Gather 'round, folks! In this stellar episode, Eric G. serves up a hearty slice of podcast magic by revisiting his banter with Tony and Corey from the Weekend Warriors show. They dive into the wild world of home improvement, where tarps somehow become a recurring character in their lives. Seriously, it’s like the tarps have their own fan club. The guys share the absurdity of spotting trees sprouting from gutters – because nothing says ‘I love home maintenance’ like a full-on forest in your drainage system. Oh, and did I mention their chemistry? It’s like Coke and Mentos, explosive and hilarious! They swap tales of DIY disasters and uncover why maintaining your home is basically a never-ending soap opera that involves power tools, questionable decisions, and more than a few laughs. Whether you’re a seasoned DIY guru or just someone trying to figure out which end of a hammer to hold, you'll find something to chuckle about. So, buckle up for this joyride through the absurdities of home improvement, where every project is an adventure, and every conversation is a treasure trove of wit and wisdom.
Takeaways:
The podcast dives into some serious home improvement discussions, covering everything from DIY projects to hiring professionals with a humorous twist.
Eric G and his co-hosts reflect on their long history in the industry, sharing stories that highlight the absurdity of home repairs and improvements over the years.
Tony and Corey from the Weekend Warriors show join the conversation to discuss how they transitioned from rivals to friends in the home improvement world, which is just *so* heartwarming, right?
Tom Kubiniec from SecureIt Tactical shares insights on firearm safety and storage, emphasizing that keeping your guns accessible yet secure is more crucial than ever.
The hosts tackle the importance of maintaining your home and the value of repeated advice, reminding listeners that not everyone hears the same info at the same time - so keep repeating those truths!
Lastly, the episode wraps up with a nostalgic look back at the year, celebrating the best moments while preparing for what’s next in the world of home improvement, because why not?
Contact us at AroundtheHouseOnline.com for more information!
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Want even more home improvement tips, tricks, and insider advice? Subscribe to my YouTube channel @AroundTheHouseEricG for project guides, product reviews, and behind-the-scenes content you won’t hear on the podcast. Don’t miss out—hit that subscribe button today!
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Welcome to around the house with Eric G. Your trusted source for all things home improvement.
Speaker A:
Whether you're tackling a DIY project, hiring it out, or just trying to keep your home running smoothly, you're in the right place.
Speaker A:
With over 30 years of remodeling experience, certified kitchen designer Eric G. Takes you behind the scenes with expert advice, industry trends and the latest innovations for your home.
Speaker A:
Home.
Speaker A:
It's everything you need to know without the fluff.
Speaker A:
Now let's get this show started with our host, Eric G. And John Dudley.
Speaker B:
Welcome to the around the house show, your trusted source for everything home improvement.
Speaker B:
Thanks for joining us today on the second hour.
Speaker B:
Hey, Johnny, how we doing today, brother?
Speaker B:
Doing good, brother.
Speaker B:
Well, here's the thing.
Speaker B:
We have got a great show coming up today.
Speaker B:
It's the last show of the year.
Speaker B:
Can you believe it?
Speaker C:
Yeah.
Speaker A:
No, let's not talk about time.
Speaker A:
I don't know where the hell it goes.
Speaker B:
Well, next week, guys, happy new year's from both of us.
Speaker B:
We're gonna out this best of episode with Tony and Corey from the weekend warriors.
Speaker B:
They used to be kind of our adversary out there and they turned out to be really great friends.
Speaker B:
And we're going to jump back into that conversation because I tell you what, it's a good one.
Speaker B:
Let's get this show started, brother.
Speaker B:
There we go.
Speaker B:
Welcome to the round the house show, the next generation of home improvement.
Speaker B:
I'm Eric G. Thanks for joining me today.
Speaker B:
And now we have a show here that I think we've been talking about for a number of years that's probably about eight or 10 years overdue.
Speaker B:
We have another show.
Speaker B:
We're like co mingling here.
Speaker B:
We got Tony and Corey from the weekend warrior show.
Speaker B:
And if you're in the Pacific northwest or across the country, they're brought to you by par Lumber.
Speaker B:
Welcome to around the House, guys.
Speaker B:
It's been a while since we've been talking about this.
Speaker D:
Glad to be here.
Speaker E:
I cannot believe we are on around the house with Eric G. I feel like Corey and I have been talking about this for a long time and it sounds like you've been thinking about it for a long time.
Speaker E:
But we finally put it together.
Speaker E:
We got together, did a little bit of video.
Speaker E:
Absolutely.
Speaker E:
Talking about a product or a door or something.
Speaker E:
And you said, you know, I really would love to have you guys on the show.
Speaker E:
And we were thinking we wanted you on our show.
Speaker E:
Yeah.
Speaker E:
It's a pairing that's made in heaven.
Speaker B:
Yeah, it's awesome.
Speaker B:
And if you were to go back five Years ago.
Speaker B:
It's probably a Coke versus Pepsi thing or a Ford versus Chevy thing, right?
Speaker C:
Absolutely.
Speaker B:
Now we're in the same room doing this.
Speaker B:
So it's always been fun.
Speaker B:
Many times I would see you guys on the other side of the convention center in Portland doing your show, and Handyman Bob and I were over doing ours, or vice versa and having a good time.
Speaker D:
I ran into Handyman Bob like a month ago.
Speaker B:
Yeah?
Speaker D:
Yeah.
Speaker B:
Really?
Speaker D:
Yeah, at an event right around the corner from here, actually.
Speaker B:
Nice.
Speaker E:
How's he doing?
Speaker C:
How do you look?
Speaker D:
Yeah, he looked great.
Speaker B:
He looks like Bob.
Speaker D:
He looked the same as he did 10 years ago.
Speaker B:
Exactly.
Speaker B:
Exactly.
Speaker B:
I love that guy.
Speaker B:
He's.
Speaker B:
It was so funny when I got the around the house show from him.
Speaker B:
I was an advertiser.
Speaker B:
That's how it started out is I moved to Portland.
Speaker B:
I had my kitchen to bath company that I started, and I went, hey, I'm gonna advertise in the local improvement show because it worked in Seattle so well.
Speaker B:
Came down and Bob goes, hey, you're really good in the radio.
Speaker B:
And I go, yeah, I used to work on the radio in high school and I used to fill in up in Seattle all the time.
Speaker B:
And he goes, you want to be my co host?
Speaker B:
Then a couple weeks later, I meet him at a. I don't know if it was the National Kitchen a Bath association or a nary event or whatever it was in our area.
Speaker B:
Wife.
Speaker B:
He introduces me to his wife, and his wife looks over and goes, oh, Eric, I'm so happy you're taking the show on because Bob's gonna retire next week.
Speaker B:
And it wasn't next week, but it was like six months later.
Speaker B:
And I was like.
Speaker B:
I'm like, oh, cool.
Speaker B:
We didn't have that conversation.
Speaker B:
But okay.
Speaker B:
And then here we are.
Speaker B:
And it was 10, 10 years ago that he brought me on as the co host.
Speaker B:
And then we hung around for a bit and here we are.
Speaker B:
But around the House in Portland has been coming on in April here 37 years.
Speaker C:
Wow.
Speaker B:
I'm the fourth host, so it's been a bit.
Speaker C:
Yeah, that's a fourth host.
Speaker D:
It was a guy.
Speaker B:
Oh, there was other people.
Speaker B:
Well before Bob.
Speaker B:
So Bob was a decade and or so and on round numbers and two guys before that.
Speaker B:
And how Bob basically got it.
Speaker B:
Is the guy before, I think I heard, just had him come in and fill in and he never showed up again.
Speaker D:
There's a weird pattern.
Speaker E:
There is a weird pattern.
Speaker E:
We actually.
Speaker D:
That's how we got our show.
Speaker E:
Yeah, our show was the exact same way.
Speaker E:
And the guy that we got the show from had got it from another guy.
Speaker A:
And.
Speaker E:
And I think they, you know, but the show that we had changed names a few times.
Speaker E:
We of course were sponsored.
Speaker E:
Yeah.
Speaker E:
And so we changed the name again.
Speaker E:
But yeah, it is interesting.
Speaker C:
We.
Speaker E:
Corey and I used to worry that the information that we were bringing to the radio every day was.
Speaker E:
We would worry that it would be too much of the same or we talked about this last year or I feel like we keep bringing the same thing up over and over.
Speaker E:
But the.
Speaker E:
The reality of it is that the audience is changing all the time.
Speaker E:
We have to keep telling the same truths over and over.
Speaker E:
It is really us repeating a lot of the same stuff, introducing new products and new techniques.
Speaker E:
But we have to go back to the well over and over.
Speaker E:
Because a lot of things about our industry don't change.
Speaker B:
Exactly.
Speaker B:
And there's some things that we hope change and they finally change and we get excited about it too.
Speaker D:
Like self cleaning gutters.
Speaker B:
Exactly.
Speaker C:
Where is that from?
Speaker B:
Right.
Speaker D:
I.
Speaker D:
It's funny, we talk about Sprinkle every year we do spring cleaning show.
Speaker D:
Every year we do fall cleanup show.
Speaker D:
Like all of these things that you're supposed to do.
Speaker D:
Maintain.
Speaker D:
Yeah, every year.
Speaker D:
And it is true because Tony said it's the same.
Speaker D:
It's different audience.
Speaker D:
Sometimes it's the same audience, but it's having the reminder that what you own is a half a million dollar investment and if you don't maintain it, you're losing money.
Speaker B:
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker B:
And it's so crazy because I'll do a show and you guys, I know, probably do the same thing.
Speaker B:
And then you get 10 emails in over the next week or so and you're like, they're like, hey, can you do on this?
Speaker B:
I'm like, two weeks ago.
Speaker B:
You did it two weeks ago.
Speaker C:
Here's the link.
Speaker B:
Here's the link.
Speaker C:
Got it.
Speaker B:
But then I get stuff like I had one.
Speaker B:
One great listener come in and go, when was the last time you did something on radon?
Speaker B:
And I'm like, oh, it's been a bit.
Speaker B:
And then you topic and it's a good topic and you dive in and do it.
Speaker B:
And I love those because that ball is always changing.
Speaker B:
And when you're out of it for a year or two, they come back and you're like, oh, yeah, it's fun to learn that stuff too.
Speaker B:
When you're like, okay, researching the new.
Speaker D:
Things that are out and in.
Speaker D:
The things that matter.
Speaker D:
Yeah.
Speaker D:
A specific thing like radon.
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker D:
I actually saw.
Speaker D:
Speaking of Radon.
Speaker D:
I saw this crazy map of cancer.
Speaker D:
It was like a kid's cancer map and they like these hot spots and they overlaid a radon map and it's shocking.
Speaker E:
Yeah.
Speaker E:
Really?
Speaker D:
Oh, yeah.
Speaker B:
Oh, yeah.
Speaker D:
You can't specifically say this is what caused cancer, but when you overlay the maps on top of each other, it was incredible.
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker B:
You're going, wow.
Speaker B:
Okay.
Speaker B:
Those red spots are right where the layers of that is.
Speaker B:
I think I saw the same one and I was like, whoa.
Speaker B:
Okay.
Speaker D:
I think that demands some extra attention.
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker D:
You know, I don't think you could say causality and say, this is what's causing it, but worth looking into it is.
Speaker B:
Another cool thing is you can jump on Amazon and buy one of the portable radon Things for 150 bucks.
Speaker C:
Yeah.
Speaker B:
And throw it around your house.
Speaker B:
And if it starts going off like a smoke detector, hey, we might have a problem.
Speaker D:
When I bought my house 10 years ago, the one I'm in now.
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker D:
And my real estate agent thought I was crazy because I demanded a radon test.
Speaker B:
Sure.
Speaker D:
Because being in this industry, we know all about radon.
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker D:
And he was like, nobody does that.
Speaker D:
I'm like, I am.
Speaker D:
Yeah.
Speaker D:
What are we talking about here?
Speaker D:
$50 or whatever it was.
Speaker E:
You want to sell this house, you're.
Speaker C:
Going to get it done.
Speaker B:
Exactly.
Speaker D:
What is the big deal?
Speaker D:
I'd rather know ahead of time knowing that I have to put in some sort of mitigation system or.
Speaker D:
It's not that hard.
Speaker D:
You put a fan down there in a vent vet.
Speaker D:
Big of a deal.
Speaker B:
No.
Speaker B:
You must be up in Washington then.
Speaker D:
No, I'm actually in southwest Beaverton.
Speaker E:
Are you cool?
Speaker D:
There's some.
Speaker C:
Now they.
Speaker B:
Now they do it as part of the real estate.
Speaker B:
When you do a real estate transaction now.
Speaker B:
So if you go to buy another house in Portland, they force you to do it now.
Speaker D:
Good.
Speaker B:
So it's good.
Speaker B:
It's.
Speaker B:
I like that.
Speaker B:
And I'm not much for saying, hey, we should have all these little hoops to jump through and we do this.
Speaker B:
But I'm like, okay, that one I'll get.
Speaker E:
Yeah, sure.
Speaker B:
I'll give you that one.
Speaker C:
You know.
Speaker C:
Yeah.
Speaker D:
You should be able to know what it's like.
Speaker D:
Anything.
Speaker D:
Air quality, black mold.
Speaker D:
If there's black mold growing in your roof, in your attic, you would want to know that.
Speaker E:
Absolutely.
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker B:
My brother and I have been working on a project.
Speaker B:
We just got it done about Halloween this year, but we went out and bought a house out at the coast, Cannon Beach.
Speaker D:
Oh, nice.
Speaker B:
And this House it.
Speaker B:
When I did the walkthrough, I was like, we might have just bitten off a little more.
Speaker B:
We could chew.
Speaker B:
This house in the neighborhood was known as the blue tarp house.
Speaker D:
Oh.
Speaker C:
Oh.
Speaker B:
I have never taken off a single story house.
Speaker B:
10 layers of blue, brown, and gray tarps.
Speaker B:
Wow.
Speaker B:
20 years.
Speaker B:
As far as I could go back on Google maps, and there were tarps on the roof for 20 years.
Speaker D:
Unbelievable.
Speaker B:
And you just could put another one off.
Speaker D:
Is it an rv?
Speaker C:
That's how I store my rv.
Speaker B:
But this was.
Speaker B:
And we walked into the house, and I've never seen oak hardwood floors so buckled that the two and a quarter hardwood was back to back because it had pushed them up and they were three inches up in the middle of the floor, and they had sprung out so much from the water, and there was like a hose running in the living room.
Speaker E:
Oh, my goodness.
Speaker D:
Wow.
Speaker B:
Like, all right, here we go.
Speaker B:
And we had to mask up and Tyvek suit up to go in there.
Speaker C:
Yeah.
Speaker A:
The around the house show will be right back.
Speaker A:
Don't change that dial.
Speaker B:
The kids these days will never understand what it's like to play an instrument.
Speaker A:
And being a fan.
Speaker C:
What's up?
Speaker B:
This is Stick Sedania and Satchel from Steel Panther.
Speaker B:
And you are listening to around the.
Speaker A:
House with Eric G. Yeah, we love Eric G. And you should too.
Speaker A:
Welcome back to the around the house show.
Speaker A:
l about our favorite shows of:
Speaker A:
Now let's get back to Eric G's conversation with our friends Tony and Corey from the weekend warriors show.
Speaker B:
Always does out there.
Speaker B:
Right.
Speaker B:
All they could hear is tarps moving.
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker B:
24, seven.
Speaker D:
And I'm laughing in the wind.
Speaker B:
Oh, yeah.
Speaker E:
So sometimes the shows that Corey and I decide that we're gonna cover are inspired by things that we see when we're just driving around.
Speaker E:
Corey had a house not too far from his house that he would see daily as he drove by.
Speaker E:
And there was a tree growing out of the gutter.
Speaker D:
Right.
Speaker E:
And so, Corey, we need to talk about cleaning your gutters and the importance of keeping organic material clean, trimmed back, so that it's not making contact with your house.
Speaker D:
I think at the point you have saplings out of your gutters.
Speaker C:
Yeah.
Speaker D:
It's a good time to say, should clean my gutters.
Speaker E:
Yeah.
Speaker D:
Or at least pay someone to do it for you.
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker B:
When the county comes by and goes, you know, you might have a Christmas tree farm going, it's time to clean the gutters.
Speaker E:
That reminds me of another one of our favorite shows.
Speaker E:
That we did.
Speaker E:
We did a show a long time ago, and we actually tried to repeat it.
Speaker E:
You know how sometimes you try to repeat a show, but you can't get the magic back?
Speaker B:
Oh, no, totally.
Speaker E:
This show that we did this one time was called Outdated Design Trends.
Speaker E:
Outdated Design.
Speaker B:
I think I actually heard that one, and it was solid.
Speaker E:
We had this list of all these things.
Speaker E:
If you've got more popcorn on your ceiling than the local theater has on the floor, it might be time for a design change.
Speaker E:
So anyways, it was like a really.
Speaker D:
Good series of jokes.
Speaker E:
Really good time with that show.
Speaker D:
Who's the guy?
Speaker D:
Who's the comedian that does the.
Speaker D:
Might be a redneck?
Speaker B:
Oh, Jeff Foxworthy.
Speaker D:
It was based around that.
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker B:
That is awesome.
Speaker D:
The Foxworthy jokes.
Speaker B:
I had one that I did when I was on KXL over there, and I had Clyde Lewis come in, the paranormal guy, on Halloween.
Speaker E:
Oh, really?
Speaker B:
And we were live.
Speaker B:
And I was like, this is either about halfway through the show, about hour one, I was like, this is either gonna be the best show, or this is my last time on the air.
Speaker D:
Or you're gonna find out you're possessed.
Speaker D:
Oh, by aliens.
Speaker B:
Oh, it was worse.
Speaker B:
Clyde's wife Janine, wonderful lady, calls in and goes, eric, do you realize from your stories that you can speak to the dead?
Speaker B:
And I'm like, this is getting a little bit over the top.
Speaker B:
Get a little weird in here, you know?
Speaker B:
And it was just ghost stories and.
Speaker B:
Yeah, it was ghost stories and paranormal.
Speaker B:
And it was like.
Speaker B:
And I replayed it a couple times for great.
Speaker B:
Just when showing it up on Halloween.
Speaker B:
There was no way to recreate that again because it was just.
Speaker B:
We had his.
Speaker B:
He was doing a live show on the same station.
Speaker B:
So his people during the day were like, oh, we got quiet on the air.
Speaker B:
And so they were all calling in.
Speaker D:
He's still doing it.
Speaker B:
Oh, yeah, he's on.
Speaker B:
Still is.
Speaker D:
He's actually a cap.
Speaker B:
Yeah, he's a cap.
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker B:
I got him that gig over there, actually, because during COVID something happened with KXL and he got escorted out of the building.
Speaker B:
You know how that stuff goes.
Speaker D:
He got possessed.
Speaker E:
Yeah.
Speaker B:
I don't know what they were doing.
Speaker B:
And KPAM over there.
Speaker C:
Awesome.
Speaker B:
People love those guys.
Speaker B:
They're great over there.
Speaker B:
I think they told them, as long as you don't do seances in here in the Christian Own Broadcasting building, that we're going to be good.
Speaker B:
And they've put up with him, and he's done a great job over there.
Speaker D:
And he's got some great.
Speaker D:
He's got some crazy topics.
Speaker D:
I subscribed to him last year.
Speaker D:
He's got, like, a whole thing and a subscription where you pay and get, like, all of his shows.
Speaker C:
Really.
Speaker D:
I drive a lot, so that's perfect for that.
Speaker D:
Last year I was like, I'm gonna do it.
Speaker D:
It was.
Speaker D:
Whatever it was for the year.
Speaker D:
And I subscribed and I got.
Speaker D:
I downloaded all of his episodes, and they're.
Speaker D:
Some of them are three, four hours.
Speaker B:
Really?
Speaker C:
They all are.
Speaker B:
I think they all are.
Speaker D:
Show is on the radio for.
Speaker E:
Pretty riveting, huh?
Speaker E:
It must be pretty interesting to keep your watch.
Speaker B:
It's like going to the fair and watching people.
Speaker B:
Sometimes you're like, this is gonna get deep.
Speaker D:
Wow.
Speaker D:
They go into some crazy topics.
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker D:
Like, it's crazy.
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker B:
I've always wanted to do on tv, do a haunted house episode with him and for my TV show and go over and do that.
Speaker B:
Just go.
Speaker B:
Let's see what happens.
Speaker B:
Like, Ghost Adventures reimagined with clay.
Speaker D:
Ghost adventures was one of our.
Speaker D:
One of me and my wife's favorite shows for years.
Speaker D:
Oh, yeah, we loved that show.
Speaker D:
I don't know why we.
Speaker D:
Totally ridiculous.
Speaker B:
It's totally ridiculous.
Speaker B:
But I went to.
Speaker B:
So I work with Baldwin Hardware a lot, and those guys are cool guys.
Speaker B:
And I like.
Speaker B:
I did my show that you guys will be hearing up here in another week or so.
Speaker B:
We recorded at the building show down there in Vegas.
Speaker E:
Okay.
Speaker B:
So I've worked with these guys for years, and they had.
Speaker B:
They were messing with us.
Speaker B:
We had this design council that where we were designing hardware with them.
Speaker B:
They brought all these designers in, and afterwards I went to them and I went, aaron, why did you pick haunted places for all the houses?
Speaker B:
We were doing stuff in, and we were at the house that the Black Dahlia murder supposedly happened, which was Frank Lloyd Wright's kids designed house in the Hollywood Hills.
Speaker B:
And with the Greystone mansion, where they filmed, like the big Lebowski mansion scenes and Batman and all those things up there.
Speaker B:
And I'm like, every house we went to was haunted.
Speaker B:
And they just smiled and they go, you caught that.
Speaker B:
And I'm like, yeah.
Speaker B:
And.
Speaker B:
And I'm not a big paranormal guy, but I walked into the.
Speaker B:
I walked into the media room there at the Greystone mansion, and I got three steps in, and I was like, this room's never restored.
Speaker B:
This is wild.
Speaker B:
I walked in, three steps.
Speaker B:
I was like, oh, I'm out of here.
Speaker B:
It was like I was getting tased.
Speaker B:
It was just like, ah.
Speaker B:
I'M out of here.
Speaker E:
Wow.
Speaker B:
And it hit from nothing to that.
Speaker B:
And I just come around, and the guide goes, wow, three steps.
Speaker B:
That's the farthest I've seen anybody go in years.
Speaker D:
And I was like, my wife went to Zach Baggins.
Speaker C:
Yes.
Speaker D:
He's the host of Ghost Adventures.
Speaker B:
Yes.
Speaker D:
And that guy, he's got some crazy stories.
Speaker D:
He claims to hit that he has gone blind because of some paranormal stuff.
Speaker C:
Yeah.
Speaker D:
From some thing that he did.
Speaker D:
I actually haven't seen it.
Speaker D:
I never really got into that show.
Speaker D:
But he runs a museum in Las Vegas.
Speaker D:
Yep.
Speaker B:
I might go hit that in a couple weeks.
Speaker D:
And it's got, like, the crazy stuff, like, you know, like, what's the doll?
Speaker D:
Yeah, that's.
Speaker D:
There's.
Speaker D:
They have this whole movie based off the doll.
Speaker C:
Yeah.
Speaker D:
Just crazy doll.
Speaker E:
Anyway.
Speaker C:
They have the doll.
Speaker D:
Yeah, they have.
Speaker C:
You're not talking about Chucky.
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker B:
We're talking like, he's fake.
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker B:
We're talking like, what is this doll?
Speaker D:
If my wife was here, she would shell.
Speaker B:
Yep.
Speaker D:
But they have a whole thing in the basement, this whole thing where you walk through.
Speaker B:
They have you pay for the vip and it gets a little better because my buddy from Blaze Rentals was telling me about it.
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker D:
But anyway, they've.
Speaker D:
They've got serial killer stuff there.
Speaker D:
John Wayne Gacy's this.
Speaker D:
And they have the van of.
Speaker D:
Oh, who is the suicide guy.
Speaker B:
Oh, yeah.
Speaker D:
They got Kevorkian's van.
Speaker C:
Death van in there.
Speaker B:
Oh, yeah.
Speaker B:
It's crazy stuff.
Speaker D:
And there was a couple rooms where my wife was like, I'm not going in that room, period.
Speaker D:
And there was several people.
Speaker D:
They would get to the edge and then say, turn around.
Speaker B:
They were like, you guys, go ahead.
Speaker B:
I've never had that feeling before until us at that.
Speaker B:
And I was like, oh, no, I'm out of here.
Speaker B:
This is.
Speaker B:
It was just like.
Speaker B:
Almost like somebody was taken when they put, like, those to go to physical therapy.
Speaker B:
They put those, like, shock things on your tens machines.
Speaker C:
Oh, yeah.
Speaker B:
It was like somebody took the TENS to your body and just went.
Speaker B:
Turned it right up.
Speaker B:
And you're like, I'm out of here.
Speaker D:
240 volts, right?
Speaker D:
Exactly.
Speaker B:
Yeah, whatever.
Speaker B:
It was wild.
Speaker B:
And I just walked out of there going, whoa.
Speaker B:
And here's what's funny is another designer who comes on the show all the time.
Speaker B:
Her and I were talking.
Speaker B:
Right.
Speaker B:
I wish I would have had record on this, because sometimes the best stuff happens when the mic turns off.
Speaker B:
But, yeah, she's.
Speaker B:
Oh.
Speaker B:
I've only worked on one house, been in one house that was just haunted as hell down in California.
Speaker B:
I said, don't walk in the media room in the Greystone Mansion.
Speaker B:
And she screamed.
Speaker B:
She goes, that's the wand.
Speaker E:
And I'm like, oh, man, no way.
Speaker B:
Really?
Speaker B:
Absolutely.
Speaker E:
That is.
Speaker B:
And I was like, oh, there we go.
Speaker B:
There we go.
Speaker E:
Proof in the pudding.
Speaker B:
Okay, not just me, but those are crazy stuff.
Speaker B:
And just like when you go, when you go to job sites, we always run into wild stuff.
Speaker B:
I've gone to job sites where I've almost fallen through the floor to.
Speaker B:
When you go in there and it's been a house fire or one of those kind of things, it just, I hate going in those projects.
Speaker B:
But sometimes you have to.
Speaker A:
If you want to hear any of these full episodes to hear the entire conversation, they can be found on your favorite podcast player, around the House.
Speaker A:
We'll be right back.
Speaker B:
Welcome back to the around the House show, your trust trusted source for home improvement information.
Speaker B:
I'm Eric G. These next two segments are a little different for around the House.
Speaker B:
It's not a subject we typically dive into and quite frankly, it's the first time we've done in my decade plus on the show.
Speaker B:
But it was a much needed subject because, well, I can't believe how many people tuned in.
Speaker B:
It was one of our most popular episodes of the year.
Speaker B:
And I thought it would quite be, well, the exact opposite of that.
Speaker B:
So we're going to start talking with Tom in just a second.
Speaker B:
But if you want to find out more about us, if this is the first time you're catching us on the show, head over to aroundthehouse online.com and if you want to catch anything here in the longer form because all these were long interviews that usually took up at least an hour of the show.
Speaker B:
So these are things that if you want to jump into this, don't worry.
Speaker B:
Head over to your favorite podcast player and just look for the around the House show and the guests that you've heard and you'll hear the whole thing completely right there.
Speaker B:
Now let's get back to the conversation.
Speaker B:
Here we start talking out with Tom Kubrick.
Speaker B:
He is talking firearm safety and how to store any of those weapons around your house.
Speaker B:
Let's keep that house safe.
Speaker B:
This is a good one.
Speaker B:
Let's get to it.
Speaker B:
Today we got Tom Kubinick, CEO of Secure It Tactical.
Speaker B:
Tom, welcome to around the House.
Speaker C:
It's good to be here.
Speaker C:
I, I heard about the podcast and getting booked on it and I was very excited.
Speaker C:
This is, this would be a good conversation because Again, I don't, yeah, I don't do a lot of, I do a lot of home improvement work but I don't do a lot of podcast.
Speaker C:
I do a lot of hunting and more firearms based podcasts.
Speaker C:
This will good, it'll be fun.
Speaker B:
Thanks man.
Speaker B:
You are such an expert out there when it comes to dealing with home security.
Speaker B:
And home security comes down to even some of the most simple things inside your house to be ready for something going badly.
Speaker C:
Yeah, it does.
Speaker C:
We take.
Speaker C:
My background is defense.
Speaker C:
I've been, I've been building military armories for 23 years.
Speaker C:
I'm considered the leading authority in small arm storage, armory design.
Speaker C:
I've done design work for all the SEAL teams, U.S. army Special Forces.
Speaker C:
We do all the U.S. embassies in Europe and the Middle East, Marine Corps.
Speaker C:
Most of the military groups use our products or use our services.
Speaker C:
But I've been in that space for a long time.
Speaker C:
the consumer products area in:
Speaker C:
And it was pretty surprising coming into this because the gun storage industry is more based on how to bend metal than how to actually secure firearms.
Speaker C:
And it's, they don't consider the firearm when designing a safe.
Speaker C:
What they're making is a metal box with a whole bunch of little V's in it.
Speaker C:
And they'll say we fit 40Vs in here.
Speaker C:
So it's a 40 gun safe.
Speaker C:
Let's say if holds 17 guns.
Speaker C:
And can you actually get to them if you had to?
Speaker C:
No.
Speaker C:
Is it secure?
Speaker C:
Not really.
Speaker C:
Is it fireproof?
Speaker C:
Not at all.
Speaker C:
So it's, it's been a, it's been a fun ride.
Speaker C:
We're, we've been, we're growing very quickly.
Speaker C:
Inc. Magazines fastest growing companies in America.
Speaker C:
Twice in three years.
Speaker C:
And I've got a great team and yeah, it's just, it's been a fun, good ride.
Speaker C:
And so that's.
Speaker C:
What do you, what are the concerns that most people have, do you think when it comes to security there's so many levels we can talk about?
Speaker B:
Well, I think first off, let's just get into the basics for gun owners out there.
Speaker B:
I think kids, people coming over, putting your weapon in a secure place that'll keep the children out or teenagers or whatever else, or just thievery in general, but still have it accessible that you need to get at it.
Speaker B:
If someone's kicking your door at 1 o' clock in the morning, you don't want to be sitting there getting underneath the bed.
Speaker B:
Grabbing the box of, of ammunition, trying to load it up while that person's running down the hall at you.
Speaker C:
It's.
Speaker C:
There's so much data out there and we've taken a deep dive.
Speaker C:
But people, this idea that I've got a big safe in my basement, but I'm gonna keep one gun under my bed or keep a gun in your drawer.
Speaker C:
If you have kids, young kids, they're gonna know where the guns are.
Speaker C:
And that's.
Speaker C:
There's been so many videos done showing where people walk in, they ask the kids, oh yeah, I know where it is.
Speaker C:
There's no reason to have an unsecured firearm in your home.
Speaker C:
We can demonstrate that a proper fast access gun safe provides much faster access than a hidden gun.
Speaker C:
Dramatically faster.
Speaker C:
When you follow our methodology and our protocol.
Speaker C:
We operate under an idea that every firearm needs to be secured.
Speaker C:
And when I say secured, I mean out of sight.
Speaker C:
I don't, I'm not a fan of trigger locks.
Speaker C:
I'm not a fan of any system that allows the gun to be visible.
Speaker C:
A, it's a magnet for kids or thieves, and B, those locking systems are far too slow.
Speaker C:
Every everything we make for the consumer side is considered a classified fast access.
Speaker C:
From our biggest answer safes down to our smallest fast boxes.
Speaker C:
If you're standing within a few feet of the Safe, I'm sub 2 seconds, sub 1 second.
Speaker C:
In many cases of being armed at a high ready or armed armed in a low ready position, it's very fast access.
Speaker C:
Additionally, we look at firearm storage in a home.
Speaker C:
Very different the gun safe industry.
Speaker C:
If you look at the ads, they talk about heritage and legacy and passed down from generations and pride of ownership Americana.
Speaker C:
They've got this big safe in this beautiful room with a river rock fireplace and a pool table and a big wall.
Speaker C:
And out the window is there's a Rocky Mountains.
Speaker C:
It's just a multi million dollar kit.
Speaker C:
And I'm looking at these ads, I'm going, are you out of your mind?
Speaker C:
Why would you advertise or tell people that a safe is a showpiece?
Speaker C:
Think about it.
Speaker C:
It's crazy.
Speaker C:
The number one, the first priority for security, the ultimate security, is secrecy.
Speaker C:
You're gonna buy like all of our gun safes are smaller, modular.
Speaker C:
Everything we make is designed to be discreet.
Speaker C:
You come into my home, you would never know I own firearms.
Speaker C:
I have a pretty extensive firearms collection and I'm never more than two seconds, two and a half seconds from being armed in my home.
Speaker C:
But you would never know it because everything is discreet.
Speaker C:
The other Moniker is you hear when you walk into a gun safe dealer, if you're shopping, buy the biggest safe you can afford because you're going to grow into it.
Speaker C:
That's just nuts.
Speaker C:
Would you tell a kid getting out of college, buy the biggest car you can find because you're going to grow into it.
Speaker B:
You'll grow into that Ferrari.
Speaker C:
Yeah, buy what works for you right now.
Speaker C:
If you get additional firearms, get another safe.
Speaker C:
We use the term decentralized storage.
Speaker C:
We pioneered that really with the Marine Corps.
Speaker C:
When they're looking at their reaction teams to base readiness, when they're looking at threats.
Speaker C:
This is post 9 11.
Speaker C:
This is quite a few years ago.
Speaker C:
And the idea of breaking up this big armory into smaller locations that are strategically located closer to where the threats are going to be.
Speaker C:
We look at a home, standard home that has a big gun safe will have a big gun safe in the basement or in the den.
Speaker C:
There may be a gun hidden in a closet or in a desk next to your bed.
Speaker C:
Our methodology is when a thief breaks into your home, what happens?
Speaker C:
So we look at all the crime data.
Speaker C:
Thief breaks into your home.
Speaker C:
They're going to master bathroom, master bedroom, the closet home, office, den, dining room.
Speaker C:
They're out of the house.
Speaker C:
Most break ins occur between:
Speaker C:
They're in and out of the house in less than nine minutes.
Speaker C:
They're looking for easy to grab things they can sell quickly.
Speaker C:
Prescription drugs is number one.
Speaker C:
That's the master bathroom.
Speaker C:
Then they're looking for jewelry.
Speaker C:
Then they go to home office.
Speaker C:
They can look for any kind of quick electronics.
Speaker C:
Dining room for silver.
Speaker C:
They're out of the house very quickly.
Speaker C:
So when you look at firearm storage, a lot of people want guns in their bedroom.
Speaker C:
It's really an unsecure, it's the most unsecure room in your home.
Speaker C:
We recommend one firearm in a fast access safe under your bed or next to your bed.
Speaker C:
No more than that.
Speaker C:
Next best place in your house to secure valuables, including firearms, is your kitchen.
Speaker C:
Thieves ignore kitchens.
Speaker C:
It's one of the most secure rooms in your home.
Speaker C:
Nobody wants to steal your food.
Speaker C:
So we look at, if you look at my home in my kitchen pantry, it's a pretty good sized pantry.
Speaker C:
I've got one of our agile six gun cabinets.
Speaker C:
I've just got part of my collection stored in there.
Speaker C:
But I also have a personal defense AR15 that is set up and ready to roll.
Speaker C:
Also there's an exit point to the home.
Speaker C:
So in an event of a home invasion or break in, I can get armed and make the decision.
Speaker C:
I'm gonna get out of the house.
Speaker C:
I mean, everybody looks at security and look at defending your home.
Speaker C:
If you can run, you run from a firefight.
Speaker C:
That's not a fight I want.
Speaker C:
No.
Speaker C:
Regardless of what I'm carrying is unless my kids are home and I've got to protect them, I'm getting out.
Speaker C:
Then I look at the closet next to your front door.
Speaker C:
Thieves ignore closets.
Speaker C:
I've got a small cabinet in that closet in there.
Speaker C:
I've got a couple of rifles, just old lever guns.
Speaker C:
But I've also got a pump shotgun and another AR15.
Speaker C:
Somebody's at my front door.
Speaker C:
I don't want to let them in.
Speaker C:
They want to get cute sub.
Speaker C:
Two seconds, I'm armed, I'm ready.
Speaker C:
And there's a whole process that we go through, but simply decentralize your storage.
Speaker C:
Don't put everything in one place.
Speaker C:
The other big advantage of this is if somebody breaks into your home and they're well organized and they know you're gone for the weekend and they've got all the time in the world, eventually they're going to find something of value.
Speaker A:
We are just getting started with Tom Kuban of Secura Tactical around the House.
Speaker A:
We'll be right back with more after these important messages from our sponsors.
Speaker A:
Welcome back to this special episode of around the House.
If you want to hear the entire episode, you can listen on your favorite podcast player.
Speaker A:
Now let's get back to Eric G. Discussing weapon storage and safety with Tom Kubenek from Secure It Tactical.
Speaker C:
And there's a whole process that we go through.
Speaker C:
But simply decentralize your storage.
Speaker C:
Don't put everything in one place.
Speaker C:
The other big advantage of this is if somebody breaks into your home and they're well organized and they know you're gone for the weekend and they've got all the time in the world, eventually they're going to find something of value.
Speaker C:
They're going to steal it, they're going to be gone.
Speaker C:
If you've got a great big gun safe, they're going to open the safe.
Speaker C:
And I'll talk about that in a minute.
Speaker C:
But I can open up any gun safe in America for the most part, and remove a gun in 18 seconds.
Speaker C:
I know nothing about safes.
Speaker C:
I know nothing about locks.
Speaker C:
But if you've got a big safe with 35 guns in it, you're going to lose them all.
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker C:
When you decentralize Your storage.
Speaker C:
If they find a fast box, if they find one of the cabinets got a couple of rifles in it, they're like cool, we got something and they're gone and you've lost two of your 36 guns.
Speaker C:
Additionally, if you've got a fire in your house, the risk of your house burning to the ground is almost impossible.
Speaker C:
When you look at actual fire data today, sure 90 was it 94% of all fires occur in the kitchen, are contained within a pot on the stove or within the oven.
Speaker C:
Insurance data drives all this and fire claims are smoke damage.
Speaker C:
Actual open flame heat damage in a home is extremely rare.
Speaker C:
But in the event of an open flame fire, a fire rated gun safe is going to give you about three minutes of protection.
Speaker C:
That's it.
Speaker C:
A 30 minute to a one hour safe is a.
Speaker C:
We've demonstrated about three to five minutes.
Speaker C:
Wow, there's the fire ratings is is nonsense.
Speaker C:
When you decentralize though, you've got guns stored all over your house so you're the risk of you losing guns is extremely rare but the actual rate of losing guns to fires is almost non existent.
Speaker C:
The fires the gun safe industry puts out this big thing about hey look, fires protect your guns.
Speaker C:
Name all these stories.
Speaker C:
Actual reality is when it does happen, like the fires in California, there was nothing left.
Speaker C:
The safes were melted, there was nothing.
Speaker C:
There's in a true raging fire.
Speaker C:
These gun safes offer again three to five minutes of protection at the most.
Speaker C:
We do make a true safe, true fire safe.
Speaker C:
We made it to prove a point.
Speaker C:
It's a double walled steel safe filled with cement.
Speaker C:
It does give you a decent fire protection but it's incredibly expensive and impossibly heavy.
Speaker C:
It's required, we will install it.
Speaker C:
We will not let you install it.
Speaker C:
It's too heavy and it is a true vault for your home.
Speaker C:
But people, we did it to prove a point.
Speaker C:
Lightweight modular safes are just much easier.
Speaker B:
Yeah Tom, and I'll tell you my personal experience here and I've never talked about this on the radio.
Speaker B:
I made some pretty big errors probably 13, 14 years ago with a quick access gun safe.
Speaker B:
And I put it in a poor location top shelf of my closet was trying to keep it away from girlfriend's kids.
Speaker B:
We were having some home invasions in the neighbor in the neighborhood.
Speaker B:
So I thought okay, I'll put it up there.
Speaker B:
I was moving out of that house, I went in, reached up tippy toes to grab my gun out of there so I could pack it up, put it in the case, unload it, dropped it Went off.
Speaker C:
No kidding.
Speaker E:
Yeah.
Speaker B:
That 40 hit me right in the middle of the chest.
Speaker B:
That was not.
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker A:
Wow.
Speaker B:
To me, having the right situation and preventing accidents like that from happening.
Speaker B:
And it was my mistake.
Speaker B:
I pulled it out.
Speaker B:
I caught the little metal sheet metal lip of the edge where the door comes down.
Speaker B:
It was the one where you put your hand in and I reached in there, it spun the gun out of my hand, dropped off and it was a brand new gun that was defective and no safety.
Speaker B:
Landed on the shelf below, went off.
Speaker B:
And that was my mistake.
Speaker B:
And I'm not going to sit here and blame a safe company or a gun manufacturer, but that was a tough road back.
Speaker B:
But having the right safety with this, having the right situation, that could have gone a lot worse.
Speaker B:
I'm here to.
Speaker B:
Thanks to some great doctors, but this is a serious deal to me because I want to make sure that the people out there that are caring, that are, want to be safe, that they have all the opportunity to do that and to be able to enjoy their toys.
Speaker C:
Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker C:
The other piece we'll just throw out early is if you make the decision to own firearms and not everybody should.
Speaker C:
If you're going to make that decision, that's a change in how you live your life.
Speaker C:
And it is a change.
Speaker C:
It is a serious commitment change.
Speaker C:
I would also anybody who carries firearms or owns them is take a like a T triple C combat medic training course and carry a proper first aid kit, which we're talking about tourniquets, chest seals, the ability to stop bleeding.
Speaker C:
It's, it's training that everybody should have because in.
Speaker C:
We live in a world where there are bad people and bad things can happen.
Speaker C:
And it puts you.
Speaker C:
Whenever there's a big crisis, you're either part of the solution or you're part of the problem.
Speaker C:
And meaning you can either help or you better get out of the way.
Speaker C:
And it doesn't take that much to be in a position to help.
Speaker C:
And again, if you're going to own firearms, I think you should be out.
Speaker C:
You should have the skill set and the materials to deal with every aspect of firearms ownership.
Speaker C:
And first aid is one of them.
Speaker C:
It's.
Speaker B:
That's a heck of a point.
Speaker B:
Heck of a point.
Speaker B:
And those first aid things.
Speaker B:
And if you've got the training, it's just like any other training you do.
Speaker B:
If you've got the training, when it comes down to it, you'll get into muscle memory and you can help other people.
Speaker B:
And what's not great about that?
Speaker C:
No, that's that's exactly, it's it, you know, you feel good.
Speaker C:
I went through the training, I got it's again sharing stories of not always the best way of doing things.
Speaker C:
I did the training, got certified and I was talking to a friend of mine who does this training.
Speaker C:
I'm like, Gary, I don't have a medic kit.
Speaker C:
He looks at me, he goes, dude, you did the training like eight months ago.
Speaker C:
I said, he sells.
Speaker C:
I said I need two, I need one for my car, I need one for my barn.
Speaker C:
So it was just we put them.
Speaker C:
But you know what, it's just nice to have.
Speaker C:
And everywhere I go if there's a crisis somewhere, I'm in a position to save someone's life.
Speaker C:
And it's good, it's good to deal with, it's good to have.
Speaker C:
You'd mentioned muscle memory and there's that's something we can talk about.
Speaker C:
We are the pioneers of fast access, true fast access gun safes and we're also the first company to ever talk about training with your safe.
Speaker C:
Everybody gets a firearm, they go to the range.
Speaker C:
If you're a handgun shooter and you're getting trained, you're going to learn about how to draw, aiming, all the motions, all the mechanics of using a firearm and they're going to have you practice in your home dry fire techniques and you want to be again muscle.
Speaker C:
You want to build the muscle memory because in a high stress environment you're not going to be able to think or you'll struggle.
Speaker C:
So you're going to lose fine motor skills.
Speaker C:
You need to rely on instinct and instinct is built through repetitive training.
Speaker C:
So we have a whole protocol with our safes where you train with the safe.
Speaker C:
If you've got my fastbox under your bed, it's a very popular product.
Speaker C:
Every night when you go to bed in the dark, you reach down, you do the combination by touch, open the drawer, then you close it.
Speaker C:
You that every night for about 45 days, then do it once a week.
Speaker C:
You're now in a position, regardless of what's happening, without even thinking, you're going to have that safe open in less than a second and you're going to be behind your bed in a defensive position.
Speaker C:
We've also just released and this is a, this was a big breakthrough for us.
Speaker C:
We'll see if the industry picks up on it.
Speaker C:
We're going to formally roll it out.
Speaker C:
It's we have it now.
Speaker C:
We haven't done the big formal launch because we didn't want to wait.
Speaker C:
HSFA locking high Stress fast access locking.
Speaker C:
We hosted a training event where I'm very big.
Speaker C:
If you're gonna firearms train, don't just own them, you got to shoot them.
Speaker C:
You got to train, work with the best.
Speaker C:
So we hosted a training event at Summit Point Training center with Gary Melton at Paramount Tactical.
Speaker C:
Part of the training was force on force in a shoot house using simunition.
Speaker C:
So it's a live fire.
Speaker C:
Simunition is a, it's a fake bullet.
Speaker C:
But it hurts.
Speaker C:
It hurts enough for you at a primal level.
Speaker C:
You don't want to get hit.
Speaker C:
It's like a paintball a little smaller.
Speaker C:
And we were doing these scenarios where we had safes and like simulating a break in an office or breaking in a home.
Speaker C:
And what we found is in the stress of the moment and this was even people knew this wasn't real.
Speaker C:
But we tried our best to make it as chaotic as possible.
Speaker C:
People couldn't do the combinations because they didn't have the fine motor skills to press the small buttons on a gun safe.
Speaker C:
And some of the gun safes and we had several different ones there have these like logoed really awkward shaped locks that are like cool or part of their brand image.
Speaker C:
People could not open them.
Speaker C:
And wow, I'm watching the videos of this and going through, back through the data because at the time we're just kind of laughing at people struggling.
Speaker C:
And it really resonated with me.
Speaker C:
So I went, I merely sat down and designed HSFA So it's a much simpler lock with much bigger buttons.
Speaker C:
And what it's designed to do, it's designed to give you the fastest possible access when you're not at your best.
Speaker C:
Because unless you're in the military and you've been through stress inoculation training, I don't care how tough you are.
Speaker C:
If all of a sudden a door gets kicked in and someone is shooting at you or shooting at a family member, you're going to be in fight or flight.
Speaker C:
You are going to struggle with fine motor skills.
Speaker C:
It's going to happen to all of us.
Speaker C:
We're trying to design systems that give you the opportunity to do what you know how to do when you're not at your best.
Speaker A:
And that's a wrap for us in:
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We want to thank you for tuning into the around the house show and for making this show have its most successful year in, in its 37 year history.
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To find out more, head to our website aroundthehouse online.com.
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we will see you in:
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We appreciate all that you have done for us.
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Happy New Year from all of us at the around the house show.
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Love is a love song let's be lovers we're all over the radio Take.
