[00:00:00] Eric Goranson: It's around the house. When it comes to remodeling and renovating your home, there is a lot to know. We've got you covered. This is Around the House. Welcome to the Around the House show, the next generation of home improvement. Thanks for joining me today. I'm Eric G. Today we're being presented by my friends over at Monument Grills.

[00:00:35] Eric Goranson: If you're looking to update that grill, go to www. aroundthehouse. com. Just in time for football season. Make sure and check them out at monumentgrills. com. They've got some really cool stuff out there. You want those high end features that you get on the very expensive multi thousand dollar grills and you want them on something that's under a thousand bucks, almost every one of their models are.

[00:00:54] Eric Goranson: So you can get something really cool for a much better price. That's what you can check out at Monument [00:01:00] Grills. Today, we're going to talk about in our, basically this is our weekday update. This is the stuff that comes out on Wednesday podcast only. No radio show on a Wednesday, but you know something I wanted to talk today about some stuff Say no, there are so many people out there struggling.

[00:01:14] Eric Goranson: It is tough to get by these days There's a lot of people that are out there just working paycheck to paycheck Let alone remodeling a house. You're just trying to keep the bills paid with bills Expenses everything's getting more expensive and you know something you're not the only one out there. So I hear you And I know you're looking around the house going, man, I want to do that kitchen remodel, man.

[00:01:38] Eric Goranson: I want to do that bathroom remodel. And something it's tough right now. So most people in the United States are looking around going, yeah, this is tough. So we know it's expensive out there and I know there's going to be better times ahead. So keep the faith. And I got some tips today to make sure we save you some money out there and just help you maintain through this kind of troubled times.

[00:01:59] Eric Goranson: It's an [00:02:00] election year. It's going to be tough. It always is. But right now there's so much uncertainty and a lot less money in the bank. So let's talk about some of those things today. One of the things too is right now is the time. If you're just getting the bills paid, you're making the minimum payments in the credit cards, you're trying to make sure you get things paid on time.

[00:02:18] Eric Goranson: You got payment plans for stuff. I hear it from a lot of you guys out there that are listeners and viewers. And you know something? I get it. So here are my tips. First off, focus on maintaining your home. Let's see if we can be preventative. This is like going to the doctor and getting that annual checkup.

[00:02:36] Eric Goranson: Are we going to stay on top of the things? They're going to make things worse later. And a lot of that has to do with doing stuff around this house outside. Preventative stuff. Stuff that doesn't really cost anything. Trimming the trees and bushes back from the house, making sure the caulking is right, going around and making sure that we've got that house weather tight, especially going into fall into winter and making sure that we've got those things maintained, going [00:03:00] around and checking to make sure I don't have any links, leaks around the sink.

[00:03:03] Eric Goranson: Do I have any leaks in the roof? These kinds of things that really. Might cost you a tube of caulking or a worst case, another new set of clippers to clip things back. But these are really inexpensive things that you can do to do that. Now that is one great way to keep the house from getting more expensive to maintain.

[00:03:21] Eric Goranson: And that's a big one. So making sure you don't have the pests, termites to wasps, to rats. Any of those rodent pests things take care of that as well. Really try to see if we can just get the basics done. We're just going to maintain things. I don't have to worry about trying to make things so much better, but just really maintaining it.

[00:03:38] Eric Goranson: So that way a 10 fix today doesn't cost you 5, 000 next year, because that could be even more expensive for you. What could be five? It could be five 50 could be 6, 000 to fix. We don't want to see any of that. Now, one of the other tips I think right now is for us to work on energy efficiency. And I'll be honest, I'm not talking about the greater good.

[00:03:58] Eric Goranson: I'm talking about you [00:04:00] saving money on your house, trying to keep that energy bill down. Cause I know it's not getting cheaper out there, whether it comes to natural gas or electricity or even your cable bill. So one of the things that I say, this is one that makes some of the companies mad. Guess what? I don't care.

[00:04:16] Eric Goranson: This is what I would do. If you've got a cable provider or a satellite provider. Or any one of those kind of paid companies that you're paying a subscription or an access thing to call them up. You haven't talked to him in a year, call up and say, Hey guys, I'm paying too much for my cell phone bill. I'm paying too much for my cable bill, my internet bill.

[00:04:36] Eric Goranson: My, my XM radio subscription, I don't care what it is. Give them a call to customer service and say, I'm thinking about canceling. What can you do for me? I have had my bill when I've done that dropped 40 to 50%. Now, if you've done that a couple of times, guess what? It might not go to the back that go down that much farther, but this is a great way to save some money right [00:05:00] off the bat.

[00:05:00] Eric Goranson: And if you can shave off 50 or a hundred bucks a month, that's real savings. Next thing is energy efficiency. Electricity, like we were talking about is not getting any cheaper out there. And it was crazy. I was doing some research here. According to the CBS news. Price tracker prices for electricity is up 28 point in the last four years across the country.

[00:05:24] Eric Goranson: So it could be more in your area. And one of the things that I've noticed is that on average right now, people are paying 300 bucks a month on average for the utility bills. That's pretty crazy considering we have such a wide range of dollars out there. If you think about it in North Dakota for electricity, they're paying about 10.

[00:05:45] Eric Goranson: 97. Kilowatt hours, 10. 97 cents per kilowatt hour in North Dakota. You run to Hawaii, 42. 36 cents per kilowatt hour. Huge difference, huge difference across the country. [00:06:00] And one of the things that I'm noticing is, is we're seeing some States are having really big jumps. And a lot of these, whether you like it or not, I'm just going to call like a seed.

[00:06:08] Eric Goranson: Cause that's what I do for you guys. A lot of these energy companies are getting rid of their cheaper ways To produce energy, they're getting rid of coal. They're getting rid of natural gas. They're shutting them down 20, 30 years before they're planned a life cycle to be done with. So they can put up solar wind and all of these renewable things.

[00:06:29] Eric Goranson: The problem is, is you're paying for it. And with them pushing us going into electricity with heat pumps, electricity, everywhere, electric cars, we're seeing buses. That energy use is going up. And then we're going to stack on top of this. One of the biggest energy uses of all AI. So we are seeing out there this huge push for electricity and we're not going out there to really work on trying to get electricity built like we should wind and solar.

[00:06:58] Eric Goranson: Yeah. It'll put a little bit in [00:07:00] there, but it's not putting out the same amount day in and day out as some of these other things. We're not doing nuclear, we're not doing coal. We're not doing there's white one nuclear plan being built in the U S right now. It's crazy. Especially with the safety we've got on those things, but we're not going to get into that.

[00:07:14] Eric Goranson: All I'm saying is if you think that's expensive now, it's going up even more. I'm going to, I'm going to guess if I was to put on my prediction hat, get out the crystal ball. I'm thinking we're going to see probably eight to 10 percent a year going forward. And we're going to be up there with Europe out there as far as that stuff.

[00:07:33] Eric Goranson: And that gets pretty expensive. So you're going to see this going up as we do more and more and create more demand, unless something changes, we're going to see some serious issues on that right now. So be careful out there with what you're doing. Just think about what's going to be best for you and your family, because if you're not making the bills and you want to do something for the environment, you got to take care of yourself first.

[00:07:54] Eric Goranson: And make sure that you can survive. So let's, it's like when you're in the airplane, right? They tell you to put the mask [00:08:00] on first before the people next to you. Make sure you've got yourself set up before we start worrying about the other stuff. And that's my little piece of the day on that. So one of those things that we're going to have to be careful with out there, but really guys maintain your home right now.

[00:08:14] Eric Goranson: That is a really big piece of this. Try to keep it up. And you know something, if you're having a hard time paying the bills, reach out to your mortgage company, reach out and see if there's any programs in your state. See if there's any grants, see if there's any energy rebates for anything that you can do.

[00:08:32] Eric Goranson: Maybe a new heat pump water heater could save you because that is one of those things. It's not like a heat pump where you're putting it in there going, I hope getting rid of my gas going to heat pump. That should save me money. The heat pump water heater, which is a great way to go. It just doesn't matter what you're on.

[00:08:46] Eric Goranson: It is going to save you the most for years to come. Even if we see your 10 or 15, 20 percent price increases on electricity, it's still going to do a great job because it only uses 500 Watts of electricity. To do a cycle through there to heat up [00:09:00] the water. So it's a really good, efficient way to go for many people out there.

[00:09:04] Eric Goranson: So see if there's some rebates out there, see if there's things you can do. Maybe you can add some more insulation to the house. You get a lot of that covered. So just take a look at that, see where the money savings are, because those are things that can really help you out. Around the house and it'll save you money in the future.

[00:09:20] Eric Goranson: So I'm not saying go out and get crazy on things, but if you can do some stuff to add value, it's going to save you money right now in these troubled times. I think it's the best time to do it. And we always go through these cycles. I remember when it was really bad as a kid in the seventies, when we had all the energy price stuff, where we had gas lines, we made it through that.

[00:09:39] Eric Goranson: So this is just a temporary thing. We had the Oh nine Oh 10 crashes out there that really crushed the building industry. And we're seeing a lot of that stuff happening quietly right now and not to sound too negative guys But I just want to talk you through to maybe help you out to get through this i'm seeing In my area restaurants closing i'm seeing no new [00:10:00] construction.

[00:10:00] Eric Goranson: A lot of new construction has stopped or slowed down I'm seeing a lot of different things like that that have really shown the times of Of where we're at and people i'm seeing some house sales, but most of the house sales in my neighborhood You Are because people are trying to come into my area because we have some of the best schools in Oregon So teachers, you know are are in the school district here are amazing And so we have people moving into the area and a lot of people are moving out of here out of Oregon Where i'm located to go to places that have a little bit better business environment.

[00:10:31] Eric Goranson: So you're seeing that as well So you're seeing people move around in my area But I know there's a lot of people out there that are not moving around just because of interest rates being higher So hopefully we'll see some differences on that coming forward And we got a great show by the way coming up this weekend before I jump out here Let's keep this positive guys, and sorry if I sounded a little down on this today But i'm just trying to be super real with you on the economy out there and what you can do But coming up on our show this weekend.

[00:10:58] Eric Goranson: We got a great one. This is going to [00:11:00] be one We've got a lot of different things going on and I just can't wait to show you this I've got a killer interview something that can really help you out and i'm just going to tease you a little bit I don't care if you're an apartment You You're renting, you're in a condo, you're in a small house, big house, or whatever.

[00:11:17] Eric Goranson: No matter who's listening, this is one that is going to be either a great DIY project or this person I'm talking to can come in and help you out to make sure you're in the right space. And we'll talk more about that this weekend. On around the house show and that'll air on Saturday. Oh, one more thing too, guys, before we go, there are some big recalls out there.

[00:11:39] Eric Goranson: I want you to pay attention to, and you can find these at CPS board slash recall. So let's go down the list of the ones that are gonna affect the most people. Great place to check your stuff over there. If you have a halo 1000 portable power station, those are recalled due to serious fire and burn hazards.

[00:11:57] Eric Goranson: One death reported imported [00:12:00] by zag sold by ACG Q and zag. So that's a big one right there. Next up here, Siemens industry recalls solar ready media meter combos due to fire hazard. There's about 3, 900 of these things out there. These can overheat. So talk to Siemens directly about that. Another one here, Aldi recalls Ambiengo single serve coffee makers due to burn hazard.

[00:12:26] Eric Goranson: Is taking back and recalling their farm front power banks due to fire hazard. Not too many of those, like 1600 of them. And some of the biggest ones here that I was like, Whoa, these are big over here. And we got to pay attention to these here. Let me pull over to that. Stanley black and Decker's recalling their DeWalt battery walk behind moors due to Lasseries and hazard.

[00:12:48] Eric Goranson: Now this is a big one, man. DeWalt has had a hard time with their lawnmowers. They've had some serious issues with them, and this is another one. If water gets in the mower's handle support while the battery is [00:13:00] installed, the mower can fail to shut off when the bail handle is released without even using the key.

[00:13:07] Eric Goranson: So, you could have the key on, off, whatever. That could really, if it's not turning off, that could be a problem. So we were calling about 46, 200 of these and about 9, 600 were sold in Canada. So stop using it if it's gotten wet and they have a free repair kit for it. BJ's wholesale clubs recalls Berkeley Jensen gazebos, they're due to injury hazard.

[00:13:29] Eric Goranson: Gazebos roof panels can dislodge in high winds, about 32, 500 of those. Let's see. Smeg USA recalls refrigerators due to injury hazard. Our refrigerator door can detach about 900 of those. Samsung recalls sliding electric range due to fire hazard. Front mounted knobs. The range can be activated by axonal content by humans or pets.

[00:13:51] Eric Goranson: Boy, 1. 1 million of these 1. 12 so huge recall. They have a [00:14:00] free set of knob blocks are going to give you to do this. And that's a big problem. So consumers with wifi enabled ranges can enable the cooktop on notification on the Samsung smart things app to receive alerts on their smartphone. When a burner is on, but I guess they're really easy to brush.

[00:14:16] Eric Goranson: And that's a big one there. The last one we're gonna talk about is the echo recalls, gas powered backpacks, blowers due to fire hazard. So fuel line can split 3, 900 of those. And that is the last of them. Serious recalls this week, guys, I'm going to get going. I got a busy day ahead. We got a special new episode of around the house Northwest coming up on Saturday.

[00:14:37] Eric Goranson: That's all I can talk about. Got a big one coming up this weekend. We'll just leave it at that. And if you're not watching that head over to the YouTube channel, we've got the around the house show. I've got two YouTube channels. Really? I've got my own channel. Which is around the house show. And then I've got the around the house, Northwest TV show, YouTube channel, which is actually a playlist over on the Fox 12, KPTV, Fox 12 page.

[00:14:59] Eric Goranson: [00:15:00] And they're the ones that shoot and distribute the show for me. So, all right, everybody have a great rest of the week. Happy midwit. It's Campbell gets fall, right? It's crazy how fast. This summer has gone. I can't believe we're jumped into September. Hope you had a great Labor Day weekend. We'll see you on Saturday.

[00:15:16] Eric Goranson: Thanks for tuning in to around the house.