[00:00:00] Eric Goranson: It's around the house. Happy New Year's Eve everybody. We have a great

[00:00:09] David Applebaum Architect to the Stars: show

[00:00:09] Eric Goranson: ahead. These are my favorite episodes in segments from 2022, and I've saved some of the best for last. We've started out here with Kaylene McCabe, talking about construction and the trades architect and my personal friend, David Applebaum, architect of the Stars.

[00:00:25] Eric Goranson: Then we've got grown like a pro with Joe Gardner and we dive into a masterclass with my friend, Dr. We have so much here for the last episode of 2022 that you don't wanna miss. And to find out more information, head over to around the house online. And if you grab the podcast, I will have the full episodes at each one of these show notes so you can take a listen to the whole one if one of these catches your eye.

[00:00:50] Eric Goranson: Now let's get back to my favorite episodes of 2020. Let's get this show going. Let's do

[00:00:55] David Applebaum Architect to the Stars: this. When it comes to remodeling and renovating your home, there is a lot to [00:01:00] know though. We've got you

[00:01:01] Intro: covered. This is around the house.

[00:01:07] Eric Goranson: Welcome to Around the House with Eric G and Caroline B. This is where we talk home improvement every week.

[00:01:14] Eric Goranson: Thanks for joining us. Carolyn and I have a special guest, my sister from another mis. Kaylene and

[00:01:22] Kayleen McCabe: she's so high energy

[00:01:23] Caroline Blazovsky: and she's just amazing. Her vibe is like, it's just, I need her vibe right

[00:01:27] Kayleen McCabe: now. Hey, I will share my vibe. I'm so happy to share my afternoon with you all. This is awesome. Like get to hang out, hang

[00:01:33] Eric Goranson: out for a little while.

[00:01:35] Eric Goranson: And by the way, Kaylene makes the best like lunch boxes.

[00:01:39] Kayleen McCabe: Oh, hey. Thanks. I, uh, what? I actually just put 'em all away. Ah, nuts. Um, so, oh, see, it's ok. Well I'd like to show 'em cause I teach little kids now, so it's fun to show 'em like what? You can take cardboard and popsicle sticks and make this fun stuff.

[00:01:51] Kayleen McCabe: And I have one designed right now and it's like halfway in the process. It's gonna be a little piano lounge, . It's all ridiculous. I know, but [00:02:00] nice. Uh, so yeah, I'm just waiting, I'm waiting for the piano. That's weird sentences to say in the afternoon. . .

[00:02:08] Eric Goranson: Well, she's, I always see her running around and it's, it's never a clutch purse.

[00:02:12] Eric Goranson: It's always like a, a 1966 like, Oh gosh. Milwaukee Sander metal box or something, you know what I mean? I'm just making up brand names, but yeah, it's just . It's always something.

[00:02:25] Kayleen McCabe: No, it's one of those. I also have, um, my, my opera clutch I call it. So when I go to fancy events is mm-hmm. . Um, I have a 1923 ferret set from snap on that's like rusty and gross, but you open the inside and it's black velvet in diamonds.

[00:02:39] Kayleen McCabe: Cuz I'm fancy . Oh my God. That's so cool. It's funny. It is awesome. Yeah. Working in construction, if I were to show up to something with a coach bag, I'd look ridiculous. But if I roll up with a old Rockwell like metal case that people are like, oh, all right. And weirdly, uh, one time my truck was broken into and they stole all the [00:03:00] new tools except for my old purse, cuz it looked like a beatta box.

[00:03:03] Kayleen McCabe: And they're like, what's the next ? Well, who do they know? Keys of the kingdom. My, my passport was in there, like my, my wallet. But they assumed that it wasn't something nice cuz it was so ugly. So Bonus .

[00:03:17] Eric Goranson: Well everybody out there listening if you don't know who Kaylene is, she has been all over the place. She was on d I Y network for like, it seemed like forever with rescue renovation.

[00:03:26] Eric Goranson: Yes. And then man, you have just been. Like champion of the trades. You've got your foundation. You, I don't know where you got the time .

[00:03:36] Kayleen McCabe: Um, well it's my passion . I really am so passionate about, um, changing the mindset of what it means to be successful. You know, there are multiple pathways. I don't have any college education and for a long time I was.

[00:03:50] Kayleen McCabe: Terrified to have people find that out. Um, but I am passionate about sharing it and then getting people employed. It's a great career. It makes me so happy. And [00:04:00] really, if I don't make sawdust every few days I'm depressed. I'm like, what am I doing with my lights?

[00:04:07] Eric Goranson: speak of that. You are actually down at World of Concrete Year recently and I couldn't go cause I've been getting ready for the show in Orlando and, and Kaylene and I have a. A similar love for Orlando, but we're heading down, I'm heading down there. Anyway, long story short, how was World of Concrete? Woo.

[00:04:24] Kayleen McCabe: Okay. Uh, Carolyn, you haven't been yet, correct? Never.

[00:04:29] Caroline Blazovsky: So you need to share, you need to share and tell us all about it because I know nothing.

[00:04:33] Kayleen McCabe: Okay. First of all, it's the largest, one of the largest, um, conferences in the world, and it's all. Concrete and masonry. And that sounds kind of basic, but the reality is it's amazing.

[00:04:45] Kayleen McCabe: Oh, it's so good. It's in Vegas, and Vegas has a huge convention center and I haven't been back in a while. And since Covid and all that shut down two things. Holy moly, they built a whole new concourse. So there is not only the central, the north, the south, they're [00:05:00] now the west and it's huge. But also, um, and I'm just gonna say they blew

[00:05:05] Eric Goranson: up a hotel for.

[00:05:06] Kayleen McCabe: Yeah, it's, it's insanity. And so now you can also see the new Concord, the Hilton there. Um mm-hmm , I rodee the tram and the world's largest manmade sphere is being built there. And it's this huge black sphere and it's, um, going to be an acoustical center. It's so cool. So anyways. Oh cool. Vegas in general is just cool because of the construction that has happened in such a quick amount of time and Vegas always pushes the industry too as far as like what we'll see in residential construction.

[00:05:34] Kayleen McCabe: Like they were the first to like put a light on in the closet when you opened it and then, you know, two years later you see it in homes. Um, okay, so anyways, so the world of concrete. I go because there's a competition. But before I get there, it was, if there's just cool products everywhere, it's cutting edge and it's super fun.

[00:05:54] Kayleen McCabe: There's the one, uh, there was a saw blade that's like six feet in diameter. I don't know why, but I need it. I just think it'd make a really good [00:06:00] backdrop. I'm just saying . Um, there was an obstacle course they had for like dump trucks and big machinery, which is awesome. And these people were doing this like backing up into.

[00:06:12] Kayleen McCabe: Little tiny, like basically driving a semi obstacle course and like going over things. That was awesome and uh, nice. I regret not having my CDL so much because I wanted to compete so bad, like, ugh, .

[00:06:23] Eric Goranson: See, I used to have mine. Oh, fun fact. I used to have my Class A and tanker. Oh,

[00:06:28] Kayleen McCabe: see, that's, I'm really, Why did, see, I learned something too kaylene.

[00:06:32] Kayleen McCabe: Really? Yeah. Yeah. I'm jealous. I'm really envious cuz One, the employment opportunities, but two, I really want an air horn. I know. Like I have that compressor for my truck. But in reality, I really wanna go Ha ha. All the time. Um,

[00:06:50] Eric Goranson: so you know what we've done before. Side, side note on that, we used to, we had grabbed from a buddy, a Burlington Northern Airhorn from one of the trains [00:07:00] and put it on there.

[00:07:01] Eric Goranson: The problem was it's like 160 decibels. And so when you hit it, you're breaking windows out in cars around you. I mean, it's, people jump like there's no tomorrow. We had it, my buddy's truck for a while, . Whoa. Just blowing their mind. It was just crazy. But that's, there's a few times in life that I went, oh, that was too much.

[00:07:21] Eric Goranson: That was one of those that I was like, okay, too much. Too much.

[00:07:25] Kayleen McCabe: Right. You gotta scale it back a little bit. I don't know. I'm so kind of jealous. Yeah. Um, okay. Back to nerding, out about World of Concrete. Yeah. So World of Concrete. That was fun in the same lot. They also had. House being 3D printed outta concrete.

[00:07:39] Kayleen McCabe: So that was incredible to see live in an action. And what was so fascinating about it was there was like a channel left open for all your meps. Um, they had it slowed down because two, you know, like they don't wanna take down an eight foot wall. In two days, , but it can run. It's

[00:07:56] Eric Goranson: all gonna get hauled off.

[00:07:57] Eric Goranson: Yeah.

[00:07:57] Kayleen McCabe: You have to do something with it so it [00:08:00] can run like 40 inches per minute, which is insanity. It also smooths the outside, so you don't get that like, wow, I don't know that. Just watching the technology was cool and learning that they are going to be teaching how to make 3D printed. Um, homes from a class in Arizona.

[00:08:17] Kayleen McCabe: So now I can't wait to go visit that school. Like, what? You can get a degree in this. Like, ah, amazing. So that was cool. Um, but the police to resist that, the reason that I go to World of Concrete and the why, it's like the coolest thing on earth is they have a bunch of competitions and it starts off the day with like the journeyman doing like a brick or a decorative design and then maybe apprentices, and then it ramps up to the fastest trial, which.

[00:08:42] Kayleen McCabe: How many C M U blocks can be put down in 20 minutes And these guys are doing a, a 30 foot run in 20 minutes, and some of them were, had like seven or eight courses up in 20 minutes and it's slim and level and pretty. Um, and then they have something called the toughest tinder. [00:09:00] At the first time I went mm-hmm.

[00:09:01] Kayleen McCabe: and not being familiar with masonry, like I'm a carpenter, you know, so I was like, Tinder? Yeah. What's swipe white? Like I don't get it. Uh, so Tinder, , like, um, a Tinder is the assistant and the partner to a Mason. So the Mason handles the block. The Tinder is prepping the block and the mud. And so it's this beautiful like dance that they have.

[00:09:21] Kayleen McCabe: It's a really strong team, but there's a lot of prep work to it. So they have a competition for that. Leading up to the final competition of the date, which is the spec mix, 500 spec mix, brick layer hair, wait hair. I'll even do this. I got it on a hat spec. Make bricks layer 500. I was such a fan. Like I want the hats.

[00:09:41] Intro: Oh my God, I

[00:09:42] Kayleen McCabe: love that. Oh my god, I love it. So anyway, uh, Around

[00:09:45] Eric Goranson: the house. Be right back with my friend David Applebaum. Up next, when around the house

[00:09:50] Intro: returns,

[00:09:56] Intro: what's up? This is Dick Hand Satchel from Stihl [00:10:00] Panther and you are listening to

[00:10:02] David Applebaum Architect to the Stars: Around The House with Eric G. Yeah. We

[00:10:06] Eric Goranson: love

[00:10:06] David Applebaum Architect to the Stars: Eric G and you should.

[00:10:16] Eric Goranson: Happy New Year's Eve, everybody. Now let's get back to our discussion with David Applebaum in our favorite segments of 2022. Welcome to Around the House with Eric G and Caroline b, a new kind of home improvement every single weekend. Thanks for joining us, Caroline. We've got a close and dear friend in the house today.

[00:10:35] Eric Goranson: You

[00:10:35] Caroline Blazovsky: get the best. The best architect. The best. I think he's the, be like one of the funniest guests we have. So when he comes on, I always laugh cuz he's just so comical and just so easy. It's in his blood.

[00:10:48] Dr Decks: Oh.

[00:10:50] Eric Goranson: And, and you see him on our social media. He's around everywhere. David Apple Barn architect to the Stars.

[00:10:55] Eric Goranson: Architect to the Stars. Woo. Welcome back.

[00:10:59] David Applebaum Architect to the Stars: [00:11:00] Hey, how you doing y'all? Yeah, yeah. I don't know if I can continue after all of those planets. Gee. I don't know if any of them are accurate, especially me being easy . So

[00:11:12] Eric Goranson: funny. Well, this is a family show and we're not gonna get into that today, .

[00:11:19] Intro: Thank you.

[00:11:23] Eric Goranson: Well, I wanted to bring you on. Caroline and I were talking about this because you know, I've seen on social media here over the holidays and up through January and into February now. How many people out there are starting a house remodel or a new construction house and they've pulled up internet plans and all of a sudden they're on the interweb out there in a social media group.

[00:11:46] Eric Goranson: Talking about redesigning this house via the social media platform, and I'm going, this is already such a bad way to start. I call those people dreamers many a times because I know that there's [00:12:00] no way that's gonna get off the ground from that angle, but I wanted to talk

[00:12:04] David Applebaum Architect to the Stars: about it. You know, it might get off the ground, it just might hit the ground really soon.

[00:12:09] David Applebaum Architect to the Stars: Yeah.

[00:12:11] Eric Goranson: You know, I love, let's, let's dive into this. If you are thinking about doing a major remodel or an addition or something like that, or even starting to build a new house. I wanted to get your recommendations. David, where do you start?

[00:12:27] David Applebaum Architect to the Stars: Oh, that, that is such a loaded question. And it's funny because not even major, I've got a friend who lives in San Diego who said, I want to open up my kitchen and my living room and my dining room, and I'm not sure if I even can.

[00:12:42] David Applebaum Architect to the Stars: And so he came to me and I, I put him. Touch with the right kind of people. He didn't need very much of me. Um, I, I have to say, this is, it's, it's a really multifaceted question with even more [00:13:00] multi-layered answers. And I would start off with what is it that you want? And from there, go into a couple of different directions.

[00:13:09] David Applebaum Architect to the Stars: Um, I have said to you before, If you are throwing, yeah, I, let me start by saying, I hear a lot of people say, what do I need an architect for? I've lived in houses all of my life. I know what I like. I've got good taste. Well, you don't go to a wedding reception and say, you know what? I've cooked before and I know what I like when I eat, so I'm going to cook all of the food.

[00:13:35] David Applebaum Architect to the Stars: For the wedding reception , when everybody knows the smartest idea is to hire a caterer. Exactly. And then you decide.

[00:13:43] Caroline Blazovsky: No, no, no. I was gonna say, I think people get scared when they hear the word architect, cuz they think it's just automatically a big ticket item. And that's just my, I mean, I may be wrong with that

[00:13:54] David Applebaum Architect to the Stars: and it can be.

[00:13:57] David Applebaum Architect to the Stars: No, you are you. Here's, so here's the other [00:14:00] side of it. Okay. Which is, what are you getting out of it? One of my prized employees who now is on his own, um, there was a new regulation in Los Angeles, and so I called him because I saw him. Applying for the low intensity development permit, and I was about to do my first and I said, Hey, what's going on with this?

[00:14:22] David Applebaum Architect to the Stars: Um, can you give me a couple of pointers? Because sometimes we don't know everything either. He said It'd be easier if I show you the drawings, but before I do, before I do, I won you to promise you won't give me any judgment because this was a client that only paid me $7,000 to do the architecture, so they got a box.

[00:14:44] David Applebaum Architect to the Stars: and I made it really clear. For $7,000, you are only getting a box. He said, I know you, even if you got a $7,000 commission, you would keep on designing it and redesigning it, redesigning it till it was perfect. I, [00:15:00] I'm not willing to do that. So the point is, you can specify with your architect. How much you want and how much you're willing to spend.

[00:15:11] David Applebaum Architect to the Stars: It doesn't have to be expensive as a whole. I'm a full service architect. You hire me, I'm there from, uh, evaluation of your program, uh, taking a close look at the codes. I'm doing a project right now that the client was smart enough to say. I had an architect that said he would do it for $5,000. Drawing.

[00:15:36] David Applebaum Architect to the Stars: Here's the drawings. Something seems wrong about it. And I looked at it and I said, okay, in your neighborhood there's an area restriction, and he is three times the area that you are allowed to have. Okay? Um, there's a height restriction and he's over the re height restriction you would've spent. That small amount of architecture and you would've never gotten it [00:16:00] built.

[00:16:00] David Applebaum Architect to the Stars: Mm-hmm. . And if you would've gotten built, it would've cost you a hundred thousand dollars in variances, geezes. So I tell all of my clients, I guarantee you that when you hire me, I will save you as much money as my fee, if not. By knowing how to do the right thing, and I didn't finish, you know, full service goes all the way through watching the construction process.

[00:16:27] David Applebaum Architect to the Stars: Observing it, reporting into the client the things that are going right and are going wrong, and making sure that the contractor charges the right amount. A, a client is not supposed to pay the contractor. They'll say, the architect looks at the fees and say, wait a minute. You didn't put this in, or You didn't put it in right, or You have to put it in this way before.

[00:16:47] David Applebaum Architect to the Stars: I'll approve you getting a. To get

[00:16:50] Eric Goranson: paid for it. You know, there's a lot of, as a designer, I've seen this a lot out there, David, and you're, and you're dead on. Right. I've seen, there's [00:17:00] multiple different ways that I see contractors doing new construction house bids. They will go on to that. They will bid the house project or the remodel or whatever else.

[00:17:10] Eric Goranson: And I will see where everything's itemized. You can see that they have materials that are on par with that level of construction, and I'm like, okay, budgets are great. And then there's that handful of them out there that love. To do that add-on change order where they're the changeover

[00:17:31] David Applebaum Architect to the Stars: kings and queens, not just And not just one.

[00:17:33] David Applebaum Architect to the Stars: No, and not just one change order. If a change order is about $4,000 or even $2,000, okay, which might not seem like lot in a $200,000 house. You do 10 of those and you've added 10% to the price. That's the reason why when the architect is involved and you are bidding the project, The architect has a responsibility to look into what the contractor is like, cuz there's several [00:18:00] contractors that I know if, if I've got three bids, this guy's gonna always be 10% lower than everybody else, cuz he knows he's getting in on that low price.

[00:18:12] David Applebaum Architect to the Stars: And then he's going to change order the heck out of that project until it becomes more expensive than the most expensive contractor who had all of that figured out and isn't gonna charge a penny extra.

[00:18:25] Kayleen McCabe: So

[00:18:25] Caroline Blazovsky: question. Do you go with the contractor that your architect would recommend, or do you go with your own contractor around

[00:18:33] Eric Goranson: the house?

[00:18:34] Eric Goranson: We'll be right back with Joe Gardner just as soon as we return.

[00:18:37] Intro: Don't go anywhere.

[00:18:58] Intro: Hey, this is Ron

[00:18:59] Eric Goranson: [00:19:00] Keel, the middle Cowboy from Keel, the Ron Keel Band, and Steeler. We are rocking around the house

[00:19:07] Intro: with

[00:19:07] David Applebaum Architect to the Stars: Eric G. Ray is your

[00:19:09] Eric Goranson: best. Happy New Year's everybody. Wow. Let's get into our next segment here. One of my favorites of the year with Joe Gardner. He is one of the top, if not the top Gardner out there on social media.

[00:19:21] Eric Goranson: Let's get back to the show. Hey, Tara. Hello,

[00:19:23] Caroline Blazovsky: everybody.

[00:19:25] Eric Goranson: Welcome. This is gonna be a lot of fun. Today we have got a legend in the studio. If you're a podcaster, you've probably caught the Joe Gardner show out there. If you love television, maybe you caught him on growing a Greener World. Joe Gardner. Joe Lampel, welcome to Around the House.

[00:19:44] Eric Goranson: Oh man. Thank

[00:19:45] you

[00:19:45] Joe Lamp'l (Joe Gardener): so much. I love it. I love being here. I appreciate the invitation and I am ready to talk gardening. Whatever else you wanna talk about. I'm ready. .

[00:19:54] Eric Goranson: We love it. Excellent. Good. Excellent. Well, you, it's, it, you know, we're in the middle of July right now, we're in [00:20:00] July. It's kind of starting to get to that time of the year where it's not like you're starting gardens right now, typically you're, you're maintaining and this is the time where people go out on vacations and Yeah.

[00:20:12] Eric Goranson: What are some of the seasonal things you're seeing right now in gardening, in, you know, kind of this mid, mid to late July time of. You know, Eric,

[00:20:21] Joe Lamp'l (Joe Gardener): one, one of the things that I've noticed this year here, where I am in Atlanta, Georgia, but our audience, our students, they're all over the country and beyond, but we have office hours every week with, with some of our students, and we get a sense and a pulse of, you know, what they're going through.

[00:20:36] Joe Lamp'l (Joe Gardener): Right now we're all talking about the weather and the heat and the, either the lack of rain or the excessive rain, but all blended in there is the. And so no two years. The, the bottom line conclusion that we had, you know, just a call today was no two years are the same, and this year is unlike any other in the, in the heat.

[00:20:54] Joe Lamp'l (Joe Gardener): And so it's kind of like triage or survival mode more than anything else right now, as [00:21:00] we come into mid-July. Uh, it's crazy with the heat, you know, just trying to keep the plants alive and it's not. And because this year's so unique, it's not like we've just got a lot of experience with this excessive heat and what to do about it.

[00:21:12] Joe Lamp'l (Joe Gardener): And you know, there's nothing we can do about the weather anyway. We can't change it. So we just gotta try to figure out how to get our plants and our tomatoes and our stuff that we're waiting for it to ripen to the point that we can get it before Mother Nature takes it down. Man,

[00:21:24] Eric Goranson: we fought that. I live in the Pacific Northwest, so I'm up here in Portland, Oregon.

[00:21:27] Eric Goranson: Last year we had that, I mean, it was late June, we had one day. It was 116 degrees. It just, you know, baked everything my rhododendrons look like. I'd put 'em in an oven, you know, nothing was happy up here, , and this year's the exact opposite you guys have, the heat we have had? Mm-hmm. record rains all the way up through June.

[00:21:47] Eric Goranson: We still have probably had just a handful of 90 degree days. Haven't gotten up into the hundreds. Like we did last year in June and it's, it's a cool year for us. So it's crazy how across the [00:22:00] country, you know, Caroline will be sitting there dying over there in Jersey and I'm out here going, I got my heater on.

[00:22:05] Caroline Blazovsky: Oh, our Jersey tomatoes are frying up right now. We've got 90 degrees and yes, it's like a hundred percent relative humidity every day. Oh, and I try to tell Eric, Joe, you need to tell him that we do. Ha. We are a garden state in New Jersey, though he doesn't even believe me. He thinks we're not . We do have some luscious, luscious stuff going on here.

[00:22:26] Joe Lamp'l (Joe Gardener): Yeah, you can't beat the Jersey tomatoes. I will say that. Mm-hmm. , we've been up there filming a few episodes and oh my gosh. Uh, you, the g you get the garden state name. Uh, honestly, it's, it's, you deserve it. It's some good stuff up there, but you know, right now it's like walking out into an oven is what it's like for a lot of us.

[00:22:42] Joe Lamp'l (Joe Gardener): Yeah. And it sounds like that's the way it is for you, Caroline. Mm-hmm. .

[00:22:45] Caroline Blazovsky: I did some blueberry picking. Uh, last weekend Eric made fun of me cuz I came back into the studio and my mouth was like so purple and my teeth were daze. And I'm saying, why is it so maybe you can explain this, Joe, why is a blueberry?

[00:22:58] Caroline Blazovsky: You eat it in the grocery [00:23:00] store, it does not turn your mouth blue, but you go out blueberry picking in this like luscious, organic like form of all blueberries and my teeth were so. Is it the nutrients,

[00:23:09] Intro: is it

[00:23:09] Dr Decks: what's going on? ?

[00:23:11] Joe Lamp'l (Joe Gardener): You know, that's a really good question, but you know, why is, why is, um, a lot of the stuff we get in the grocery store, uh, represented as what we like a tomato.

[00:23:21] Joe Lamp'l (Joe Gardener): Let me just turn the tables on you just a little bit, and maybe there's a relation to the blueberry store here too. But the, the way that I think about it all the time, and the big thing that got me was, was, uh, I was reading, uh, I was reading a. And the author of the book was following this, this flatbed, this semi-truck that, you know, was open, open topped, and he saw all these green orbs in the back of it, and it's like, he's like following it down.

[00:23:47] Joe Lamp'l (Joe Gardener): He's in Florida and he's following it for miles. He goes, what are those green balls? And it finally, one fell out of the truck and it rolled down the road and he, he's. He followed the rolling thing down the road and when it stopped, he pulled over and got out and looked at it. [00:24:00] And finally he picked it up and he realized it was a tomato

[00:24:03] Joe Lamp'l (Joe Gardener): So this truckload of these round like cue balls, only green cue balls where tomatoes destined for grocery stores all over the country. And as it turns out, he, from that, he wrote a book called Tomato Land and he did investigative reporting on oh way the tomato industry, because the majority of the tomatoes that we buy across the country off season are come out of Florida.

[00:24:22] Joe Lamp'l (Joe Gardener): But here's the thing that I'm getting to and that. The quality control specs on those tomatoes includes uniformity of size and TR and travel ability. You know, the ship ability and the durability and all that. But there's not one item on that checklist about flavor . And so you get 'em to the grocery store, they're green, they're hard as a rock.

[00:24:41] Joe Lamp'l (Joe Gardener): You gas 'em with nitric oxide. Oh, and eventually they turn red, but they don't have any flavor and the color is kind of induced. It's not brought on naturally. and. Anyway, all that to say, that's why you get a flavorless tomato, you know, off season in the grocery store and [00:25:00] maybe why? The blueberries.

[00:25:02] Joe Lamp'l (Joe Gardener): Blueberries. Look blue in the grocery store. Don't aren't. Maybe they're not really blue .

[00:25:07] Eric Goranson: Maybe that's an artificial thing. . Well, that's true. I mean, you know, I've been around, I grew up in eastern Washington, so we had a lot of food processing plants and you start looking at a lot of the stuff coming in, depending on what they're doing.

[00:25:16] Eric Goranson: But it's like there's waxes and polishes and all these things that are going on. Things like apples and Yes. And all that stuff out there that is not on your tree or plant out in the back.

[00:25:27] Joe Lamp'l (Joe Gardener): Yeah, and there's the dirty dozen too. So there's that list of 12 crops that are, um, so sprayed with every kind of pesticide and chemical possible to keep it alive and pest free and get it to the grocery store that by the time you get it, I mean, you better wash the heck.

[00:25:44] Joe Lamp'l (Joe Gardener): better, wash the heck out of it. What's the worst

[00:25:46] Kayleen McCabe: before you consume it? What's the worst,

[00:25:48] Caroline Blazovsky: Joe? Like I always thought the apple was the worst.

[00:25:51] Joe Lamp'l (Joe Gardener): I think strawberries are the worst. If I recall, I was afraid you were gonna ask me what's on that list, but I think strawberries are really bad. Peaches are really bad.

[00:25:58] Joe Lamp'l (Joe Gardener): Mm-hmm. ,

[00:25:59] Eric Goranson: um, those [00:26:00] soft, those soft ones where they don't have a, yeah. A layer out there to really those protective,

[00:26:05] Joe Lamp'l (Joe Gardener): sweet, soft, juicy ones are the really bad ones. Yeah. Yeah, I

[00:26:08] Caroline Blazovsky: think they had a recall on strawberries recently. Right. So we're seeing, I mean, and maybe this is a question for you. We're seeing a lot of salmonella outbreak, we're seeing a lot of this lister stuff happening.

[00:26:17] Caroline Blazovsky: Is that a pro a product of gardening? Is it a product of not cleaning the vegetables, bringing them in and then them being contaminated? I mean, is there any, is there any truth to any of that?

[00:26:27] Joe Lamp'l (Joe Gardener): Well, I think the, the root cause of that oftentimes is in the irrigation in the fields. Mm-hmm. and where that water's coming from.

[00:26:33] Joe Lamp'l (Joe Gardener): And, you know, that pro, that bacteria, those pathogens can find their way into the water supply and onto the plants. And there's also pathogens that live in the soil that can be dangerous as well. And the water can cause them to get up onto the foliage and into the fruit, or up through the roots into the plant, and therefore transferred into what we eat.

[00:26:52] Joe Lamp'l (Joe Gardener): And so, uh, you know, it. Tries as they might, you know, they do everything they can to try to avoid that, but [00:27:00] sometimes it's just beyond their control. Yeah. And it's, it's unfortunate, but we find out the hard way when somebody gets sick and um, and then they have to just. Trash, everything that they, you know, was in that supply chain

[00:27:12] Eric Goranson: gardeners.

[00:27:13] Eric Goranson: It's right. I've seen this when I, when I grew up, we had a bunch of those federal hydroelectric projects where they put the irrigation out across, you know, in our states out here, and they're basically just big, wide open trenches filled with pumped water out of a river or a lake. Yeah. The problem is, is the water when it starts out, is really cool clean water, but by the time it goes past the feed, With the cows in it and through the, the apple orchards and the corn and everything else.

[00:27:42] Eric Goranson: And there's plain spraying by the time it comes out at the other end, which could be 10 or 15 miles later. Yeah, it looks like brown, green sewage water coming out there. Mm-hmm. . And that's just because of all the stuff that's caught along the way.

[00:27:57] Joe Lamp'l (Joe Gardener): No question about it, and just the fecal [00:28:00] matter from the wildlife that may find its way into the watersheds or the aquifer that merges with the water that was used to irrigate the crops.

[00:28:07] Joe Lamp'l (Joe Gardener): And that's, that's my point. I mean it, you never know where it's ultimately coming from or how it got there, but it does, and there's so many pathways for that to happen.

[00:28:16] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Yeah. When I was a kid, we'd always have that. You had two water systems in the house that we had. You had the irrigation water and that, and you know, you're 10 or 12 and you're getting a drink outta the hose.

[00:28:25] Eric Goranson: And my mom's running out there going, no, don't drink that. Get on wounds. Water, you know. Thanks, Joe Gardner. Now next. Step, we've got Dr. Dex just as soon as around the house returns.

[00:28:58] Intro: Welcome

[00:28:58] Eric Goranson: back to Around the House and [00:29:00] a happy New Year. Get over to Jason, Dr. Dax in this last episode for Around The House in 2022. Now, let's get back to the show. There is no way to fake that level of quality. It's either slides or it, I don't .

[00:29:16] Dr Decks: Yeah. I've got it like 50 feet. I've thrown those things up to 50 feet, um, on a slide and, and yeah, you don't always get it right on the first one, but, you know, it's a, for me, it's a thing.

[00:29:25] Dr Decks: So I have to do it on every job now. Yeah. Every time I have the opportu.

[00:29:29] Eric Goranson: Dude. And that's, and that's the beauty of that is, and that's, that's care of the construction. Yeah. And for the people out there listening, a two by 12 is not consistent with the one next to it. It's kind of close , but you can be off on those dimensions.

[00:29:43] Eric Goranson: Oh, big time. And you have to go in and set each and every one of those things to make it work. , it's either right or it's not.

[00:29:54] Dr Decks: Yeah. You need to grade your framing before you install it to thickness so that you know that [00:30:00] you're not gonna have a rollercoaster surface

[00:30:01] Eric Goranson: when you're done. And that's one thing with the composites is they're flexible enough that you can start to see that in

[00:30:09] Dr Decks: there.

[00:30:09] Dr Decks: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Lay down on your deck and look at it and you're like, Ooh, . I mean, we, we take precaution and care and every time I come up a ladder or a stair, And I look at the deck and I can still see a hump here or a dip. . You know, it, we just minimize it. We don't eliminate it unless we get into aluminum framing.

[00:30:28] Dr Decks: Like you asked me a question earlier, what? What do I see coming in the future? Yeah, it's alternate metals framing, but I kind of skipped the steel train and I'm waiting for the aluminums to come. Yeah, I think, I think aluminum framing is gonna be one of the biggest booms. in in our industry, and it's gonna take another five to 10 years for it to really start to roll out.

[00:30:51] Dr Decks: And that's where I'm going. That's where I'm putting my. Efforts in, in, in trying to pick a brand or a couple brands that I'd like [00:31:00] to use, uh, because it will give you a laser flat deck. As a matter of fact, I just installed one ca with a company called Outdoor. Mm-hmm. , uh, where the gentleman that owns a company in Australia flew over here.

[00:31:13] Dr Decks: Really? He stayed with, he stayed with me in my house and he shipped over a complete deck section. for this above like a pedestal system deck. Mm-hmm. that we had to do. And we planned it out like months in advance. And he finally came over here in April and we actually installed it together. And it was a lot of work cause there was many challenges, uh, that he didn't realize when, you know, you can only do so much over, uh, a Skype, you know?

[00:31:39] Dr Decks: Correct. But it was pretty amazing when it was done and, and it turned out really nice.

[00:31:44] Eric Goranson: Think about that. If you're putting down a, a deck product that's got a long warranty, you've got aluminum in there that's very consistent. Mm-hmm. and is virtually weatherproof. Yep. Half a solid system right there, you can put a deck on it and get [00:32:00] decades out of that.

[00:32:01] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Without having to worry about. And for you, you're not putting to put all the wrap on it, you're not having to do all the waterproofing on the deck board. Yeah, on the, on the joists and stuff. So it's probably gonna go quicker in the long run. He use less material. Well,

[00:32:12] Dr Decks: he had an interlocking, he had an interlocking clip system too that we're able to use.

[00:32:18] Dr Decks: So it locked all the boards down. And then we only had to fasten like every five. That's crazy. It was cool. And it doesn't move.

[00:32:26] Eric Goranson: No. Yeah, it's not going to.

[00:32:28] Dr Decks: No, there's no spring. And then also the cortex driller. Fasten master actually makes a cortex, a fastener that can go into the aluminum and you can cortex it and it locks it down, man.

[00:32:41] Dr Decks: So we pinned all the ends on that deck so it wouldn't move around. Wow. Yeah.

[00:32:47] Eric Goranson: That is awesome. Okay. Yeah, you got me looking at that now. That's, that's cool stuff. And I think that's, you're right, and, and you're not gonna see the, the, the, the challenges we see with lumber prices and [00:33:00] availability and, you know, aluminums, aluminum, they can knock that stuff out.

[00:33:04] Dr Decks: Yeah. Yeah. I, I think mostly like what this guy was, his issue is, uh, where to import it from, where to import it. And then how to get it to the states and warehousing and all that. But you're like

[00:33:17] Eric Goranson: Port a Tacoma . Exactly.

[00:33:20] Dr Decks: We talked about it. But, um, he's a busy guy. You know, he's got a 30 million company right now and he's trying to grow that to a hundred and he's gonna do it, uh, with this product, I can tell you right now, it's, He's actually developing a framing system for us in the states because we're so into our nominal dimensional two by eight, but we can use a two by eight and span at 14 feet, you know, instead of, yeah.

[00:33:48] Dr Decks: Uh, eight feet or nine feet. Yeah.

[00:33:51] Eric Goranson: Hadn't thought of that. Yeah. You get totally different spans out of this,

[00:33:55] Dr Decks: and it's flat. Wow. Yeah. All right, [00:34:00] man. That's cool. And you can build thin with it. Yeah. Their system, their system, they have all these varying widths, so you can build a two and a half inch thick deck.

[00:34:10] Eric Goranson: How tricky in a contemporary house could you imagine doing that? Where it's just, yeah.

[00:34:15] Dr Decks: Laser thin. That would be laser thin. But like for, for those, uh, rooftop, those flat rooftop areas that mm-hmm. , uh, people have rubber

[00:34:22] Eric Goranson: or you know, whatever membranes and stuff,

[00:34:23] Dr Decks: stuff on him. Yeah. Pop up on him, whatever.

[00:34:25] Dr Decks: Yeah. This, this is a cool, that's what, that's why we had to use his system. Cause I couldn't do a traditional, if I would've done a wood frame, it'd probably already be falling apart. Yeah,

[00:34:36] Eric Goranson: so good. Good call. Good call. Yeah, man. So that is cool stuff. You heard of your first guys? That's the, that's the trend from Dr.

[00:34:43] Eric Goranson: Dax.

[00:34:44] Dr Decks: That's, that's my trend. See, see, when you, when you cut with steel, every cut you make has to be protected. If you let the shavings go down onto your nice patio or cement, it's gonna rust. . Okay. So you gotta cut off site almost, or, or somewhere contained. [00:35:00] And, um, then you, and

[00:35:01] Eric Goranson: then blow that off because you can't have any of those.

[00:35:04] Eric Goranson: Chat, those

[00:35:04] Dr Decks: right. Aluminum. I mean, it might be silver specs, but it's not gonna rust. Yeah. Um, and then pergolas, uh, like, uh, TimberTech just acquired structure, which is an aluminum, um, loured roof. Yeah. So I think loured roofs and patio covers are gonna be a, a, another hot item, uh, coming up up and coming for the, for the future.

[00:35:28] Dr Decks: Um,

[00:35:29] Eric Goranson: I didn't see that those guys had had grabbed them. That's awesome because I, yeah, they did. I've looked into that stuff. It's cool. I got a buddy really one of my really good friends that lives down the street. We've been kind of looking at that for his, he wants to do a covered area over his deck cuz out in his backyard, his full son and eat his bakes out there.

[00:35:46] Eric Goranson: And so we were wanting to make a kind of outdoor kitchen area for him that was gonna be out in the middle of his yard, and it would look, that's the only thing.

[00:35:51] Dr Decks: They're, they're not cheap. Um, it's a premium investment. I can do a standard acrylic and aluminum patio cover for half the cost of a, of a, [00:36:00] a structure.

[00:36:01] Dr Decks: Yeah. So that's usually what I end up doing cuz people don't wanna spend the extra money unless they really want that ua. Yeah. You know,

[00:36:09] Eric Goranson: but they're

[00:36:09] Dr Decks: sexy. Cool. I think outdoor kitchens and, and, and just, just space, like covered space that you can hang out under, but most people don't realize what they're spending.

[00:36:19] Dr Decks: Um, when I go on these estimates, people don't realize how expensive that's gonna be. Yeah. You want a 20 by 20 enclosed co or covered area with a. , you know, you're spending a hundred plus thousand dollars and people don't realize they're thinking it's 20 grand and the material, you're not buying

[00:36:37] Eric Goranson: the materials for half.

[00:36:39] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Materials are twice that. Three times that. So,

[00:36:43] Dr Decks: yeah. So, um, that's always a, a, a rude awakening for a lot of people is just price. Yeah. I just kicked out a bid for 300 grand for a guy just to do a resurface. It was 3000 square feet. Yeah. All rail, all new bladders. I mean, it was a lot. [00:37:00] Wow. But I don't oversee the, the day, the light of day on that one.

[00:37:03] Dr Decks: You know, I, I didn't expect to, but I wasn't gonna, just cuz it's big doesn't mean I charge less.

[00:37:09] Eric Goranson: No, no. You know, it's still labor is labor materials or materials when it comes down to it. Yep. I mean, you're not having to, to move off the site, but these days it's not like you're sitting there leaving, you know, your tools on site for a week, either, you know, you're, you're still packing up either way.

[00:37:23] Eric Goranson: So it's just one big job. Yep. And it's not like you don't have a waiting list out there either,

[00:37:29] Dr Decks: right? We're booked out a year right now. Yeah. The only problem I have is permitting. Oh. It's a nightmare.

[00:37:38] Eric Goranson: They have not got that straight yet. I mean, that's, it's, I don't think they're going to anytime soon. I don't care where you're located.

[00:37:45] Eric Goranson: It's pretty rare to get, you know, it's, it's feaster famine. You know, when you think, okay, it's slowing down out there, the new home builders are, are gonna not take up as much time, so we'll be able to get remodel stuff. That's when the building department lays off the people in the [00:38:00] building department and then you just have less people you're working with.

[00:38:02] Eric Goranson: There's never like a Yeah, a sweet spot.

[00:38:05] Dr Decks: No, it's unfortunate. It's, it's, um, just struggling with that right now.

[00:38:10] Eric Goranson: I bet, I bet. Well, brother, we are running out of time. We have blasted through an hour so quickly. Jason, what's the best way for people to track you down out there, man? If someone's gonna track you down social media, website, where do they find you?

[00:38:25] Dr Decks: Well, uh, Instagram, probably number one. That's the my most followed, uh, site. It's Dr. Dex, d r d e c k s. You can go to our YouTube channel under the same. And, um, my website is also, if you just Google Dr. Dex, you cannot miss me. , we, we will pop up, um, and dr dex.com. That's my webpage. Um, I haven't updated it recently.

[00:38:49] Dr Decks: If you want the most up to date, probably gonna go to Instagram. But, um, our YouTube channel is really unique. Uh, my son actually cuts the videos and edits and [00:39:00] uploads everything. We spend a lot of money every month trying to promote. And it's all free to you. Um, alls I ask is that you click subscribe.

[00:39:08] Eric Goranson: That's simple. That's simple. Yeah. Click subscribe on that one, guys. And that's where you get your masterclass on this stuff. Yes, sir. All right, brother. Thanks for coming on today, man. I really appreciate it. And we're gonna do this again. Yeah. Thanks for having me. All right. I'm Eric G and you've been listening to Around the House.