What a whirlwind of a week it's been! Eric G dives into the chaos after finally selling his house, and let me tell you, moving is about as fun as watching paint dry on a humid day. But hey, he managed to squeeze in a weekend joyride after all that madness, and spoiler alert: he got his hands on a 2014 Ford Raptor. Nothing says 'I just sold my house' like a truck that could probably tow a small mountain. Eric shares his excitement for revving up a new YouTube channel, where he plans to show off his lumber-hauling capabilities. After all, who doesn’t want to see a guy in a badass truck trying to remember how to use a hammer?

But it’s not all trucks and good tunes from Morris Day and the Time—he’s also got a keen eye on the shifting marketplace for home services! With HVAC companies buying up plumbers and electricians like they’re Pokémon cards, Eric gives us the lowdown on how this could affect our future home improvement projects. Are you ready for the day when you might have to call an HVAC guy to fix your sink? Yeah, me neither. Prices are fluctuating like a rollercoaster, and Eric warns us to keep our eyes peeled for changes because your trusty plumber might just become your not-so-trusty HVAC technician.

Let’s not forget about the gas prices and how they’re impacting the entire home improvement industry. Eric lays it down that as gas prices dip, the cost of materials might just follow suit. So, if you’re looking to tackle that home project you’ve pushed to the back burner, good news might be on the horizon. But, as always, he emphasizes the importance of staying informed. With a new tax looming and government shutdown affecting rebates, Eric reminds us that the world of home improvement is anything but dull. So, buckle up—this episode is a wild ride through personal anecdotes and market insights, and trust me, you don’t want to miss it!

Takeaways:

• Eric G just closed a major chapter in life by selling his house, and wow, what a relief!
• The marketplace is getting spicy, especially with HVAC companies gobbling up plumbers and electricians like they're on a shopping spree.
• Gas prices are doing a little cha-cha, and while some areas see drops, others are still feeling the pinch.
• If you think your favorite plumbing company vanished, it might just be the HVAC takeover - stay alert!
• Panasonic is venturing into the Bluetooth game with bathroom fans, because regular ventilation was so last season.
• This week’s DMV story? A miracle occurred with zero lines - is the universe finally in balance?

Links referenced in this episode:

• aroundthehouseonline.com
• youtube.com/aroundthehousewithericg

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Ford
• Panasonic
• NordicTrack
• IFIT

To get your questions answered by Eric G give us a call in the studio at 833-239-4144 24/7 and Eric G will get back to you and answer your question and you might end up in a future episode of Around the House.

Thanks for listening to Around the house if you want to hear more please subscribe so you get notified of the latest episode as it posts at https://around-the-house-with-e.captivate.fm/listen

If you want to join the Around the House Insider for access to the back catalog, Exclusive Content and a direct email to Eric G and access to the show early https://around-the-house-with-e.captivate.fm/support

We love comments and we would love reviews on how this information has helped you on your house! Thanks for listening! For more information about the show head to https://aroundthehouseonline.com/

Information given on the Around the House Show should not be considered construction or design advice for your specific project, nor is it intended to replace consulting at your home or jobsite by a building professional. The views and opinions expressed by those interviewed on the podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Around the House Show.

Mentioned in this episode:

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Around the House YouTube

Foreign.

The House With Eric G. Your Go to Source for Everything home Improvement Whether you're a DIY enthusiast or just looking to make your space shine, Eric.

G is here to guide you through.

The latest tips, tricks and trends.

So grab your toolbox, put on your thinking cap and let's get to work right here on around the House with.

Eric G. Welcome to the around the House show, your trusted source for home improvement.

Thanks.

Join me today guys.

Hope you're having a great week.

Happy midweek.

This is that show that we do that well doesn't cover the stuff that covered last weekend.

Of course we're not getting into this weekend and it is an interesting week right now.

It is a time of change for me.

Sold my house, I moved out.

That's done.

Now I'm not doing the grind that I've been doing for the last almost eight months trying to get the house done.

There's a little bit of calm and it feels really good and it is one of those things that is refreshing.

Lets me focus more on what we're doing here and it is a chapter that is thankfully closed and I can move on from that.

So it's really cool.

It's been a fun week.

I last weekend took some time off after getting the house done, got everything moved out of there, went up and bought a truck.

I'm gonna be doing some stuff on the YouTube channel, do a little sub channel on that.

I wanted to have something fun, something I could haul lumber around if I needed to and get around with and enjoy.

So I found a low miles one and then I went and saw.

It was so much fun.

Went and saw kind of went old school 80s, 90s.

It was so much fun.

Went and saw Morris Day in the time.

If you don't know who I'm talking about, go turn on Purple Rain the movie and watch it and you'll understand who I'm talking about.

But that was a great show.

Ended up staying in Gig Harbor, Washington over the weekend.

Had a great time and it was just a nice break and refreshing.

So thank you guys for putting up with the best of show last weekend so we could get some last of the stuff done here between all the move and everything else.

So I do appreciate you tuning into that there's a lot of things going on right now.

It's getting interesting out there in the marketplace.

And the more I see, the more I'm looking around going, we're seeing a lot of different trends right now in the plumbing, electrical, H Vac.

You're seeing these companies that are combining since H Vac now requires so much electrical and plumbing, you're seeing more of those companies grouped together.

Like the H Vac company will buy out the electrician or the plumber or both and do more of a home services thing.

So they could offer the whole deal instead of having subcontractors.

So we're seeing a lot of that.

We're also seeing the prices go down on certain things now because all of a sudden the H Vac companies have gone, wow.

People are not buying these super expensive new units right now.

So we're starting to see that kind of change around a little bit.

So keep an eye on that.

The company that you relied on for your plumbing and electrical could have been bought by an H Vac company.

So don't be surprised if a brand disappears.

Stay on that.

Keep in touch with those guys if you have projects coming up.

And that's a big one right there.

So keep your eye out for that.

And then just going through, just keeping an eye out on the industry out there.

We're seeing gas prices start to go down.

Not in my area so much because I'm up here in the left coast.

And whether we like it or not, they just do a lot to discourage us of using our vehicles.

So.

Great example.

And I'll just tell you where I'm at.

I was up at Costco up in Gig harbor, and the best deal in town was like 415 a gallon.

Most places were 439, 449.

Now in my neighborhood here, it's still expensive at 369, but it shows you.

And we got a new tax coming in, too.

They're just waiting for the governor to sign it.

And that'll happen one of these days, and that's going to be coming in whether we like it or not.

But I tell you what we're going to see.

They're trying to play a game with that, and it's not good.

They're just raising taxes, spending more money, but we'll see what happens.

But that affects lumber prices, it affects materials, because those diesel prices, everything's coming in our truck.

It's got to get to the store, Tom.

It's got to get to the warehouse.

It's got to get all that.

So the cheaper the gas prices, the better chance we have of some price prices going down on materials.

And that's not a bad thing.

That will really help us out in the long term to get some of these prices to go right back down again.

But are.

Is business slow out there for most home improvement companies?

Yeah, it is.

So we're seeing a little bit more of that.

We're seeing a lot of franchises popping up across the country.

We're seeing a lot of that different stuff.

So we'll see kind of what happens.

I think we're in a kind of a transition year for all of us that are, you know, working on projects around the house.

Materials are gonna go up and down.

We'll see what happens.

I think eventually they're gonna either go down or not go up.

Cause this is that time of year that we see those prices move around.

And that's one of the things that I just want us to be very careful of.

If you're starting a project, take a look and see something that came out the other day, too.

I noticed that Panasonic launched a new vent fan for your bathroom.

Their Whisper Fit DC that's got Bluetooth speakers built into it for an elevated home ventilation experience.

They're jumping into that game a little bit, and that's good.

And so I'm feeling pretty good that there's some of these new products that are starting to come out.

We'll see those because the kitchen and bath design and construction weeks in February, so we're going to start seeing those kind of leaks and new products coming out.

So we'll see what goes on with that.

But now is the time of year for innovation, which could be a lot of fun.

So pay attention to that.

And the other thing is right now, I know with the government shutdown we've got, there's a lot of questions on what's going to happen out there with all of the rebates and some of the government and the federal ones.

We'll see what happens with that.

I don't have any news on that one, but it's something I keep an eye on to make sure that if you're doing some energy stuff around the house, that it might be able to save you some money, but you might get delayed on how that pays out.

So be really careful.

And I took a look at today at a recalls over there.

Nothing too crazy.

Most of it is furniture.

They're a little limited on the recalls coming out because of the government shutdown again.

And that's not too Bad.

I'll tell you what, here's another interesting one.

And I shouldn't even tell you this if you're in my local area, but usually in Oregon here our DMV is a hot mess.

So even my vintage Mercedes 79 convertible, I have to have it tested and we're not going to get on that.

But long story short, I go in, I roll right in, I'm like, wow, this is nice.

Then I thought, I'm going to risk it.

Usually when you want to go into our DMV to get plates, tabs, that kind of stuff, if you go in to want to talk to somebody, this is a multi day event.

If I show up an hour before and wait in line outside, usually I can get in and out within an hour.

If I show up two hours late, let's say they open at 8am and I'm there at 10am It's a day long event, I'm waiting.

If I go to make an appointment, it's six, eight weeks out.

Which doesn't do you any good when you buy a vehicle out of state, by the way.

So I walk in, I pull into the parking, I'm like, this place has got to be closed.

But I just saw somebody come out the door.

So I walk into my DMV and I was in another dimension, this place was empty.

And they go, oh, I can help you right here.

I walk up, get my trip permit that I need, wait for the title to show up.

Holy smokes, I'm in and out in 10 minutes.

And I said, what's going on?

She goes, I think everybody thinks the state is shut down, like the government, so no one's coming to get this stuff done.

And I went, wow.

So if you live in the state of Oregon, no lines at the dmv, this is a rare site, so get yours done.

I gotta go in today, so don't go too quickly.

I need to get my stuff done too.

But pretty crazy.

So on the recalls, tons of furniture out there, we've got a lot of dressers that don't have stuff.

The only thing I see is NordicTrack.

IFIT rowing machines are fire hazard.

They've got about 44,000 of those.

If you've got an IFIT Nordic Track Rowing machine, check it out over there@cpsc.gov and pretty much everything else on there is basic stuff, more kids stuff, bicycles, a couple golf carts, that kind of stuff.

Nothing Too crazy out there.

We got a great show coming up this weekend.

I got some better quality audio this week.

We've been working on that.

But some of those technical issues with new studios for me and for John Dudley, he moved.

So we got that stuff figured out.

I think we've got it pretty well dialed in now, which is good.

Thank you for your patience.

And we've got that coming up this weekend, a great show.

So I'm looking forward to that.

And we've got some great stuff coming up, some great interviews, new stuff we're gonna be talking about, which is going to be a ton of fun.

And did some shooting with my buddy Cam Anderson over at Blacktail Studios and that turned out really cool.

I can't wait to see what that looks like.

We're doing some work on his place as part of the show.

We got some collaborations coming up that I've been wanting to do and I'm excited to do it.

All right, everybody, I'll let you get going.

It is Wednesday, I think, over get new tires on this truck, getting some updates done there and going over to my tire store to get that knocked out next.

And I know you have things to do as well.

Thanks for tuning into around the House.

We'll see you on Saturday.

I appreciate every single one of you guys tuning into the show and we got some great things ahead.

Stay tuned.

Make sure to follow us on social media.

Just head to around the house online.com.

For all the links.

Make sure you check out our new YouTube channel.

Just type in at around the House with Eric G. And click subscribe and ring the bell for updates.

We will see you next time.