This is episode number 33 of The Homeowner Show. Whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Hackett, and here with me is Craig Williams.
Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. We are out on a remote recording this afternoon because we have a very special episode Kev, you don't often get to, to talk to folks that you're actually a fan of their show, but today, today is that day.
Yeah, we're both pretty excited about this episode. There's a podcast out there that Craig and I both listen to. We've mentioned this before, that, that Craig and I are both Disney fans. We both really enjoy going to Disney and knowing more about Disney. And so we listen to this podcast called Unlocking the Magic. And today we're going to interview Bruce and Connie from Unlocking the Magic, and we're really excited to, to have them on our show today. So we're going to go ahead and bring them in and let them introduce themselves and tell us a little bit about them. So yeah, hey guys, go ahead and say hello.
Hey guys, thank you so much, Kevin, Craig. It's awesome being here. We're excited too. You guys do some great stuff.
Yeah, thanks for having us on the podcast. Oh, thank you guys. This is— this is— I mean, we're both— we've been talking about this for a couple of weeks, just how excited we are to have you guys on the show. Uh, when we— we really enjoy y'all's content as well. Um, but the big reason we wanted to talk to you guys is because, one, you know, we're a little jealous of all the trips you guys get to take. Uh, but two, that got us thinking that you guys are probably experts on getting out of town, which means, you know, leaving— leaving your home and your possessions and everything behind it, you know, know, that's a vulnerable situation for a lot of folks. And here we are, we're fixing to— April's
behind us now, I think, at this point. And we're rolling into those summer months when people start, you know, having that longing look in their eye to get out of town. Uh, and, and you guys, I mean, as we listen to you guys, you guys get to take a lot of trips. And so we knew that you guys probably were the experts on how to get that house ready To, uh, to head out of town.
Yeah, because for— I, I think the thing is, for, from— for so many people, um, I mean, it's kind of like when I leave, there's probably a list of things that I need to do, but I don't know what it is. And I— and the other thing is, I mean, I'm leaving my home virtually unsecured other than the lock on the door, unless I've got a, you know, security camera system. I may tell a neighbor or two that I'm leaving. But, uh, yeah, we, we just want to kind of find out from you guys Um, you know, what do y'all do whenever it's time to take off?
I mean, I don't know how much of a, uh, of an expert I am at getting the house ready, but I am an expert at getting out of town.
He knows what not to do. I feel like, I feel like I might, and I'm just being, I don't know, a little too confident here, but, uh, I feel like I'll be able to share things to do and he'll be sharing things not to do.
Yeah. When you guys get to those 4 questions at the end of the show, let me know. I'll be back.
Well, Connie, we're glad to have you today.
Connie, you do have your packing list, right?
I do. I have my home packing list, which again, it was kind of like one of those things where we figured out the hard way of what not to do over and over again, that we finally decided that, you know what, I think we need some help. Just anywhere we can write this down. It doesn't even have to be Quite in detail, but just so that we can have something to reference to, because literally we have some stories.
Well, so, so Craig mentioned the packing list. So we know that on your website you've got a packing list for specifically going to Disney. And so what types of things— are there things on that list that have anything to do with your home, or is this completely separate from like You need to do this to your home and packing is completely separate.
Yeah, so I created the list because we were going to Disney a lot. That's ultimately where we vacation a lot, hence the podcast. But I wanted to make it more travel. I wanted to make it obviously have some Disney-specific items on there, but then I was also finding myself like, okay, well, maybe somebody can use this for, you know, whether they're traveling to another destination or whatever. But The main thing on there is that the last page I have a before you leave home to-do list because we continue to forget to do things every time. There's nothing worse than being thousands of miles away from home and being like, oh, did we shut the garage door?
Did we— So I made this. It's really kind of short and sweet, but we'd still— Do you look at it, Bruce?
You do. So the kids— we're a family of 5 and the kids are very involved with everything we do. I actually told them that we're going to be on the show today and they asked me what it was about and everything. I told them we're going to talk about packing and what to do when you're leaving. They were saying, Dad does some stuff, because I kept saying, Oh, Mom does it all. They said, No, we've seen Dad do something. All kidding aside, I have to give them so much credit.
I mean, I do do a little. I don't do it too much. You know, I do— I think the reason she made the list was because we would get to wherever we were going and I probably forgot 14 things. Well, the trick in any good marriage though is to do just enough not to get in trouble. Isn't that right? I mean, that's the trick in my marriage, that's for sure.
I mean, there was definitely— yeah, there's nothing worse than being on vacation and then finding out Whoops, we put the heat down too low and yeah, our pipes might freeze. What do we do? So yeah, I literally never want to live that again.
Yeah, we don't have that problem down here in Houston.
I'm married. Yeah, I'm married with 3 daughters, so you can imagine how much flack I get when I do forget something.
Oh man, God bless you. What has—
are there any of those that you guys have had to learn the hard way?
The heat would be one. So I have on here reduce heat. I probably should say reduce and check heat because— so a little background of me too is that I actually, I have been in real estate for about 10 years. So I sort of— so that's kind of where I guess my full-time gig began.
I've been in real estate.
And so my family had been in real estate and it was kind of like a natural Progression with me to take over. Anyway, so the thing about that is, as much as I know about real estate, it's like when it comes to your own home, it's really hard. You think you know it all, but then when it comes to your home, I'm kind of lazy. But definitely the heat was— because that actually happened to us. We were down in Orlando and we were actually on a trip with my sister-in-law and It happened to be my niece's birthday and we're all celebrating and we get this call about an issue with our heat. We actually had someone come check in our house because it was a very— like one of those weird New England— not so
weird New England, I should say— cold snaps that things were just scary cold, you know? Like Mars, the planet Mars cold. So I sent someone over, a friend, and they're like, I can see my breath. I panicked. Thank God. We have steam heating, which is efficient until it's not. You're supposed to add water to the boiler, whatever. Anyway, we were really close to coming home to a big mess. I have always reduced heat, but also check the heat. Obviously, it's not going to apply to people down south, maybe not, but in New England, that's what gives me anxiety when I'm traveling.
Yeah, I was going to ask.
It's always about the heating.
Is that a boiler? Is that what Yeah. We live in Boston, so we literally have the heat on from January till June, and then we turn it back on the end of August. Wow.
And like, I mean, like, we don't, we don't have anything like that down here. So I'm just curious as to what kind of a mess could you guys have come home to if that had progressed?
Yeah, it would have been a nightmare. So frozen pipes. I mean, I've seen it in other properties before where It's just not— water damage. The thing about properties, at least what I've learned, is pretty much anything can be fixed, but water damage is the worst you're dealing with.
Who knows how long it could have been pouring water. So we avoided that, but it's something that we both do. I'll nag Bruce until we're in the car getting ready to go to the airport. Porter driving down to Florida. Well, did you check the heat?
Yeah, and you, you mentioned something there that, that, um, that I found probably a good tip there is, is you mentioned that you called someone and they were able to get into your home. So I, I think on some level, one of the things I heard you say was make sure that there's at least someone who has access to your home so that if something weird fluke happens, that, that you have a backup, right?
Exactly. Like a good friend, a family member, somebody that can come in and just check in on the house. Just give them a key and just give them your information. We usually have some great neighbors that are constantly watching our house, which we're really grateful for. And we also have family members that—
Except for that guy over there.
Which guy? Oh, we won't talk about that guy. We never talk about that guy.
Yeah, I have a guy like that.
Yeah, that's a good point. I forget to mention too, I guess first and foremost, just make sure you give somebody access to your house that you trust. We've gone away obviously quite a bit and they'll come and go, but it just depends on the season or if I have this feeling that I need them to go in. For the most part, I don't necessarily want to bug them too much, especially since We do travel a bit and we don't take them with us. I feel bad. Like, oh, we're going down to Florida again. Sorry.
These guys, but can you do us a favor? Can you just check in our house?
We'll bring you some Mickey ears or something. That's right.
Little, little coffee mug.
Tide 'em over. It'd be great. We'll text you the weather every day.
Well, well, it's nice and sunny.
But it's important. Like, Yeah, it's important, especially a good neighbor that you trust because they can— I have that on my packing list. Give them info about what lights you're going to leave on, what cars are going to be out there so that they can keep an eye on— things can happen. I try not to worry too much because you don't want to always have the worst happen in your mind. But I think it's important to give that information out there so that they can just Keep an eye out. I'm all about safety. I guess that's the thing about this that I'm gonna—
Well, so do you— I imagine you guys, you guys use— I mean, we don't want to get into like revealing what all you guys use and have, but like, you— I, I would imagine you guys take advantage of some technology, either an alarm system or you guys have some automation that you use in your home.
Yeah, we leave the door unlocked and we have pet chinchillas. All right, we're old school, like dog barking, like automated. Wasn't that on, um, it's like Home Alone.
So if you guys didn't— if you guys didn't get Bruce's comment there, I mentioned before the show that I, I have an attack chinchilla at my, at my house. He's very effective. His name is Fritz.
Good luck when you walk into Craig's house. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, basic technology, a good alarm that's connected. I think that's really what you can ultimately do for safety or whatever.
And then from there on, it's really just— so we also have— I have on the packing list swimming pool if you have, check that, secure plants, things like that because I don't want it to become a mess when I'm away. If we happen to get a storm or something. And what else? What does Bruce do? What do you do?
Yeah, Bruce. So here's what I do. I pack the car. Okay. And then I check the heat. I turn the thermostat down a couple notches. Uh-huh. Not too low. That's about it. That's about it. That's it. And then I'm ready to go.
Just ready to get on the road. Yeah, all kidding aside, You know, we have to check the— so we live in New England and, you know, you tend not to go to— when you live in New England like we do, you tend not to go to Florida when it's warm here because it's like warm for like 4 days. So you got to stay here for those 4 days. You get the most you can while you got it. We always go— yeah, you got to maximize those hot days you have here. So we tend to go when it's really cold here. So you got to check the water heater. You got to check, make sure the boiler has water in it, make sure that the
heat's not cranking while you're gone to waste all that money on oil that you maybe not need to spend.
Is it easier to go? Because we have gone in the summer months.
Sounds like a lot of work, actually. Why would we do this?
I don't know, but it's easier in the summer. Yeah, I don't know what we're doing.
Here, reevaluate our lives right here on The Homeowner Show.
Yeah, right. We definitely—
yeah. I think it's time not to be a homeowner anymore.
It does make some things easier.
You know, there's, there's some guys out there advocating that, and that's okay. They can, they can have that.
Not me. I still love ownership.
Even though we have the podcast and we travel a lot, I still have a lot of clients from when I worked in real estate. So I still actually actively sell real estate because it's sort of like once you establish yourself in real estate, it's kind of hard to just walk away. I find that it's actually been able to blend the two together. A lot of people I meet are Disney fans. Kind of works out. Or they want to move to Florida, which is really awesome. Yeah.
You may need to make some friends in real estate down there.
I'm raising my hand, by the way. You can't see me on the video.
That client, he's trying to like— he's trying to move.
I'm trying to convince her.
Yeah, but I actually secretly sabotage some things when we go, so we come back and the client's like, you know, we should just move.
Yeah, there you go. Well, but, but is it—
I mean, somebody's got to—
yep, somebody's got to regulate the pizza industry down in Florida, don't they?
That's true. The pizza game is getting strong now. It's not as strong as like New York up north or in California, but it's getting there.
Okay. All right. All right.
anything else? I mean, I, I know one of the things that we do, uh, whenever we leave, and, and this is something that like we're driving out of our driveway and my wife's always like, hey, did you stop the mail? And I'm like, no, did you stop the mail? And she's like, no. I'm like, thank goodness for the internet stop mail stuff. And so we're like driving down the road stopping our mail on the way and those sorts of things. So, I mean, is there anything else that you would say, hey, just kind of pay attention to this, or we kind of hit it?
I think stopping the mail is actually something I still do, and I still, even though it's on the packing list, it is one of those things where I'm doing in the car on the way.
Because it's always one of those last-minute things you don't want to go online and do. But I think that's huge because it's just a lot easier and no one wants to have a big— nothing spells— I don't know, just having this big clutter of mail on your front door is just not necessarily the best thing, I think. So that's something I always do. But I don't know what else.
Yeah, nothing says you're on vacation like 400 pieces of mail on your front step.
Let me ask you this question because stopping the mail is pretty easy through USPS. But when it's like— Well, now you got Amazon.
You're gonna Prime it up on the front steps.
Exactly. So if you're forgetting that you ordered whatever it is you ordered, what do you do about that if there are packages that show up and you're not there to take them?
That's where the great neighbors come in again. Make sure you make friends with your neighbors. Cookies in the holidays. It doesn't hurt to wave. You don't want to be friends with your neighbors? I find that really true. You do or you don't. No, you don't want to be friends, but you want to be friendly, right? So you want to be able to look after their house because like then it gets awkward because then if you're friendly—
Yeah, it's like you're swimming in your pool and they're staring at you and you're not inviting them over. That's weird.
It gets awkward fast. So, but you definitely need to have like— definitely take care of your neighbors so that they can do— they can reciprocate.
So Bonnie's basically saying just do just enough so that they kind of like you, they don't hate you.
It's just like being married.
Right? That's it. That's it.
Because they're going to take that package anyway. It's just a matter of if they're going to give it back to you or not.
That's absolutely true. Actually, our oldest is really into environmental stuff. So actually one of the things that we do too that I don't know if it's necessarily that important for a lot of people going away, but we often unplug things. I actually even have that on our package. And she's really proud of us for doing that. But we often just kind of go around the house and just kind of save, because even though things aren't necessarily— like your TV or your coffee maker's not on, it still draws energy, or it can. So she has me going around the whole house.
That is one thing that I do. I do go around and unplug everything before we leave. Oh wow.
Yeah. All right. Yeah, because there's like that little—
It doesn't work. There's that little—
yeah, yeah, there's a like that little power light, right? And it just kind of stays on all the time.
Yeah. We just kind of do. I mean, I don't even know if it's that important. It's important to her and safety behind it too. You never know with these things plugged in what can happen. I don't know. I just go around and make her happy and she can have a good time.
Yeah. It's funny because they leave the TV on all the time.
Yeah. They leave the TV on all the time. I don't get it, but you know.
I know a lot of people that use that as like a security system. They think if they leave the TV on, it tells burglars that somebody's home. I'm like, no, it just gives them something to watch while they rob you.
Right, exactly. Right, exactly. We definitely do kind of that kind of thing. I think that's on my packing list too.
All kidding aside, make like getting a checklist for yourself and just going around your house and deciding the things that you know you check every time you leave and just writing it down all on a simple checklist just gives you peace of mind when you are on vacation. Because the worst thing that can happen is, like you said, when you are halfway down the street and you realize you have to— you maybe have forgotten something. If you just look at your checklist and you check it off the list, you know it's done. Then you can just relax when you're on vacation because that's what you're really going for. Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that because that's something I hear you guys
talk a lot about on your show is like how you can actually really You know, dive in and enjoy and relax the time while you're there instead of worrying about all the other things that could be going on. I know the last time I went, I had just gotten one of those Ring doorbells. Are you guys— have you guys seen these? Yes.
And I was using that as in the wait time in the line. I was always checking my front door, like, who's trying to get in my house and who's trying to— Where do you live?
I'm gonna get you out of there. I'm just kidding.
Most people drive onto Craig's lot and goes, we got to get out of here. Most of the most people.
Well, no, for me, it's right. It's exactly— it's dangerous more for them than it is for— Well, it is, it is suspicious for me. Like, you know, my house sits like 100 yards off the road. So like if someone comes to my front door, it's like, what's going on? And so at that point I was like, I was like, is somebody there now? Is somebody there? And so it gave me something. It gave me like a source of anxiety almost. to have access to that. Um, and, and I know that you guys talk, and so how can you kind of step away from, you know, the anxiety of something going on at your house and really
just be where you're at? That, at least from y'all's experience. So I call my insurance agent right before we leave. There you go. And, uh, as long as everything's good, I'm like, you know what, let it go. Whatever, we can replace whatever's in there. You know, someone comes in, wants to break into my house and take the TV, go for it. I'll get a new one. Well, there's no replacing Fritz, but point taken.
Yeah, right, right, exactly. Hello? He's not caught up. He's not caught up.
Wait, you leave Fritz for a week? How does Fritz eat?
He roams the house, man. That's how I keep him feral.
Yeah. No, but you know what? If you just— he's obviously, again, kidding a little bit. Oh, you're serious? Okay. Well, yeah, I mean, I think that's important. Important. Make sure your insurance is paid up, right? Nothing worse than not having your insurance payment in when you're away.
For me at least, because I'm in trouble if that happens.
It also helps that we're very like— we're not flashy, so I don't think anybody would want to break into our house.
No, they're going to break in and be very disappointed.
Yeah, they would be very disappointed. That's how we afford all these trips. I mean, let's be real. We don't have anything flashy. Literally our TV is from 2006.
They're like, what is that box in the corner over there?
Yeah, I think the glass front, it's curved, it's weird. Uh, yeah, so I think—
I also think that on some, on some level you have to realize that, um, plans change and like, um, you know, maybe, maybe a flight gets delayed or you're, you're, you know, you're late getting home and, and things are not set up the way you expected, uh, because of travel plans or You know, down here, you know, a major flood could happen like Harvey and you were gone. We knew someone that was gone trying to get back to this area and they weren't able to get back for like a week. And so, you know, on some level you have to, you do have to make sure that your insurance is up to date and that things are secured in case something goes wrong while you're gone.
Right, I mean, I hate to like bring doomsday and like worry about it, but it is just, I feel like responsible as a homeowner to really just make sure that these things that you're paying for are there to help you, right?
So we want to make sure that they're in effect. And then once you're there, honestly, I just focus on the kids as much as I can because they're growing up so fast. And to me, this is what we're doing it all for, to be with them, try to enjoy some family time. Each time we actually go down to Disney or Disneyland, A lot of it is we try to obviously take in a lot for the show so that we can share with other people that are traveling to help them with their vacation. But ultimately, I try to carve out as much family time and try to carve out pieces of the trip so that when we come
back, I can pull out that memory and say, you know what? That's what I'm going to hold with me tight. So if you focus on them, it really makes everything— the stress kind of go away.
What she said. Yeah, exactly.
Well, we definitely do want to—
I was getting all mushy there.
No, no, it's good. I mean, like, one of the things I know Kevin's told me a couple of times is just like, you know, try and count in your head how many summers you have left with your kids. And like, when you, when you put it in that, I mean, like, that's, that's a number I can usually count on like one hand. Um, sometimes. Well, some of my kids, some of my kids, they got a little bit longer, so I don't pay as much attention to them. Um, but perfect. But yeah, I mean, we put it in perspective. Yeah, you're absolutely right. I mean, like, it makes it easier to focus on them and the time that you have with them when you, when you just look at it that way. Yeah. And yeah, our kids are
getting— our kids are a little bit older. Like, our oldest daughter's gonna be 17. So I mean, she's only— she's only got— I told her, she— you only got one more We're paying. Then you gotta pay us.
Sell more seats for you on this road. She's gotta start her own podcast.
But I mean, it's not— yeah, exactly. Get her own following. That's right.
But it's really— I mean, I say that and it's not always like that. You know, it's not always sunshine and rainbows. We've had trips where it's like stressful, you know, things go wrong, but it's really your attitude. You just try to have to— even when we got that call from our friend, it could have been a lot worse. Thank God it wasn't, but it still was nerve-wracking because we didn't know what we were dealing with. I had to make a call to our oil guy to come and of course that was an extra expense for him just to come out. But it's attitude too because you're there, what are you going to do? I mean, it's kind of one of those things
too where you kind of have to let go and have faith it'll work out, I guess.
I guess. I don't know. That's what Bruce does. He wings it.
Well, but you also can't let fear drive you to not go somewhere. Right? I mean, you really do need to carve out time to break away, to find some family time, to go and do something. And don't let the fear of what might happen to your house keep you from doing something. Because to be quite honest, most of us are out of our house for a large part of the day, the week anyway. If stuff's gonna happen, it's gonna happen, you know?
Yeah, right. No, I agree. You can't let— you can't let fear stop you from doing anything. You should always not ever let that be part of what you're thinking is or your philosophies. But like, you're going on vacation for a reason. Like you said, if you have children, you never— like, they're not gonna be around. Like, those moments aren't gonna come back. They're gonna be old pretty soon, and they're gonna be older far longer than they're gonna be younger and want to hang out with you. Mm-hmm.
Yeah, that's true. That's true. Well, we definitely want to transition for a minute, and we want to give you all an opportunity to talk about Disney. And we selfishly want to talk about Disney a little bit. So plug your podcast real quick and kind of tell us what your podcast is about and let's kind of go down that road for a little bit.
All right. Well, Bruce, you want to take it over?
I mean, I guess I can talk now. I have some expertise in this part of the conversation. Ladies and gentlemen, Bruce. Welcome. Thank you so much for having me, guys. This has been great. So our podcast, yeah, we started our pod— I think we started our podcast, I want to say 3 or 4 years ago. And we were just going to Disney a lot and we would get a lot of questions. And honestly, I just wanted to get free Disney stuff. Oh my gosh. So let's start a podcast and maybe if we'd get enough people that listen Listen to the show and get some free stuff. There you go.
Do you ever not joke? It's like hard to know when you're serious and when you're not.
He literally— well, he literally— we were sitting down. Do you know who Marc Daniel is by any chance?
Okay, so the host of Disney— yes.
He's Inside Disney Parks, blah, blah, blah. And he's also— he's in Indiana Jones Show. Anyway, really cool guy. And we had the opportunity and the honor to sit with him and share breakfast with him. Bruce literally just said that to him. He said, so what made you start the podcast? He's like, I don't know. I just wanted to get free Disney stuff. I'm like, oh my God. This is so embarrassing. No, that is not. I don't even think I said anything. I was so embarrassed.
I mean, it's kind of true. What am I going to lie? You won't know unless you ask. I mean, come on. Right.
Oh my God. Well, I guess in some ways that's the exciting part is we get to travel a lot. We go to the place that we love and have so many— I grew up going to Disney, so it's amazing to be able to share that with our kids. But ultimately, it actually has nothing to do really with the theme parks itself. It's actually more about the way that— it's a lot of history. So it's like we really fell in love with Walt Disney and what he did. And it was really at a time where we started the podcast where we were kind of on a low. Both of us in our careers, we weren't really sure where we were going.
And this just— we realized that this one particular trip that stood out to us and really that changed everything was really anything is possible. Whether you want to do any— you want to be whatever.
You want to start a Disney podcast or a pizza podcast or a business owners podcast, just do work, man.
Just do it. And so that's really where the inspiration came from. And from that, We started the show based on that inspiration, based on just— we found that the reason why we found the inspiration is because we actually lived in the moment during that trip. We actually got— you talked about earlier how to just kind of not worry about what's happening at home and just kind of immerse yourself.
It can be hard, especially if you're going through a stressful time and you're not really sure of things. We're able to have this opportunity to kind of see things in a different way, kind of like a kid again, I guess, if I have to be honest. Like, we went to Disney as a kid again, and I realized that no matter how old you are, it doesn't matter how old you are, you can set a new goal, set a new dream. And I really want to bring that to our kids. And I mean, what's better than Disney and being on the attractions and having fun, right?
It was? I felt like I was rambling. We tend to talk a lot. I have a whole team, Team Talks Too Much.
If you guys, if you guys follow us.
So I'm Team Talks Too Much and Bruce is Team Tonga because he loves the Tonga Toast at Disney's Kona Cafe, which is in the Polynesian Village Resort. It's this delicacy that he's found.
Which I'm pretty sure I'm responsible for hundreds and hundreds of sales of Tonga Toast and they still haven't given me one for free yet.
No commission at all on that, on the Tonga Toast, huh? Zero. Not even a thank you. I've sold thousands of Tonga. I've sold more Tonga toast who sell Tonga toast down there. Well, I'm actually right because you guys you guys have t-shirts for this stuff now too, right?
We got a whole competitive thing happening.
I was I was fixing to go there. I was I was I was curious as to how that I mean like do you guys keep keep score with one another on the on the teams? I mean we don't want to like declare a winner. Yeah. I do. Connie doesn't mind to keep score.
Oh, mine's a little— yeah, it's true. It's— so he's a little bitter because I, I designed my team talks too much based on the bride at Haunted Mansion.
So he's kind of creeped out. So he's a little bitter. So he's been— I feel like he's been paying people off, to be honest.
I do give out commissions for the shirts if you want one. Okay, there we go.
I feel like he's trying to get people on his team because he's a little nervous that I really think I'm Constance from the attraction. It's my favorite attraction.
Definitely makes me want to make sure I check everything off the list before we leave. Yeah.
That's not a joke. That's not a joke.
So do y'all wear these t-shirts at Disney?
Okay. All right. That's good. Sure. That's good.
Actually, Bruce, yeah, he wears them when he's in the Polynesian. Actually, we've gotten stopped by some cast members, which is fun.
Yeah, so I was going to ask, do people recognize you guys when you have them on? I mean, they recognize us sometimes when we don't want them to, even if we're not wearing the shirts.
Yeah. Not in our best moments sometimes.
Right. Like, listen, you know, you guys go to Disney. Sometimes it's like 8 o'clock at night. You've been in the Magic Kingdom since 7 o'clock in the morning. It's hot, sweaty. The kids are crying. And someone comes up to you and is like, hey, you guys are Bruce and Connie from Unlocking the Magic. And we're like, no, we're not.
Yeah, right. That's not us.
I saw them over on the Haunted Mansion, though. You should check them out.
Yeah, yeah. I'm assuming that that would be really terrible because you're like, um, I got a FastPass reservation. If you would step aside, sir. I got somewhere to be. Stop talking to me.
Actually, in all honesty, it's so much fun being in the parks and people coming up to us. Like, it's really— we've had some times where they'll, they'll send us messages and say, hey, I saw you at the park. And I'm thinking, dear Lord, like, I really hope it was a good moment. We bicker sometimes. We're a normal, I guess, couple, right? Things happen. Again, not always rainbows and sunshine.
And it's such a great place to be. And really, I think that's why we continue to go and we continue to do this show. And even the kids, they've been so many times, but they stay super humble about it, which is really what makes us proud. We do sacrifice some things at home so that we can afford to go a lot, but they— and they still— but they appreciate that.
Oh yeah, I bet. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, have you guys gone recently or do you have a trip coming up? We just got back last week, actually. Oh my goodness. Was it— I assume it was amazing.
It's always good. It's always good leaving the cold in April. New England, because it's a little cold. Yep, we still have the heat on in New England.
Uh, and yeah, we were, we were there for— we did Epcot, we did the Food and Wine. I'm sorry, not the Food and Wine. I still say food. It's the Flower and Garden, but we call it Food and Garden.
They got good food at the Flower and Garden Show.
I think I was actually there last year and they had a, um, a honeybee exhibit where they had— did they still have that this year?
They had the— they had— I didn't see the honeybee, but I saw the honey exhibit. And they had, you know, all these food pairings with honey. And then they had— our kids really loved— they had a butterfly exhibit this year, which was really beautiful.
Okay. And that's one of my favorite parks because that park in particular, I just remember being a kid and And learning stuff while I was there and having it. It was like weird, like a weird feeling to me because I was in a theme park, but I remember pulling pieces like, I'm learning stuff. Should I tell my parents?
You know, that I'm like learning here.
I know exactly what you mean.
Yeah, because I, I know exactly what you mean because I grew up going to Disney, you know, as a kid as well, and Epcot was always my favorite park. And, uh, you know, I remember whenever Innoventions was in its heyday and there was all kinds of stuff and that was available for you to, you know, to just try out new products that weren't even out on the market yet. You got to, you know, play with and do stuff with. Gosh, and I've heard you talk about this a little bit, but like, I loved Body Wars, right? I mean, that attraction was fantastic. I know it probably scared 99% of the people, but I loved it. It probably did. And I loved learning about stuff as well. And so
Epcot's really cool for that, for sure.
Yeah, unfortunately Bruce doesn't have childhood memories of Epcot, so I kind of feel like— I always feel bad because I'm like, this is just like— oops, I shouldn't— should I say?
Another part of the podcast I have no input on.
Yeah, but he's still— I guess he's a kid now, right? Like, you have fun as if you were a kid.
And there's a lot of things changing.
Oh yeah, I actually think it's kind of fun as an adult to take other adults that haven't been when they were kids because you kind of get to see the kid come out in them.
Exactly. So that's so fun.
That's been a big fun, fun thing with my wife is, I mean, just all the, all the trips that we've gotten to take in there. Yeah, you know, I, this is, uh, I think you and I, Connie, actually grew up going around the same time, uh, because I remember, I remember Epcot opening in like, in what was that, '83? Um, because I grew, I grew up in Florida And this will—
And in Cocoa, if you know where that is. And we had this weird— they used to have this really weird thing there for us Floridians called the— instead of season passes to Disney, they had this Four Seasons Salute. Do you ever hear this thing? It's—
You know what? No, I don't think I have.
This is part of old Disney lore then. So if you lived in Florida, you could buy this thing. And what it was is they had like their peak seasons, just like they do now, you know, when they— the different prices for different resorts. And, you know, I think they're actually scaling their prices on the tickets for the parks now too. But they would take the off-peak seasons and, and all 4 seasons, and that was the only time that you could go. But you had a year season pass, it was just called the Four Seasons Salute. And so it was like, and so like, that's where the Boy Scouts would go camping at, you know, Fort Wilderness and all that kind of stuff. So.
Yeah, they've— see, the thing is, like, the thing I both love and hate about Disney is like, it's the most magical place on earth, but they find the most strategic ways to take your money. And so it is no longer— it is no longer a seasonal ticket. It's not just a regular ticket price or a seasonal ticket price. They have it day by day. One day is a different price than the next day. It's unbelievable.
But hey, we are unfortunately—
yeah, but hey, yeah, I, I— here, here's the thing though, like, it's such an amazing place that they are not losing customers and guests coming to Disney.
Just because they're raising these prices. And, uh, you know, one thing I want to ask you guys about, um, especially since y'all were just there, um, I mean, I think that, that, uh, DHS is— or Hollywood Studios is just about to explode. I mean, because their Galaxy's Edge is just about to open, you know, Toy Story Land just opened not too long ago. We just got news that Mickey's Runaway Railway is going to be delayed for a little bit, but I think that park's gonna explode. So I'm just curious, like, what are y'all's thoughts behind Galaxy's Edge? And I mean, y'all saw some of the stuff going up, and I'm just curious what your thoughts are about it.
I mean, I'm super excited to visit Galaxy's Edge in 2024.
Yeah, yes, yes, it's gonna be insane.
That's why we're gonna be able to get in.
Yeah, they're, they're actually taking reservations, aren't they?
Yeah, yeah, they are. Yeah, so I mean, I'm excited, but I'm also weird. Like, I— when something is new, I tend to wait as long as possible before seeing it because I get— I think I have I'm fearful of being— and even though I know it's Disney and I shouldn't have this feeling because they usually always deliver, I have this fear of like being disappointed somehow. So I don't want to be the first to see it. I don't— I just kind of want to wait until like the hype calms a little, and then I feel like I'll be ready.
I mean, listen, they're smart though. Like, like you said, they, they have high ticket prices, but they don't have any scarcity of people wanting to visit. But that being said, they also innovate all the time. Every park has something being added to it just about. And Epcot's gonna be happening pretty soon. There's gonna be a ton of stuff added to Epcot. So they're always looking to not be complacent with the parks and just make sure that when the people do pay high ticket prices, they, they get what they paid for.
You go to Disney and yeah, ticket prices could be $130 for the day, but you know, you go to the movies and you pay $25 for a ticket and then pay $10 for a thing of popcorn.
And you know, it's not even that good of popcorn. No, no. Not even that friendly. They don't put the butter on for me.
And the seats aren't clean.
Right, exactly. Yeah, and Disneyland is innovating too. I don't know if you just saw, um, the recent news that, uh, Disneyland's also getting, uh, Mickey's Runaway Railway as well. Did y'all see that?
Yeah, I'm excited. I don't know, I'm excited. Okay, I love Toontown, so—
Oh, is that what's going away?
No, they're just— they're putting it in Toontown.
They're putting it in Toontown. Okay.
Yeah, so to me that's a sign of like Toontown is staying there. Yeah, because I, I'm nostalgic and I just like love that piece of Disneyland. But I think, I don't know, I kind of like that they can be separate parks too. So I wasn't as excited to hear about it. Okay, in some way too. Yeah, it's I don't know if that makes sense because I'm like excited but not, you know, because it's like I feel like there should be some separation in the parks, I guess.
Well, that's different. Yeah, we've talked about that in the past. Like, as much as I know how it is because people who live in California or on the West Coast don't always come to Orlando and vice versa, but for us, you always want to visit Disneyland or Disney World and have a different experience. And it's always good to see even the attractions that are the same name, they're very different in the parks. Yeah, that's true. Well, in talking about Toontown, I mean, because that's, that's something that we lost in the Florida parks, leads me to a question I wanted to ask you guys. Because I'll just tell you right up front, I'm still a little bitter about losing the Great Movie Ride at Hollywood.
But what if you guys could have one of those rides back from any of, any of the parks? Which one would you guys want back if you guys could have one?
I think it actually probably would be The Great Movie Ride for me because I really love Old Hollywood. That's part of my thing. I have— I just have this really strong connection with Old Hollywood. I love the fact that it exposed to kids those classic movies. Like, it's like a conversation that maybe I wouldn't have if we didn't go on that attraction because they asked me, you know, oh, what, what's What's this from? And what's that from? And then I realized, oh, we haven't seen that. Let's do a family movie night. And so that to me was more than just a ride, you know. It was really an experience that I could carry home.
Yeah. For me, it would be the movie at the end of One Man's Dream, if you guys walk through that and see—
The original movie of Walt. Bring that back, please. Okay. How long was that thing? It was like 10 minutes long. But it was like, you know what, the reason that we go to Walt Disney is because of Walt Disney. Or we go to Disney World, rather, is because of Walt Disney. Disney. Yeah. And that movie really showed people that it was really through perseverance that he built what he built. Like, nothing was handed to him and nothing really came easy his whole life. And he built Disneyland and he built the Walt Disney Studios, and then eventually Disney World got built because of what he did. And I think that they should put that movie back. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I'd be good with that.
And again, it was— yeah, again, a conversation with the kids. Like, we could talk to them about history of Walt Disney, which they don't necessarily get all the time in the parks. So it was an easy transition for them. They had to sit watching. They weren't being entertained. It was cool. That's a good answer, Bruce.
Yeah, well done. That seems to be the park that they've gotten rid of the most of. I don't know if people realize that. There's been so many things that they've— I remember the Backlot Tour. back in the day.
Oh yeah, man, I, I loved whenever you got to go through the streets back there. I mean, it— because it changed so much. You got to go through the streets, you got to see the old graveyard, or, you know, uh, the boneyard I think they called it. Oh yeah, um, all that kind of stuff. And, uh, you know, I mean, even the Osborne Lights was amazing. That's right. Yeah, well, it's the only— it's the only, uh, park that has even undergone a name change. Yeah, you know, so yeah, it's the redheaded stepchild of the Disney parks. Yeah, and it's, it's not that old, right?
I just hope that it stayed like the Hollywood essence of Hollywood stays, remains somehow. Yes, you know. Yes, that's my ultimate goal, but who knows.
So I, I know I did— did you, uh, Connie, did you actually engage with the, uh, the people at the front gate of Hollywood Studios this time, or I actually did not.
We actually didn't go to Hollywood Studios this trip.
Oh, you didn't go to Hollywood, okay. So no bantering.
No, we actually picked 2 parks. No bantering. No, we didn't. I'm kind of staying away from it. Well, we had visited not too long ago. We went in the parks and a lot of it, it was kind of hard for me to— there's plenty, okay. There's plenty of things for people to do right now if you don't go to the parks often. But if you do go to the parks often, it's really kind of in a transitional period. So it's hard, I feel like, to not think about what used to be there. So I had a hard time of going. So we're probably gonna wait a little while longer, but, um, that's why we didn't visit.
5 more years. 5 more years. That's right.
Exactly. And the hype will be back down.
It'll only be an hour and a half wait just to get into Galaxy's Edge.
Exactly. Exactly. The line won't be outside the park anymore.
So, well, this is the only company that can have a wait to get in to walk around.
That's so true. They're, they're the only, they're the only park that, uh, that can make you buy a ticket to get in but then make a reservation to do something while you're in there.
Right. Well, we, we could, we could chat with you guys all day. We just really enjoyed visiting with you guys, but we, uh, we don't want to keep you. So, so Kevin, we need to, uh, to get them on to the— what, what do we have for them?
That's right. So these are, uh, guys, these are just, uh—
No, no, nothing to be nervous about because, uh, these are, these are just, uh, well, it's a test, so I'm glad you're nervous a little bit.
There's nothing to be nervous about as long as your answers are good.
Yeah, I mean, nobody, nobody really, nobody really judges people too much, too much, too much. Uh, all right, well, these are just, uh, you know, we, we ask all of our guests, uh, these same 4 questions And they are directly related to kind of owning a home and things that you do around your home. So let's just get into these. Here's the first question. What's the must-have tool that you won't leave the house without? So if maybe someone says, hey, I need you to come over and help me do something, and you had to grab something just on the way out of your house, what would, what would it be? One tool.
Does my wallet count? Sure.
Um, if you're coming to my house, please bring your wallet.
I'm bringing my wallet because if I come to your house and you ask me to fix anything, I have to call someone and I need my credit card. There you go.
He's all thumbs when it comes to any kind of home fixing.
I'll break something. Bruce, I will call you for all my projects.
Someone good to know, I guess, right? I always have a measuring tape with me. I don't know if that's considered a tool.
Why do you have a measuring tape?
I always have a measuring tape. I have, like I said, I still, I'm full-time on this podcast, but I'm also still, I guess, technically full-time as a real estate agent as well.
I've got families that I've— there's nothing more rewarding. I still get emotional every time someone buys or sells a house with me because it's a story that they have and I was involved with their story. Every closing table, I still get super emotional. Anyway, I always bring a measuring tape because someone always needs Something to be measured.
She'll measure, I'll order us pizza.
There you go, perfect. Yeah, we, we, uh, we, we did an episode, uh, with a realtor, and, um, it was actually a realtor that sold me, uh, my house. And one of the things that I thought was hilarious is, um, you know, down here in Houston there's a lot of foundation issues just with the, you know, flooding and, uh, you know, those sorts of things. And, uh, she always has a marble with her And she'll— you'll walk around and be like, this kind of feels weird. And she'll open up her little notebook and there's a marble in there. She sets it on the floor. If it starts rolling, it's like, get out, leave.
Us realtors are always losing our marbles.
I mean, that's a good sign that you had your realtor that sold you your house on your podcast. That's a good sign.
Yeah, absolutely. We liked her. Yeah, for sure.
Yeah. So, do you have a— do you have an actual physical, physical measuring tape or are you using the measuring tape like on an iPhone?
Oh no, you know what? The thing with my iPhone is like—
No, it's not operator error. We talk about this on the podcast a lot because there's so many different things you can do now technology-wise on your phone, but the darn thing is either never charged fully, so I don't want to use the battery, or I have enough apps that I can't even handle one more app. Between the emails and stuff, they're all coming through my phone, so I'm— the storage. So yeah, I tend to be old school with stuff like that.
All right, question number 2, what's a job you've walked away from? So not necessarily a career that you've walked away from, but specifically at your house. Let's say that something needed to be fixed or remodeled or redone that you started and you said, I can't do this anymore, I've got to call in somebody else or a friend or something. So what's a job you've walked away from?
It could be a career too. We like a good quitting job. That's, you know, that's fine too. What's the job I walked— pretty much every job I've walked away from.
No, I wouldn't say that. You're pretty handy when it comes to like the lawn.
Oh yeah, like I mow the lawn.
Yeah, but like you're good at—
That's nothing to sneeze at though.
I would say a job that I walked away from recently was, uh, trying to redo some lines for our pool filter.
You know, I was getting in there and then I was like, you know what? Not only do I not enjoy this, but I'm probably going to make it worse. Then I'm really not going to enjoy it. Right.
Then Connie's going to be mad.
Then I got to get my tool, which is my wallet, and call somebody.
That's literally how it happens every time.
I would say Bruce and I are both guilty of this. We both tried to take on some masonry. Our front steps needed to Like the mortar needed— was getting old, whatever. We did the good old putting salt on brick stairs.
Did never, ever, ever do that.
Okay, there you go. They're probably like— they're from Houston. They're like, salt? Salt. I would do it on your stairs anyway. It gets cold here and the water—
It's something for cows to lick down here. That's right.
Got it. Okay. Yeah. So you can put salt anywhere else except the bricks. You know, that'll eat away the mortar and stuff. So I was putting a lot and then we needed to just— I think It looked easy enough. You know, you go to Home Depot, you get some cement, you plaster it together, and you make a big mess.
YouTube makes it look really easy, but it's not as easy as YouTube makes it look, by the way.
I'll tell you, that's actually an issue a lot of people ran into down here was the saltwater pools. YouTube? I know, they're tricky. Yeah, they are tricky. But have people started doing that up there where they put in saltwater pools? Not— not yet. Some of the— some of the higher-end pools do have saltwater or saline pools, but not really. Most of them here are just chlorine. So what— what people are running into down here is everyone down here likes putting in the nice rock masonry waterfall features into their pools, and then they're like, well, saltwater pools are easier to maintain. Well, the salt eats all that masonry, and so you end up with like this hollow chunk that just fills up with water and Yeah, it's just, it's a big nightmare if
you, uh, yeah, see, yeah, good tip.
Masonry. I met, I met a mason. We have a great mason now, and I'm, you know, he's on my contacts all the time. I can't recommend him enough because I'm like, I don't know, you have mad— he has magical hands. I don't know how.
Yeah, we actually give him the key when we go away. There you go. That's your guy.
Yeah, perfect. Perfect. All right, 3rd question. Uh, we kind of We kind of briefly broached this subject a little bit ago when we were talking about kind of relaxing a little bit, but something that Craig and I are big into is just taking some time at the end of the day to wind down. So how do you wind down at the end of a long day?
For me in particular, I think I just love— I just love just kind of winding down and kind of— I'm a super space nerd. I love any kind of Netflix space shows. I finally got Bruce on board to watch a few of these. We love just kind of having family time, sitting on the couch, whatever. It's just like that time is so valuable to me.
Yeah, I'd say movie. As a family, we love movies, like Marvel movies or Disney movies. At the end of the night, TV is okay, but you got to have something that you're interested in. So we always just kind of watch movies. We pretty much watched Captain America at least 492 times.
Oh, okay. That's a good number.
I really feel it. Yeah, it's pretty good. We know each scene.
8 more to go. So we watch just movies. I'd say we're a big movie family.
Yeah, big movie family. That to us, unwinding, whether the kids are with us or not, but just kind of Just, I guess, just finding another outlet because we love Disney and stuff like that so much, but at the same time, you also need other outlets because that's how your creativity is also sparked as well.
I've realized after doing this podcast that I shouldn't own a house and I'm pretty boring.
Now you're discovering? I've been telling you that for years.
I know somebody sitting next to you that could put it on the market for you.
I'm not calling her. She's too difficult.
All right, last question. Y'all are in the homestretch. Last question, one of the best pieces of wisdom or advice that you've ever received?
I think I'd say I heard— I don't know if it's like someone told this to me, but I heard a quote, and I've— it was— this was many years ago that I heard this quote, and I live by it now. Everything is figureoutable. I don't know if that's a word. But it is to me. Okay. And it just means like, you know what, no matter what you're trying to fix or work on or figure out, everything is figureoutable. Whether you have to call somebody or you go online nowadays, which is super easy compared to when we were younger. Everything you can try to— you're trying to do is figureoutable. You just got to make sure that you have the right mindset and figure it out.
I don't have one piece. I think I was very fortunate. My parents are so wonderful. My dad, we didn't have him around as long as I had wished and hoped for, but every day he had a piece of wisdom to share with me. Whether it's just being the best you that you can possibly be, to take every day and just kind of try not to take life too seriously, but just try to do your best every day. You're gonna have some days where it's not the greatest, but don't worry, you know, tomorrow you can try again. And my dad was always really great at that. I often think of him a lot.
Alright. Well, good deal. Well, listen, we've been just so excited to have you guys on. Where can people find information about you guys? What's a good way to get a hold of y'all?
They can call us on the phone.
Okay. You got a number? I'd say go to our website, unlockingthemagic.com is our home base. The website there, you can find all of our links to Instagram, Facebook, or the podcast. If you want to check us out there, that'd probably be the best place to go. Okay.
And if people wanted to buy a house in New England, where should we go, Connie?
They should Google Connie Irving.
Well, listen, we, like I said, we're just tickled to death that y'all were available and willing to come on and talk to us a little bit about what it means to be on vacation and, and secure your home and, and be away for a little bit. Um, you know, so, uh, best of luck out there, and I hope people will go and check out your podcast. And, uh, yeah, Craig, you got anything else we need to talk about?
No, just thank you guys so much for being with us today. It's, it's, it's really been a lot of fun, and we just We're just tickled to get to talk to you guys.
Yeah, so, uh, well, thanks for having us. Yeah, great. Awesome.
Cool. Well, uh, listen, uh, if, uh, any of you listeners out there want to know more about us, you can find us at homeownershow.com. You can send us a message at info@homeownershow.com if you've got an idea for a show or just, uh, anything you want to talk about. let us know. We'd love to hear from you. Send us a message. We're here every Tuesday, so subscribe to us. Click that subscribe button. If you're on YouTube, click the bell as well so you get notified anytime a new one goes live. And that's working now. It's working now, man. I, I finally got some, some new hardware that's gonna allow me to actually get some of that stuff done. So that's all good stuff. But thanks for listening, and we
