We talk toilets with Mario Lopez and my favorite interviews of 2023

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[00:00:04] Eric Goranson: around the house. Hey guys, Eric G here. We've got a jam pack show here for different interviews for different segments, because this is the best of 2023. And I included something new for you here in this hour in the second segment. Yeah. We're talking to AC Slater. What really? Yeah. We're talking Japanese toilets with Mario Lopez.

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[00:00:49] Eric Goranson: Just head over to aroundthehouseonline. com and you can find it there. I got the one and only Mario Lopez up. Let's do this. When it comes to

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[00:00:57] Eric Goranson: and renovating your home, there is a [00:01:00] lot to know. But we've got you covered. This

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[00:01:04] Eric Goranson: Mario Lopez has gone from Saved by the Bell to a two time Emmy Award winner and host of Access Hollywood and Access Daily and even has his own radio show on with Mario Lopez.

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[00:01:29] Mario Lopez: Well, that wasn't much of a, that wasn't so much a party, although it feels like a party.

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[00:01:55] Mario Lopez: I'm pretty conservative with, with my stuff and try to save for a rainy day kind of guy, [00:02:00] but I figure, you know, 50 is a big one and I wanted to, I wanted to treat myself to something. So, um, I saw, saw a South park episode, true story. And, uh, I've seen that one. See that one where they, where they get the, they get the, the

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[00:02:17] Eric Goranson: Oh yeah. The Japanese

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[00:02:31] Mario Lopez: I'm like, does that exist? So I went down a rabbit hole and started Googling it. I'm like, damn, they do exist. That's awesome. And they're expensive, but they seem like a solid investment because. I, you know, you obviously spend time in there and, and, um, I didn't realize it can do so many cool things. And in the South Park, it was, it wasn't too far off.

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[00:02:56] Eric Goranson: Nice man. Yeah. I was looking at the [00:03:00] pictures and I tell you what, that total new arrest NX two is the Cadillac. That thing is amazing. I got to see it at the big builder show earlier in the year. That thing is stunning. It's a beautiful toilet.

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[00:03:32] Eric Goranson: it was, it's cool.

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[00:03:42] Mario Lopez: to use it, to be honest, because it looks like it's complicated, but it's really not. And then they, they ask a lot of questions and I said, yeah, it's cool, man.

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[00:03:51] Eric Goranson: conversation starter. Yeah. No kidding. No kidding. So did you remodel the entire bathroom or did you just kind of keep a little more localized? [00:04:00] Well, the house

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[00:04:07] Eric Goranson: Nice. Yeah. And you know, you're a big health and wellness guy. Has that really changed how you look at things on your 50th birthday? Well, I've

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[00:04:29] Mario Lopez: And a big part of that is self care.

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[00:04:49] Eric Goranson: And it even grabbed you in, which I think is absolutely hilarious.

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[00:05:04] Eric Goranson: it. Nice. Has your family been up knocking on the door, trying to get you out of the bathroom now, because you know, we're guys, we tend to spend a little more time in the bathroom sometimes and go for a little solace from time to time.

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[00:05:25] Eric Goranson: That is great. And I heard you've got a new game show coming out here too as well, right?

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[00:05:31] Mario Lopez: about that. It's called Blank Slate.

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[00:05:50] Mario Lopez: There's nothing better than giving people money. Um, so it's a, it's a fun gig and I love games.

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[00:06:08] Eric Goranson: I mean, you're gotta be one of the busiest working men's in Hollywood. Oh, I

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[00:06:25] Mario Lopez: So yeah, I feel very fortunate that we're as busy as we are. Yeah.

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[00:06:32] Mario Lopez: That was a good time. Yeah. New York's always fun. That time of year, a little cold, but, uh,

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[00:06:39] Eric Goranson: I really appreciate it. You got it. My pleasure. Nice talking to you. You too. All right. Take care. You know, I do have to sit here and say that Mario Lopez is 1 of the kindest and nicest guys in Hollywood. And, uh, boy, what a pleasure to sit down and talk with him. And, you know, something I just so funny to me when you look at [00:07:00] that episode of South Park, where they were kind of.

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[00:07:27] Eric Goranson: I have used them as my toilet of choice in my remodels that I've worked with, with clients for the plat, you know, for the past 20 years. And That has been my go to brand. I'm sorry, Kohler. I'm sorry, American Standard. By the way, Toto makes more toilets and says sold them for 20 years, more than American Standard, Kohler combined.

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[00:08:13] Eric Goranson: And I always say that if you're out there doing a rental, go, don't go, don't go down to the home center and buy the 200 toilet there. Because you know something, the first time your renter flushes something down the toilet, they weren't supposed to guess what you're calling the plumber out there at three o'clock in the morning.

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[00:08:59] Eric Goranson: [00:09:00] And it's so funny because we did a segment here a number of years ago, uh, probably four or five, maybe six years ago. I did where we had one of those, uh, you know, 99 or a hundred dollars. The day toilet seats that were off the Internet and you know something it did exactly what it said. It was gonna do It's a hundred dollar toilet seat.

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[00:09:36] Intro: back.[00:10:00]

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[00:10:12] Eric Goranson: Steel Panther. And

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[00:10:15] Mario Lopez: Around the House with Eric G.

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[00:10:18] Mario Lopez: We love Eric G and you should

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[00:10:26] Eric Goranson: Welcome to around the house show. This is where we talk everything about your home every single week. Thanks for joining us today. I don't know why this is the first time he's being on the show, but Matt Whitbeck, Whitbeck construction. Welcome to around the house, brother. Thanks for having me, man. Really appreciate it.

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[00:10:58] Matt Whitbeck: How's it going to hook up? Ty's [00:11:00] awesome. Got to come out and see you guys on the West coast. Do a little bit of touring out there.

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[00:11:05] Eric Goranson: fun. Yeah, man. And then sheesh got to see you, your mug on the TV all this last year with, uh, you being the official contractor for this old house project. Yeah,

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[00:11:29] Matt Whitbeck: And we had like the funky, crazy giant antenna. So we had like four stations and one of them was PBS. And then that was the jam, man. I loved

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[00:11:49] Eric Goranson: It's just so real. And, you know, it's honest, which I love what, what was the experience for you going through that, man? We'll just dive into that. Cause that's gotta be some hoops to jump through to begin with. [00:12:00]

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[00:12:14] Matt Whitbeck: So I had at least a little bit of experience with working on camera. Um, but I didn't know what to expect cause I've seen some various things between doing like a, a simple, small YouTube show to doing some commercials. You see various things between audio and video. Um, I did work with one. Professional actor doing some commercials, which was really neat to later on, turn on a television and see him on like an actual movie.

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[00:12:41] Eric Goranson: Um, so

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[00:13:01] Matt Whitbeck: Like one of the race car shows that's on. And, um, so he's giving me some of that stuff, you know, telling me about what happened. So I didn't know what to expect. And when I got into it, like you said, it's real, it's actually happening. We're building the house. They're coming in. It's a lot of, um, You know, the various professional members of their staff coming in to do interviews with all of our trade partners.

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[00:13:32] Eric Goranson: was. It's funny growing up. I always thought the show was different, but now that I've, you know, been in the, in this industry for about 30 years now, I start to think of it different as it's not this old house building a house they're coming on, for instance, to whip back construction and almost reporting on the progress.

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[00:13:55] Matt Whitbeck: accurate. I mean, Tom Silva owns a contracting company with his brother. [00:14:00] So they do a lot of contracting for this old house. So there is a bit of it where it's kind of like a lot of the members of this old house are working on a house. So they work on projects kind of exclusively, I should say exclusively, but a lot of the projects they work on are being filmed for this old house in some capacity, if it's asked for this old house or, you know, even for like small clips, but, um, when they come on, yeah, they're, they're kind of acting, um, more in the reporting.

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[00:14:52] Matt Whitbeck: If they didn't have that show of seeing how these contractors are putting things together. So they, they pay a really great homage [00:15:00] to the everyday subcontractor and builder.

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[00:15:15] Eric Goranson: Every time I watch it going, Oh, that's interesting. We don't do it that way out here or whatever it is. Yeah. And that's the fun part with that.

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[00:15:38] Matt Whitbeck: So they have just this amazing encyclopedia, just full of interesting tricks that we don't get to see when we're kind of ingrained in our own local color. You know, so that's one of the awesome parts about them touring around the country and just really trying to pay a great light on, um, what's happening out there and what people are going through, because we don't all do it the same [00:16:00] way, but we're not all dealing with the same environment, you know, we're, we're building habitat for human beings, but it's in different environments,

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[00:16:09] Eric Goranson: Absolutely. And Kevin, jeez, what a, just a wealth of knowledge. And that's 1 of the things looking back and I'm not really doing the stage much anymore, just because this media things kind of been keeping me 100%. But, uh, man, some of the stuff I learned by just watching and listening to. Everybody from their different perspectives, you know, with all the different people, whether it's you, whether it's Walt, whether it's Kevin, you know, that whole group and many more, um, just such a great brain trust.

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[00:16:57] Eric Goranson: Yeah, they

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[00:17:02] Eric Goranson: Great question. What

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[00:17:15] Eric Goranson: PBR Budweiser or something.

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[00:17:18] Matt Whitbeck: have what they're used to. And that's the thing where you are and everybody's just accustomed to it. But that doesn't necessarily mean that people aren't doing something that's super similar or using slightly different vernacular for what it is. Um, at the end of the day, I mean, we're, we're not.

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[00:17:48] Eric Goranson: Yeah. And you know, climate's part of it too. I mean, like you were talking about, I mean, for instance, my neighbor's got a, a, a big waterline leak right now in front of his house.

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[00:18:06] Matt Whitbeck: you can see behind

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[00:18:11] Matt Whitbeck: we got snow already and it's sticking, it's not melting.

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[00:18:33] Eric Goranson: things are different.

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[00:19:00] Intro: Hey, this is

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[00:19:04] Intro: Keel band and Steeler. We are rocking around the house with Eric G. Ray is

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[00:19:21] Eric Goranson: Nick Schiffer, welcome to around the house, man. What's up,

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[00:19:27] Eric Goranson: I have seen you on the different NHB stages and everything else. You and I, like, kinda cross paths between friends and stuff, but never have really spent time

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[00:19:42] Nick Schiffer: It's, it's, it's interesting, especially, I feel like it's so, even when you go to the, the like IBS and things like that, I feel like I see the same people and it's, and it's people that even live in Boston that I never see in Boston, but then I'll go to the, a million square foot trade show and I'll [00:20:00] bump into them six times.

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[00:20:05] Eric Goranson: yeah, we have a lot of common friends. It's hilarious. Well, man, you have been doing so much good stuff out there with NS builders, and I mean, you're just legendary in the Boston scene across the U S as well, but let's talk about you and your chops a little bit.

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[00:20:31] Nick Schiffer: Yeah, yeah. I mean, for me, you know, especially when we started growing as a business and outside of just being a carpenter or a carpentry business, that's where I really kind of sat my, my role into kind of helping design.

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[00:21:03] Nick Schiffer: How do we, how do we make this detail better or cooler? Uh, and, and most of the time that works out for me, there's been the handful of times where I make something quote unquote cooler and it becomes wildly expensive and a nightmare to maintain and my guys hate me for it. But. The, you know, the point is, is I, I like to challenge the normal way of, uh, doing something and constantly question, like, how do we do this better?

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[00:21:29] Eric Goranson: you come from a part of the country where, where the craft is big, you know? I mean, I've worked all over the country with, with different people like you have, you know, and. There's just something about the old world craftsmanship of the Northeast. And it's cool.

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[00:22:04] Nick Schiffer: Like, yeah, man, but it's, it's just different. It's, you know, it's not put together the same way with the same type of people. They're just not, there's not that many of them, you know, in different parts of the country. And you know, I think about that when we talk about on the, the, the modern craftsman, it's, you know, we, we, we oftentimes talk about the Northeast and like our market.

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[00:22:44] Nick Schiffer: But yeah, I mean, I'm, I, I, I do feel fortunate that we are in the Northeast and there's a lot of people that love craftsmanship and I'm hoping that, you know, what we're doing with creating awareness on social and podcasts and things like that, that we're, you know, [00:23:00] encouraging people to get into it. Um, because it, you know, I have a lot of thoughts on this, but it's not a, it's, it's not an easy career to be in.

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[00:23:30] Nick Schiffer: You know, this isn't a career that you get into because you want to be uber wealthy. This is a career that you get into because you are passionate about it, and can you make a good living on it? Of course. Can you support your family? Of course. But It's hard work,

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[00:23:49] Eric Goranson: That's

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[00:24:11] Nick Schiffer: And I think that, you know, that just needs, there needs to be a bigger conversation around that because I think a lot of, you know, some people get into, you know, particular trades or, or careers because they think it's the fastest way to wealth and, you know, that it just. It's not, that's not entirely true, especially in, in construction related fields.

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[00:24:52] Nick Schiffer: Yeah. I mean, that's, and that's one of the best parts and that's what I love about it is, you know, everything we do, you know, like I said, I challenge it [00:25:00] and, you know, we have material millwork now where, you know, I get to dig into the details with Ken and Ian and James in the shop and, and talk about, you know, how we make something cooler.

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[00:25:26] Nick Schiffer: Nice. Sure enough, we sourced the hardware, tested it. It works. It looks dope and it's, you know, and was it necessary? No, but it, we accomplished, accomplished something different that now when that end user Experience is it? And I think that's a key word is like the experience. They have a different experience.

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[00:26:05] Eric Goranson: And there are some great people all across the

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[00:26:31] Nick Schiffer: And yeah, I mean, I'm with you. I'm not ripping on any part of the country or any, any market or anyone that's in different parts that truly does love the craft. It's just that it's, you know, at least it's something that's communicated pretty often that the Northeast is densely packed with people that appreciate craft on both sides more than other

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[00:26:50] Eric Goranson: You know, it's funny. And I learned this a few years ago. I was up in Boston speaking for the N. R. N. R. L. A. Up there for the Northeastern Retail Lumber Association. Up there. [00:27:00] I was talking home tack to a bunch of lumber yards that weren't ready to talk home tech yet because they're very old school and I appreciate that, but they weren't ready to consume that yet.

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[00:27:20] Nick Schiffer: to go. Yeah, it's, it's interesting, man. You know, I think we, you know, it's when you talk about tech, right. And I think about software and how things are developing so quickly.

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[00:27:54] Nick Schiffer: And I saw a product yesterday where it's, you know, designed to help, you know, commercial construction wall [00:28:00] layout on big, you know, concrete slabs. Right. And I'm like, love the idea. I watched the video. And it was like, first you do this, and then this, and then you do that, and then you, and then all of like step 13, I'm like, dude, Lost me.

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[00:28:25] Eric Goranson: Yeah, if you're gonna cut the steps by half awesome But if I'm gonna learn days of process to do the same thing and

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[00:28:36] Eric Goranson: around the house.

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[00:29:06] Eric Goranson: Welcome to the round the house show this is where we help you get the most out of your home through information and education Thanks for joining us today Well, we got a special guest in the studio because, you know, there are so many people out there that are tackling larger projects and, of course, probably haven't done it before.

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[00:29:31] Corbin Clay: I appreciate it. Thanks for having me.

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[00:29:43] Corbin Clay: Yeah, absolutely. I, um, I, uh, out of high school went to a, um, motorcycle mechanic school. Nice coincidentally enough and long story short, um, turns out I do not care why your turn signal doesn't work [00:30:00] or why that tire keeps going flat. Now, if you want to make it look better or go faster, let's chat. So it turns out, um, to do that, you know, professionally, uh, at a manufacturer's level requires an engineering degree.

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[00:30:45] Corbin Clay: Yep. Um, or do I want to maybe explore this woodworking thing because I really liked the kitchen and bath part of that specific remodeling job. So, yep, made the decision to [00:31:00] go full steam ahead with it. Um, 2 weeks later, I joined an apprenticeship at a cabinet shop, a pretty high end cabinet shop in Clearwater, Florida.

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[00:31:36] Corbin Clay: I don't know if you guys have any of them. I know California certainly does.

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[00:31:42] Corbin Clay: there ready to burn. Exactly. So British Columbia has 40 million of these dead countries. So anyway, um, you know, while I was working for this, uh, this cabinet company, we would have customers often ask us like, Hey, why don't you guys do anything with this pine?

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[00:32:20] Corbin Clay: S. Forest Service and the forestry department, Colorado State University. Turns out there's a big outbreak back in the 80s of the exact same beetle, the exact same problem. It comes from the winter is not being as cold, so the beetles don't die off every year. Well, there was just this confluence of, it was kind of a perfect storm.

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[00:33:04] Corbin Clay: So that's why I just gone crazy because the beetles are killing trees year round and most of the trees in the forest are old and weak. So that's why I started my company was to create as many good things as we can from that. Toothpicks, pencils, furniture. Whatever anybody wants to buy that we can make.

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[00:33:49] Corbin Clay: So, so in 2019, we decided, well, actually earlier we decided to sell the company. But in 2019, we sold that business. I then got into, [00:34:00] um, custom spec building. Okay. Um, some for ourselves, others, you know, to, to sell. So then I got this awesome education over the course of three years. With, um, green building design, you know, performance building, um, yeah, just, I mean, just really nerding out on building science and how to do things properly and post sell, open sell, all that stuff.

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[00:34:30] Eric Goranson: yeah. It's a chess game.

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[00:34:44] Corbin Clay: Because if your crawl space isn't sealed, putting spray foam on the roof probably isn't going to do that much. No. But now if your entire house is, is fairly airtight, then yes, get that spray foam up there because that'll air seal as well. You know, so there's just, there's so many variables. [00:35:00] So yeah, to your point, it's just like, there are very few, there are very few, just one size fits all answers.

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[00:35:22] Eric Goranson: Yeah. So building science. So, I mean, this is something that's evolving. What you learned 10 years ago, doesn't relate to today.

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[00:35:31] Corbin Clay: Yeah. The notion that houses need to breathe, like we want leaky windows and leaky roofs because we're, we're breathing in air from the crawl space, the vented crawl space. And then we're extending through. It's like, no, how about we don't do that? How about we, how about we not, um, breathe in the filthy air from the crawl space, the unsealed vented crawl space?

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[00:35:52] Eric Goranson: wouldn't that be better? And you know, I think one of the biggest problems in that whole space of high performance homes. [00:36:00] Is that you have, I'm going to make a number up. You have 20 big companies out there that are making parts and pieces of the puzzle, but they have, they don't work together to see how they can all work together.

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[00:36:33] Eric Goranson: Right,

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[00:36:57] Corbin Clay: It doesn't necessarily apply. The crown molding is not in the [00:37:00] code. Um, cabinet door adjustment isn't in the code. Cabinet door finishes isn't in the code, you know, you

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[00:37:20] Corbin Clay: Just don't keep your marble collection in that cabinet, right? Yeah.

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[00:37:25] Corbin Clay: in the drawer. It's fine. But, um, but yeah, so there's that frustration coupled with throughout my entire career, you know, in the trades, I would have friends and family often didn't reach out and they would just sort of had a.

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[00:37:57] Corbin Clay: And then it's, you know, it's all, it's all chewed up and it's [00:38:00] got, you know, a gallon of putty in it. And I go, well did you, did you see a rendering? You know where they did the, yeah. What was the layer took your exact, yeah, they took your exact slab and they mocked it up. Yeah, we saw it. Okay. Is that what it looks like?

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[00:38:31] Corbin Clay: Great. That's your leverage and I just kind of coach him up and give him a bunch of good, like, visual assets for lack of a better word, videos or photos, and then say, let me know how it goes. And it's just always bothered me, like, what do people, the millions of people that have. Their countertops installed incorrectly or have someone botched their floors or go into a new build or a remodel just with this feeling of anxiety and, and, uh, [00:39:00] apprehension because no one's really just

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[00:39:03] Eric Goranson: Thanks for tuning into around the house show today. If you want more information about us, head over to around the house, online. com. We'll be back next week with an all brand new episode. Happy holidays, and thanks for tuning in to Around the House. Enjoy

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