the right hand.

Yeah, so, well, most of us lefties, we, uh, we adapt. Yes, because The world is not made for us. They hate us.

I know. My mom's a lefty. I've had to hear that my whole life, that the world is not made for left-handed people. All the doors are backwards.

Unless you're a first baseman or a healer.

That's right. Or a pitcher.

Oh, baseball. We're talking baseball.

Well, baseball is first base, but then healer is rodeo.

Oh, okay. Yeah, I know rodeo.

So the guy that gets the legs.

Yeah, I know that.

So those are Pretty much always left-handed guys.

Yeah.

Or the good ones are.

Yeah. So, hmm.

Interesting fact.

They're faster cuz they're on the right side.

Okay. There's a whole mechanics to this that I don't know. There is.

Yeah.

I just sit in the stands and watch. So.

That's right.

As long as I'm not the cow, I'm good.

That's right.

No doubt. No doubt. Well, let's, uh, let, let's talk just a little bit about, um, you, you've told us a little bit about how you got into This, um, what made you really decide this is the direction that I want to go? I mean, you have some background here, but was there anything that kind of said, made you go, okay, I think I could do this?

Um, well, I hate picking out furniture for people, for one. I just, I can't make the connection with them that quickly. Um, and I've always just, my past experience was in like plumbing, high-end plumbing fixtures and, um, Tile. Uh, you said Hakeem Olajuwon earlier. The, the place I worked for actually did Hakeem Olajuwon's house. So yeah, um, baseball, we did Lance Berkman's house too. I had Lance Berkman in our showroom sitting on toilets.

It—

I wish I could have taken pictures of that.

That's awesome.

Could not do that. He had to sit on the toilets because he wanted to know that the height was perfect for him. So yeah, yeah, it was kind of crazy to have that. But yeah, I just, I've gravitated toward the, the kind of mechanics of it, just the plumbing fixtures and the tile and paint and flooring. I mean, I just, lighting fixtures, all that stuff. I just, I really can appreciate the different lines and—

Yeah.

And just how things kind of come together. And with remodeling or new construction, it's really, it's a growing living project. So with the furniture, it's kind of like we have to come in and do it right. But with the remodeling, it just kind of runs simultaneously as we're doing the construction part. And sometimes we'll come up with ideas mid-construction. And so that's what I really like is just that problem solving, just trying to really kind of figure out like, how can we maximize this? How can we make this the best space for our clients and really just use every part of the home that we can?

So you mentioned plumbing fixtures and Lance Berkman sitting on the toilet, which—

I hope he doesn't listen to this show.

That was a long time ago.

I actually hope that he does, to be honest.

He is a homeowner, so...

We need him to confirm.

That's right.

Kevin and I had a theory. I don't know how many episodes ago we talked about it. We actually had this theory that because of the whole toilet paper crisis that was going on, we were going to see a surge in people having an interest in bidets. Today, I sent Kevin— what was it called? Tushy?

Yeah.

plumbing fixture attachment for the toilet that turns it into a bidet.

Yeah.

Have you, have you seen people like asking about these?

So we actually do a lot of what we call bidet seats. So it's your regular toilet, but we actually attach a seat to it that has all the functions of a bidet.

Yeah, that's what the tushy thing is.

That's, that's exactly what it was.

And we were doing those before this. Yeah, yeah. Some people really, really like them. So yeah, I did one for a client and she said that That's pretty much the only toilet in the house that everyone uses.

Oh, wow!

It's in her master bathroom. Yeah, some of them have plugs, so you have to put electrical in there, but some of them don't. So it just depends.

Well, I was actually, um, I was on Facebook this afternoon, uh, for a few minutes, and one of my friends was, uh, she was ranting, which she does every once in a while. It's really funny to listen to her rant, but she was ranting about toilet paper. So she went into the grocery store, found toilet paper. She was really excited, but it was $39.

Holy cow.

And it was like, it was 30 rolls of toilet paper, but it equaled 120 Mega Rolls. And she was like—

Toilet paper math.

Yeah. And she was like, she was like, I don't care how many Mega Rolls it equals. Only one roll goes on my dispenser at a time. So I paid about $1.50 for every single roll that I got. That is way too much toilet paper. She's like, I'm going to Amazon and seeing if they got the bidets back in stock. And then that segment was over and I was like, bidets? Like, that's twice in a day that I've heard about a bidet. Yeah.

We've done them pre-Rona. Is that what we're calling it?

Yeah, pre-Rona.

Pre-Rona.

Hashtag pre-Rona.

Yeah, we did it pre-Rona, so.

Yeah, we don't need to say that very often 'cause then I'm gonna have to sing it.

Oh, okay.

So let's not say it very often.

Yeah, I'll take that out of the vocabulary right away.

You can still hashtag it.

Yeah, absolutely.

I actually, I think this is going to be a thing. I mean, like, I really do. I think, I think a lot of people are going to be like, you remember the toilet paper shortage?

Yeah, that'll never happen again. I will never be without toilet paper again.

The real Rona crisis.

Yes.

Um, I, I, yeah, I, I see them in lots of clients' homes. I just don't know that they use them or not. But, um, I think it'd be nice to have that as the option if you couldn't find any paper.

Yeah. So I mean, I mean, we've, we've done them. It's— they're not for everyone. But yeah.

Is it a pretty big expense? And if you're like, if you're like redoing a bathroom, I guess, is that a pretty big expense to add on?

Not really. I mean, if you get one that has a plug that has to plug into the wall, then, you know, we have to run electrical in there. But that's not it. I mean, that's not a huge expense. There's some sheetrock repair that goes into that, you know, unless you just happen to have a plug in your bath, in your You know where your toilet is.

Right next to the toilet.

Yeah. I mean, that's where it's ultra safe. I tell you.

I mean, when you think about it, you get one of those, it has a little plug for your phone, your, you know. Yeah.

You don't have to leave. Never leave. You could do this show.

That's right. That's true. That, that brings up a whole nother conversation.

I'm glad I'm doing this now.

The acoustics are amazing.

Not later. That's good. Hey, whenever I start singing the pre-Rona song, it all, it's better. It's so much better.

Oh my God.

Oh goodness. See, you were nervous and didn't even know we were going to be talking about bidets.

And you know, yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about. This is crazy. This is what I came on here to talk about. Toilets. Thanks guys.

As she's preparing for this show, she was like, all the things they're going to ask me.

Bidet never crossed your mind?

No, toilet, toilet talk was not what I thought we were going to call the bidet. The Rona modes.

That's so bad. Why? I don't know. We, we've got a new line, guys. That's right.

We got a new product.

There's tushies.

Christy's gonna install them for us.

That's right.

And they're not gonna need an electrical outlet.

Yeah. No electrical. Of course not.

Of course not.

They're totally safe.

They're gonna be self-charging, actually. Oh geez.

Uh, yeah.

We are way off topic. We've, we've We've gone off the rails, into the ditch, up the other side of the ditch. We're gone. It's alright.

But we ended up with Rona mode.

That's true.

It's in the W column.

That's right.

Absolutely. Alright, Kristy, bring us back here a little bit. If you're helping people pick out fixtures, and you're helping baseball players pick out toilets and all these other things, how do you help guide them through that process? I imagine that can be a little daunting for people that may have not done that before. They don't even sometimes know what they want.

Yeah, well, and, and the problem is, is with, with some contractors, what they'll do is, you know, if they don't have that design background or if they don't have time to do that, because a lot of them are, are so busy that they can't actually take that time with the client, is they'll just tell the client, hey, you need 2 bathroom faucets. Well, when you Google search bathroom faucets, it's like 225,000 different searches, and it's like, what's going to go with the tile? Which is got to go with the, you know, what's the wall treatments, all that. It all has to kind of tie in together. But, um, really it's just about talking to the client, just seeing how

they want to use the space. Do they entertain a lot? Is there going to be a lot of people there? Do they have kids? Do they have dogs? You know, um, what is the feeling that they want people to have when they walk into their room? Do they— you know, some people want everyone to be jealous of their house.

Yeah.

Some people want a cozy comfort feeling. Some people want their guests to stay for 2 days and then hit the road. You know, it just depends on what they're actually wanting. And so it's really just about talking to them and, and, you know, looking at their house, how they have it furnished, the different, you know, colors that they use, and, you know, asking them what's their favorite thing in a certain room, or, you know, what's the color that they hate the most.

Mm-hmm.

Because obviously if you hate orange, we don't want to put orange in your bathroom. But it's, it's really just a a, a discovery of what the client likes.

Have you, have you put orange in a bathroom?

I don't think I have. Okay.

Well, she doesn't live in Austin. Oh, I see.

That's right. Yeah.

If she lives in Austin, I'm sure she would double win.

Yeah.

Or double lose.

It is, it is supposedly my husband's favorite color because when my daughter was really little, she hated the orange, like Skittles or, you know, any of those candies. And so we would always say, oh, daddy's favorite color is orange. And so we would— Nice. Yeah.

Perfect.

And then when she grew up and found out that wasn't true, she was a little, she was a little mad, actually.

These are good.

She was like, wait a minute, orange is not daddy's favorite color? I'm like, no, he actually hates that color.

Between that and Santa Claus, that girl is ruined.

Therapy. Hello.

That's right. Okay. So you brought up something that to me, I, cause I've, I've actually considered that my wife and I have considered, okay, one day we would love to build our house. Like, for us, we kind of love the idea of a metal building, a barn type of, type of home. And, but there's part of that process to me that seems really daunting. Just seems like there's so much that goes into it. And, and I think one of the, one of the issues there is people are so specialized a lot of times that It's difficult to find someone who can help you navigate the whole process. And I know some, you know, some homeowners, homebuilders can do that better than others. So I guess one of the

things that I want to ask you, I mean, not everybody that listens to us lives in Houston.

Right.

So if I was out there looking for someone, how do I find out if they're going to be able to really guide me through that whole process? Or if I'm going to be stuck, you know, 100 days into this going, I wish I would have done something different.

Yeah. Yeah. You really need to ask your contractor questions. You need to ask them what the process is. You know, most contractors are going to have a certain way that they work. And so you need to say, hey, do you have something that tells us where we go from here? What is our next step? What's the process? And, you know, there are some great builders out there that have design centers and they have people that work in the design centers. So, you know, if they say we have a design center and you'll be able to come and pick things out, you kind of know, okay, these are kind of my options. The, the only issue with having a design center is you're kind of limited to whatever it is that

they have. Um, if you're using someone like me, I'll, I'll keep going and looking for tile until we find the perfect tile, you know, one that I think should go in the home, but also something that you love. So, um, and you just really have to ask, you know, ask your contractor, what, how much of this work am I going to have to do on my own and how much are you going to help me with? Yeah.

And I would assume that on on some level, all of this really depends on you as a person too. How involved do you want to actually be? Because I would assume that you— that there are some people out there that's like, listen, here's, here's the type of thing I want, but I, I don't have time, I don't have the energy, I just want it to be wonderful.

Yeah.

And I'm sure that's frustrating on some level to you as the builder, but then there's that whole other spectrum, and you just kind of have to know about yourself. Like, I want to be super involved in this, and I'm real picky, right? I'm not real picky. And because Like you said, those design center places, they're going to sell you their stuff, right? And they're getting a commission off of that and they're getting a cut, right?

Yeah.

And so you get, you know, 4 choices of colors, right? And that's really—

Yeah, it's here's our door styles, pick one of the door styles. Here's backsplash tile, pick, you know, you've got 10 to choose from.

So, and there's not necessarily anything wrong with it. No, not at all. They're very popular styles and things that people typically are going to choose, right?

And your home's going to turn out beautiful that way. I mean, it's still going to be very, very pretty. But what we are more about is custom, custom remodeling, custom new construction. Everything that comes into your house is a new idea. We're constantly looking at— I mean, even Pinterest. Pinterest is an amazing place to look at new ideas.

Yeah.

I mean, there's tons of stuff to look on there. So I'm constantly on Pinterest looking at it, finding new client ideas, even if I don't have a particular client yet, just trying to see kind of what can we do to make the next house different. Because, you know, we do kind of get in trends a little bit. A lot of people Right now everybody wants quartz countertops. And so they're very pretty. And I love the quartz. It gives you that white look that, you know, everybody's kind of going after.

But like the black and white look everybody's going for.

Yeah, kind of. The quartz countertops are— it's a man-made material, but it kind of mimics marble.

Right.

And it's durable. It doesn't stain. So, I mean, it's a great choice, but I don't want to do that in every home. Right. You know, so if I feel like it's a perfect fit for your home, then yes, I'm going to say, hey, I think that quartz is going to look fantastic in here. I mean, I've done a few kitchens with it lately and it's just been beautiful. But then there are some people where I'm like, I think you need a little bit more warmth. You need to kind of add a little bit more texture, visual texture, you know, and granite is one of those things where it's just timeless. I mean, granite is going to last forever. So you just, you just have to really

talk to your client and find out what it is that they want.

Yeah.

And there's like some— and like, you know, Pinterest is interesting too because like you can think that you have a really unique idea And if you go look on there, you're probably gonna find like 100 versions of that. I remember we, uh, when we were doing our bathroom, one of the ideas we had was doing like a whiskey barrel sink.

Oh yeah.

Um, and we're like, oh, that's kind of a unique— and then there was like 100 of them.

Um, you can find those everywhere. What are you talking about?

And you had a great idea that everyone else had.

Yeah.

Yeah. You know?

Well, and it's true. It does. I mean, there are a lot of things where you think you have like the unique idea. So, and you You just, it's hard to have a unique idea now. There's just, there's so many creative people now and so many, and there's so much information because if you think about 20 years ago, you may have thought you had a unique idea. And if you didn't, I mean, there was no way to look that up. So unless it was in the Encyclopedia Britannica, you did have a unique idea.

Well, that's right.

I think even though you see it on Pinterest, it doesn't mean that it's not a unique idea. Because most people aren't willing to— I mean, because once they get the price tag for those unique items, it becomes completely irrational for their budget. Right. And so for us, like with the barrel, it wasn't the cost of it. It was just like, this is hard.

Yeah. That's not an easy thing.

Right.

Although now I think you can just buy those sinks with it. Yeah, you can.

Yeah.

Well, yeah, you can.

There's guys that make a whole kit.

Yeah. They make them for you. But I mean, those are— I mean, like, I think when I looked at them, This was several months, it was like $1,500 just for that whole thing.

Yeah.

So much, I mean, like if I had to make it, yeah, that's probably what I'd charge.

And they're probably using like an authentic whiskey barrel, right? Then, you know, you can tell everybody, oh, this had whatever awesome whiskey in it.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, but you know, I don't drink whiskey, so I can't tell you what that awesome whiskey is.

But yeah, you know, one of the, one of the beauties about Pinterest though is that even if you do have a mostly unique thing, you know, idea out there, you have the ability to refine that, right? And it's like someone's probably done that better than you would have imagined doing it. And so just getting ideas about how to do that really well. Yeah. I mean, it's really great to take someone's idea and maybe even improve on it a little bit.

Well, and sorry, and even on the other sense of that, it's sometimes I'm troubleshooting something, I'm like, I don't know how we're gonna finish this off. And so then And I'll look at Pinterest and be like, oh, okay, that was kind of interesting how they, you know, used this piece of molding here. You know, it does give me ideas that maybe I'm not using it exactly how they did, but it just— I can look at parts of the picture. And that's really what I tell my clients too. I'm like, send me your Pinterest boards because everybody's making a Pinterest board. So send me your Pinterest boards because I can, I can learn so much about them from the Pinterest boards and pick

up on themes. Yeah. Yeah. Because you'll start to see things are kind of the same and they're kind of working together. It's like I could really pick from any of these and we would be fine. But, you know, I do in that because when you look at Pinterest boards, sometimes you can see like where a trend is kind of coming. And that's something I try to stay away from. I don't want to spend $35,000 remodeling a master bathroom and then 5 years from now it's dated and they're wishing they would've done something different.

Yeah.

So it's kind of my job to say, look, you know, this is kind You're kind of on like the front end of a trend, which is fine because then you know you've got 10, 15 years. And, or if you're on the tail end of a trend, I might say, okay, we're kind of, you know, people are kind of shying away from those colors or those types of fixtures.

And so you're kind of on the front lines of this, of this stuff. What are some trends that, that you see kind of going by the wayside? Gray.

Nobody wants gray anymore.

Okay.

Which is funny because for a while that That's the only thing people were doing was gray, right?

Yeah. And so what happens is people don't, you don't know what's going to necessarily be a trend. Um, it's just that somebody sees something gray and what makes it a trend is that then everybody wants to do gray. So after you do 10 gray bathrooms, it's kind of like, well, everybody has gray. And then, you know, you're no longer special if you go into all of your friends' bathrooms and they all have gray bathrooms. So now it's like, okay, well, what can I do that's a little different than that? So now people are going to Taupe, which is not brown but not gray. It's kind of in the middle.

Yeah, okay, like a muddled—

Yeah, it's like a brownish gray.

It's gray.

It's—

yeah, it's gray.

Yeah, gray.

Greige, as they say.

Good.

Yeah, yeah. So, um, but yeah, and you know, I think, uh, oil-rubbed bronze fixtures are, are kind of— I'm, I'm removing those a lot lately as well.

Um, what are they replacing them with?

Usually either brushed nickel or even chrome. It just depends on— chrome is kind of more glam, so it just depends on, you know, what the space is.

Yeah, nobody's bringing the brass back?

Actually, we're doing some brushed gold, which I think we're kind of on the front end of that. I don't know if it's actually going to be a trend. That's one of those things that you really have to love it. Yeah, it's absolutely gorgeous though. I'm doing 3 bathrooms right now with it and it's It's breathtakingly beautiful, but you have to be someone who's willing to take that risk.

Yeah.

And so, um, I'm not that person. Give me the fresh nickel.

Leap into it.

I'd have to, like, you'd have to build it and then show it to me.

Yeah.

Because otherwise I wouldn't want it.

Yeah. Yeah.

Well, you know, gold's one of those, one of those tricky things. Um, I, uh, when I, I went to the, uh, to the Ukraine once, have you ever seen like gold from different parts of the world.

Yeah.

So like gold from like Ukraine and that part of Russia is pink and it's gorgeous.

Yeah. Like a rose gold almost. Yeah.

And it's a, it's a totally different look. It's a totally different hue. But I could see people in like, and like all their jewelry and stuff is, is that color.

Yeah.

And so like they're, they're, they're actually fascinated by ours when they're like that, like the yellow gold. Yeah. But that, that pink gold has like a really interesting Yeah, it's not bright though.

Yeah, yeah. And it, you know, it's funny because my husband works for a company that's in India. Okay, so there's a ton of gold in India as well, but it's like bright, shiny, like it almost looks fake, you know. So like he brought home, you know, some stuff for me and my daughter, and I was like, this just— it doesn't even look real. Like this looks like costume jewelry almost. But that's— it is, you know. And it's, it's crazy how those different, different parts of the world even have different styles.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And it's, from what I understand, it's just different minerals interacting with that compound or—

Okay.

What it's mine. I don't know.

I believe you. I have no idea.

They tried to explain it to me.

There's somebody out there that knows.

It was in Russian.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, okay. So here's a question. So you, you do remodels and you do from ground up, right? So new builds and remodels. Which do you prefer to do?

Okay, so new construction's a— I'm gonna say it's a little bit easier. I mean, you're working off of architectural prints, so you kind of know where you're going. I enjoy the remodeling a little bit more because I do like the problem solving of it with the remodels. I mean, if we're taking out a plastic shower pan, you know, 9 times out of 10, we're gonna have some mold and water damage. And so there's always something that has to be repaired that maybe the homeowner wasn't prepared Yeah. But, you know, we always preface every, every meeting like, you've got to understand, we don't know what's in the walls, you know? So it just— but I like that problem-solving aspect of the remodeling. But, you know, new

construction's fun too, because, I mean, we're building something brand new. And especially with this job that we're doing, I mean, it's, it's going to be a showstopper.

And for sure, 11 feet off the ground already. I mean, and then how many stories?

Just one. Just one story. Yeah. Yeah. Is it going to have one story?

Is it going to have a sloped roof or is it going to have a flat roof?

It has a single slope roof.

Okay.

Yeah, it's a metal roof, but you really won't see it. There's going to be kind of like a parapet-type wall.

Okay.

So you won't really see the roof at all. It's very, very modern, very square. We're using some really, really cool new materials. We've got like a— it's similar to stucco, but it's called CorkShield, and it's a spray. It's made from cork, the tree, you know, the cork tree. And it has similar texture to stucco, but it doesn't It doesn't crack like stucco does.

Oh, okay.

So, and it's got a really great warranty on it, and it's, you can just spray it down. It doesn't get dirty, it doesn't mold. And here, especially in the Houston area, stucco cracking is a huge, huge issue. So—

Well, I know one of the other issues with stucco around here is the moisture.

Yeah, yeah.

Does it have the same issues as that?

Yeah, so what happens is it, you know, as the house shifts, the stucco doesn't have any give to it.

Right.

And so it just kind of cracks. And those cracks can be very minuscule. I mean, you may not even know that they're there, But then you start getting that moisture behind the wall. And so, yeah, you end up with a lot of issues. Yeah. You know, and so this, this cork spray, the CorkShield spray, is, it's, it's a really cool product that we're going to be using.

There's certain houses I'll walk away from if they tell me they're dealing with certain issues and I see it's a stucco house.

Yeah.

No.

Yeah.

It's not even worth my time.

Yeah.

You're going to be more frustrated with me than you are the issue you're dealing with right now.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, unfortunately, we have a ton of stucco houses around here. You know, everybody was like stucco and that's all they did. And so, yeah.

Well, here's a, here's a follow-up question to that then. I own a home and I'm, I'm getting to the point where I either want to build a home or maybe I just want to do like a full renovation. What, where do you kind of start navigating that? At what point is it a better idea to do one or the other? Do you have any advice as far as that goes?

I think for a lot of people, it depends on the equity that they've built up in their home. I mean, if you already own your home and you've got a lot of equity in it, and too, it's also, do you love the area you're in? Do your kids go to a school they love? Do you want them to stay in the same house their whole life? It's a lot of kind of personal questions that you have to ask yourself. But then also, some people want to build because they want to be on property, or they want to have horses or animals and stuff like that, and they can't do that, obviously, if they're in a neighborhood. So it's really those personal questions that you have to ask yourself. Sometimes it doesn't

make sense to do the remodel because it's going to cost more than if you just went and bought another house. And we will advise people of that. We may say, look, you know, it's— you may need to just find another house that kind of fits the way your family's growing now. I certainly don't want to take someone's money and remodel their house and them not have enough value in it because we are concerned about the return on investment of our remodels that we do.

Yeah.

So we do try to advise people. advise our clients, you know, if they're in a specific area, what types of, um, uh, fixtures and stuff like that that they should be using to stay within the value of their neighborhood.

Yeah, I think those are all like really important questions to like just on a regular basis ask yourself anyway. I mean, like, do I like the neighborhood? Do I like the school? I mean, because like my, my wife was never interested in living on property.

Yeah.

And, and if you ask her now, like you could give her a million-dollar home and if it was right next to somebody else's house, she'd probably never take it.

Yeah.

Now she's—

because she's realized that this is what she really likes, even though like she hated our house.

That's why you go and remodel. That's why I fixed that problem.

Yeah, that's for sure.

Yeah.

Well, and that's probably one of the first questions I always ask someone is, how long are you going to stay here? Are you remodeling this house so you can sell it next year? Then we're not going to do some crazy specific, you know, custom tile treatment in the shower that not everybody's going to love. But if you think, hey, I I don't know, I don't know if I'm ever going to move from here, then that's when we can really kind of get really into the design factor and just like really just do something that you love. Because it's, it's really about what you love. It's not about what I like or what the trend is or what's, you know, what's popular right now,

any of those things. It's really about doing what you love, what you want to see in your home all the time.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, one of the things that we love to see in each of the homes is good plumbing. And the way you have good plumbing is you hire a good plumber.

Anytime. If you, if you want bad plumbing, don't hire Paul the Plumber because he will not do a bad job at your house. He will do the best job at your house.

They may call us about that one.

I don't know if this is a good plug.

But regardless of what Kevin says, if you need to get ahold of them, you can find them on Facebook. You can also find them at paultheplumberllc.com. You can book them online, you can book them on Facebook. And the ever-popular virtual inspection.

Man, I'm telling you, to me, that's a game changer. Yeah, I— because right now, what's crazy right now is that we're living in this world where everybody is feeling, at least here where we live in Texas, people are ready to get out and do things again. But we're seeing some spikes in numbers and all these sorts of things as far as people getting infected with coronavirus. So, um, I, I'm kind of in this place that I don't really want people in my house yet. Even, even people, you know, that I need in my house. Like if I need a plumber to come in, I want to, I want to minimize the amount of time he has to be in my home.

Right.

And, and those, those virtual visits, he has the opportunity to see exactly what your issue is, know that he has the parts on the truck, has a, has an understanding of what he needs to do. And boom, he can get it done, get in, It out. It saves you money, saves you time.

Yep.

And you get a great job done by Paul the Plumber.

Absolutely. So if you need to get a hold, call him at 832-521-3252. And our guest actually just, just had Paul.

I did. Paul Jr. was at my house. Paul Jr.?

What was going on?

Oh, I had some faucets that were, you know, turn it on and it never turned off. So, um, it was— we had, we had the other faucet do the same thing, and, and Paul the Plumber fixed it for us. So I just texted Deborah and said, help Hey, please. So Paul Jr. came out. He knew exactly, I mean, it literally took him 30 minutes to fix it.

Nice.

Wow.

In and out, done. And now I don't have to share a sink with my husband.

So the marriage is gonna make it?

Yes.

Okay.

Yeah. Yeah, we're good. That's funny.

That reminds me of that.

See, look at that. Good plumbing saves marriages.

That's right.

Yeah.

That's your headline.

Yeah. If your marriage is in the toilet, call Paul the plumber.

And he will install a bidet.

And we're back. There we go.

Corona mode.

Corona mode. Corona mode. That's right. Well, it reminds me of that, uh, that video from Ricky with the faucet where she's— she pulls the vegetable— pulls up the— yeah, the vegetable sprayer. She pulls it up and the garbage disposal comes on.

Oh my God. Oh, I remember seeing that. Yeah, I remember seeing that. That's crazy. She sees some crazy stuff on inspections.

I just don't want to buy any house she's ever in because she always finds the craziest stuff. That's true.

At least she finds it. That's the good thing, right?

Just crazy stuff. What were we talking about before?

We were talking specifically about remodel vs. build new. I think you really hit on a really important thing there. And that is, what do you love about where you're living? And what do you really not love about where you're living? And is the total cost going to wind up actually being better? So but you hit on something that I was curious about. You said, depending on how much equity you have in your home, so if you own your home, or if you're, you know, close to owning your home, do you think it makes more sense to stay at that point?

I mean, I think so, because then you have the equity there in your home. A lot of people are taking equity lines across credit to do the remodeling. So we see a lot of that in our industry. And I mean, if you're so close to owning your home already and, you know, you want to do a $100,000 remodel as opposed to selling and then going to, you know, build a new house, I mean, of course you're going to get that equity when you sell, but at least you're still in the same place. You don't have to move.

Yeah.

So, you know, and sometimes the remodel is going to cost a lot less than what it would if you went to a new home. You may end up really Realizing that once you buy property or land wherever the neighborhood is that you want, that you're going to really kind of jack the price up a little bit. I mean, it's just a personal thing and it really just depends on what you're feeling about that house.

And there's a lot of knowns about the place that you live. I mean, you've lived there for— especially if you're close to owning your home, unless you came in and paid cash or something for it. They're, they're, you know, it's like the more I know about something, the easier I, I can make a decision.

And so, yeah. I mean, and you know your neighbors, so, you know, I mean, when you move to a new neighborhood, that's a new thing. It's like, you don't know if you're like gonna build a house next to, you know, the crazy cat lady that you're gonna hate. So, and then you gotta live next to her for 30 years.

So. That's right. Good luck. Good luck.

I unfortunately cannot check that out for you. So, I mean, if that was something I could do, you know, knock on doors and be like, are you crazy? Because if you are, then we don't want to build a house here.

How many cats do you own?

If you need some of those cats to disappear, I might be able to help with that.

One of those signs that says, I swerve for cats.

I'm a professional nature kidnapper.

OK, if you listen to our show and love cats, we love you. Right.

That's right. We appreciate crazy cat people. We do not discriminate against cats or dogs. Dogs are better, though.

But just, just know, just my personal opinion, which happens to be the right one in this case.

Well, so what, what, what, what room in the house makes you most excited to kind of get, get your hands on?

Master bathrooms. I do a lot of master bathrooms. Yeah. Yeah.

So what is it that you see a lot of people wanting to change about? I mean, if you're doing a lot of them, obviously people are unhappy with the one that they have. So what are they wanting to change? What are they trying to make feel different, look different?

So we kind of got into a a thing, you know, in the '80s and '90s where everyone wanted cultured marble. And it— you probably have seen it. It's like a plastic wall covering.

Yep.

That's in your shower. And people really, really hate that. And so they're wanting to change that. And another thing we're seeing is, you know, the kind of built-in tubs. A lot of people are wanting to do a freestanding tub. Kind of reminiscent of that clawfoot tub feeling, but not, you know, a little bit more modern take on it.

Yeah, those are cool too.

Yeah. And then of course everyone wants to raise the height of the, of the sink, of the counters, you know, they want to do the taller counters. I don't like that. I'm 5'4.

Okay.

And my husband has the tall counters and I have the shorter regular ones. And I like the shorter ones because I am short.

So we, we compromised on that in our bathroom. So the countertop is still low, but I did one of those raised bowls.

Oh yeah, yeah.

So the sink itself is actually so high, but the countertop is normal.

Yeah.

Um, yeah, so that was a little different. But so what, what else in the, in the bathroom? So I— well, I was gonna say the, um, the, the freestanding tubs. The ones I've been really interested in lately are— have you seen these, these Japanese soaking tubs? So instead— and it's sometimes they're made out of wood and they almost look like a barrel.

Oh yeah.

But instead of being long for like you to like lay down down in, they're deep.

And now, so you like sit in it?

Yeah.

I have not done that.

You haven't done that yet? So you can find it on Pinterest.

Can we do it in a whiskey barrel though instead?

It'd be a pretty big barrel.

How big old boy are you?

Pretty big guy.

I'm not gonna fit in them. I'm not Jim Hawkins over here peering out through the apple barrel. I mean, come on. But, uh, but yeah, no, they're, they, um, and they're usually freestanding. Yeah. Um, but they just, I mean, they just look to me, they look really, and apparently they're really popular in Japan because they don't take up as much square footage in that room. And which is why we were looking at them because our bathroom's a little on the small side.

Yeah. That might work for some people because they still want to have that tub experience, but you know, they want larger showers. That's, that's the better thing. Yeah.

Well, good luck washing your feet.

Right. You'll drown.

You gotta like put your foot up by your head and get, get out of the soaker.

I don't, I don't know, honestly. I mean, because they have like a seat in them.

I think it's more for like relaxing. It's probably not for bathing as much. Cleansing.

They use the hose outside for everything else.

I understand. You could use the bidet to wash your feet.

Stick your foot in there.

Hey, I'll do whatever I got to, you know.

Turn the pressure to high.

That's right. It would be warming too, because the bidets do have warming water. So yeah.

Oh wow.

That— yeah, they have all kinds of features.

Everything, this whole thing.

They have lights on them so you can see. You don't have to turn the light on.

If Tushy's not a sponsor of this show after this episode, I don't know what else to do.

I mean, we've done everything we know to do.

We are advocating for the bidet.

Come on.

That's right.

I'm going to send this episode to them.

We fired all our bullets.

Yeah.

Uh, we gotta change subjects. I got visual ideas in my head.

So, uh, well, and I, so you, you did mention like the, the, I mean, I, I think the, the, I think you're right. The freestanding tub with a combo walk-in shower. Right.

Yeah.

Uh, so what, what are you kind of seeing with people doing different with their showers?

I mean, oh gosh, showers are kind of one of those things where it's, uh, it's really a personal thing.

So I've seen some crazy, Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, we've done multiple hand showers and rain showerheads and body sprays.

And when you say body sprays, is that like the multiple nozzles from like a bunch of different directions?

Yeah. And they're all kind of positioned, you know, lower than your, your head. So, yeah.

But I see those and I think, what value does that have?

Well, it kind of has like a massaging effect to it, kind of like a Jacuzzi tub would, you know, if you've got that water kind of squirting off.

And like they usually have like diverters on them where you can turn them on and off.

Yeah, yeah, you can, you know, decide what, how many, if you want all of them. It just depends on how you have your plumbing done, you know.

Which can get complicated.

It can, and it gets expensive too. So, um, we— that's one thing we have to kind of think about when we're talking about budget is, is how intense do we need to make the shower?

Yeah, but Paul the plumber can give you a great quote and price. Yes, that's right.

Yes. Definitely.

Yeah, all that.

Yeah. So I mean, we did a shower and it was a Harvey flood and that shower was 8 feet by 8 feet.

Whoa.

Yeah. And it had the rain head, 2 shower heads, 2 hand showers. So, and I mean, 2 benches, 2 big huge benches in there.

Yeah. That's a family-sized shower.

It's a huge shower. It was a huge shower.

Yeah. It's like a mudroom.

It was awesome. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. That's a closet. I mean, this, yeah. Yeah, that's bigger than a lot of other rooms.

I think my son's room is smaller than that.

Really?

He's got a pretty small room. It's small.

He's not the favorite.

Does he listen to the show?

He's the smallest in our house. Obviously, we give people rooms based on their size.

Okay.

Who doesn't do that? I'm so confused right now.

I don't know. I have one daughter, so. She gets— well, other than us getting the master bedroom, but she thinks she should have a master bedroom.

Oh, of course. Don't they all?

Yeah.

Well, that's—

She's a good kid.

That's a trend I've seen is where they like a lot of houses. What do they call that? Is like a—

A double master.

Double master. Is that what it is? Okay. Yeah. It's like one upstairs, one downstairs.

Yeah.

So that kind of tends to be— I mean, it's like, uh, living in-law quarters or something like that.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. And people do have that because they are thinking, you know, what about my parents? parents, what's going to happen if you lose one parent and then you have one that's still here? A lot of times, a big house is too much for one, even if it's a husband or a wife. That's a lot for one person to take care of. So, you can see a lot of what we call a casita, which is like a mother-in-law house where they have their own small space, but they're still connected to the home or, like you're saying, a double master bedroom. Yeah.

I was talking to someone today and you actually know I know a relative of this person, Craig, but they— this house—

They fight for who this is.

Yeah, I know. You won't be able to find out.

How mysterious.

Do they wear glasses?

21 questions. We're gonna figure out who this is right now.

But so their family built this house, and the upstairs has 2 bedrooms, a bath, and a living area, and an outside entrance. So the idea was, you can— now there's also inside entrance, right? You can get there both ways. But the idea was, my kids are going to grow up, and they're going to maybe go to college in a similar area so they can have their own space. So there's a lot of design things like that that you're not going to get if you just go buy a house. Yeah, if you want something special like that, you're gonna have to get a custom-built home.

Yeah, yeah, it's very rare. I mean, there are some houses that may have like a garage apartment or something like that. But yeah, we do see a lot of that where people are just adding on Even, even if they have a house that they really love and they have, you know, 3 kids or one on the way or something like that, and then they're like, we're just outgrowing this house, but we really, really love it.

Yeah.

So, you know, let's do an addition. We're working with a client in The Woodlands now that her mom, you know, lives by herself and she wants her to come live with her, but she wants her to have her own space. So, you know, she's gonna have basically like a little apartment that's attached to the house where she can come and go into the house, but they can also kind of, you know, go to their separate quarters whenever they want to and still have privacy.

Yeah.

Because, I mean, especially with older parents, they, you know, they don't want to feel like they're a burden, which is crazy because they've taken care of us and now they feel like a burden. But they don't, they don't want to have that feeling. But you're right, even with, you know, teenagers that are in college, you know, we've thought about that with our daughter. She's 17. And, you know, if she wants to go to school near here, you know, we always want her to have a place to even just come home to during the summer. And still have her, her own privacy. Because if you think your kid goes away for a semester to school and then they come back and now they're living under your house for the

summer, it's, it's a totally different experience.

Yeah, my folks actually did that when, uh, when I left for college. Uh, they, they had put on an apartment in the garage.

Yeah.

And it was very clear that I was not welcome back in the home.

They did that for themselves, not for you.

You can come visit, but that's where you're You're staying.

Yeah. Yeah.

So we had a, uh, the house that, that I lived in in Arkansas, there was a, a really nice shed in the back. There's a metal building and it was, it was, uh, insulated and paneled on the inside. And so we, we went ahead and put an air conditioner on it. And so it was, it was heated and cooled and everything. And, and my mother-in-law made a joke one day. She thought it was a joke. She said, you know, that, that'd make a perfect mother-in-law quarters, to which I said, that sounds great. Like, anytime you come visit, you can sleep out there. You know, she didn't think it was funny, though. So anyway, I slept out there for the next week.

That's right.

There wasn't even a bed. But whatever. It was fine.

Cold concrete floor.

Yeah, you're just like Jesus.

I was, I was just giving her what she wanted.

But she didn't, she didn't go for it.

So anyway, what have we not talked about that Of course you're gonna ask me this.

Really? Out of all the things in the world that I could possibly tell people, what is it that you need to know? I would just say, you know, kind of trust your contractor. You've got to find a trusted contractor. Do your research. Make sure you're Googling your contractor. I mean, that's a big deal. I'm working with several clients right now who have been, you know, beat by other contractors and I'm having to go in and fix their stuff. So, you know, make sure you do your research. A reputable contractor is going to have a website, they're going to have a Facebook page, they're going to be able to give you information about their general liability insurance,

they're going to have references. So ask those questions and don't be afraid to really interview your contractor.

Yeah.

You know, I've lived in the Conroe area my entire life. My parents live here, both my sisters live here. I'm not going anywhere. So then that's something that I always talk to my clients about. You know, I'm a Conroe native.

So, you know, look me up in the yearbook.

That's right. But, you know, also asking about their subcontractors as well. You know, who do you use? Make sure you're using somebody that has trusted subcontractors. You don't want just anybody in your house because as a general contractor, I can't be on site all day.

Sure.

I have 11 projects right now, so there's no way I can be at every single one of them even every day. And so, you know, you just kind of have to know that there are going to be people in your house whenever your contractor's not there, and you just really need to make sure that they have trusted people. And I do, you know, my guys have worked for me for quite some time. And, you know, it's a little different with me being a female because I do have to be with these people alone. So that kind of already tells you that they're trusted if I feel comfortable with them.

Sure.

Yeah.

Yeah, no, that's actually a really good point.

But I don't let anybody in somebody's house that I wouldn't let in my own house. There you go.

So I'm actually curious as to what is one of the most unique things you've put in or done in somebody's home?

Oh gosh.

You thought my question was bad.

I know, right? Y'all are really making me think here. So, okay, so this was actually a project I did as a designer with another contractor, and we actually Actually, the house, when they bought— when this client bought the house, it had a jukebox.

Okay.

And it was kind of one of those rounded jukebox, and it had its own little cubbyhole under the stairs that was like a rounded cubbyhole for it. And so the contractor took a 100-year-old beam from a house that he had just torn down and cut it up so that you could make a door on it. So we had this removable door because it was right in the living room. So it's kind of weird to have like a jukebox. But, you know, it was a neat feature in the home. So we kind of put this really cool door on there so that you could remove the door and play the jukebox when you wanted to and then put it

back. That's cool.

Was it like an old LP jukebox? Yeah.

Oh yeah?

Yeah.

Wow.

And it still worked?

Yeah. Oh yeah. It was fantastic. It was really awesome. Yeah. It was great. It had all the kind of cool neon kind of lights on it and everything. It was a really neat feature.

That's honestly the only thing I don't like about jukeboxes is like the neon.

Yeah.

Well, and you, I mean, it's cool when you were playing it.

I mean it, though.

At somebody else's place.

Right. Not something you want to see all the time.

At the honky-tonk, it's fine. In my house, it's—

Yeah.

If it floats your boat, that's fine.

That trend is really coming back to own a jukebox. There are a lot of people out there that are refurbishing jukeboxes and they can get really pricey.

Even just vinyl records. My daughter has a record player. And she buys vinyl records. Yeah, I mean, that's a big deal for her.

Well, like this, this Zenith that you're sitting in front of right here, I mean, that's an old 45.

Oh yeah.

Um, and like, it's crazy to try and fix those. I mean, that's a, that's a tube-powered 45 radio, and like, you can't, you can't buy parts for anything anymore.

Yeah.

Um, it's, it's crazy expensive to try and fix those things.

Yeah.

So yeah, it's hard to, it's hard to even find them. Let alone fix them.

Yeah. So I mean, all I've gotten that one to do is light up.

Which you don't want it to light up. So you've already said you hate that. Well, no, on that one it's okay.

That one it's okay. It's like, it's like, I like, I like that look. I don't like, but when it's like all neon and yellow and purple and says Bud Light.

Yeah.

Not gonna have bad beer and bad lights. Exactly.

It's a double whammy.

Yeah.

Sorry, you Bud Light drinkers.

Yes, I love you too.

You can hang out with the cat lady.

That's funny. Well, cool. Well, um, and we— this has been a really good episode. I've, I've really enjoyed hearing from— especially, I mean, we just— when it comes to, when it comes to contractors specifically, right, you know, not just tradespeople but contractors specifically, it's rare to find a female influence.

Yeah.

And there— that's so, it's really wonderful to see how successful you're being in this, and that's exciting for us to hear that. But also just to hear the perspective of a female is really refreshing for us.

It is a little different. I mean, I won't say it makes me a better contractor. There are some fantastic contractors out there. So I do listen a little bit more, and I think that's the one thing that I could, you know, if I had every male contractor out there, that's the biggest thing I hear from my clients is, we're so glad we have you.

Yeah.

Um, and a lot of times the clients feel like, um, if you're not listening, you're not really taking in what it is they want. You're just there to do the job and get out.

Yeah.

Um, and so you really have to want to take the time to get to know your client and, and really learn a little bit about them. So, um, you know, I always say it doesn't make me better, it just makes me different.

Yeah.

Um, but yeah, I mean, there are, there are certain things that, you know, I just do because that's my personality.

Yeah.

You know, I just, I really enjoy my clients.

Well, and I, I would imagine, I'm just, I'm guessing, I'm guessing here, but I would imagine most of your clients that you end up dealing with are female.

Yeah, I usually do end up dealing with, with the wife. That's usually how it works.

And because I mean, I've heard so many women tell me that they had such a hard time dealing with their contractor for the very reasons that you're talking about, like they, they couldn't connect. And I imagine you kind of have an advantage in that regard that most remodels end up dealing with, you know, the woman of the house, right?

Or, you know, and it's, it's hard sometimes with when, But when I walk in and they see this, you know, 5'4 blonde, the husbands are like, well, we're gonna see how much she knows, you know? And so they start kind of asking me technical questions. And once—

Which is hilarious 'cause they have no idea what they're talking about.

Yeah, no, they have no clue. 'Cause I'm thinking, if you know all this, then why am I here?

Exactly, yeah.

But once they hear me talk and they realize, okay, she doesn't know what she's talking about a little bit, you know, then they kind of, that's when they kind of give it up and let the wife kind of make the decisions. And really, you know, I like to work with both. I like to work with the husband and the wife. Sometimes I say I'm a marriage counselor as well because it's like, the man's like, I want carpet in the bedroom. And the wife's like, no, I don't want carpet. So it's like, we really have to kind of like, you know, sometimes I'm like, just give him what he wants and, you know, we'll get it back somewhere else. You know, we'll make a good compromise so that you guys get both of

what you want.

Hardwood with a rug.

Yeah, that's right. That's right. That's what I always say. I was like, put a rug down, you know? And then the husband's like, I don't know about this. I'm like, trust me, it'll be fine. Yeah. So, but it's a difficult position to be in, but I love what I do. I love what I do. So I'm passionate about it and it's fun for me. I have fun doing this. I mean, it's not— it's stressful. I mean, I'm tearing people's houses up and then I'm standing in the middle of it going, oh, okay, yeah, I gotta put this all back. But we figure it out every single time. So Yeah.

Wow. Well, good. Well, we would be horrible at what we do if we let you go without doing what everybody loves about this show—the thing that they just wait for and wait for—and that is the final four. The final four. That's right. So these are the final four questions. We have a couple questions that we ask all of our guests every time they come in, and you are not gonna escape it. Okay.

By we, we mean Kevin.

Yeah. Well, that's just because Craig doesn't know the questions. He doesn't remember the questions.

He does not. So we're gonna start off easy. They get harder from here.

Okay.

But here you go. What is the must-have tool that you will not leave your house without?

I would like to say a tape measure, because that's like contractor 101. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten to a job site and I'm like, dang it, where is the tape measure? So I'm always asking the guys, do you have a tape measure? Do you have a tape measure? So I would say that, gosh, tape measure is very, very important in my job. I use it all the time. I just forget it.

So there you go.

But there's always a guy there that has one. There's always somebody. And if not, they're like, I have one. I have one in my truck. So I'm like, oh, okay, go get that for me. There we go.

You—

there's always a tape measure somewhere.

Yeah, well, good. No, that's, that's good. Um, one of my favorite— so my realtor, one of my favorite things, and, and this is not the answer she would have given, but like she had a marble with her all the time.

That was Brandy. That was like—

oh yeah, so you can see if the floors are—

what episode was that?

Oh, it was, it was fairly early. I mean, we're probably in the teens or whatever we had her on, but Yeah, she had, she had a marble with her so she could put it down and see whether or not, you know, whether or not the floor was level. It was brilliant.

Yeah, that's a great idea. Yeah. All right. For sure. All right.

So here's a second question. Okay. All right. What's a job you've walked away from? So again, we've, we've already told you the caveat. It could be a career or it could be, you know, maybe a project around your house. So what's a job you've walked away from?

Okay. So, I mean, it's not necessarily a career, but, uh, I, in a past life, was a bartender.

Really?

Yes.

Okay.

So we should have made cocktails. I could have made like a really cool drink for this show.

How's your Old Fashioned?

Oh, pretty good. Yeah. Yeah.

We can be friends.

Yes. Um, yeah, I was a bartender for, um, actually that's how I met my husband. We both worked at Bennigan's.

Okay.

Um, I was a server. Back when those existed.

Yes.

Wow. I loved Bennigan's. I know, right? They have the best baked potato Soup. Um, but anyways, yeah, so that's where I met my husband. I was a server and he was a bartender, and then I eventually moved up to bartending. And, um, then for a short period of time, I was a manager of a bar. Oh, so yeah. Yeah. So I, it's, I mean, it's not that I walked away with, from it because it was a terrible job, but it's just, sure, it's fun. I love bartending. I love talking to people and, and seeing how drunk they can get.

Some people it's a lot easier than others.

Yeah, that's right. That's true.

Well, so here we'll, we'll do this. We'll, Well, shout out my sister because she, uh, she just opened a, a new bar restaurant. Oh cool, downtown called Sixes and Sevens. Awesome, super, super cool place. We— it was like open the— what was it, like phase 1 or something like 25%? That was their—

that was their opening. That was opening day.

That was opening. Wow. Um, and it was fan—

I mean, like, it was— that's awesome. So that's cool.

Yeah, shout out. Look it out.

Yeah, go check it out for sure. Sixes and Sevens, downtown Houston. I still got to take you, Kev. Yeah, I've not been. I've just heard. I've seen pictures. It looks amazing.

Anyway, we've got a trip planned.

You should do a show there.

There we go.

Well, that's the best idea.

Now we can write it off. That's right.

That's right. Nobody said that. If the IRS is listening, then we're in big trouble.

We'd have to make money before that was possible.

That is so true. That reminds me of a Seinfeld episode.

I don't know, you can write things off even if you're not making money. That actually makes better sense for yourself.

Hey, Kramer just said, hey, I don't know what it is, they're the ones writing it off. Right.

I don't know. All right, 3rd question. Okay.

How do you wind down at the end of a long day?

I really just like to be at home, just to be at home with my husband and my daughter. And just, I mean, we just sit and watch TV. We kind of Netflix something and Just watching TV and just doing nothing because it seems like I'm pretty busy, crazy all the time running around and driving and seeing people and talking. And so, yeah, it's really just about just hanging out.

So what's at the top of the queue on the old Netflix?

Oh gosh, right now I'm watching Persons of Interest. Person of Interest?

Yeah. Is that the Jim Caviezel?

Is that who that is? I don't remember his name. I know it's— I know exactly who it is. I just can't Is that his name? I don't know. I don't remember.

Yeah, I don't have any clue what his name is. And so never even seen him before.

Apparently none of us read People.

Yeah. No, I think we know. I don't have time for that.

Yeah, we don't even like People, right?

Why would you read about it?

That's just a joke. I really do. So I actually—

I've heard of the show. I don't know what it's about.

Oh, so it's like a— this man makes a government machine that basically watches everybody on every camera that's ever out there. And, and they— he gets a Social Security number every so often. And then the, you know, the guy that's like ex-military Special Forces, he like goes out and tries to save that person.

Okay, so I think the guy that made the machine— I haven't seen the show, but I think somebody was talking— I think the guy that made the machine was like the weird crazy guy off of Lost.

That's who it is.

And then the other guy is Jim Caviezel, the guy that played Jesus.

Oh.

Oh.

Oh. See, I didn't— maybe I did not connect all this stuff.

Yeah, um, let's see.

I can play the Kevin Bacon game. I'm pretty good at that.

Yeah, I'm trying to read now on the internet who it is here.

You're doing the googly?

I'm doing the googly googly googling. And, uh, so I don't know, your internet's slow, man. I don't know, just trust me, I'm right.

All right, it's Jim Caviezel.

Wow, they have a huge write-up on that. Yeah, well, it does have like 6 seasons. Does it really? Yeah. And each season has like, I don't know, 25 episodes.

What season are you in?