Episode 2107
Get Your DIY Game On: Top 10 Projects to Crush Before 2026
Eric G and John Dudley are diving into the thrilling world of home improvement by unveiling their top 10 projects to tackle before the year wraps up. From snagging those elusive energy tax credits to ensuring your home is cozy and ready for winter, they’re serving up some serious wisdom that could save you some bucks—and maybe a few headaches along the way. Trust me, if you’ve ever thought about how to maximize your home’s potential while still having a few coins left in your pocket, this episode is your ticket. They’ll even throw in some humorous banter about the absurdities of home maintenance, making it an entertaining listen, whether you’re a DIY newbie or a seasoned pro. So, grab your tools, maybe a snack, and let’s get into those projects that might just make you the envy of the neighborhood—or at least keep your house from falling apart.
Home improvement aficionados Eric G and John Dudley have a not-so-secret agenda: to enlighten us all before the year wraps up. In this episode, they reveal their top 10 projects that aren’t just good for your home; they’re also a shot at saving some cold hard cash—if you can keep your procrastination tendencies in check. Starting with the urgency of claiming those energy tax credits, they humorously dissect the complex world of rebates and incentives that, let’s be honest, often make you feel like you need a degree in gymnastics just to complete the application.
As they shift gears, Eric and John tackle the importance of winterizing your home—because, spoiler alert: leaving your hoses connected is not a solid life choice. They share comical tales of frostbite and bad decisions, all while urging listeners to get their HVAC systems serviced before the chill sets in. The guys are quick to remind us that maintenance isn’t just for the car; it’s for your home too!
The episode picks up steam as they discuss the power of decluttering, which they frame as an essential step in getting ready for tax prep. With a wink and a nudge, they share their own struggles with organization and the constant battle against the clutter fairy. Wrapping it all up, they encourage everyone to set realistic goals for 2026—because, let’s face it, planning ahead is way better than scrambling at the last minute, wondering why you’re out there in the snow trying to fix a leaky roof. Eric and John’s mix of humor and practical advice make this episode a must-listen for anyone wanting to take charge of their home before the new year hits!
Takeaways:
- Claim those energy tax credits before they disappear at the end of the year; it's like free money, so why not?
- Local energy companies often have hidden rebates for upgrades; check them out or risk losing cash.
- Decluttering your space may lead to accidental renovations; just try to keep it simple, folks!
- Ensure you review your home insurance coverage; you might need more than you think with rising home values.
- Winterize your home by disconnecting hoses and servicing your HVAC; it’s not just smart, it’s essential!
- Plan your home improvement projects for the next year now, or you'll be scrambling in June like the rest of us!
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Home Depot
- Lutron
- Pyramid Heating and Cooling
To get your questions answered by Eric G give us a call in the studio at 833-239-4144 24/7 and Eric G will get back to you and answer your question and you might end up in a future episode of Around the House.
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Information given on the Around the House Show should not be considered construction or design advice for your specific project, nor is it intended to replace consulting at your home or jobsite by a building professional. The views and opinions expressed by those interviewed on the podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Around the House Show.
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Transcript
Foreign.
Speaker B:Welcome to around the House with Eric G. Your trusted source for all things home improvement.
Speaker B:Whether you're tackling a DIY project, hiring it out, or just trying to keep your home running smoothly, you're in the right place.
Speaker B:With over 30 years of remodeling experience, certified kitchen designer Eric G. Takes you behind the scenes with expert advice, industry trends, and the latest innovations for your home.
Speaker A:Home.
Speaker B:It's everything you need to know without the fluff.
Speaker B:Now let's get this show started with our host, Eric G. And John Dudley.
Speaker A:Welcome to the around the House show, your trusted source for home improvement information.
Speaker A:I'm Eric G. John Dudley.
Speaker A:Great to see you again, my friend.
Speaker A:How you doing over there?
Speaker C:I'm doing good, brother.
Speaker C:How are you?
Speaker A:What, you're not freezing in the mountains anymore now?
Speaker A:You moved down into town.
Speaker A:You're in a tank top, relaxing, feeling good.
Speaker C:Did much better for an old man's bones, let me tell you.
Speaker C:It's.
Speaker C:Yeah, the double down jacket with the neck warmer and the beanie cap and the.
Speaker C:That's an extra £12 to hack around on a skinny kid like me.
Speaker A:You are not designed for cold weather, brother.
Speaker A:You are not.
Speaker C:No, sir.
Speaker A:Today, man.
Speaker A:I wanted to speak of cold weather.
Speaker A:I wanted to Talk about top 10 things to do around the house before the end of the year.
Speaker A:And some of this stuff could save you some serious money.
Speaker A:Some of it could save you some headaches.
Speaker A:And anytime we can help you out with that, I think is a win win for everybody.
Speaker A:And I wanted to dive in on one that's really important because I don't know about you, I do know about you.
Speaker A:I know this answer.
Speaker A:I like free money.
Speaker A:Yeah, free money's good.
Speaker A:And if you can get a brain, I'll take grants every day.
Speaker A:I know you.
Speaker C:You can get grants for just about anything, including, like, bubblegum studies, oysters off the coast of.
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker C:Don't get me started, but absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker C:Tell me where I get one before the end of the year.
Speaker C:Let's go.
Speaker A:Ah, there we go.
Speaker A:There we go.
Speaker A:Is that the grant for us building the vacation home on the beach?
Speaker A:Is that what you're talking about?
Speaker A:Or owning the island, please.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker A:The first one on the list, man, is claiming those energy tax credits before they expire.
Speaker A:There's so much stuff out there from, let's call it the previous administration of politics here in the United States.
Speaker A:But there's stuff that's expiring at the end of the year.
Speaker A:Make sure that you're grabbing all the dollars you can.
Speaker A:If you can throw in something to get some money back.
Speaker A: se things will give you up to: Speaker A:Some of them are 30%.
Speaker A:It's depending on where you're at in the country and what projects you've done.
Speaker A:If you put a new H Vac, you might be able to get some money back.
Speaker A:A new water heater, you might be able to get some money back.
Speaker A: ,: Speaker A:Make sure you got it.
Speaker C:Let me just clarify.
Speaker C:I do love free money, but I'm absolutely the guy that's.
Speaker C:I'm not gonna bother with that crap.
Speaker A:You're the guy that does not do the free rebates where they're gonna, like, buy one, get one free, and you just have to send your.
Speaker A:Your paint bucket receipt in to get the buy one, get one free.
Speaker C:And you're like, yeah, no, and I won't do it.
Speaker C:Yeah, no.
Speaker C:And I have angered and enraged every partner I've ever had in life because of that.
Speaker A:Yep.
Speaker A:But that's the gamble.
Speaker A:When these companies do buy one, get one free, let's be honest, they're hoping you don't.
Speaker A:They want to suck you in there, but they don't want to give you the money.
Speaker A:So the more hoops they do, the more.
Speaker A:The harder they make it sound in the fine print, the more they win because they don't have to worry.
Speaker A:Tooth check.
Speaker C:They weed out guys like me quick.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:But you still go in and buy it because it feels like a good deal, even though you're not taking advantage of the good deal.
Speaker C:Just to know that I could.
Speaker A:There we go.
Speaker A:There we go.
Speaker A:Now, the second one on the list, brother, is exactly the same here, but for your local stuff.
Speaker A:Sometimes, you know, your local energy company, let's say it's your electric company, will be giving away free thermostats.
Speaker A:So they'll have rebates, or they'll have things you can do there as well as the gas company could have things for upgrading your water heater or doing some changes there.
Speaker A:There could be insulation.
Speaker A:Rebates.
Speaker A:Check the federal.
Speaker A:Check the state and local to make sure you've got all those things covered, because they can be way too different because one state might not care.
Speaker A:And then you got these other states, like where I am, where they're handing out free money hand over fist, and you just got to jump through the hoops to do it.
Speaker A:But if you can get three or Four grand back at the end of the year or take it off next year's taxes, it's not a bad situation if they're going to pay you to do it.
Speaker C:So for that kind of thing, Eric, just to clarify, because I wouldn't know the folks would go to their local provider for gas, energy, et cetera.
Speaker C:But you also mentioned federal.
Speaker C:Where would they go to find stuff like that?
Speaker A:Usually those things jump on your favorite AI or just jump on there, because most of that stuff's going to be through the Department of Energy.
Speaker A:That's where you would go.
Speaker A:So if you go to the DOE website, go over to there, see what they've got, that's where most of those rebates are, and at least you can find some information.
Speaker A:But just jumping on your local electric company, your water company, there could be a lot of different things that are going on there.
Speaker A:If they're trying to reduce water, if you put a new faucet in or something that meets new code, maybe they'll give you something like that.
Speaker A:Toilets.
Speaker A:It's just really depending on what's going on in your area, some people are really involved.
Speaker A:Some people are like, hey, do your own thing, I don't care.
Speaker A:But installation and stuff, if you were doing some work around there, that could be a big one.
Speaker A:And anytime you can take the money off the board with that.
Speaker A:Now, there are things you got to be careful with.
Speaker A:Sometimes they want to have it where they make it not DIY friendly, where they want a company to come do it to show that they've done it right.
Speaker C:Yep.
Speaker C:I remember up in Washington we had those for a while.
Speaker C:I think it was in the 90s, the big windows thing.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:Because all houses built in the 30s in Tacoma, single pane glass, wooden sashes rotten out.
Speaker C:And so they came in and yeah, they had a bunch of contractors that were coming in swapping windows.
Speaker C:And you get the energy credit for that and help you pay for them.
Speaker A:And I've seen this go sideways.
Speaker A:City of Portland, Oregon, here, great example.
Speaker A:They realized that they had when they started out designing the sewer system in the city, that they had everybody's gutters going into the sewer system.
Speaker A:So when we would get the big heavy rains, all of a sudden that would overflow the sewer system.
Speaker A:And then it was in the river and going out to the ocean.
Speaker A:So they went around and said, okay, guys, we're going to give you a tax credit by disconnecting your downspouts out of the sewer.
Speaker A:That's adorable.
Speaker A:Except they just said you disconnect them.
Speaker A:And they came in and basically poured like concrete or whatever down those.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:To keep you from using them again or cap them off and put a seal on it.
Speaker A:The problem was, is that people just dumped them right down next to the house.
Speaker A:And then it caused millions of dollars of foundation issues across the city.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker C:The table water sitting there.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:Just washing the foundation out.
Speaker C:And come on, guys.
Speaker C:Even Rome knew better.
Speaker C:Even Rome had a better system.
Speaker A:Oh, man.
Speaker A:I tell you what.
Speaker A:And they just dropped them out there.
Speaker A:Nobody knew better.
Speaker A:And they just did it.
Speaker A:And of course, that's keeping foundation repair contractors busy for the next few decades as people go around and do that.
Speaker A:But sometimes they're good, sometimes they're bad.
Speaker A:And one of the other things too, that gets interesting is you gotta be very careful when you're seeing these rebates come out.
Speaker A:Because Oregon was doing one for heat pumps that was supposed to be coming on here in the next year or two.
Speaker A:I don't know if it's going to or not.
Speaker A:The money's there, which means they're probably spending it on something else in this state.
Speaker A:But the problem that I was seeing was they had it set up.
Speaker A:If you were going to have a new energy efficient heat pump put in.
Speaker A:The rules were saying last time I looked is you had to have a union H Vac person come out and do that.
Speaker A:In our area, it is super rare to have a residential union H Vac contractor.
Speaker A:Super rare.
Speaker A:That's a commercial thing.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:And you're not going to see a local H Vac company hire two union people because they don't want the whole thing to be union.
Speaker C:Yep.
Speaker A:So you get into this big issue and it was looking like there was going to be little or nobody using that money, which might have been what their plan was.
Speaker A:So then they could just go put it in the general fund.
Speaker C:So, yeah, Uncle Louie came up with that.
Speaker C:Buddy, that's some east.
Speaker C:That's some east coast movement there.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:Playing hardball.
Speaker A:And nobody asked for it, so I guess we get to keep it.
Speaker C:I know.
Speaker C:Way to go.
Speaker A:Government at work.
Speaker A:Government at work.
Speaker A:And why are we surprised?
Speaker A:Why are we surprised so continuously?
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:All right, brother.
Speaker A:When we come back, I want to talk about something that's really smart right now that could save you a bunch of money.
Speaker A:And I have a couple tips with it too, because I think it's super important.
Speaker A:We'll talk about that just as soon as around the House returns.
Speaker A:Don't change that dialogue.
Speaker B:For more information on the show, head to aroundthehouse online.com we love hearing from you, so send us your questions, comments or ideas for future topics.
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Speaker B:Reach out about joining our streamed and recorded episodes in the coming months.
Speaker B:Connect with us@aroundthehouseonline.com.
Speaker B:your support keeps us going, so thank you for listening and we'll catch you after this break from our sponsors.
Speaker A:What's up?
Speaker C:This is Sticks it in ya and.
Speaker A:Satchel from Steel Panther and you are.
Speaker C:Listening to around the House with Eric.
Speaker B:G. Yeah, we love Eric G. And you should too.
Speaker A:1987.
Speaker A:Welcome back to the around the House show.
Speaker A:Your trusted source for everything, home improvement, construction and design.
Speaker A:Shawn and I are sitting here Talking about top 10 things to do around your house before for the end of the year.
Speaker A:But first, if you have any questions about any of this stuff or a topic that we haven't covered, reach out to us.
Speaker A:It's super easy.
Speaker A:Just head over to Aroundthe House online dot com.
Speaker A:Contact us over there, jump on social media, send a message however you want to do it.
Speaker A:I'll make sure and get back to you on that.
Speaker A:And could be something that we could put you in an upcoming episode.
Speaker A:And for the new year, Johnny and I have been talking about here, really trying to come up with some live stuff.
Speaker A:Stay tuned for that where you can be a part of these conversations and watch us in the studio do this and be a part of that coming soon.
Speaker A:We'll leave it at that.
Speaker A:But what do you think, Johnny?
Speaker A:I think one of these days we're gonna have to do it live here.
Speaker C:I can't wait.
Speaker C:Dude, I love the idea of.
Speaker C:Of getting stumped, right?
Speaker C:Yeah, that's the cool part because you get a whole bunch of new input, a bunch of people that are coming up with stuff where even you or I are like, oh, never thought of that.
Speaker C:That's a good quit.
Speaker C:Like, I love the idea of the challenge and just opportunities to learn new stuff from the people out there that have random questions.
Speaker C:We're not, we can't possibly ask every question in the world.
Speaker C:So be great to have some outside input and get some new topics going.
Speaker C:Some just like I said, learn new stuff.
Speaker C:Be awesome.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's always changing, which is super cool.
Speaker A:Speaking of that, in most of the northern states, even the southern ones, right now, it's time to make sure you got that home winterized if you get anything below freezing.
Speaker A:And yet, yes, I've already seen a picture of it snowing in Florida this year and it's still barely November.
Speaker A:Make sure you get that winterized.
Speaker A:Now, the thing is, and this is one of those things that I always say, when you're outside, make sure the biggest mistake people make is they still have those hoses connected into the hose spigot out there.
Speaker A:You can have the best frost free stuff, but if you haven't disconnected that and you got water in it, guess what?
Speaker A:It's not going to be frost free.
Speaker A:As a minimum.
Speaker A:Go around and just disconnect those, Hook it up when you need it.
Speaker C:Yep, that's usually a mistake you only make once, maybe twice.
Speaker C:Yeah, unless you're lazy like me.
Speaker C:And then it happens every year.
Speaker A:Be careful.
Speaker A:And here's one thing I learned.
Speaker A:My buddy William, who's been on this show a bunch of times, he just moved out of the area here about a year or so ago.
Speaker A:He had an interesting one.
Speaker A:And we'll talk a little bit more about this in the show later, but he had his place winterized and it was a cabin up on Mount Hood here in Oregon.
Speaker A:So it was up in the mountains up there.
Speaker A:Really cool windstorm comes through like we get in the wintertime.
Speaker A:Holy smokes.
Speaker A:Place freezes up out there.
Speaker A:He couldn't get up there anyway because roads were closed, trees were down, that kind of stuff.
Speaker A:Power comes on, everything's good as it thaws out.
Speaker A:He didn't realize that the upstairs shower had frozen.
Speaker A:And so in the morning.
Speaker A:Now keep in mind he lives an hour and a half, 10 hour and 15 minutes away from this place.
Speaker A:In the middle of the morning, his cameras are going off inside his security cameras.
Speaker A:He's like, what's that flicker?
Speaker A:Oh, it was water coming through the recessed light fixture from the first floor down into the second floor.
Speaker C:Yeah, love that trick.
Speaker A:Cool part is he still had to drive an hour and 15, 20 minutes just to go get it shut off.
Speaker A:So he had full water pressure coming out upstairs.
Speaker A:Bad part was because it was an hour and plus out of town.
Speaker A:His insurance company didn't do him any favors.
Speaker A:They spent almost $200,000 on mold remediation and cleanup.
Speaker A:And when you've got a cabin that's only worth about $300,000, you're not going to put it back together for that.
Speaker A:They spent most of the money on cleanup.
Speaker A:And he had no idea, and he's a building professional, that the bill was that high.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:I won't start on the insurance rant, but.
Speaker C:Unbelievable.
Speaker C:That's.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So if that ever something like happens, like to you get on top of those numbers, make sure, say, hey, what's your.
Speaker A:What's the number?
Speaker A:Because he just let it go because he was getting ready to move.
Speaker A:He had a lot of other stuff going on and he just let the.
Speaker A:Let him handle it.
Speaker A:And yeah, big mistake, big mistake.
Speaker A:He ended up selling the place unfinished so somebody could.
Speaker A:And he got enough out of it.
Speaker A:He made it worthwhile so he could at least keep the money and go.
Speaker A:But he probably still left 50 or 75 grand on the table for that.
Speaker A:He lost out of that easily.
Speaker C:So I, for a quick spell, I was doing some of that insurance work because it was easy to pick up and, and as you're saying it paid well and I couldn't do it.
Speaker C:I was like, this is not right.
Speaker C:I cannot do this.
Speaker C:Just not okay.
Speaker C:Yeah, I just, yeah, like I said, I won't go on the insurance rant.
Speaker C:But I know from experience, from doing some of those jobs and getting some of those, including some water remediation and things like that, I was like, guys, you're sick.
Speaker C:You make me sick and I can't sleep at night.
Speaker C:I can't do this.
Speaker A:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker A:But anyway, going through back to winterizing your home, another one is make sure you get that H vac system serviced, replace the filters.
Speaker A:That needs annual service.
Speaker A:If you're just a regular.
Speaker A:If you've got heating one year and cooling the other half of the year like most people do in the US have it serviced on the heat, have it serviced on the ac, get it taken a look at once or twice a year, get on their service plan.
Speaker A:That's what I've always liked to do here in my area.
Speaker A:Here in Portland, I've had pyramid heating and cooling working on my stuff.
Speaker A:The only times I've had breakdowns is when I missed my service because they would have caught the igniter on the gas or whatever and just get that stuff ready to rock.
Speaker A:So if you get a cold spell or something happens that you got that thing dialed in with the cost of what you could spend, 30,000 bucks.
Speaker A:Real easy to replace an H VAC system these days.
Speaker A:You want to like your car, change your oil and get those maintenance things done so you get the most out of it so you're not spending that money tomorrow.
Speaker A:Maybe you can wait a few years to get that knocked out.
Speaker C:You could move here and just buy a $10 fan.
Speaker A:There we go.
Speaker C:See, solid 78 degrees year round.
Speaker A:It does.
Speaker C:It's not bad.
Speaker A:It's not bad.
Speaker A:Not bad at all.
Speaker C:People with AC here, you laugh at.
Speaker C:You're like, this is sad.
Speaker A:Oh, see, Yeah, I see.
Speaker A:I grew up in eastern Washington.
Speaker A:The tray cities where it could be 110 degrees outside and AC was important.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Or it could be 10 degrees.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:So.
Speaker A:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker A:So the next one here is after you do all that on winterizing your home, conduct a year end home maintenance check.
Speaker A:On a good day where it's sunny, get out, inspect the roof, chimney, make sure just.
Speaker A:You just do a health check, give it a checkup, walk around, look for damage.
Speaker A:The best thing to do too.
Speaker A:And this is.
Speaker A:We have a rainy season here in the Pacific Northwest, at least on the western side of the mountains here from let's say October to March, it's rainy season.
Speaker A:I like to go out when it's just dumping rain and walk around the house once and see what's going on because that's when you find out that, oh, I had no idea that gutter was overflowing or those little things that are happening.
Speaker A:And it'll really tell you a story.
Speaker A:Oh, there's water collecting over here.
Speaker A:Why is this happening?
Speaker A:Up against the foundation you can really.
Speaker C:See gutters is a big one.
Speaker C:Gutters is a big one because they can be dumping out the back, especially with all the trees and the leaves.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:That water starts dumping out the back of the gutters and starts rotting your roof rotten.
Speaker C:Your soffit rotten.
Speaker C:Your fascia boards, all that stuff.
Speaker C:That.
Speaker C:And look for anything that's sealed, obviously, whether it's siding, whether it's windows, anything that's got caulking on it.
Speaker C:And if you see that the caulking's peeling away or.
Speaker A:Yep.
Speaker C:Before it gets on your interior windowsill.
Speaker C:Take care of that stuff on the sunny day you were talking about previously.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:Get a day out there.
Speaker A:It's 50 degrees.
Speaker A:You get out there with some good caulking and get it put in there.
Speaker C:And, and get a step ladder and look at the top seal, please.
Speaker C:Look above, above the door, above the window.
Speaker C:Look up at the window.
Speaker A:Ah, looks good.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:No, that's where the water's creeping and everybody thinks the sides at the bottom are good.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's a serious one right there.
Speaker A:Now when we come back, I like it when it makes a change and you see it.
Speaker A:We'll talk about that just as soon as around the House returns.
Speaker C:Foreign.
Speaker A:The house show your trusted source for everything about your home.
Speaker A:Johnny and I are sitting here having a great time talking to you about some of these last minute projects to do before the end of the year.
Speaker A:Some can save you money, some feel good, some are just smart to do so you're comfortable in your own home.
Speaker A:And Johnny, one of the ones I really like, because me and my ADHD that I have.
Speaker A:And you get this with your adhd, which is why we like to talk over each other all the time and make sense of it all within ourselves.
Speaker A:Decluttering and organizing your home.
Speaker A:And as you're doing that, thinking about tax prep for next year.
Speaker A:So you get your paperwork in order and you can clean off that desk, organize the notepads that you and I write all of our note things on, and get things semi organized for at least a few days before we go back to the unorganized desk again.
Speaker C:Yeah, I was just going to say, usually because of the ADHD bit, I'm very trepidatious about when I do start to organize, even if it's just the desk, because quite often that can turn into a full kitchen remodel.
Speaker C:Or since the desk is organized, I really ought to blow this wall out and shake.
Speaker A:Dude.
Speaker A:It gets so expensive because I'm always like, I'm gonna redo the desk.
Speaker A:I'm like, oh, you know, I should upgrade those cables that are coming out of my mixer because those are over there by the power lines.
Speaker A:Let me get that.
Speaker A:And then all of a sudden I've gone down this rabbit hole that made this, what would have been a 20 minute project into a two day project.
Speaker A:Because now I'm, I'm gonna do that, but I want to change the lighting in here too.
Speaker A:And it just turns into a, like you said, a remodel project.
Speaker A:That was.
Speaker C:We have both just fully qualified our adhd, by the way, my friends.
Speaker A:We have.
Speaker A:Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker A:But it's one of those things.
Speaker A:It could be a much bigger project, but I do like decluttering.
Speaker A:Yeah, it feels good to get rid of stuff.
Speaker A:I've been.
Speaker A:With my move, it's been a great example because like yesterday I had some stuff in the storage unit that was just getting in the way.
Speaker A:And with my shoulder bad I was having to lift 100 and something.
Speaker A:There's two tires from my truck that were good.
Speaker A:When I put new tires on, my new truck, I picked up.
Speaker A:Didn't like these tires.
Speaker A:They were still good for somebody that wanted them.
Speaker A:Threw them up on Facebook, Marketplace and something.
Speaker A:In 20 minutes they're gone.
Speaker A:Got what I wanted out of them, Got a little bit of cash.
Speaker A:Super cool.
Speaker A:And I'm not tripping over them.
Speaker A:And so really getting rid of some of that stuff.
Speaker A:I've been really paring stuff down and it was even worse with the TV show because I had all these different things that I was doing where I had props for all this.
Speaker A:And finally I'm like, I don't need that other prop.
Speaker A:I don't need another this, I don't need another that.
Speaker A:So I've really cared some stuff down.
Speaker C:And I love the Purge man.
Speaker C:Feels good.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:As long as you're not purging things you need later.
Speaker A:We've all done that where you're like, I'll never use this.
Speaker A:And then once out of the house, you're like, I gotta go buy it.
Speaker A:I needed that again.
Speaker C:I get a little ocd.
Speaker C:I'm like, ah, just throw everything away.
Speaker A:Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker A:But really, just decluttering and tax prep is good.
Speaker A:Even if you're just going around picking up the receipts for everything thing, and there's tons of apps out there now that you can do that'll automate this, that makes it a lot easier.
Speaker A:The other thing too is if you've got a small business, you got a hobby that you're making some money off of, take a look and maximize those small business tax write offs.
Speaker A:If you've got a, a truck you're gonna buy or even just some of the depreciation stuff out there, do a little research, make sure that you're getting every dime you can because they're already hitting you for enough.
Speaker A:If you get a little bit of that back, that's another bonus.
Speaker A:When the tax year is going to be different next year, I think there's a lot of different tax stuff that's happening.
Speaker A:Do a little research, see what you can do.
Speaker A:Because I tell you what, more often than not, I'll be sitting there at the end of the year, all of a sudden we'll have this advertising bump of people going, hey, my accountant says I didn't spend enough in marketing, so can I write you a check?
Speaker A:And we'll advertise the month of December.
Speaker A:And it's of course, of course.
Speaker A:But it's so funny when people at the end of the year go, oh, I got to go buy a truck or something, because they are going to at least take that tax off of the years.
Speaker A:Be that person, see what you can save some money on or upgrade some stuff that's going to reduce your tax load.
Speaker C:Why is it always the marketing budget that suffers?
Speaker C:Do people not understand that if you market your business, you make more money, even though you have to spend, spend that money to make the money?
Speaker C:End rant, end rant.
Speaker C:That's all just Ask.
Speaker A:I know.
Speaker C:There's the question.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's the.
Speaker C:As a marketing guy now, not a contractor marketing guy now.
Speaker C:I'm always like, do you not understand?
Speaker C:You spend one to get two.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:It's like me not sending in the rebate.
Speaker A:That's how I.
Speaker A:That's how I made my.
Speaker A:My.
Speaker A:My kitchen and bath business in Seattle so successful, because I was advertising on the radio all the time.
Speaker A:All the time.
Speaker A:And people are getting in their car and going to work in the morning, and I was throwing my ads in there, and, oh, my gosh, we got more phone calls.
Speaker A:That's why that kept Hoffman in business.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:Suddenly you are the expert.
Speaker C:Why is he the expert?
Speaker C:Because he's the guy on the radio I hear every day, or he's the guy that's posting on Facebook every day.
Speaker C:Or it's the social proof that tells people that you're legit and if you weren't, you'd be getting attacked.
Speaker C:And you obviously know what you're doing because you're out there putting it out there saying, here I am.
Speaker A:Oh, we had so much fun doing that.
Speaker A:But, yeah, enough about the marketing stuff.
Speaker A:That's the last thing you should cut versus the first thing you should cut if you want to have more business coming in.
Speaker A:Now, I do get it.
Speaker A:If you're like, I can't take any more business, I'm booking out a year.
Speaker A:You know?
Speaker A:But you still don't want to get forgotten because you still have to book up the next year.
Speaker A:And if you become less relevant, you're not going to be booked up a year.
Speaker C:So huge trap, man.
Speaker C:We get busy.
Speaker C:I did it myself when I was a contractor.
Speaker C:You get busy.
Speaker C:You're like, I'm never going to run out of work.
Speaker C:And then all of a sudden you're like, what are we doing next month?
Speaker C:What happened?
Speaker A:What happened?
Speaker C:Yeah, because you stopped paying attention to.
Speaker A:That's been feeding you the whole time, you know?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:You got to keep the pipeline full, man.
Speaker C:And that requires, if nothing else, a little bit of attention every monthly.
Speaker A:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:And it's sad.
Speaker A:And what happens is you'll see people do business online like that, and all of a sudden, they disappear.
Speaker A:And all of a sudden, six months later, you see, oh, they went out of business.
Speaker A:And you're like, I didn't see anything from.
Speaker A:For six months because you turned the pipeline off.
Speaker A:You turned the pipeline off.
Speaker A:So here is one of my favorite ones here, and we talk about it all the time, but upgrading to smart home tech.
Speaker A:And I think A lot of this stuff is really cool.
Speaker A:I think a lot of this can really save you some money.
Speaker A:There's some energy stars, certified heat pumps out there that have a $2,000 tax credit.
Speaker A:There's a lot of different things out there.
Speaker A:But for me, smart home tech is more about security and convenience than it is for energy savings.
Speaker A:I like that it'll save energy, but for me, I want my porch lights to turn off and on when I want them to.
Speaker A:I want to be able to turn.
Speaker A:It's so nice to be able to hit one button and turn off the lights in the house that I want every night in the morning I hit good morning and turn the other ones on again.
Speaker A:It's really nice and it's so simple.
Speaker C:If you set it up and as we mentioned in the first hour of the show, now is the time to be buying that stuff, man.
Speaker C:There's some great deals out there, dude.
Speaker A:There is.
Speaker C:And there will continue our Amazon links.
Speaker C:And there's.
Speaker C:Yeah, there's.
Speaker C:Yeah, some of those cameras and the.
Speaker A:Yeah, cameras and the.
Speaker A:And all the light switches from Lutron.
Speaker A:And I tell you what those things are.
Speaker A:I have tried out in my home and this is not a Lutron commercial by any means, but I have tried out probably half a dozen brands at any one time of things in my home.
Speaker A:And the Lutron ones have been the most reliable that they just turn off and on and they do well and they do exactly what they're supposed to.
Speaker A:And once you get them in there, they just go where other brands that would be like, why isn't that working?
Speaker A:Oh, maybe there's an update.
Speaker A:Sure enough, there's an update that failed to load and you're like, ah, why am I worried about updating this stuff where those guys, they're just big enough and they've been doing it long enough.
Speaker A:They just have it flawlessly.
Speaker A:How they do it, it's just super cool.
Speaker A:But trying some of that stuff out, adding that in there.
Speaker A:And I tell you what, it's really good for the security, especially if you're heading out of town.
Speaker A:The lights can turn off and on without having to go set up those little plug, plug in push button lamp timers that we had when we were kids, Johnny, you know, that I kept.
Speaker C:Until I was probably still have one in storage somewhere.
Speaker A:I bet you do.
Speaker A:But they're nice.
Speaker A:They're nice.
Speaker A:The new ones, you just set it up and go and let it happen.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker A:Hey, let's go out to break real quick.
Speaker A:We come back, I got One that's gonna help protect you a little bit.
Speaker A:That's super important.
Speaker A:If you want to find out more about us, head over to the website or shoot us a message ataroundthe house online dot com.
Speaker A:We'll be right back.
Speaker B:To find out more information about the show, head to aroundthe house online.com help us out and hit that subscribe button on our podcast.
Speaker B:While you are there, make sure to take a moment and subscribe to our YouTube channel and all our other social media channels around the house.
Speaker B:We'll be right back.
Speaker A:Welcome back to the around the House show, your trusted source for everything about your home.
Speaker A:I'm Eric G. And Johnny and I have been sitting here talking about a lot of last minute stuff you should be doing here.
Speaker A:Giving you a little bit of time to knock this stuff out before the end of the year.
Speaker A:If you want to add to this list, you're like, hey, you forgot something.
Speaker A:Send us a message over to aroundthehouse online dot com.
Speaker A:Just go to the contact us page.
Speaker A:We got some new stuff coming up there as well.
Speaker A:Take a look at the shopping list we're putting up there for Black Friday this weekend.
Speaker A:We'll have some other stuff coming up there as well.
Speaker A:Stay tuned for all of that.
Speaker A:Johnny, there's one on here that I really think is important that we always forget to do, but it's so important.
Speaker A:And this is reviewing home insurance and the valuations.
Speaker C:I defer to my accountant.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Here's what happens, man.
Speaker A:And this gets interesting.
Speaker A:Housing prices and for instance here in the.
Speaker A:Let's take a look.
Speaker A:Last time I looked at like homedepot.com and I'm gonna do this as we're looking at it here.
Speaker A:I tell you what, things have been getting so expensive, Right.
Speaker C:So your house is insured for 300k, but it's worth 600 now and it burns down.
Speaker A: eet of sheetrock right now is: Speaker A:What?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:Dude, I can't even believe that.
Speaker A:Almost 24 bucks.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So then you look at OSB, right.
Speaker C:You look at OSB was like, how much is it now?
Speaker A:Yeah, 7:16.
Speaker A:OSB.
Speaker A:17:48 a sheet.
Speaker A:Oh.
Speaker A:A lot of houses were built with that stuff being three or four dollars a sheet.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker C:Insane, dude.
Speaker A:So you think about it many times.
Speaker A:You can't build the house for what you're insured for.
Speaker A:Yeah, we talked a little bit about it just with the water damage, but.
Speaker C:Yep.
Speaker A:Make sure that you've got the right Stuff I had to fight my insurance agents on the last one and they're friends of mine, so it wasn't that.
Speaker A:But I had to get a little argumentative.
Speaker A:And they go, that's what the computer kicked out.
Speaker A:I went, yeah.
Speaker A:And they're like, what do you mean?
Speaker A:I sent them pictures and I said, I did this to the house.
Speaker A:And they're like, oh, yeah.
Speaker A:I'm like.
Speaker A:Because they had the house valued at $350,000 to replace.
Speaker A:I'm like, I can't remodel the bathroom for a hundred with the way I had done it.
Speaker A:And I guarantee it, I can't rebuild the house for that.
Speaker A:Especially when you think about it, if you've got an older house where it's maybe two by four construction now, you got to build it at two by six.
Speaker A:You got to put the energy efficient stuff in it.
Speaker A:You got to follow the new codes.
Speaker A:What's it going to cost?
Speaker A:We saw that in California with the wildfires.
Speaker A:Okay, maybe you got asbestos in the dirt.
Speaker A:You got to haul that off.
Speaker C:Yeah, no, that turns into a quick move to Ohio is what it turns into.
Speaker C:We got 300k, let's go buy a Rambler.
Speaker C:And yeah, you got the value of the middle America.
Speaker A:Yeah, you got the value of the land, but that's not the value of the house.
Speaker A:And it's really tough when you get into that.
Speaker A:So make sure that you can build what you had before.
Speaker A:And we have a geez, this was probably six or eight months ago, maybe even longer.
Speaker A:I had the guys from Virtual Home Inventory on here and what they do is they go through and actually film everything in your house.
Speaker A:Pull out each drawer, they make lists of the model numbers of your appliances and the important things, and they give you a home inventory.
Speaker A:But it's.
Speaker A:So show how they do the walk through.
Speaker A:You can actually.
Speaker A:Because the way they measure it and stuff, when they do this, your house, you can actually use that and give it to the architect and they can import that information because it actually measures the rooms too.
Speaker A:You can actually use that as a basis to build the house back up again.
Speaker C:So interesting.
Speaker A:It's really cool.
Speaker A:But again, just making sure you're covered.
Speaker A:If you've got a lot of tools like I do, make sure you got a writer in there for that.
Speaker A:I do.
Speaker A:You know, if you've got expensive artwork, have it appraised and make sure you got it.
Speaker A:Because some of that stuff that maybe you got from grandma, you're like, oh, this is always in grandma's room.
Speaker A:You have no idea.
Speaker A:That, like, Antiques Roadshow, that's a $20,000 painting or $120,000 painting or whatever it is.
Speaker A:Make sure you're covered.
Speaker A:So many of that stuff is hiding in people's homes and they have no idea what it's worth.
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker C:I'm just being quiet on the insurance.
Speaker C:I just.
Speaker C:Oh, man.
Speaker A:Yep.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:I won't tell you how many times I didn't bother to use my insurance because it wasn't worth it.
Speaker C:I'm like, no, forget it.
Speaker A:Oh, I'm the same.
Speaker C:Glad I paid you all year or five years or 10 years, so you could just not help me at all.
Speaker C:Sorry to be a bummer on that bit.
Speaker C:And also apologies to Ohio.
Speaker C:I wasn't trying to pick on you guys, just middle America in general.
Speaker A:Affordable.
Speaker A:Many places out there, I tell you, more than once they set their Ohio mission.
Speaker C:I want to piss off.
Speaker C:Ohio?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:Where I'm looking at it and I'm like, oh, my gosh, look at this beautiful waterfront mid century modern masterpiece that no one's messing with in Ohio or Michigan or someplace like that.
Speaker C:Our buddy Drew moved from outside of Los Angeles in Claremont to Michigan and got 3 times the house for 350k or something.
Speaker A:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker A:Problem is, all the people out there are going, hey, you Californians, don't you dare move out here and mess with us.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:And he's totally that guy, right?
Speaker C:Got the long hippie hair.
Speaker C:You're like, ah, look at this guy in his sport coat and his love.
Speaker A:Great cat, the cars.
Speaker A:Welcome to the neighborhood.
Speaker C:Yep.
Speaker A:That's how it goes, man.
Speaker A:That's how it goes.
Speaker C:That's all right.
Speaker C:He deserves it.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:One of the ones on my list here.
Speaker A:It's important, but we've talked about it enough, so I'm not going to talk about this one much, but prep your home for the holiday hosting.
Speaker A:We've talked enough about that.
Speaker A:The last one on the list.
Speaker A:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker A:We can talk about a garbage disposal again.
Speaker A:Last one here.
Speaker A: Plan: Speaker A: you want to do next year for: Speaker A:Sit down and go, okay, what's our game plan?
Speaker A:Good time to set some realistic goals on what you want to do.
Speaker A:You want to sell, do you want to keep, do you want to remodel?
Speaker A:Because now's the time to start working on those estimates.
Speaker A:Plans, design, you know, put the ducks.
Speaker C:In a row, start your savings fund, all that stuff, man.
Speaker A:Yep.
Speaker A:Put it together.
Speaker C:You start that now, you start that planning, and it will Go.
Speaker C:So much smoother than when you decide in June.
Speaker C:The first time it's hot that you want to blow out the patio or something, and you're like, let's get it done next week.
Speaker C:And there you go.
Speaker C:You know the story.
Speaker A:Right hook works, right?
Speaker A:We've all done this.
Speaker A:We've all done this.
Speaker A:It's June.
Speaker A:You walk out on the deck and go, wow.
Speaker A:I was hoping this was going to give me another year.
Speaker A:And it's not.
Speaker A:As you're exactly walking across the deck, that feels more like a trampoline, you know?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Maybe we can't have that barbecue in a few weeks here, so.
Speaker C:With a 50 cantilever.
Speaker A:Oh, dude, I'll never forget that one.
Speaker A:I got pictures of that, dude.
Speaker C:I can't forget it.
Speaker C:That's just incredible.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:That's a seesaw at best.
Speaker A:At best.
Speaker A:But that's the thing, planning this stuff out.
Speaker A:And here's the other thing.
Speaker A:It'll keep you.
Speaker A:If you do this planning part right, it'll keep you from doing things backwards.
Speaker A:What I mean by backwards is you're like, hey, in August, I want to put a pool in at the end of the year.
Speaker A:Awesome.
Speaker A:No problem.
Speaker A:But your May project is putting a fence in, and you didn't account for putting in the gate to get the equipment back there to dig the pool.
Speaker A:So think about it as you're like, you're building a house.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Foundationally.
Speaker A:What do I need to put in?
Speaker A:Maybe the first thing you do instead is put all the utilities in for these things that you need.
Speaker C:I was just gonna say all the lights.
Speaker C:Lights, water, get your underground pipes running, all that stuff.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:And do that.
Speaker A:And I think you'll be better off.
Speaker A:And that kind of planning just really pays off.
Speaker A:It'll save you a ton of money because now you can buy wire and things like that in bulk and just knock it out and do it and.
Speaker C:Not do it twice.
Speaker A:Oh, my gosh.
Speaker A:How many times?
Speaker A:How many times?
Speaker A:You and I as working as you contractor, me, designer, do you say, hey, let's do this?
Speaker A:And I think we should do this, too.
Speaker A:And they go, no, on budget.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:And then they're like, oh, I decided to go ahead and do it.
Speaker A:And you're like, all right, let's go rip out that drywall again.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Not like we didn't try to tell you, but yeah.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:It happens a lot.
Speaker C:And understandably, some of those decisions are difficult.
Speaker C:But, man, don't trick yourself into thinking you're saving money even when the con who trusts the contractors telling me I should do this now.
Speaker C:But I don't want to spend the extra thousand bucks.
Speaker C:It ends up costing you an extra 4,000 bucks in six months or a year when you do decide to do what we recommended you do.
Speaker C:If you got a good contractor, maybe trust him a little bit.
Speaker C:He's probably really trying to save you money.
Speaker A:No question.
Speaker A:I just had a conversation yesterday with Cam Anderson, Blacktail Studios, and we're talking about the work on his house, which you guys will start to see here, coming up here really soon.
Speaker A:And I've been helping him with that on the planning, designing part of things, but he's, hey, I just had my.
Speaker A:He's got a water guy out there and goes, hey, I'm testing.
Speaker A:I'm finding copper in your water coming out.
Speaker A:And I think it's because you've got low ph and it's taking some of the copper out of the pipes.
Speaker A:So in my head I'm like, okay, we're doing kitchen, where the kitchen laundry room is.
Speaker A:Maybe while we got that thing open, we better replace the copper.
Speaker A: t's been doing that for since: Speaker A:Some of those things, you pay attention and go, copper, you get 50, 100 years out of it, really easy.
Speaker A:But if you've got adverse conditions like water, that's.
Speaker A:You can be chewing up the pipes and not even know it.
Speaker A:Then you get those pinholes that happen.
Speaker A:And then it's just.
Speaker A:Then it's just starting over.
Speaker C:The older I get, the more I realize the old adages hold true.
Speaker C:Do it right the first time.
Speaker A:Amen, brother.
Speaker A:On that note, we are out of time.
Speaker A:Johnny, thanks for spending the time again here.
Speaker A:It's always fun chit chatting with you, especially around this construction stuff.
Speaker A:It's always the best.
Speaker C:Absolutely, brother.
Speaker A:All right, guys, thanks for tuning in today.
Speaker A:Tune in for the podcast.
Speaker A:If you're on the radio, I'm Eric Chi and for Johnny D. You've been listening to around the House.
