We’re diving into some seriously smart home improvement projects that are all set to make waves in 2025! With the economic landscape shifting and tariffs popping up like unwanted weeds, we’re chatting about strategies that can keep your wallet happy while boosting your home’s value. Eric G is here to spill the beans on the best projects to consider, from tackling those tricky crawl spaces to upgrading your front door and garage for a fab curb appeal. We’ll also explore the ins and outs of energy efficiency, making your home safer and cozier without breaking the bank. So, grab your headphones, kick back, and let’s get those DIY juices flowing!

Diving into the nitty-gritty of home improvement, this session peels back the layers of what to look forward to in 2025. If you’ve been feeling the crunch from rising costs and tariffs, don’t worry! We’ve got your back with a list of projects that won't break the bank but will still give your home that shiny new vibe. We kick things off by dissecting the chaotic world of steel and aluminum tariffs, discussing how these could impact your renovations. But fear not, we’ve highlighted some safer projects that promise value without the hefty price tag. From sprucing up your basement to tackling those nagging crawl space issues, this episode is all about making your home a healthier and more enjoyable space. The hot tip? Get that humidity under control! With a staggering 80% of homes needing a dehumidifier, tackling mold issues could not only improve air quality but also save you future headaches. We also delve into the importance of maintaining your roof, with financing options that could ease the financial burden. So, if you're in for a home makeover without the wallet-ache, stick around; we’ve got plenty more project ideas coming your way!

Takeaways:

• In 2025, consider tackling home projects that are less likely to be impacted by tariffs, ensuring you get great value without breaking the bank.
• Maintaining your home, especially in areas like crawl spaces and basements, can prevent significant damage and is a smart investment for 2025.
• With the high costs of materials like wood and sheetrock, focus on DIY projects that can enhance your home's value without hefty expenses.
• Upgrading your front door not only enhances security but also adds aesthetic appeal, providing a solid return on investment for 2025.
• Outdoor living spaces are a hot trend, so plan ahead for projects like patios or decks to enjoy and add value to your home.
• Energy-saving projects, such as insulation and smart home systems, can significantly reduce your bills while improving comfort and sustainability in your home.

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Monument Grills
• Chuck E. Cheese's
• CertainTeed
• Owens Corning
• Feedspot
• Deep Sentinel

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.

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Foreign.

It's around the House on this episode of around the House.

So the problem was is we bought this from a guy that owns arcades.

Nice guy, no problem there.

But he said the side art wasn't on them and I went, okay, the side art is on the side of those stand up arcade style video games.

Some yahoo, probably some kid decided one day to paint over flat black the sides of those games.

So he goes, no art on the sides.

I'm like, okay, they must have done some work on the box or whatever.

I get it.

Thought it was strange.

So I got it home after buying them, looked at it in the light and I could see the outline of the stuff below it.

So what I did is I took a bunch of different when it comes to remodeling or renovating your home, there is a lot to know and we have got you covered.

This is around the House.

Welcome to the Round the House show, the next generation of home improvement.

Thanks for joining me today.

I'm Eric G.

If you want to find out more about us, head over to aroundthehouse online.com and this is a weekly two hour home improvement talk show where we talk about everything about your home on the radio, the podcast, YouTube on a lot of different platforms out there.

So if you're joining us on the radio or the podcast for the first time, welcome to the show.

This hour is brought to you by our friends over at Monument Grills.

If you love Monument Grills like I do, then it's an easy pick for that great barbecue with a ton of value for under 900 bucks.

And I tell you what, it's barbecue season coming up and that's the place to go today.

So I'm sure over the next three or four months, at least till summertime, there's going to be some back and forths and we'll just see what happens with that.

That's going to be interesting.

First up here we were talking about it last week and again it continues this week where we're talking about new tariffs on steel and aluminum.

Is it on, is it off?

Coming out of Canada, coming out of Mexico, wherever.

These again are things that we're going to see on a weekly basis.

And I'm not getting worked up about them because it seems to be that again, we're talking, we've got countries that are.

They're battling back and forth, trying to posture, trying to deal with stuff and get numbers brought down.

So it's going to be chaotic for a bit.

And that's why I thought, let's talk about the different stuff here that we can do in our home that maybe will not include a lot of those things that could go up in price significantly.

So here's the thing.

Right now, I think for the next few months, we're probably going to see the continuation of wood pricing and sheetrock being abnormally high.

Now, sheetrock has been all over the board recently.

When I start paying close to 20 bucks a sheet for a sheet of plywood, and literally when I'm seeing plywood and sheetrock being the same, I start wondering what's going on.

Sheetrock has been through the roof for the last few months.

And it's something, especially with the new lighter sheetrock, there's less gypsum going in there.

They're aerating it and forming it.

To me, it's okay, that's another step.

But you're using less material.

It's not that big a deal.

It's quote unquote lighter sheetrock, which means it doesn't hold up as well on a fire.

But that's what it is.

Because our regular half inch sheetrock here is not really tested for fire.

So the problem we're seeing out there with the sheetrock is this.

All the new light stuff out there is the screws don't hold in a fire as well because of the lighter duty Sheetrock, that's why they go to five, eight in the fire rate.

It is fire rated, so that stuff isn't changing, but the half inch isn't.

So in the way of doing that, you know, we've got stuff that's a little less fire rated.

And if you've got a fire in an attic or something like that, it tends to drop down off the ceiling a lot faster.

So you should either be using twice as many screws or using some adhesive with that to get a better result.

But nonetheless, those are going to be high.

I think here for the first half of 20, 25, we'll see what happens.

But here's my tricks on projects for this year.

The first recommendation I have for you is taking on some of those.

With this high inflation and everything else, we don't want to be going out and getting loans just yet if.

Unless you have to do something significant.

But these high prices lend us to maintaining things on our home.

If you've got a basement or crawl space, let's get that stuff knocked out that could be creating damage, right?

Have that crawl space contractor come out here, let's work on it.

Let's get it figured out, let's get it cleaned up, let's get it all the things taken care of.

We have significant humidity problems in our homes across the U.S.

i think the stat I saw that 80% of the homes out there need a dehumidifier.

So let's work on getting that a little bit healthier.

So mold out of the basement, mold out of the crawl space, cleaned up, good vapor barrier down there, taking care of those things, making sure that you've got a.

A good air scrubber in the house.

Just work on the normal stuff that's going to help with the quality of life that you've got.

And they're usually not that big of a pull, especially if you're doing it as the DIY project.

So a lot of these things you can tackle yourself and it's not too bad.

Now, the next one here that I would work on within that is either cleaning or maintaining or replacing that roof.

I think our oil prices will be down here and not up.

So I think that a roof will be good this year at least.

And if you need one, they're not getting cheaper out there, so might be a good time.

And a lot of roofing companies out there I'm seeing, are offering some financing plans for that where it can be a lower interest rate that they're carrying because they want to have.

They want to have your business.

So take a look at that.

And roofs are big right now.

Make sure that you had a buddy that replaced his roof and he had what, four or five layers up on it.

And I'm like, holy smokes, that's a lot of layers of roof up there.

On something like that, if you've got one layer and you're putting a second on there, I don't like it.

But if you're putting a third layer on there, rip the roof off, time to tear it down, put the roof off and do it right.

If you're out there talking to contractors and you're talking about roofing and you're thinking about that roof project, here is my little secret.

To make sure you get the right roofer out there, I would go pick out the color of roofing that you like and the brand.

It doesn't matter if it's certainteed or owns Corning or whatever brand you're using out there.

There's a lot of great roofing manufacturers out there.

Pick the color and the style you like.

Then jump on that manufacturer's webpage and look for the certified installers in your area and see if you can find it.

If not, look at a different product.

These are people that'll be in their installation program that have taken the classes that know how to put the system on.

And some manufacturers will have rating system where it's like, ah, they're the Diamond Club member or whatever.

And so you could see how well they are.

And that's a key right there.

Because you can put the best roof up on that roof and you've got a horrible installer, you're going to run into problems because that warranty is not going to be very good.

When they go, they didn't install it right, they didn't put the right underlayment on it, they didn't do this, they didn't do that.

And that's really where you run into problems.

So you want to make sure that if you're hiring that contractor to make sure that you got the right one doing it, and that's the easiest way is to lean on that manufacturer, then get two or three quotes, see what comes up.

And worst case, call the roofing company and see if they have a favorite.

They might go, oh man, this person's perfect.

Because anytime there's a warning claim for something done wrong, they're the ones that get called to have to come out and send somebody out there to get on the roof and take a look.

So they're the ones that see whether it's put into their specifications.

So it's a great way to lean on in on that.

And another one here that we've been talking about that I think is really important and we'll talk more about this is some of the things you can do for storm or fire protection outside if you're in a hurricane area.

What do you got there?

What do you need to do to make your house a little bit safer, a little more durable and a little more resilient for the next storm?

Is there something you can do out there that'll make your life a little easier down the road?

And the same thing with fire protection that's another one if you're in a wildfire zone, which can be anywhere these days.

We'll talk about that when we come back here in a second because that's really where you can do a lot in your general landscaping.

So by the time you're out there in the spring, diving into the landscape, cleaning up the flower beds, what can you do different to make sure you've got something that's got a barrier there?

So we'll talk about those tips when we come back.

Now if you want to find out more about us or make a comment on what I'm talking about, hit me up over to aroundthehouse online.com and make sure you follow us out there on all our social media channels.

Facebook, we have a Facebook closed group that is around the House Nation is the closed group.

You can go over there.

We've got a lot of different we're Instagram, TikTok, I'm on LinkedIn.

All the different stuff that you see out there around the house.

We'll be right back after these important messages.

Don't go anywhere.

Be loud.

Be so hot.

So many people without.

Welcome back to the around the House show, the next generation of home improvement.

I'm Eric G.

Thanks for joining me today.

If you want to find out more about us, head over to aroundthe house online.com we'll tell you what, I had a fun project filming for my TV show today and this was a fun one.

And I want to talk about this before we get back to the list because it was a cool little segment.

So I had got my wife and I some stand up video games for the garage out here in the shop.

And if you watch the around The House Northwest TV show that you can stream on the Fox 12 app, Fox 12 Oregon.

It's on YouTube over KPTV.com, any of those places you can see it.

I do these DIY projects within it.

And today was a fun one.

We have those video games.

I have a Defender video game which I grew up on.

I had one in my basement that we had won from Chuck E.

Cheese's and a giveaway which my brother got.

So I got to enjoy that.

And then I was gonna get that cause I found it.

And she goes, oh my gosh, they got Centipede.

I want Centipede.

Guess what?

She got a Centipede.

So the problem was is we bought this from a guy that owns arcades.

Nice guy, no problem there.

But he said the side art wasn't on him.

And I went, okay, the Side art is on the side of those stand up arcade style video games.

Some yahoo probably some kid decided one day to paint over flat black the sides of those games.

So he goes, no art on the sides.

I'm like, okay.

And they must done some work on the box or whatever.

I get it.

Thought it was strange.

So I got it home after buying them, looked at it in the light and I could see the outline of this stuff below it.

So what I did is I took a bunch of different.

Didn't know really what kind of paint was on there.

So I took a inconspicuous spot and just started making up a cocktail of stuff in the garage.

Paint thinners to any of the industrial cleaners to a graffiti remover.

And then what ended up softening this stuff up without hurting the artwork on the back was a brush cleaner that cleaned brushes.

And it's really cool because it's meant for that hardened paint on a brush and says it's for any paint.

It's a chemical.

You got to be careful with this stuff.

I had to open the garage door because we were getting way high in here.

But we ended up going through and scrubbing that off.

And now the video game looks like a million bucks.

And if you've got something like a dresser or anything like that, you're tackling on a project that's really easy, it's a fun one just to go out and see what chemical is going to take that off without hurting the finish underneath.

Because this here, they didn't prep it, they just rattle canned it with flat black paint.

So it was really easy to go do.

And sometimes you get furniture that has a beautiful finish underneath it or a great veneer, but you want to do it without hurting it.

And so take some time, do some experiments.

And I found the right mix or the right product to do it with without hurting the stuff down below.

So I know it's something you guys can tackle.

It'll be in an upcoming episode here of around the House Northwest.

I think it's airing this weekend.

But that was one of those things here that fun.

When it airs this following week here from the show we'll see what happens.

But it turned out really cool.

It was a nice before and after.

And here's the cool thing with that is that there's a lot of things you can do out there without paying too much for it or getting a high return on what you're doing so you get that value back in your house.

So one of the things that I thought was really smart that we were talking about earlier, but with the wildfires in California and the in the hurricanes down that just crushed the southeast this year, getting your house a little more ready for storm prep.

So whether it's building custom storm shutters or upgrading your garage door to something that's rated for a hurricane, to landscaping a little bit to maybe keep water away from your house, these are all things that you can do around your house.

You'll get the value back because it should prevent more damage by doing that.

So these are fun projects.

On the wind side, maybe you're going through and getting the trees trimmed back, and so they're not hitting the house.

Any of those little projects like that one look good for your house.

And two, hey, it's not a big deal when it's adding value and making it look better.

And then when it comes to wildfires, again, the stuff you can do around your house, like if you've got bark mulch or any one of the different organic matters covering your flower beds out there, think of something that's maybe not flammable.

So maybe going to a crushed decorative stone or something like that.

We've got a great stone option here that I love.

Check and see if your area does it.

But I have a.

A place here that takes in recycled concrete and granite and marble and quartz from big shops like that.

So anywhere, they basically take in all the pieces that are little pieces that are thrown away for all the stone shops in town, and they crush it up into one and a half inch pieces.

And what's cool is when the light hits it, you'll get the orange granite or the red granite or the white, bright white marble or even a piece of soapstone.

And it really looks cool when it's.

You get all that color and shine that's in, and it's fireproof, so it's not gonna burn.

So it's another great way to go see if you've got a place around there.

Where does all your recycled concrete and countertops go to?

If it's going there, then they probably are selling the stuff and it's cheap.

I think I pay 30, 35 bucks a yard for that stuff, which is pretty cheap for doing stuff.

It's cheaper than bark and it's stone, so once you put it in there, it's good to go.

So that's another great way of doing it.

So pay attention to that.

Now, one of the things That I think is really cool.

And it feels good when you do it.

And these prices have been pretty stable recently.

And if you look for the sales, you can get good ones.

And that is interior or exterior painting.

Exterior painting, you want to do it when you're not getting below 50 degrees at night.

So that can actually dry well.

Read the paint can for those instructions to see what their minimum temperature is.

If you don't follow those rules outside and you get going a little too early in the spring, what happens is you'll get a little bit of dew in the morning.

It'll cause streaks in the paint because it's still fresh and it hasn't cured.

So what happens is you'll be out there repainting that again.

So you want to make sure you're above their temperature.

And then it has enough time to cure because if not, it's going to be like refrigerator.

And that's when paint doesn't like to dry.

So that's a key right there.

And then take your time on these painting projects.

The biggest mistake in painting is not prepping and cleaning.

So if you're going to do it, take the time, get some really good exterior caulking.

Everybody's got their favorite brands.

I like the stuff called the Big Stretch.

It's water based, but it stretches a lot.

So if you've got a decent sized gap, it really will stretch.

So you can put it in there and forget about it when you put the paint over it.

But scrape clean.

I'm not a big fan of pressure washing the outside.

If you don't know what you're doing, you can cause more damage than good.

But get it clean, get it dry, get it prepped, and then you'll be good as gold to do the rest of it.

And take the lights down, make it look good.

These are all the little details that you can really do.

And a little bit of.

I like to use a spray nozzle, get it cleaned up.

And then I like to go back after it's dry one more time and just hit it with an air compressor hose and.

And blow it down just to get any other dust and debris off of there.

And then you're good to go.

And in most cases when you're painting, you're going to be spot priming stuff or if you're worried about bleed through or you just have a really old paint finish, sometimes it's good just to put a coat of primer on there.

And you.

Many times you could talk a paint store into tinting that primer.

So you get something that's a little closer.

So if you're doing a charcoal house and you've got white primer, see if they'll throw some black in that to make it a little grayer so you don't have to waste so much material when you're putting paint on.

It'll help you as a base coat.

So that's another one.

There's a lot of new things you could put on the outside of houses, too.

There's bug additives.

There's things like that you can do to try to keep the pests and stuff off.

I've never tried it because I didn't want to put chemicals in my paint on my house.

But on the outside, you're probably going to be okay.

What's going to be in that paint?

Never do that on the inside.

I'm not a fan of that, but the same thing goes on the inside.

Making sure you got the sanding done, the hill, the.

The holes filled, the all texture matched for any repairs, all that stuff, get that dialed in and then get some good quality paint up there.

And the one thing I always say with paint, the cheap paint's the most expensive paint because you'll have to do it more.

You won't have the coverage, and you'll be repainting it sooner.

So middle of the grade up, you'll be good to go.

All right, we come back.

I'm going to give you a few more tricks here that I think that are great for 20, 25 to do around your house that I think will give you the most money back.

And these are projects.

Some we've talked about, some we haven't.

But if you're a solid listener of this show, some of these you go, oh, yeah, you talked about that product a few weeks ago, but it was so good.

It has to be on this list for things you can be doing this year that are probably going to make the most sense round the house.

Be right back.

Don't change that dial.

We're just getting started.

Welcome back to the around the house show, the next generation of home improvement.

Thanks for joining me today.

Hey, a big special thanks out to our friends over at Feedspot, calling us now the number one home improvement podcast in the world.

Thanks, guys.

I appreciate the honor.

And that is always changing, but we went from number two to number one.

And you know something?

We'll take it.

Thanks, Feedspot.

This hour is brought to you by our friends at Monument Grills to get that great barbecue.

These are things that I think will be probably the most stable.

I think we will towards the middle of the year.

Starting to see some things go down a little bit, but it's always slower and harder for them to go up, go down than up.

Up is one of those things that they go pretty fast when it happens.

And going down does take some time.

So we're gonna have to wait that time and see what happens.

We were just talking about interior and exterior painting and there's a lot we can do with that and we'll bring again on soon here.

I'll invite the Idaho painter back on and get him on here.

We talk some painting tricks for springtime.

We'll wait another month or so because we're still in many places in the US still frozen and it's not exterior painting time.

But we'll dive into that in a future episode.

The next one here is one of the smartest things you can do that adds security, safety and one of the best money returns on your entire house, and that is upgrading that front door.

Now, many times this can be a day project if you're replacing the same size.

It could be two if you've got a lot of work to reframe something and change it.

But really a Saturday project for putting in a brand new door is pretty easy.

So on that, it's a great return.

So what do I do?

I'm not the biggest fan of the steel doors because, well, they dent, they rust depending on the climate.

They're just not.

They're the cheap option, but they're not the great option.

Next up is going to be fiberglass.

That's really cool.

You can do something with there.

You can stain them with a solid gel stain, you could paint them, you can do all that stuff.

So here's what I like to do with those.

So get your door, get it home, in the shop, the garage, get it finished, get it all ready to go.

Least get a paint coat of paint on the jamb.

You'll have to do another one when it's in there.

But really get it all finished up as best you can because it's so much easier when it doesn't have to be outside in the weather and guarding the front of the house.

So take it apart, get it put back together with all the pieces so you can keep it square in the opening and then once you've done that, remove the old door.

Make sure you flash it correctly around the top, the sides with a flexible flashing and get it in there nice.

And that's gonna be a great way to do that.

Trial fit the door, get it in there and then get it.

Get the level out, get the door shims out and get it in there correctly.

And take the time at that part of the phase because that is the part that's probably the most important is getting it square and level in the opening and making sure that you're not gonna get any leaks around it.

So get it caulked in around the brick mold.

All the things you need to do.

And when you do that, you can get the screws put in.

I like to use the area around the weather stripping to peel the weather stripping back and put my main screws in there where you can't see it.

And that's an easy way to go because it really keeps the screws hidden.

And then if you need to put some bigger ones in, you're gonna.

Of course, I like to put some change out two of the screws at least in the door hinges and do something three, three and a half inches at least to get back in there because you've got at least two studs there that you're grabbing a hold of, plus the jam and the shims.

So three three and a half inch screws going through there.

I like something that's a little more structural, so a heavier duty screw.

But you got to watch out so it stays flush in there.

So it still has to have kind of a tapered back.

So make sure that's going to work.

Be picky on your screws because that's the strength.

And then a solid, high quality door lock.

I'm not talking the store brand name, I'm talking Baldwin is my favorite quick set Schlage something that is good.

There's a lot of great brands out there.

I'm not a fan of the cheaper bottom end ones that you see at the home centers.

They're pretty wimpy.

Doesn't take much to kick those in.

And make sure you put the long screws and the heavy duty screws in where your latch and deadbolt go.

So that doesn't go anywhere.

If you do this correctly with a good door, it is pretty hard.

Someone's got to work and make a lot of noise to kick that door in.

And you can be pretty fortified with that.

So you're going to add safety, security.

You're going to upgrade that because most places in the US that front door is going to give you the return back.

So if you spent 700 bucks on a front door and a lock set or even a thousand, you'll get that plus a few hundred bucks more as far as the value in their house.

So that's just such a great place to spend money.

So take a look at that.

Now the next one here is one of the ones that I think that is so important and can completely change the front elevation of the house and that is the garage door.

This is a great project for this year with garage doors.

I know they've got metal in them that could be a problem with tariffs.

We'll have to see.

A lot of door manufacturers have stock so it's not something that you're having to wait for custom depending on what you're doing.

But really shopping around so many spec built houses out there have the sheet metal uninsulated, hollow steel or aluminum, mostly steel garage doors, no lights, no nothing.

If you've got one of those, this is the opportunity to spend some money and completely change your house.

If you're going to go big time, put in a, a glass door in there where you've got like for instance on many of the 16 panel, 16 foot garage doors you'll see them get broke up into four panels high, four panels wide.

So you got all those rectangular ones you could put in.

I don't recommend the clear glass.

I think it's smart to put in the, to put in the opaque or frosted glass so people can see what's going on and what you have in your garage.

But a lot of these now when you put these in, there's a make sure if you're in a wind area that you've got a storm rated door because that is a huge thing.

When you're looking at storm ratings there are stuff that is hurricane strength.

I have one, my house that is that strong.

It is solid.

It has huge braces down the back.

The track is heavy duty.

Each hinge is twice the size.

There's two hinges versus one and it's screwed into the all metal extruded garage door.

It is heavy fire, 100 mile an hour wind, it's going to take it.

Now a lot of these cheaper doors you and I could probably run up and push it in.

They're pretty flimsy so you can tackle those things pretty quickly.

So think of safety and security and then when you do that, throw in one of the new garage doors.

So a lot of the new chamberlain style garage Doors, they have an extra security in them where they have a deadbolt that's electronic.

So when you hit your opener, it unlocks this bolt that goes into the track.

It's like a big half inch rod that comes out and blocks the wheels.

But when you open that, it retracts the lock back and opens up the door.

And it's really cool.

And there's so many different shaft drive ones out there that really.

You mount that on the.

You know where we've got on a typical garage door up there where those super dangerous springs are.

They're up top, those coil springs.

This mounts on the end of that pole so it's rotates and basically screws it up and down.

I don't have this big track down the middle of the garage that is hanging down with an opener that's hanging down.

So I have mine over to the side.

And the cool thing is there's no way someone can break into this.

There's nobody pushing in the front of the door trying to hook the release lever that's down the middle.

You're not getting to this release lever unless you're cutting the wall open.

So that's the cool thing with that.

So you can add some security, some beauty and some front yard street charm to have the best looking garage in the neighborhood.

And that just shows up on the overall look and welcomeness of the house where people go, what's in there?

It's a big step.

It's a big step.

So think about that.

It's a great return.

That money you get back on that garage door is more than what you get.

So it's a worthwhile investment in the value of your home.

Now the next one here is pretty important.

And these are the energy saving projects.

Now this could be putting in a home energy monitor so you know where your electricity is going to see if the kids leaving the bedroom lights on all day or making a dent or.

I have found by monitoring my systems.

I was monitoring even my wi fi usage at night and had the two kids here at the house and I'm not going to name names because I'm going embarrass them, but we had two kids at the house here and all of a sudden I'm like why are we streaming?

What is updating?

What's going on?

Come to find one of the kids had their laptop out and was going to sleep to high definition YouTube videos and they were streaming 4K videos all night long.

So I could put a stop to that just looking at the data.

But knowing where your energy usage is going, especially with the high cost of electricity, it's really a big difference to go through and do that.

You can see that.

And then things like adding insulation, putting in maybe some new windows or insulating the crawl space or more insulation up in the attic or things like that.

Those are all energy things that you can do.

And so really, you start out by having an energy audit done on your house and then you'll know where the issues are because they're going to come in with a blower door, they're going to put negative pressure in and see where the air is coming with and they can do a measure of how much air loss you have in this home.

So it's really cool.

Tells you what's going on.

And you turn off your H Vac system, any fresh air systems, and just see where it's coming and then you can measure that.

And then later, after you've done a lot of work, you can re measure it and see where you are.

So that's a great way to do.

And again, that's putting money back in your pocket, which is smart.

All right, we come back.

I've got to wrap this up with a bunch more for you.

We'll do that just as soon as around the House return.

Foreign.

Welcome back to the around the House show, the next generation of home improvement.

Thanks for joining me today.

This hour is brought to you by our friends at Monty McGrill's.

If you're looking for that killer barbecue, it's under 900 bucks.

I'm talking lighted dials, maybe a glass door that you can see in while you're barbecuing.

They've got some killer ones.

I've got one at the beach house and I absolutely love, love cooking on it.

Kind of looking at the landscape around us.

Where's cost going to be?

Where are things going to get cheaper?

I think there's some hope that next year we're going to see some of these other bigger project costs coming down, hopefully with some interest rates.

And we've got some things going that way.

So I think that's on the horizon.

But right now, of course, it's February, so we don't see that yet because this stuff, it didn't, didn't happen overnight and it's not going to reverse overnight.

So these are some projects that might be great for you this year.

You know, we were talking last hour about front doors, garage doors, kind of describing that project for you, how it's really doable for your DIYer out there.

And then we were talking energy saving projects.

And again, this is one of those things that really can go around and save you some money.

Maybe it's just taking some time in your crawl space or your basement and putting covers on all your hot water lines so when you turn that kitchen sink on or whatever that's farthest from the water heater, you're not waiting for three minutes for that hot water to come out there and warm up the pipes.

Sometimes, you know, a hundred bucks on pipe insulation can save you a ton of money because you're not wasting all that water and let alone that hot water.

So it's.

You're not losing that energy.

So something like that could make things way different and really help you out as far as your energy usage.

So something to consider on that.

Now, one of the ones that I love that is great for this time of year because it's still dark enough outside, is tackling some lighting projects.

Now, I love exterior lighting.

It's great, especially this time of year.

But it's a little more of an outdoor project, so you might want to wait till spring.

Unless you're in a place where it's 50, 60 degrees outside, put a jacket on and enjoy it.

But really changing out lighting and making it work better or changing out dimmers can really change things.

So with these days, you know, and here's the thing, it's so funny, I like to over light a room, like give it too much light and then let the dimmer handle it.

Because, you know, there's times that you want a lot of light, like, oh, I dropped a little screw out of my eyeglasses or something crazy, and you want to see as much as you can.

It's nice to be able to go all on and see what's going on.

It's great for when you're cleaning, you know, maybe not living it all the time, but at least it really shows you what's going on inside the house.

Now the other thing you can do is really jumping on that and taking care of, you know, all of these projects.

But lighting is great.

So new lights, new light fixtures, dimmer switches.

I like the Casita by Lutron.

They're affordable, they're dimmer.

You can put them into your smart home system.

When you're gone, you can set it up so it's working and doing all those things.

So really this is where those kind of projects can really go because you're adding security, you're adding safety.

And keep in mind as you get older, if you're looking around your house and you're 35 years old going oh, it's perfectly lit, in five years it's gonna seem dimmer in 10 years it's gonna seem dimmer In 15.

So give yourself some space because somebody that's 25 years old versus somebody that's 55, the 25 year old needs half the light than the 55 year old.

You know, great lighting is great lighting.

Work with a lighting designer if you really want to do something special.

And for me the smaller the fixtures.

So I like the 2 and 3 inch.

You know, if you're going to be doing the drywall, you can put in the 1 inch ones up there, but really probably need to have the ceiling down for that.

So if it's a bigger project that works well.

But lighting is a key and it's inexpensive to do these days.

And if you're great with electrical, it's a pretty simple DIY project.

So something to think about now here's the next one that's huge outdoor living projects.

Plan that outdoor living space.

I don't think the composite decks are going to change much in price.

You know your pressure treated lumber, yeah, you're going to need that.

But we've got barbecues, you got built in barbecues, you got pizza ovens.

You know, there's so many different things you can do out there with creating a space and the first thing to do is just check and see what your building code is.

Some areas like in mine, you can build a 200 square foot patio cover if you follow their plans online for the state and you don't if it's under 200 square feet.

I have to even pull a building permit so I can build it kind of how I want to, but you got to follow the directions.

But you can build it, do something absolutely amazing and you're good to go.

And you don't have to go taking through all the steps of the building permit process.

And just because they it's, it's small enough, it's really not that big a deal.

Decks I think are great.

If you're thinking about a metal deck, that could be a problem.

You're just going to play that by ear.

What I'm talking about on metal deck is there's companies out there now that are building aluminum and steel frames down below.

Because currently what we see is a problem out there in many cases.

You build that new deck and if you don't put the joist tape down on top of the joist to help protect that, you've got maybe a 20, 30 or 40 year surface on top of that and you got a 15 year lifespan on the framing materials below.

So there's going to be a couple times you're gonna have to take those boards out, rebuild the frame or repair it and put them back in again.

So you kind of want the foundation to last as longer, longer than that.

So make sure you've got the joist tape, make sure you got all that stuff, make sure you're looking good, get it dialed in and then you're going to be way better off.

So think about that lifespan.

If you're going to be retiring in this house or this is the house you're going to stay, you have the kids are growing up in it, spend a little more time, do steel, aluminum or if you're doing pressure treated underneath there, make sure you do the, the joist tape so the top is not able to be rotted out because that joist tape will protect that from the moisture that gets trapped down between the deck boards and of course the framing.

So that's something to consider there, I think.

Outdoor living, couches, all that stuff.

As long as we don't have any tariffs because a lot of the outdoor living stuff is coming from overseas.

As long as we don't have a tariff in place, that's gonna be okay.

And I think you're gonna see them lowering prices on that stuff if there's tariffs.

So they might be getting ready for that, you might be able to get a great deal there.

Of course there's also your, your local stores in your area.

I always like to do local, but many times the, the, the local stuff is higher end and that can be pretty expensive.

I'm not talking about the home centers That's a, well, that's one spot for the lower end stuff.

But if you go into a outdoor living type place that deals with that kind of furniture, you're paying living room furniture prices for it.

It'll last you a lot, a lot of years.

But again, with the new fabrics out there, you want to get something decent.

But all the new Sunbrella type, you know, UV resistant, mold resistant, mildew resistant fabrics that you see out there are great for those outdoor projects.

So that's a good way.

What can you do to get that dialed in?

What can you do to get that, you know, safety and security around your house?

You know, cameras are good, they're good for recording of something that's happening.

Unless you've got your phone in your hand and your alerts are on, you're probably going to notice somebody not coming to take that package off your front doorstep.

So maybe you want to put in like NB Sentinel's Box Gobbler, something like that.

Those guys make a great thing for packages getting stolen.

You know, smart door locks, smart light switches to show that, you know, you could have.

Now cameras that you put in.

If you want to put up some smart cameras around your house with night vision, things like that, you can program those so when someone comes walking across your yard or coming up, you turn some lights on in your house.

So if you got a burglar coming out, taking a peek, they set that light off.

All of a sudden.

Now the porch light comes on, or the porch light goes from half light to full light and maybe the inside entryway light comes on as a warning like, hey, somebody's there.

These are things that you can do to really make your house more safe and secure.

And other projects are like landscaping, making sure that you don't have those big bushes out front that someone could hide.

If you're coming up to the house where you could get robbed, or if someone's trying to break in, they can duck down when they he hear or see a car coming.

So these are all security things you can do around your house that are pretty low cost.

But now with cameras and security systems, I tell you what, there's so many things out there.

If you're in a high crime area or you're worried about someone getting into your house or breaking in, or, or even if you're into a higher place where, you know, you could have some of those strong arm robberies where they're coming in and, and sending four guys in with guns like you see on tv.

If you're worried about that stuff, insecurity is a big deal to you.

I would look at like Deep Sentinel or something like that where you've got AI and you've got guards that are watching it and if they see something going sideways, they can set the alarm off.

They, it's got 140 decibel alarm, they've got a quick call into the police and they can give that description of the people coming in and that can give them a quick response without you even having to call.

So these are all things that you can do for safety and security around Jarrah House.

And you know, it just, it just gives you that peace of mind.

And I tell you what, with all the stress that we have out there, you know, I know so many people getting sick.

You know, the politics thing has got a lot of people fired up on both sides.

And if we could do something that makes us feel more comfortable at home and more dial back, that's just a win for everybody.

So a couple things I want to talk about in a couple weeks here.

I'm going to be down at the designing construction week in Las Vegas.

Looking forward to this.

This is like old home week.

This is a couple million square feet, basically the biggest trade show for home improvement construction design all in one spot.

I mean, a Kohler Booth is usually 5,000 square feet or more.

It's massive.

It is a huge show.

You, you can't really see in the three days.

All of it just walking it.

That's how big it is.

But we have got some great interviews, we've got some good stuff coming on.

I'm gonna be walking around trying to find the latest and greatest of the cool new stuff.

And we'll be sharing that in the show on YouTube.

We'll be putting it up on all our social media platforms.

So I'm looking forward to that.

And that'll be just in a couple weeks, at the end of the month.

So we got some great shows planned as well for that and even a surprise, we are going to have another home improvement people on here and I'm just going to leave it at that.

This is somebody who would never have thought to be on this show and I'm excited and can't wait.

All right, you've been listening around the house.

This is the end of our number one.

If you're missing hour two, don't worry, you can always catch it on the podcast player.

I'm Eric G.

Thanks for tuning in to around the.