Top 3 Home Purchases to Spend Stimulus On

This is episode number 134, again, again, 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 glad that you could join us for this episode that was so good we decided to do it twice. Yeah.

I mean, so, so you remember that time, Craig, when we already did this episode? That was like—

Which time?

Yeah, I mean, we, we just did this a few days ago.

Yeah.

And we, we'll be honest, we're okay with admitting our faults.

Yep.

We screwed it up.

Well, and by we, we mean me.

Well, I mean, obviously.

Hey, actually, real quick, can you, can you turn the volume down on the iRig right there?

Yeah.

Just reach around there and grab that real quick. There you go. I can see it peaking. That's not going to be pleasant for anybody. So what one of the— so just everybody knows, like, we've, we've been making sure that the video and the audio quality is just, you know, up in the upper echelons of all podcasts, right? Because those are our expectations for other podcasts.

Yeah.

So we wanted to make sure that it's great. And this last episode that we did, the audio was pretty terrible.

It— I mean, maybe the worst. Well, definitely the worst we've ever produced.

I don't know about that. We had that one live episode that no one should go listen to.

Oh, that's true. That one was really bad.

But that being said, we were getting several comments from folks about, you know, like, this is really good content, but like, your audio is just absolutely terrible, uh, right now, and it's really difficult to listen. And we, we were called robots. Um, name, name-calling was, was done.

Yeah, for good reason.

Feelings were hurt.

Yeah.

Kevin went to the corner.

Well, that was you. Okay, whatever. Yes.

Yeah. Um, with, with good reason.

Yeah.

I mean, some of y'all were mean.

Yeah.

Um, and, you know, shame on you.

But we deserved it.

We deserved it.

I mean, it was really bad.

Yeah. I mean, like, you should be a better person, but like, we should be tougher.

Exactly. Now I'll say this. So we, again, the goal, right, is to produce a really high quality product for you guys out there listening and watching. But also our goal is to produce a very good sounding product, which this is a podcast, right?

It's all about the audio. That's right.

It's all about the audio. And, and I was so nervous, I changed my mic out. Yeah, he actually did. That's a different mic that he is using right there. And, um, the thing is, we, we incorporated some new technology. It's not new technology. We used technology that is older, but it's the first time we've used it. It's just new to us. And in doing so, we screwed some things up.

Yes.

So we apologize.

Full responsibility.

That's right. Yeah, we apologize for it. We are moving forward. We are better for it. And you are going to be happier because of it.

Well, the upside to this one is you're going to get 2-bourbon Craig.

Oh, yeah, that's true.

It's currently 10:50 at night.

Yeah. And this was not the first glass for him.

So there's that. Yeah. So, but we have— we actually have— I mean, like, since we recorded that last horrible episode that will never go public and we deleted, Um, we, we actually have some cool announcements to make. One, we got 2 live events coming up.

Yeah.

That we're gonna be at.

Right.

So, um, if you— if your lifelong dream has ever been to get your picture made in front of the Homeowner Show— what is it, like 8 feet?

Yeah, it's massive. The disc.

That's right, the Homeowner Show disc. If you want to get your picture made in front of the Homeowner Show disc, the 8-foot disc, we're going to be at a couple of different live events. Be checking our Facebook page. for those. We actually have some former guests that are putting some of these events together, like Home Inspector Ricky.

Yeah.

Real estate agent Freddie P. And who else we got? I'm trying to remember, who are the other ones? Anyway.

I don't remember.

No, no, the other one's not a former guest, but—

That's why I don't remember.

That's right. And so, but we have some home show events coming up where you guys can actually come out and meet us.

That's right.

get your picture made in front of the logo and engage with us. Say hi.

We want you to do that. I mean, we— it's funny because we, we hear from some of you and we've, we've met some of you virtually through Facebook or whatever, but we would love for you to come out, hang out with us for a little bit, take a picture with us, let us get to know you a little bit. And yeah, it's kind of a unique opportunity that a lot of people that do podcasts don't actually get a chance to do. So, right, I'm excited about it.

So, and I have started the, uh, the— what is the word I'm looking for here, Kev?

I don't know.

Again, this is too bourbon, Craig. Um, the— I've entered the interview circuit.

Oh yeah.

So I've started doing interviews on other podcasts again. And so I was, I was actually on, uh, Save Time Cooking with Celestina.

Yeah.

Who was our guest 2 episodes— 2 episodes, 3 episodes— 2 episodes ago.

Yeah, and if you haven't, if you haven't gone to watch that episode, it was really good. But then go watch Craig and Celestina do their thing over on her Instagram, right? Which is Save Time Cooking. And it was really, really good, man. Y'all, y'all dropped some bombs, some good stuff.

Yeah, so I shared a secret family recipe and a dish that Celestina coined as Skirt steak à la Craig. Oh man, mostly because I was put on the spot by a listener who asked a question. What's the name of this dish? And I made it up, so I didn't have a name for it.

Well, anytime you put skirt steak in a meal in front of me, I'm gonna devour it. Yeah, because I love skirt steak.

I love skirt steak. And let me tell you, I didn't get to taste it.

Oh, but I got she made it, right?

She made it.

And that was one of the coolest things is like you just set her out and told her what to do.

It was the best cooking experience of my life.

Oh, except maybe the best cooking experience, but normally you get to then turn around and eat it.

Which then made it the worst.

The worst, the best and the worst all at the same time.

Because the finished product was absolutely gorgeous. Yeah, she did an amazing job. She didn't, she didn't think that she did, but she did. She did an incredible job. Of course, it was absolutely gorgeous. And she, she actually sent me a message later and said that she like I had to share it with my neighbor who was just blown away by by it. So wow, it was really really fun. And also I'm really competitive and I'm like really happy that it's like in her top three videos now.

Oh man, goals people. Yeah, you gotta have goals.

So if you want to watch it, like you can you can jump on Instagram or Facebook. I've linked it up there on I think on my profile. I think I linked it up on the homeowner show. Yeah yeah. So but you have to watch it on. On Instagram, it was it was an Instagram live show. Right. But but I've got a couple other podcasts lined up that I'm going to be doing some on. I'm going to like twist Kevin's arm and make sure he gets on a couple. Yeah. Because people people need to know us.

Right.

We have important things to share with the world.

Yes, we have we have ideas. That's right. Thoughts.

We're people.

And on top of that, we're on Clubhouse. Yeah. Every Thursday at eleven with Eric G. Eric G. Yeah. Which is awesome, dude.

I, I could just sit and talk to that guy for hours.

And first of all, if, if you've not ever spent any time listening to Eric Jude, the, the guy has a really great voice. He's got a radio voice.

He has a radio voice for sure.

It's fantastic. But his knowledge is like through the roof.

Yeah.

Of things that he knows and understands. Like, he comes from a very, um, you know, a contractor background, right? And so he knows an incredible amount of things.

Yeah.

And it's just, it's amazing. Uh, did you see this stuff that, like the picture that he put up of his new bathroom? Dude, like that shower, the digital valves. Holy cow. Like he's, he, yeah, everything.

The digital voice activated valves. That's what I was gonna say.

So everything in his shower is automated by his voice.

Yeah.

And he can tell it to put out more pressure or to add a certain set of jets or to turn Spotify on.

It's not fair. It's not fair.

And, and what— here, probably David Applebaum out there, I just have to tell you that your comment was my favorite whenever I was like this. Like, you're— I was like, Eric G, your shower is like the envy of the world. Like, this is such an amazing shower. And David said, well, it's not better than so-and-so's. And I was like, okay.

I don't know. I don't know.

You're— but you're probably right.

Probably, because he probably designed it.

He probably designed it. That's right. So pretty cool stuff.

Yeah. So we, we have a fun game and we, we've actually had several online comments.

Yeah.

About this one. And so we're gonna, we're gonna save those to the end. We're gonna give some shoutouts at the end of the episode. Uh, so hang in there with us. Uh, but we're gonna be playing the game Gimme the Stimmy.

Gimme the Stimmy.

And so because many of you have probably at this point either received your electronic transfer into your bank account, or your check in the mail from the government, that free money from the government. Yeah.

Feels free.

That your grandchildren will slap you for.

That's right.

But you've gotten this money, and so we wanted to play the game, like, if you had to spend this money on your home, what would you spend it on? And what would be the top 3 things that you would spend it on? So we put it out there to Facebook and Instagram, like, what would be the thing that if you guys had to spend the stimmy money, on your home, what would it be? And so, like, many of you sent us in, uh, single answers, which were fantastic, by the way. So hang in there towards the end to, to check these out. But we wanted to share with you, uh, Kevin and I's answer as to the top 3 things that we would spend

our stimulus money on our home for.

Yeah, and so there's a couple of rules, right? There are some rules. They're, they're pretty simple.

First of all, y'all didn't have any rules. We have rules that we put on ourselves.

Yeah, so, so the rules of the game are, number one, this has to be something for your home that will increase the value of your home, right? Or the likability or the sellability of your home. It's going to be something that stays with your home that is important for your home, right? So that's one of the rules. Second rule is you get $5,000.

No, that's kind of the national average.

Yeah, then that's kind of the national average. Some people have more children than others, like Craig. And some of them have some, you know, some people have like a normal amount of children like me.

Those families with like 7 kids right now.

Oh, they're like banking.

And they're going the one time in their lives.

They're like, they're like, it's about time. You owed us more.

Way to be Catholics.

You just put that out there, didn't you? You just put it, put it right out there.

I did.

Yeah, it's okay, they know. So, um—

They're chuckling at all us Protestants.

Oh yeah, they're going, yeah, look. You and your birth control. It's like, look, it finally worked.

That's right.

It finally worked out.

I'm gonna go ahead and apologize for Two Bourbon Craig. For all y'all Catholic fans out there, I love you.

Right, no, we really do. We really do. Um, so those are the only really 2 rules of the game. Yeah, they're pretty simple.

Well, and we arrived at 5,000 because the national average is 3.5, right, members of your family, right? And like, you know, no one out there actually has half a person that we know because that's not legal anymore, right? Um, and anymore it used to be a thing.

Yeah, maybe.

Um, what was it? It was like 3/4 of a person. Yeah, we're not gonna talk about that. No, no, no, let's not get into that. No. Um, but anyway, so the national average is 3.5, and so that's approximately the amount of money you would get if you had 3.5 people in your home is about $5,000.

Right. So we're gonna start off with—

We did the math.

Yes, we did.

We pulled out the calculator.

Yeah, exactly. So, uh, we're gonna start off with our number 3. We're gonna start off with our least favorite.

Right.

And then go down or up, whichever one you want to put it, to number 1.

To number 1.

And, uh, we'll see who wins at the end.

Yep.

Okay.

Nobody wins.

Nobody wins. Um, it's kind of like Whose Line Is It Anyway?

You can decide who wins.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I would like people to decide who wins.

Yeah.

Because I need people to know that I—

So what might be helpful is like, as we say them, just like punch the like button a bunch of times. 'Cause on live videos you can hit it as many times as you want.

Exactly. And so we'll know. All right.

Yeah.

Yeah. Well, no. So, Craig.

Oh, I get to go first again.

You get to go first.

Right. It's like déjà vu all over again.

For so many reasons. All right.

My number 3.

Yes.

Because we're going to 3 to 1.

3 to 1.

This is my least favorite.

Yes.

But it's still a good one.

Okay. All right. Well, someone else will be the judge of that. Whoa.

We'll see. Oh, what's going on here? Things are happening. Hang on. Give me a second. The microphone— Kevin, monologue for a minute there.

Well, so, um, here's the thing. We already know what ours are. When we did this the first time, we had no clue what the other person's answer was going to be. But— And I still don't. Since the—

yeah, right.

Since the audio was so bad and we're having to redo this again, um, we know what each other's answers are. But the thing is, we've slept since So we really don't know. We really don't know anymore. I, I couldn't, I couldn't tell you what your 3 are. So this is gonna be new information for me. Fantastic.

'Cause I can barely tell you what mine are. All right, here we go. All right, here we go.

I'm ready now. Are you?

I think so.

Okay.

Can you hear me? Yeah.

All right. Okay. Whew. Two Bourbon Craig has all kinds of issues tonight.

Two Bourbon Craig had a physical malfunction with the microphone. We're, we're, we're back on track now.

That's all right.

Number 3.

Yes.

I'm gonna retrofit my entire home with Lutron smart switches.

Oh, interesting.

Yeah, because they're very expensive and I have a lot of light switches on the property.

Yeah, they really are very expensive. And the other thing about them is they're awesome. I mean, yeah, this is not just— I mean, they, they do all kinds of things, right? Like you can do everything from a— I mean, Lutron has like regular switches, but then they got regular dimmer switches. Right?

Yes.

But then you can go all the way up to like basically home automation, right?

It's full home automation. It's all done through the app and you can attach it to Alexa or pretty, pretty much any of the, the portals that you have for smart homes.

Okay.

Um, I think all of their smart switches are dimmer switches.

I, I think you're right.

Um, and I even, I even have some of their wall plugs that are also dimmer switches. So you can attach them to lamps as long as the bulb have dimmer functions.

Sure.

You can dim those. And so I want to retrofit every light in my house, every switch in my house that does something other than that stupid switch that turns off the air conditioner for some reason. You have—

wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You have a switch that turns off your air conditioner?

Yes.

Why?

I don't know. It was there when I bought it. And the really annoying part is like it's part of a bank of switches. And so like sometimes the kids will just like, like do like the two-handed like, done.

Like, like, uh, the elevator scene with on Elf. Yeah, every switch.

I want to see every floor. Yeah, my kids want to like, what do all these switches do? Let's just turn them all off. It was like that one switch on the wall that when we bought the house, it was taped over. Like, don't ever turn this one off. So we had to take the tape off and figure out what it did.

Find out what it was?

Yeah. It turns off the air conditioner. I don't know why that would be a thing.

I mean, I have an outlet, like a switch that turns my dishwasher on and off.

That's weird.

You would think so. I thought it was very odd. But apparently it's a thing.

Why would you want to do that?

I have no idea. But what I do know is that if someone turns— and it's right— the switch is right next to like the light above the sink.

Yeah.

So if you turn both of them off, you can go over there and you think your dishwasher's broke. You think it's dead. You think something's completely wrong with it. Is there something wrong with it? Yeah. Someone turned the switch off.

Someone turned the switch off. And that's all the problem was. That's all you really needed to know.

Yeah.

Turn the switch back on.

That's right. Yep. So, okay.

I think your switch is dumber than my switch.

I don't know, man. Both of them are pretty bad. So let me ask you this question. Why do you want that functionality? Like, what's the— I mean, average Joe's like, oh, come on, Craig, look, I can go over and like flip a switch. What's the big deal?

Yeah, at the end of the day, I mean, the, the main thing is, is like, I want to be able to to like lay in my bed at night and go, Alexa, turn all the lights off. I mean, so for me, like, it's a 3-story home.

Yeah. Yes.

Like, I don't want to have to wander through the stairs going, is that one on? Is that one on? And then have to go all the way back because my bedroom's on the first floor, right? Because I'm the king. And I don't, I don't want to have to travel all the way to the top and go all the way back down to the bottom and go like, are the lights on?

But then you've got the half floor too, so it's actually like 4.

Right. And the king doesn't need to be doing that.

No.

It's just ridiculous.

No.

And the unfortunate part about being the king is that I have unruly subjects.

Yeah, they, they kind of do what they want. Yes. Yeah.

Um, and they're not turning lights off, and I want to just be able to lay in my bed and go, I didn't turn the lights off. Alexa, turn all the lights off. It would be a beautiful thing.

The satisfaction level would be way up there.

Yeah.

Way up there.

Money in my pocket.

Yeah.

Like, I don't have to get out of bed. I don't put my cold feet on the floor.

Nah.

So just the lights are turned off.

I'll tell you this, um, last night it got pretty chilly. Unexpectedly so.

Unexpectedly, yeah.

I mean, it was, it was in the like mid to high 70s yesterday afternoon, and then it dipped down into the 30s last night. It was crazy. It was crazy. So I woke up in the middle of the night and I'm like, I'm— man, I'm chilly. And I look over and my wife has already added a blanket to her bed. And I'm like, look, okay, if I'm chilly, my children are chilly. So what'd I do? I pulled up my phone, I changed the temperature.

That's right.

And it was amazing.

Automation is a beautiful thing.

It really is. It really, really is. And anyway, yeah.

All right, that's a—

that's a good one, man.

Yeah. So what's your number 3?

All right, my number 3. Now, I— again, the goal and the, and the rules of the game are it has to improve your home, right? It's gonna be good. This one is not super flashy. Like, it is not like turn the lights on cool. This one helps keep things cool.

Okay.

I'm putting new insulation in my house.

Oh.

Yes.

That's a big one.

It is.

That, and that's a hard one to pull the trigger on too, because like you get no like personal satisfaction out of it.

No, it's like buying tires for your car, man.

Yes.

Like, I hate buying tires for my car. It is very expensive. And it seems like a pointless thing. Like, it's just tires on your car. But it is really, really important to put tires on your car whenever you need them. Right?

Right.

It's a safety issue. Well, here's the thing. I would, I would venture to guess that if you have a home that is over about 10 years old, you need new insulation. I mean, it's probably blown-in insulation. You may even have rolled insulation up there, which is fine. Rolled insulation works. Um, but that stuff, it, it degrades, right? Over time it degrades and you've got to replenish it. And here's the problem. It's an efficiency thing, right?

Right.

So, I mean, when you don't have adequate insulation in your house, you're losing air Your air quality has gone down because it's too hot or it's too cool and your air conditioner is working harder than it should. And it's one of those things you really want to spend the money on. But I guarantee most homes, you could insulate the entire attic well for $5,000.

Yeah.

And, and you're gonna see an increase in efficiency in your house. And you're gonna see a decrease in your electric bill or gas bill, whatever it is that's running your air conditioning unit. So that's what I'm going with. Not flashy. Important stuff though that you really don't wanna save up for, you know?

Oh yeah, but like when you, when you get like that extra stash of cash, right? I mean, it's important to think about the things like, what are the things that are gonna suck to do when I don't have the money?

Yes.

You know, and like, I'm gonna have to put it on a credit card or whatever. I mean, like, and let's be real, I mean, like, that happens a lot where it's like, I don't necessarily have all the money to do the thing that I have to do right now, whether that be like a termite infestation or a leaky pipe or a bad water heater or whatever it is. It's really difficult to like do those kinds of things when you don't have the money on hand. And right now people are kind of flush with cash.

Yeah.

Unless you went out and wasted it on an Xbox. And like, you know, you like— but like, it's important to think like, like, what are the things that I can mitigate that are going to be a, you know, pain in my katukish later on that I can, I can actually use this money to save me some headaches later on? And that's definitely one of them because that's something that hardly anybody thinks about.

No. And, and it's one of those things that like, let's say for some reason you do decide to sell your house. Like, inspectors look at that.

Yeah.

And they look at how much is in there. And, you know, a lot of people, whenever they're looking at a home, they will climb up into the attic and look, like, see, like, what does this place look like? Um, and if they look up here and see, you know, clouds of insulation up here, they're gonna go, hey, one thing I don't have to worry about for a while.

For sure.

You know?

Yeah.

It's a beautiful thing.

And, like, also just, I mean, like, you can, like, then authentically communicate to the buyer Like, we just redid all the insulation in this house.

And it also communicates I take care of my things.

Yeah.

You know?

Like, if you— like, let's be honest, like, if that's the thing that you did, like, they're gonna be looking at the rest of the house going, they really took good care of this place.

Yes. I mean, seriously. I mean, it's one of those things you don't think about. And here's why you don't think about it, Craig. How often do you go up into your attic? Often?

I don't have an attic, so—

Oh, well, that would be the number one problem for me. I don't go up to my attic very often. I mean, we— over our garage, we've got an attic that's floored, and we, you know, we, we store some things up there. So I go up there from time to time. But other than that, JQ goes into my attic. Yeah, I don't go into my attic. I let other people go into my attic. And so I don't always know.

This is actually a good question. Do you store some stuff in your attic?

I do.

You do?

Okay, I do. And now, so we store very specific things up there, and we don't store other things. But when we, you know, attics are notoriously hot in the summer, right? They're really, really bad. So what we did to mitigate part of that is we put in an attic fan.

Okay.

And the attic fan, it's wonderful because it's solar powered. So it doesn't require any energy from our, our home electricity, and it's set on a thermostat. So it comes on whenever it gets a certain temperature and it goes off whenever that temperature is reached. And so our attic pretty much stays the same temperature as our garage does. So we're able to store some things up there that we're not necessarily concerned about getting rotten, you know, it doesn't rot.

Sure.

The, the way that a lot of times they're not— with that heat. Exactly. Yeah. So we store some clothes up there, we store our Christmas stuff up there, that kind of stuff.

Okay.

So there you go.

Fantastic. We ready to move on? Number 2.

Here we go.

All right, my number 2: I'm hiring the Pitcher Design Group to come clean out my garage and organize it.

Oh my goodness.

I know I can get it done for $5,000.

Jeez, that is a brilliant idea. Yeah, that, that might be your best idea yet. It— that might— that could have been your number 1, and I would have been happy.

Well, it could have been my number 1. It's not my number 1. So that, you know, like, just hang in there for my number 1 because I'm gonna blow your mind.

Here we go. That's a great idea. Yeah, because again, unless you're just in a position in your life where you're like, I have to get this done, I've got some extra money, I'm gonna do this, like, that's not one of those things you typically spend money on.

It's— well, and like, for me, it's one of those things that I'm constantly anxious about. You know, like, it's like, my garage could be so much cleaner, it could be so much more organized. This could be such a more pleasant area to enter.

Yeah.

And find things and be ready to go on some projects.

That's true.

And I know I'm not alone in that, where people are like, they walk into their garage and it's like, ugh.

Yeah.

Where is that?

Yeah.

Because last time I finished this project, I don't know where I put that thing away.

Right.

And because, I mean, let's be honest, I mean, like most of us who are homeowners, we we don't use our garage as often because we have jobs. Yeah, we have things where we leave our home. And but then we have projects on the weekend, you know, and then like, it's not always convenient to be super organized.

Yeah. So I will tell you that I've got a good buddy who lives in Arkansas. Whenever we lived there, this guy's like the organization king.

Oh, yeah.

He could tell you— I'm not kidding— he could say, hey, Craig, go get the bungee cords out of my, out of my garage. And he would be back in moments.

Yeah.

Because everything is alphabetized.

Alphabetized.

Yes. And in drawers and in categories. And then it's like, you walk in there and you're like, whoa. You just marvel at it.

Yeah, no, I definitely— I marvel at people like that, that have the time and the the thought to plan out their spaces.

Most people like that can't not be that way.

Yes.

Like, their, their anxiety level gets them to a point where, like, if I don't, if I don't fix this, it's gonna be bad.

Yeah.

You know, but that's, that is a great idea to have them because they're fantastic, right?

Oh yeah, they're gonna knock it out.

They do really, really good work and they're efficient. So they're not overcharging you because they do things well. But on top of that, like, you walk away going, this is amazing. And they do it in such a way that you can keep it organized, which is probably the biggest problem, you know?

Yeah. Well, and I don't know if a lot of people realize that these organization groups actually do garages. Most people think that they just do their homes.

Yeah, like that. You want to think about like, you know, closets, right? like your, your closet with all your clothes and, and maybe your kitchen. Yeah, you know, organizing kitchens, that kind of stuff. But yeah, they'll— most of them will organize pretty much anything.

What episode was it that we had them on? Do you remember?

Oh gosh, that was, that was a long time ago. I mean, I bet we were in like the 30s.

Oh yeah, I, I bet we were young whippersnappers.

Yeah, it was, it was only one Bourbon Craig back then. Yeah. Are you sure about that?

I wasn't there for that episode, so—

No, you actually weren't. Uh, that was the episode you were doubled over at your house.

I mean, I was here, but I just wasn't here.

Yeah, yeah, we didn't want you to be here.

Nobody wanted me to be in the room. Yeah.

All right, you ready for my second one?

I'm ready for your second one.

All right, my second one is a little more fun.

Okay.

Um, because one of the things I think is so important is spending time with other people. I love spending time with other people. I want people to feel welcome at my house and to do stuff at my house. So I'm building an outdoor kitchen.

Nice.

Yes. And this— now, now, this is—

Outdoor kitchens are one of my favorite.

Yeah. And they really do increase the value of your home. It— because again, outdoor living is a big deal, especially now after we've been through this year of hell with COVID People are cooped up in their house. They, you know, haven't had places to go. So having a place to go outside that you can cook, sit, you can enjoy the outdoors. Yeah, I'm going to create an outdoor living area, kitchen primarily. And it's going to be mostly modular. And here's why.

What do you mean by modular? Okay, explain, explain to people what you mean.

What I mean is I'm not going to build in my grill. Okay, for example, I'm going to build in a sink and it's going to be plumbed. And it's going to have instant hot water there so that I've got, you know, my, my hot water. I'm probably gonna bring gas over because I'm probably gonna have a gas grill even though I love my egg. Love my egg. Who knows, maybe I'll put something else in there, but I want to have a gas option so that I don't have to keep buying propane all the time. But I'm also putting in— you ready for this? A pizza oven.

Well, you gotta have it.

It's— it is going in there.

It has to happen.

I, I, I'm probably gonna do a brick oven.

Yes.

That's really the one I want. And, and I've got money. And honestly, a brick oven, as long as it's specced correctly, it's not that expensive to build.

Okay.

You just got to have someone who knows what they're doing installing it, right? So mostly it's gonna be modular though, where like the grills, which are one of the most expensive parts, and so that I can replace it if it goes out.

Let's back up real quick. Because when you talk about a pizza oven, you're talking about like a wood-fired pizza oven.

Yes.

Like a legit pizza oven.

Yes.

Not one of these like little gas things that you get at Academy or—

No.

Yeah, like you're talking about like a real big—

Yep.

Dome-shaped—

Yep.

Yep, it's gotta happen.

I mean, you can buy an Ooni.

I'm kinda mad at you for not doing it already.

Well, I've got the space at my house to do it. I don't know why I haven't done it.

Yeah.

Well, it's because I did other things with my stimulus check. This is what I should have done. But this is a great thing because again, getting people an opportunity to go outside, spend time together, Um, you know what, like, I probably couldn't afford it, but it would get me that incentive to get that mosquito sprayer system that I really want in my backyard so that I can go out there in the summers and not worry about those mosquitoes.

Well, I can tell you right now that would eat up most of your—

Most of it.

Most of your stimulus.

But it would, but it would give me the incentive.

Okay.

To, to really do it.

Now you could, you might be able to do it for a little bit cheaper if you did it yourself. Yeah, I don't know that I'd recommend that.

No, I don't plan to. Not whenever I know you. And you, you'll come do it for me.

Well, I'm gonna charge you double.

Well, I know you will. But I don't expect any less. I just know to save up the money up front. You know? So yeah, but like I said, modular in that the things that can be removed because they go out like the grilles. And I want to be able to replace those without building them in. They're much more expensive whenever they're built in anyway. So Yeah. Um, but it's gonna be nice. It's gonna be, it's gonna be well done. It's gonna be aesthetically pleasing. It's gonna be functional. I'm probably gonna have like a, you know, a fridge out there because—

Oh yeah, you know, when you need a cold beverage while you're absolutely cooking pizza.

And I don't want to walk back in. The whole point is to be outside. Yeah, right. So that's mine.

Will the, will the beverage cooler have a glass front?

Well, of course, because it's got to be You know, it's gonna be seen.

We don't want to be surprised when it's empty.

No. And, and I want other people to feel invited into it. Yeah, it's like, oh, it's almost open because there's a glass front.

That's right.

It's also gonna have a lock on it.

People know—

now people could break the glass in case of emergency, right? Sure.

But that's why you have a glass front. That's why you have a glass front. In case of emergencies.

Because there are going to be an emergency at some point. That's right.

People get thirsty.

Yes, that's right. Very thirsty. Stay thirsty. That's right. I've heard. So, all right, that's my number 2.

All right, we ready for number 1?

Number 1. Break it out.

Break it out. I'm ready for this.

I'm, I'm, I'm waiting with bated breath because you said that you were going to blow my mind.

I can smell it from here.

Yeah, that's— that was dinner though.

What'd you have?

Uh, I actually just had some— I used my grill tonight. We had grilled chicken, mesquite. It was mesquite marinated grilled chicken and broccoli, fresh broccoli.

Okay.

It was awesome. All right, it's really, really good. Nice.

I like broccoli.

Yeah, I love broccoli.

We had broccoli tonight too.

Did you?

We had peanut chicken though.

Oh, that, that sounds fantastic too.

It was good.

We should have shared.

All right, my number 1.

Here we go.

Is—

Oh my goodness, 2 bourbon Craigs coming out in all sorts of ways.

That's right, a little clear the throat. My number 1 is I'm gonna get the air filtration system from IVP that Caroline shared with us in the last episode, which just goes to show how influential our guests can be.

Yeah, because let's be honest, Before 2 episodes ago, you didn't even know that thing existed.

I didn't know it existed. Now I know it exists and I want it.

Yeah. And why not?

Well, and like, okay, so here's the thing. If you haven't listened to the episode, go back and listen to the episode. She's fantastic. She knows what she's talking about. This system can basically eliminate COVID from your home, right?

It literally, like, incinerates it.

Yeah. Which, by the way, I was listening to a podcast today and I heard a guy Pronounce it COVID.

What?

And I kind of wanted to slap him.

Well, it's— that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

Everyone calls it COVID.

Everyone.

But like, he was, you know, it's sort of like one of those guys that like mispronounces a word on purpose in order to make it sound academic.

Yeah, I had a friend who did that with the word bury. Bury? It's not a word.

What? Okay.

Bury.

Bury.

What?

Like, as in like the berry?

No, no, no. Like you would bury someone.

Oh, like you would bury someone.

Yeah, you would bury something.

But he would say bury.

Say bury.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna bury this person.

It was, it was dumb.

Okay.

I, and I showed him in the dictionary that he was wrong, but I'm just like—

If you'll see here in the manual, right?

COVID.

COVID.

I, I genuinely think less of you if you say that.

Well, so—

Don't say COVID, people, and I won't think less of you for that. So I'll think less of you for other reasons.

It was a 5-minute rabbit trail on the, on the, uh, the podcast. I guess it was worth it because we're mentioning it here. Um, but anyway, yeah, I want this, I want this system mostly because she told us like it, it basically costs $2,000.

Oh yeah.

Which if we're operating off the $5,000 principle, you're saving money. I've got $3,000 left.

And you could go do—

And I got no COVID in my home.

That's right. So you've got a significant amount of money to go spend on that Lutron system as well.

That's right.

You may not get all of it, but you can—

I'll get a third of the way there.

That's right. Yeah. And not only would you be COVID-free, you would be flu-free.

Yeah, it's not just COVID-targeted. I mean, like, it basically eliminates all impurities from your home, right?

I mean, it's— it is a brilliant thing. Yeah, it's not cheap.

Like, help me remember, Kevin, did she say like there was some maintenance costs? I mean, like, I think it was like $400 for like— well, because even that, I mean, I guess like nothing.

You've got filters, right? But, but I mean, the filter lasts a long time. But, you know, the cool thing is, when you sign up for that, they kind of remind you, hey, it's time to go get new filters.

Right.

Sure.

So— Which, I mean, like, you need filters anyway.

Yeah.

Change your filters, people.

Yeah, actually go change your filters. That's, that's just a normal thing that you're supposed to do. Which, by the way, my Ecobee told me the other day, this is awesome. The day before JHU showed up to my house to do my regular maintenance, which is like last Thursday. Um, my Ecobee sent me an email that said it's time to do your maintenance, your maintenance for the year, for the, you know, your biannual maintenance, right? Got it covered. Yeah, thank you, J-Hughes. So yeah, take that, automation. Yeah, go, go, go with the automation. But yeah, filters, they got to change. No matter what it is, you got to change them.

But like, again, people, like, the idea The entire concept of like eliminating COVID from your home.

That's like nuts.

If that only cost you 2 grand. Yeah, I mean, that's nothing.

Nothing, nothing. And, and the other thing that it's a house payment for most people. Well, yeah. The other thing that it does is it— so it kills it, but it keeps it dead.

Right, right.

I mean, it's kind of like the living safe at home people, right? Like, Their company comes in and they, you know, they disinfect, which is different than cleaning, right? It's disinfecting and it's killing the bacteria, not just the bacteria, it's killing the stuff that bacteria eat, which is just a really cool concept. So that happens and it's good for like 20 or 20 to 30 days. And so, you know, you think about that, that's the timeframe of what people would have COVID. Right. And then you add something like this on top of it that, that kills the bacteria, that kills the virus itself. I mean, you're, you're safe.

If you get it after that, you got to change some personal habits.

Right. Change the people you're hanging around with too.

Maybe wash your hands.

I don't know. I don't know either. So, yep. Well, that's a good one.

Right. What's your number 1, Ken?

All right, number 1, man. I had, uh, I had a couple of directions that I could have gone with this. I mean, in Um, but, but I didn't. Like, I thought, okay, let's be responsible, Kevin. Let's like get new storm windows, right? That would have been a good one. Or maybe new landscaping, because let's face it, we had a pretty hard freeze around here and a lot of people are going to be paying for new landscaping.

Oh yeah.

And I thought, okay, landscaping, that'd probably be a good thing. Um, you took my SmartThings one. I was gonna do smart things in my house. I can't say that one.

So you're welcome.

Um, so here's where I landed. One of my favorite things to do besides eat is wind down at the end of the long day with my wife watching a TV show or a movie in my brand new home theater. I'm gonna put one in. I don't know if $5,000 will do it, but I can get along. I can get a pretty good ways into that.

You can get a good ways.

Yeah, because Here's the thing. Home projectors have come a long way. The price tag has come way down. I can put a big, you know, screen up. And, you know, I don't necessarily have to have the best theater seating in the world. I want good sound though.

Okay.

Sound is really, really important. And so I've already got a pretty good sound system in my house, but I'm gonna assume that, that you don't. We're gonna install some stuff. And since it's not stuff you're gonna take with you, right, right, it's gotta be stuff that stays there. It's gotta be stuff that stays with the house. But I've seen some really cool ways that people like build in some, some soundbars.

Yeah.

That have like, you know, the rear speakers as well and a subwoofer and everything. And they, you know, they build it in in a really cool way so it, so it fits the room, feels good in the room, looks good in the room, it sounds great in the room. And I'm pretty sure we can get a long way down the road for $5,000. And if you go back— well, you probably shouldn't— to the very first episode where you and I talked about how we wind down at the end of a long day, that's how we do that.

Right.

Every, every night we sit down and we watch a TV show together, at least one. And that's just an important part of our life. And so it's, uh, it's important to us. It helps us with our mental health, and we need to invest in that. So $5,000 I'm putting it into home theater.

I like it.

Thanks.

Yeah.

Yep.

It's— I mean, like, it's a big— I mean, like, I'm in a lot of houses.

Yeah.

Throughout the week.

Yeah.

It's a big part of people's homes now.

And people, people spend a lot of money on—

And you gotta, you gotta think about it like this. I mean, like, with streaming services upgrading their services, you know, you, you think about like Disney Plus where they're saying like any of our new releases, it's going to be $29.99 to get that movie. That's cheaper than taking your family to the movie.

100%, and you own it.

And you own it.

Right.

At that point. And so, well, I mean, you kind of own it. I mean, like, as long as you continue to pay for the subscription.

Right.

But it's one of those deals, like, you know, the home theater is almost, it's definitely surpassed the movie theater.

Sure.

Movie theaters at this point, in my opinion, are just dead.

Well, and that goes back to something we talked about not too long ago, the fact that we believe genuinely that the majority of movie theaters are gone. Like, they're just not going to survive this. And so we already see HBO Max, Disney Plus. There's going to be more that are putting their, their movies directly out to the consumer. Well, if that's the case, I don't want to just sit at home watching it on my— the speakers that are on the back of my TV, right?

Yeah.

I want some good sound because that's what I go to the theater for. I go for the big screen, I go for the good sound. And look, if I'm saving some money by not going to the movies every year, might as well put it into something to—

Sustainable.

Yeah, absolutely. And this is one of those things that, again, someone walks into your home and they go, man, they've already got a sound system in here. It's stay— oh, it's staying with the house. Awesome. I don't have to do that. Fantastic. Just one more thing that enhances the likability of your home.

Yeah. So it's, it's one of the things people are looking for when they're buying homes now.

Yes.

If like, if you have a home theater, it's gonna be just an upsell.

Yeah, it's one of those things that like in the description that the realtor puts out on the MLS, it includes home theater, right? It's going— It's a big deal for sure. Yeah, absolutely.

All right, so we— you guys have heard our top 3. I'm gonna, I'm gonna run through some of our responses online. If you guys have been waiting to hear this, we're gonna give some shoutouts and some ideas as to what's been going on on the Facebooks and the Instagrams. Right off the bat, we've got Tanya saying that she would want— I'm gonna adjust here, sorry.

Gotta stop that.

Sorry, we're ready. All right, Tanya says that she would want a bear claw soaking tub.

Ah.

I don't know. I've never seen a bear claw soaking tub.

Yeah, you have.

I've seen a clawfoot tub.

Surely that's what she means, right?

I think that's what she means.

I think she means a clawfoot.

I'm intrigued by the description though. I want to see a bear claw soaking tub.

It's just got much larger feet.

Could be some fur on it. I don't know.

Some fur.

Could be a textured tub. I don't know.

Maybe. We'll have to ask Tanya.

We'll have to ask her.

Well, and really we gotta ask Will.

We got— yeah, 'cause Will's gonna have to pay for this thing.

Exactly.

That's her husband, by the way.

That's right.

We got Matt telling us he wants a dishwasher.

Well, let me tell you.

And at $5,000.

You're gonna get one heck of a dishwasher.

Yeah, I mean, it oughta put 'em away for ya.

And let's be honest, like, dishwashers are not super expensive until you get into the ones that are.

Right.

And then you get like the stainless steel and you get like the jets that come out of the back and, you know, in the front, the side, and the top, and like the crazy like scrubber comes out and scrubs, you know.

Well, have you seen, seen like the double drawer dishwashers in the top? Yeah, yeah.

I mean, those you put like utensils and stuff up there. Yeah, yeah, it's awesome. Super cool. Yeah, so once you, once you get into some of those more expensive ones, Matt, we feel you.

We got you.

Upper tier.

Yeah. And I kind of feel like you're setting yourself up for disappointment because I mean, if you're spending five K on a dishwasher, I mean, how could it ever make you happy?

I mean, you're just gonna have to eat more. Obviously.

Yeah.

That makes you happy.

So and then Haley says that she just wants someone to clean it.

It.

The house.

The house. Yeah.

Yeah.

Which again, Tanya.

I garnered from. from context. But yeah, like, Haley, if you need that, probably want to reach out to Tanya. She does that.

Yeah, she does.

But, um, yeah, I think you can get that covered for $5K easily.

You— for a while. I mean, for a good while, unless you have like a 27,000 square foot house. Yeah, and then probably not a while.

Excuse me, 2 bourbon, Craig.

Um, And we're laughing.

Which brings me to my wife's comment.

Her first comment.

Her first comment, yeah. Which is, so my wife has a list. She wants new cabinets and a kitchen table and the bathtub.

That Tonya was mentioning.

That Tonya was mentioning.

Yeah, she needs a really big stimulus, which is good for you, 'cause you got lots of people living at your house.

That's true, we are above the average.

Yeah, and especially if you like say, look, you live on my property, I get your stimulus.

That's right, I think that's fair. I think it is.

I'll let your sister-in-law know.

So, but then she added the addendum of, I also want a pool heater and some landscaping.

Man.

And at some point, we probably should discuss my pool heating situation. It's an— it's a unique one.

Yes.

And then we've got Shannon, who suggested maybe not spending it on the house, but maybe upgrading the doors to the minivan.

Yes.

To the DeLorean fold-up.

That's right.

I guess maybe that could also be the Ferrari fold-up.

Yeah, because at the end of the day, there is nothing that makes you look cooler than getting out of your car because your door flips up.

Flips up. Yeah.

Instead of out.

It's like wearing your pants backwards.

No, I said cooler.

Was it crisscross back in the day?

Yeah.

Okay.

He's gonna make you jump. jump. A Mack Dad'll make you jump.

So you just jump. I'm really sad that you know any words to any of this. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. But the, the other thing is it's a minivan. Like, what the— what's the best thing about a minivan?

Nothing.

No, no, no, it's, it's false. It's, it's fake news. I'm putting it out there because I was the one who was like, look, I don't ever want one of those things. Those are dumb looking. They're, you know, not cool at all. Then I got in one, and the coolest thing about them is the doors slide open.

Mm-hmm.

And you, you're in a parking spot at Target, and you're going, how am I gonna get these kids out? Like, there's a car seat, they've got stuff, it's falling out of the car. Now they— I gotta try to not hit the car next to me. They slide open. So you do what Shannon's talking about here.

Now every door on the minivan doesn't open into the car next to you.

That's brilliant, Shannon. I'm with you 100%.

Okay, that's fair. You still have to drive it.

But now the doors flip up. It is way cooler.

It doesn't fly.

Yet. It might.

Get on that, Elon.

Yeah, that's right. All right.

Oh wait, whoa, wait. What?

Your wife has another one.

Well, she said a puppy, but that's—

It's on the list.

It's not gonna happen.

It's on the list. I mean, it's there.

She has 2 dogs, 2 horses. Right.

What else does she need?

Other relatives wandering the property.

Exactly.

She's fine.

And if you go over to your parents' house, there's chickens. Yeah, more dogs and an ostrich.

Well, there used to be an—

The ostrich is probably still there.

It was an emu.

Oh, it was an emu. Sorry, excuse me for getting this wrong.

It was an emu.

Go back, there's an episode that we talk about it. Just start searching. I don't know where it is, but yeah.

So the, the other, the other comment came in via, uh, Instagram. It was from, uh, Mason, and, and he said A Generac generator.

Oh man, that—

Which I think that's like the down payment.

Yeah, I was gonna say you're a third of the way there for most homes.

Either that or you need like 10 kids.

Yeah, so yeah, but I, I feel you, man.

Libido it up, Mason.

Or, or you could just put in like, uh, one of the ones that we were talking about, which is, you know, an external type of deal, and go get a diesel generator. Yeah, because diesel generators are way superior.

I haven't priced those out. I can't imagine those being less than $5,000. They're, you, they're about, depending on what you get, $3,000 to $5,000.

Yep. So they're expensive, but like, but they're great.

I know that like a Generac system, it's easily $20,000.

Um, depending on your home.

If you want like a whole home generator. Yeah, depending on your home.

Yeah, I, I had one priced out for my home for about $15,000.

Okay.

So that's reasonable. But it was, it was whole home, did everything I needed to do.

Natural gas?

Natural gas. Yeah, pops on whenever the power pops off, just automatically comes on, runs a whole house. Um, but they're, they're expensive for sure. For sure. Nick, that's a great idea though.

Yeah, so if you're listening to this episode and you have any good ideas as to how to spend that stimmy, play Gimme the Stimmy, uh, send us, uh, comments or email and let us know what your ideas and thoughts are. We'd be happy to talk about that. Um, what else you got, Kev?

I think that's about it. We are very thankful that you chose to download today's episode or watch it live. We are on pretty much every platform that you can think of. Hopefully you are, are listening regularly because we're putting these things out every single Tuesday. So thank you for joining us. Tell your friends about us. Leave a rating and review if you're listening on Apple Podcasts. We would love that. That really helps us out. So yeah, I think that's it. Until next time, guys, we will see you later. See ya!