[00:00:06] Eric Goranson: ITs Around theHouse Coming up on today's around the house. Happy New Year's Eve everybody. This is part two of my favorite segments of 2022. We've got some great experts in the house, Shannon, that tile chick talking and tile swimming pool. Steve talking about hot tubs and swimming pools. Barbecue expert Jeff Tracy and Leanne Whipping.

[00:00:28] Eric Goranson: You probably saw her win Master Q on Food Network. And then we round this hour up with Emmy Award-winning. And we'll talk home tech for your family, all this and more coming up on this first hour of around the house. And don't worry, our number two will leave you. Disappointed either. Yeah. Let's do

[00:00:46] Intro: this.

[00:00:46] Intro: When it comes to remodeling and renovating your home, there is a covered, this is

[00:00:54] Eric Goranson: around the house. Welcome to around the. Eric g and Caroline B, where we [00:01:00] talk home improvement, healthy homes, construction design every single week. Thanks for

[00:01:05] Intro: joining us. Hey Caroline. Hey Eric.

[00:01:09] Eric Goranson: We have a fun guest in the studio today.

[00:01:13] Eric Goranson: You might have seen her all over social media as that tile check. Shannon, welcome to Around the House.

[00:01:21] That Tile Chick (Schannon Yodice): Hi guys. Thanks for having me.

[00:01:23] Eric Goranson: This is gonna be a lot of fun. You are just crushing the trades out there and Caroline and I are both supporters of it and I love to see what you're doing out there. Cuz you know it's funny when I watch videos and then I watch the comments of the people that have, maybe I've been in Dove for 33 years and this is how I do it and I just laugh sometimes cause it's like, so you've been doing it wrong for 33 years.

[00:01:48] Eric Goranson: That's awesome. .

[00:01:51] That Tile Chick (Schannon Yodice): Oh yes. . Oh yes, .

[00:01:55] Eric Goranson: So I love disruptors. .

[00:01:59] Intro: Well,

[00:01:59] Caroline Blazovsky: I'm [00:02:00] a giant, super fan of Shannon because she teaches me that I'm a little afraid of tile. I have to admit, and Eric knows I have like a fear of tiling. I'm not exact when it comes to the artistic. Part of it, but you make me feel like I can do it. So that's why I got with Eric and I said, we gotta have her on.

[00:02:16] Caroline Blazovsky: She makes me

[00:02:17] Katie Linendoll: feel like I can tile, I can do this. Oh yes, you

[00:02:19] That Tile Chick (Schannon Yodice): can. Most definitely tile. It's, it's a little, it can be intimidating. It's a, you know, it's a hard material and like there's special tools and skills you need, but. . I truly believe anybody can do it as long as you just, you know, learn key steps.

[00:02:34] That Tile Chick (Schannon Yodice): Maybe you're not gonna be the best at it at first, but

[00:02:37] Intro: it takes a long time to focus. , there's a learning curve. Mm-hmm. , that's

[00:02:41] Eric Goranson: a, well, one thing that I weren't learned from my buddy William White, who I've known since we were probably 13 years old, so, I've learned from him is prep is like 90% of it, of doing the right stuff before you put the pretty stuff on.

[00:02:56] Eric Goranson: That's where, yes, the beauty is, that's,

[00:02:59] That Tile Chick (Schannon Yodice): [00:03:00] yes, that's very true. Especially when it comes to like a shower. Because a shower when you think about it has to function. The tile is just like the pretty cover. It's like the makeup when everything that's going on underneath is what really matters. Yes, the prep is like the most important key,

[00:03:20] Eric Goranson: you know, and as somebody that's done showers before, including my own steam shower with, with really good pros.

[00:03:27] Eric Goranson: I learned a lot about it here this last time, using some of the new technology. You know, we put a weedy system in and then we did, you know, William came in with all the art X stuff and I did slab portion on the walls, all that different stuff, but. I really learned some of the newer stuff out there cuz you know, back in the day, I remember still in the nineties when I first got into interior design.

[00:03:49] Eric Goranson: There were plenty of tile setters out there, putting green board Sheetrock in the, in the shower and laying tile over it and then wondering why it didn't work.

[00:03:59] That Tile Chick (Schannon Yodice): Oh, yeah. [00:04:00] Um, like, so that's the thing, like if green board is, it's water, it's not, it's moisture resistant, not water. There we go. So you, so the key word there is moisture.

[00:04:12] That Tile Chick (Schannon Yodice): So that means what? Probably just like, you know, the, the steam that comes off of your shower, you know, and it's like sitting in the room because you, your vent fan is like clogged up with 10 years worth of dust, you know, . So moisture resistant, not water. It's not even water resistant because you get that thing wet, it's going to soak great, explode, smoke the water right up.

[00:04:37] That Tile Chick (Schannon Yodice): Yeah, it's just gonna disintegrate. So, I don't know, it doesn't even wick water it. It's

[00:04:44] Intro: drywall. . Yeah, . So

[00:04:47] Caroline Blazovsky: for amateur people. So Eric's always the person who's got all the experience with building and I'm more on the environmental side, right? So that is a big thing to me with mold, because we don't want mold from an environmental standpoint, but for the [00:05:00] people who are ba or bare bones like me, what do you recommend?

[00:05:03] Caroline Blazovsky: Like, so where's the first place to start? Is it knowing what your backer board's gonna be? Is it knowing, you know, what type of process you're gonna engage in first? Just take us through some basic tips. So DIY people like me aren't so scared. Okay,

[00:05:17] That Tile Chick (Schannon Yodice): so the first thing you wanna do once the shower is demoed and you just basically have a clean slate, is you wanna think about, um, you just kind of wanna think about what, I like to do it this way, thinking about what kind of tile I'm going to put in the shower.

[00:05:35] That Tile Chick (Schannon Yodice): Like what's the size of the. . Um, now this might sound super complicated, but it actually makes your life so much easier when, if you're gonna put a niche or a soap box in the shower and you're like, okay, well, like I know I have this size tile. You can literally plan out where the niche is going to go in the wall.

[00:05:57] That Tile Chick (Schannon Yodice): so that you don't have like weird, crazy cuts [00:06:00] around the niche. And that takes less time on you while you're installing the tile to plan out full tiles around the niche. And the way that you can do that is just simply by Y. Yes, you're taking measurements of the wall. It's like a naked wall, just studs there, you know?

[00:06:15] That Tile Chick (Schannon Yodice): So you just. , kind of figure out where you're gonna put your, your niche box. And then like, I like to just like work from the bottom. So like, just pretend that the, the rest of the wall isn't existing and I'll just like measure from the floor to the bottom of the niche and then like move it as I go up or down, depending on where the tile is gonna be, legs so that I can like, have full tiles around the niche and I don't have to make any crazy cuts.

[00:06:40] That Tile Chick (Schannon Yodice): So that's what I would do first. Then I would figure out what kind of wallboard I'm going to use. I, I like foam board, so I am always using foam. Um, I like it because it's light, it's easy to maneuver. You can cut it with a box knife like. To me, if there's something that's gonna make my life easier and it's faster, [00:07:00] I'm going to use that.

[00:07:00] That Tile Chick (Schannon Yodice): Plus, if you use like, um, cement, cement board, now you're creating dust and it's like an extra step. If you're cutting it with like a, something like a grinder, for example. You're cutting it outside and you're making dust and I have to wear a mask and. It's heavy, like it's just, I like foam i'll, I'll spend a little bit more money on it.

[00:07:21] That Tile Chick (Schannon Yodice): So like, just cut it right in the bathroom, pull my measurement, cut it, and put it up on the wall. Um, so figuring out your layout before the walls go up is key. Then what you wanna do is use foam , especially if you're not like if for diy, especially foam. , you're going to pay significantly more, 100%, but it is a much easier, much more forgiving material to use and it's almost like foolproof, if you will.

[00:07:56] That Tile Chick (Schannon Yodice): Like it's very hard to mess it up. If you're using like [00:08:00] a system like Lati Crete, which is what I use, they are the foam and they use a sealant system. So basically you put up the foam and what you're putting over your washers and your screws and your seams is you're using. Uh, urethane sealant. So, and the urethane, sealant is water curable.

[00:08:19] That Tile Chick (Schannon Yodice): So like you could essentially tile immediately, whereas like some other systems, like the Schluter, you use the banding and stuff and mm-hmm. that, um, I'm pretty sure, I don't, don't quote me, I'm not a hundred percent sure, but I think that they say you can tile right away, but I don't know. But the banding for me, I could never tile on the same day that I prepped for Schluter.

[00:08:41] That Tile Chick (Schannon Yodice): Takes longer. It's just a more intensive process, you know? So that's not a thing. Foam board, urethane, sealant, if you can get that system. Amazing. Um, I'm trying to think of any like super key point, but,

[00:08:57] uh,

[00:08:57] Caroline Blazovsky: Eric, is that the artex? Is that what he was talking about? [00:09:00] Remember we were talking about when you have these weird shapes,

[00:09:01] Eric Goranson: artists has one?

[00:09:02] Eric Goranson: Yeah, there's, yeah. The good news is right now there's probably. You know, a half dozen name brand systems and another dozen off-brand systems out there. Yeah. And I see the good thing is, is right now, because trying to come up with materials for a job sometimes where you're like, Hey, they got all the sealant, but they don't have any board.

[00:09:20] Eric Goranson: Or they have tape, but they don't have any sealant and there's still been some serious supply chain issues out there. Next up, we've got swimming pool. Steve, so much more coming up in our favorite episodes of 2022 on this New Year's Eve around the house. I'll be right back.

[00:09:39] Intro: Why

[00:09:46] Intro: should be loud be so hot.

[00:09:55] Intro: So,[00:10:00]

[00:10:06] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to The Round The House Show. Happy New Year's Eve everybody. We're in the middle of our top segments here of 2022, and now we've got next. We've got swimming pools, Steve. Now let's get back to the program. Welcome to Around the House with Eric G and Caroline B, your home improvement source every single week.

[00:10:26] Eric Goranson: Thanks for joining us, Caroline. We have a excellent guest in the studio today that I'm so excited for. Hi

[00:10:33] Caroline Blazovsky: everybody. I am thrilled for our guest. You know, I love the pool and I, you know, I love swimming and I know I want a pool, so he's the, he's the golden child in my eyes.

[00:10:44] Eric Goranson: There we go. We got SW pool.

[00:10:46] Eric Goranson: Steve coming on a second generation pooled spa builder with over 50,000 hours of onsite experience. Welcome to Around the House, brother. Well, thank

[00:10:55] Swimming Pool Steve: you. Thank you for having me. I'm

[00:10:56] Eric Goranson: excited to be here. Thanks for coming on, man. You have been [00:11:00] owning YouTube with your pool advice out there, and uh, it's that time of year, man.

[00:11:07] Eric Goranson: Things are warming up. People are thinking about hitting that pool or, or even uh, getting that hot tub

[00:11:12] Swimming Pool Steve: up. And it's true. Yeah, getting the pool for sure. I'm up in Ontario, Canada, so right now everybody is opening their swimming pool. It's hot and everyone is gonna want to be swimming very shortly. Uh, hot tubs kind of the same thing, but interesting to mention.

[00:11:25] Swimming Pool Steve: I've always wondered why close a hot tub, like for me using the hot tub year round, like why not use it in the winter? It's the best time to use. There

[00:11:32] Eric Goranson: is nothing like sitting out in a hot tub with snow in your hair, little icicle in the beard, and sitting out there with a, with a beverage and enjoying the cold.

[00:11:44] Eric Goranson: The only bad part is, is that walk to the house, cuz if it's icy, that can be its own little dangerous experience.

[00:11:51] Swimming Pool Steve: That is absolutely true. That's actually the first thing that, uh, that you preach about hot tubs is, well, where should I put this thing? Trust me, put it close to the door. [00:12:00]

[00:12:00] Eric Goranson: That walk of shame when it's, when it's icy out there and the chance of you eating it on a, on a cold, icy deck in the wintertime, it's not comfortable.

[00:12:09] Eric Goranson: Definitely.

[00:12:10] Swimming Pool Steve: But at the same time, if you're not jumping into a snowbank and then back into a hot tub, you're just not living.

[00:12:15] Eric Goranson: Yes. There you go, Caroline. See, that's what you gotta be doing in the wintertime. Mm.

[00:12:21] Caroline Blazovsky: Well, I'm a, I'm the an environmental consultant by. And so my gripe with hot tubs is that they always get moldy no matter what you do.

[00:12:28] Caroline Blazovsky: So do you have a way to prevent that from happening? Because a lot of the, the hot tubs here, at least in the Northeast, seem to, if you keep 'em closed up for a while and then you reopen 'em, they get this kind of musty smell.

[00:12:39] Swimming Pool Steve: Oh, definitely. And, uh, you know, just in general, like I've, I've gotten a fair bit of experience with hot tubs, uh, up to and including, you know, managing a pretty busy hot tub store, uh, for a period of time into water lab.

[00:12:49] Swimming Pool Steve: And what I discovered is that the vast majority of people, and I'm talking like 95% of hot tub owners, Are not taking care of their hot tubs properly, and they're missing some really fundamental stuff [00:13:00] that is going to result in things like you're describing here, where you get like these musty smells or other problems.

[00:13:05] Swimming Pool Steve: And they're not supposed to be like that. Like hot tubs aren't supposed to smell bad. That's one of the most common complaints. Like, oh, hot tubs. I, you know, how do I make my water smell better? It's like, if it smells bad, it's probably not balanced to begin. And, uh, just to, to put a pen in this, the most important thing if you have a hot tub and you're hearing this and you're like, well, I wonder if I'm one of these people.

[00:13:24] Swimming Pool Steve: We probably are. If you're not pipe flushing every time you drain your hot tub, before you drain the old water away, you need to clean out all of the junk that builds up inside the plumbing lines, because that's where all the bacteria is. And when you just drain and refill, or even if you drain and like scrub with some vinegar, you're missing all of that junk that's inside the plumbing line.

[00:13:43] Swimming Pool Steve: Pipe flush procedure is a critical element that hot tub boners should be doing every time they drain their hot tub, which also they should probably be doing more than they're

[00:13:51] Caroline Blazovsky: doing. So how often should you do that, and then how do you drain it knowing people are doing

[00:13:55] Swimming Pool Steve: their pipe? So you should drain once every, once every four months is kind of the, the [00:14:00] conventional logic.

[00:14:01] Swimming Pool Steve: The problem that I have with this is everyone hears that and they're like, okay, perfect. Once every four months I'm gonna drain this. Or maybe once every three months even. The problem is, is that that is, that's assuming that you've maintained it properly the entire time. So true. And most people aren't, most people aren't even close to maintaining it properly the whole time.

[00:14:18] Swimming Pool Steve: Like if it ever turned green at all, even for a day, like that's a disaster. You would, like, some people would just drain rate based upon that alone. Um, and all of the stuff that you're adding to try to compensate for the lack of chemical management that you're doing, again, it's contributing to just higher levels of total dissolved solids within the water and making the water.

[00:14:37] Swimming Pool Steve: Less manageable in general. So it's kind of like this cycle that you end up in where you're fighting the water as opposed to en, you know, enjoying it. So you, you should clean your water more often, okay? Don't try to like go six months or a year like so many hot tub owners do. There's so little advantage in you doing so, and the amount of work it takes to just own a submersible pump and drop it into your hot tub, [00:15:00] shotgun a beer while you're watching it drain.

[00:15:01] Swimming Pool Steve: Like it's super easy, , it's not hard to. I actually have a joke on on YouTube. That was one of the first things I ever posted, like eight years. And somebody was saying about this exact procedure like, well, what, how? What's this pipe flush? I've never heard of, it sounds like a lot of work. And I explained to them, look, grab a can of pipe flush.

[00:15:20] Swimming Pool Steve: Stab the can with a knife. Throw the knife and the can into the hot tub. You're daunting. Shotgun a beer. Like it couldn't

[00:15:26] Eric Goranson: be easy. . That's awesome. That is awesome. Well, I've got a question for you cuz there's all these people out there that are like, oh, I'm done doing chlorine. I'm gonna go saline or salt.

[00:15:37] Eric Goranson: What's your opinion on that? Because you know, there's a scale pitch for every hot tub

[00:15:41] Swimming Pool Steve: Breaks are on. So Salt wa makes chlorine. Chlorine, I know that too, making it at that salt. But these things are exactly the same. So you, you described two things which are the same and uh, some people know that and, but a lot of people don't steal.

[00:15:54] Swimming Pool Steve: There's a lot of misinformation out there about water. It's not an alternative in any way. The only thing you changed is [00:16:00] where you get your chlorine. Somebody else used to make it for you and then give you a jug of chlorine. Now what you do is you just buy the same base ingredients they were using and you make your own chlorine, right, in the swimming pool.

[00:16:11] Swimming Pool Steve: So those two things are the same, but you almost said, what's an alternative to chlorine? And that is such a hot button issue for me. Like you, if you want to, if you want to see me , I bent outta his shape. Start talking to me about, you know, you're looking for an alternative to chlorine because you want to be healthier.

[00:16:27] Swimming Pool Steve: And it's like, man, you couldn't be further from the truth with that. Like chlorine is what differentiates safe water from unsafe water. And unsafe water is one of the most dangerous things on the planet. I think the statistic is one in every four hospital beds on the planet has someone in it who's sick from a waterborne illness.

[00:16:45] Swimming Pool Steve: And people say like, oh yeah, well that's, you know, when Africa or some other place that's undeveloped. And I say, do you know what the main difference between us and them is? It's that we use chlorine in our water to keep it. So I'm talking everything from the food that, or the water that you cook with, the water you [00:17:00] wash your kids with.

[00:17:00] Swimming Pool Steve: It all has chlorine in it. So when you come to me and say, you know, that stuff's dangerous, I wanna use something else. I think to myself, this is crazy. You're ignoring what is the obvious answer here, which is learning how to work with chlorine so that you can manage safe water without having to use a whole bunch of extra cuz you didn't really know what you were doing.

[00:17:17] Swimming Pool Steve: Which is kind of what most people end up. And in a worst case scenario, you can get some bad advice, which is really easy to come by these days. And you can choose an alternative completely. You know, something that maybe works a little bit, or maybe you choose something that doesn't work at all, because there's not really any way to stop you from buying that or to stop somebody from claiming that something works really well.

[00:17:37] Swimming Pool Steve: And people get sick and die. And that's the reality. And you know, as a professional in the industry, I have to see that more than I definitely wish. I wish that I did. Okay. And if people saw it a little more, they would be a little more sensitive to it. You know, chlorine is there to keep you safe in swimming water, and any attempt to find an alternative to it.

[00:17:54] Swimming Pool Steve: I mean, if you don't, if you don't wear lab coats work every day, you have no business trying to figure this out on your own.

[00:17:59] Eric Goranson: [00:18:00] Hmm. Good point man. Good point. Because yeah, I. Chlorine in, in pools that I've seen. You know, that's what keeps that water from people getting all those, those illnesses in the tub.

[00:18:11] Eric Goranson: But at the same point, somebody out there mismanaging, it can also make people sick by putting too much or hurt them by

[00:18:18] Swimming Pool Steve: putting too much. Sure. I mean, and that's true for anything at all. But, uh, when, when manage properly, I mean, you can have your yourself exposed to pretty low levels of chemical sanitizer like chlorine or.

[00:18:28] Swimming Pool Steve: And again, it really comes down to just most of the people not really knowing what they're doing. And then you have to ate by adding a bunch extra.

[00:18:36] Eric Goranson: Thanks Steve. Coming up next, we've got Leanne Whipping and Jeff Tracy from Barbecue Nation. Just as soon as around the house

[00:18:43] Intro: returns.[00:19:00]

[00:19:09] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to The Round The House Show. Happy New Year's Eve, everybody. Now we're gonna continue. With our best of 2022 episodes. Now we go back to Jeff, Tracy and Leanne Whipping for Barbecue Nation, the episode that you've been waiting

[00:19:22] Intro: for.

[00:19:22] Caroline Blazovsky: I am so stoked. I have been asking Eric week after week, when are our barbecue people coming on?

[00:19:28] Caroline Blazovsky: I said, I wanna hear all about it. So here they are. Bring it on.

[00:19:32] Eric Goranson: So we've got from Barbecue Nation, my good friend Jeff Tracy. Woo. Hello, hello. And of course, his co-host Leanne Whipping Barbecue. Extraordinary.

[00:19:48] Eric Goranson: Welcome to Around the House. You might have seen Jeff Tracy on the back of Milk Cartons Everywhere, and Leanne Whitten has been an all over food network before beating people like Bobby [00:20:00] Flay and Master aq. And welcome guys. Thanks for having us.

[00:20:08] Jeff Tracy The Cowboy Cook: Hey, good morning.

[00:20:10] Eric Goranson: There you go. In. Good afternoon. Whatever time is, I'm not sure I was up, so we wanted to talk barbecuing because there's some people like me that's all good. I can be standing out in the snow as long as the wind's not blowing and barbecuing. But we are getting into what I call residential barbecue season for me, for people that are walking into the home centers and seeing that $199 grill.

[00:20:31] Eric Goranson: And trying to do something with it that they probably shouldn't be.

[00:20:36] Eric Goranson: and I, I thought we'd talk about that to begin with about. There's some great barbecues that are inexpensive, but there's also ones that are kind of throwaway models that might make it through a year and a half of cooking. What are you guys doing out there for barbecues these days?

[00:20:51] Lee Ann Whippen "Master of Cue": Yeah, so, um, I, uh, I'm a brand ambassador for Pit Boss Grills, so I am a huge fan of the Pellet system because for [00:21:00] me, um, it's, it's a great.

[00:21:03] Lee Ann Whippen "Master of Cue": Design for someone that's cooking in the backyard that doesn't have the time to work on maintaining their fire over live fire like charcoal. Um, it preheats very easily. You can kind of set it and forget it so you can come home from work and actually smoke food and you're, it's ready in like 10 minutes to put your food on and it regulates the heat for you.

[00:21:27] Lee Ann Whippen "Master of Cue": It kisses your meat with, you know, just wonderful smoke. And there's a variety of different flavor pellets. Um, actually pit Bos has a spring blend that just came out. Um, I was in Walmart yesterday just perusing the aisles. And it's obvious grilling season is on . I mean, it used to be like one 10th of an aisle, and now you have, it's, it's like shopping for toys now.

[00:21:50] Lee Ann Whippen "Master of Cue": I mean, it is like nonstop. I mean, the choices are amazing

[00:21:54] Caroline Blazovsky: for Thanksgiving. Yeah. Great.

[00:21:57] Jeff Tracy The Cowboy Cook: Yeah. Yeah. Well, [00:22:00] I, I'm a little old fashioned. I use a stick and a blow porch. ,

[00:22:03] Eric Goranson: we're not talking for tv.

[00:22:10] Jeff Tracy The Cowboy Cook: I, uh, I have an assortment of grills, as you know there, Eric. Um, but lately I've been using, uh, two models, uh, from Gorilla Grills out of. And you, and you buy direct. You won't find those in any stores. Um, they have also a retail store in Dallas, but um, I've got a pellet, griller pellet grill from them and also a kamado style.

[00:22:37] Jeff Tracy The Cowboy Cook: But then I also, on the back porch, I have Webers and um, Green Mountains and just stuff, you know, there's a lot of it back there and there's a lot in my, in my little shop. So, uh, but I've been using, I guess you could say I'm a brand ambassador for Grill or Grills. Mm-hmm. . And, um, [00:23:00] although they didn't give me the shirt with the name on it, you know, it's, I'm, I'm still using their products there.

[00:23:05] Jeff Tracy The Cowboy Cook: So, uh, I agree with Leanne. I mean, we're. Ground central here for app pellet

[00:23:13] Eric Goranson: grills. Mm-hmm. , because

[00:23:14] Jeff Tracy The Cowboy Cook: as you know, I only live about 12 miles from where Traeger was invented. And um, so that kind of started up here. I know they had some, um, variable. Similar grills in Canada that they came up with, which is actually, uh, from Danson's, which are the folks that own Pitmaster and Louisiana grills there.

[00:23:37] Jeff Tracy The Cowboy Cook: But, um, yeah, I've, I've done this. Most all of 'em work out pretty good, you know, and I like exactly what Leanne said. You know, you can get them ready quickly to cook on, you can. Have a really nice smokey flavor to your food, and they're pretty low maintenance. Um, you don't have to worry about regulating the [00:24:00] one, the fuel source or the temperature so much on those versus like in charcoal or even gas.

[00:24:06] Jeff Tracy The Cowboy Cook: So, um, that's, that's what I've been using the last couple years. So, yes, Caroline, are we calling you? Yes,

[00:24:14] Eric Goranson: calling me. I'm raising my

[00:24:15] Caroline Blazovsky: hand. . So I am an amateur, I would say amateur grill. I'm used to using a propane tank and a Weber. So I wanna step up my game when, uh, comes to barbecue. So what would be the next step for someone like me who's loves to barbecue, wants to get a little creative, but isn't at obviously the level that you are.

[00:24:34] Caroline Blazovsky: So, stepping up my game a little bit, where would you guys recommend I go?

[00:24:38] Lee Ann Whippen "Master of Cue": I definitely think the pellet grill is an, an, you know, your answer. Not only that, but the price point is there. You aren't spending a lot of money and you're actually, um, you don't have to be an expert. I mean, you can convert your gas grill to a smoker.

[00:24:52] Lee Ann Whippen "Master of Cue": They have the smoker rings that are available. You can put pellets in them. You can buy smoker boxes and you can add it to your. [00:25:00] Grill and turn your gas grill into somewhat of a smoker, but if you wanna step it up and get to that next level, I really think pellet grills is the way to go. Um, it's a lot easier than, you know, a charcoal grill for sure.

[00:25:13] Eric Goranson: Hmm, yeah, yeah. My lump, my lump charcoal grill. I love cooking on it, but I gotta go out there 40 minutes before I want to throw something on it. Clean it up every time. Go through, get the fire going. And I've got an off-brand Kuboto style, and it's, it's a messy grill to

[00:25:32] Lee Ann Whippen "Master of Cue": deal with. Yeah. And you know what's so interesting now with the fuel prices?

[00:25:35] Lee Ann Whippen "Master of Cue": A price of an LP tank is over $40. I mean, and so when you look at the cost of pellets, you can turn the pellet cooker off and reserve all those pellets. It's just, it uses what you use. So it's really more economical than gas these days. I feel like it.

[00:25:54] Eric Goranson: No kidding.

[00:25:55] Jeff Tracy The Cowboy Cook: Yeah. Yeah. I agree because, um, [00:26:00] plus the, excuse me, the price points.

[00:26:04] Jeff Tracy The Cowboy Cook: There are, I mean, trigger just came out with a Timberline five or Timberline X, I don't know what they prefer to call it, but it's almost 4,000 bucks. But that being said, there's a lot of entry level and one step up pellet grills that you can, that you can get for under

[00:26:26] Lee Ann Whippen "Master of Cue": 800. Or you can get 'em for like 300 or less, $300.

[00:26:30] Lee Ann Whippen "Master of Cue": You can get a nice size pellet

[00:26:31] Jeff Tracy The Cowboy Cook: cooker.

[00:26:32] Eric Goranson: There. There you go. There

[00:26:34] Jeff Tracy The Cowboy Cook: you go. Yeah. And so that worked really well. And a lot of the pellet cookers Caroline have, um, wifi on 'em. Now. You can get notifications on your phone about your temperature, or if you need to add pellets on a long cook, there's a, they got a lot of bells and whistles.

[00:26:54] Jeff Tracy The Cowboy Cook: So, and if I was gonna say, just like Leanne did, if I was gonna say, [00:27:00] what's your, Form of cooking, what's your style, what your gorilla is gonna be for the chance of the least mistakes? I would go with a pellet cooker. That's, that's me. But, um, cuz gas, you know, you can get a little flare up, you get hotspots and you get hotspots on all grills.

[00:27:20] Jeff Tracy The Cowboy Cook: But with, um, you know, gas, if you, if you do catch on a grease fire or something, if it hasn't been cleaned properly, Uh, you gotta deal with the gas and the grease and all this, and very seldom, unless you just never clean your grill, do you get fires in pellet grills? I mean, it does happen. It happens with all grills, but I think they're about the safe.

[00:27:43] Jeff Tracy The Cowboy Cook: That's,

[00:27:43] Eric Goranson: that's taking me

[00:27:43] Caroline Blazovsky: to my next question for you guys. How do I clean my grill and what's the right way to do it,

[00:27:50] Lee Ann Whippen "Master of Cue": in my opinion? Yeah, go ahead Jeff. Hire somebody, ,

[00:27:53] Jeff Tracy The Cowboy Cook: hire, hire

[00:27:54] Eric Goranson: somebody. It's my right.

[00:27:58] Jeff Tracy The Cowboy Cook: Well on, on the [00:28:00] show, what I've said, if you, if you've got a pellet grill or if you've got any grill for that matter, I have a shop vac.

[00:28:08] Jeff Tracy The Cowboy Cook: That was my ShopVac that I used on cars and stuff, and that got, um, moved down a step when I bought a new one. But I get it. Get yourself a 30 or $40 ShopVac. Dedicate it to only cleaning your grills. Okay, around the

[00:28:23] Eric Goranson: house. I'll be right back with Emmy award-winning technology expert, Katie Lynn, adult.

[00:28:28] Eric Goranson: Don't go anywhere.

[00:28:59] Intro: Happy

[00:28:59] Eric Goranson: New Year's [00:29:00] Eve, everybody. Welcome back to Around the House. Now let's get back to, uh, one of my favorite episodes from this last year. This is Katie Lineal Emmy Award-winning. Let's Talk Some Home Technology.

[00:29:09] Katie Linendoll: I have to bounce off that for for a second because I. I go to a lot of cyber conferences and I'm constantly just like a sponge, taking it all in and amazed by experts like your friend and what they have to share, and one common denominator.

[00:29:23] Katie Linendoll: No matter how high tech the conference is that I'm going to is passwords. And I'm like, I start to kind of do the zone out because I'm like, we all know that passwords. But then I had a friend sitting next to me in one of the recent conferences we were at very high level, uh, former, uh, I think it was a Department of Defense individual doing a presentation.

[00:29:40] Katie Linendoll: And he's like, you wanna know at the small business level, big business level, home consumer level with the most, the biggest error is, and it's adding a one to a. And my friend goes, oh yeah, I do that. And I'm like, dude, whatcha are you doing? And I'm like, wait, I do know that you do that cause I've asked you to like log into your thing before to book [00:30:00] your travel and it's just, you keep adding number and it's like, you know, It's just to be a little smarter on little things like hovering over the email address or thinking more about our passwords, like couple more seconds of our time.

[00:30:13] Katie Linendoll: I know we're all busy, just making smarter decisions for cybersecurity and also taking advantage of things like it, the advanced security that you might already have baked into your gateway. Do it. Do it because that moment comes, it's like the worst thing ever.

[00:30:28] Eric Goranson: Yeah, and that's one thing that I think is a big problem.

[00:30:30] Eric Goranson: I think that's number two. Outside. Of not having the right password. The biggest mistakes that a homeowner makes is not using the equipment and the security features they already have around

[00:30:42] Katie Linendoll: their house. Absolutely. And we're starting to see that not only in the last year that nearly half of, uh, consumers actually updated their wifi, but also around 30% took advantage of updating their hardware.

[00:30:54] Katie Linendoll: And it's like we were talking about TVs, it. You know, you can have 4K content, but do you have a [00:31:00] 4K capable tv? It's not gonna work. You know, it's having the best hardware at your fingertips and utilizing it. And if you don't know what that is, like we can be sitting here and talking very techy lingo. Ask your, ask them, just ask like, Hey, am I up to date?

[00:31:14] Katie Linendoll: Because typically that you get up to date, they, they'll, they'll handle that for you every couple years. Mm-hmm. . So it's, if you're confused or it's too high tech, just ask the questions. People are happy to.

[00:31:28] Eric Goranson: And when your app that you're using comes on and says, do you wanna enable two, two factor authentication?

[00:31:34] Eric Goranson: Yes. Don't hit and remind me later.

[00:31:37] Intro: a hundred times. You're like, yeah,

[00:31:39] Katie Linendoll: I do later. Yeah. Two factor is one of the biggest, uh, preventatives in terms of cyber. Take advantage of it, especially right now.

[00:31:49] Eric Goranson: Yeah, it's amazing. And you know, with Caroline here too, as America's healthy Home expert, the the space out there that we're seeing now as far as creating healthy homes is really cool too.

[00:31:59] Eric Goranson: And, and, uh, [00:32:00] I tell you what, I've been putting some stuff in my house as well with. With, uh, you know, trying to create a healthier environment. And, uh, that's another thing that's has been really exciting with the new stuff that's coming out here in the future. There's so much cool stuff coming out and, uh, you know, it's, it's amazing to see where, where we're going with technology here over the next couple years.

[00:32:19] Katie Linendoll: I always say, people are like, why don't we get into the Jetsons air? I'm like, we're here we're, it's like an influx right now, and just to see where, like, where the next two, three years are going. In terms of home technologies and for the betterment of the consumer is an exciting place to be.

[00:32:37] Eric Goranson: Yeah, it's, it's amazing.

[00:32:39] Eric Goranson: Uh, we, we had, uh, when I was talking with Bro NuTone as a great example, they've got a new product out now called Overture that actually has sensors that goes around your house. So this is going to now create it where all of a sudden it'll automatically turn your vent fan on in the kitchen or the bathroom, depending on.

[00:32:57] Eric Goranson: You've got going on. So there's so many cool [00:33:00] things out there that's happening and um, we've been talking about it a lot, but it's, uh, interconnectivity is gonna be the word of the, of the next two years, I think. Yeah.

[00:33:08] Intro: And

[00:33:09] Caroline Blazovsky: Caroline's got a question and it's, and we want these, we want these devices to work for the homeowner because we cannot rely, especially as a professional, I can't rely that my homeowner's gonna change their filter.

[00:33:19] Caroline Blazovsky: They're not gonna change their vent fan, they're not gonna turn their vent fan on. They're not gonna be cooking with their vent fans. So those are things that really protect. Exponentially on health. So for example, if you are using a HEPA filter in your home, we know you can increase your cardiovascular function by 8%.

[00:33:36] Caroline Blazovsky: That's more than a drug on the market. So it's more than big pharma. So simple things like that can really change the way we operate in the home. So we want it to do it for you. So anything you guys provide to us, I mobile

[00:33:47] Katie Linendoll: option too. In your experience, you know, and then just becoming a, a new homeowner. I think one thing that I found very interesting, and I'd love to get your perspective, is you could also get rebates and kickbacks.

[00:33:57] Katie Linendoll: Mm-hmm. , like when I put in more [00:34:00] efficient, um, heating systems and then also was putting in a more efficient water tank. You could actually, and I think a lot of people aren't aware of this, and you probably know this all too well, but I mean, I'd love to hear it from experts like yourself. Take advantage.

[00:34:11] Katie Linendoll: Like I got thousands of dollars back for being more efficient and saving myself more money. Long term

[00:34:19] Caroline Blazovsky: Eric, tell her about a heat pump. Tell her about the heat pump water heaters that we love so much.

[00:34:24] Eric Goranson: Yeah, I swapped out my 40 gallon gas water heater. Just natural gas water heaters is common, a water heater as it is out there.

[00:34:31] Eric Goranson: And in my area here in Portland, Oregon where I live, it was costing me about 350 bucks a year to do it. Now I put in the new electric heat pump water heater, and that cost me about $110 a year to. Because it runs, it uses only 550 watts of electricity. Huh? To heat water. So it is awesome. And the rebates on 'em are ridiculous.

[00:34:55] Eric Goranson: Right. You know, and it's cool. So it's, it's like a heat pump. So it's like a heat [00:35:00] pump in your house. It's grabbing the heat outta the air around it and putting it in the water. And so I went, I, I'm actually using two-thirds less energy. To heat water, but now I'm heating that and that's 80 gallons of water, not 40 that I'm, so I'm doing double the water for two-thirds less the money.

[00:35:20] Eric Goranson: It's so

[00:35:21] Katie Linendoll: worth exploring. I, I, I just, I can't tell you how much I, I, that's a perfect example. There's so much savings out there. It's also a sign of adulting cuz I have too many young people working on my team and I'm like, you guys, I got this new water pump and I've gotta tell you a water heater. It's so efficient.

[00:35:37] Katie Linendoll: And they're like, Like, we're we gotta, we start about that we don't know anything about with, I'm like, okay, I'm clearly adulting this new homeowner.

[00:35:45] We've

[00:35:45] Intro: got a whole other world .

[00:35:47] Eric Goranson: Hey. Yeah. I mean, I, I saw, I saw that energy bill. Just go Cho. Yes. Hey, it feels good. Absolutely.

[00:35:55] Caroline Blazovsky: But we have to say that, you know, you just brought up a good point.

[00:35:58] Caroline Blazovsky: Eric and I are talking about like [00:36:00] diy, right? How, why is it so important for us to all be talking about home improvement and ways that you can save money and DIY yourself is because a lot of these millennials coming up, which are, which you know, or the younger generations behind them, they have no experience in home improvement.

[00:36:13] Caroline Blazovsky: They didn't have the classes, they didn't have any kind of trade training. You know, back when Eric and I went to school, they stuck us in. We had to. You know, build things. We had shop class. I love the trades conference, right? Yes. But there isn't anything, these kids, and, and look, I love technology and so do you, but the fact is you still need these other skillsets.

[00:36:31] Caroline Blazovsky: And the problem is education now has really forced us to look, not have those skillsets any longer. And so all these generational people are coming up and they rely on people like yourself or Eric or me to teach them how to do d i y cuz you can't afford to do it and pay someone all the time to do these projects.

[00:36:45] Caroline Blazovsky: It's too.

[00:36:47] Katie Linendoll: I wish I had the data in front of me to support the, the, this conversation because to your point, the trades have gone. The, the understanding of the trades, which are so critical, have just been decreasing and [00:37:00] decreasing and decreasing over the years, and it's so important and it's such awesome skills to have.

[00:37:05] Katie Linendoll: I mean, like for me, pro a school, y'all be learning every single trade possible, right? Just to get the surface level right.

[00:37:12] Eric Goranson: Oh, Yeah, I mean, you know, uh, a girl can come outta high school right now instead of going to college. And if she's interested in, you know, being an electrician in four years, she can be making six figures right.

[00:37:26] Eric Goranson: As an electrician and work anywhere in the country.

[00:37:28] Katie Linendoll: And I applaud if, you know you wanna go in that direction, I'm like, My goodness. You just saved yourself and you're only like half a mil. You like doing that. You know where you wanna go, 150%. Go do it.

[00:37:40] Caroline Blazovsky: And it's amazing. I think that you can do it both too, right?

[00:37:43] Caroline Blazovsky: I mean, I look at it from my perspective. I have an advanced medical degree, but I also think it's fascinating to know how to fix things and do things like it. It's, it's sort of like, it doesn't have to be one or the other. It should be that we all have these skillsets and are able to.

[00:37:58] Katie Linendoll: We need more Renaissance people.

[00:37:59] Katie Linendoll: [00:38:00] See .

[00:38:01] Intro: Hey, into that. There you go. There we go. .

[00:38:05] Eric Goranson: Hey man. Katie, is there stuff that we didn't talk about today that we've. Didn't dive into, oh my goodness,

[00:38:10] Katie Linendoll: that was such a, I, I feel like I could talk to you guys for hours and then come over and hang out in your garage. We need talk to tech, like nonstop . Oh my God, you

[00:38:17] Caroline Blazovsky: guys are like twinning.

[00:38:18] Caroline Blazovsky: The two of you are twinning

[00:38:19] Intro: there.

[00:38:20] Katie Linendoll: Seriously. So funny. Now, I would love for people to check out Xfinity's Home wifi report from 2021 and just so much interesting data and. Not telling you anything you don't know, but there's just the way that we're working professionally and also the way that we're playing personally from streaming to entertainment to game.

[00:38:37] Katie Linendoll: And it's changing and it's a very connected time. And it's an exciting time. And um, I'd love for you to check out

[00:38:44] Eric Goranson: the data. All right. And then make sure and check out your single out there on all those platforms as well. Right. And then you've got your YouTube as well, that's, uh, where you do your little tech things over

[00:38:54] Katie Linendoll: there.

[00:38:54] Katie Linendoll: Totally. I, you could check me out. All my handles, my socials, if you will, are at Katie Leal, and the [00:39:00] new song is Renaissance Lady.

[00:39:02] Eric Goranson: Fabulous. All right, Katie. Fabulous. Thanks for coming on today. This has been great.

[00:39:08] Katie Linendoll: Thank you, Marvin. You guys are awesome. Like, congratulations on all your success thus far. And.

[00:39:13] Katie Linendoll: Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. Oh, thank you.

[00:39:17] Eric Goranson: Thank you. Well, I'm Eric G. And I'm Caroline B. And you've been listening to

[00:39:22] Intro: Around the House.