One of the biggest frustrations in DIY and Construction is never finishing that project 100% Even the pro's like Eric G and Caroline B fight this battle. What are the causes? What can you do about it? Here are their tips to helping you understand what causes it and what you can do to help get it wrapped up so you can get on to the next project! All this and MORE in this episode of Around the House Show.

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Mentioned in this episode:

Baldwin Hardware

Baldwin Hardware

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/

[00:00:05] Caroline Blazovsky: Guys don't use Pinterest for listen. I'm anti Pinterest and people are gonna call I'm really, they're gonna be calling up complaining that I said this, but I've seen so many recipes, disasters, food stuff. You just don't want to do that. You see on Pinterest and building and decorating is another one.

[00:00:46] Eric Goranson: When it comes to remodeling and renovating your home. There is a lot to know. But we've got you covered. This is around the house, not come to around the house with Eric G and Caroline [00:01:00] B. This is where we help you become that great caretaker of your home. Welcome every everybody. Hello, Caroline. Hello.

[00:01:10] Eric Goranson: It is. And this is gonna be that one. This is gonna be that episode, right? That people are gonna give their significant other, the spouse. The friends, the family member to go, I'm gonna help you help yourself. Right.

[00:01:34] Caroline Blazovsky: So stay tuned. ,

[00:01:59] Eric Goranson: Uh, [00:02:00] oh, so it's, uh, I've run into that at times. And lately I've been going around and just getting those projects over the finish line, just because I had so many for a while there that I was doing. That I didn't have a chance to get it finished. And so today we're gonna talk about those top 10 reasons why we think you don't get those projects finished.

[00:02:23] Caroline Blazovsky: in, in disclosure, I think home improvement is kind of never done. So, you know, it's kind of a trick question, right? Because you start something and then it kind of always opens up Pandora's box and then you end up with something else you need to do later on down the.

[00:02:44] Eric Goranson: So the, the, the more it's been messed with, you know, uh, if you've got a 1970s home that is all original and nobody's messed with, you're probably in better shape than that 1940s home. That's had four remodels, cuz you've probably had mm-hmm six people hacked their way through [00:03:00] it. Right. Exactly. So do you want me to go out, we'll start with mine first and then we'll wrap up with yours.

[00:03:29] Eric Goranson: I'm raising my

[00:03:40] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Yeah. And so that lack of plan, you know, well, like with my house, it was interesting because I was doing the kitchen and bathroom about the same time.

[00:04:16] Eric Goranson: If I would've been a regular homeowner doing it, even with the best plan. So really plan it. Figure out the steps and part of that's figuring out the materials and everything you need and getting it there before you start it. What's your

[00:04:33] Caroline Blazovsky: Is it, you know, making sure you write it down, your steps are one through 10. I mean, what, give somebody a quick tip that they can utilize to plan better.

[00:04:54] Eric Goranson: Start the steps through plan, those steps out here's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, [00:05:00] 6, 7, 8. So you understand what those are. Good goal visualize because sometimes you you'll catch stuff that you're like, oh, I can't do that. Because this is gonna get in the way or that's gonna get in the way and then think about at the end of it, once you get that planned out, what's your overall plan for that space?

[00:05:28] Caroline Blazovsky: perfect example. I just put a slider in from my kitchen and Eric noticed right away. Mm-hmm after the slider went in. That the vent duck was below the slider door, not code, right? Yeah. And kind of stupid because now if you open the door, you're gonna be pulling in exhaust right into the kitchen.

[00:05:58] Eric Goranson: Yeah, you weren't even looking at that. I just saw the [00:06:00] picture you were talking about. We were talking about flashing actually.

[00:06:06] Caroline Blazovsky: So see,

[00:06:17] Caroline Blazovsky: plan. It's like, look at the detail. That was a good example, but look at the

[00:06:21] Eric Goranson: That was a great example. And so that's one of those things and, you know, and if you're pulling, you know, let's say you're, you're doing a big remodel. You wanna have that for permits? Anyway, if you're pulling permits on a huge project, those plans are gonna be all part of what you're doing. So just make sure you've got that.

[00:06:44] Caroline Blazovsky: think? Yeah, get a set of, I think that's my. Recommendation if top tip, get another set of eyes on it.

[00:06:58] Eric Goranson: whatever. [00:07:00] Oh yeah. Get that critical friend. And even the professionals will do that.

[00:07:07] Eric Goranson: the one that won't pull punches. Yes. My number two on this list, let's do this before we go out to break. The budget runs out. Inflation kicked your butt.

[00:07:24] Eric Goranson: yes, so bad. You know, and lumber prices are going down. Material prices on a lot of other things are going up.

[00:07:55] Eric Goranson: People are starting to dive off of those roofing projects. So the roofers are getting [00:08:00] less and less busy right now. So what we're seeing is that those new companies that came on over the last couple years that maybe worked on cruise. You know what I mean? Hey, we're gonna be working on a, we're gonna start our own crew.

[00:08:28] Eric Goranson: And that usually means somebody gets held holding a bag for those new guys. A deposit was given and a project. So just watch out for that, cuz you're gonna see that stuff happening. So, but watch those budgets inflation's coming. Uh, it's still there and we're gonna see that in the near future.

[00:08:54] Caroline Blazovsky: And it cost $170 back then $360 for a box [00:09:00] now.

[00:09:14] Eric Goranson: Hey, and before we go, make sure you jump over. To around the house, online.com. If you have questions and if you're listening on the podcast, make sure that you subscribe, hit that subscribe, download, even if you're on your desktop, make sure if you're on apple, hit that subscribe button and it'll let you know anytime a new episode is up around the house.

[00:09:38] Eric Goranson: Why in a world of says, should. Be loud, be so hot.

[00:10:17] Caroline Blazovsky: you from finishing your project.

[00:10:19] Eric Goranson: yeah. Oh yeah. It's so bad when people get going and, and we've all been guilty of it in the past.

[00:10:42] Eric Goranson: Show everywhere with TikTok.

[00:10:47] Eric Goranson: I don't know if I do, won't be off using my machine. That's for sure. So I don't wanna give him access, so I'm gonna have to go buy one of those burner phones and do it or something. So that way , that's funny

[00:11:02] Caroline Blazovsky: Oh yeah. Can do all

[00:11:19] Eric Goranson: I'm guilty. This too. I have a project that I just did, and I'm like, I'm two boxes, short of flooring that I just got ordered because I was going and I made a change midway. I'm gonna do it differently. I'm gonna go like this. And I would've had enough material, but because I, I made some changes. I didn't.

[00:11:42] Caroline Blazovsky: materials might not my fault. The materials might not be available. So when you go back to reorder could be backordered could be that they or not existing, right? Yeah. Stop making that lot. That's that's usually happens to me.

[00:11:58] Eric Goranson: the look, you know, [00:12:00] and let me tell you what I've seen this more and more with products coming that were in China. When we have, have been having these embargo issues slash you know, um, there was a bunch of stuff in the kitchen cabinet and countertop industry where the it's a great example where the, the state department got involved and we put tariffs, huge tariffs, like hundreds of percent on cabinets coming outta China.

[00:12:49] Eric Goranson: Of course, so maybe the finish might not match or the dial Lott's way different. And so you have to be really careful of these companies that, that were dodging that to get around that, [00:13:00] you know, those tariffs and, and, and penalties.

[00:13:12] Caroline Blazovsky: And remember, I was looking for double fives with basket weave. That's your, it's your siding, right? It's your soffit siding. Mm-hmm . And so now they've changed it. And so what I had to do was use the old one on the top, Eric, and now I had to go with triple with a different basket weave on the bottom. It's relatively close.

[00:13:35] Eric Goranson: with vinyl sightings tough. Right? Every couple years they swatch it, switch it out. It's like vinyl flooring, all of a sudden there's a new pattern, a new color, a new everyth.

[00:13:48] Eric Goranson: And that's a good side note to this one here of not ordering enough materials, order extra, put it up in the, in the attic. You know, if you've got save tile order, a few extra boxes. If you've got vinyl siding, [00:14:00] order another box or two, and put it up someplace where it's safe, have that extra materials there for repairs and things down the road.

[00:14:17] Caroline Blazovsky: Or you crack a tile, you drop a mug on it and now you need a new

[00:14:36] Eric Goranson: you know, that can of worms you open up. That's the one that makes

[00:14:42] Eric Goranson: drink. Yeah. Well, it's also a can see. I'm a little slow to the game. Oh, that's all good. So anyway, yeah, it's, it's one of those things that, you know, you get the wall opened up and go. That's not what I was thinking. I mean, I had a, I had a project for instance, that I was [00:15:00] working on.

[00:15:26] Eric Goranson: The previous owners had hit it and you're like, how do you know the previous owner had hit it? Well, the year before. The an electrician had owned the house and he ran all new electrical for the house. Well, cuz it had an electrical fire and he put up insulation in the crawl space and then put up panels down there, OSB panels to hide it, to hold the in.

[00:15:58] Caroline Blazovsky: I have choice words for people [00:16:00] who do that.

[00:16:07] Eric Goranson: Getting too deep into this one. They ended up getting money back on that, but they literally had to rip out the entire floor of the kitchen, where they thought they were standing, the hardwoods, they ripped it down floor Joyce out. They had to start over, which I actually liked because the floor was so outta whack when they were gonna install the kitchen, they were gonna have a floor in the kitchen length, had an inch and a half of difference.

[00:16:47] Caroline Blazovsky: so should we touch on, start getting into mine?

[00:16:55] Caroline Blazovsky: Okay. So I'm gonna say you don't have the right [00:17:00] tools. Oh, you

[00:17:09] Caroline Blazovsky: stuff guys.

[00:17:14] Eric Goranson: your Nikita to me. I think doing a project's a perfect example of you expanding your tool collection. You know, let's say you're gonna do a, a deck project and man, I need a new saw. All right. Great time to, to slide that new saw into the project. But maybe you're never gonna use that song again.

[00:17:42] Caroline Blazovsky: Some tools are really expensive too. If you get into the wrong project, you could definitely. Yeah. Now you're now you're back to budget. You've got not the right tool and a budgetary issue.

[00:18:13] Caroline Blazovsky: Where is this? Yeah. Is this online?

[00:18:16] Eric Goranson: Where do I it's neighborhood? So it's like, you'll see in the neighborhood, there'll be tool libraries. Where, where, um, you know, metropolitan areas. We used to have a couple here in, uh, Portland that were tool libraries that you could go borrow tools. Yep. Now you can get that project finished.

[00:18:44] Eric Goranson: Hey guys, you're listening to around the house with Eric G and Caroline B Zeke sky. And I'm gonna show you how to shred it out while you're building it up.

[00:19:11] Caroline Blazovsky: Absolutely. Keep all trucking.

[00:19:25] Eric Goranson: And, uh, I'm gonna, I'm gonna add a little side note here on something too, for summertime projects that we're not gonna put in the list. Sometimes weather can get in the way. Oh yeah, that was a good one. It's not on our list, you know? Absolutely. Oh my gosh. It's gonna be. A hundred percent humidity. It's gonna be a hundred degrees.

[00:19:45] Caroline Blazovsky: painting. That's always the worst deck painting can never get done. Cause it constantly rains when you wanna do it.

[00:20:02] Eric Goranson: I bet you will be, you know, 60 by the time this is done, but who knows? Soon as I say that, then it rains. Right?

[00:20:17] Eric Goranson: that's good. There you go. That's not a bad thing.

[00:20:23] Caroline Blazovsky: This is my problem, cuz I'm tiny and I can't lift things. I need a grab. You need more people to help you on your project. I can never not have a strong friend that could be a male, could be female, but somebody who's much stronger than me.

[00:20:41] Eric Goranson: you probably see the grab right over my shoulder, on the tool base there. Don't you me too. See, over my thumb.

[00:20:48] Eric Goranson: don't know. Oh, grab is awesome. Uh, what it is is it's a vacuum handle, basically. So it's around. It's battery [00:21:00] powered. It's a vacuum powered device. So if you wanna move a piece of tile, you put it on there, hit the button and he goes, shoot, great suction.

[00:21:30] Eric Goranson: It's

[00:21:47] Caroline Blazovsky: I was gonna say helpers, if you don't have the help, you're not gonna get it.

[00:22:07] Eric Goranson: If they get injured,

[00:22:21] Eric Goranson: Sure insurance. Oh yeah. It's like, you know, I've got my, got my friends around here, you know, Hey William, can you come help me?

[00:22:33] Caroline Blazovsky: not even something heavy, it could be, you know, you just need two people to hold it down while you do it. You just don't have enough hands.

[00:22:42] Eric Goranson: I've, I've hurt myself a few times or damage materials, not getting the right help. So it's, it's better just to get the help. All right, what's your next one?

[00:23:03] Caroline Blazovsky: Before a big event, a birthday's coming, Christmas is coming, friends are coming over. Someone's coming to stay. And I get it in my mind. Yes. That I'm gonna do a big project and make my house look better right before the guests come and you never get it done. And then you abandon ship.

[00:23:27] Eric Goranson: We were doing. Builder started building it. It was gonna be like, we're gonna be done July 31st on your house. And that was the date of completion done. So what happens? The homeowner decides to put her daughter's wedding in the backyard on August 1st. What? Oh yeah. So it was three weeks left to go and it looked like it was extreme home makeover.

[00:24:25] Eric Goranson: Do I want that in my house. Do I want every trade? Hering God, no. You were asking for so many problems and

[00:24:43] Caroline Blazovsky: I mean, the house is just wrecked.

[00:25:05] Eric Goranson: I ripped the kitchen out. How fast can I get cabinets? um, six to eight weeks, eight to 10 weeks. What and I'm like, and then they're shocked going what I can't get 'em like next week. No, they're built to order. What do you mean? And now they have destroyed the house right before the Thanksgiving holiday.

[00:25:31] Caroline Blazovsky: But you know, that gentleman fell into like three different categories. So he had not proper planning. He didn't have materials. And he had people coming over. So he's like a total fail

[00:25:47] Eric Goranson: So that's one of those, that's one of those and it's, it's absolutely crazy when people do that. Um, you don't get the good project. I mean, I always want that contractor to finish on time, but if you end up being too hardball [00:26:00] on that or yourself, you're rushing it and a rushing, it is not a good thing.

[00:26:14] Eric Goranson: open.

[00:26:31] Caroline Blazovsky: expensive. This is, this is I'm guilty of this one too.

[00:26:56] Eric Goranson: yourself.

[00:27:21] Eric Goranson: And there is nobody in the world that's putting in that, in and getting an inspection.

[00:27:38] Caroline Blazovsky: You see on Pinterest and building and decorating is

[00:28:02] Eric Goranson: Smith, Mr. Smith, whatever, go through and pick out all the things you like and create a folder. Right. Mm-hmm then go create another folder of the things you hate and share it with all of us.

[00:28:22] Eric Goranson: It's good for that. Yeah, it's good for that. All right, Carolyn, let's go out to break.

[00:28:37] Eric Goranson: you threw my clothes out. I'm gonna take.

[00:29:26] Eric Goranson: Make sure you subscribe everywhere you catch those podcasts. You know, we've had a big run here on, uh, apple recently where we've had a bunch of new people come on and we appreciate it. And thanks for tuning in well, Caroline, I wanted to talk about probably one of the biggest ones that I'm personally guilty of on this.

[00:30:14] Caroline Blazovsky: or, or we can come in ladies.

[00:30:32] Eric Goranson: can be, this can be though, like watching somebody doing a painting and the painting's not fun, not finished yet.

[00:31:01] Eric Goranson: Hold on. Tap the breaks. Let me finish this first. And so those are things that you gotta be really careful with. Well, Hey, let's recap. The nine that we've done so far here, Caroline, we had, um, my first one, it was no plan of attack. Next one was the budget runs out slash you know, project inflation or project creep.

[00:31:33] Caroline Blazovsky: with you don't have the right tools. That was a big one. Oh yeah. Um, you need more people to help you. You don't have enough manpower or lady power. Yep. You ran out of time cuz you were scheduling an event and had something big coming up.

[00:32:01] Eric Goranson: and it didn't and failure. And then I just dropped in the. Lack of personal focus or someone dragging you into the next project before you could get that one finished.

[00:32:13] Caroline Blazovsky: good one. Cause so many couples like break down, get divorced, have arguments over home improvement projects. It's, you know, it's just like money. You have to agree. And you're in one residence and it's not easy.

[00:32:35] Eric Goranson: I know. Because you have people, whether you're hiring a dude yourself, you have people coming in to a house for probably a couple months invading your personal space. Things are tore up. It doesn't feel like you're home. Cuz you're doing dishes in the bathtub or whatever you're doing. Exactly. It can be rough if you're not planning it out correctly.

[00:32:55] Caroline Blazovsky: stressful. And then also I think it just brings out everybody's little [00:33:00] quirks and idiosyncrasies, like whatever your partner does that bothers you is gonna come out during home improvement

[00:33:15] Eric Goranson: Now that we've given nine out, I'll give the 10th one here at the end, but let's kind of break it down for a little bit. One of my biggest tips to help with these nine so far is to look back at your project, which is your home, right? Mm-hmm , you know, inside, outside all of it. To back up and come up with a 30,000 foot game plan of the entire house of what you want to have the done, have it to finished, complete,

[00:33:46] Caroline Blazovsky: Take a big view. Yeah.

[00:34:11] Eric Goranson: Yes. You know, how many times do I see people put the lawn in and they go, oh, I forgot to put the sprinkler system and now I gotta dig the lineup to put the sprinkler system and no, should have put that in first. So you wanna have the right? Correct. You know, sense of things. Like for instance, if you've got a plumber coming out and you're putting a sprinkler system in later in the year, and they're already doing plumbing, make sure that they're hooking that up or roughing that in.

[00:34:48] Caroline Blazovsky: I think

[00:34:51] Caroline Blazovsky: into scale. Good advice, because we all do it. Like I'm very much an impulse.

[00:35:11] Caroline Blazovsky: So now I had to get a plumber and then I decided, Hey, wait, those water pipes are there. I could put in an outdoor shower really easily, which is what I wanna do. So I kind of did what you said. I'm thinking big picture, but now I'm like, all right, if this plumber's coming out, I might as well have 'em put in an outdoor shower cuz I've got this stuff.

[00:35:29] Eric Goranson: an outdoor. Yeah. That's project creep and that's okay. You, you found it and you wanted to do something with it, right? You're like, Hey, while I'm at it here, let's get this done. And you know, the wallet you're at its can get expensive, but in the long run they do save you money because you're, you're setting your next project up, you know?

[00:36:05] Eric Goranson: And the last thing you want to do is to have the deck people come out and go, oh, all that siding. You just paid to come off. Yeah, come off now. We're gonna tear it off. Hey, uh, Caroline, can you order two more boxes of siding now, then that's $600, right? $700. And you're in travel. So that's where that plan comes together.

[00:36:39] Caroline Blazovsky: road, if you're not as experienced, like you are at looking at something and kind of figuring out those little idiosyncrasies that could happen.

[00:36:54] Eric Goranson: You know, I would, I would bring in a building professional and pay them to help you design it out. Whether it's a DIY [00:37:00] project or some of it's probably gonna require.

[00:37:21] Eric Goranson: Kind of figure it out and figure out if you've got the right person, what you're gonna tackle and what they're gonna tackle and make sure that you get that stuff. If you pay somebody to help you like a designer or architect or somebody like that, that's involved in the process, it will save you money every single time.

[00:37:44] Caroline Blazovsky: as you have a plan.

[00:38:03] Eric Goranson: Whether it's a friend, a family person, you know, somebody in the family, that's got more experience. Mm-hmm if that second set of eyes, like we talked about can really get things dialed in because they're gonna go, Hey, That wall could be load bearing. exactly. Really. I was just gonna cut it out. Well, maybe we should get someone in to do it, like your vent.

[00:38:33] Eric Goranson: those are all things you gotta do. So let's do number 10. Uh, since we're down to a minute here, you know, we've already hit the, the last nine and number 10 is, well, I think we're just not gonna get to it today. What does that mean? We just quit. So I guess gonna have to call this project.

[00:39:05] Eric Goranson: Love to see what you're working on. We've had some great ones over the last few weeks. Share it up there. I wanna see your project. Caroline does. We've got some great people over there. I hear the music coming, have a

[00:39:16] Eric Goranson: G