Episode 2098
Home Improvement Myths That Will Make You Facepalm
Eric G dives into the wild world of remodeling mistakes that’ll make you question your life choices. Seriously, folks, trying to match a maple kitchen island with red oak floors? What are we doing here, playing a twisted game of interior design bingo? He’s got the lowdown on how to avoid these cringe-worthy blunders and save your sanity (and your wallet) in the process. And just when we thought it couldn’t get crazier, there’s a backpack blower recall that could literally blow up in your face—talk about a hazard! So, if you’re ready to laugh, learn, and maybe even salvage your home project, stick around for this mid-week update that’s packed with all sorts of absurdity and practical wisdom.
Common remodeling mistakes? Oh boy, let's dive into that rabbit hole! Eric G is here to spill the tea on what not to do when you're knee-deep in your renovation project. You know how everyone thinks they can just save a buck by cutting corners? Spoiler alert: that's a one-way ticket to a disaster. From mismatched wood finishes that conflict like cats and dogs to the age-old debate of choosing the right cabinet maker, Eric breaks down the hilariously tragic blunders that homeowners are making. Like, seriously, who thought a maple kitchen island would look good next to red oak floors? It's a recipe for aesthetic chaos, my friends! And don't even get him started on the 'Amish cabinet maker' myth—because apparently, modern convenience is lost on social media. So if you're remodeling and want to avoid ending up on an episode of 'What Were They Thinking?', grab your earbuds and get ready for some brutally honest advice.
Takeaways:
- Remodeling can be a money pit if you're cutting costs in all the wrong places, so choose wisely!
- Trying to match different wood types like maple and oak is a design disaster waiting to happen, just don't do it!
- If you think hiring an Amish cabinet maker guarantees quality, think again; technology isn't a bad thing, folks!
- Custom cabinets can be a nightmare if you don't vet your contractor and see their samples first, so do your homework!
- Using retail paint for custom cabinetry is like dressing a pig in silk; it won't end well, trust me!
- And seriously, if your backpack blower can explode, maybe just stick to raking leaves, yeah?
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Milwaukee
- Festool
- Sherwin Williams
- Peloton
- Costco
- Stihl
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 go to source for everything home improvement.
Speaker B:Whether you're a DIY enthusiast or just looking to make your space shine, Eric.
Speaker A:G is here to guide you through.
Speaker B:The latest tips, tricks and trends.
Speaker B:So grab your toolbox, put on your thinking cap and let's get to work right here on around the House with.
Speaker A:Eric G. Welcome to the around the House show, your trusted source for home improvement information.
Speaker A:Thanks for joining me today.
Speaker A:I'm Eric G. Johnny's out working on a project right now and I thought I would knock out our midweek update.
Speaker A:This is the show that kind of continues on from last week and of course doesn't really cover the stuff that we're going to hear on the weekend show.
Speaker A:Thanks for joining me.
Speaker A:Happy Wednesday everyone.
Speaker A:I'm seeing a trend and I wanted to talk about it on the design side of things right now and it's showing up on social media and there are people out there that are remodeling and I totally get it.
Speaker A:You're trying to save money.
Speaker A:But what I'm seeing is you're saving money in all the wrong places.
Speaker A:Many times the questions that are coming out on these home improvement groups out there that I'm seeing across the interweb is scary at best.
Speaker A:Like I just answered one here in the Ask a Cabinet Maker group where someone is building a house.
Speaker A:The kitchen island is maple, the floors are red oak and they're trying to make them match.
Speaker A:First off I go, wow, you don't want to make those look the same because you're not going to.
Speaker A:Oak is a really heavy grained open grain wood and maple, that's why they make butcher block countertops out of it.
Speaker A:It is really a fairly non porous tight grained wood.
Speaker A:So you're not going to get those two to match and if you try, it's going to look even worse.
Speaker A:Now when you're working with woods out there, you've also got to realize you might try to make something match today, but maple tends to go a little more brown orange as it ages and the oak changes as well.
Speaker A:So you might have a moment in time where these two match.
Speaker A:But this is where it goes badly because the oaks head in one direction, the maples head in the other and then five years down the road it looks like you tried to match it but you missed the mark.
Speaker A:And that's the worst is getting them close.
Speaker A:Close says that wow, I tried and that's the best I could get it versus I tried to make it go this way, and I landed it.
Speaker A:So the thing that I'm seeing out there is there's so many mistakes being made on the design side, whether it's a kitchen cabinet layout, whether it's what am I doing in the bathroom or even a living room fireplace remodel.
Speaker A:And I'm seeing this.
Speaker A:These mistakes get made.
Speaker A:And I think the worst part is you're dropping them up into large groups of homeowners that are giving a personal opinion that, quite frankly, are interesting.
Speaker A:It's entertaining, but it's sure not helping the person.
Speaker A:That is the original poster in this, and that's another one.
Speaker A:And so it's.
Speaker A:Ouch.
Speaker A: trying to do something that's: Speaker A: g to make something look like: Speaker A:Now.
Speaker A:The other one that's interesting is I love.
Speaker A:And it's just absolutely crazy.
Speaker A:I love watching the, oh, Urban Myths of Home Improvement design and Construction on social media.
Speaker A:It's really so much fun.
Speaker A:I love the Amish people, don't get me wrong.
Speaker A:But Amish cabinet makers are still, most of them using CNC machines, Milwaukee Sanders, maybe Fester Fine or something like that, as far as the brands, but they are still using the modern conveniences because it's in work now.
Speaker A:I have been through plenty in Pennsylvania, in the Midwest, Amish cabinet factories, they have the highest technology out of any people.
Speaker A:So it's so funny when I see online people going, ah, I'm in South Florida.
Speaker A:Are there any Amish cabinet makers down here?
Speaker A:That's adorable.
Speaker A:I love it.
Speaker A:And I love that those people have that reputation of building quality stuff in general.
Speaker A:They do.
Speaker A:But thinking that's going to work that way you're getting people that probably care about it.
Speaker A:But them being an Amish cabinet maker says nothing of how it was built.
Speaker A:It's kind of say, hey, I'm going to a custom shop.
Speaker A:I tell you what, on the pages that I run most of the cabinet, 95% of the cabinet issues that are cabinetry related, not design related, not shipping related, none of that stuff are from custom cabinet shops.
Speaker A:And it's just because there's no rules, there's no standards, there's no nothing with that.
Speaker A:Where these big companies you see that are in the home centers or are the large national manufacturers, they've got it dialed in.
Speaker A:They don't make the mistakes that the small guys made because they made them 30 years ago.
Speaker A:And you can't make those on a large scale and ship them out across the country without it absolutely tanking your business.
Speaker A:So that's what you got to be careful with out there.
Speaker A:And these are things that, you know, you're seeing the mistakes being made with that.
Speaker A:I'm seeing people trying to do wood countertops throughout their kitchen and not understanding it.
Speaker A:Of the maintenance and the issues you're going to have.
Speaker A:I'm seeing people trying to fit in islands into places that they don't.
Speaker A:They don't mesh.
Speaker A:And then some of the funniest ones are color expectations.
Speaker A:If your custom cabinet manufacturer or person down the street is out there and they picked up the paint from the Sherwin Williams retail store, sorry, folks, you hired the wrong person.
Speaker A:You want a commercial cabinetry finish, not something that I can walk into my local Sherwin Williams store.
Speaker A:You need to be talking to the commercial side of the business, not the retail painting, drywall side of the business.
Speaker A:That way you can get the right materials for that project.
Speaker A:Nothing against Sherwin Williams.
Speaker A:You just gotta be on the right side of the building and not on the retail side to deal with that.
Speaker A:That way you can make sure you get the quality finish on that.
Speaker A:So as things are getting very expensive out there, and yeah, they're not getting any cheaper from what I'm seeing.
Speaker A:And if you're planning on stuff the first of the year, be working on it.
Speaker A:Take the time.
Speaker A:I.
Speaker A:There are plenty of great custom cabin shops, as I've always said, and we've covered this a lot on the show, but there's a ton of them out there that are good.
Speaker A:You are just gonna have to weed through the dozens in your area to find the right one.
Speaker A:And how I do that is a couple things.
Speaker A:Here's a couple tips for you before you go to contract.
Speaker A:Have them make a nice big sample that you get to keep that gives you the color, the door style, everything.
Speaker A:And if it doesn't look right, then that's a warning.
Speaker A:Have I make it again.
Speaker A:And that way you have a sample to work with.
Speaker A:And then make sure your contract is nice and clear and tells you exactly what's going on.
Speaker A:So that way, that's all noted, and they're gonna have to put it out there.
Speaker A:Now, understanding if you're doing woods, understanding what rift cut, quarter sawn, plain sawn materials look like will help you.
Speaker A:And that's going to make things look a little bit better for you.
Speaker A:But be very careful.
Speaker A:And if they want to paint or stain on site, I pass even on painted cabinets.
Speaker A:And I know there are some of you out there that in my area, that's all we do.
Speaker A:And I get it.
Speaker A:That is a regional thing.
Speaker A:But I guarantee you, you will always get a better finish in a factory than you will in the field.
Speaker A:And it's not close.
Speaker A:So take your time on that and don't get ripped off.
Speaker A:Now here's the thing I was out looking for.
Speaker A:Let's talk about holiday decorating for a minute here, too.
Speaker A:I was out looking with my girlfriend for some stuff for Thanksgiving.
Speaker A:Holy smokes.
Speaker A:Soon as Halloween's gone, so are Thanksgiving decorations.
Speaker A:We decided at the last minute we're going to have a family dinner over here at our place.
Speaker A:And I tell you what, that was crazy.
Speaker A:It was a hard look to find the right stuff.
Speaker A:Online shopping is going to be the answer for that one.
Speaker A:It's so funny how retailers now out there have skipped over Thanksgiving altogether.
Speaker A:We see Halloween show up on Labor Day, Christmas show up by early September.
Speaker A:And yes, I saw them in Costco and Home Depot, Lowe's even earlier than that.
Speaker A:And all of a sudden, I think by Thanksgiving we'll see the Christmas stuff going out and closing out and being gone.
Speaker A:And it's really messed up.
Speaker A:And you know something, the tariffs really aren't going to be a big thing on that this year.
Speaker A:So many of these people of these big retailers ordered that stuff last year and it's been sitting in warehouses for a while.
Speaker A:So I don't think it's going to be that big of a deal.
Speaker A:But take a look around out there.
Speaker A:There will be good deals to buy this year.
Speaker A:I think people with the government shutdown, with the crazy government shutdown, which I hope gets resolved today, that's idiotic.
Speaker A:We've got people not.
Speaker A:And I get it.
Speaker A:There's a lot of people out there that need that help.
Speaker A:But here's my little rant of the day, guys.
Speaker A:I'm sitting here watching my local news.
Speaker A:Lady's like, oh my gosh, Oregon gave me half of my SNAP benefits.
Speaker A:It's nice to have that.
Speaker A:So what I'm going to do tonight, I'm going to treat myself.
Speaker A:I'm making eggplant parmesan.
Speaker A:I'm like, hey, I only gave you half.
Speaker A:Instead of doing eggplant parmesan.
Speaker A:You might want to make that last a month just in case.
Speaker A:But nope.
Speaker A:And the crazy stuff that I saw with people being interviewed on that with expensive clothes, expensive watch, expensive everything.
Speaker A:But they got their SNAP benefits, they got their food stamps.
Speaker A:So it clearly shows that there are some people out there that might be abusing that system.
Speaker A:And of course, there are people out there that absolutely need it.
Speaker A:And I do not want to confuse those two because it is there for a reason.
Speaker A:And I think it's something we have to have.
Speaker A:But I think maybe we don't need to be giving it out like candy at a parade and keep it for the people that actually need the help.
Speaker A:All right, everybody, have a great rest of the week.
Speaker A:I did see a few things here on the recalls real quick that are important.
Speaker A:And this is an interesting one here.
Speaker A:I saw a lot of.
Speaker A:Real quick.
Speaker A:I saw a lot of interesting stuff this week.
Speaker A:There have been a lot of.
Speaker A:There's a trend real quick.
Speaker A:We'll talk about an upcoming show, but there's a trend of our local companies that we see out there.
Speaker A:Our local home improvement, plumbing, heating getting bought out by the black rocks and all those people out there.
Speaker A:And of course, they don't know how to run home improvement companies.
Speaker A:And they all keep going, just absolutely bankrupt.
Speaker A:And we're starting to see that stuff play through.
Speaker A:So interesting stuff on our recall list today.
Speaker A:Peloton recalls original series bike plus exercise bikes Due to fall and injury hazards.
Speaker A:The bike seat post assembly can break during use, posing fall and injury hazard to the user.
Speaker A:Ouch.
Speaker A:That's a bad visual.
Speaker A:That won't come out of my mind.
Speaker A:And Costco, if you like that purple labeled signature Prosecco, they got a problem with those.
Speaker A:The Prosecco bottles can break or shatter, posing a laceration hazard.
Speaker A:Being very careful and they say do not tempt to open them.
Speaker A:So that's a big one.
Speaker A:Be careful there, guys.
Speaker A:We talked about the mattress stuff last week, Tom, but the interesting one that I thought this week that I was like, oh, here we go, this could be a problem is we're starting to see.
Speaker A:Even though they're closed down out there.
Speaker A:Let me find this one.
Speaker A:I'm trying to find it.
Speaker A:Here it is a.
Speaker A:It was.
Speaker A:I love tools.
Speaker A:There we go.
Speaker A:There it is right there.
Speaker A:Pulling it up live.
Speaker A:As we're looking at it here.
Speaker A:There is a.
Speaker A:Interesting recall.
Speaker A:Lots of clothing, baby stuff, but still recalls BR800 backpack blowers.
Speaker A:Due to laceration hazard, the fan wheel inside the backpack blower can break apart.
Speaker A:Uh oh.
Speaker A:Consumers should stop using the Stihl BR800 backpack blower and bring it to an authorized servicing dealer for a free inspection and replacement of the fan wheel.
Speaker A:There's about 48,000 of those out there, so be really careful there, guys.
Speaker A:That's one that could cause an impact and I don't want things blowing apart when it's on my back and I'm using it and that could be really ugly.
Speaker A:All right everybody have a great rest of the week.
Speaker A:Happy Wednesday.
Speaker A:Hopefully the government gets turned down in our gets going here again we get this, this heat turned out off a high on this whole thing and get the government back to work and working for us.
Speaker A:I know it's not going to happen, but hey, at least we can get some of these things taken care of like airplanes in the air and people make it to their holiday destinations.
Speaker A:Hopefully get that figured out today.
Speaker A:I am hopeful.
Speaker A:I'm still hopeful.
Speaker A:We'll see what happens.
Speaker A:Have a great rest of the week everybody.
Speaker A:Stay safe out there.
Speaker A:I appreciate you tuning into around the House and make sure that you get us get ahold of us.
Speaker A:If you have any kind of a question, comment, suggestion, we'll take it over to Aroundthe House online dot com.
Speaker A:Well see you Saturday.
Speaker A:Thanks for tuning into around the House.
Speaker A:Be good out there.
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