[00:00:00] Intro: It's around the house

[00:00:17] Eric Goranson: when it comes to remodeling and renovating your home. There is a lot to know though. We've got you covered.

[00:00:23] Intro: This is around the house.

[00:00:26] Eric Goranson: Welcome to around the house. This is where we help you get the most outta your home through information and education. I'm Eric G on a. Tuesday here for our midweek special, our first episode of, well, 2023.

[00:00:42] Eric Goranson: Happy New Year everybody. And man, it's been a tough couple days and I'm just little personal stuff here. Just, uh, you know, it's on the 3rd of January and I'm like stoked for 2023. But man, we had a major radio host in the Seattle market, uh, who didn't always agree [00:01:00] with, but he was such a great broadcaster up there.

[00:01:01] Eric Goranson: Dory Monson, he was part of the. Part of the, uh, Seahawks broadcast team up there as well as, uh, last night, Ken block the stunt race car driver. Co-founder of DC Shoes passing away. And then of course all the stuff that's been going on at the NFL and uh, our thoughts and prayers, of course, going out to DeMar Hamlin for that.

[00:01:25] Eric Goranson: It's just been an emotional couple days. I'm already spent and it's like the 3rd of January, so we've got a lot to cover today, but that's where I'm coming from today and I hope everybody out there is doing well and uh, everything's going okay for them and they're healthy and made it through the. Well, today I wanted to talk about a few things and uh, one of them is the death of a large company, of a large retailer.

[00:01:48] Eric Goranson: And this isn't anything new, but you know, 20 years ago, these guys were a behemoth with like 700 stores out there. And now today they announced that the last [00:02:00] 150 of the Sears stores across the US will be closing. So here in another month or two, whenever they get those things closed up, when the sales are done, there won't be a Sears store anywhere.

[00:02:10] Eric Goranson: And that to me is pretty wild considering how big they used to be. When I was a kid, we'd get the Sears catalogs and all that stuff and uh, of course online and, and to be honest, they were a company. That had such a strong point, but talk about somebody who didn't pivot when the times changed and we saw that with other companies out there that just didn't make it when.

[00:02:33] Eric Goranson: The world changes. And unfortunately, they did the same thing. You know, the stores that I would go into around the country, I'd need to pop in maybe to get a craftsman tool or something. And uh, I tell you what, it was tough. You could tell they hadn't seen maintenance in 20 years. There was, it was just a, a, a soulless building.

[00:02:53] Eric Goranson: And then they took my craftsman tool brand, which you know, my grandfather, my father, me as a kid, and all the way [00:03:00] up into the 1990s, had some great quality tools. And then starting 20 years ago, they took that maiden u s a hand tool thing, started cheapening it, making it overseas, and then it just went away.

[00:03:15] Eric Goranson: There was nothing made in USA about it, and the quality went down. And that was a problem to me. So I quite frankly, at that point, I never went back into one. The only time I would go back into a Sears store was to exchange something that was broken and I was out, you know, they had their diehard battery brand, they had the, uh, you know, the big, huge Kenmore appliance brand.

[00:03:39] Eric Goranson: What's gonna happen to those guys? Well, diehard it seems, is sold in a couple. Companies out there, uh, co you know, like, uh, advanced Auto Parts, things like that. So they may live on, and then Ken Moore I'm seeing showing up in Lowe's and Amazon and stuff. So I think Ken Moore is gonna be out there. But to be honest, Ken Moore [00:04:00] doesn't make their own appliances.

[00:04:01] Eric Goranson: And you probably know this, but if you don't, I'll give you a little background on it. Super quick. Kenmore appliances is something that has been around. You know, for a long time, but they don't make their own appliances. They literally just sit there and get ahold of somebody like Whirlpool, which Whirlpool has been the last number of years, has been one of the biggest producers of Kenmore appliances, and so that's been what they did.

[00:04:25] Eric Goranson: Kenmore would say, okay, Whirlpool or GE, or Frigidaire, I want an appliance with this specific. And they would go look at their factory parts and go, okay, we can build it like this. And then they would sell it under the Kenmore brand. But really they were all, whatever brand that made that many times right now, it was, uh, newer stuff.

[00:04:48] Eric Goranson: It's been Whirlpool. It's all made by Whirlpool. So it's still the same stuff. And the good news is, is when Sears goes out, that Kenmore brand seems to be still be owned by the, uh, [00:05:00] holding company that owns Sears. So they still have that brand. It looks. The interesting part of that is it's still gonna be sold, it looks like, through other places.

[00:05:10] Eric Goranson: So you'll still see it in Lowe's, you'll still see it on Amazon. It might end up getting, you know, pulled into one of the big box stores to be their brand like it was for Sears for so many years. So we'll have to see how that plays out. But you know, just, uh, pretty sad to see a retailer that has been so badly run for so many years.

[00:05:28] Eric Goranson: Finally bite the dust and, uh, I mean, we could all see it coming. This is no shock to anybody, but I feel bad for all the people out there that have been working hard and the people that were, uh, even the people out there that were in the Sears Auto Centers, this people that were in the, that were working and the, the Sears, you know, Home services divisions where they were doing roofs and that kind of stuff.

[00:05:49] Eric Goranson: Uh, all those people, uh, now are gonna be outta work that still had a job out there. So, um, my heart goes out to you guys in the new year finding out that, uh, you had made it this far, but, uh, looks like [00:06:00] that is going to go away. Next, I wanted to talk to all our Californians out there and our people in the, in the desert southwest, because I tell you what, you guys have been getting some serious rain over the last couple, couple weeks.

[00:06:14] Eric Goranson: Really, over the holidays, San Francisco looked like they were getting four to six inches of rain, had already got that, and much more is coming. I see, uh, my friends down in Southern California are, uh, getting some much needed rain and a lot of it all at once. Later on this week, it looks like they're gonna be getting inches of rain, which, you know, that is good for those guys.

[00:06:35] Eric Goranson: Uh, where it's not so good is where they've had recent fires and those burn scars, cuz that can lead to mudslides and problems like that. But that's gonna put some water into reservoirs, hopefully into rivers, and hopefully into the environment there that needs it so badly. But I wanted to talk for a few minutes for California people about ways to control water to make sure that you've got it under control because you haven't had to deal with this for so [00:07:00] many years and maybe, you know, there's a good chance if you bought a home in the last few years, you've never had to deal with heavy water like this.

[00:07:06] Eric Goranson: It just hasn't really happened. And so I, I thought I'd talk about some of the basics now in Southern California. Uh, Basements are not a common thing. Maybe a half basement or a California basement, but really, Basements are uncommon, but if you do have one of those basements, you know, keep an eye on things.

[00:07:25] Eric Goranson: Get down there and take a look at it around the perimeter of the house in the basement. Make sure you don't have boxes stacked up against the wall or anything like that. Pull those back. Make sure that you don't have water coming up someplace, and make sure that that's not filling up with water. Any place that there's a crack, especially from, uh, earthquakes and things like that, that is a quick path of water into the house.

[00:07:45] Eric Goranson: And don't worry, that can be repaired with carbon fiber and things like that. But that is where that is. Now, take a look at that. If you've got a crawlspace, stick your head down there. I know most of you, a lot of you, just because of fast building techniques over the last 40 years, [00:08:00] slab on grade where they poured the concrete right on the on the ground.

[00:08:03] Eric Goranson: That is the most common, but you could still get water up through that. But crawlspaces, when they are built, make sure you don't have water down in there because that can be the low point, which water loves to go to the low. Make sure you've got that as well. And then third, if you've got gutters, make sure they're clean.

[00:08:21] Eric Goranson: You know, you can have, I got a buddy's place. I was looking at his the other day when I was down there and he had a bunch of palm leaves and stuff in there. Uh, and that's gonna get all clogged up when you get inches of rain. So make sure you've got those cleaned out. And then second of all, if you've got gutters and downspouts, make sure those downspouts don't drop off right next to the foundation.

[00:08:42] Eric Goranson: I wanna see that go into a tube or go into a storm drain system that gets that at least 10 feet away from the foundation. So if that's dropping out right next to the house, that will be a problem if you continue to get rain. So you wanna make sure that goes at least 10 feet away and downhill from the house.

[00:08:59] Eric Goranson: [00:09:00] So you know, this is the time that you're gonna start finding where those, uh, where those puddles come up, especially if it's a new house to you. So that's something to think about there as well. And then, uh, keep an eye out for those roof leaks, you know, if, uh, keep an eye out when you're getting inches of rain.

[00:09:15] Eric Goranson: We have it here in Portland all the time, so we're pretty used to it. But just make sure that you've got, uh, you know, the storm drains out at the street. Make sure those are kind of opened up. If you've got a bunch of stuff up there from wind, make sure that any of those leaves and junk that's out there.

[00:09:29] Eric Goranson: That, uh, could be out there. Make sure those are clean because, uh, you don't wanna see the water get piled up in front of your house and, uh, up into your yard and worse up into your house. So, uh, make sure you do that and just be careful. Be careful guys. I don't wanna see anybody get hurt out there, especially driving through the different, uh, flooded areas.

[00:09:49] Eric Goranson: You know, there's sinkhole and things like that that can happen when you get this stuff because, uh, of course all those different storm drain systems can get so much water that they can really get overwhelmed and then [00:10:00] that pipe can disconnected underground. and then all of a sudden it sweeps away the soil and now you got a sinkhole and cars are dropping into it and people can get hurt or killed with that.

[00:10:08] Eric Goranson: So we wanna make sure and uh, be careful with that out there. So if you've got any questions out there with your problems of water, if you are like, man, I got a water problem I'm not used to dealing with, take a picture of it, head over to Facebook around the house show, or actually over to our, uh, close group around the house.

[00:10:29] Eric Goranson: If you wanna post it up over there on a picture on that post, I will be in there to make sure that we can get, uh, me and other people in that group can get there. Or you can message me directly over at around the house online.com and you can send stuff through that as well. I'd love to see what your problems are and see if we can help you.

[00:10:47] Eric Goranson: Get that taken care of because, uh, water can do a ton of damage. It can do just as much as fire out there. And, uh, all it takes is with mold. If you get something wet inside your house, like a pipe break or one of [00:11:00] those other things, be very careful. So what you want to do is, uh, make sure that anything that gets wet dries out within 24 to 48 hours.

[00:11:08] Eric Goranson: If not, get dehumidifiers in there. Uh, anything over 48 hours, you definitely will have a mold problem. So make sure that you can, uh, get that dialed in and taken care of. All right, buddy. We got a great show ahead this weekend that you're not gonna wanna miss. We're gonna talk about, uh, power generation and, uh, 10 G speeds on cable coming up so ultra fast.

[00:11:30] Eric Goranson: Internet speed's coming up, which is gonna be pretty cool. And, uh, all that and more coming up on Saturday on a new around the House show. All right, everybody, have a great rest of the week. Stay safe out there. Thanks for listening to Around

[00:11:42] Intro: the House.[00:12:00]