[00:00:00] Eric Goranson: It's around the house. Hey guys, Eric G here. We got a great show lined up in this hour for you. We're going to talk about my top 10 things to do this year to save money on your home with things getting so expensive out there, materials, everything else, just trying to live these days. We have got a grand show lined up for you today in this hour.

[00:00:23] Eric Goranson: So we can talk about things you can do to save money around the house. This is going to be a good one. And there might be some things here you hadn't even thought of. And some of these are preventative and some of these are things you can do right now to save you some serious money. If you want to find out more about us, head over to around the house online.

[00:00:41] Eric Goranson: com and that's where you'll find the information about me and the show. Now let's get to it. When it comes to remodeling and renovating your home, there is a lot to know, but we've got you covered. This is Around the House. Welcome to the Around the House show, the next generation of home improvement.

[00:00:59] Eric Goranson: [00:01:00] Thanks for joining me today. I'm Eric. And we are going to talk about some fun stuff today It doesn't matter though. If you're catching us on the talk media network on the radio stations across the country Thanks for tuning in and if you are make sure and follow and listen to those sponsors out there They're the ones that keep us on the radio Every single week for two hours.

[00:01:20] Eric Goranson: I appreciate every single one of you. And if you're listening to the podcast, thanks for joining us. You can catch us on every podcast player out there. And just a couple of weeks ago, we added YouTube as well. So you can look around the house, showing the podcasts on YouTube podcasts, and you'll find us over there.

[00:01:35] Eric Goranson: If you want to find out more about us, you can find us on our website. Around the house online. com. And of course, if you've got a home improvement question or a comment, or you just want to talk to me, that number is 8 3 3 2 3 9 41 44 that number again is 8 3 3 2 3 9 41 44 today, we're going to be talking about my top things to do this year.

[00:01:58] Eric Goranson: To save money on your [00:02:00] home. And you know, something saving money is a big thing right now, because I tell you what, it is expensive out there. I was just out there pricing drywall for a project. I'm like, are you kidding me? Can that get any more expensive? It's like the COVID days again, and nobody likes that.

[00:02:15] Eric Goranson: And the material costs just, they're not going back down again, which is a bummer because there's so many of us that want to be tackling projects and. These things just get more and more expensive these days. And I was hoping we'd see some balance in that. And clearly we haven't. Some things have gone down.

[00:02:30] Eric Goranson: Lumber's not, you don't have to see the armored truck delivering the OSB, but it's still expensive out there, especially with the kind of lack of homebuilding out there. So obviously we've got some issues there with that, but that's not what we're talking about today. So here are my topics that I think are really good things you can do around your house to save money.

[00:02:50] Eric Goranson: And, uh, my first one here on the list, these are not in a particular order, so it's not a countdown or anything like that, but these are just my pieces that I think are worthwhile to take a look at first on [00:03:00] is work on low cost energy efficiency, saving money on your home and not wasting money. Is a big thing.

[00:03:09] Eric Goranson: And that's a big one right there. Working on those low cost energy efficiency things. And for instance, heat pump, water heaters. Okay. So you might spend 1500, two grand on one, but they start to pay for themselves really quickly. Especially if you're replacing, you got electricity or gas. That can be super expensive.

[00:03:29] Eric Goranson: And I tell you what mine saved me a couple of hundred bucks a year. So it starts to pay itself back really quickly. And if you get the good ones, like a Bradford white is my favorite brand out there because they're the only one that's serviceable. So you think about it, it's like a refrigerator that's built into this.

[00:03:45] Eric Goranson: And what it's doing is taking a heat out of the air around it and pushing it into the water heater. So if you leave it on that, and I took a 40 gallon gas and changed it out. To an 80 gallon electric unit because all the heat pump [00:04:00] water heaters are electric. And it only uses 500 Watts of electricity to heat water.

[00:04:04] Eric Goranson: So it's few light bulbs basically. So that is really cool and how that works. And so that can save you a ton of money. And right now, the more I'm diving into this and I've been, I've changed my tune about this a little bit over the last six months to a year and some of these ultra hyper energy efficient.

[00:04:27] Eric Goranson: Heat pump systems and AC units and that kind of stuff. They're not for everybody. And the more I look at some of these rebates that are coming out here, coming up, moving forward, and they're not going to pay for that. Not like I was hoping they would. And there's a lot of little caveats in that where really on the rebates, if you can get a few thousand bucks, that's awesome.

[00:04:52] Eric Goranson: But sometimes it's a difference of spending 10 grand for something that's medium efficiency to 25 [00:05:00] grand and spending an extra 15, 000 to get, I don't know, 10 percent more. So unless you have that disposable income, you're like, I just want to get the most efficient and I'm going to be good for the I'm totally cool with that.

[00:05:14] Eric Goranson: But if you're trying to figure out the dollars and cents of it, that might not work its way out. That might not pay for itself in the lifetime that you're going to be in that home. And so that's where you really have to figure out of why you're doing it and what you're doing it for. And it's just like we were talking about earlier, and I've talked about this on the podcast before.

[00:05:35] Eric Goranson: I put in a great carrier infinity system in my house. I absolutely love it. I have zero regrets on that system. It's quiet. It's efficient. It's saving me money. I had window air conditioners in before that. So that was a big deal. And that has really added a ton of comfort and clean air in my home. And so that's really cool.

[00:05:55] Eric Goranson: But on the flip side of that, if you're going to go out and spend 20, [00:06:00] 20, 25 grand on a high end system, it takes a lot of years to get that back guys. And there's a big jump between the medium efficiency and that, and I'm not sure. And the rebates that you get are not going to cover that. We've had that discussion here about the, but the inflation, or I don't even say so called inflation reduction act out there, and there's too many loopholes where you're not going to get that money back because it has in there that if you meet this low income requirement, that.

[00:06:31] Eric Goranson: Okay. You can get some eight, 10, 12, 000 bucks back. The problem though, is that you have to pay on the stuff that I saw prevailing wage, which means you're paying sometimes double for that employee. And I don't know of any in my area, for instance, I don't know of any heating and cooling professionals.

[00:06:49] Eric Goranson: They're going to pay their employees that just to put that in, to get the So they put a little tag in there for the union guys and I love our union contractors out there. Don't get me [00:07:00] wrong, but that is absolutely going to kill those rebates for people out there, which is unfortunate because that's going to cost people money.

[00:07:07] Eric Goranson: And so that hope that I had for this whole thing, once I dove into it and started talking to the professionals out there and started seeing where the catches are. There's a lot of catches. So that's going to be one right there. And the other one is just doing some inexpensive stuff around your house.

[00:07:21] Eric Goranson: Insulation could be big, adding a little more attic installation that can be going down to the box store, renting a unit, blowing in some more cellulose up there, doing that, right. Making sure you don't block off any of the vents and making sure that's vented correctly up there. These are all great things that you can do that aren't too expensive.

[00:07:39] Eric Goranson: That your local energy company might have rebates on and that can really put money back into your pocket pretty well. Just like the other tip I have is making sure that you've got those doors and windows all repaired up. Maybe you need to put in a new window. Maybe you've got daylight coming into that front door and you need to put in some new weather stripping and stuff on there.

[00:07:58] Eric Goranson: Those are all little things you can do because [00:08:00] if you're seeing daylight under the door, that can be like having a window open. That can be pretty expensive, especially when we've got hot summers coming up here for most people out there. So these are things that can cost you some serious money and it's cheap to fix.

[00:08:13] Eric Goranson: So all of these little things like this, working on that energy efficiency, as you're changing out lights, putting in the LEDs. Putting in some nice stuff, put it in good quality LEDs, not the cheapest Amazon stuff out there, but just making sure you're putting in the quality stuff and that stuff that can save you money in the long run and just going through, changing those things out as you need to not tackling is a big project, but just trying to make sure that, uh, you're efficient.

[00:08:38] Eric Goranson: If you've got a lot of, you know, landscaping, you're doing out there, plan some shade trees. So you're getting some shade in the summertime. That'll take some of the heat load off the house. These are all little things you can do to save money. All right, guys, before we go out to break, I'm going to ask a favor of you guys.

[00:08:52] Eric Goranson: If you could take a look at my videos out there that we've got either on my own YouTube page, which is around the house or on our Fox 12, Oregon [00:09:00] page, where we've got stuff on there. If you're watching those videos, make sure and clip the font, the thumbs up on there. That is such a big deal for us because that really gives us out there.

[00:09:09] Eric Goranson: I want to see if we can get some of these videos to go viral out there so we can get that more people getting help. And the more you can help us with little stuff like that, great reviews on the podcast, things like that. I appreciate all that you're doing out there, but that's going to help other people get this education and of course, be able to help them save money.

[00:09:27] Eric Goranson: So your little thing of, as you're watching a video, Hey, that was cool. You click thumbs up. That is awesome. That helps us get out there and it helps all the algorithms and things like that. So click subscribe, thumbs up. And of course, any comments and or reviews, we love it. And I appreciate every single one of you around the house.

[00:09:47] Eric Goranson: We'll be right back after these important messages. Don't go anywhere. To[00:10:00]

[00:10:09] Eric Goranson: the around the house show the next generation of home improvement. I'm Eric G. Thanks for joining me today. I really appreciate you all. If you're listening on the radio, make sure you catch the podcast as well. That way, if you miss some of it, you can always go back. If you're out driving around in the car, don't worry.

[00:10:25] Eric Goranson: You can catch us on your favorite podcast player. And if you want to find out more about us, head over to around the house, online. com, and you can find out all the information about the show there, including phone numbers, YouTube videos, all that stuff. That's the easiest place around the house online.

[00:10:40] Eric Goranson: com. And we're coming to dates the May 18th weekend. And this is always a kind of a reminiscing weekend for me. And we'll talk about this little sidebar here. Cause we've been talking about my top 10 things to do this year to save money on your home. And this is one of those weekends that I always just look back and go, man.

[00:10:58] Eric Goranson: When I was a kid, [00:11:00] living in Eastern Washington, living in the tri cities in 610 Kona country, thanks for tuning to us over there. I will never forget being out at the old car swap meet out at the Benton County, Franklin, Benton, Franklin County fairgrounds out there and hearing that building number two shake.

[00:11:18] Eric Goranson: And I look at my dad and go, that wasn't a Sonic boom. And he goes, no, that was a big deal. And my dad goes running off. My dad worked in the nuclear stuff. So I think he had other concerns of what that was. He comes back and goes, Hey, we got to load up. Let's get out of here. Mount St. Helen's just exploded.

[00:11:32] Eric Goranson: And I remember hurrying home, throwing stuff in the back of the truck as fast we could and getting that 15 minutes back to the house. And it was like living in a apocalyptic movie. Because the black rolling charcoal gray clouds that look like they were alive were rolling from the west to the east because we were not that far away from it.

[00:11:58] Eric Goranson: But I remember about noon, it was [00:12:00] like just raining ash and the street lights were on and it was like fireplace ash just raining from the sky. And we got a couple inches. And it was just one of those things as a kid, remember, wow, this is insane. So of course, every May 18th, that's just one of those natural disasters that I remember as a kid.

[00:12:17] Eric Goranson: So this weekend is always special. And I remember not going to school for a little bit there. And of course they were burning up a lot of car engines and stuff because the police were out running around and that stuff was so thin, it was going right through those 1980 air cleaners and burning up engines out there.

[00:12:32] Eric Goranson: So there was some scrambling to make things get going. We spent a little bit of time in May when I wanted to be outside playing. There was some serious time of spending time inside and not out there going to school with dust masks on. It was like pre COVID stuff. It was pretty crazy. So great time on May 18th.

[00:12:48] Eric Goranson: And so sorry for the people that lost their lives in that disaster and a happy there wasn't more. We've been talking today about my top 10 things to do this year to save money on your home. And last time [00:13:00] we went off into the rabbit hole of saving money on low cost energy efficiency. And here's another one right here, especially going into summer, get your HVAC system tuned up.

[00:13:11] Eric Goranson: And this is a really big deal, especially with needing annual maintenance on your systems. If you're in the Northern states, I would say having your heating system looked at and your AC system looked at is good. If you're in the Southern states, like down on the coastal states, down South, You probably want to have that AC system looked at twice a year because you're going to have it running a lot more often than the people up north.

[00:13:38] Eric Goranson: And that preventative maintenance is big. And this is where this can be really big. And here's a problem that we've got out there because, and we talked about this earlier in the year, but We've got some really big changes coming out there to the refrigerants that they're using in HVAC systems. And so when they discontinue stuff gets crazy expensive.

[00:13:57] Eric Goranson: All of a sudden you're paying a hundred times more It [00:14:00] seems for stuff that was super cheap a couple years ago, and they're gonna discontinue this stuff So what happens is all of the newer refrigerants are out there a few years ago. We're getting ready to change them again But what happens is if you've got a system that's older than 15 years old, guess what?

[00:14:17] Eric Goranson: Now you're not going to get refrigerant. So my advice to you is if you're trying to milk another three or four years out of that system, have somebody come out, make sure that they've got it tuned up, that it's working as good as they can get it. Making sure capacitors are working, making sure that everything's cleaned up and working at its greatest efficiency.

[00:14:39] Eric Goranson: And maybe you can sneak a few extra years out of it before you got to go spend money. Now, the other thing is too, is we got to keep an eye out on what energy star and some of these mandated rebates are out there too, because. I wouldn't be surprised to see them eliminating some of these lesser and cheaper efficiency units, and that could happen between [00:15:00] now and the end of the year.

[00:15:00] Eric Goranson: So we just need to keep an eye on that kind of stuff because all of a sudden you could go from paying 7 to 10, 000 on a new system to 15 to 20. That's where I want you to keep an eye on that. Cause you're going to want to grab one. If that's all you can afford, then you want to grab one before you do that.

[00:15:16] Eric Goranson: So keep an eye on that. That's a big one right there. So, and just make sure things are working and there's a lot of things you can do yourself. And I just talked about this for this weekend. So around the house, Northwest television show, make sure that you've got a really good filter in there, but here's the problem.

[00:15:32] Eric Goranson: In the summertime like this, if you put too good a filter in there, you've cut your airflow way down. By cutting that airflow way down, you could freeze the unit up or cause other problems. So in the summertime, it might make sense. If you've got an older unit to put a little bit less of a quality air filter in there, at least what the Merver or the API or whatever rating is that there's all these different ratings.

[00:15:55] Eric Goranson: Now, home Depot has their own, there's the Merv. There's all these different ratings on stuff out there, [00:16:00] but maybe get a little less efficient filter. So it's not grabbing all the stuff out of the air. Now I want you to have good air quality, but I also want you to make sure you've got enough air to keep the house cool.

[00:16:11] Eric Goranson: Cause I don't know. It's miserable when you're in there going, Oh, wow, I got really clean air, but now the house is 10 degrees warmer. That's not cool. So you want to make sure and balance that out. So maybe it's one of those things that you on those heat waves, you put in the lower quality filter when it's going to get really hot.

[00:16:27] Eric Goranson: So that way you can get a little more airflow and then swap it back in when it gets back down to normal and you'll be good to go. So that's another one right there. Those are all things to do. And then outside on that compressor unit, maintain that. I want to make sure that you take. All the shrubs and bushes, get them a couple feet away from that.

[00:16:44] Eric Goranson: Let that thing breathe. Airflow is good. Make sure that you've taken your leaf blower out there and gently blow out all the stuff out there and make sure you get all the dust out of it. And then third, make sure that you've got, here's my little trick. And if you've got soft water, if you've got a hard [00:17:00] water, do not do this, but I've sat there and taken those misters.

[00:17:03] Eric Goranson: You can get a Lowe's the hose end ones, and I'll put it next to it. And when we get up into the over a hundred degree temperature. HVAC systems on the air conditioning side are only designed to really drop that temperature inside 25 30 degrees. So what you can do then is put that mister out there, if you've got good water quality, put it right next to the unit.

[00:17:24] Eric Goranson: I can usually in my house get 5, 7, 10 degrees Cooler in my house when it's running at max all out capacity, and I can kick that up and get a little more efficiency because that water transfers heat better than air. So, in that heat transfer cycle, it works out really well. So it does it a little more. You don't want to do this all the time.

[00:17:45] Eric Goranson: I don't want to be keep that thing flooded. There's computers and everything else. It's meant to be outside, but on those 2 or 3 days where it's like, all right, they got all the heat warnings out there. That might be the time to pull that thing out. Let that run during the afternoon for a few hours, and that [00:18:00] could lower that down and just make it more efficient.

[00:18:03] Eric Goranson: Because the cooler you keep that, the easier it's going to be able to put that heat out there and put that cool back in. So that can save you some money right there. Cost you a little bit of water, but this is to miss. So it's not too badly. That's another one there. Now here's the next one. And this is going to be the last of what we're doing here on air quality, but make sure that you keep the air healthy in your home, watching those chemicals you bring in, don't use.

[00:18:27] Eric Goranson: Those plug in air fresheners stay away from those are like vaping in my mind not good Make sure you use your vent fan in the kitchen Make sure you use the vent fans in the bathrooms when you're in there, you know taking a shower Get the moisture out of there. Let's see if we can cut down on the mold, the better off you're going to be.

[00:18:43] Eric Goranson: All right, we come back. We've got more of around the house. Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back to[00:19:00]

[00:19:10] Eric Goranson: the around the house. So the next generation of home improvement, I'm Eric G. Thanks for joining me here today. We are talking about my top things to do this year to save you money on your home. Those little things can save you a ton of cash. Now, if you want to find out more about me, or if you had a trick or a tip, I'd love to hear it.

[00:19:28] Eric Goranson: Head over to around the house, online. com. You can sit there and message me there. Or if you want to give a call 24 seven, give me a call in the studio here. If I don't catch your call, I'll call you back. You'll get to hear from me. Eric G eight three three. 239 4144. And that number again is 833 239 4144.

[00:19:49] Eric Goranson: We've been talking about these things and saving some money around the house. Next up here is an important one. When doing projects, Rent those expensive tools [00:20:00] if you don't think you're going to use it a lot. And this has been one of my secrets here because I don't know, I tackle projects, some tools, I've got a nice, smaller saw stop table saw.

[00:20:11] Eric Goranson: It's one of the contractors saw it's great. It does a killer job. Do I have a big, huge, massive one that I can run big plywood through? I mean, I can run plywood through it. It does work, but if I want to get a bigger saw, I'm just going to go rent one for the couple times a year I need it. And then I could take it back and be done with it.

[00:20:31] Eric Goranson: And I don't have to trip over it. So whenever you're doing stuff, especially when it comes to outdoor power equipment for stuff, you never use the excavators, all that stuff, find and make friends with your local independent. Whether it's a hardware store that rents or if it's a local rental company here in the Portland, Oregon metro area I work with park rose hardware and I love these guys because one other stuff is like brand new And I don't have to go into another [00:21:00] big box store Where things in my area are hammered.

[00:21:04] Eric Goranson: I can't tell you probably some of my worst big box store experiences have been renting from some of these places and the park rose hardware. I just love those guys. They're just a great company for that. And they've got quality stuff. There's nothing worse than trying to plan it out, trying to be efficient with your time.

[00:21:20] Eric Goranson: Cause you know, you're paying for it. You go pick it up and you're like, Oh man, this thing is on its last leg. If I've got an excavator and the tracks are just barely hanging on there, are ready to fall off. I've had stump grinders where I've had to spend an hour getting them started. I've had post hole diggers, same kind of thing.

[00:21:38] Eric Goranson: I had last time I rented from a big box store like that, there was a chain. I went in there and ended up renting and. I ended up taking it back. So I spent two hours trying to fix it. I'm like, nah, not my problem. And I went someplace else. And so these are some of the things just finding that and saving money where you can so much easier just to get it, use it, clean it up, send it back.

[00:21:58] Eric Goranson: It'd be good. So [00:22:00] find that good local independent tool company and you'll be good to go. And it's going to save you space. And a side note on this, one thing you can do to save money, and this is just going to be a 1A on this, if you know what I mean. Make sure that if you're trying to save money, don't go get a storage unit.

[00:22:20] Eric Goranson: Don't. Here's the thing, by the time you've gone 5 to 6, 7 years into that, I just about guarantee you, you could have bought and replaced everything you put in that storage unit. And it's just a bad habit. Now I have to have one because I have so much materials coming in for my tv show That my two car garage could not handle it and shoot stuff here And so i've got a storage unit to store stuff that I don't need right now, but i'm using later So that's a little bit different.

[00:22:48] Eric Goranson: That's a business kind of thing. But really if you have got storage units Like multiple, and unless you're storing like your parents stuff, because they've passed away or you've got [00:23:00] stuff like that. You have to go through and tell you what, that is the biggest sock of money out of your wallet is paying for storage units.

[00:23:07] Eric Goranson: So getting that cut down. And this is one of the things here, making sure that you get rid of that clutter, having a yard sale, going on Facebook marketplace, throwing it on Craig's list. If you can pair that stuff down, Now you can have it make money for you. Cause probably didn't need it. If you haven't pulled it out of storage in two years, do you really need it?

[00:23:31] Eric Goranson: It's one thing if it's like your tax records or something like that. But if you don't need that extra air compressor, if you don't have that extra window air conditioner out there, that's been sitting in there and not being used, sell it, put some money back in your pocket, save somebody else. The money and man, you can cut that deal way back on what it's going to cost you.

[00:23:51] Eric Goranson: For paying out. I know some people I've got friends out there that are paying five or 600 bucks a month, and that's a cheap car payment out there. And they're paying that every month to store [00:24:00] stuff. That's not worth that. So save some money bag on that storage unit. Sorry, storage unit, rental people, but save some money, put it back in your pocket, dial it back and get rid of some of that clutter.

[00:24:11] Eric Goranson: That's a good one right there. And that's going to save you some serious money. If you can start, you can turn around and sell stuff out of a storage unit. And now you can think about it in a year. If you're saving 500 bucks. And then you get about a thousand bucks out of what you had in there. That's putting serious money back in your pocket.

[00:24:29] Eric Goranson: That's some serious savings without changing your lifestyle. You're just getting rid of some stuff that you didn't, you're trying to hide away, clear it up. You'll be much happier to get that stuff out of there. You won't be writing that big check each week. So, or each month, sorry. That's just a good way to go.

[00:24:43] Eric Goranson: All right. Here's another one here that I've got a really good one here. Now this could cost a little more, but in case on risk, it's going to be big. Do some research on your homeowner's insurance. Make sure you've got the right coverage. Make sure you've got that dialed in and make sure that a homeowner's insurance is one of those things for many [00:25:00] people.

[00:25:00] Eric Goranson: It just sneaks up on you. Companies will get you locked in. It's coming out of your mortgage, maybe, and you just set it and forget it. Problem is you could be getting more coverage for less, and that's a big deal, especially in areas where home prices have gone up through the roof and you've got some serious expenses right there on that might be able to save a few hundred bucks a year, getting more coverage for less money.

[00:25:24] Eric Goranson: So get ahold of your independent retailer out there for that. You're I always like dealing with somebody in person, me. I've done my biggest mistakes i've made on insurance is when I jump online and try to do it myself And log in and can sign that it's i've never had enough coverage when I do it that way And that could get even more expensive if you have some kind of claim.

[00:25:46] Eric Goranson: So be very careful with that Now the next one here, you pay a few hundred bucks for this, but it'll pay for itself really quickly. Get yourself a home energy monitor and see where your power bills are going. My [00:26:00] favorite one I use, there's different ones out there. I like sense S E N S E. It's really cool.

[00:26:05] Eric Goranson: It just plugs into your, into your electrical panel and you load the app on your phone. And you can see it learns using AI type stuff. You think about everything in your house that plugged in, whether it's an LED light or an electric motor that's on your dishwasher or on your washer dryer. They all make their sounds when they take the electricity in this listens for those sounds, and it identifies them and where you can really start to see is you can be going.

[00:26:35] Eric Goranson: Oh, yeah, I've got that old beer fridge. It's been in the garage for 20 years. And you start comparing it to your other fridge and you go, wow, if I went out and bought a newer fridge and got rid of that one, that could save me a few hundred bucks a year. That starts to make sense. Or you can start to even find stuff and go, wow, what's going on here?

[00:26:52] Eric Goranson: You talk to the guys over there at the sense and they're like, yeah, it seems like maybe you got a problem with your air conditioner. Do you have a sump pump that's just [00:27:00] running all the time? And you get down to the crawl space and go, wow, that's some pump was stuck open. And I've been paying for the power for that for six months.

[00:27:06] Eric Goranson: So these are all things that can happen. And that home energy monitor can bring it to your attention and you can see where you're spending that money. That can save you some serious dough right there. Cause those are things that just bleed you out. And they can save you some money by just figuring out knowledge is power in this kind of thing.

[00:27:25] Eric Goranson: Make sure you know where that money's going and what you're paying for it. Then you can make some good decisions. Cause sometimes you'll go like with me, I put a hot tub in. I'm like, oh, that's going to kill my power. But I looked down and went. No, I'm cool with that. My happiness is worth that for my body being feeling good.

[00:27:41] Eric Goranson: So that hot tub wasn't as bad as what I thought I was, but I can monitor it. I can take a look at it and see what that's costing me and be informed and make those really good decisions right there. So that is a good one right there. All right. When we come back here, we've got three more I want to hit and be able to help you out with some other stuff here.

[00:27:59] Eric Goranson: And some of [00:28:00] these are really great, easy DIY projects. Especially if you pay for water and you have expensive water out there. I've got one that's going to shock you, but it could save you a few hundred bucks a year and that's big money. All right, guys, we're gonna go out to break. We'll continue this conversation in just a minute, but I just want to remind you.

[00:28:17] Eric Goranson: If you want to find out more about us and see some of the videos and other content we've got head over to around the house, online. com. And if you're a radio listener, you can find the podcast there as well. In case you missed something. We've got hundreds, actually a thousand out there for you to be able to grab of the show.

[00:28:33] Eric Goranson: Now, let's go out to break. We'll be right back after these important messages. Don't go anywhere.[00:29:00]

[00:29:14] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to the round the house show. I'm Eric G. This is the next generation of home improvement. Thanks for joining me today. We are trying to make sure that this is not your grandpa's home improvement show. We are trying to help you out to make sure that you have all the right information so you can maintain.

[00:29:30] Eric Goranson: Build, remodel, or take care of that house, which is probably one of your, if not the biggest investment. If you want to find out more about us, head over to aroundthehouseonline. com. And if you have a home improvement question, give me a ring 833 239 4144. That number again is 833 239 4144. All right. We've been talking about my top things.

[00:29:53] Eric Goranson: This year to save you money on your home. We'll go back through this list real quick, working on a low cost energy efficiency, [00:30:00] getting your HVAC system tuned up. Making sure you keep air healthy in your home and when doing projects, rent those expensive tools instead of investing in them and then make sure you have enough homeowners insurance for home replacement in case of an emergency or natural disaster, getting that home energy monitor and getting rid of that clutter.

[00:30:20] Eric Goranson: And those storage units to save you some money. Now here's one here that I think is really important. It's one of my favorites because I've done this and it worked out really well. If your water is expensive, if you have a, if you're paying a couple hundred bucks a month, I can pay two or 300 bucks a month for water when I'm not even watering my lawn in my area.

[00:30:37] Eric Goranson: You would think with all the rain we get here now, they get as hard on water. So here's the thing. If you're paying for money like that for your water bill and you're efficient, I've got all the latest of efficiency stuff in here. Guess what? Here's a way to save it. If you've got toilets that are over 20 years old, I would say replace them with something of higher quality.

[00:30:59] Eric Goranson: [00:31:00] What we're seeing here in the last seven, eight years, and probably the last 15, if you're looking at a brand like Toto is that we really had some horribly working toilets from the nineties and into the two thousands. And here's what's happened is that. We finally caught up with engineering. Companies like Toto out there owned this space for the last 20 years.

[00:31:24] Eric Goranson: Now, I will say that other companies like the, that are much smaller, like American Standard, Kohler, they have made some big strides. Cause they spent the time in the research and development. The total spent a long time ago to get these things dialed in. So really you can save sometimes a couple hundred bucks a year by changing those toilets out and putting in something that's going to work a lot better and keep it clean.

[00:31:52] Eric Goranson: That's the nice part. So a lot of these new toilets, especially if you're looking at it, like Toto, what they do is you have that white porcelain toilet. We've all [00:32:00] seen, they put a micro coating on the inside of it that makes it so things don't stick. So that means you have a cleaner toilet. So if you've messed your toilet up by pouring and bleach in there, And doing that, it etched the surface, it just, the more you etch it, the more things stick to it, the dirtier it gets, the harder it is to clean, and the cycle goes on and on.

[00:32:20] Eric Goranson: So make sure you've got that dialed in, but here's the thing. By replacing those toilets, something, you can get down to a 1 gallon flush even and have something that works really well. So much better than the 1. 6 that you had in there. Or 3. 5 gallon if you've got something out of the 80s, 70s, or 60s.

[00:32:37] Eric Goranson: That's where it gets crazy. So you can save some serious money and that adds up, especially if you've got multiple bathrooms in the house. So that's a good one right there that can save you some serious money and headaches. And less cleaning. He doesn't enjoy that. And here's another one here. You can eliminate that yard spraying service.

[00:32:55] Eric Goranson: Maybe that does your, your lawn can not your lawn care, not the mowing people, but the guys [00:33:00] that show up at the truck with the hose reel, they go out there. They charge you hundreds of bucks a month. They walk around the yard, 15 minutes, they spray stuff down. And, uh, they're taking care of the fertilizer, the bugs, whatever around there that they're doing.

[00:33:11] Eric Goranson: You can save some serious money. By going through and going and joining a service like lawn bright or any one of these other companies out there And you can make that a diy lawn care solution and have maybe a higher quality lawn with less chemicals That's the one thing I like about lawn bright is they do have these really great programs with they're awesome They're all organic.

[00:33:36] Eric Goranson: They do the lawn. They do the soil testing So, you know what you're getting they can make your yard so much healthier So really you could save some serious money a year Put money back in your pocket and all you got to do is every little bit. Get out there with a hose and spray and walk around the lawn and spray that stuff out there.

[00:33:51] Eric Goranson: So it's a really easy thing to do, but that could put some money back in your pocket. If you're looking to cut those things back, it's not a bad way to go. Sorry, all of you [00:34:00] lawn fertilization companies, but there's a great DIY option out there for people that are trying to cut back and save a little money.

[00:34:08] Eric Goranson: Now here's a kind of a general one. That's so obvious, but maybe instead of hiring a contractor and maybe it's, you're doing a landscaping project, maybe you're building a deck, maybe taking on that DIY project. But you can save as much as about half on doing that project yourself if you've got the skills.

[00:34:30] Eric Goranson: And if you don't work on getting those skills, this is stuff that can save you money. Now here's the thing. Your time is money, right? And so about half of the cost of a project is labor and the other half is materials on average. There are a thousand exceptions to that rule, but that's a pretty decent rule.

[00:34:49] Eric Goranson: Now that contractor is probably going to buy cheaper materials than you can. They're going to get that same stuff for probably 15, 20 percent less depending on where they're shopping, but if they're just going into the home [00:35:00] center, they're probably getting the same price. You are. And mark it up and it's okay.

[00:35:03] Eric Goranson: They mark it up. They have a business, they got to pay taxes on that. So it's good that they mark it up. That's part of the deal. But really for them to come over and do it, you're probably saving as much as 50%. So really what that does is that frees up money for you to maybe tackle that project. Or if it's something that you're trying to, I'm going to sell that house next year, let's say, I'm going to put this thing up for sale.

[00:35:26] Eric Goranson: But the problem is you look at your cost versus value on what that return is. Like, man, I'm only going to get, I want to do this because I want to enjoy it. But in a year or two, I'm selling the house. I'm only going to get 55 percent back, but you could actually make that more sense. If you do that project yourself.

[00:35:44] Eric Goranson: Now you assume a lot of risk, assume a lot of liability, because if you make a mistake, you pay for it, or maybe that contractor, they mess them up. They got to go eat it and do it. But really, if you can pull that project off, that can be a great way to add value to your home [00:36:00] without the added expense. Now there's a lot of great contractors out there that are doing great work.

[00:36:06] Eric Goranson: And if you figure out what your time is worth, and this is one thing too, guys, and this let's get into the hard talk right now, as we wrap up this segment, you can be dackling a huge project all year long, and your spouse might really not like that. Or maybe they do. Maybe you're out there busy and not bugging them, but really, this is one thing that I do want to talk about risk via reward and saving money isn't always what it's about, but make sure that you're keeping that family life healthy and you're being present with that.

[00:36:38] Eric Goranson: Cause I tell you what, that's one of the biggest challenges I've learned over the years. Is yeah, projects are fun. I love tackling stuff. I love doing stuff, but making sure you're there. Cause tell you what, that can get even more expensive. You don't do that, right? So focus on what's going on in your life.

[00:36:54] Eric Goranson: Keep it healthy, really dive into that project. Do it yourself, [00:37:00] balance it, balance it really well. And you can also have that self pride of, Hey, look what I did. I did this. And you can do like everybody else, throw it up on social media and, and all of that. But that's one of the things that adding that value to your house, that just goes back in the day you want to sell it, that's just adding that value back in there and it's live a little, enjoy yourself.

[00:37:21] Eric Goranson: Put in that install that new dishwasher that was broken and put the new one in there. Make sure that's dialed in, put in that outdoor kitchen. You want out there to barbecue in, get rid of some of that grass and put in the artificial turf that you want to do over there. So you can have a little putting green or whatever.

[00:37:36] Eric Goranson: Enjoy yourself, tackle those projects. You can actually do some of the stuff that you want to do. And it's your home. If you can add value to it, that is a great. Way to do it. And that wraps up this hour of around the house show. Now, if you want to hear a subject you haven't heard me talk about, I'd love to do that for you.

[00:37:55] Eric Goranson: Head over to around the house, online. com and go over the contact me section over there. [00:38:00] Send me a message and I'll be the one to get back with you right there. So that way. We can try to help you out on your next project if you've got a comment as well I'd love to hear them over there All right, everybody.

[00:38:10] Eric Goranson: I always say that in the last minute of this when we get through this hour episode I want to make sure that everybody knows how to find us here and how to track us down So the one stop shop for that is head over to around the house on Online. com and you can find out everything about us over there.

[00:38:26] Eric Goranson: And that will also give you their phone number. So you don't have to write this down. You can just go to the website, but that phone number again is 833 239 4144. And then make sure that you check out my television show, which is around the house, Northwest. You can catch it over on our YouTube page, which you can grab off of that website there.

[00:38:43] Eric Goranson: Or if you're in the Pacific Northwest, like in the Portland area or in our demographic, where you can watch it over the air, you know, in our area here, that is going to be on Fox 12 plus here in the Portland area. And you can stream that on a lot of the different streaming services out there that carry these local news channels.

[00:38:59] Eric Goranson: You can actually grab [00:39:00] it right there and that'll get you lined up where you can watch the show every week. We are on episode 66 already. And, uh, about 400 videos right now. So we've got a lot going on over there. So we're covering a lot of stuff. All right, everybody have a great rest of the time here, man.

[00:39:14] Eric Goranson: And I appreciate you guys tuning in. If you're catching this hour, we've got one more to go and you can catch that in the podcast if you can't catch it on the radio, thanks for tuning in to Around the house.