[00:00:00] Eric Goranson: It's around the house.

[00:00:05] Caroline Blazovsky: Guys don't use Pinterest for listen. I'm anti Pinterest and people are gonna call I'm really, they're gonna be calling up complaining that I said this, but I've seen so many recipes, disasters, food stuff. You just don't want to do that. You see on Pinterest and building and decorating is another one.

[00:00:22] Eric Goranson: I will say there is one place that Pinterest has value mm-hmm . And for me, it's the first stage of a project. When you're meeting with a designer, I will tell the homeowner. Go through and pick out all the things you like and create a folder, then go create another folder of the things you hate and share with all of us.

[00:00:46] Eric Goranson: When it comes to remodeling and renovating your home. There is a lot to know. But we've got you covered. This is around the house, not come to around the house with Eric G and Caroline [00:01:00] B. This is where we help you become that great caretaker of your home. Welcome every everybody. Hello, Caroline. Hello.

[00:01:08] Caroline Blazovsky: It's that time again?

[00:01:10] Eric Goranson: It is. And this is gonna be that one. This is gonna be that episode, right? That people are gonna give their significant other, the spouse. The friends, the family member to go, I'm gonna help you help yourself. Right.

[00:01:27] Caroline Blazovsky: but this happens to all of us. This show applies to, oh yeah. Every single one of us. So there's no reason you shouldn't listen to this episode.

[00:01:34] Caroline Blazovsky: So stay tuned. ,

[00:01:36] Eric Goranson: I'm, I'm guilty at this. I'm I'm guilty this for a couple different reasons and you'll get to see what we're talking about here in just a second, but. I can be when I'm doing filming stuff for, you know, DIY segments and stuff. It's very easy to get it finished, to be air quotes, TV ready, and not that 95 to a hundred percent finished.

[00:01:59] Eric Goranson: Uh, [00:02:00] oh, so it's, uh, I've run into that at times. And lately I've been going around and just getting those projects over the finish line, just because I had so many for a while there that I was doing. That I didn't have a chance to get it finished. And so today we're gonna talk about those top 10 reasons why we think you don't get those projects finished.

[00:02:22] Eric Goranson: And

[00:02:23] Caroline Blazovsky: in, in disclosure, I think home improvement is kind of never done. So, you know, it's kind of a trick question, right? Because you start something and then it kind of always opens up Pandora's box and then you end up with something else you need to do later on down the.

[00:02:39] Eric Goranson: Oh, yeah. It's, it's, that's typical, especially, you know, the older, the home and even more.

[00:02:44] Eric Goranson: So the, the, the more it's been messed with, you know, uh, if you've got a 1970s home that is all original and nobody's messed with, you're probably in better shape than that 1940s home. That's had four remodels, cuz you've probably had mm-hmm six people hacked their way through [00:03:00] it. Right. Exactly. So do you want me to go out, we'll start with mine first and then we'll wrap up with yours.

[00:03:06] Eric Goranson: There we go. All right. My number one on this one, no plan of attack. You did not plan out your project and what can happen with this. It's kinda like somebody that goes out in, let's say they're gonna do a backyard remodel. And the first thing they do is put up the fence around it, but didn't figure out how they're gonna get the backhoe in to do the pool later.

[00:03:29] Eric Goranson: I'm raising my

[00:03:29] Caroline Blazovsky: hand. And so you get the, that's so easy to do that. Yeah. See you just jump the gun, you think? Okay. And then you see, I wanna do something else and you realize you had just no plan. I do that.

[00:03:40] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Yeah. And so that lack of plan, you know, well, like with my house, it was interesting because I was doing the kitchen and bathroom about the same time.

[00:03:48] Eric Goranson: I really had to get some things done before others. And so it was okay. I gotta tear the. The ceiling out of the kitchen so I can wrap the bathroom up, but I couldn't put the ceiling back up [00:04:00] in until I had that done. And I knew I had everything up in there. So there was a lot of things like that, where we were weaving things in and being that I've got 30 years in this profession, even for me, that plan was critical because I would've torn that ceiling down probably three times.

[00:04:16] Eric Goranson: If I would've been a regular homeowner doing it, even with the best plan. So really plan it. Figure out the steps and part of that's figuring out the materials and everything you need and getting it there before you start it. What's your

[00:04:28] Caroline Blazovsky: first like quick tip. How what's the best way to plan? Like is it hiring a professional?

[00:04:33] Caroline Blazovsky: Is it, you know, making sure you write it down, your steps are one through 10. I mean, what, give somebody a quick tip that they can utilize to plan better.

[00:04:42] Eric Goranson: Visualize the project from start to finish. Nice. Sit down, visualize your plan. Okay. I'm going to remove this. I'm gonna fix this no matter what it is, this is my plan.

[00:04:54] Eric Goranson: Start the steps through plan, those steps out here's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, [00:05:00] 6, 7, 8. So you understand what those are. Good goal visualize because sometimes you you'll catch stuff that you're like, oh, I can't do that. Because this is gonna get in the way or that's gonna get in the way and then think about at the end of it, once you get that planned out, what's your overall plan for that space?

[00:05:20] Eric Goranson: Are you painting yourself in a proverbial corner? Right? Oh, I didn't think about this. I gotta do this first

[00:05:28] Caroline Blazovsky: perfect example. I just put a slider in from my kitchen and Eric noticed right away. Mm-hmm after the slider went in. That the vent duck was below the slider door, not code, right? Yeah. And kind of stupid because now if you open the door, you're gonna be pulling in exhaust right into the kitchen.

[00:05:46] Caroline Blazovsky: Yep. And there was no way. So things like that look out for these little idiosyncrasies that you just may not be paying attention to. Cuz you're looking at the overall big picture, right? Like, look at fine.

[00:05:58] Eric Goranson: Yeah, you weren't even looking at that. I just saw the [00:06:00] picture you were talking about. We were talking about flashing actually.

[00:06:02] Eric Goranson: And I'm like, Hey, your vent's a problem. right.

[00:06:06] Caroline Blazovsky: So see,

[00:06:07] Eric Goranson: you're like, what, what so those things, you know, you're doing a kitchen remodel soon, so it's, it's gonna fix itself because exactly you're gonna get rid of that down that come up with a better

[00:06:17] Caroline Blazovsky: plan. It's like, look at the detail. That was a good example, but look at the

[00:06:21] Eric Goranson: detail.

[00:06:21] Eric Goranson: That was a great example. And so that's one of those things and, you know, and if you're pulling, you know, let's say you're, you're doing a big remodel. You wanna have that for permits? Anyway, if you're pulling permits on a huge project, those plans are gonna be all part of what you're doing. So just make sure you've got that.

[00:06:35] Eric Goranson: That's, that's probably the first big tip that I would get. And if you've got a friend or a neighbor that has more experience and you ask them, say, Hey, this is my plan. This is where I'm going. What do you

[00:06:44] Caroline Blazovsky: think? Yeah, get a set of, I think that's my. Recommendation if top tip, get another set of eyes on it.

[00:06:49] Caroline Blazovsky: Cause look at how Eric helped me. Right. Just have someone else look at what you're gonna do. And they might spot something and get someone with a critical eye. Don't use someone. That's gonna be like, Hey, that's just Greg. Oh yeah,

[00:06:58] Eric Goranson: whatever. [00:07:00] Oh yeah. Get that critical friend. And even the professionals will do that.

[00:07:03] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Get

[00:07:07] Eric Goranson: the one that won't pull punches. Yes. My number two on this list, let's do this before we go out to break. The budget runs out. Inflation kicked your butt.

[00:07:16] Caroline Blazovsky: Uh, well that's easily happening right now. Everything costs so much money

[00:07:24] Eric Goranson: yes, so bad. You know, and lumber prices are going down. Material prices on a lot of other things are going up.

[00:07:32] Eric Goranson: Mm-hmm um, you know, it's, it's crazy. I was just talking with, um, some roofing companies in our area and we're starting to see. You know, we have this huge need for roofing over the last few years. And people are doing a lot of work on their homes now because of oil prices going up, labor prices going up, gas prices going up, all those things go into a roof.

[00:07:55] Eric Goranson: People are starting to dive off of those roofing projects. So the roofers are getting [00:08:00] less and less busy right now. So what we're seeing is that those new companies that came on over the last couple years that maybe worked on cruise. You know what I mean? Hey, we're gonna be working on a, we're gonna start our own crew.

[00:08:12] Eric Goranson: I was a, I was a roofer and I'm gonna start my own business. Those guys are gonna start bailing off. Hmm. And go back to work for other roofing companies. So we're gonna start to see this. So as a homeowner, be careful, you know, make sure you're dealing with reputable companies out there because we're gonna start to see guys kind of shut down.

[00:08:28] Eric Goranson: And that usually means somebody gets held holding a bag for those new guys. A deposit was given and a project. So just watch out for that, cuz you're gonna see that stuff happening. So, but watch those budgets inflation's coming. Uh, it's still there and we're gonna see that in the near future.

[00:08:45] Caroline Blazovsky: And just to give an example, so last before COVID I bought a box of shingles, you know, your Cedar typical underlayment with a, with a shingle, right?

[00:08:54] Caroline Blazovsky: And it cost $170 back then $360 for a box [00:09:00] now.

[00:09:02] Eric Goranson: That's a lot. Absolutely double it's a lot of money. Mm-hmm, double the money, so that'll blow the budget up. All right. When we come back here, I wanna dive into the rest of these cuz we've got some good tips for you that I think we're gonna be able to help you with.

[00:09:14] Eric Goranson: Hey, and before we go, make sure you jump over. To around the house, online.com. If you have questions and if you're listening on the podcast, make sure that you subscribe, hit that subscribe, download, even if you're on your desktop, make sure if you're on apple, hit that subscribe button and it'll let you know anytime a new episode is up around the house.

[00:09:32] Eric Goranson: Be right back after these important messages, don't go anywhere.

[00:09:38] Eric Goranson: Why in a world of says, should. Be loud, be so hot.

[00:09:54] Eric Goranson: Hey, I'm Rudy Wade. And you're listening to around the house with Eric G and Caroline B, listen to my music to [00:10:00] improve your home. I hear your life. You got me thinking about the day we move. Love you. Welcome back to the round, the house show. We are talking today about our top 10 things that, uh, Cause you not to get that project finished, prevent

[00:10:17] Caroline Blazovsky: you from finishing your project.

[00:10:19] Caroline Blazovsky: Oh

[00:10:19] Eric Goranson: yeah. Oh yeah. It's so bad when people get going and, and we've all been guilty of it in the past.

[00:10:26] Caroline Blazovsky: Yeah. You just, you just can't get it done. And guys just, uh, or girls, women, everyone visit us, uh, on social media. We love to hear your comments. You can check us out on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn. I'm am I forgetting we're all over the place around the house.

[00:10:42] Eric Goranson: Show everywhere with TikTok.

[00:10:44] Caroline Blazovsky: Eric's gonna do some TikTok.

[00:10:47] Eric Goranson: I don't know if I do, won't be off using my machine. That's for sure. So I don't wanna give him access, so I'm gonna have to go buy one of those burner phones and do it or something. So that way , that's funny

[00:10:58] Caroline Blazovsky: burner phone. [00:11:00] you could do some videos for us on Instagram though.

[00:11:02] Caroline Blazovsky: Oh yeah. Can do all

[00:11:03] Eric Goranson: kinds of stuff. Oh yeah. We have some new stuff coming out. Just wait. Well, number three, on my list here is a big. You didn't order enough materials.

[00:11:19] Eric Goranson: I'm guilty. This too. I have a project that I just did, and I'm like, I'm two boxes, short of flooring that I just got ordered because I was going and I made a change midway. I'm gonna do it differently. I'm gonna go like this. And I would've had enough material, but because I, I made some changes. I didn't.

[00:11:36] Eric Goranson: So now that project is sitting there. On hold, waiting for materials to come in. That's it or the

[00:11:42] Caroline Blazovsky: materials might not my fault. The materials might not be available. So when you go back to reorder could be backordered could be that they or not existing, right? Yeah. Stop making that lot. That's that's usually happens to me.

[00:11:56] Caroline Blazovsky: They've changed the,

[00:11:58] Eric Goranson: the look, you know, [00:12:00] and let me tell you what I've seen this more and more with products coming that were in China. When we have, have been having these embargo issues slash you know, um, there was a bunch of stuff in the kitchen cabinet and countertop industry where the it's a great example where the, the state department got involved and we put tariffs, huge tariffs, like hundreds of percent on cabinets coming outta China.

[00:12:25] Eric Goranson: Because they were dumping cabinets into the us below market prices. So there's this huge, fine, which made a big rate increase. So what happens is, is they shut those factories down in China and moved them to Vietnam or India or other places over in Southeast Asia. The problem is, is when they moved the factory, they made changes.

[00:12:49] Eric Goranson: Of course, so maybe the finish might not match or the dial Lott's way different. And so you have to be really careful of these companies that, that were dodging that to get around that, [00:13:00] you know, those tariffs and, and, and penalties.

[00:13:04] Caroline Blazovsky: So even I had a problem with my. Underlayment right under the overhang. I have a vinyl exterior that goes over it.

[00:13:12] Caroline Blazovsky: And remember, I was looking for double fives with basket weave. That's your, it's your siding, right? It's your soffit siding. Mm-hmm . And so now they've changed it. And so what I had to do was use the old one on the top, Eric, and now I had to go with triple with a different basket weave on the bottom. It's relatively close.

[00:13:27] Caroline Blazovsky: I mean your eye Nick. And I couldn't tell the difference between the two softens that it's different, but it is because you can't get it. So vinyl sighting things

[00:13:35] Eric Goranson: with vinyl sightings tough. Right? Every couple years they swatch it, switch it out. It's like vinyl flooring, all of a sudden there's a new pattern, a new color, a new everyth.

[00:13:43] Caroline Blazovsky: It's just slightly different and you can't match it. You can't put it together.

[00:13:48] Eric Goranson: And that's a good side note to this one here of not ordering enough materials, order extra, put it up in the, in the attic. You know, if you've got save tile order, a few extra boxes. If you've got vinyl siding, [00:14:00] order another box or two, and put it up someplace where it's safe, have that extra materials there for repairs and things down the road.

[00:14:08] Eric Goranson: I've got boxes of tile for all around my house. Me too. Just put. Just so if I have to do a repair down the road, something changes, I'm good to go.

[00:14:17] Caroline Blazovsky: Or you crack a tile, you drop a mug on it and now you need a new

[00:14:20] Eric Goranson: replacement. Absolutely. All right. Well, let's go over here. The next one, which is a huge one. I think we all have ran into this one, those dreaded hidden issues, the can of worms.

[00:14:36] Eric Goranson: you know, that can of worms you open up. That's the one that makes

[00:14:42] Caroline Blazovsky: you wanna have a

[00:14:42] Eric Goranson: drink. Yeah. Well, it's also a can see. I'm a little slow to the game. Oh, that's all good. So anyway, yeah, it's, it's one of those things that, you know, you get the wall opened up and go. That's not what I was thinking. I mean, I had a, I had a project for instance, that I was [00:15:00] working on.

[00:15:01] Eric Goranson: I had ordered cabins for this couple. That was, you know, this is a number of years ago. 18 hundreds house. Really cool. They start sanding the floor and the more they sand the floor for the hardwoods in spots, the darker that fur floor got well, they didn't realize that there had been a fire, electrical fire in the crawlspace down below, and it had burned up to the subfloor in spots and the pre they had just bought the house.

[00:15:26] Eric Goranson: The previous owners had hit it and you're like, how do you know the previous owner had hit it? Well, the year before. The an electrician had owned the house and he ran all new electrical for the house. Well, cuz it had an electrical fire and he put up insulation in the crawl space and then put up panels down there, OSB panels to hide it, to hold the in.

[00:15:48] Eric Goranson: It was supposedly there to hold the insulation up. No, it was there to hold the. Hold the, uh, hide the fire damage. That was unrepaired. So I have choice going back and

[00:15:58] Caroline Blazovsky: I have choice words for people [00:16:00] who do that.

[00:16:02] Eric Goranson: absolutely. So it's rough. So it's one of those things that anyway, long story short without.

[00:16:07] Eric Goranson: Getting too deep into this one. They ended up getting money back on that, but they literally had to rip out the entire floor of the kitchen, where they thought they were standing, the hardwoods, they ripped it down floor Joyce out. They had to start over, which I actually liked because the floor was so outta whack when they were gonna install the kitchen, they were gonna have a floor in the kitchen length, had an inch and a half of difference.

[00:16:30] Eric Goranson: So it was gonna be, you were gonna have a 36 inch countertop at one side and a 37 inch high countertop at the end of the rock. It was gonna be not good, but they fixed it. But those are those things that many times will sideline the project. And all of a sudden it just stalls out. Those are

[00:16:47] Caroline Blazovsky: so should we touch on, start getting into mine?

[00:16:50] Eric Goranson: Yeah, let's get into yours real quick, cuz I'm gonna do, I'm gonna do number 10. So we're gonna get yours next.

[00:16:55] Caroline Blazovsky: Okay. So I'm gonna say you don't have the right [00:17:00] tools. Oh, you

[00:17:03] Eric Goranson: just can't compete. That's a good one. That's a good one. I like that don't have the right

[00:17:09] Caroline Blazovsky: stuff guys.

[00:17:14] Caroline Blazovsky: don't have

[00:17:14] Eric Goranson: your Nikita to me. I think doing a project's a perfect example of you expanding your tool collection. You know, let's say you're gonna do a, a deck project and man, I need a new saw. All right. Great time to, to slide that new saw into the project. But maybe you're never gonna use that song again.

[00:17:35] Eric Goranson: That's when you go down to the tool rental center and rent that tool and use it and then take it back when you're done.

[00:17:42] Caroline Blazovsky: Some tools are really expensive too. If you get into the wrong project, you could definitely. Yeah. Now you're now you're back to budget. You've got not the right tool and a budgetary issue.

[00:17:53] Eric Goranson: Now I've got another one here. Here's a little secret. I've seen this in metropolitan areas. Have you seen tool [00:18:00] libraries? No, what's that. So what today is, it's like a library of tools. So you can go in, in your neighborhood tool library and check out tools. Whoa. And then return them.

[00:18:13] Caroline Blazovsky: Where is this? Yeah. Is this online?

[00:18:15] Caroline Blazovsky: Can I see this?

[00:18:16] Eric Goranson: Where do I it's neighborhood? So it's like, you'll see in the neighborhood, there'll be tool libraries. Where, where, um, you know, metropolitan areas. We used to have a couple here in, uh, Portland that were tool libraries that you could go borrow tools. Yep. Now you can get that project finished.

[00:18:31] Eric Goranson: All right. We come back. We're gonna dive into more of these Carolina, hear the music going and we'll be back right after these important messages. Don't go anywhere.

[00:18:44] Eric Goranson: Hey guys, you're listening to around the house with Eric G and Caroline B Zeke sky. And I'm gonna show you how to shred it out while you're building it up.

[00:18:58] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to the, around the house [00:19:00] show. Caroline and I have been talking today about, well, those top 10 reasons why you're not getting those projects finished and we're trying to help you get these things wrapped up so you can move on to other ones, right?

[00:19:11] Caroline Blazovsky: Absolutely. Keep all trucking.

[00:19:14] Eric Goranson: Man. It's, it's so bad and I'm, I'm, I'm guilty this, and actually after the show today, I'm gonna be working on some stuff, trying to get some projects just over that finish line.

[00:19:25] Eric Goranson: And, uh, I'm gonna, I'm gonna add a little side note here on something too, for summertime projects that we're not gonna put in the list. Sometimes weather can get in the way. Oh yeah, that was a good one. It's not on our list, you know? Absolutely. Oh my gosh. It's gonna be. A hundred percent humidity. It's gonna be a hundred degrees.

[00:19:41] Eric Goranson: It's gonna be freezing cold, snow, raining, snowing. Yep. Deck

[00:19:45] Caroline Blazovsky: painting. That's always the worst deck painting can never get done. Cause it constantly rains when you wanna do it.

[00:19:50] Eric Goranson: Except here, you know, I'm in my little micro climate of Portland, Oregon. We are like 50 days without rain right now. Wow. So a [00:20:00] lot, it is not rain for 50 days.

[00:20:02] Eric Goranson: I bet you will be, you know, 60 by the time this is done, but who knows? Soon as I say that, then it rains. Right?

[00:20:09] Caroline Blazovsky: Well, it's very dry here as well in the Northeast. I mean, all the grass is brown and ugly and definitely, yeah. I think we're getting rain today though. So

[00:20:17] Eric Goranson: that's good. There you go. That's not a bad thing.

[00:20:20] Eric Goranson: All right. What's your next one on the list there, Caroline.

[00:20:23] Caroline Blazovsky: This is my problem, cuz I'm tiny and I can't lift things. I need a grab. You need more people to help you on your project. I can never not have a strong friend that could be a male, could be female, but somebody who's much stronger than me.

[00:20:40] Eric Goranson: Nice.

[00:20:41] Eric Goranson: you probably see the grab right over my shoulder, on the tool base there. Don't you me too. See, over my thumb.

[00:20:46] Caroline Blazovsky: tell everybody what a grab is. If they

[00:20:48] Eric Goranson: don't know. Oh, grab is awesome. Uh, what it is is it's a vacuum handle, basically. So it's around. It's battery [00:21:00] powered. It's a vacuum powered device. So if you wanna move a piece of tile, you put it on there, hit the button and he goes, shoot, great suction.

[00:21:07] Eric Goranson: And all of a sudden you got it lifts up to 375 pounds. So it's what it's great for. Moving drywall, moving the sheet of plywood, installing plywood or drywall. So, you know, you're going to put it up on the ceiling or a wall. You can put that on the one part of it, stick it up. Hold onto it. And you've got a good handle without trying to grab the edge or pressure or things like that.

[00:21:30] Eric Goranson: It's

[00:21:31] Caroline Blazovsky: so much easier. You know how drywall comes in two sheets connected? Well, I was trying to move that this past weekend. So you could imagine me trying it's so heavy for me. I can't. And like, everybody's like separated, just take it apart. And I'm like, no, no, I could do it. You and then my back was out. No, so you need help.

[00:21:47] Caroline Blazovsky: I was gonna say helpers, if you don't have the help, you're not gonna get it.

[00:21:52] Eric Goranson: Ah, no question, no question. That's a big one. And getting that help over there, calling the neighbor, you know, hiring some help, [00:22:00] just remember when you're hiring help, they're your employees. So make sure that, uh, if they're not licensed, bonded insured, uh, you're responsible for them.

[00:22:07] Eric Goranson: If they get injured,

[00:22:08] Caroline Blazovsky: make some friends that like to do home improvement too. That's why you should go to around the house nation, cuz you could meet other like-minded people who live in your area and then you can, you know, call on them when you need help.

[00:22:21] Eric Goranson: Sure insurance. Oh yeah. It's like, you know, I've got my, got my friends around here, you know, Hey William, can you come help me?

[00:22:26] Eric Goranson: Hey Sean, can you come help me? You know, those kind of things. I just need a hand doing something real quick and it's helpful. So, and sometimes it's

[00:22:33] Caroline Blazovsky: not even something heavy, it could be, you know, you just need two people to hold it down while you do it. You just don't have enough hands.

[00:22:39] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Yeah. And I'm guilty.

[00:22:42] Eric Goranson: I've, I've hurt myself a few times or damage materials, not getting the right help. So it's, it's better just to get the help. All right, what's your next one?

[00:22:52] Caroline Blazovsky: This is one I'm completely guilty of. And I'm sure a lot of people out there do this. I ran out of time and [00:23:00] it's because I've always decided to do a big project.

[00:23:03] Caroline Blazovsky: Before a big event, a birthday's coming, Christmas is coming, friends are coming over. Someone's coming to stay. And I get it in my mind. Yes. That I'm gonna do a big project and make my house look better right before the guests come and you never get it done. And then you abandon ship.

[00:23:22] Eric Goranson: I have this project, it was a waterfront multimillion dollar home, probably 15 years ago.

[00:23:27] Eric Goranson: We were doing. Builder started building it. It was gonna be like, we're gonna be done July 31st on your house. And that was the date of completion done. So what happens? The homeowner decides to put her daughter's wedding in the backyard on August 1st. What? Oh yeah. So it was three weeks left to go and it looked like it was extreme home makeover.

[00:23:56] Eric Goranson: Every trade was there. And I'm just shaking my head [00:24:00] going, even when you're hiring somebody to do that. If you have that drop dead horrible plan there, you will get burned every single time. See, I mean, it is so it's so bad when you put a Dr. I mean, you wanna get the project done, but that project got finished on time.

[00:24:25] Eric Goranson: Do I want that in my house. Do I want every trade? Hering God, no. You were asking for so many problems and

[00:24:33] Caroline Blazovsky: plus your house becomes a tra I mean, I just had it happen to me because I had a big opening in the ex outside of my house. Right. I ripped the side of the house off. And so then everybody's trampling through making a mess.

[00:24:43] Caroline Blazovsky: I mean, the house is just wrecked.

[00:24:46] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Oh yeah. And it's, it just happens. And so don't do it to yourself. I can't tell you how many times it, uh, is a kitchen, a bath designer. I had the, what I call the helpful husband come in. [00:25:00] Hey, it's a month before Thanksgiving. My wife's out of town with her friends this weekend.

[00:25:05] Eric Goranson: I ripped the kitchen out. How fast can I get cabinets? um, six to eight weeks, eight to 10 weeks. What and I'm like, and then they're shocked going what I can't get 'em like next week. No, they're built to order. What do you mean? And now they have destroyed the house right before the Thanksgiving holiday.

[00:25:24] Eric Goranson: And so many people that happens to, and they gotta turn around and well, cancel it, move it abandon.

[00:25:31] Caroline Blazovsky: But you know, that gentleman fell into like three different categories. So he had not proper planning. He didn't have materials. And he had people coming over. So he's like a total fail

[00:25:44] Eric Goranson: total fail. Absolutely.

[00:25:47] Eric Goranson: So that's one of those, that's one of those and it's, it's absolutely crazy when people do that. Um, you don't get the good project. I mean, I always want that contractor to finish on time, but if you end up being too hardball [00:26:00] on that or yourself, you're rushing it and a rushing, it is not a good thing.

[00:26:08] Caroline Blazovsky: And there's always gonna be some caveat that appears, you know, as you talked about Pandora's box will

[00:26:14] Eric Goranson: open.

[00:26:14] Eric Goranson: Well, it does. And you're also more likely to get hurt too. I mean, it's you forget safety, you know? Ah, I gotta go grab my, I can get this done. I forgot to grab my safety glasses. I, you know, I'm tired. I got myself hurt. I'm tired. I made a mistake. You know, that all gets very

[00:26:31] Caroline Blazovsky: expensive. This is, this is I'm guilty of this one too.

[00:26:34] Caroline Blazovsky: I guess that's why it's on the list. you did it for the glam effect. Glam GM guys, you went on Pinterest, you see this really great concept. You try to implement it and it fails tremendously, cuz it's just not possible and you can't get it done. And so now you've got a project half done and you're just beside

[00:26:56] Eric Goranson: yourself.

[00:26:58] Eric Goranson: It's my pet peeve of [00:27:00] people trying to slide chandeliers over bathtubs. How many times have we seen that picture of the long shots, like from the hallway down the bathroom and the beautiful free standing tub is there. They've got the beautiful chandelier and the eight foot ceiling hanging over it. And I'm like, that is against all building code in the United States.

[00:27:21] Eric Goranson: And there is nobody in the world that's putting in that, in and getting an inspection.

[00:27:25] Caroline Blazovsky: Guys don't use Pinterest for listen. I'm anti Pinterest and people are gonna call I'm really, they're gonna calling up complaining that I said this, but I've seen so many recipes, disasters, food stuff. You just don't wanna do that.

[00:27:38] Caroline Blazovsky: You see on Pinterest and building and decorating is

[00:27:40] Eric Goranson: another one. I will say there is one place that Pinterest has value mm-hmm . And for me, it's the first stage of a project. When you're meeting with a designer and contractor. Because I will tell that designer as a designer and that contractor, I will [00:28:00] tell the homeowner, all right, Mrs.

[00:28:02] Eric Goranson: Smith, Mr. Smith, whatever, go through and pick out all the things you like and create a folder. Right. Mm-hmm then go create another folder of the things you hate and share it with all of us.

[00:28:19] Caroline Blazovsky: That's good. So Pinterest is good for that.

[00:28:22] Eric Goranson: It's good for that. Yeah, it's good for that. All right, Carolyn, let's go out to break.

[00:28:26] Eric Goranson: We'll wrap this up in the last segment. We'll do that just as soon as around the house returns,

[00:28:37] Eric Goranson: you threw my clothes out. I'm gonna take.

[00:28:58] Eric Goranson: Hi everybody. [00:29:00] I'm a man from Stephen band and you are listening to around the house with Eric G and the beautiful Caroline. Welcome back to the round, the house show. Now, if you want to get hold of us, feel free to reach out around the house online.com or you could hit us up on. Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and don't forget our closed group around the house nation and on the podcast.

[00:29:26] Eric Goranson: Make sure you subscribe everywhere you catch those podcasts. You know, we've had a big run here on, uh, apple recently where we've had a bunch of new people come on and we appreciate it. And thanks for tuning in well, Caroline, I wanted to talk about probably one of the biggest ones that I'm personally guilty of on this.

[00:29:46] Eric Goranson: Little ADHD. Lack of focus. Yeah. You're all over the place. Get it to 75% squirrel and this can be [00:30:00] something not so in my case, but I've had this in the past where your spouse or partner puts the pressure on you to go get the next project done. And you're not done yet. That happens

[00:30:14] Caroline Blazovsky: or, or we can come in ladies.

[00:30:17] Caroline Blazovsky: I mean, I'm guilty of this and saying, you know, it would be better if you just did it this way. It's not looking right. Can we change this? Oh yeah. The cha come on. Everybody's guilty of that. It just doesn't. Yeah. It's not what I envisioned. Can we it's the wrong, which

[00:30:32] Eric Goranson: can be, this can be though, like watching somebody doing a painting and the painting's not fun, not finished yet.

[00:30:39] Eric Goranson: And you're like, oh, that's not it yet. They're not done painting the painting yet. , that's a hard one. So I've had a, I've had significant others in the past that were very ADHD that had lack of patience where you'd like 70% and they're like, all right, Hey, can you get that done over there now? And I'm like, whoa, whoa, I'm gonna [00:31:00] get this done first.

[00:31:01] Eric Goranson: Hold on. Tap the breaks. Let me finish this first. And so those are things that you gotta be really careful with. Well, Hey, let's recap. The nine that we've done so far here, Caroline, we had, um, my first one, it was no plan of attack. Next one was the budget runs out slash you know, project inflation or project creep.

[00:31:24] Eric Goranson: Number three, I had, uh, you didn't order enough materials. Mm-hmm. Number four was hidden issues. And then we jumped over to years and then I kicked in

[00:31:33] Caroline Blazovsky: with you don't have the right tools. That was a big one. Oh yeah. Um, you need more people to help you. You don't have enough manpower or lady power. Yep. You ran out of time cuz you were scheduling an event and had something big coming up.

[00:31:52] Caroline Blazovsky: Don't have enough time to get it done before that happens. And then of course you did it for the glam. Hey, you did it. Yep. Cause you thought it would look good and then it just [00:32:00] didn't look good

[00:32:01] Eric Goranson: and it didn't and failure. And then I just dropped in the. Lack of personal focus or someone dragging you into the next project before you could get that one finished.

[00:32:13] Eric Goranson: That's such a

[00:32:13] Caroline Blazovsky: good one. Cause so many couples like break down, get divorced, have arguments over home improvement projects. It's, you know, it's just like money. You have to agree. And you're in one residence and it's not easy.

[00:32:27] Eric Goranson: Kitchen remodels are the, probably the number one home improvement project that leads to divorce.

[00:32:35] Eric Goranson: I know. Because you have people, whether you're hiring a dude yourself, you have people coming in to a house for probably a couple months invading your personal space. Things are tore up. It doesn't feel like you're home. Cuz you're doing dishes in the bathtub or whatever you're doing. Exactly. It can be rough if you're not planning it out correctly.

[00:32:55] Eric Goranson: It's so

[00:32:55] Caroline Blazovsky: stressful. And then also I think it just brings out everybody's little [00:33:00] quirks and idiosyncrasies, like whatever your partner does that bothers you is gonna come out during home improvement

[00:33:06] Eric Goranson: process. Oh yeah. So bad. So bad. And so let's, let's break this down here. Let's go back to kind of the 30,000 foot level.

[00:33:15] Eric Goranson: Now that we've given nine out, I'll give the 10th one here at the end, but let's kind of break it down for a little bit. One of my biggest tips to help with these nine so far is to look back at your project, which is your home, right? Mm-hmm , you know, inside, outside all of it. To back up and come up with a 30,000 foot game plan of the entire house of what you want to have the done, have it to finished, complete,

[00:33:44] Caroline Blazovsky: done the bird's eye view.

[00:33:46] Caroline Blazovsky: Take a big view. Yeah.

[00:33:50] Eric Goranson: That way you can get these things in the correct order. We kind of teased about it earlier in the show, but it's [00:34:00] one of those things you, you don't wanna put the fence up before you put the pool in, right. It's very true. You wanna be able to, or at least have access where you build a big enough gate where people can get in there with equipment or access.

[00:34:11] Eric Goranson: Yes. You know, how many times do I see people put the lawn in and they go, oh, I forgot to put the sprinkler system and now I gotta dig the lineup to put the sprinkler system and no, should have put that in first. So you wanna have the right? Correct. You know, sense of things. Like for instance, if you've got a plumber coming out and you're putting a sprinkler system in later in the year, and they're already doing plumbing, make sure that they're hooking that up or roughing that in.

[00:34:36] Eric Goranson: So you can complete it later on, get those things done, because if you have to call that plumber out seven times, it's always gonna be more expensive than if you brought 'em out twice.

[00:34:48] Caroline Blazovsky: I think

[00:34:49] Eric Goranson: this is such, so bring that project

[00:34:51] Caroline Blazovsky: into scale. Good advice, because we all do it. Like I'm very much an impulse.

[00:34:54] Caroline Blazovsky: Like I'll look at something and I'm like, I just gotta do this now. I don't like the way this window looks, the window's irking me. [00:35:00] And I'm not thinking about the big project I'm thinking about that particular. Thing that's bothering me at the time and there's always gonna be these like, look, I took out a slider and there were hidden water pipes in the walls.

[00:35:11] Caroline Blazovsky: So now I had to get a plumber and then I decided, Hey, wait, those water pipes are there. I could put in an outdoor shower really easily, which is what I wanna do. So I kind of did what you said. I'm thinking big picture, but now I'm like, all right, if this plumber's coming out, I might as well have 'em put in an outdoor shower cuz I've got this stuff.

[00:35:28] Caroline Blazovsky: But I wasn't planning

[00:35:29] Eric Goranson: an outdoor. Yeah. That's project creep and that's okay. You, you found it and you wanted to do something with it, right? You're like, Hey, while I'm at it here, let's get this done. And you know, the wallet you're at its can get expensive, but in the long run they do save you money because you're, you're setting your next project up, you know?

[00:35:45] Eric Goranson: And it's just like your deck. We were talking about your deck, right. Mm-hmm great example. You did the windows and you did the sliders and all that stuff that you're doing right there. And I'm like, whoa, hold, tap the brake. On your siding until you make [00:36:00] sure you know exactly what's going on. Mm-hmm with the deck because you're gonna have to flash that.

[00:36:05] Eric Goranson: And the last thing you want to do is to have the deck people come out and go, oh, all that siding. You just paid to come off. Yeah, come off now. We're gonna tear it off. Hey, uh, Caroline, can you order two more boxes of siding now, then that's $600, right? $700. And you're in travel. So that's where that plan comes together.

[00:36:24] Eric Goranson: Where you're trying to do that and to make sure that's the big thing is just come up with that bigger picture. So when you do something, it's, it sets you up down the road for the next projects. It'll save you money and it'll get the project going so much faster. So if you're not down the

[00:36:39] Caroline Blazovsky: road, if you're not as experienced, like you are at looking at something and kind of figuring out those little idiosyncrasies that could happen.

[00:36:46] Caroline Blazovsky: What do you recommend? Where does someone go to get help doing something like that? Can they go to a box store? Can they go talk to somebody? You know, where do you, how do you figure that out?

[00:36:54] Eric Goranson: You know, I would, I would bring in a building professional and pay them to help you design it out. Whether it's a DIY [00:37:00] project or some of it's probably gonna require.

[00:37:02] Eric Goranson: A contractor out there if even for the most experienced people. So find your contractor and sit down, you know, compensate. 'em I don't expect them to be working out there for free, but have 'em come up with an overall plan for your house. Maybe it's a five year plan. Maybe it's a seven year plan. Maybe it's a 10 year plan, whatever it is.

[00:37:21] Eric Goranson: Kind of figure it out and figure out if you've got the right person, what you're gonna tackle and what they're gonna tackle and make sure that you get that stuff. If you pay somebody to help you like a designer or architect or somebody like that, that's involved in the process, it will save you money every single time.

[00:37:39] Eric Goranson: And it will give you a much better project when it's all said and done great advice

[00:37:44] Caroline Blazovsky: as you have a plan.

[00:37:44] Eric Goranson: Great advice. And so that's a big one, you know? And, and it's the same thing. Like we talked about with some of these other things, the hidden issues, if you are inexperienced and most people are in remodeling, if you're inexperienced bringing in [00:38:00] somebody that can go, Hey, that could be a problem.

[00:38:03] Eric Goranson: Whether it's a friend, a family person, you know, somebody in the family, that's got more experience. Mm-hmm if that second set of eyes, like we talked about can really get things dialed in because they're gonna go, Hey, That wall could be load bearing. exactly. Really. I was just gonna cut it out. Well, maybe we should get someone in to do it, like your vent.

[00:38:27] Caroline Blazovsky: Okay. That's your vent is under your, your door now.

[00:38:33] Eric Goranson: those are all things you gotta do. So let's do number 10. Uh, since we're down to a minute here, you know, we've already hit the, the last nine and number 10 is, well, I think we're just not gonna get to it today. What does that mean? We just quit. So I guess gonna have to call this project.

[00:38:48] Eric Goranson: We just quit. We just quit done. We're just like, ah, number 10. Well, we're not gonna get to it. And thus leaving this project unfinished . Hey, make sure you subscribe over to. [00:39:00] Around the house nation. That is our closed group, because all your projects that you're working on right now, make sure and share 'em up over there.

[00:39:05] Eric Goranson: Love to see what you're working on. We've had some great ones over the last few weeks. Share it up there. I wanna see your project. Caroline does. We've got some great people over there. I hear the music coming, have a

[00:39:14] Caroline Blazovsky: good week, everyone.

[00:39:15] Eric Goranson: I am Eric

[00:39:16] Eric Goranson: G

[00:39:16] Caroline Blazovsky: And I'm Caroline B and you've been listening to around that house.