Are you ready for summer? We dive into some of the things you can do to fix up that outdoor space around your backyard. Maybe it is some exterior lighting or a television near the outdoor bar or bbq we talk about some of those fun new additions to that outdoor space. What are the best things to clean up that deck or lawn furniture? All that and MORE in this weeks first hour of the Around the House Show!

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[00:00:05] Eric Goranson: around the house. So many people think that they can go down to. There, you know, best buy Costco Sam's club, whatever, and go buy a television and toss it up outside. And if it gets stormy, I'm going to take it inside. That's not always the case in almost every place in the United States.

[00:00:31] Caroline Blazovsky: And that's what they did. They went down to Costco, bought the cheapest TV, put it out there, and now they're trying to predict the weather. When to bring this thing in and out, that's impossible. You

[00:00:41] Eric Goranson: So first off, if it's a covered area, they make televisions that are outdoor area. When it comes to remodeling and renovating your home is a lot to know

[00:00:56] Eric Goranson: Welcome to around the house with Eric G and Caroline [00:01:00] Memorial day weekend. This is

[00:01:10] Caroline Blazovsky: happy holiday weekend.

[00:01:18] Eric Goranson: do that. Got nothing to do with the fireworks on that. It's interesting. It's interesting. So, oh, I'll also, it is, um, top gun Maverick weekend. Oh

[00:01:31] Caroline Blazovsky: Thanks you for reminding us. Oh my gosh, I

[00:01:36] Eric Goranson: By the way, did you speak to that real quick?

[00:01:49] Caroline Blazovsky: Oh, he's well, I heard that he was wanting to be in there, but he's actually in the movie.

[00:01:58] Eric Goranson: He can't talk, he uses the voice [00:02:00] box. Right. So he doesn't have a voice. They used AI and created his voice from his history of speaking in the movies. So yeah, they used artificial intelligence in creating. His voice. So he talks in the movie, it's his voice, but he's not speaking it because he doesn't have a voice box to speak through right now.

[00:02:27] Caroline Blazovsky: so well. I liked that they did that.

[00:02:46] Eric Goranson: And of course, Tom cruise comes back to, to teach the young ones. How to, how to

[00:02:58] Eric Goranson: Yeah. I would like to see [00:03:00] Tom Skerritt get drug back in there, but that's me.

[00:03:05] Eric Goranson: Oh, thank God. The movie. I'm not a fan.

[00:03:13] Caroline Blazovsky: I can't really be top gun without that. That was like the love story of,

[00:03:33] Eric Goranson: So I know it, well, let me speak the truth here, whether you like it or not. I wanted to talk. Yeah. There's so many things you can do. And I wanted to talk about some of those fun things you can do kind of around the house. On a holiday weekend, getting ready for people to come over, maybe the barbecue, you know, and the rest of summer.

[00:03:59] Caroline Blazovsky: uh, [00:04:00] going back a little bit to barbecue, we had Leanne whipping on, um, what, two weeks ago, three weeks ago, and pit boss I'm impressed with these BBQs. I'm definitely getting one.

[00:04:25] Eric Goranson: Now that current season is going, uh, but she was the winner of season number one. So, uh, go back and listen to that on the way back machine on the podcast. If you want some barbecue tips for the week. You can go back and check that out. There's plenty jam packed in that episode. So I wanted to talk Carolina about my project.

[00:04:54] Caroline Blazovsky: it's the best it's so fasted and being outside with some outdoor lighting is just [00:05:00] amazing.

[00:05:16] Eric Goranson: Once a year for a few weeks, maybe a month, get put back in the box. They're not meant for 24, 7, 365 years. So here's the thing. If it's exposed to the elements, make sure you're not using those lights outside because they won't last. They're just not the plastic. Isn't that good? They're not that waterproof.

[00:05:43] Caroline Blazovsky: Where do you get a durable light? So if you're going to do outside lighting or some string lighting, where do you recommend people go to get that?

[00:05:56] Eric Goranson: I jumped and got mine on Amazon. Um, uh, I got the [00:06:00] commercial grade. I bought the LEDs that have the plastic. that are clear plastic instead of the glass, because the glass ones sometimes have a hard time in my area because I have trees overhead. I go with the non breakable ones because I've had pine cones break the bulbs because they fall out of the trees and break the glass.

[00:06:44] Eric Goranson: And I think

[00:07:00] Eric Goranson: Scuba Dell just had an amazing one.

[00:07:24] Eric Goranson: So that's a good one. I mean, that's just one of those you look at and go, okay. That works really well. So I think it's a great way in inexpensive because you can tie it off now. One. That I do is you can buy again on Amazon or anywhere else. They sell them really thin black cable wired cable that's code on the outside.

[00:08:03] Eric Goranson: Nice. Well, yeah, I mean, you can swing them as you want, but you have no control to it, which is awesome.

[00:08:12] Eric Goranson: so, and then be careful guys, don't go put in like screw eyes into trees and things like that without knowing what you're doing, because I don't want to see. You know, hurting trees and things like that that are living by just grabbing that galvanized screw and put in the side of the tree.

[00:08:28] Caroline Blazovsky: ask you, where are good places to put this outside lighting? Like I'd like to do some outside lighting. Um, how about like, I have a, like, so I have a second story deck, like underneath the deck might be a really good place. Like, oh, you did sorta, you have it positioned underneath, like.

[00:08:43] Eric Goranson: the small deck, that's over my outdoor kitchen, then I have the big deck that goes out from that. So what I did is I actually mounted, I wanted to use that post foam and it worked out pretty well. So I put a dug, a hole I put in 10 foot high round post. [00:09:00] That I'm going to end up painting black once they've aged out, they're treated.

[00:09:21] Eric Goranson: Now, when we come back, I want to talk about a really big subject. And that's when we put the entertainment stuff outside, like the TVs and the stereo systems. It's not as easy as you might think. And let's dive into that. And we come back just as soon as around the house

[00:10:07] Intro: welcome back

[00:10:18] Caroline Blazovsky: This is a great time of year it's party time guys.

[00:10:26] Eric Goranson: It's just what it is, but seriously, here's what, here's what happens. You know, I love to entertain outside when I'm cooking on the barbecue. I've got music on. If I, if I could have a TV going out there, I want to talk in this segment here about outdoor entertainment. Cause that's a big. So many people think that they can go down to there, you know, best buy Costco Sam's club, whatever, and go buy a television and toss it up outside.

[00:11:06] Caroline Blazovsky: I was just telling Eric about my friend who just built this beautiful outdoor patio. And that's what they did. They went down to Costco, bought the cheapest TV, put it out there. And now they're trying right to predict the weather when to bring this thing in and out.

[00:11:20] Eric Goranson: do it. So first off, if it's a covered area, they make televisions that are outdoor rated. So you can buy a television. That's designed to hold up to humidity dust. And more important sunlight because you know the sun in the wrong spot, you can't see the television,

[00:11:42] Caroline Blazovsky: How much are you going to pay for an hour? Is that more expensive? You

[00:12:05] Eric Goranson: That's not a bad way to go, but it does make it be more bulky, you know, think about it. You go to an amusement park, you go into a commercial space and they've got TVs outside. There's just that thicker box that goes around them to protect it. Yeah, absolutely. So that works pretty well. Now your friend already has the TV, so there's kind of two options there.

[00:12:48] Eric Goranson: You need to probably be bringing it in, but those are things you can do. But you run into that with any electronics that are made for inside drum. You know, I would not go buy a very expensive [00:13:00] TV receiver and put it outside. So you can have the stereo outside without having to worry about that, because that thing is not really rated to have moisture in it all the time.

[00:13:26] Eric Goranson: music. So, so it's funny.

[00:13:48] Eric Goranson: And I can put whatever music's on my phone already there. So I don't have to worry about sinking stuff up. It's just like sinking up every speaker. So you can do

[00:14:03] Eric Goranson: waterproof. Yeah. I'm going to actually put, um, I I'm going to test this out cause I have an old.

[00:14:27] Eric Goranson: It's just older. You know, it's not worth a lot, but I think I'm going to just keep using it out there and plug it and unplug it. And when it's done, I'll put it in the recycle bin and call it a.

[00:14:46] Caroline Blazovsky: Right. I like it inside sound system. So that's my jam. But. That in lights that just gives a whole ambience.

[00:15:05] Eric Goranson: Cause of course you can't see the television. So it needs to be in some kind of a shaded protected area for that to work now. The other thing that I like to do is keeping cool. You know, when you get hot out there and we're getting into like that July, August temperatures in many places or 24 7, like you see in the, in the Southern states, I love to keep cool.

[00:15:37] Caroline Blazovsky: What a great idea. I want some MREs. I don't have that

[00:15:48] Eric Goranson: Now that is one of my little secrets that I do for, if we have a day, that's going to be like super, super hot. Like what? Like last year we were at 116 [00:16:00] hundred and 17. And I knew that my system area, my AC system was not designed for that. It did really well, but it still was warmer in the house than I liked it.

[00:16:41] Eric Goranson: But next to my outdoor compressing compressor yep. Worked out really well. Now you don't want to do that if here's the thing, your water quality. Needs to be something to think about with this. So I don't have hard water. It's not an issue here, but if you've got well, [00:17:00] water, this hard, you could get, technically, if you do this a lot, get, build up on that.

[00:17:23] Eric Goranson: We can put it around the patio. They make them that they have ones on the shelf there too, that you can attach to a, to a, a standing fan, you know, Post we adjusted up. You can literally attach that to the fan and put it out in your, in, on your deck and stuff to cool people. And, uh, when I was in South Carolina, we were using that worked awesome capture.

[00:17:49] Caroline Blazovsky: now I'm dreaming of me on the lounger,

[00:18:05] Eric Goranson: It works well. It works well. So that's one thing to consider there. Now, when we come back here, I want to talk about barbecues just for a minute. And a, this is always. Yeah, this is a great barbecue weekend. No doubt.

[00:18:30] Intro: the house returns,

[00:18:58] Eric Goranson: listening to around the house [00:19:00] with Eric, Jean Caroline, B. And I'm going to show you how to shred it out

[00:19:09] Eric Goranson: come back to around the house with Caroline happy Memorial day, weekend. Hope everybody's having a great time out there wanting to talk, Caroline, this segment here about a little bit of a kind of cleaning and maintenance and making sure you're ready for having people coming over for a, maybe a Monday barbecue.

[00:19:28] Caroline Blazovsky: always cleaning up. Right. We clean up and we party. Then we clean up again. It's the hardest.

[00:19:48] Eric Goranson: You want to make sure you've got that cleaned up really well, because that can be its own fire. And when you have a grease fire and a barbecue. Very hard to put out in some situations.

[00:20:13] Eric Goranson: No worries. There's a lot of different ways to do it. Um, yeah, I've usually gone through in the past and just put it on high and let it sit there and just. Literally just torch itself off. And I do that every, every few times. And, and that works on a, on a gas, barbecue really well. My charcoal stuff tends to burn hot enough.

[00:20:50] Eric Goranson: But the time I cook it down, any of the grease that was on there, when I took the cooked food off, it's kind of burnt off at that point. So I'm starting off with a fairly clean barbecue.

[00:21:06] Caroline Blazovsky: So she was saying to kind of apply your sauces either after the fact, you know, try to keep them off the grill.

[00:21:22] Eric Goranson: If you don't do this right. Because you're just kicking on. Sugar brown sugar, burnt sugar. And that doesn't end up for the, maybe the best barbecue experience. So something to think about there. Another thing right now is a great time to make sure you got that lawn furniture cleaned up here in my area. We get the scum from winter

[00:21:47] Caroline Blazovsky: Like I have it all, you know, I had out my, uh, My Palm olive dish. No, I actually had Dawn, I think, but it worked great. Dawn removed a lot of my stains, which I had to

[00:22:00] Caroline Blazovsky: no. We had enough of that. For those of you weren't listening. I was attacked in my studio. Not happening again.

[00:22:21] Eric Goranson: I just want you to be okay with it.

[00:22:40] Caroline Blazovsky: I was using Dawn. I mean, some of those things are just so grease. I mean, do you have a, I was scrubbing the cushions, you know, and I have very expensive cushions that I don't put out all year round.

[00:22:53] Eric Goranson: I do is I sometimes will take the cushions, like the smaller ones for like the Adirondacks sell chairs in the [00:23:00] spring time. I go. And even though I've stored them all. I go and put them in the, I put in the fall. I put them through the wash. I run them through the washing machine.

[00:23:10] Eric Goranson: some kind of a big couches. I can actually unzip the covers off of those, through zip them back up. And so we can do that, but many times I'll just get out there with the, with the deck. And some Dawn just clean them up. Don

[00:23:24] Intro: great.

[00:23:29] Eric Goranson: I've taken like tide laundry detergent out there, and that can work too, you know, get out there and scrub it and get it foamed up. I've used laundry detergent for cleaning up those that works as well.

[00:23:44] Caroline Blazovsky: So you kind of really do have to put some effort into protecting them. Like I tried to bring them in as much as possible.

[00:24:03] Eric Goranson: So they want to jump up on it. So we've got covers on it just to protect it and a

[00:24:13] Eric Goranson: comfortable. That's cool. That's cool. Yeah, we've got, we don't have anything like that.

[00:24:38] Eric Goranson: That's a riskier behavior. But it works. The other thing you gotta be careful with here is, is we have Eagles like bald Eagles that fly around here. So I have to be careful with our little dog because he could be bald Eagle food if we're not careful outside. That's awful. Yeah. Uh, I mean, I saw [00:25:00] who sent me that I had a buddy send me a picture on YouTube where literally a bald Eagle flew down.

[00:25:11] Caroline Blazovsky: that proposal would Sandra Bullock. And we ever seen that. I think that's filmed out in your region somewhere. Yeah. So she's supposed to watch the dog and all of a sudden, a bald Eagle swoops down and grabs it. I think it's in Alaska.

[00:25:35] Eric Goranson: Yeah. They get it's, it's relabeled all these things that are, oh, we filmed it in the Northwest. It's rare, you know, twin peaks maybe, but, you know, and, and, and I will say there was different stuff. They filmed your recourse. They, they filmed Portlandia and grim. There's a side note. I was actually an extra in grim.

[00:25:54] Caroline Blazovsky: are you? You sign Bernie. You do I can I see you?

[00:26:20] Eric Goranson: Into town. And so he was right behind me thinking. Yeah, it was like, it was curbside check-in, which was funny as we were in a building that had not been moved into, we were just on any street in Portland, they came in and in about 20 minutes, these guys showed up with stickers to go on the windows and some furniture to make it look like you're at the airport.

[00:27:05] Eric Goranson: And so it was like, This is creepy. I'm hearing a show eating and they're all talking. And, and so I got to share a table with them, so it was kind of cool, but cinematic

[00:27:15] Eric Goranson: Very cool. Oh yeah. Good stuff. Good stuff. Well, anyway, with back to back to out of the rabbit hole there and Memorial day weekend, you know, just getting things cleaned up in detailed, uh, Pete, careful with the pressure washer out there, people, um, I don't want to harp too much on this, but pressure washing that deck can do a lot of damage.

[00:27:54] Eric Goranson: That's one thing, but just be careful with it. You can, you can damage things pretty easy with a pressure washer. [00:28:00] Decent pressure washer and you don't know what you're doing. And when you're outside

[00:28:11] Caroline Blazovsky: You know, if you're out there, just take some vinegar and water and start cleaning around those areas and keeping the air conditioning, compressor, and all of that stuff that's outside, you know, clean around that makes sure there's no weeds.

[00:28:27] Eric Goranson: This is a time of year that you can save some serious money. We're going to tell you how, just as soon as around the house returns,[00:29:00]

[00:29:12] Eric Goranson: already command from even. I love spam

[00:29:17] Eric Goranson: to around

[00:29:22] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to the, around the house. Show your home-improvement source every single weekend. If you're just joining us happy Memorial day weekend, this segment here, before we get out to our interview, I wanted to talk Carolina about.

[00:29:53] Caroline Blazovsky: Yeah. Especially with prices, inflation going up.

[00:30:01] Eric Goranson: there is, you know, what power tools is a great time of year right now to take a look out there. You know, you think about it, the home centers are trying to get you into the store to come buy things. So there's going to be those lost leaders you see out there, you could seriously get out there and replace some tools.

[00:30:44] Eric Goranson: Uh, I think they're run on a, uh, you get to buy. If you buy one of those kits, you get one free select power tools. So you get that free power tool, which is awesome. And, uh, they've also got a bunch of their, uh, packouts on sale over there as well. So there's a lot of different stuff that you [00:31:00] see for instance, with home Depot in a kind of their two big brands they have, which is the, uh, Milwaukee in rigid.

[00:31:08] Caroline Blazovsky: time of year to buy outdoor tools and equipped. When you're really going to get a good deal, is it, can you get a better deal in winter time when you're looking at outdoor stuff? Is it priced

[00:31:28] Eric Goranson: So right now is when you have the best selection. Um, and you can get into some of these special buys to get you going, because you're trying to get you into the stores. So you'll see that one tool or that one thing that you go, wow, that's great. That's going to drag me into the store. You'll see that when you're getting into this end of season sales, now what they're doing is they're closing out many times the stuff that didn't sell and maybe that's not the best tool or the best brand.

[00:32:19] Eric Goranson: Right. They brought it back many times in the middle of summer. You'll see those things go out to serve. And then, then when they ship them back, there'll be like half off. And maybe they got used once or twice. Those can be a great deal because now they've gone through service. They've dialed in. They were used maybe once or twice and they had a problem or they didn't, you know, let's say the wheel was broke or something like that.

[00:32:50] Caroline Blazovsky: I'm putting it out there. I want an ego zero turn lawn mower with mulching capability. I'm looking at it. I'm drooling. I have to put this out. [00:33:00] There you go. I need you. I'm happy to do a demo video. Anything you want.

[00:33:10] Eric Goranson: Right there. There you go. There you go. That's awesome. And so, yeah, I mean, this is that time of year for it. So there's a lot of that. Here's one thing too, mattresses and appliances. Those are both things right now. If you're wanting to get that better, night's sleep. The mattress stores have stuff.

[00:33:32] Caroline Blazovsky: Isn't that amazing. Eric just got a new mattress and he loves it and he got into low

[00:33:43] Eric Goranson: Cause I didn't want to mess with it. So Lowe's is a secret shopper place to go find a mattress. And what I like about it is they're going to have that sales person hounding you down. It's like, it's there. Do your research, go buy it. You don't have somebody going [00:34:00] well, you know, you should buy this one over here.

[00:34:09] Caroline Blazovsky: Eric.

[00:34:19] Intro: it. Wow. That's

[00:34:24] Intro: rating. What happened? That

[00:34:38] Eric Goranson: There are some great buys out there, appliances and. One thing with the home centers that I will say is they will get special buys where they buy container loads, full of appliances that are special, not model numbers for that store. And they'll bring them in across the country and that special buyer can save you hundreds over what the [00:35:00] normal model would be.

[00:35:01] Caroline Blazovsky: like Memorial day weekend or any holiday weekend, right? It's parties, food. Dining outside shopping. It is like the Mecca.

[00:35:25] Eric Goranson: I mean, you can get almost every tool brand now has. A lawnmower that fits with their system, whether you're a real Toby person or a Makita person or a DeWalt person or a Milwaukee person. Let alone the, what I would call the outdoor power equipment brands like ego or Greenworks or green machine or any of these other big brands out there.

[00:36:02] Caroline Blazovsky: And these, and look, I have to say having a large garden and having quite a bit of yard work to do. We've gone completely over to electric and battery operated.

[00:36:29] Caroline Blazovsky: Weed wackers are great there.

[00:36:47] Eric Goranson: Now there are some of you out there that are a lot like me that go through and do the proper maintenance on it. Cause you want it to last, but I don't have to anymore. I don't have a gas powered lawn mower. Literally it keep the blade sharp and to keep the battery [00:37:00] charged up and I get the hose out and keep it.

[00:37:06] Caroline Blazovsky: The other thing too, I see. When people are doing a lot of the weed Wacker stuff and they're mixing their fuel, right. It's always like smoking. It's a mess. They never mix it. Right. It's just

[00:37:19] Eric Goranson: You're right. It just never works. Right. It just doesn't, it just doesn't.

[00:37:48] Caroline Blazovsky: How fun. This is a fun time of year guys. I'm looking forward,

[00:38:07] Eric Goranson: Now all the people that went off and fought the battles and didn't make it back this weekend is for you. And we should be, uh, be celebrating that ultimate sacrifice as well. Amen. Because otherwise we wouldn't be here. We'd be off doing other stuff. Maybe even we'd be celebrating some British holiday.

[00:38:31] Eric Goranson: So, Caroline, you're going to be ended up, uh, as we go out to break here, are you going to be doing barbecue in this weekend or what are you going to be doing?

[00:38:46] Eric Goranson: It's nice because springtime in the Pacific Northwest, it can be rainy and sunny and rainy and windy and stuff.

[00:38:59] Caroline Blazovsky: dog? [00:39:00] It's all American got to have a hot

[00:39:03] Eric Goranson: I like hotdogs. I I'd much rather put on the trade tip and the burgers, you know, but a. Oh, by the way, I have another little secret tip before we got to break here too.

[00:39:28] Intro: And I'm Caroline B and you've been listening to Around the House .