Eric G. is diving into some seriously juicy topics this week, starting with his weekend camping adventure that turned into a hilarious escapade with a used RV—let’s just say, the shower wasn't quite up to code! But hey, he made it out to Fort Stevens State Park, which is a gem of a spot, packed with history and stunning views. After that, he shifts gears to the housing market, where he’s seeing more homes popping up for sale than buyers willing to snap them up. It’s like a game of musical chairs, and guess what? The music's about to stop! Lastly, Eric spills the tea on some major outdoor design faux pas that are making backyards look like a time capsule from a decade ago. So, if you’re ready to avoid the “dated” look and maybe score a deal in the housing market, stick around!

Takeaways:

• Eric G shares his weekend camping adventure at Fort Stevens State Park, a hidden gem with a rich history.
• The current housing market is experiencing a shift, with more homes for sale than buyers, signaling potential price drops.
• Avoiding design pitfalls in outdoor spaces is crucial; trends like oversized kitchens and generic furniture are on their way out.
• Natural, low-maintenance landscaping is becoming a favorite, moving away from overly manicured lawns and high-maintenance designs.
• If you’re redesigning your outdoor living space, skip the integrated fire pits and focus on functional, layered designs instead.
• Upcoming trends for 2026 suggest that curated outdoor lighting and balanced plant designs are the new must-haves for stylish backyards.

Links referenced in this episode:

• aroundthehouseonline.com
• aroundthehousehq

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Home Depot
• Walmart
• Curtis Trailer
• Generac Power Systems
• Blacktail Studio

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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 everything about your home.

Thanks for joining me today.

I'm Eric G. Appreciate you turning into our midweek update.

This is the show we do in the middle of the week on a Wednesday that well covers the stuff we didn't do last weekend and of course the stuff coming up this weekend.

So last weekend thanks for putting up.

I took some time off, some much needed break and sometimes we put out those best of shows a couple times a year just because I'm going to take some time off and recharge and it was a great time.

A little inside baseball here.

We won't talk on the regular show, but we do on this one went out camping with our new RV and did a shakedown kind of cruise up to one of our cool little places, Fort Stevens State park here in Oregon.

Now the cool thing with Fort Stevens is up there, it is a massive, massive state park.

I mean it is huge.

Now here's the funny thing of this area up there.

It is one of the first or actually the first settlement on the west coast because that's where Lewis and Clark came through and that is where they put up kind of the first trading post on the west coast or at least from the American side of view of the US Government, they put it in here.

Now there were other things down in Mexico or California, what it's called now, but we have the earliest place out there and it's a whole huge kind of fortress from years ago, from old World War II and before stuff up there, which is kind of cool and great place to go camping.

So right by the beach there and you can go see a shipwreck that's on the, on the beach.

And so it was a great place.

It's just probably about 90 minutes from my house.

Great place for a shakedown cruise because here's the other thing.

There's a Home Depot and a, and a walmart that's probably 20 minutes away from there.

So it makes it a lot easier if you forget something.

It made it kind of easy.

So that's my recommendation for that.

But had a good time, had one hiccup.

And that's the thing about Buying a used rv, you sometimes inherit other people's problems and we bought that through Curtis trailer here.

That's not a commercial.

I bought it like everybody else didn't, didn't save a dime because I'm Eric G or anything like that.

This is new commercial and one thing that we had a fail on it was the took a shower and why is all this water running on the floor?

So one of those things that you test it and now all of a sudden it's.

I don't think these guys in their multi point checklist yes, it's kind of like buying a car.

I don't think.

I think they missed this part of this.

And so we'll see what happens.

They're supposed to service, it's Wednesday here, Wednesday morning here, the 27th of May.

They're supposed to call me this morning the service department and get that in there.

Hopefully it doesn't sit in there for weeks because we got another camping trip coming up in a few weeks so that will be kind of interesting.

But one of those things that had a great time, had a blast, love it.

It was a great, great time and get to spend some time out there.

My buddy Jerry from high school showed up.

We just had a great time.

So it good time to relax and do some hiking, do some walking, check things out.

Went down to the can of beach house, saw my brother and his family down there, just had a great weekend.

So that was, that was awesome.

He's been battling moles in the front yard.

We all know what that's like.

And so the problem there is, is that it's all sand and so they'll dig through that and it just kind of collapses behind him.

So it's really hard to, hard to track them down in that soil.

But today I wanted to talk about a couple things.

One of them is it's interesting and I'm watching Real Time right now, the real estate market in my area and I'm talking kind of Seattle, Portland, Pacific Northwest.

And no one wants to talk about it but I'm going to talk about it right here.

We are seeing way more homes going up for sale than there are buyers right now.

All of a sudden in about six weeks I watched this huge flip when springtime came on.

I think there are way more people that are moving out of these areas than we're seeing moving in right now.

So I think that has reversed where we had all the Californians and everybody that was moving up here.

I think right now they're going, I'm going back To California.

This is crazy.

So I think we're seeing a switch.

I am getting phone calls from realtors now that I went and looked at a house six months ago that are calling me up going, hey, you interested in looking for a house?

When they're cold, calling me from six months ago and they don't know who I am, that makes me believe that it is hurting out there.

And so we're seeing that it's going to change.

I think that will ultimately result in our markets, that the house prices are going to go down.

Now, if you're across the country and you're listening to this and you're going, wow, I think we've got more people moving in, the people that are escaping my area out here on the west coast, your house prices probably won't be going down.

They'll be going up because of supply and demand.

I think here, just like we saw in downtown buildings, I saw a thing that in Portland, tourism because of, well, they're bad press.

Those hotels downtown, I think are only occupied at the most at 63%.

So they could lose a few hotel towers and still be okay.

So I think all of those things are coming to roost.

So I think of you guys out there that have made it easier for people to live.

I think all that stuff we will see that help your house values, the people that are really messing things up.

It's going to hurt those house values out there.

So mortgage rates are kind of bouncing around out there.

They're high, they're low, they're high, they're low within the points that we're seeing.

But I think they're still gonna stay down.

And we're gonna see that as we go along through the year.

I think especially with the new Fed chairman coming in there, I think we're gonna see things at least stay the same or go down.

And I think as we see construction slowing even worse.

I mean, this is in the Pacific Northwest.

What I'm seeing in my local area here within these few states, it is the worst it's been for new construction probably in my lifetime.

Well, no one's really talking about it, but I know of so many people reaching out, going.

I mean, I have a buddy who's a wonderful electrician.

He does commercial stuff, who lives in Portland.

He's living in Idaho in his RV because he couldn't find work here.

So we're seeing this.

These policies come to roost.

We'll see what happens.

This isn't a political thing.

It's just the facts.

Guys.

I'M not gonna blame people for it, but this is just kind of what it is.

So we're seeing that.

So stay tuned for more of that.

There's not a bunch of recalls out.

Nothing really happened here over the weekend.

The big ones were last week where we saw the Generac Power Systems and the Dr. Power Electric start pressure washers are starting on their own.

So make sure you pay attention to that.

That is the biggest, most dangerous one that we're seeing right now.

And I think that's one of those things that's going to be taking the news over for a little bit.

Now.

One thing else I wanted to talk about here too is, and I'm gonna give you a little tease about this coming up on this weekend show, by the way, not this Saturday, actually.

No, it is this Saturday.

Sorry.

Cam Anderson, Blacktail Studios Now I've been doing his project.

I've been helping him design his project and consult with him.

I've been in two of the videos that Blacktail ran so far.

More to come as we work through that.

I've got him on the show.

So we're going to dive into behind the scenes on that project, his personal life, my personal life a little bit.

We'll get into that and his style of tables and how he's building them and what his favorite finishes are.

If you have not been following him, he is one of the biggest YouTubers out there in the woodworking table space.

That guy is absolutely killing it and I can call him a friend.

So we have him on the show as well.

We'll be talking about some other stuff in the second hour, but that is the big one right there that you'll want to check out.

That was a lot of fun to have him on the show.

The last thing I want to talk about before we go is I've been talking a lot and I just wrote a story for somebody now or contributed to it.

And I'm not going to talk about the in.

Let's talk about the outs real quick.

What we're seeing now is people are getting away from those overly designed integrated fire pits.

So that's one of them.

I mean, those big massive fire features that dominate the backyard, those are kind of going out.

The single level floating deck and crazy color schemes, those are out.

You're seeing much more of a layered zone system there, how they're being designed, overly manicured, high maintenance lawns and yards.

Those are out much more natural low input biodiverse planning is big.

Here's the one that's going to set a few people off out there.

The overused string lights and generic matching furniture.

Something that looks like a Home Depot commercial.

Yeah, that whole big multi layered crisscrossing string string lights.

We're getting into more curated lighting where you've got up lighting, down lighting that looks way more design and intentional versus just thrown up.

And then the last one here that I've got for you is the oversized outdoor kitchens and stark hardscapes.

So massive underused kitchens, minimalist concrete, heavy yards.

The stuff that just burns up in the summertime.

Simple is in right now.

So very functional cooking area.

Balanced plant hardscape designs are trending.

So thoughtful, functional and sustainable is in.

So those are the mistakes not to make this year when you're designing outside.

We might talk about those later in a future episode.

All right everybody, if you want to find out more about us, head over to aroundthehouse online.com make sure you follow us on our YouTube page.

I'll be putting up early next week that Cam Anderson video from that discussion and we've got more stuff coming up over there.

We could really use your help.

Subscribe to around the House, Eric G. And around the House hq.

We're almost over the hump there of our goal of getting more people to catch that and watch it.

It has been growing massively and I thank every one of you for doing that.

Some of those videos have just absolutely blown up and I appreciate you all.

If you want to send me a message, head over to aroundthehouse online.com and you can send it right there.

I'm Eric G. Have a great rest of the week everybody.

We'll see you on Saturday.

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