We saved some of the best for last! We start out with Kayleen McCable as we talk about the trades. Then we talk to our friend David Applebaum on how to hire a contractor. We then dive into America's Garden Expert Joe Lamp'l known as Joe Gardener. We then finish out with our friend Dr Decks and talk about everything about building a deck.

If you want to hear these full episodes take a listen to the full collection of these right here: https://player.captivate.fm/collection/b69dcc86-8213-40e5-bb16-71d4e41af8d1

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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:

A new kind of decking and siding from Millboard

For more information about the latest in decking and cladding head to https://www.millboard.com/

Baldwin Hardware

Baldwin Hardware

[00:00:09] David Applebaum Architect to the Stars: show

[00:00:25] Eric Goranson: Then we've got grown like a pro with Joe Gardner and we dive into a masterclass with my friend, Dr. We have so much here for the last episode of 2022 that you don't wanna miss. And to find out more information, head over to around the house online. And if you grab the podcast, I will have the full episodes at each one of these show notes so you can take a listen to the whole one if one of these catches your eye.

[00:00:55] David Applebaum Architect to the Stars: this. When it comes to remodeling and renovating your home, there is a lot to [00:01:00] know though. We've got you

[00:01:07] Eric Goranson: Welcome to Around the House with Eric G and Caroline B. This is where we talk home improvement every week.

[00:01:22] Kayleen McCabe: she's so high energy

[00:01:27] Kayleen McCabe: now. Hey, I will share my vibe. I'm so happy to share my afternoon with you all. This is awesome. Like get to hang out, hang

[00:01:35] Eric Goranson: And by the way, Kaylene makes the best like lunch boxes.

[00:01:51] Kayleen McCabe: And I have one designed right now and it's like halfway in the process. It's gonna be a little piano lounge, . It's all ridiculous. I know, but [00:02:00] nice. Uh, so yeah, I'm just waiting, I'm waiting for the piano. That's weird sentences to say in the afternoon. . .

[00:02:12] Eric Goranson: It's always like a, a 1966 like, Oh gosh. Milwaukee Sander metal box or something, you know what I mean? I'm just making up brand names, but yeah, it's just . It's always something.

[00:02:39] Kayleen McCabe: Cuz I'm fancy . Oh my God. That's so cool. It's funny. It is awesome. Yeah. Working in construction, if I were to show up to something with a coach bag, I'd look ridiculous. But if I roll up with a old Rockwell like metal case that people are like, oh, all right. And weirdly, uh, one time my truck was broken into and they stole all the [00:03:00] new tools except for my old purse, cuz it looked like a beatta box.

[00:03:17] Eric Goranson: Well everybody out there listening if you don't know who Kaylene is, she has been all over the place. She was on d I Y network for like, it seemed like forever with rescue renovation.

[00:03:36] Kayleen McCabe: Um, well it's my passion . I really am so passionate about, um, changing the mindset of what it means to be successful. You know, there are multiple pathways. I don't have any college education and for a long time I was.

[00:04:07] Eric Goranson: speak of that. You are actually down at World of Concrete Year recently and I couldn't go cause I've been getting ready for the show in Orlando and, and Kaylene and I have a. A similar love for Orlando, but we're heading down, I'm heading down there. Anyway, long story short, how was World of Concrete? Woo.

[00:04:29] Caroline Blazovsky: So you need to share, you need to share and tell us all about it because I know nothing.

[00:04:45] Kayleen McCabe: Oh, it's so good. It's in Vegas, and Vegas has a huge convention center and I haven't been back in a while. And since Covid and all that shut down two things. Holy moly, they built a whole new concourse. So there is not only the central, the north, the south, they're [00:05:00] now the west and it's huge. But also, um, and I'm just gonna say they blew

[00:05:06] Kayleen McCabe: Yeah, it's, it's insanity. And so now you can also see the new Concord, the Hilton there. Um mm-hmm , I rodee the tram and the world's largest manmade sphere is being built there. And it's this huge black sphere and it's, um, going to be an acoustical center. It's so cool. So anyways. Oh cool. Vegas in general is just cool because of the construction that has happened in such a quick amount of time and Vegas always pushes the industry too as far as like what we'll see in residential construction.

[00:05:54] Kayleen McCabe: There's the one, uh, there was a saw blade that's like six feet in diameter. I don't know why, but I need it. I just think it'd make a really good [00:06:00] backdrop. I'm just saying . Um, there was an obstacle course they had for like dump trucks and big machinery, which is awesome. And these people were doing this like backing up into.

[00:06:23] Eric Goranson: See, I used to have mine. Oh, fun fact. I used to have my Class A and tanker. Oh,

[00:06:32] Kayleen McCabe: Really? Yeah. Yeah. I'm jealous. I'm really envious cuz One, the employment opportunities, but two, I really want an air horn. I know. Like I have that compressor for my truck. But in reality, I really wanna go Ha ha. All the time. Um,

[00:07:01] Eric Goranson: The problem was it's like 160 decibels. And so when you hit it, you're breaking windows out in cars around you. I mean, it's, people jump like there's no tomorrow. We had it, my buddy's truck for a while, . Whoa. Just blowing their mind. It was just crazy. But that's, there's a few times in life that I went, oh, that was too much.

[00:07:25] Kayleen McCabe: Right. You gotta scale it back a little bit. I don't know. I'm so kind of jealous. Yeah. Um, okay. Back to nerding, out about World of Concrete. Yeah. So World of Concrete. That was fun in the same lot. They also had. House being 3D printed outta concrete.

[00:07:56] Eric Goranson: all gonna get hauled off.

[00:07:57] Kayleen McCabe: You have to do something with it so it [00:08:00] can run like 40 inches per minute, which is insanity. It also smooths the outside, so you don't get that like, wow, I don't know that. Just watching the technology was cool and learning that they are going to be teaching how to make 3D printed. Um, homes from a class in Arizona.

[00:08:42] Kayleen McCabe: How many C M U blocks can be put down in 20 minutes And these guys are doing a, a 30 foot run in 20 minutes, and some of them were, had like seven or eight courses up in 20 minutes and it's slim and level and pretty. Um, and then they have something called the toughest tinder. [00:09:00] At the first time I went mm-hmm.

[00:09:21] Kayleen McCabe: It's a really strong team, but there's a lot of prep work to it. So they have a competition for that. Leading up to the final competition of the date, which is the spec mix, 500 spec mix, brick layer hair, wait hair. I'll even do this. I got it on a hat spec. Make bricks layer 500. I was such a fan. Like I want the hats.

[00:09:42] Kayleen McCabe: love that. Oh my god, I love it. So anyway, uh, Around

[00:09:50] Intro: returns,

[00:10:02] David Applebaum Architect to the Stars: Around The House with Eric G. Yeah. We

[00:10:06] David Applebaum Architect to the Stars: Eric G and you should.

[00:10:35] Eric Goranson: You

[00:10:48] Dr Decks: Oh.

[00:10:55] Eric Goranson: Architect to the Stars. Woo. Welcome back.

[00:11:12] Eric Goranson: funny. Well, this is a family show and we're not gonna get into that today, .

[00:11:23] Eric Goranson: Well, I wanted to bring you on. Caroline and I were talking about this because you know, I've seen on social media here over the holidays and up through January and into February now. How many people out there are starting a house remodel or a new construction house and they've pulled up internet plans and all of a sudden they're on the interweb out there in a social media group.

[00:12:04] David Applebaum Architect to the Stars: about it. You know, it might get off the ground, it just might hit the ground really soon.

[00:12:11] Eric Goranson: You know, I love, let's, let's dive into this. If you are thinking about doing a major remodel or an addition or something like that, or even starting to build a new house. I wanted to get your recommendations. David, where do you start?

[00:12:42] David Applebaum Architect to the Stars: And so he came to me and I, I put him. Touch with the right kind of people. He didn't need very much of me. Um, I, I have to say, this is, it's, it's a really multifaceted question with even more [00:13:00] multi-layered answers. And I would start off with what is it that you want? And from there, go into a couple of different directions.

[00:13:35] David Applebaum Architect to the Stars: For the wedding reception , when everybody knows the smartest idea is to hire a caterer. Exactly. And then you decide.

[00:13:54] David Applebaum Architect to the Stars: and it can be.

[00:14:22] David Applebaum Architect to the Stars: Um, can you give me a couple of pointers? Because sometimes we don't know everything either. He said It'd be easier if I show you the drawings, but before I do, before I do, I won you to promise you won't give me any judgment because this was a client that only paid me $7,000 to do the architecture, so they got a box.

[00:15:11] David Applebaum Architect to the Stars: It doesn't have to be expensive as a whole. I'm a full service architect. You hire me, I'm there from, uh, evaluation of your program, uh, taking a close look at the codes. I'm doing a project right now that the client was smart enough to say. I had an architect that said he would do it for $5,000. Drawing.

[00:16:00] David Applebaum Architect to the Stars: Mm-hmm. . And if you would've gotten built, it would've cost you a hundred thousand dollars in variances, geezes. So I tell all of my clients, I guarantee you that when you hire me, I will save you as much money as my fee, if not. By knowing how to do the right thing, and I didn't finish, you know, full service goes all the way through watching the construction process.

[00:16:47] David Applebaum Architect to the Stars: I'll approve you getting a. To get

[00:17:10] Eric Goranson: And I will see where everything's itemized. You can see that they have materials that are on par with that level of construction, and I'm like, okay, budgets are great. And then there's that handful of them out there that love. To do that add-on change order where they're the changeover

[00:17:33] David Applebaum Architect to the Stars: No, and not just one change order. If a change order is about $4,000 or even $2,000, okay, which might not seem like lot in a $200,000 house. You do 10 of those and you've added 10% to the price. That's the reason why when the architect is involved and you are bidding the project, The architect has a responsibility to look into what the contractor is like, cuz there's several [00:18:00] contractors that I know if, if I've got three bids, this guy's gonna always be 10% lower than everybody else, cuz he knows he's getting in on that low price.

[00:18:25] Kayleen McCabe: So

[00:18:33] Eric Goranson: the house?

[00:18:37] Intro: Don't go anywhere.

[00:18:59] Eric Goranson: [00:19:00] Keel, the middle Cowboy from Keel, the Ron Keel Band, and Steeler. We are rocking around the house

[00:19:07] David Applebaum Architect to the Stars: Eric G. Ray is your

[00:19:21] Eric Goranson: Let's get back to the show. Hey, Tara. Hello,

[00:19:25] Eric Goranson: Welcome. This is gonna be a lot of fun. Today we have got a legend in the studio. If you're a podcaster, you've probably caught the Joe Gardner show out there. If you love television, maybe you caught him on growing a Greener World. Joe Gardner. Joe Lampel, welcome to Around the House.

[00:19:45] you

[00:19:54] Eric Goranson: We love it. Excellent. Good. Excellent. Well, you, it's, it, you know, we're in the middle of July right now, we're in [00:20:00] July. It's kind of starting to get to that time of the year where it's not like you're starting gardens right now, typically you're, you're maintaining and this is the time where people go out on vacations and Yeah.

[00:20:21] Joe Lamp'l (Joe Gardener): one, one of the things that I've noticed this year here, where I am in Atlanta, Georgia, but our audience, our students, they're all over the country and beyond, but we have office hours every week with, with some of our students, and we get a sense and a pulse of, you know, what they're going through.

[00:20:54] Joe Lamp'l (Joe Gardener): And so it's kind of like triage or survival mode more than anything else right now, as [00:21:00] we come into mid-July. Uh, it's crazy with the heat, you know, just trying to keep the plants alive and it's not. And because this year's so unique, it's not like we've just got a lot of experience with this excessive heat and what to do about it.

[00:21:24] Eric Goranson: we fought that. I live in the Pacific Northwest, so I'm up here in Portland, Oregon.

[00:21:47] Eric Goranson: We still have probably had just a handful of 90 degree days. Haven't gotten up into the hundreds. Like we did last year in June and it's, it's a cool year for us. So it's crazy how across the [00:22:00] country, you know, Caroline will be sitting there dying over there in Jersey and I'm out here going, I got my heater on.

[00:22:26] Joe Lamp'l (Joe Gardener): Yeah, you can't beat the Jersey tomatoes. I will say that. Mm-hmm. , we've been up there filming a few episodes and oh my gosh. Uh, you, the g you get the garden state name. Uh, honestly, it's, it's, you deserve it. It's some good stuff up there, but you know, right now it's like walking out into an oven is what it's like for a lot of us.

[00:22:45] Caroline Blazovsky: I did some blueberry picking. Uh, last weekend Eric made fun of me cuz I came back into the studio and my mouth was like so purple and my teeth were daze. And I'm saying, why is it so maybe you can explain this, Joe, why is a blueberry?

[00:23:09] Intro: is it

[00:23:11] Joe Lamp'l (Joe Gardener): You know, that's a really good question, but you know, why is, why is, um, a lot of the stuff we get in the grocery store, uh, represented as what we like a tomato.

[00:23:47] Joe Lamp'l (Joe Gardener): He's in Florida and he's following it for miles. He goes, what are those green balls? And it finally, one fell out of the truck and it rolled down the road and he, he's. He followed the rolling thing down the road and when it stopped, he pulled over and got out and looked at it. [00:24:00] And finally he picked it up and he realized it was a tomato

[00:24:22] Joe Lamp'l (Joe Gardener): But here's the thing that I'm getting to and that. The quality control specs on those tomatoes includes uniformity of size and TR and travel ability. You know, the ship ability and the durability and all that. But there's not one item on that checklist about flavor . And so you get 'em to the grocery store, they're green, they're hard as a rock.

[00:25:02] Joe Lamp'l (Joe Gardener): Blueberries. Look blue in the grocery store. Don't aren't. Maybe they're not really blue .

[00:25:16] Eric Goranson: But it's like there's waxes and polishes and all these things that are going on. Things like apples and Yes. And all that stuff out there that is not on your tree or plant out in the back.

[00:25:44] Joe Lamp'l (Joe Gardener): better, wash the heck out of it. What's the worst

[00:25:48] Caroline Blazovsky: Joe? Like I always thought the apple was the worst.

[00:25:58] Joe Lamp'l (Joe Gardener): Mm-hmm. ,

[00:26:05] Joe Lamp'l (Joe Gardener): sweet, soft, juicy ones are the really bad ones. Yeah. Yeah, I

[00:26:17] Caroline Blazovsky: Is that a pro a product of gardening? Is it a product of not cleaning the vegetables, bringing them in and then them being contaminated? I mean, is there any, is there any truth to any of that?

[00:26:33] Joe Lamp'l (Joe Gardener): And, you know, that pro, that bacteria, those pathogens can find their way into the water supply and onto the plants. And there's also pathogens that live in the soil that can be dangerous as well. And the water can cause them to get up onto the foliage and into the fruit, or up through the roots into the plant, and therefore transferred into what we eat.

[00:27:12] Eric Goranson: gardeners.

[00:27:42] Eric Goranson: And there's plain spraying by the time it comes out at the other end, which could be 10 or 15 miles later. Yeah, it looks like brown, green sewage water coming out there. Mm-hmm. . And that's just because of all the stuff that's caught along the way.

[00:28:07] Joe Lamp'l (Joe Gardener): And that's, that's my point. I mean it, you never know where it's ultimately coming from or how it got there, but it does, and there's so many pathways for that to happen.

[00:28:25] Eric Goranson: And my mom's running out there going, no, don't drink that. Get on wounds. Water, you know. Thanks, Joe Gardner. Now next. Step, we've got Dr. Dex just as soon as around the house returns.

[00:28:58] Eric Goranson: back to Around the House and [00:29:00] a happy New Year. Get over to Jason, Dr. Dax in this last episode for Around The House in 2022. Now, let's get back to the show. There is no way to fake that level of quality. It's either slides or it, I don't .

[00:29:25] Dr Decks: So I have to do it on every job now. Yeah. Every time I have the opportu.

[00:29:43] Eric Goranson: Oh, big time. And you have to go in and set each and every one of those things to make it work. , it's either right or it's not.

[00:30:01] Eric Goranson: when you're done. And that's one thing with the composites is they're flexible enough that you can start to see that in

[00:30:09] Dr Decks: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Lay down on your deck and look at it and you're like, Ooh, . I mean, we, we take precaution and care and every time I come up a ladder or a stair, And I look at the deck and I can still see a hump here or a dip. . You know, it, we just minimize it. We don't eliminate it unless we get into aluminum framing.

[00:30:51] Dr Decks: And that's where I'm going. That's where I'm putting my. Efforts in, in, in trying to pick a brand or a couple brands that I'd like [00:31:00] to use, uh, because it will give you a laser flat deck. As a matter of fact, I just installed one ca with a company called Outdoor. Mm-hmm. , uh, where the gentleman that owns a company in Australia flew over here.

[00:31:39] Dr Decks: Correct. But it was pretty amazing when it was done and, and it turned out really nice.

[00:32:01] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Without having to worry about. And for you, you're not putting to put all the wrap on it, you're not having to do all the waterproofing on the deck board. Yeah, on the, on the joists and stuff. So it's probably gonna go quicker in the long run. He use less material. Well,

[00:32:18] Dr Decks: So it locked all the boards down. And then we only had to fasten like every five. That's crazy. It was cool. And it doesn't move.

[00:32:28] Dr Decks: No, there's no spring. And then also the cortex driller. Fasten master actually makes a cortex, a fastener that can go into the aluminum and you can cortex it and it locks it down, man.

[00:32:47] Eric Goranson: That is awesome. Okay. Yeah, you got me looking at that now. That's, that's cool stuff. And I think that's, you're right, and, and you're not gonna see the, the, the, the challenges we see with lumber prices and [00:33:00] availability and, you know, aluminums, aluminum, they can knock that stuff out.

[00:33:17] Eric Goranson: Port a Tacoma . Exactly.

[00:33:48] Dr Decks: Uh, eight feet or nine feet. Yeah.

[00:33:55] Dr Decks: and it's flat. Wow. Yeah. All right, [00:34:00] man. That's cool. And you can build thin with it. Yeah. Their system, their system, they have all these varying widths, so you can build a two and a half inch thick deck.

[00:34:15] Dr Decks: Laser thin. That would be laser thin. But like for, for those, uh, rooftop, those flat rooftop areas that mm-hmm. , uh, people have rubber

[00:34:23] Dr Decks: stuff on him. Yeah. Pop up on him, whatever.

[00:34:36] Eric Goranson: so good. Good call. Good call. Yeah, man. So that is cool stuff. You heard of your first guys? That's the, that's the trend from Dr.

[00:34:44] Dr Decks: That's, that's my trend. See, see, when you, when you cut with steel, every cut you make has to be protected. If you let the shavings go down onto your nice patio or cement, it's gonna rust. . Okay. So you gotta cut off site almost, or, or somewhere contained. [00:35:00] And, um, then you, and

[00:35:04] Eric Goranson: Chat, those

[00:35:28] Dr Decks: Um,

[00:35:46] Eric Goranson: And so we were wanting to make a kind of outdoor kitchen area for him that was gonna be out in the middle of his yard, and it would look, that's the only thing.

[00:36:01] Dr Decks: Yeah. So that's usually what I end up doing cuz people don't wanna spend the extra money unless they really want that ua. Yeah. You know,

[00:36:09] Dr Decks: sexy. Cool. I think outdoor kitchens and, and, and just, just space, like covered space that you can hang out under, but most people don't realize what they're spending.

[00:36:37] Eric Goranson: the materials for half.

[00:36:43] Dr Decks: yeah. So, um, that's always a, a, a rude awakening for a lot of people is just price. Yeah. I just kicked out a bid for 300 grand for a guy just to do a resurface. It was 3000 square feet. Yeah. All rail, all new bladders. I mean, it was a lot. [00:37:00] Wow. But I don't oversee the, the day, the light of day on that one.

[00:37:09] Eric Goranson: No, no. You know, it's still labor is labor materials or materials when it comes down to it. Yep. I mean, you're not having to, to move off the site, but these days it's not like you're sitting there leaving, you know, your tools on site for a week, either, you know, you're, you're still packing up either way.

[00:37:29] Dr Decks: right? We're booked out a year right now. Yeah. The only problem I have is permitting. Oh. It's a nightmare.

[00:37:45] Eric Goranson: It's pretty rare to get, you know, it's, it's feaster famine. You know, when you think, okay, it's slowing down out there, the new home builders are, are gonna not take up as much time, so we'll be able to get remodel stuff. That's when the building department lays off the people in the [00:38:00] building department and then you just have less people you're working with.

[00:38:05] Dr Decks: No, it's unfortunate. It's, it's, um, just struggling with that right now.

[00:38:25] Dr Decks: Well, uh, Instagram, probably number one. That's the my most followed, uh, site. It's Dr. Dex, d r d e c k s. You can go to our YouTube channel under the same. And, um, my website is also, if you just Google Dr. Dex, you cannot miss me. , we, we will pop up, um, and dr dex.com. That's my webpage. Um, I haven't updated it recently.

[00:39:08] Eric Goranson: That's simple. That's simple. Yeah. Click subscribe on that one, guys. And that's where you get your masterclass on this stuff. Yes, sir. All right, brother. Thanks for coming on today, man. I really appreciate it. And we're gonna do this again. Yeah. Thanks for having me. All right. I'm Eric G and you've been listening to Around the House.