[00:00:00] Eric Goranson: It's around the house. Happy Christmas Eve, everyone, Eric G with around the house here. We have an excellent Christmas Eve special here, where I went back and found some of my favorite episodes and segments, The stuff that maybe you missed, the stuff that I thought was excellent, fun, and innovative listening.

[00:00:25] Eric Goranson: Now, coming up in this hour, we have unlimited hydroplane racing with strong racing, talking about putting a hydroplane together, emergency preparedness. Ross Trai from this old house and True Crime meets home improvement with my friend Tool Girls Garage. Sarah Listy, we have so much more coming up in this episode today that you don't wanna miss.

[00:00:45] Eric Goranson: For more information about us, head to around the house online.com or social media. And if you're listening on the podcast, make sure you subscribe. Now, let's get back. Very special episode

[00:00:55] Intro: when it comes to remodeling

[00:00:57] Darrell Strong: and renovating your home. There is a lot to know, [00:01:00] but

[00:01:01] Intro: we've got you covered. This is around the house.

[00:01:08] Eric Goranson: Welcome to Around the House with Eric G and Caroline B, where we typically talk home improvement every single. Thanks for joining us. Hey Caroline. We're gonna go a little off the reservation today, aren't we?

[00:01:20] Caroline Blazovsky: We

[00:01:20] Caroline Blazovsky: are, but it's good. We like to broaden our audience. You've guys have got something new to learn about.

[00:01:25] Caroline Blazovsky: I love it.

[00:01:27] Eric Goranson: Absolutely. So we're gonna talk here a little bit of unlimited hydroplane racing because you know, I grew up doing this and we've got a lot of different radio audiences out there that catch around the house that have this in their neighborhood. So we wanna make sure and help those guys out as well.

[00:01:44] Eric Goranson: If there's nothing about unlimited hydroplane racing, is that a bunch of people doing DIY when it comes down to it as a team, and so this is kind of the ultimate. T I Y project. I wanna introduce Daryl Strong from strong racing and [00:02:00] my favorite driver out there. Brent Hall. Welcome to Around the House Brothers.

[00:02:05] Eric Goranson: Thank you. Hello guys.

[00:02:07] Brent Hall: Thank you. Yep.

[00:02:08] Eric Goranson: Exciting and for the audience.

[00:02:09] Caroline Blazovsky: So, Brent, if you love nascar, this is way better. Like this is the ultimate cream puff. So just tell our audience, Eric, a little bit about what this is, because not everybody knows I'm from New York, so we don't have it. At least that I'm aware of.

[00:02:24] Eric Goranson: So we'll talk to these guys here about it. But I grew up in the trade cities in Ken Pasco, Richland, Washington, uh, where we have six 10 k n a radio that, uh, thanks guys for carrying the show. I grew up there living on the Columbia. My parents had a house up off Canal Drive, and I would sit up there and I would hear these big Rolls Royce, Allison engines as a kid waking me up when the first boat would hit the water.

[00:02:49] Eric Goranson: And I would go watch the races. I'd hang out in the. And I would watch this circle track of unlimited hydroplane racing, where guys, back in the day, [00:03:00] safety was a thought, but secondary, it was the best they had with the technology at the time. And uh, I would go out and watch people doing, you know, 150 to 200 miles an hour as a kid watching on the right or river out there.

[00:03:14] Eric Goranson: And it was a lot of fun. And now, I think the sport, it's coming back into its heyday. And I wanna ask Daryl about this because we've got parody in this sport like never before. I mean, back in the day when I was a kid, when I really was old enough to understand it, it was like the Miss Budweiser and the Atlas van lines and it was just dual battle and everybody else cleaned up afterwards.

[00:03:38] Eric Goranson: Darrell, what's your thought on, on unlimited hydrogen plane racing where it is today?

[00:03:42] Darrell Strong: I was reading a book that I think, um, David Williams. Uh, who runs the, uh, the museum and, uh, as just a hydroplane racing in the tri-cities. Mm-hmm. . And you look at national championships and like Budweiser won 13 out of 14 years.

[00:03:59] Darrell Strong: Mm-hmm. . And you [00:04:00] think the great thing now is I think Brent, when you think at least four boats could win any race, and, uh, agree. You look at our boat and Madison, um, was. Neck and neck with the boat, uh, TheStreet boat that's won most of the national championships for the last, uh, six, seven years. And we were actually going faster on the outside until we, you know, took off like

[00:04:28] Darrell Strong: an

[00:04:28] Eric Goranson: airplane.

[00:04:31] Eric Goranson: and we'll get to that cuz that's a, that's a whole other subject. But you know, Brent, you know, you. A veteran, but up and coming as well in this sport. Uh, I think you have some, in my opinion at least, you've got some huge days ahead of you out there as a driver, where do you think that unlimited hydroplane racing is right now?

[00:04:53] Eric Goranson: Yeah.

[00:04:53] Brent Hall: No, I think we're. We're in an exciting time. This is a time where, as Darrell mentioned, we've got four to [00:05:00] five boats that could win these races at any time. And you were talking about the history. You're absolutely right. Um, it could either have been the Budweis or the Atlas Band lines back in the day, right?

[00:05:10] Brent Hall: Yep. But now to have several boats that can win and. For me, I think the big thing, we've gotta get the stories out about the drivers and uh, for people to get to know the drivers. Yes. So, just like we're doing with this particular podcast, you need to know who we are. And so I think that's one of the things that's really important to me and there's great stories behind that and excited to share some of those throughout

[00:05:30] Eric Goranson: this podcast.

[00:05:31] Eric Goranson: Absolutely. Absolutely. Daryl. So let's, let's start out with you kind of the history of this. You know, we talked a little bit before the show started, but, uh, how did you get into. Unlimited hydro plates because I know you grew up in the same town. I did.

[00:05:45] Darrell Strong: Yeah. I mean, you can't grow up in the Tri-Cities Washington without being a Hydro fan.

[00:05:52] Darrell Strong: Uh, well, if, if you're not, and everybody's shocked because it's, it's like our Super Bowl. Yeah. And, and little did I [00:06:00] know that I know now after being at all the race courses, it's actually the best. . Cool. It's the, it's the best race. You can ask anybody, but I started going, we moved there when I was seven and we went to somebody's house up on Canal By where you, yep.

[00:06:14] Darrell Strong: You lived and saw the aerial view and I gotta watch it. In 67, which was the second year, I think it started in 1966,

[00:06:24] Eric Goranson: that was Atomic Cup days, right?

[00:06:26] Darrell Strong: I think, uh, Ms. Bardo won and uh, and it. I'd never seen anything like that in my life. And then, uh, probably the most told story in every interview I've ever done is, uh, I took my wife on our first date when we're 15 to a boat race.

[00:06:45] Darrell Strong: Um, nice. And we've been married 43 years now, so we got married right outta high school, but that was our first date and it was just a big part of our life. I mean, anybody, I mean, you would know this. Growing up the tri-cities, [00:07:00] when they had the, uh, the piston boats and, and back then they would actually come like on Tuesday or Monday.

[00:07:06] Darrell Strong: Or Tuesday. Yeah.

[00:07:07] Eric Goranson: It was Monday, Tuesday. It was a whole week. Yeah.

[00:07:09] Darrell Strong: And you could hear those boats and when you did, you'd get on your bicycle and ride as fast as you could to the river so you could watch whoever

[00:07:18] Eric Goranson: was out. . Oh yeah, absolutely. And where I was up on Canal, there was times that I would go down there, I was running across the freeway, down there trying to get across there and climbing fences and doing all the stupid stuff a kid at that age shouldn't be doing.

[00:07:31] Eric Goranson: But you had to get down there to get there, you know? We were, and it was just a lot of fun. We were in much

[00:07:36] Darrell Strong: better shape, I think. Yes.

[00:07:40] Eric Goranson: So, yeah. So back in the day to, to, to paint a picture for people that don't know the sport, they. You know, mostly wooden boats. You had surplus World War II aircraft engines that were running these things. And it was an open cockpit with a driver in a, in a, you know, a, a suit driving suit with a huge [00:08:00] monster collared, you know, uh, Hopefully flotation device that when the boat would get wild or flip, you hope to clear the boat before the boat landed.

[00:08:11] Eric Goranson: Yeah. And that was crazy. And now the safety is so much better than what it used to be back then. Yeah, absolutely.

[00:08:19] Darrell Strong: I mean, we had a

[00:08:19] Darrell Strong: hundred percent, we had a driver, like I said, we'll get into it later about our wreck, but he did that at 186 miles an hour and he walked away and was at. Trophy presentation and half an hour later and woke up the next day wasn't even so.

[00:08:37] Eric Goranson: That's incredible. Yeah. So

[00:08:39] Caroline Blazovsky: do we have this in the Northeast? I'm from New York, New Jersey area. So you guys, is this something that Brent, I'm gonna throw this to you being the driver and ladies, like if you like NASCAR and you like the drivers like I do, I'm seeing Brent and he's a good looking man and he's got the whole package going on here,

[00:08:58] Caroline Blazovsky: So it's like star quality. We need [00:09:00] you to. East and, and spread this sport around, and I think people would love it. Eric introduced me to it. It's fabulous. So do we have this out by us? And where do we go to see it?

[00:09:11] Brent Hall: Yeah. So in the Northeast, uh, it had been there before, um, but we need to bring it back again.

[00:09:17] Brent Hall: And so Caroline, I'm kind of the reverse of you. I lived in North Carolina for about three years and had the chance to go to a NASCAR race, and I'm kicking myself now that I never did . So my offer to you is we need to get you out to erase somehow when that's close. Mm-hmm. , whether it the East coast or have you come out this way to the West coast.

[00:09:37] Brent Hall: There's nothing like it. And very similar to Daryl for me. Um, you know, I grew up watching these as a kid and every summer we'd have a party on our deck and we had a peek of view, view of the race, and that just meant Summer

[00:09:50] Eric Goranson: was here. This special edition of Around the House will be right back after these

[00:09:53] Intro: important messages.

[00:09:58] Intro: What's up? This is Stick and [00:10:00] Satchel. Stihl Panther and you are

[00:10:02] Eric Goranson: listening

[00:10:03] Eric Goranson: to Around The House

[00:10:04] Intro: with Eric G.

[00:10:06] Eric Goranson: Yeah. We love Eric G and you

[00:10:09] Intro: should too.

[00:10:20] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to The Round The House Show. This is my favorite episodes of 2022. Those segments that I thought were pretty amazing. Now let's get back to the program. Hey Caroline, how are you today?

[00:10:31] Caroline Blazovsky: I'm doing well. How are

[00:10:33] Eric Goranson: you? Excellent. You know, it was interesting. I don't know if you noticed a couple weeks ago, You know, we've been dealing with snow out here in the, in the Pacific Northwest.

[00:10:41] Eric Goranson: We've got more snow that we've had up in the mountains in 20 years. You guys, you know, a week or two ago, got some weather. Those people got caught on the freeway for 24 hours. We figured it was a good time to talk a little bit about emergency preparedness inside your home if you're out traveling. So that way you're ready for the next [00:11:00] time.

[00:11:00] Eric Goranson: We get some crazy. And

[00:11:02] Caroline Blazovsky: my friend was talking to me the other day, she called up and she said, look, you know, we just moved from San Francisco to Austin, Texas, and what do we do? What do we do with ice? Cuz they're not prepared, you know, if they have an ice storm, they're concerned that they may lose power for seven days.

[00:11:17] Caroline Blazovsky: So just giving a few tips to people, you know, what do you do? How do you, how do you survive it? And so I think that'd be,

[00:11:24] Eric Goranson: I just heard her Austin Radio listeners boo us and say, why would your friend move here? Tell her to move back.

[00:11:31] Caroline Blazovsky: That's mean .

[00:11:34] Caroline Blazovsky: Oh my goodness. They're a very strange,

[00:11:36] Eric Goranson: I saw last time I drove into Texas, I saw a sign that said Californians were closed Head back.

[00:11:45] Sarah Listi: But they are gonna be getting some love colder weather. Love .

[00:11:48] Caroline Blazovsky: Of course we do. They're gonna be getting some

[00:11:50] Eric Goranson: colder weather. Texas, we love Californians too. .

[00:11:52] Caroline Blazovsky: Yeah. Oh, now you're playing catch up. Now I see how it's No,

[00:11:56] Eric Goranson: no, no, no. We do, but it's just a common it. I mean, it, it's [00:12:00] like, it's like rivalries in sports.

[00:12:03] Eric Goranson: Californians in Texas. Texans have been going up against each other for a while. This is nothing.

[00:12:10] Caroline Blazovsky: Oh, like my Jets

[00:12:11] Caroline Blazovsky: Beecher Seahawks. Is that, is that fair rivalry?

[00:12:15] Eric Goranson: When has that happened? Never.

[00:12:17] Caroline Blazovsky: But it's still a

[00:12:18] Intro: rivalry. .

[00:12:19] Eric Goranson: I was gonna say, I don't think it even happened when Brett Fre was your quarterback.

[00:12:24] Caroline Blazovsky: Hey.

[00:12:24] Caroline Blazovsky: But you know, we almost beat the Buccaneers. I mean, if we can do that, we could potentially beat Russell Wilson. It could happen. Yeah.

[00:12:32] Intro: It's, it's

[00:12:33] Eric Goranson: a dream. Yeah. You couldn't even beat, you couldn't even beat the Buccaneers with, with a lead in Antonio Brown walking off the field. So, . Well, I like to, she's throwing off at me now.

[00:12:45] Eric Goranson: I like, I like to show you. Go. There you go. Whatever. Anyway, we'll, we'll get back on track here. So, yeah, getting your house, getting yourself ready, you know. Disaster [00:13:00] for that storm is a big deal. You know, I've got myself pretty well dialed in just because I've been talking about this so long, you know?

[00:13:07] Eric Goranson: Mm-hmm. , I've got backup power, I've got extra food, I've got extra water. Let's start going down the list of things that you should have, and a lot of this depends on where you're located and what your natural resources are around you, and also things that

[00:13:24] Eric Goranson: you.

[00:13:25] Caroline Blazovsky: You can do at home if you're not a a, a preparer, I mean, look, you have a lot of stuff, so you have to take it way down to people who, like, for example, my friend who moved to Austin, they're not ever used to having ice storms.

[00:13:38] Caroline Blazovsky: So they were like, what do we do with the water? Which is a basic thing. So, okay, let's say you're gonna get an ice storm and you're gonna get freezing temperatures and no power. So what do you do with the water supply in your house so you don't get pipes freezing? Because that's the number one. No pipe break.

[00:13:52] Caroline Blazovsky: Yeah.

[00:13:53] Eric Goranson: Well, and in Texas they have not really, through the years, done a great job of insulating pipes because the freezers weren't, that weren't that [00:14:00] common over the years. You know, the first thing I say is, is when you're planning for natural disasters like this, the first thing to do is think about what you need to do to sustain life.

[00:14:12] Eric Goranson: So food and water, right. First. Thanks. Correct. So I always say if you're living out in the desert, And you have no water to be had outside of what's coming out of your faucet, storing water makes a lot of sense. So for

[00:14:29] Intro: me, I've got

[00:14:30] Eric Goranson: water. I've got water everywhere around me. I've got big lakes that are blocks away.

[00:14:37] Eric Goranson: So for me, filtration is a better answer versus just storing water. Hmm. And

[00:14:43] Caroline Blazovsky: so for storing water, just to give people who may not have as much experience as we do. The tub is always a great place. So, you know, if you know you're gonna get a storm, fill up a tub, you can fill up an igloo cooler, any kind of cooler, make sure you always have drinking water.

[00:14:58] Caroline Blazovsky: So, you know, I'm, I always say have at least a [00:15:00] month supply of drinking water, however you wanna do that. Bottled water, et cetera, liquid. Um, but those are types of things where you can store water easily. Tubs

[00:15:08] Eric Goranson: are great, you know? Yeah. Month is a lot to store for many people. Um, That's a lot of water. I mean, you're gonna fill up, if you've got four people in the house, you're not gonna fit that in the hall closet, if you know what I mean.

[00:15:21] Eric Goranson: So you've gotta come up with a place for that. Well, I'm saying.

[00:15:25] Caroline Blazovsky: Moderation drinking. Like, you know, I always tell people you're not gonna with, if they're, if you're lacking in water, you're not gonna drink six bottles of water a day. So, you know, keep it on the down low, but make sure that you have some stockade supply.

[00:15:38] Caroline Blazovsky: And like in my house, I mean, we've got bottled water if necessary and, and all kinds of stored water and, and drinking supplies and stuff. Yeah. So, and it could last us a while. I mean, you're not gonna be drinking. 10 times a day, but you will have enough

[00:15:50] Eric Goranson: to survive. Yeah. And if you've noticed with hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, it can take a week or two for real help to show up.

[00:15:59] Eric Goranson: Mm-hmm. . So [00:16:00] that's the thing. You need to have enough Yes. For to sustain yourself until you know, a charity neighbors or the government shows up to help you. And those are all things that can happen slowly, depending on where you're. For food and talk about

[00:16:19] Caroline Blazovsky: shutoff. Oh, I was gonna go back to water. But you know, talk about shutoffs and how people are, can shut.

[00:16:24] Caroline Blazovsky: Make sure you're shutting off your water in a freeze, making sure that you're, um, keeping a drip in the faucet, making sure there's covers on all your outside spics. Yeah, for, for free, all

[00:16:34] Eric Goranson: that kinda stuff is important. The only time you should really be shutting that water off is if you already have a break and you're already losing tons of water, then you need to shut water off.

[00:16:44] Eric Goranson: But until then, flowing water is going to be a better way to keep pipes from bursting than if you shut it off. So you wanna keep it dripping running. And what I wanna see is not only just the cold water running, I wanna see a little bit of the warm too, [00:17:00] because if you've got an uninsulated hot water pipe that is 30, 40 feet away from the, from the water heater, that's, that's in a place where it could freeze.

[00:17:11] Eric Goranson: You know, in the wall or a crawl space, all of a sudden you wanna have both water moving, so you can maybe keep that water going until it warms up. The other thing I wanted to see you do, keep the house nice and warm, not the time to turn back the thermostat. Keep the doors, cabinetry, , all those places open.

[00:17:30] Eric Goranson: If you've got the water heater out in the garage, for instance, make sure you keep that garage door closed. Maybe the door open out to the garage to make sure that's not freezing. Make sure that you've got those things ready to go. That's the big key. And watch that water meter to make sure that you don't have a leak.

[00:17:50] Eric Goranson: If it, if it does break, that gets expensive. Quick speaking of

[00:17:54] Caroline Blazovsky: keys. Yeah. The key. The key to your shutoff.

[00:17:58] Caroline Blazovsky: How do you get

[00:17:59] Caroline Blazovsky: that? So you

[00:17:59] Eric Goranson: wanna have [00:18:00] a, you know, a. Depending on where your water meter is, some people in older homes will have 'em in their basement where they actually have to do it down there.

[00:18:09] Eric Goranson: But in most cases, that's either out in the yard or in the street, and you need a street key to go down and do that. And that's just the, it's a little, you know, depending on how deep it is, you know, if you're in the Midwest where you get really cold, that could be, that meter could be down three or four feet, six feet.

[00:18:29] Eric Goranson: I've seen them. Depending on where you're located. So you need to be able to get down there with this long pole that has this little forked metal thing in the bottom. Be able to turn that off and. Yeah, if you've got a broken pipe, shut it off, but leave it open. Open, you know, open until you think you've got a break, so you don't have any more water damage going on.

[00:18:49] Eric Goranson: And that's one of the keys right there. Don't go anywhere. We'll be right

[00:18:52] Intro: back.[00:19:00]

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

[00:19:00] Eric Goranson: is Ron Keel, the middle cowboy from Keel, the Ron Keel Band and Steeler. We are rocking around the house

[00:19:08] Intro: with Eric. Raise your best.

[00:19:12] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to The Round The House Show. Happy Christmas Eve. Now we're talking about my favorite episodes of 2022. Those segments that I thought were super informative.

[00:19:21] Eric Goranson: Now let's get back to Ross Shui from this old house. Welcome to The Round the House Show. This is where we talk everything about your home every single week. Thanks for joining us. We have a special guest in the studio today, Rossi founder, lead engineering over at TE two Engineering. But you might have seen him on this little show called Ask This Old House or This Old House as their technology expert.

[00:19:49] Eric Goranson: Thanks for coming on today. Yeah, thanks for having me.

[00:19:52] Ross Trethewey: This is

[00:19:53] Eric Goranson: exciting. This could be a lot of fun, man. And, and technology and, you know, healthy living inside the home is [00:20:00] a passion of mine and mm-hmm. , you do such a great job on a much bigger scale and from the engineering side of it versus me just being a connoisseur, knowing exactly how to do this stuff.

[00:20:12] Eric Goranson: So, uh, it's, it's refreshing to have a conversation like that with somebody that, uh, really knows their. Yeah. Well,

[00:20:18] Ross Trethewey: thank you for having me on. You know, we try to talk about, you know, indoor air quality in our everyday life, you know, whether it's on this old house or whether it's, you know, in our, you know, kind of my day job with TE two.

[00:20:28] Ross Trethewey: You know, just really trying to promote indoor air quality, making sure that the, the air quality inside of our buildings is healthy to breathe. Um, and it's, you know, promote, um, you know, uh, You know, us, uh, having longevity, uh, and all the other good things that come, you know, from good indoor, you know, people focus on what they eat.

[00:20:45] Ross Trethewey: People focus about what they drink, but they don't really think about what they breathe. And so that's kind of the, the last kind of, uh, the last kind of frontier as far as what people need to be focused on as far as ingesting you think about right in the typical, you know, human, [00:21:00] it's crazy to think about this, but the typical human drinks, about eight pounds of water, a.

[00:21:08] Ross Trethewey: And we eat about four pounds of food a day. Mm-hmm. , see how much air we breathe. In

[00:21:14] Eric Goranson: terms of pounds. I have no idea. I'm trying to even think of C F M, let alone pounds, .

[00:21:20] Ross Trethewey: So it's about 30. So a typical human at, you know, at ne normal condition, steady state will breathe about 30 pounds of air a. And, uh, you know, that's, you know, just comparing that's what we eat in terms of four and what we, you know, drink in terms of eight.

[00:21:35] Ross Trethewey: That's, uh, that's quite a bit, you know, in terms of difference.

[00:21:38] Eric Goranson: So, and think about what's in your air filter when you change it. Oh my goodness. That's all. What's entering your body, right?

[00:21:43] Ross Trethewey: It's crazy. Yeah. I mean, there were a bunch of studies done that show that the air quality inside of our houses is four, you know, typically four times worse, and sometimes up to a hundred times worse than the outdoor air.

[00:21:54] Ross Trethewey: So like, we think of our houses being healthy cl you know, clean environments, you know, but a lot of [00:22:00] times it's the Petri dish. It's the exact opposite that they, we've locked in all these. , you know, contaminants, and it gets, some of it gets trapped in the filter, of course, and some of the higher quality filters obviously do a really good job of capturing the small stuff.

[00:22:11] Ross Trethewey: But, uh, but yeah, the rest of it's going into our lungs, you know, and into the logs, into the bloodstream, you know, tiny, tiny particulates. Um, they call it PM 2.5 is the mm-hmm. is the term that they call it. And that's the really, really small stuff, the fine particles, um, and, uh, more science and more, you know, research is being done on what that does to our bodies.

[00:22:29] Ross Trethewey: But, um, it can't be good.

[00:22:31] Eric Goranson: It can't be. No. And on top of it, we can't even get building codes straight across the us. This is my little soapbox here. We can't even require kitchen ventilation hoods at homes. Oh, you got a window that's close enough and it drives me absolutely insane as a, a nearly 30 year kitchen designer that we can't even get that right, right now.

[00:22:52] Eric Goranson: Oh

[00:22:52] Ross Trethewey: my goodness. That drives me bonkers. Yeah. kitchen exhaust is one of those things. It's like, yeah, but I have a recirculating hood. Or you know, it's like, oh, that's

[00:22:59] Eric Goranson: like a [00:23:00] recirculating toilet. How is that what we could do here? , I, I, it blows me away, Anna, and this is again, soapbox. How can I walk into a home center and buy a recirculating hood?

[00:23:10] Eric Goranson: I know that shouldn't be on the market. You

[00:23:12] Ross Trethewey: shouldn't be allowed. Shouldn't be allowed. Yep, yep. Or, hey, I just cracked the window. I have no hood at all. , or I have, I put the microwave above it, you know? And, uh, even though a lot of those s can be vented to the outside, they just choose not to. Yeah, yeah. You know, it's just, it's crazy.

[00:23:26] Ross Trethewey: Um, I agree with you on that one.

[00:23:28] Eric Goranson: Ah, it's, it's wild. And then, you know, I like using new technology. I've got, uh, I'll use the name out there cause it's worked well, but it's also kind of starting to scare me now. I've got one of those Heiss, um, you know, they're one of the air scrubbers in my house. Mm-hmm.

[00:23:42] Eric Goranson: But I'm starting to get a little worried about it and I'm gonna do some more research on it in, in full disclosure, I've talked about it for a couple times, but my wife can't bake bread in the house with it. So Can't bake bread. Okay. No. It kills the, kills the yeast. So when she goes to rise bread, it won't rise.

[00:23:58] Eric Goranson: So she has to go take it. [00:24:00] And I'm like, wait a minute. Okay, that's making me a little nervous. I know it's really doing a great job of scrubbing the air, but it's killing the yeast, so I don't know if I want that in me either. Right? I'm not familiar with the

[00:24:11] Ross Trethewey: exact machine you're referring to, but, um, you know, there's a lot of, uh, products that are on the market today, especially coming outta covid that are focusing on what they're call plasma technology or negative ions and all these other things.

[00:24:25] Ross Trethewey: And to be honest with, with you and with everyone that asks me, I say, you know, just put in a hepa. Um, and, uh, or a really, really good, you know, air filter in your house as, as good as you can get. Um, but just that, that doesn't have any additional kind of chemical reactions taking place because we don't know what those, the chain of reactions that gets created.

[00:24:47] Ross Trethewey: We don't know what that does, uh, downstream. And so, uh, when you're introducing, you know, uh, plasma and you're ionizing air and stuff like that, uh, there are a lot, lot of things that we just don't know yet in [00:25:00] terms of what that does to the air quality inside of our buildings. And so you might solve for one problem, but you've may have created a

[00:25:05] Eric Goranson: hundred other problems.

[00:25:07] Eric Goranson: that's kind of where I'm at cuz I mean this thing uses that, uh, you know, it uses that kind of hydrogen peroxide type technology where it kicks it out in the air. You're familiar with that? And, and. I Mine's unplugged right now cuz it's kind of making me nervous the more I look into it.

[00:25:21] Ross Trethewey: Yeah. I mean, so we did a lot of, uh, diy, what I'll call, um, I dunno if you heard about the cor, the Corsi

[00:25:27] Eric Goranson: Rosenthal Cube Yes.

[00:25:28] Eric Goranson: Or Colorado Cube.

[00:25:30] Ross Trethewey: Yeah. So it's a diy, you know, air cleaner. Mm-hmm. , uh, has four filters on it that are all Murd there. Teen Higher with a box fan. Mm-hmm. less than a hundred bucks. Materials. You build 'em yourself. I build 'em for all my ki my kids' classrooms at schools. Nice. Um, and, um, and it was, you know, have 'em in my house, et cetera.

[00:25:47] Ross Trethewey: And it's just an awesome, you know, you know, um, media filter for capturing the small stuff and the big stuff that's inside our house. So it's instantly making our quality better. And everyone inside my family, you know, felt a difference, you know, [00:26:00] from running those machines. Um, and, um, and so, yeah, so my, my viewpoint on most of this is just put in the best air filter you can, um, do it in the rooms that you're going to be living.

[00:26:10] Ross Trethewey: And whether it's one Hepa, one that's for a thousand dollars off the market, or whether it's a DIY a hundred dollars one. Of course there's gonna be different ranges in that, but at the end of the day, you're making the air quality better and your house not worse. And there's, there's no debate on that one.

[00:26:25] Eric Goranson: Yeah. And in, in full disclosure, I put a brand new system in about a year and a half ago. I put one of the, uh, just. Carrier Infinity Systems in. Yeah. You know, multi-zone, old seventies house with their good filter in it. Yeah. So I've got that in the UV in that. Nothing else. Crazy, you know, a big six inch type filter and.

[00:26:42] Eric Goranson: It made day two. I was like, oh my gosh, I'm breathing so much better.

[00:26:46] Ross Trethewey: Right, right. Oh my goodness. Yeah. I can actually breathe .

[00:26:49] Eric Goranson: Yeah. I didn't know how bad it was until I, it's better. And you're go like, oh, wow.

[00:26:55] Ross Trethewey: Yeah. You know, it's a, that's a great system, you know, and I always say mef, uh, MEF 13 is the [00:27:00] minimum that I would recommend for everybody and four inch all the way up to six inch thick.

[00:27:03] Ross Trethewey: The thicker the better, right? Yeah. The deeper the pleats, the more surfacer you. . Um, a lot of people don't realize this, but you know, when you have a pleated media filter, um, the difference between like, you know, a four inch and six inch is the size of the pleats. And so the way I think about it's, if you were to unroll that accordion and you were to unbox it and flatten it, how much area would it take up?

[00:27:24] Ross Trethewey: So if I have a six inch versus a one inch, you can, the six inch is gonna be covering much, much more area. So that means lower pressure drop, that means more filter. , uh, time and life expectancy. Um, uh, less resistance on the air motor, you know, the lower motor inside your air handler. Um, a lot of good things that come out of it.

[00:27:41] Ross Trethewey: And so, um, so yeah, the thicker, the better. And Merf 13 is, uh, is or higher is where we're at.

[00:27:47] Eric Goranson: And those cheapy one inch ones, the little fiberglass ones, those are there to keep animals out of the, outta the, outta the blower motor. And that's all they do.

[00:27:56] Ross Trethewey: Exactly. Maybe catch some cat hair, some dog hair, maybe that at [00:28:00] best maybe.

[00:28:00] Eric Goranson: Yep, yep, yep. Exactly. That's, that's where it is. But at the same point, and we're gonna get into more technology here, but I also warn though, of taking some old 30 year old system and jamming in a Merv 13 filter. Mm-hmm. And making sure that that actually will flow enough air for your system, cuz you can freeze.

[00:28:17] Eric Goranson: AC units and everything else, uh, by reducing too much intake on that. Yeah, yeah,

[00:28:22] Ross Trethewey: exactly. I'm glad you brought that up. There are a lot of situations where homeowners say, oh yeah, I just ripped out my one inch, you know, MEF four, and I threw in the MEF 13, and all of a sudden now I'm not getting heating or cooling or whatever.

[00:28:32] Ross Trethewey: Something happened. I'm gonna call my HVAC guy, da da da, da da. And so I don't recommend, you know, homeowners just going out and just trying to, you know, replace filters left and right and not knowing what they're doing, of course. But

[00:28:43] Eric Goranson: yet, don't change that channel around the house. We'll be

[00:28:45] Intro: right back[00:29:00]

[00:29:01] Intro: after Christmas

[00:29:02] Eric Goranson: Eve, everybody, Eric G around the house here. Now we're gonna be. Time Sarah Listy from Tool Girls Garage and Murder House. Flip. And don't forget next weekend we've got an all new episode of My Favorite Things from 2022. Now let's get back to the show. Welcome to the Around the House Show.

[00:29:20] Eric Goranson: This is where we talk about everything, home improvement, construction, DIY design every single week. Thanks for joining us. I have my good friend in the house here. Two girls garage. Sarah Listy. There are so many. I can't even put you in a box. ,

[00:29:39] Sarah Listi: why bother? You know? Yeah. It's, it's ok.

[00:29:42] Eric Goranson: Welcome to Around the House and famous TV show person too.

[00:29:46] Sarah Listi: Oh my heavens to Betsy. Well, thank you. I'm so excited to be here. You had to throw in that. That joke, person, you had to go

[00:29:55] Eric Goranson: there. Oh yeah. You know me. This is what we do. So Right. . [00:30:00] First off, you're fun to be here. Yeah. I love your show, by the way. And I don't say that a lot about stuff, and it's not just because I've got a friend up there, but it's a real legitimate show that I go, oh wow, this is not super script.

[00:30:15] Eric Goranson: No, you're out there doing the murder house.

[00:30:18] Sarah Listi: No, in fact, there, I mean, there's no scripting behind it, which I was excited about. You know, we hear, I mean, I don't know how you feel about it, but when you go into, uh, a TV scenario, you never really know what to expect and Exactly. This is my first filming experience like that.

[00:30:34] Sarah Listi: And so I was concerned that like that was going to be pushed a lot. Like, Hey, say this or say that. Obviously there's questions asked, but all the answers are like 100. Authentic and you know, I mean, Mikel and I had so much fun. In sometimes those like interviews where it's just him and I and the producer.

[00:30:54] Sarah Listi: Oh my gosh. The stuff that like ended up on the cutting room floor. You can't [00:31:00] imagine.

[00:31:00] Eric Goranson: It was amazing. Nice. So we're talking about Murder House slip over on original Roku. Yes.

[00:31:05] Sarah Listi: So Roku Original is original, so it's Which cool with Roku is, it's a free. Um, mm-hmm. , I believe it's in 80 million households now.

[00:31:13] Sarah Listi: Yeah. Um, yeah, so they're in a bunch of different countries. Uh, and if you don't have a Roku at home, you can obviously go onto the Roku website. Um, again, it's one of their few originals and they're expanding. They're doing some big stuff. So I think there's, you know, gonna be some exciting, fun stuff, uh, coming for them.

[00:31:31] Sarah Listi: I wish I had like, inside Scoop. I don't, but , um, just the little tidbits I hear, it sounds like it's gonna be a really fun couple of years for.

[00:31:39] Eric Goranson: Nice. That's cool. Yeah. So let's talk about the show a minute before we get into like all the other fun tool and project stuff. But yes, this thing, you guys started out with a bang on this, that episode.

[00:31:53] Eric Goranson: You guys just like started out with the rocket ship Ferrari or something. You did not hold back on the first episode. [00:32:00]

[00:32:00] Sarah Listi: You know what's funny is, uh, when we film the show, that episode, believe it or not, we filmed last. It just came down to like, you know, uh, scheduling and stuff. And we obviously, you know, you don't know how that stuff's going to get ordered out, and I'm glad they used that as the first one because it was a really big project and it was such a.

[00:32:20] Sarah Listi: Recent. I mean, it was the Jodi Aria's house where she murdered her then boyfriend Travis Alexander. Really tragic, gruesome murder and brutal, oh my gosh. And n very little of the house had been updated or changed. So by the time we came in, even though it's been, I wanna say it's like 10 years. Yeah. I mean it was almost eerie looking at crime scene pictures and like being like, oh my God, this is the same tile.

[00:32:46] Sarah Listi: Like, I mean, some stuff. Yeah. But it was still. It was a little creepy. It was

[00:32:51] Eric Goranson: the same bathroom sink was pretty shower

[00:32:54] Sarah Listi: and creepy everything. Yeah, it was a, that was pretty gross. Um, but you know, I think it's, [00:33:00] when this couple bought the house, it didn't occur to them through that process that like this was that house.

[00:33:04] Sarah Listi: It just didn't cross their mind. They just thought they were getting a really great deal and by the time they found out they couldn't do anything about it, you know? And so it was a big honor, I think to be able to, you. Be a part of something like that and to be able to walk into, you know, a family's home and like that family, that young kids and, you know, it was a family house.

[00:33:25] Sarah Listi: Um, To be able to walk in and be a part of changing something, you know, really negative and dark and making it something so positive. Yeah. Um, I mean, when we left, like there was not a dry ice dry eye in the house. Like the, that was such an impactful, crazy moment. It was definitely a high note, um, to rap, filming the show on for sure.

[00:33:47] Sarah Listi: That feeling was, uh, I, I've told you obviously, In our conversations, like you couldn't, if you could bottle that emotion of like, Showing this family a house and like these cut, and [00:34:00] it wasn't just them, it was all of them. Like, oh my gosh, that would be amazing. You just wanna like, smell it on a bad day or something, you know?

[00:34:06] Sarah Listi: Yeah. And by

[00:34:07] Eric Goranson: the way, smell it on a bad day. I, I, I'm happy we didn't have smell of vision for that when you guys were pulling that carpet up, by the way. That was disgusting.

[00:34:15] Sarah Listi: Okay, so here's what was really gross, um, when we started doing that. It didn't smell when you walked into the room. Sure. So, I expected was, I wouldn't say I expected, I was concerned that we would find some stuff.

[00:34:28] Sarah Listi: Mm-hmm. Just because you and I both know being in the construction industry, like sometimes corners get cut, unfortunately, and we've all been there and seen that. Yeah. As

[00:34:37] Eric Goranson: much as we can, nothing's ever cleaned up a hundred

[00:34:39] Sarah Listi: percent. Yeah. And because of like how the family came to own the home, like that carpet had already been replaced.

[00:34:45] Sarah Listi: So in my mind I'm like some, I bet we're gonna find. Unfortunate circumstances, but the minute you lifted that carpet, I think Mikel said it smelled like raw meat. Yeah. And that was a, it smelled rancid. It was the [00:35:00] grossest, like . I don't even know. It was so bad. Like, I literally can vividly remember the smell and it's like, there goes dinner, my appetite's gone.

[00:35:08] Sarah Listi: For sure. But, um, it was, it's

[00:35:10] Eric Goranson: like you opened up death's door and you were staring into it. It was just, I mean, it was so,

[00:35:15] Sarah Listi: we just didn't, the smell is not what I would've expected. Yeah. Cause it's, I mean, Ew. It was, yeah, it was hard to explain. I'm glad that the smell of vision, that would've been convenient.

[00:35:26] Sarah Listi: Yep. But it was, yeah, just thinking of that was. Oh,

[00:35:30] Eric Goranson: but see, knowing you, I watched that. I know your reaction. I'm like that there is no way that's scripted. I can tell that is a hundred percent real. Cuz that was just 100% Sarah right there. I was just laughing going, there it is. There it is. That is the real deal.

[00:35:47] Sarah Listi: Well, it's funny cuz you had mentioned that I had a couple other people that have known me over the years say something similar and I'll be honest, like of all of the positive feedback of all the, any feedback that I think meant the most to me. Because [00:36:00] it's very hard when you get put in a weird situation and you know, you're, I always felt like I was 100% me, but the fact that everybody else also saw that was, I know it sounds dumb, but.

[00:36:11] Sarah Listi: It really meant a lot for me to hear because you just don't know how things are gonna get, you know? You just don't

[00:36:17] Eric Goranson: know. Yeah. Hope and pray that editing does you a favor and doesn't go the other direction and not do you a favor, because that would've been bad. So really, you guys did a what, a four or five days and had to make 20 minutes outta that?

[00:36:32] Eric Goranson: I mean, yeah,

[00:36:33] Sarah Listi: it was like that house was five full days of filming and it was 25. Episodes. Yeah. So, uh, I mean, which it sounds weird, I think you and I talked about this, but it was so crazy cuz those days were long days. There's a lot mm-hmm. and, and there's crews that are working behind us too. And there's so much that you don't even get to see because so much gets cut out.

[00:36:56] Sarah Listi: Um, but also like it makes for a really [00:37:00] fun storyline because I think obviously, especially in in the renovation TV world, as much as I wish some more we could have seen or some as I could have shown more, um, it, I feel like it kept a nice pace and it kept it fun and interesting. You know, there weren't really any lulls in the show, which I think yeah, obviously is a credit to not for them being quicker episodes, you.

[00:37:23] Eric Goranson: And then you had some challenges too. I mean that the Golden State Killer House had its own challenge. I looked at that and was like, as a designer, I'm going, wow, you've got some challenges here on trying to make that feel safe.

[00:37:37] Sarah Listi: Well, and, and you know, that one was sad because, uh, This woman had the owner, she beautiful, beautiful woman.

[00:37:46] Sarah Listi: Her name's Karina. Mm-hmm. , beautiful home. Her and her young kids had bought this house and they found out, um, shortly after she purchased it, she had construction crews working there. She wasn't living there yet. Yeah. And she got a [00:38:00] call that they were, they were news crews out front of the house recording.

[00:38:04] Sarah Listi: And so hearing that, and then of course, you know, You know, things start to make sense. People start to give her information. Um, and then she realizes, oh my God, what am I gonna do? And her bedroom was the room we renovated. And that was unfortunately where the Golden State Killer like entered and, you know, committed this just, I mean, Eric, the gruesome crime.

[00:38:25] Sarah Listi: Yeah. Oh my gosh. I mean the, some of the stuff that you guys, that the, uh, detective that was a huge part of that investigation told us. That was so hard to wrap your head around. Like, we gotta see the creek where he hid and like it was

[00:38:39] Eric Goranson: Oh wow. Okay. So all the stuff that didn't make the show, I mean they talked about Yeah, the, the dishes for a second and that was it.

[00:38:47] Sarah Listi: And you know, there was so much more to that story cuz like he went and ate a snack in their kitchen while like, in the midst of this brutal cry. I mean, it was. I mean, of all the houses [00:39:00] that we did, I would say that one was the one that I had the hardest time with too. Just like as an individual being in it and then trying to really, cuz so much a part of like how I viewed it was what would I do if I were these homeowners?

[00:39:13] Sarah Listi: What would I wanna change? How, you know what I mean? Like, how would I feel better here?

[00:39:18] Eric Goranson: I hope everybody has a Merry Christmas and a happy Hanukkah. Thanks for listening to Around The House.