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The House with Eric G. Your go to source for everything home improvement.

Whether you're a DIY enthusiast or just looking to make your space shine, Eric G. Is here to guide you through the latest tips, tricks and trends coming up.

In this week's first hour of the show, Eric G. Gives you his top 1010 tips for adding a little luxury to your home.

Without that luxury price, things are expensive out there.

So here are his tips to add custom feels without the huge price.

And the hardest part sometime will be finding something that you're trying to match.

Now, hotels can be interesting.

Many companies will use more inexpensive stuff because they have to do such massive scale on it.

So you might find something at floor.

And decor that's so grab your toolbox, put on your thinking cap and let's get to work right here on around the House with Eric G. Welcome to.

The around the House show, the next generation of home improvement.

I'm Eric G. Thanks for joining me today.

This hour is brought to you by my friends at Monument Grills.

Check them out@monumentgrills.com if you're looking for that next great barbecue, something that's gonna last you nearly a decade.

I tell you what, these things are built amazing with a killer warranty and they've got small ones, they've got big ones.

Depending on what you need for your next backyard barbecue, check them out@montymcgrills.com today I thought let's dive into some things we can do out there to maybe luxury our home up a little bit but not spend a ton of money.

It's easy to go spend money on stuff and dang, are things expensive out there.

When I go looking at drywall and it's almost 20 bucks a sheet when I'm out looking at what building material costs are right now, it's crazy and hopefully these prices will go down on stuff.

That's my hope.

That's my thought.

I'm wishing for that.

We'll see what happens.

I hope everybody had a great fourth of July weekend.

Independence Day last weekend I had some time off and thanks for putting up with the best of show, guys.

It was something that was different and I wanted to throw something out there for you guys to get a little education.

Going into summertime, I just took some much needed time off.

I have been trying to get this house ready and I went out to the beach house, the one that my brother and I have been working on for, oh, the last nearly couple years.

It was nice to stay in it, enjoy it and I'll tell you this before we dive into the list.

I pulled the funniest prank with my little nephew on him.

Little?

He's 18 and taller than I am.

Nothing little about this kid.

But my brother was installing a new sink in the second bathroom and we had a little one in there just to make sure that we could pass building code.

Because it was a.

That house needed a second bathroom.

And we remodeled it.

So we had that second bathroom, which was great.

But hear me out.

He was installing a new pedestal type sink.

So it had to get screwed into the studs.

So when he went to go get some tools, we took one of those JBL little speakers and tossed it in the shower where he couldn't see it.

So we did that.

Then when he went in and start putting the lag screw in to hold it into the studio.

Yeah, I'm the mean older brother.

I played the YouTube video of a broken pipe and he comes out.

Where's that coming from?

We were laughing and had him rolled up.

I know, mean trick, but that's what families are, right?

It was pretty funny.

He was freaking out.

I wish I would have got that on film.

That would have been funny.

But then I would have had to extend that out and play it for everybody else.

So we just had a great time with it.

And it was just a good time to be at the beach out in Cannon Beach, Oregon.

Just spending time out there.

Had a great time at the hardware store.

And the hardware store.

I tell you what, this is a fun place if you haven't heard of it.

If you ever get out to Cannon Beach, Oregon, take a look at.

Is known as the Bruin Screw.

Yes, they are a hardware store and a bar restaurant.

So you can go in there, get yourself the best pastrami sandwich that they've made.

Yeah, they cook their own pastrami.

And you can get a great sandwich, something to drink, pick up your hardware stuff.

Now the problem is if you go and looking for a screwdriver, it might be not just a tool.

But they closed down on the fourth and had a big band out there and the parking lot had a great party.

It was a great time with those guys.

So hats off and a great time with my friends over at the hardware store in Cannon beach today.

I thought, okay, here's some things that we can do around the house to give us those upgrades to make things a little bit better.

And sometimes they're inside, sometimes they're outside.

And those inside days might be when it's too hot or stormy outside and you want to do something inside.

Now, one of the best ones and one of the easiest ones in many cases is upgrading those lighting fixtures.

What can you do to get those dialed in?

So many homes that are built out there, throw in the builder grade lighting fixtures or the $20 fixture, they don't put out a lot of light, they don't look great.

So you can really add something modern or stylish.

Whatever you're trying to do, trying to get more light into that room, you can really install some LEDs.

There's some great things you can do with that space.

Now, if you want to go vintage, you can.

The one thing that I say about vintage light fixtures though is I strongly recommend them.

You can come down to your local place that can rebuild those and get them UL listed again.

So they'll put in the new sockets, they'll get it all dialed in like a brand new light.

We've got a place here.

If you have to mail one off, check out here in Portland, Oregon.

In my area, they do stuff where you ship it in, they'll rebuild it, test it, put the UL stamp on it, ship it back out.

Hippo hardware?

Yeah, like the animal Hippo hardware.

Those guys have a great service in there.

And if you have one light many times they can create another one for you to match.

So you got a lot of cool options there with that.

So a lot of great things you can do with light fixtures.

Be careful with the ones that you see on Amazon or any of those other ones out there.

Those can be a big problem because what happens is sometimes people put UL stickers on these things that aren't UL listed when they're coming in from overseas.

So be careful, get something quality.

If you're upgrading those 6 inch can lights, you can take out the old stuff up there and put in the new LED stuff, spend a little bit more money and make sure that you've got something that's going to be compatible with your dimmers.

That's a big one when it comes to LED lights.

Making sure that they're going to work right with the dimmers.

And a lot of times when your dimmer switch doesn't have that white neutral wire that can be an issue with some of the lights.

So make sure that's going to be compatible.

If you're using like a Lutron casita, jump online and see if that light fixture you're going to buy or the bulbs you're going to buy are compatible with that.

That way you don't have a reduced amount of basically a reduced Amount of dimming where it lowers the lumens or something that's going to flicker or not work at all.

So that's a big one.

Now the next one here I think is really smart.

And this can really do some nice stuff for you.

And that's adding crown molding or trim accents.

Whether it's crown molding or a decorative modern pattern on the wall.

You've seen people come in there and do a herringbone pattern and paint it all the same color or two tone.

There's a lot of things you can do with that.

That looks really awesome if you're gonna be doing it.

One little trick that I like to do when I'm doing moldings like that is I like to pre paint it once, get one good coat on all the sides of it, then put it up.

You're halfway done painting at that point and then you can just go through and touch it up.

If you pre paint it, yeah, it takes a little more work and yeah, you're not gonna get after it as quick, but you're not doing all the painting or you can do a final coat on it.

It'll look like a million bucks.

So take a look.

You know, you can buy the pre painted trim.

Not my favorite.

It never really looks right.

They do have the painted caulking and stuff that it's made to match, but expensive.

I would just take a look and put up the finger jointed wood or just the regular stuff.

I'm not the biggest MDF fan on it, only because it just doesn't hold up as well, especially if there's moisture around.

If you're on a budget, it can work really well.

But tell you what, have a vacuum saw on your miter saw because that dust goes everywhere and that could be its own cleanup mess.

Now the next one here is an easy one.

It's getting rid of that 2000s or 1990s Starbucks colors and making it look a little more updated with some fresh colors and some fresh, high quality paint.

So right now, colors have changed.

We got really big, bold colors out there.

But one of the biggest mistakes that people make when they're painting is picking the wrong sheen.

And we come back, I want to talk about that.

Making sure you're using the right paint for the right room.

And I tell you what, the major builder that built my girlfriend's place, they made this mistake.

And it's something you got to be careful with.

We'll talk about that just as soon as around the House returns.

And if you want to find out more information about us.

Head over to aroundthehouse online.com and we're gonna.

We got some new stuff coming up.

We're gonna be changing some stuff around a little bit.

I'm looking forward to.

Well, we got a lot of great things coming up.

We'll do that just as soon as around the house returns.

Time to pay some bills.

We'll be right back.

If this is the first time catching the around the house show, you can find us@aroundthehouse online.com around the house.

We'll be right back with more luxury tips for your home.

Should I be allowed to be so hot?

So many people without.

Welcome back to the around the house show.

The next generation of home improvement.

I'm Eric G. Thanks for joining me today.

This hour is brought to you by my friends at Monument Grills.

Check them out@monumentgrills.com if you're looking for that heavy duty barbecue on a budget, they'll get you all those great features without that great feature price.

Yeah, it's one of those great deals out there.

Check them out on monument grills.com we've been talking about 10 tricks of mine or 10 great little projects to upgrade your home.

Give a little feel of luxury without having to pay that luxury price on it.

And that can add up pretty quick.

So it's something you got to be really careful with.

So here's the thing.

We're just talking about lighting fixtures and adding moldings and things like that.

But we are talking about refreshing with high quality paint.

Now here's the thing.

Paint quality matters.

You get what you pay for.

There are a lot of okay brands out there and there's a lot of great brands out there and there's a lot of brands out there that have cheap paint and nice paint.

The problem.

And if you've heard me talk about this before, you're gonna roll your eyes.

I get it, guys.

But cheap paint costs you the most money.

If you save 10 bucks a gallon buying cheap paint, you gotta buy twice as much amount of paint.

You gotta do twice amount of work.

You've lost a lot of money.

So buy the best paint you can afford.

Now here's one of the issues that I see out there.

And this was a funky one.

I didn't even figure this out until I was doing a project over the weekend.

My lovely girlfriend ended up overloading her house that she has in the closet.

Girl's gotta have her clothes and I love that about her.

But here's what happened.

They didn't install the shelving System really well.

Now here's the problem.

This was a Rubbermaid set.

Nothing wrong with Rubbermaid, like the company, but when they build their builder grade wire shelving closet sets, most of those brackets are designed to go into the drywall.

If you overload it, which people do, shoves through the drywall, creates some issues.

And when I was in there kind of rebuilding that and what I did is because we had holes in the wall right there and it was pushing through.

With this system, the easy fix is to take a one by five and put it across there and mount this to that so it spans across the studs.

You don't have to worry about that because here's the problem we have with the latest new drywall.

That's the light drywall.

It doesn't have the same strength as the other drywall.

There's a lot of air in it, so it's softer.

So you put too many sweaters or whatever on there, guess what, it's going to push through.

This happens.

So it's a flaw in that system.

So I ended up fixing that, ended up turning out really nice, all those kind of things.

But I noticed that in the closet they ran out of paint.

So what did they do?

They used the semi gloss trim paint in the closet, but they had used matte in the bathroom.

Matte in the bathroom.

Unless you have one of the higher end washable mats or washable flats, depending on what sheen they call.

There's a lot of different names of the sheens out there, but if you don't pick that, it's going to be hard to scrub.

And those mattes, the cheaper builder grade matte paints, if you scrub on them, they look glossy, they add a little bit of sheen to them because you're polishing it.

So you want a scrubbable flat if you're going to go that way.

And I like for bathrooms a little more eggshells.

So that way if you've got a humidity issue in there, if you've got kids taking long showers, forgetting to turn the fan on or whatever, you can get that right.

And then on trim, you want something a little bit different sheen.

Even though people are going matte, it does look good.

If it's all monochromatic, there's nothing wrong with that.

But really picking the right sheen for the right room is key.

So make sure you've got something in those bathrooms and kitchens that are cleanable.

So that way you don't get it where the moisture kicks through it and all of a sudden you've got Texture issues where things will be peeling off next to the bathroom fan.

The rules, that's what happens.

So be careful with that one.

That's one of those things that getting the wrong sheen can make it.

So you have to do the project again and make sure you take that into account.

Get the better paint.

So the next one here, number four, upgrading hardware.

This can be an easy one or hardware a harder one on hardware.

Here's the thing.

If you've got knobs, it's so easy to swap out a knob and put another one on there.

Couple things to think about, though.

There is a huge difference between a $3 knob and a $30 knob.

Yeah, they can get expensive, but do you want it to be pot metal with a little thin layer on the top, or do you want something that's going to have a PVA finish that's going to be made out of brass?

Do you want to put it on and have it be there for 10 years?

Are you just trying to make something look good for you to sell your house like a house flip?

Hardware choices are huge.

And you can start to get some decent stuff by starting to get into, like the top knobs.

Brand price range on up.

If you're just going into the home center, grabbing the stuff off the shelf, most of that stuff is lower quality.

You know, I do Baldwin at my house because, yeah, it's more money, but it's 10 times the weight of the cheap one because it's solid brass.

It's made to hold up and it's going to look and feel good.

The higher quality finishes feel, feel better.

You can feel the quality.

They don't feel like they're plastic.

They don't feel like they're just poorly made.

So think a little bit about the hardware choices.

And mixed metals are huge.

So you could have a brushed brass faucet with a black accent and put black handles on it or vice versa.

You can mix metals like that, but if you get beyond three, if you've got stainless steel appliances in the kitchen and black and matte black and brushed brass in there, third metal is going to get crazy.

Or a fourth metal technically, because of the stainless steel.

So really pay attention to what those colors are and how they're going to work together.

And when in doubt, get that designer.

Now, here's the other part, too.

Handles can be tough.

There are probably 10 or 15 different sets of handles of the distance between those holes.

And you want to make sure you get the exact ones.

So make sure you measure that out.

Understand what the center line to center line on those holes are so you can go find new ones.

This can be an easy one.

Now if you're painting your kitchen, this is where it gets even easier.

If you could sit there and make sure that you got all the handle holes filled, taken care of, looking gorgeous, then you can put them on wherever you want to and you can change from a handle to a knob and not worry about that.

Now here's a trick.

Now this is another little thing you can do to gain a little bit more.

Little side note here, little Eric Nugget for you.

Find a furniture repair person in your area.

If you have a 10 year old kitchen, you're like, man, I want this to look better, but I got scratches.

I got stuff I got where it's a kitchen, you use it right?

Have one of these furniture repair people come over, spend that 2 to $800, depending on what they have to do, have them go through.

I have seen these people come up to a cherry door that had or a maple door, actually it was a maple door.

On this one maple door, the homeowner had screwed a hole right through in the wrong spot.

They came in, airbrushed it, touched it up.

We let it age a little bit first, came in, touched it up, never saw it.

Now it's tough with brand new cabinets because if you do that with cherry or maple or some of these woods that change color in the first few years, you'll really see the difference because all those repairs will not change.

But if you let that age out a little better, if you've got an older kitchen, it's perfect because it's going to look really good and it's going to be killer.

So think about that as a little project.

If you've got furniture or you got scratches on wood someplace, those furniture repair people or kick butt and they can do a lot of help in those kind of situations.

So think about that.

It could be really a cool deal.

Now the next one here when we come back is an important one.

And if you go out and start looking around, you can spend a ton of money, but you can go into a few special places and find stuff that's going to make that house have a spa like feel or your condo or whatever and make it look really good.

Now when we come back, we'll talk more about that.

Another trick of the trade just as soon as around the House returns.

We'll be right back.

Eric G. Will be right back with more tips to add some luxury to your home without the luxury price.

Welcome back.

To the around the house show the next generation of home improvement.

I am Eric G. Thanks for joining me.

If you want to find out more about us, head over to aroundthehouse online.com for our website.

You can find the YouTube where I'm gonna be putting up some new videos.

I got some new project stuff coming up.

We're gonna be having a lot of fun with some new stuff coming up shortly.

Well, we've been talking about 10 tricks here to really help get your house feel a little more luxury without spending that luxury price.

And here's another one that you can do.

And this takes a little bit of research and a little bit of knowledge.

And you might need to hire a designer to come help you with this.

But really using luxe looking textiles around your home, maybe it's some velvet throw pillows, some really nice linen curtains, faux fur blankets.

A lot of those things you can get inexpensively.

Now one of the problems you can run with the pillows and stuff like that is if you're getting it off your fast fashion site.

Sometimes those things can be jam packed full of chemicals, formaldehydes and things like that.

So when you bring it in, use your air quality tester to make sure you don't have an issue or buy some nicer ones.

But I found some in my home that were just jam packed full of chemicals and it was an issue.

So we made sure and got rid of those.

But take a look at that.

But whether it's wallpaper, whether it's even tile, there's a lot of different things you can do out there.

Now wallpaper can be amazing.

It can be expensive too.

I looked at some wallpaper that I wanted so badly for my entryway.

It's cost me a grand.

My entryway is not that big.

Not gonna happen.

Not paying a grand for wallpaper in my house.

But I found something for 300 that gave the same look and feel and it was a solid compromise and $700 less.

One other thing, I always make sure to get one extra roll.

Make sure you got at least one.

I like to add 20 or 30% depending on the pattern.

Sometimes even more.

If you get those strange pattern repeats on that, that can be a huge issue.

And there's a lot of things you can do with that.

Now, right now, when you're talking about this kind of stuff.

And it's something that's coming up here this week that I always take a look at.

Right.

And these are those sales that you see in the summer online.

Maybe it's, maybe it's The Amazon days.

Maybe it's any of those things.

Take a look at what you have out there with those.

You know, we had Prime Day this last week, which was cool.

There's a lot of those kind of things out there and there's a lot of companies that try to go around that.

So keep an eye out especially on those online retailers.

And of course take some time and take a peek around and make sure that you're finding if you got and find something local, find something used, find something previously loved, that can be a great thing for you.

So take a peek at that and see what you see out there.

It can save you some serious money.

Facebook Marketplace is another place if you like Facebook and if you're on Facebook, make sure and follow us over at the around the House show and of course around the House Nation, which is our closed group, which is really fun.

That is our group.

We're getting ready to vamp that.

I've been talking about it for a while but we really wanted to do this right and that's something that we're in discussions with.

So that's going to get an update coming up here soon that I can't wait to share with you.

It's going to be a lot of fun.

Going to be a lot of fun.

So think about that a little bit when you're out there looking at textures, all that kind of stuff.

I like to.

When it comes down to blinds and things like that in a house, automatic ones are great.

I like the smart shades by Lutron.

They're casado ones.

Those were great.

And they run off of batteries if you could buy the battery one so you don't have to run power.

So if you've got that high window in an entryway that really gets in the way of the TV or something like that.

Really easy to be able to hook that up into any smart home system.

So something to consider especially with luxe looking textiles.

That's a good one.

Now the next one here is big and we've done it for a long time but they're coming back a little bit.

Incorporate more statement mirrors.

You're seeing more mirrors around fireplaces and living rooms and things like that.

Uniquely framed.

Those can really add space to a room and can really mess with how the feeling in size is of that space.

So take a look at that.

Mirrors can be great bathrooms.

I tell you what, that has always been my biggest issue, shooting video in the television shows and bathrooms because they're usually smaller spaces and they got mirrors in the wrong spot.

But it's one of the biggest challenges we have shooting television in homes.

Those bathrooms are tough, especially when you want to do a segment in there on how do we fix a toilet or things like that.

Those toilets are never in a place that's great to shoot.

It's funny how that works.

And hey, if you're just joining us on the Talk Media Network out there, if you're listening on the radio, your podcast guys, you obviously know what you're listening to, but all of our fans on the radio out there, if you're tuning into right now, this is the around the House show and you can find out more about us@aroundthehousonline.com and of course we've been talking here about top 10 projects you can do around the house to add some luxury or some bougie things to make things a little bit better without that crazy price.

And to go back on the list, the first one we had was upgrade your lighting fixtures.

Two was adding crown molding or some trim accents.

Three was really painting and refreshing, adding some new color, changing out some color with high quality paint, upgrading all that hardware, drawer pulls, door handles, cabinet knobs.

One little trick on that too is I like to buy from the same brand.

That's why I also use Baldwin there as they make the cabinet door knobs and of course the cabinetry handles so it all matches perfectly.

Sometimes when you get into brushed finishes and that multi multi color finish or the dual color finish might be the best way to go because you can do them and make a match a little bit easier that way.

We were talking about using luxe looking textiles things, whether it's wallpaper, whether it's throw pillows, curtains, linens, that kind of stuff, making things look a little more curated.

And of course we're just talking about incorporating those statement mirrors to really make things look amazing.

Now here's one trick that I love to talk about and this is a fun one.

Take notes.

Take pictures.

If you travel on vacation and you end up in the spa or you just walk into your room and go, this is gorgeous.

Take some pictures.

I tell you what, I have walked into hotels, went, oh my gosh, this is inspiring.

Click take some pictures.

Oh my gosh, this is the most comfortable bed I've ever slept in.

I'm going to take a picture, note it down because so many times I've left that hotel and went, ah, I wish I would have wrote down what that mattress was.

It's better than what I got at my house.

That's where you can really Use that to inspire you because you now know what it is, you know what it feels like.

And the hardest part sometime will be finding something that you're trying to match.

Now, hotels can be interesting.

Many companies will use more inexpensive stuff because they have to do such massive scale on it.

So you might find something at Floor and Decor that's or Home Depot.

But really the stuff that you're going to see is bulk and you're just going to have to do some looking.

Now if it's a newer hotel and you could ask around and see who the design firm was on it, you might be able to track it down backwards if you want that exact piece.

But usually those pieces, when they're putting them in a couple hundred rooms, they're usually ready available.

But if it's more boutique hotel, they could have had a custom made for that.

I've seen that happen as well where they do a special one off run.

And it's for that and it's for that only.

So ask around, do a little sleuthing, little detective work.

You might be able to find out where that is and what that was and it could save you some time.

But really the other thing that can really help you get that more lux feel is dial back the clutter.

Holy smokes.

And that's something I've been doing even in my garage.

I have so many extra things in here.

It's like I've got a couple donation trips.

I'm gonna have to go up to the rebuilding center here in my area and drop off because I've just got so much stuff that's just extra from projects, from TV stuff.

Once I get my house finished up here in the next month and I'm going to have some fun getting this knocked out.

But really once we get to that point, I really have to get that those extras, I will leave some for homeowners that purchase this home and take it to the next level.

But really when it comes down to it, that's what I'm going to be working on is decluttering even my own garage and dialing things back off 11 because that'll make a better deal right there when we could get that done.

That anytime you can declutter, it freshens things up.

It makes it look better, makes it a little bit cleaner, less to dust, and you can really make things look super fresh.

Fresh flowers is great too.

Stacked books, candles, anything that you can do to make it be intentional design and of course relaxing, that can really help you out.

Now we come back, we're gonna finish strong on this.

Plus a few extras.

Got a few other little tips that aren't on list that I can throw at you.

We'll do that just as soon as around the House returns.

Don't change that tile.

Eric G. Will be right back with more tips to add some luxury to your home without the luxury price.

Welcome back to the around the House show, the next generation of home improvement.

I'm Eric G. Thanks for joining me today.

This hour is brought to you by our friends at Monument Grills.

Check them out for your new barbecue@monumentgrills.com and if you want to find out more about the around the House show, you can find us on all the social media channels including Facebook and Instagram and TikTok and we putting stuff up there all the time.

I'm over on LinkedIn and of course you can find all those links@aroundthehouse online.com now we've been talking about all these little projects you can do around your house to give yourself a little bit more of a luxury feel on a budget.

Now one of the big ones here is installing a smart thermostat or lighting system.

I love smart home tech and lighting is such a mood builder.

You can set the mood with lighting and having it where when I design lighting in a room, I design it so it can be overlit, so it's too bright.

Then I can use my lighting controls to dim it back.

Many times in a kitchen you don't need it so you're blinded.

But if you drop something small and you need to go find it, you can find it.

Or if you're having to clean up, maybe you drop some glass.

Okay.

I want to see as much light as I can here so I can see what's going on.

And this is even more in multi generational households, we got somebody that's 25 and 65.

Those people need two different light sources.

As far as how light it is, as far as lumens person that's 55 is going to need twice as much is the 25 year old.

So that's where we want to have smart lighting controls.

And it's so easy.

The safety of it is amazing because you can actually set on your phone with many of these.

Like I have a good night setting on my smart settings there.

I can sit here and get good night turns off all the lights, turns on the ones that I want and then it turns off those, those lights outside when I want them turned off and on.

So I can always make sure everything's Right.

I can make sure that the lights on the stairs are on.

I can make sure that everything's dialed in.

Now that is another trick I'm going to put as a side note here for you.

Jump on Amazon, buy one of those LED stair light kits.

If you've got hardwood stairs and you got a way to get underneath there and get some power in there.

Holy smokes.

You want something that looks like luxury light.

The bottom of those stairs and the safety of this, you could have all the lights off and that turns on.

It's awesome.

I love it.

Gives you such a great place to see.

You can see exactly what's going on.

You learn how that works and it's killer.

So something to think about when it comes in with smart lighting.

Now, smart thermostat is cool because I've got one at my house here that I'm putting up for sale.

It works great.

It's the carrier Infinity system.

Great smart thermostat.

And it has a great app that works with it.

So I can really control it.

When you don't have a smart thermostat, you're always running downstairs, upstairs, depending on the house.

And it's interesting.

Many times you'll see that thermostat get put downstairs.

Newer homes, you're starting to see them putting them up upstairs where the bedrooms are so that you have the control of what you need up there, which is really nice.

So I like it where it's upstairs by the bedrooms.

How did I get that in my house here, the one that I've been remodeling and put the new system in, I put a dual zone system in.

That's a bigger project.

But you can do that when you're replacing the system in many cases without doing a ton of remodeling.

You got to check with your H Vac professional for that.

But really having that smart thermostat system makes it more comfortable.

You can control humidity a little bit better usually with that because you can set up some alerts.

It can turn on the dehumidifier if it gets above.

There's a lot of things it'll do and it can save you some money in the long run.

So that's not a bad way to go.

A lot of smart thermostats out there.

I love, when it comes to lighting, and we talked about this earlier, one of the most cost effective entry level solutions that works well is the Lutron Caseta system.

That is awesome.

I love it.

Works well.

And of course there's a lot of Things out there with the.

Just so many options that you can add with that.

So think about those smart lighting options for you when you dive into that.

Now, here's the next one and we talked a little bit about it earlier, but really, this is big.

Upgrading those window treatments.

Do you have those Lowe's, Home Depot special mini blinds, or even worse, do you have those old ones from the 80s or 90s that have turned yellow, maybe change a little bit color?

They don't look great.

Those can look so rough when they're not done correctly.

So think about that a little bit.

What do you got going on?

What's happening?

What can you do to upgrade those?

Do you have it where in your bedroom where you can't get it, where it's super dark in the summertime?

Maybe you got to work early.

Take a peek at that.

That might be your best answer, is to go through and really get that going and get that set up so well.

You can really have some comfortable, comfortable sleeping by getting that nice and dark.

So think about those.

You could do it one room at a time.

You don't have to spend a ton of money on it.

You can get the smart ones like we were talking about.

Those work well, but really thinking about upgrading those and taking some time working with either your online retailer or your local home improvement store or your local paint and decor store that's got them there, or your local blind company taking a look and really doing window treatments.

And they can save you money too, if you're getting something that's going to reflect heat or work with extreme cold or heat.

These are things that can really work super well.

Now the last one here on this list.

Oh, man, it's a good one.

Creating a spa like bathroom, if you like to take some time or.

All right, guys.

All you bathroom campers out there.

Yeah, I'm talking to you.

The ones that go in, go into the bathroom, 45 minutes later you come out and you've been through 75 TikTok reels, Instagram, Facebook, all those different things.

YouTube, all you guys that like to camp out in the bathroom, this is for you too.

This isn't just for the ladies out there that like to take a long bath or the guys like taking a long bath.

This is for everybody.

A more spa like feel in the bathroom can be huge.

Now I'm talking.

Add that bidet toilet seat and maybe you're going, I don't need a bidet.

That's gross.

I don't like it.

Yeah, but you'll like the Heated toilet seat like the toto is the best out there.

There's nobody that makes one better.

You can get them at Costco, you can get them online, you can get them inexpensive.

Few hundred bucks on up.

Yes.

You can spend $300, you can spend $30,000.

That's how it works.

Get what you want.

But here's the cool thing with this, the heated seat, the deodorizer you tired of walking in following somebody go.

Who tore the bathroom up.

Yes.

Charcoal filtration, that helps eliminate those embarrassing odors.

Those are all things that you can do to really make things more spa, like the heated toilet seat.

All of that is really important.

All you need is the outlet behind the toilet there to plug it in because it does need some power.

If you're looking at the 50 or 100 or $200 ones that are the off brand ones that you see out there, my opinion, they're garbage.

You have cold water coming, they don't have heated water, or they have a little tiny tank and so you use it for a second.

Now the water went to cold, which is not the refreshing thing usually you're looking for.

And that's the way to go there.

But really getting that spa like feel in the bathroom is great.

Now you don't have to go in and put the big crazy shower in.

If you're remodeling, that's one thing.

But maybe upgrading the shower head or the wand, upgrading the lighting, making sure that you got a really good bath fan.

I'm not big into the air fresheners or the essential oils in there.

Now I will use like a eucalyptus oil or something like that to really help out, depending with a steam shower, but that's a whole other deal.

But there are so many mirrors out there with TVs in them.

You're seeing more TVs in there.

Heck, my shower has a TV in it.

Just because I like to have that.

I'm gonna miss that when I sell the house.

To be honest, that's gonna be one of the biggest things I miss out of this house is gonna be that.

But once you add that in there, I tell you what, that spa like feel in the bathroom.

Heated towel rack is a big one.

Amba products makes a great one I love.

You can even get them on Amazon even.

But check out Amba.

They make a great heated towel rack.

You could plug them in and you could wire them in.

So either way.

And here's the other cool trick with this, and this is something that I really like.

Saved you a ton on laundry because when you put that towel up there and hang it, it's so fresh.

It's so nice.

It's awesome.

You can get so many more days out of those towels because they're not sitting there getting musty and moldy on the towel walk.

They get warm, they get dry, they get fresh, off they go.

Really keeps the smells in the bathroom and it keeps them fresh.

So it's something to consider when you're adding that spa like feel in there.

So those are really my tricks and tips for doing that.

Yes, Lighting is a big part of this.

One of the biggest things you can do.

Now if you've got carpets, here's one thing.

When it comes to carpets in your home and if you've got lighter carpets, you notice this.

But I like to have a professional independent carpet cleaner come out and do the carpets every year or two.

Have them put treatment down on it.

Make sure that they're putting some anti stain stuff down now ask questions about it.

Some of that stuff can be pretty nasty on the chemical side, so be careful with that.

But really, when it comes down to it, having them professionally cleaned, I quit renting those things.

They just don't work.

They leave more soap there.

If you're trying to clean up after a party, it's one thing, but have the professional with the truck come do it.

They'll get way more stuff out of there.

All right, everybody, that's a wrap of our number one of the show here.

If you're listening on the radio, good chance we've got hour two following up.

If not, find us on your favorite podcast player.

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Thanks for tuning in to around the House.