[00:00:00] Eric Goranson: It's around the house. I knew I had a crack in the foundation in the back. Under the deck under the deck that was hidden, but the previous house inspector had crawled under there and found it. So I had a picture of it. I knew what it was. I knew that I had a heating system that was put in in 1993. I knew all of these things going into it.

[00:00:26] Eric Goranson: I still wanted it and I still wanted it, but I knew about it. That's the key. I knew that I could fix it. So the problem that I have is like homes with basements that have been recently refinished. When you walk in, you think, oh, they just recently converted that basement as a house flip. That is my number one red flag.

[00:00:45] Caroline Blazovsky: I see. I agree. You have no idea what went on behind those walls. You have no idea what's going on back there. No history on the house at all. When it

[00:00:54] Eric Goranson: comes to remodeling and renovating your home, there is a lot to know, but we've got you [00:01:00] covered. This is around the house. Welcome to around the house with Eric G and Caroline B your one stop shop for home improvement every single week.

[00:01:11] Eric Goranson: Thanks for joining us happy father's day weekend. Everybody hope everybody's out there. Treating dear old dad. And if you, uh, missed last week's show and you're still out shopping today, make sure you take a listen to our top 10 buyers guide. Hello, Caroline.

[00:01:29] Caroline Blazovsky: Hello everybody. Happy father's day weekend

[00:01:31] Eric Goranson: to you all, man.

[00:01:34] Eric Goranson: And let's, let's get this elephant outta the room, right outta the way here. And just kind of talk about it for a minute. You guys lost a dear old friend today and. It's something that we're changing the subject of the first two segments of the show today. And we're gonna dedicate this to Eddie Hayworth from Hayworth plumbing, who we're gonna talk job site safety today, cuz you guys lost a dear old friend and that's tough.[00:02:00]

[00:02:00] Caroline Blazovsky: And I think being that his father's day and appreciating how close and that in any given moment, something can happen. And when it happens doing something that. You regularly do, or, you know, in the home improvement world, we always talk about the benefits of home improvement, but there is a danger to it.

[00:02:18] Caroline Blazovsky: And I think this tragedy that my family's gone through and friends have experienced, um, really brings light, that we all have to be so careful.

[00:02:26] Eric Goranson: And you know, this is where it gets tough as a homeowner, you know, and, and even professionals out there. It's interesting. When you start talking about how people get hurt.

[00:02:38] Eric Goranson: Or even killed on job sites. And I'm gonna talk about job sites. Like it's your own home for all of our homeowners out there. It's the same thing. It's the same deal that happens either in your house or on a construction site. There are four major focus hazards out there that we need to talk about. Those are basically the major [00:03:00] ones that get ya.

[00:03:01] Eric Goranson: It's falls struck by electrocutions. What they call caught in betweens. And so that's kind of the four major categories from OSHA, which is the occupational safety and health administration. And so these are the things that get contractors, homeowners, anybody out there working on a project. And I wanted to talk a little bit about those today in our first, you know, couple segments on how to prevent this stuff because accidents happen, especially.

[00:03:38] Eric Goranson: When you start putting heavy equipment into the hands of a homeowner around their house. Right?

[00:03:46] Caroline Blazovsky: Well, and even with, uh, the circumstance that we just faced. So we had a, a dear friend who. um, was a plumber his entire life. So he had experienced working around heavy equipment. All of these things that we talk about every day, he came [00:04:00] from a family lineage of plumbers.

[00:04:01] Caroline Blazovsky: His father had a plumbing company as well, and he simply went out to help someone put in a pat paper patio, which is not anything abnormal that Eric or

[00:04:11] Eric Goranson: we talked about do three weeks ago in the show, how to put in a pav patio. We did a whole hour on that. So it was just economic that project.

[00:04:20] Caroline Blazovsky: And it's a little surreal because Eric and I had just had a conversation the other day about him helping a friend out.

[00:04:26] Caroline Blazovsky: And so you just, you know, you do these things right. You know how to do it and you go out. And so Eddie had gone to a friend's home to help him. And they had rented a skid steer. Mm-hmm from a, a local rental company. Yep. Won't say any names, you know, and they rented it. And unfortunately he was run over.

[00:04:45] Caroline Blazovsky: Buy the equipment while putting in the pav patio. And these are people who had experience doing this for, you know, he was 52 years old.

[00:04:53] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Somebody that's been around construction equipment for probably 30 plus years. My guess, if not 40 plus [00:05:00] years, and this is how quick it happened. And if you're a long time listening to the show, you probably heard my friend Danny Dwyer here probably a year or two ago where we put him on he's a big national country music DJ.

[00:05:13] Eric Goranson: He fell off a ladder while he was working on his house and he was working on his, his, and it almost took his life. We, we talked about that and you can go back on the podcast and listen to the way back machine, just, uh, search up Danny on that. But I, we really wanted to talk today to see if we could prevent some of these things from happening and give us some more awareness to this subject, because the last thing we wanna do, especially with father's day coming up here tomorrow, you know, this weekend that I wanted to make sure.

[00:05:42] Eric Goranson: That we really discussed this to see if we can get our mindset changed a little bit, because even to all of us that are professionals out there, mistakes happen. Exactly. They just do. And half a second of awareness of, oh wow. This might not be a great idea. Can literally [00:06:00] save somebody's life. And so I wanted

[00:06:02] Caroline Blazovsky: to die.

[00:06:03] Caroline Blazovsky: And Eddie was like us where he educated everybody when he was out on a job or he was working with you, or he was a friend or to his wife or whoever, he was always instructing people about safety. So what's interesting in this scenario is that, you know, someone who was so adamant about it, something happened to him.

[00:06:20] Caroline Blazovsky: So it's scary. And it makes us realize that we have to be even more aware sometimes even when we think we're doing the right.

[00:06:28] Eric Goranson: Yeah. And one thing that was interesting, I was doing some research today, before we talked about this on the groups of people on construction sites that have fatal industries in injuries, not industries in the industries who have the injuries, I'll say that correctly, but it's interesting on averaged middle aged construction workers from 45 to 64 counted for the most injuries.

[00:06:56] Eric Goranson: Hmm, but interesting. That's the injuries and, and [00:07:00] I I'll tell you probably why in a second after this next nugget, however, the 65 plus age group had the highest rate of fatal injuries over double the rate of someone under 55 years. So it's interesting is, and I can say this from experience. I think if you look at how people were trained, In construction 30 years ago, safety was not the biggest thing, right?

[00:07:30] Eric Goranson: Safety glasses who wore safety glasses who wore fall protection devices on roofs. It was just not something that was done. And I think for people of my age of 51 years old, and you good on a job site, those habits that you learned in your twenties still are there. And I think that's one of those things that we've gotta be careful with.

[00:07:54] Eric Goranson: You know, the younger generation has grown up with a lot more safety equipment and safety devices than us [00:08:00] and even older. So it's something I think that should be, you know, just because you're a contractor, I'm just saying this to all my contractor, friends that are my age, just because you've been doing it one way for 30 years.

[00:08:13] Eric Goranson: And this has nothing to do with your, your friend's situ. But just because you've done it for 30 years wrong doesn't mean that it's not dangerous and there's a better way to do it.

[00:08:22] Caroline Blazovsky: And it's just a reminder like Eddie had on safety gear when he was doing this right. So that you can take all the precautions and we just work in a dangerous industry.

[00:08:31] Caroline Blazovsky: There's, I mean, it's the same with, as an environmental consultant being exposed to mold or lead or all of these things, I have to wear PPE equipment. So, you know, We do take these risks every day. Being in these environments, it's important for us to realize that things can happen. Accidents happen.

[00:08:48] Eric Goranson: So what I wanna do, Caroline, in our next segment here, as we go out to break, this is not gonna be the entire seriousness of the show, but it's something serious we want to talk about.

[00:08:56] Eric Goranson: And this next segment coming up, I wanna talk about some of the things we [00:09:00] can do a little differently around the house, around the job site. You know, that we, as homeowners can take a look at and keep things a little bit safer that will reduce those risks. Around. And there's some really cool tricks that I wanna talk about too, that can help with this and really make it a little bit safer out there.

[00:09:17] Eric Goranson: So let's, uh, we'll go out to break. We'll reset the clock here. We'll come back and then we'll talk about that. As soon as we return, because this is a serious subject that I think on this weekend, it serves a little bit more detail. We'll do that just as soon as around the house returns.

[00:09:38] Eric Goranson: Why

[00:09:46] Eric Goranson: in a, should I be loud? Be so hot. So many people with,[00:10:00]

[00:10:00] Eric Goranson: Hey, I'm Rudy Wade. And you're listening to around the house with Eric G and Caroline B, listen to my music to improve your home. I hear your life. You got me dinging about the day. Welcome back to around the house show. We talk home improvement every single weekend. Thanks for joining us. Hey, we're kind of wrapping up into the second segment.

[00:10:20] Eric Goranson: Our homeowner and job site safety, because, uh, we've dedicated this show today to Eddie Hayworth, from Hayworth plumbing who passed away here recently, uh, from a job site accident and Caroline, you and I have been really talking about how we can address some of these issues to make sure things like this don't happen to people cuz it's just so easily happens where something is going great during the day.

[00:10:47] Eric Goranson: And something bad just happens. Yeah. And just a

[00:10:50] Caroline Blazovsky: recap. I mean, this is happened in North Carolina and Charlotte and, um, you know, it was an accident where he wasn't even working. He was, you know, he had been in the industry like us for. [00:11:00] All of his life. And he went to help friends out, put a paver patio in and it turned tragic.

[00:11:05] Eric Goranson: So we're gonna step away from his story here just so we can make sure and delineate because there's just not enough information. We don't know what happened. Let's be honest. Mm-hmm we have no idea really what caused it, what happened. But I wanna talk about generally here annually, hear some of the mistakes that we see that cause bad accidents, special homeowners around the home.

[00:11:28] Eric Goranson: Correct. One of 'em, which you brought up in our first segment, which is an important one, is it's very easy for anyone to run down to a home rental center, you know, any one of the tool rental centers and go rent a piece of heavy machinery.

[00:11:46] Caroline Blazovsky: And not know to use

[00:11:48] Eric Goranson: it. Yeah. There's and the problem is, is that on many job sites, before you jump in a skid steer or backhoe, they want you to be trained.

[00:11:57] Eric Goranson: They want you to be tested out on it. You need to know [00:12:00] the safety of it. You need to know how everything works, but at the same time, I can roll down to a tool rental center center. Mm-hmm and fill out the paperwork. They go, you know how to run it. Yeah. Cool. Got. They come out, they might help me hook the trailer up to the back of my pickup and off I go.

[00:12:22] Eric Goranson: And they're like, good luck. Don't damage it.

[00:12:25] Caroline Blazovsky: Exactly. They're worried about the equipment.

[00:12:27] Eric Goranson: yeah, I mean that, but that's, that's just the way it goes and whether it's a backhoe, a skid steer, a man lift a lift. Yep. Whatever. And off you go, and now you're, you're out there putting yourself in a position. Which can be very dangerous.

[00:12:45] Eric Goranson: I did this and I rented a backhoe. Had it dropped off by the rental company out in my front yard. My backyard was so steep. I had to cut a terrace into it. So I could [00:13:00] basically lift the backhoe down over the terraces by going over, putting, putting the bucket down, dropping the side down, just to get it in the lower half of the yard.

[00:13:11] Eric Goranson: And. As a homeowner, I was doing stuff and, and I had a farm. So I, I, I have a lot of hours on backhoes and, and tractors. So, but they didn't know that they didn't know any of my experience. Right. They just ran. I was putting this thing into positions that were dangerous. Were I never lost control of the situation, but one little mistake or one little slip of the machine.

[00:13:39] Eric Goranson: It would not have gone well. And I would've been hoping that the safety devices on the vehicle would've saved me

[00:13:45] Caroline Blazovsky: and well, that brings us to two points. You, you know, how do you know that the safety, if you're renting something that the safety equipment's working properly. And the other thing too is when you are an experienced person and you do this all the time, sometimes [00:14:00] we get.

[00:14:01] Caroline Blazovsky: A little bit, I don't know if lazy is the word complacent, complacent, complacent. You just think I've done this a thousand times. It's never gonna happen to me. And that's when you let your guard down safety wise and you do something that just results in a really bad turnout.

[00:14:16] Eric Goranson: And you can have so many other people kind of what I call contaminating the job site.

[00:14:21] Eric Goranson: You've got kids running around. You've got adults walking around machinery. You've got so many things that could go badly. You know, I can't tell you how many times I've seen people renting lifts to go cut trees. Mm dang. And maybe that lift is rated at 400 pounds and there's a 250 pound dude up there. No problem.

[00:14:43] Eric Goranson: Right. That's perfectly safe. But then they go tying off branches that are three or 400 pounds to it. And all of a sudden they've got branches. Tilting the lift over and now they're strapped into the lift. They've got their harness on cuz they're in the lift, tied off to the [00:15:00] lift. They're cutting tree branches off.

[00:15:02] Eric Goranson: And of course, if they would've read the safety instructions, it would've said don't tie anything off to the lift like that. And you could drag the lift over. And so. I just wanna make sure that we stop and make sure that we don't get over our skis on rented power equipment out there. Cuz now there's some secrets here with ladders.

[00:15:23] Eric Goranson: There is a ladder app out there that you could put on your phone by NAOs and iOS, H mm-hmm . And these guys, you can put this ladder app on your phone and here's what's cool. You gotta put that extension ladder up to the house. And this is one of the most dangerous things you can do as a homeowner. And you don't think about it.

[00:15:41] Eric Goranson: I mean, we, we laugh about Christmas vacation and Chevy chase falling off the roof, but that happens all the time and you don't just walk away and laugh from it. I think

[00:15:51] Caroline Blazovsky: everybody's got a family member. I mean, we do that. Somebody's fallen off a ladder. It's not all that uncommon.

[00:15:58] Eric Goranson: It's not. And you break it back.

[00:15:59] Eric Goranson: I [00:16:00] mean, I was over helping my buddy and I'm not gonna use his name just for privacy reasons. And it was his buddy and now his, his late wife. And I'm up on his ladder. I'm helping him cut his Arba Vita bushes here like four years ago. And he goes, uh, be careful on that ladder. He's cursed. I go, what do you mean?

[00:16:21] Eric Goranson: He goes, well, my wife's ex-husband died falling off that ladder. Oh God, that's horrible. And I'm like, oh Lord, why do you have this ladder still? Right. You know what I mean? I'm like, uh, can I get another, the ladder. But again, it doesn't take much, you know, and, and you can go back and listen to her previous episode with Danny, but that app will tell you to get your angles right on the ladder.

[00:16:46] Eric Goranson: Cuz you wanna have that right angle to placing that ladder up against the house. That way it doesn't tip back. When you go or slide out on the bottom, cuz that's kind of your two risks. You got three, [00:17:00] one year to get up there and you didn't get the angle big enough. So the base is too close to. The house that you're climbing on mm-hmm and then you could tilt backwards.

[00:17:09] Eric Goranson: The other one is, is you get the angle too steep, and the bottom wants to slide out on slide out mm-hmm and then you're riding it down to the ground. The third one is, is you get it up there and you don't have it level mm-hmm and now it wants to tip to the left or the right, right. Either way you're going for a ride.

[00:17:26] Eric Goranson: And it always seems that you've got your hands full of something, or you're not aware anywhere near you can grab something. Mm-hmm.

[00:17:33] Caroline Blazovsky: And even if you have someone standing down below, I'm always the, the, the ground, there's nothing you can do. I mean, what am I gonna do when the ladder starts really going?

[00:17:39] Caroline Blazovsky: You're done, you know, I, oh yeah. It's call

[00:17:42] Eric Goranson: 9 1 1 right now. You got, if you're, uh, if you're good, you got somebody to call the ambulance for you. That's exactly. And so that's really, you know, pretty cool, but anyway, you could find this Nao. Ladder app. Uh, it's really [00:18:00] easy. Just go into your, uh, apple store or Google play and it just says it just look up ladder safety app.

[00:18:08] Eric Goranson: It's free app. It's got the angle measuring tool, and I think it's a really good idea. And you can just place it on your, on your ladder. And it'll tell you if you're in a safe area. Hmm. Think about this. 500,000 people are treated each year for ladder related falls. Hey Caroline, when we come back, I wanted to talk about a different subject.

[00:18:32] Eric Goranson: We gotta run out to break here, but I wanted to talk a little bit. House flippers, because that has come back up in the news again. And I'd love to talk about that. Let's do that just as soon is around the house. Returns us.

[00:18:58] Eric Goranson: Hey guys, you're listening to around [00:19:00] the house with Eric, Jean Caroline, B Zeke sky. And I'm gonna show you how to shred it out while you're building it up. Welcome back to the, around the house show where Carolina and I have been talking kind of safety around your house and job site and making sure that we're safe.

[00:19:16] Eric Goranson: And right now I wanted to dive into house slippers, but I wanted to say Caroline, I went back and watched top gun again.

[00:19:25] Caroline Blazovsky: I'm glad we're gonna have a little levity, cuz this episode has been, you know, a little serious, but now we can go to a little levity with top gun. I still don't think it's as good as the first.

[00:19:36] Eric Goranson: That's it. I think it's better, but I just got to watch it on a new screen system. I've always liked the IMAX, right? Mm-hmm , you know, the big screen and the top of the line sound, I just saw something that blew it away and it's called screen X, like the letter.

[00:19:54] Caroline Blazovsky: And where did you see this? So we were looking it up, right?

[00:19:56] Caroline Blazovsky: So they have very few of these new, new cinemas. [00:20:00] Mostly in bigger cities. So did you see it in Portland or did you see it in Washington

[00:20:04] Eric Goranson: state? No, it's like 10 minutes from my house. Oh, so it's down here? Yeah. It's 10 minutes from, you're in like a Mecca if I want to go see. Yeah. I, I can literally go over there.

[00:20:13] Eric Goranson: They have an IMAX and this screen X in there, they've got a couple of these screen Xs and you're like, oh, screen X. Who cares? Let me paint a picture. Think of being in a regular nice theater, right? Yeah. You've got the screen ahead of you. But they project on the side

[00:20:29] Caroline Blazovsky: walls, like of the, yeah. The entire sidewalls are the image.

[00:20:34] Caroline Blazovsky: So it's like, you're like to the

[00:20:36] Eric Goranson: back now all the way. Yeah. So you're in a box where you've got a TV on the front and then on the sides, but here's, what's cool. And this is kind of the experience on the sides. It's not the farther back. It goes. The more it blurs out. Because it makes it feel like peripheral.

[00:20:57] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Like you're in the, movie's your peripheral vision. [00:21:00] Yeah. So you and the whole movie isn't this way. So it pops back and forth. So like in a serious love scene, it you're focused on that. You get under the action scenes and now you have this peripheral. And on top gun where they're in the fighter scenes, all that was amazing.

[00:21:17] Eric Goranson: Right? You were feeling like you were in the scene. See,

[00:21:19] Caroline Blazovsky: that's why you like the movie though. It's because of the, the actual visual effect of it. But I still think the premise of the movie and the music of the movie, which was original to the first one supersedes and is better than

[00:21:33] Eric Goranson: number two. I, I, I think, I think top gun.

[00:21:40] Eric Goranson: Maverick is a much better movie and a better produced movie. And I think even the screenplay and all of it is just stronger. See, but

[00:21:51] Caroline Blazovsky: that's me two divergent opinions, audience, you go and see it and figure it out for yourself and let us know. [00:22:00]

[00:22:00] Eric Goranson: So that's the cool part. Anyway, just a, it's just a whole experience.

[00:22:03] Eric Goranson: Immersive experience. Yeah. So that was cool. And I mean, I'm sure like the, the Jurassic part I'm, I'm trying to figure out in my head, how would you do this without spending like a hundred thousand dollars in your theater room? But I'm like, that is the coolest thing

[00:22:18] Caroline Blazovsky: ever. It's like 3d, but better. Cuz you're like immersed in.

[00:22:23] Eric Goranson: It's so much better than 3d to me. 3d was kind of cool. I watched the star war, the last, uh, 3d I watched, I watched, um, James Bond. Oh yeah. You watched

[00:22:32] Caroline Blazovsky: that in 3d. I haven't seen one since. Um, One of the star wars. I can't remember which last one I saw, but I didn't really enjoy

[00:22:38] Eric Goranson: it. It was, it was, it was cool.

[00:22:40] Eric Goranson: No, it was, yeah. I should have watched it in, in IMAX or something, but holy smokes for action movies. There is no better thing to see is that it's worth the travel. It looks really

[00:22:49] Caroline Blazovsky: cool. He showed me the pictures, cuz I've seen in like a, um, like a curve theater. So that I've been in. Yeah. But that's what I

[00:22:56] Eric Goranson: thought he, that's more IMAX, right?

[00:22:58] Eric Goranson: Yeah. IMAX, that's more IMAX,

[00:22:59] Caroline Blazovsky: you know, but when [00:23:00] he showed it to me, I'm like, no, I've never seen anything like that. It goes back on the sides all the way back to the tip of the back of the theater, which gives you this. Yeah. Just feeling like you're in the movie. That's wild.

[00:23:12] Eric Goranson: And for us, we were in the upper section of the theater kind of in the dead middle, not, not down by the railing, not, you know what I mean?

[00:23:20] Eric Goranson: Just kind of that middle of the back and ho, ho. It first came out and I was just like, are you kidding me? Screen X, good movie tip out there. Screen X, take a look at that. Well, Hey, I wanted to talk a little bit, you know, the housing, market's changing a little bit out there, uh, all across the country. We're seeing things kind of tap the breaks a little bit.

[00:23:39] Eric Goranson: And we've talked about this in previous, like midweek specials and stuff, but with interest rates blasting up and continuing to blast up. You're seeing the price of housing rocket through the roof and the money that you use to buy your home is costing you more and more correct? Mm-hmm [00:24:00] correct. So we were, you know, I was talking to my buddy, Sean, who's a great realtor here in my area.

[00:24:05] Eric Goranson: And. It was interesting chatting with him. He said, you know what, a million dollar house, the interest rate changes are costing his clients over a thousand dollars a month, extra yep. In the loan by just the interest rate change. Yes, sir. So what you're seeing now is the house flippers. And I'm sorry, there are some great house slippers out there.

[00:24:32] Eric Goranson: So this is not by any means a wide brush, but there are plenty of people that have watched a couple HD TV shows that thinks they're gonna be house flippers and are not doing our communities justice by flipping houses.

[00:24:49] Caroline Blazovsky: But I also think it's not even just house slippers that got into that mode. So I had friends who purchased a house down in Hilton.

[00:24:57] Caroline Blazovsky: And they originally thought, oh, you know, we'll just fix it up. And [00:25:00] then they started fixing it up and they said, oh, we can really make a lot of money if we sell it. And these realtors really started approaching people who had just bought these houses and said, look, you can make another $300,000 if you, you know, put it back on the market.

[00:25:13] Caroline Blazovsky: So a lot of people who I wouldn't call them house slippers, but just normal people who saw they could make this profit started doing this. You know, made some changes and

[00:25:21] Eric Goranson: oh, I have, yeah. I have no problem with that at all. I, if you can go out and make money off of your investment by getting the most of it, I have zero issue with it.

[00:25:33] Eric Goranson: I do, I have zero issue with it where I have a problem is is that you have that dilapidated house. It's in the neighborhood then let's, let's just paint a picture. I'll grab a number. Let's say it's a $400,000 house that they bought. Mm-hmm in a higher end neighborhood. That's a dilapidated house. Maybe it was somebody's grandmother that lived there.

[00:25:52] Eric Goranson: The roof didn't get maintained. The lawn barely got owed. We all know those, you know, it just, we all know those, right. The house was [00:26:00] maybe built in the sixties or the fifties. And, you know, it's, hadn't had a kitchen remodel in 40 years. That kind of house, right? Yes. You know, there might be a, you know, some asbestos flooring in the basement, you know, whatever, a wet basement and yeah.

[00:26:15] Eric Goranson: And so what I don't like is those people coming in and putting the lipstick on a pig, mm-hmm, covering up those issues, spending money to hide issues that are gonna burn the next homeowner hundred percent. And so that's where I have an issue. If you're coming in and going, wow, that furnace is 40 years old.

[00:26:43] Eric Goranson: Maybe we should think about updating that. All right. Wow. We've got asbestos flooring down in the basement or mold. Oh, we're not just gonna blow and go and throw some Zinser over the top of it and, and paint it and hide it. We're actually gonna come in and have that Abed. We [00:27:00] don't have enough of those people doing those house rehabs out there.

[00:27:04] Eric Goranson: And I think we have too many people out there that are going in and then they turn around and make, you know, $200,000 on this house that they flipped in in maybe four weeks. Now you have a younger couple coming in there, buying their first house, getting stuck and getting stuck in a house that they paid $200,000 too much for it, because so much of that has to be ripped out.

[00:27:32] Eric Goranson: And I think that's part of our housing crisis. I'm out. There is some of this stuff. You know, people being misrepresented on this steps. I'm, I'm gonna throw a

[00:27:42] Caroline Blazovsky: monkey wrench though, because this is happening across the board, right? We've got house flippers who are doing this for, you know, to be advantageous with financial reward, but we have people who are also have houses that have problems or they've let it go over the years and they haven't rectified something.

[00:27:59] Caroline Blazovsky: And then [00:28:00] they're trying to unload. Right. And people buying without inspections. Mm-hmm so it's like it's on both sides of the coin. People don't wanna deal with an issue when you buy a home, there are going to be issues that are costly to fix, but have to be fixed. And so people are passing that buck on in whichever capacity they can, whether you're the flipper or you're the homeowner.

[00:28:19] Caroline Blazovsky: It doesn't wanna do the work and wants top dollar for their house. So.

[00:28:23] Eric Goranson: So let's talk about that. When we come back, Caroline, let's jump out to break real quick. We come back, let's dive into that. I got some in interesting ideas that might help fix this, that could protect the homeowners, protect the buyers and, uh, you know, bring some honesty to that.

[00:28:37] Eric Goranson: Let's do that just as soon as a round, the, as returns

[00:28:52] Eric Goranson: threw my clothes.[00:29:00]

[00:29:11] Eric Goranson: Hi everybody. I'm Ari man from Stephen, a band, and you are listening to around the house with Eric G and the beautiful Caroline. Welcome back to around the house with Eric G and Caroline. Be your one stop shop for home improvement. We wanna make sure and welcome all of our new stations out there. Mm-hmm that are listening on the radio.

[00:29:33] Eric Goranson: And of course, all of our new podcast listeners. We see you. We too see that the numbers are just blowing through the roof. So we appreciate you. Thanks for finding the show. Thanks for tuning in. And if you're new to the show, make sure you catch us on our website, which is around the house. online.com. You can hover to Facebook and that is around the house show.

[00:29:54] Eric Goranson: So you can find us in our cartoon over there. You'll see a cartoon face of us. and then make sure you join [00:30:00] around the house nation. That's our closed group and that's growing. Leaps and bounds. And that's where you can share up your stories. Funny stuff, whatever you're doing around the house. Ask us question.

[00:30:12] Eric Goranson: You put up there in a safe environment. Yeah. We like

[00:30:13] Caroline Blazovsky: seeing questions from you and you can visit us on Instagram cuz we like to see what's going on. So around the house show on Instagram. I'm always checking that out. And of

[00:30:23] Eric Goranson: course I like Instagram. Oh yeah. There's so much going on so much going on. So make sure you hit us on all of those.

[00:30:29] Eric Goranson: Well, we've been talking about, you know, housing market and house flippers and things like that. And one thing I wanted to talk about is how do we fix this problem of these, you know, the there's good house flippers out there and you guys out there that are doing it right. I know there are, I know personally people that are doing it right.

[00:30:46] Eric Goranson: Nice. And I really appreciate them. But what happens is just like anything in any trade there's that group that's not mm-hmm and I, I see this on home and garden TV. I'll call 'em out on it. Sometimes I'm like, that's not the right way to fix that. [00:31:00] and that's where I have a problem with some of this stuff is where good money is being spent to hide a problem instead of fixing it versus repair the problem.

[00:31:12] Caroline Blazovsky: But a lot of people are afraid of those problems and my customers all the time say, oh no, that's too big. I, I don't wanna handle that. We're just gonna move. I, I mean, if I had a dollar for every time, a client says this to me, I wouldn't be working. I wouldn't be doing a podcast radio show. oh yeah. Cause nobody wants to deal with these problems and it's always just, oh, well I'll just move.

[00:31:33] Caroline Blazovsky: It's so simple to

[00:31:34] Eric Goranson: move problem that I have is the unsuspecting new buyer. Right? Mm-hmm coming in. Oh my gosh. I fell in love with this house. It's emotional. I want it. I have to have it. The realtor goes, Nope, no inspections. We're getting 10 offers. We've priced it so low that there's no chance for inspections.

[00:31:52] Eric Goranson: Yep. Possibly knowing that there's issues that would come up on inspection mm-hmm [00:32:00] and by pricing it low, they're gonna get a bidding battle going and no inspection. That's right. I mean, how many times have you seen that Caroline in your house

[00:32:10] Caroline Blazovsky: search? Of course. And you know, we're professionals looking at these things.

[00:32:13] Caroline Blazovsky: So, you know, I have a little better bird's eye on, you know, what's going on in a home so I can kind of make those. You know, acquiesce, if you will, and maybe get rid of one inspection, but keep environmental inspections like water and mold. But you know, if you ha know nothing about a home, you cannot make those blind decisions.

[00:32:34] Caroline Blazovsky: I mean, that's, that can lead you into a DISA danger zone to quote your Maverick. You

[00:32:40] Eric Goranson: know, it's funny, it's, it's one of those things and I think that's my best information I can give to any potential homeowner is do your best to take. That emotion out of it. Take a look at it as a business decision. Oh no.

[00:32:57] Eric Goranson: Then

[00:32:57] Caroline Blazovsky: they'll be like me and they'll never buy a house. Cause you guys, there [00:33:00] is no perfect home out there. And I'm the first one to tell you.

[00:33:02] Eric Goranson: There's not, but you know, like for instance, when I bought my house, I loved it. I wanted it. I knew it had the bones to be the house, the bones that we were gonna want it, but

[00:33:10] Caroline Blazovsky: that's it, it had two bones

[00:33:12] Eric Goranson: that.

[00:33:13] Eric Goranson: It had the boats, it had an electrical panel that had been recalled that was gonna catch the house on fire. That was probably really close, but I knew about it. Right. And buying it. I knew that it went that electrical panel sucks. It's gonna have to come out. I knew I had a crack in the foundation in the back under the deck that was hidden, but the previous house inspector had crawled under there and found it.

[00:33:39] Eric Goranson: So I had a picture of it. I knew what it was. I knew that I had a heating system that was put in in 1993, you know, I knew all of these things going into it. He still wanted it and I still wanted it, but I knew about it. That's the key. I knew that I could fix it. So the problem that I have is like homes with basements that have been [00:34:00] recently refinished.

[00:34:01] Eric Goranson: When you walk in, they like, oh, they just recently converted that basement as a house flip. That is my number one

[00:34:08] Caroline Blazovsky: red flag that I see. You have no idea what went on behind those walls. You have no idea what's going on back there. No history on the house at all.

[00:34:18] Eric Goranson: If that is the case, if I'm gonna buy that house, I dang well, better have pictures.

[00:34:24] Eric Goranson: I wanna see pictures of how it was constructed. I wanna see pictures along the way. I wanna see even old pictures of what it looked like before they

[00:34:32] Caroline Blazovsky: started. You know, my trick is I will never buy a house with a finished basement. You know that right. That's like, I know my pet peeve is like, I, I want an unfinished basement for many reasons.

[00:34:42] Eric Goranson: I generally agree with that. My extra little, you know, asterisks to that. Your caveat is if I walk into that house and it looks like Brady bunch, 1967 downstairs, and I got the green or orange carpet and I. you know, [00:35:00] wood paneling on the walls. That's been there for 30 years, but you know what I mean? Mm-hmm , you know, that no one has came down there and messed with that or have had to do any work to it.

[00:35:11] Eric Goranson: Mm-hmm because if you've got 40 years, if you've got paneling, that's 40 years old down there, it's got a history, 50 years old down there. It's got a history of not being a wet basement. Correct. Now, all you're doing is conditioning or addressing humidity, and you're not dealing with something that might have four weeks ago have had 24 inches of water in that.

[00:35:34] Eric Goranson: They're just hoping they sell it before the next rainstorm.

[00:35:38] Caroline Blazovsky: Yeah. But again, you're going back to bones, right? A lot of these homes, like, I mean, Eric and I, I mean, if I'm gonna buy a house, I prefer an older house because of. I feel better building materials. I like the fact that the bones are better. Like we're talking about, I feel like I can do what I want with it.

[00:35:54] Caroline Blazovsky: Um, and I don't have as much, you know, um, I don't have to leave anything [00:36:00] in place. I don't feel bad about leaving stuff. It's older and it needs to be remodeled anyway. So I don't get stuck with something that is newer and then I don't wanna take it out. Cause I feel like I'm being wasteful.

[00:36:10] Eric Goranson: And you also have to keep in mind your area when you're looking at a house, for instance, my area in Portland.

[00:36:16] Eric Goranson: Between the turn of the century and the 1930s, they were using unwashed sand beach, sand in their concrete mixes. Hmm. And so what happened was with that sand, I could literally take my hands, just scrape it out and scrap away the concrete and dig it. It was like it was compacted, dry, crazy. And I could literally dig through it with my hands.

[00:36:40] Eric Goranson: Like it was hard dirt. Insane. And I have actually gone through a foundation wall to see daylight out the other side. Nice with just like a screwdriver and just pick it at it, not hammering at it, just picking at it. And so I wanna find a house that is one [00:37:00] that's old enough that maybe an engineer looked at it.

[00:37:02] Eric Goranson: Hmm, like sixties, fifties, sixties, seventies is pretty cool to me. Mm-hmm I wanna make sure that, you know, in most areas that house wasn't tied down to the foundation until the mid to late sixties. Mm-hmm maybe you had a builder that was tying it down, but there's no mechanical fasteners in, in my area where I have earthquakes.

[00:37:21] Eric Goranson: Mm-hmm , that's a big deal. Or if you have tornadoes or heavy wind storms, you wanna have that. So there's a, there's a lot of things that I think it's really good to know. And accept, you know, could be up there at our friends at, in w E U land in, you know, PA where they've got stone houses from, you know, the 16 hundreds.

[00:37:46] Eric Goranson: I like to

[00:37:46] Caroline Blazovsky: find houses what you got to, where the original owners. And sometimes, you know, now it's really hard to do that as we progress through time, but sure. It's nice to have a history on a house and know what people did to it. I love having that homeowner where they can give me, we put the windows in this [00:38:00] year.

[00:38:00] Caroline Blazovsky: We did the roof this year and they're, and you know, these types where they know everything that went in, they have the box that's in the, you know, in their closet. And it's got every receipt from going back to 1969. They did to the house. It's like buying an old

[00:38:11] Eric Goranson: car. Oh, those are like gems or buying a one owner old car that you are it's the gem or my house was cool in that for 20 years or so 15, it was a rental and the renter, the, the landlord did nothing to it, but the good news was that they didn't mess up anything either.

[00:38:31] Eric Goranson: It had loving homeowners, all that for 30 years before that. and the lady li li lived out of country most of the time, not even in the us that owned it, didn't maintain it. But. They kept it clean and the renters kept it. That's all you need. Sometimes nobody had a chance to mess with it, which is good sometimes.

[00:38:50] Eric Goranson: And so that's one of those things that, uh, you know, get your inspections. I think that the market has changed enough that you should be able to sit there and say, I want a good home inspection. And if [00:39:00] that comes back with anything out there, that's funky. Get your expert to come take a look at it. Tread slowly.

[00:39:07] Eric Goranson: Get the deal done if you want it, but know what you need to do, Caroline, that music's playing in the background. You know what time it is, and

[00:39:15] Caroline Blazovsky: everybody, uh, just the shout out. Rest in peace. Eddie Hayworth, uh, Charlotte, North Carolina, you will be greatly missed my friend.

[00:39:22] Eric Goranson: Hayworth plumbing. All right, everybody.

[00:39:24] Eric Goranson: I'm Eric G and I'm Caroline B and you've been listening

[00:39:41] Eric Goranson: to around, around the house.