It's Wednesday, and you know what that means—time for a little midweek gossip about the home improvement world! Buckle up, folks, because Eric G is here to dish out the latest and greatest in DIY drama and industry shenanigans. First off, he dives into the chaos of trade show season, where the biggest names in home improvement are scrambling to get their press releases out faster than you can say, 'where's my toolbox?' From the Consumer Electronics Show to Design and Construction week, Eric's got the scoop on what to expect, and trust me, there's some jaw-dropping stuff on the horizon. But wait, there's more! Eric also takes a moment to address some recent recalls that will have you shaking your head. Apparently, those cute Adirondack chairs we all love to lounge in can crack and collapse—who knew? Eric’s sarcastic commentary on these recalls is as sharp as a tack, reminding us that maybe buying that $15 chair wasn’t the best idea after all. Oh, and treadmills catching fire? Yikes! If you own a treadmill from Johnson Health Tech, you might want to check that out before you get too cozy with your Netflix binge. And in a more personal update, Eric shares his experience post-shoulder surgery. Spoiler alert: he’s feeling pretty darn good, and the pain he’s been dealing with for ages has finally taken a hike. He reflects on the absurdity of pushing himself too hard during DIY projects and reminds us all to maybe take it easy—unless you want to end up in a sling for six weeks. So grab your favorite beverage and tune in for this rollercoaster of industry updates and personal anecdotes that’ll leave you chuckling and maybe a little more aware of your home improvement choices!

Takeaways:

1. Trade show season is upon us, bringing a whirlwind of new products and innovations to the home improvement industry.
2. Eric G's shoulder surgery went surprisingly well, proving that even the most stubborn DIYers can take a break sometimes.
3. The podcast dives into industry consolidation trends, which might just make your beloved local businesses disappear into corporate oblivion.
4. A hilarious yet concerning recall on Adirondack chairs highlights the dangers of cheap outdoor furniture - because who doesn't want a collapsing chair?
5. Interest rates are making home projects feel like a distant dream, leading to a decline in big renovations across the country.
6. Stay tuned for a revolutionary AI tool that promises to streamline contractor pricing, because who doesn’t want to save time on quotes?

Companies mentioned in this episode:

1. Adams Manufacturing
2. Lowe's
3. Home Depot
4. Johnson Health Tech
5. Northern Tool and Equipment
6. Trek
7. Electra

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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:

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Exciting collaboration alert! This playlist documents our joint project renovating Cam Anderson's new farm property on Blacktail Ranch—the home base for his adventures beyond the workshop. Cam (the woodworking wizard behind Blacktail Studio, with millions of fans loving his epoxy tables, live-edge builds, and creative furniture tutorials) is stepping into brand-new territory: his first-ever full home renovation and remodel. From the charming (but dated) farmhouse with its "lead paint chic" vibes to tackling structural updates, layout changes, and modern upgrades, we're transforming this 17-acre property into a functional, beautiful living space. I'm Eric G from Around the House, bringing my remodeling, construction, and design expertise to guide the process—planning layouts, solving real-world renovation challenges, handling the practical home improvement side, and making sure the build is smart, efficient, and homeowner-friendly. Expect step-by-step progress, honest discussions on budgets/timelines/hiccups, tool tips, design decisions, and the fun dynamic of blending Cam's woodworking flair with pro remodeling know-how. Whether you're a Blacktail Studio fan curious about Cam's new chapter, a DIYer tackling your own home reno, or just love watching big transformations, this series is for you! https://www.youtube.com/@aroundthehouseEricG/playlists

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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 and number one home improvement information center.

Thanks for joining me today.

This is our midweek update.

This is that show that we do that we talk about the stuff that didn't make it into last weekend show and of course isn't going to make it into this weekend show.

And we had a lot to talk about today.

There's a lot going on out there in the home improvement world and it's always interesting to see.

First off, this is that time of year where kind of chaos comes because it is trade show season for everyone in our industry.

Within about, oh, let's say eight weeks, you have everything from the biggest home improvement to construction trade shows in the US Are right now.

We start out the first week of the year with the Consumer Electronics Show.

We get into the world of concrete.

There's all these different shows that we have.

And coming up here in about.

Wow.

I'll be flying out just over a week from today for my nine or ten days down in Orlando, Florida for Design and Construction week, which is the end of my show season for that.

Always a lot of fun, but there's always a lot going on.

Everybody's rushing to get all their press releases out the door.

We have this amazing show that I'll really be able to show you this year a little bit more of what to see in the show because, man, there's some great stuff out there.

First thing, before we get into the stuff I wanted to talk about, I wanted to talk real quick about the recalls that we see out there.

Not too much stuff.

There is one thing, though, that I saw on the CPSC.gov website.

Adams Manufacturing recalls their Adirondack patio chairs.

These are those plastic ones that are always stacked up in front of the Lowe's or Home Depot.

They only had about 6,100 of them and that's probably what I see at a regular Home Depot store anyway.

But they say they can crack and collapse, posing injury and fall hazard.

I thought that was, to be honest, part of buying those, that at some point someone is gonna hit the ground.

And it could be whether you're sitting by the fire or anything else, those things tend to fall on crack.

And I'm not even the biggest dude.

That's an interesting one.

Other than that, there's just a few little things out there.

Johnson Health Tech expands recall to include their Matrix retail and Vision treadmills due to fire hazards.

So let's not go light everything else up there.

And so there's some different things on there.

There's always lots of kids things that where people miss the mark, which has to be expensive for these.

But you were seeing a lot of that stuff that's coming in from overseas where they just didn't do the research and somebody catches it.

And of course then you've got this big recall.

Another one here that I thought was interesting.

And again, there's not a lot here.

I saw that.

Northern Tool and equipment recalls their hot water pressure washers Due to fire hazard, the fan wheel on the recalled pressure washer can fail causing abnormal burner operation that can produce smoke or burst of flames during east posing a fire hazard.

Get a hold of Northern Tool and equipment to request a free repair by an authorized technician.

They have free repair kits for that.

If you have a Trek bicycle.

Trek and Electra electric bicycles recalled the manufactured by Hyena, the rear bolts could come loose.

They didn't torque them or they could break.

So that's another one there.

There's a lot of those, about 20,000 of those out there.

So that's a big one.

Now here's the stuff that I'm seeing out there in the world that we're seeing right now.

There's a lot of different changes in how we're seeing businesses run out there in the home improvement world.

We're starting to see some interesting trends across the United States.

There's a consolidation right now because there's a lot less people doing things because interest rates have been higher.

They're getting down there and then people are worried about having their jobs.

People are worried about the economy.

And so what we're seeing is a consolidation.

You're seeing smaller companies in the manufacturing side in the home improvement world buying each other up and combining.

You're seeing these large conglomerates and I don't know, big hedge fund type companies come into a market, they will come into your area and buy up a major heating and cooling company.

They'll hire a.

They'll bring in a plumbing company, an electrical company.

So they will bring in and they're creating these home service kind of conglomerates where you have the plumbing, the electrician, you've got the H Vac and they're putting them all together in one company, which does make sense to some aspect, because really these days, if you're going to be putting in a heat pump, many times you have to have all three of those to do that.

I get it.

It makes sense.

We're seeing more and more of that out there, but we're starting to see that happen in markets.

So that little, your favorite little H Vac company that you've dealt with for 35 plus years might be going away to a larger conglomerate that way.

And that gets a little more interesting.

So I think it could make people a little more competitive.

But the problem that we're seeing out there is people just aren't tackling these big projects like they were.

Now, there is some regional stuff to this, and I want to talk about this.

If you're in California, if you're in Oregon, where I am, or Washington, which is literally just a few miles away, we're seeing a different marketplace than we are in other places of the country.

When you have a lot of people moving out of the state that have had enough and are moving to lower taxed places, that's a big deal.

Was Washington state up here.

And we're not gonna get into politics, but let's just talk common sense.

Washington state is getting ready to put in a millionaire's tax up there.

So if you make more than a million dollars a year, which, sheesh, you almost need up there to be able to make a, to buy a average family home in Seattle with their housing prices.

But if you make more than a million dollars a year, that all of a sudden is going to be bringing more people out of the state because you're gonna have people that work remotely or travel a lot going, why am I in Seattle when I'm gonna be paying 10% of my income?

I'm moving to someplace else and I'll just move closer to the airport there and I'll fly out and go whatever I need to do.

So you're gonna see, if that goes through up there, you're gonna see a different thing with the higher end homes up there and the higher end stuff.

I think that is going to really hurt them in Washington state.

So I am by no means a bandwagon person with the Seahawks, but looking forward to the super bowl this weekend and no shade thrown on all the other teams out there.

I really respect other people's, other people's teams out there.

My, my girlfriend is a Chargers fan and we get along great on this kind of stuff.

So anyway, what I'm saying here is though, is that we're seeing so much happen out here and in Seattle.

You're going to see something different up there in other parts of the state because you're going to see sports teams, hey, we need to resign our or our player or even worse, we're going to get a trade.

All of a sudden that person's hey, man, I got to pay 10% more.

I know it doesn't sound like much, but that could affect how your favorite team is even working up there because all of a sudden people are like, hey, I took a peek at to go here.

This is gonna be a problem.

So anyway, we already have all these taxes out here on the west coast and that is rearing its ugly head when it comes to this stuff.

So it's gonna be interesting to see.

I think Washington with their new taxes is really gonna go backwards up there.

They already lost about a billion dollars in tax revenue with Jeff Bezos moving to Florida out of Washington state.

And when you take one of the most richest people in the country and move them out of the state and you lose a percentage of your income for the state, that really hurts.

And they're just going to see more because they're in Seattle.

They have a lot of tech billionaires, of course, with Microsoft and all the different things up there, but you're going to see more and more of those exoduses as those taxes go up and as they move to other places.

It's just really simple.

The richer people are, the easier it is to move, the more they can move.

And if you're just going to tax those people, you're going to lose that tax base.

And we're going to see this happen because it happens everywhere else.

That's why you see in these western states, less people are moving, more people are moving away.

And are people buying homes when people are moving away?

No, they're trying to sell them.

So new construction out here is bad.

You're not seeing any tower cranes around unless it's a public works project.

You used to be able to drive through Portland and see 15 or 20 tower cranes and you might see one.

But it's probably a public works project if you do.

These are things that are affecting other states out there are really doing well.

And if you're in that area, I applaud that you guys are doing things well.

So that's really interesting to see.

So we're seeing parts of the country where things are booming, parts of the country where things are going backwards.

And I'm really shaking my head saying hopefully locally people can get this stuff figured out because it will be a big issue moving forward.

And to see if your city or your state or even your county or township does well will be directly done at how your local economy works in that.

This is going to be much more of a regional thing.

Hey, there's something I wanted to talk about here, too.

Real quick.

We're going to be talking about it.

I'm going to have Johnny on the show here.

We might do an extra, just an extra one here this week.

So stay tuned for the podcast.

Make sure you hit subscribe button for that because we are working on some stuff here.

He is getting ready to roll out and this is.

I am super excited about this, but we're going to be rolling out his program that he's been working and all that.

It's going to be a lot of fun.

I'm super stoked.

And this is an AI program for you contractors out there.

And it is going to be something that is going to change everything for you.

This is going to be a lot of fun.

So we're going to.

We're going to talk about that.

We're going to have some fun with that.

I can't wait to discuss that with you.

And we'll show it.

It's called basically his working title for right now is Inst.

But this is a whole AI bidding thing that's going to be able to help you out as a contractor.

Send me a message if you want to take a free look at it.

We're going to be posting it up later, but give you a little heads up on that and you can send a message.

Just head over to aroundthehouse online.com and if you want to play with it, I'll get you lined up with Johnny it's not going to cost you anything to play with.

So if you want to do that, we're going to have a way for you, contractors and people out there doing stuff.

It's going to be able to give you a very quick price and turn those leads into sales and stop that consumer frustration of I just wanted to see what it was gonna cost and that's gonna be really big for everyone out there.

And stop wasting a lot of time for people out there that are just trying to create a budget because that saves everybody time.

One more last thing let's talk about real quick, guys.

And again, just wanted to give you a quick update.

There'll be a video out on it later today.

Shoulders doing really well.

One week today after surgery and if he didn't catch it, I had a big shoulder problem from mountain bike racing, blowing my shoulder up thin TO that was 20 years ago to this last summer trying to get my house done.

I think there was a comment over on each on our it was so funny on Cam Anderson's page.

If you haven't watched that video, it's great.

There was a comment over there and whoever made it, hats off, it was funny.

They basically talked about, boy, this HGTV divorce episode is funny because Cam Anderson, Blacktail Studio, of course, went through divorce this last year.

I've gone through divorces last year and that brings up turmoil and everything else in your lives.

But it's interesting.

When I was trying to get my house done this last fall, I pushed it too hard.

DIY mistake, Contractor mistake.

Pushing your body too hard.

Doing that cedar roof in my or the ceiling in my house with a already torn up shoulder just pushed it too hard.

So that's where I tore the rotator cuff and partially tore the bicep.

And all these other things had damage previously they had to fix.

So I am one week out and oh my gosh, my thing to you guys out there, make sure if you've got a shoulder, stand to the dock.

I know surgery is horrible.

I'm gonna have six weeks in the sling.

It's going to be hard for me to be one arm for six weeks because I'm active.

But the pain going away the next day after the nerve block wore off.

That constant pain that I've been dealing with for six months was transformational in my life.

And all of you people out there that deal with chronic pain and all of that stuff every day, hats off to you.

The next day it was gone.

And even though they had been in my shoulder with a scope and all these other things.

It felt so much better the next day.

Got off the pain pills after about 30 hours and got through that and now it's just Tylenol.

So doing that and it's working really well.

And now I just have a lot of PT in the future after I get back from design and construction week.

So you'll see a lot of videos for me down there.

I'll be one armin it, as you'll see.

But looking forward to heading down there next week.

And we'll have some special stuff, some special people, and a lot to see down there.

So you'll be seeing a lot of updates online with that.

All right, everybody.

Hey, this is running long.

I'm on a roll.

Thanks for tuning into around the House.

We got a great new show this weekend and some great stuff coming up.

We'll see you then.

I appreciate every one of you tuning in.

I'm Eric G. And you've been listening to around the House.

Make sure to follow us on social media.

Just head to aroundthehouse 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 upd.

We will see you next time.