Latest / Repcolite Home Improvement Show / Childproof Locks and Paint Colors; Organizing Your Silverware Drawer; Peeling Paint; and Avoiding Bed Bugs

Transcript

Childproof Locks and Paint Colors; Organizing Your Silverware Drawer; Peeling Paint; and Avoiding Bed Bugs · Repcolite Home Improvement Show

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Well, good morning everybody. Happy weekend. How was your week?
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: How did it go? You know my week, My week
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: was pretty good. I almost did something dumb, though, something
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: really dumb. I know that's utterly shocking, utterly shocking. There's
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: a lot of people out there who just can't really
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: even fathom the words that just came out of my mouth.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: I almost did something dumb, and I'm still laughing about
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: it and still surprised how close I came to actually
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: doing it. I'm Dan Hansen, and you're listening to the
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Repco Light Home improvement show sponsored by Benjamin Moore. So
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: onto my nearly dumb decision. I want to tell this
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: very quickly. We just had a vacation and we went
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: to Macana Island for a couple days to do some
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: hiking and just rest, you know, just hang out. Well,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: the food up there, if you've been up there, it's
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: crazy expensive and I've got a ton of people to feed,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: so I'm always looking, you know, for money saving options,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: and one of these involved making sandwiches for two of
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: our meals there. You know, we're going to buy the supplies.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: We'll buy the supplies at the grocery store. And while
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: that won't be inexpensive. It's way better than dropping twenty
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: two bucks or whatever it is for a hamburger. You know,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: the kids like sandwiches, so they're cool with that. Well, anyway,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: as we were heading to church recently, you know, thinking
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: about vacation, I'm thinking about that and all the things
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: I got to do. And as I'm doing that, thinking
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: it all over, I see a flaw in my sandwich plan.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: You know, we were going to need to buy mayo
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: for the sandwiches, because mayo is utterly essential for a sandwich,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: and you know, there's no way I'm going to do
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: sandwiches without mayo. But mayo needs to be refrigerated, and
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: since the hotel that we had up there didn't have
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: a fridge in the room, we would have to buy
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: another bottle for our second day of sandwiches. And I
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: didn't like that idea at all. It seemed like money wasted,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: food wasted. Didn't like it. And then suddenly, as I'm
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: driving to church, inspiration strikes. You know, the clouds part,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: a beam of light, A shaft of light comes down,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: settles right on me, and inspiration. Bells go off, angels sing,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: and I remembered that long ago, we had a cooler
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: for our car. It held about six cans of pop.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: It plugged into the cigarette lighter and it would stay cool. Hmmm,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: I wondered. I know we don't have that anymore, but
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: I wonder if they make those little coolers with electrical plugs.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: You know, something I could bring into the hotel room,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: like my own mini you know poor man's refrigerator. Well,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: since I was driving all of us to church, I
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: quickly put the kids on the search. Do they make
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: those things? Look, head to the internet, find me prices,
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: and you know what, they do make those things. They're
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: not inexpensive. But after some searching, one of the kids
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: found one for one hundred and twenty bucks and I
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: was just telling him to buy it when another kid
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: asked me how much mayo costs. And that's when the
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: light dawned. I nearly spent one hundred and twenty dollars,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: I kid, you, not almost one hundred and twenty dollars
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: so that I could not spend four dollars extra on
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: another tube of Mayo or whatever. On Mackinac Island. When
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: the kids finally move out, man, I am afraid they're
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: taking with them all of the common sense that I've got. Anyway,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: that's just a taste of the ridiculousness that goes on
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: behind my eyes. And let's just get to the show today.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: I've got a full slate of good stuff and you know, really,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: after that, I really can only imagine how excited all
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: of you are to implement projects and ideas that I
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: come up with. Yeah, anyway, on the show, I'm going
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: to be giving a review of an electric powerwasher that
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: I recently purchased. Was it a ridiculous purchase like the
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: electric cooler I almost bought. Well, I'll fill you in
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: and I'll let you know whether you need this one
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: or need to keep looking. I'm also going to be
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: dishing out the George job for the week, cleaning your siding. Now,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: I've got a cleaner at repcal Light that really takes
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: the work out of it. And we're going to dig
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: into all of that and more in just a little bit.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: But right now, right now, it's time for the paint point.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: And for this one, I've got to go back about
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: thirteen years and this memory came crashing back to me
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: the other day and I just had to tell it,
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: especially since there's a great paint point connected to it. Anyway,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: it all started innocently enough, on a quiet day, like
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: I said, over thirteen years or so ago. And I
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: remember I was at home with the kids. I was
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: in charge, and I was responsible. And let me tell you,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: I was nailing it. You know. I was getting them
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: their dinner, and I made them spaghettios. They all like
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: that right out of the can. You know, a little
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: bit of seasoning, bone appetite, there you go. I spooned
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: out their little spaghettios, plopped a pitcher of water on
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: the table, and I left them to it. You know,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: they ate their food. They made a mess, their little kids,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: and eventually the whole thing was over. I came behind,
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: mopped everything up and then wiped the table down. And
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: then finally, once they were all taken care of, I
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: sat down with my own dinner, which was not spaghettios. Anyway,
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: As I'm eating, the kids come by one by one
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: and they tell me, you know, every single thing that
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: happened during the day. It's great to be loved, you know,
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: for a while, and then it's just mind numbing, right
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: if your parents you know what I'm talking about. Story
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: after story goes through your ears and eventually, you know,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: for me, I just saw myself sitting at the table,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: you know, when my food was gone. I don't even
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: remember eating it, and Hannah, my three year old, is
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: sitting on my lap, still talking. Well, my brain completely
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: thoroughly checked out at this point. You know, all parents
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: know that feeling. But I do remember, even though my
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: brain was checked out. I do remember grabbing the pitcher
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: of water that was still on the table, you know,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: from the kids dinner, and then pouring myself a glass
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: of water. And then as Hannah went on and on
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: and on about this or that, I drank the water
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: and then I report, you know, a second cup. I
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: was drinking that one, trying to understand what in the
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: world she was telling me. Now, at some point in
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: the midst of all of this, I noticed that something,
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: something wasn't right, something was off. I wasn't immediately aware
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: what it was, you know, and I tried to ignore
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: the feeling, but my brain, tired as it was, wouldn't
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: let me be. It kept telling me, so, something's going on. Well,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: I took another drink of water, and it suddenly occurred
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: to me. I was chewing you know, I was done eating.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: I'd been done for a while. There was no food
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: left on my plate. But here I am drinking water
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: and chewing now, drinking water. It's not a chewing experience, right,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: But here I was doing exactly that. And the more
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: I thought about it and focused on it, the more
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: I realized I wasn't chewing water. I was actually chewing
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: something that was in the water. Well naturally, I remember,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: I grabbed my glass, held it up, take a closer look,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: and when I did, I was shocked, shocked, horribly horribly shocked.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: Instead of the clear, crystal liquid that we all want
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: to see when we're drinking water, my water was gray
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: and murky, and there were things in there, you know,
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: floating things and sinking things. Something that looked like a
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: part of a meatball floated by something else that I
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: was pretty sure was a spaghettio kind of drifted through,
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: and there were other things, unidentifiable things. It was a
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: smorgsborg of gray food products, all suspended in a liquid
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: that seemed, suddenly, as I'm looking at it, thicker and
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: heavier than simple plain water. Now I remember putting the
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: glass down, I swallowed, you know, a meat ball or
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: whatever I was chewing, picked up the picture of water,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: and a quick look inside there revealed more of the
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: exact same thing, floaty things bobbing up and down in
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: some gray, opaque liquid. And then I looked at the
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: outside of the picture. I saw small orange spaghettio sauce
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: handprints on the handle, and a closer examination revealed orange
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: lip marks around the rim. I looked at Hannah, did
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: you drink out of this picture? She nodded and said
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: only twice. Well, apparently two times was plenty for Hannah
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: to poison the water hole, so to speak. And that
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: finally brings me to the paint point for the week.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Have you ever started a paint project with some brushwork,
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: you know, cutting in and you know, brushing around the
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: edges around your windows or your doors or something like
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: that inside outside, It doesn't typically matter when you do that.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: What do you typically do? Well, many people, me included,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: from time to time we grab the paint bucket, you know,
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: the gallon of our paint, and we carry it around
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: with us, dip into it, wipe the excess paint off
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: the paint brush onto the rim of the can, and
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: then we paint, and then when the brush is empty,
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: we go back to the bucket for more paint. Well,
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: pretty much, that's just like Hannah drinking water out of
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: the pitcher. If she had gone to her glass of
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: water for a drink, she'd only have contaminated that cup.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: Everybody else's water would have been fine, but she went
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: to the source and she really contaminated that. Now, once
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: that was done, there was really no way to get
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: the spaghetti parts in, you know, the meatball chunks out
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: of the water in the picture. The only fix was
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: to pour the water out, rinse the container, and then
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: fill it up with new water. Now, with water, that's
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: no big deal, but if you're doing that with paint,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: you really can create quite an expensive and frustrating mess
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: pretty quickly. You know, if you brush into a spider
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: web or pick up some dirt. You know, this happens
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: especially often when people are working outside, and then you
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: pick that stuff up, and then you dip back into
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: your bucket, your main gallon of paint. You've instantly contaminated
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: all of it. Now, how badly or how completely you
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: know that really depends on the situation and how many
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: times that you keep doing that before you realize what's happening.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: But even a little bit of junk that you pick
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: up on your brush and mix in with your paint
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: can be a real pain in the neck down the road.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: You know, suddenly you're you're rolling paint onto larger areas
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: and you find chunks of this or that that need
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: to be picked out of the finish. I'm sure you've
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: had to do that. I've had to do that plenty
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: of times. It's frustrating and it's completely unnecessary. The solution
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: is really just super simple work out of a smaller container.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: When you're doing that cut in work, you know, it's
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: easier to carry around a smaller container with your paint,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: and you completely remove the risk of contaminating your main
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: gallon by dipping back into it with a dirty brush.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: Now at Repcolite, we've got a ton of different you know,
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: little cut in buckets that you could buy to work
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: out of. There are items that we've got called handy
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: paint pails. Basically, they look like an enormous coffee mug.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: They've got a strap for a handle that loops around
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: the back of your hand, you know, as you're holding
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: the containers. That makes it comfortable and convenient. It also
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: has a magnet built into it and that holds your brush,
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: keeping the bristles out of the paint if you need
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: to set the brush down for a second. There are
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: even cheaper versions of that. If you don't paint very often,
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: you know that same company makes a product called a
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: Handy paint cup and it will hold about a pint
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: of paint. It's got a convenient handle, doesn't loop around
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: your hand anymore, but it's still super convenient to work with,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: and it still has that magnet and I love using
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: those when I paint. You'll be blown away how brilliant
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: that magnet is if you try it out. Super simple,
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: really solves a lot of problems with the brush. Really
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: nice to be able to just drop it in place
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: there and it keeps it out of the paint. Now,
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: Wooster makes a product called a Pelican paint pail. It's
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: similar to that handy paint pail that I described, but
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: it's a little bit bigger and it actually has made
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: so that you can brush out of it and use
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: one of their many paint rollers in it. The Handy
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: Paint Pail and the Wooster Pelican also come with tray liners.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: You know, and expensive inserts that make clean up really
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: easy and quick. Now, even if you don't want to
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: go those routes, grab an old tupperware light container or
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: something like that. You know, lots of painters will clean
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: out gallon pails and use them for cut in buckets
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: on other projects. Whatever you do, find a smaller container,
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: you know, to hold your paint while you're doing your
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: brush work. It's going to protect the bulk of your
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: paint from contamination. All Right, there you go. That's the
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: paint point for the week. Now we're going to take
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: a break, and when we come back, we'll be talking
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: about some tips to help you turn the inspiration that
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: you find online into reality in your home. That's all
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: coming up and stick around. Okay, let's start this segment
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: with a question have you ever done this? Years back,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: I was working on finishing an upstairs landing in a bedroom,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: probably fifteen years ago or so. Anyway, I did everything
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: right leading up to that project. You know, I did
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: a lot of research. I collected lots of inspiration photos
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: of rooms and colors and spaces that really resonated with me,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: things I loved. I figured out what I wanted everything
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: from the type of the base boards, to the stained
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: color for the wood floors, to the paint colors for
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: the walls. I figured it all out, I planned it all,
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: I bought it all, and then I brought all of
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: that fine tuned vision to the space and put it
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: to work, and in the end, I created one of
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: the most ridiculous areas in the entire house. You're listening
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: to the Repcolite Home improvement show sponsored by Benjamin Moore,
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: and I don't have time on this segment to explain
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: what went wrong in detail, but basically, while all of
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: the colors and the ideas that I loved were good,
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: they didn't fit my space, and just trying to stretch
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: them over the bones that I had to work with
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: didn't work, you know, because of scale and layout. Everything
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: just looked off and it was really frustrating. Well, right now,
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: I'm working on a kitchen and I've learned a thing
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: since that bedroom long ago, but I'm still struggling because
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: everything I really love comes from pictures of kitchens that
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: don't even come close to resembling mine, and so I'm
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: afraid to jump in because I know I can have
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: bad results. I had them with this other bedroom. I
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: know I can have them here, and I'm also a
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: little bit bummed because I find myself irritated about things
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: I can't reasonably change, you know, the overall layout of
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: the kitchen, how many windows it has, how high the
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: ceilings are, things like that. It's kind of a common struggle.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: So let's talk about some ways to take the inspiration
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: that you find online or wherever you find it, and
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: then translate that into something that works in your space. Now,
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: first first step you've got to do in order to
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: get here is you've got to start by finding you know,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: you're esthetic. Now, if you don't do it already, create
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: an online place to store and then catalog all of
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: the pictures and the ideas that inspire you. You know,
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: Pinterest is kind of old school, but it's really nice
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: for creating dedicated digital boards for kitchens or bathrooms or
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: whatever it is that interests you and then populating them
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: as you browse around. So start there, collect what inspires
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: you and store it. That's the first step. The next
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: step is the tougher part, and that's finding a way
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: to make all of those inspirations that you found fit
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: into your home the way it is and this means
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: keeping your budget and the realities of your space firmly
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: in mind. And I guess the best way I've got
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: to explain what I'm getting at here is to just
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: walk through some examples. And I'm sure you're gonna think
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: of your own examples as I start going. But let's say,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: just for starters, that you find inspiration pictures of bathrooms
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: with pristine ceramic tiled walls and a free standing tub.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: And that free standing tub, let's say that really really
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: resonates with you. But maybe your budget or your space
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: doesn't allow you to remove the built in bath that
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: you've already got. Well, if that's the case, the tendency
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: often is to get at least a little bit bummed, right,
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: I mean, anything other than that super snazzy free standing
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: tub kind of seems boring, kind of seems like a letdown.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: But rather than slip slide into minor league despair, just
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: spend some time analyzing and what really draws you to
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: the inspiration pictures that you did find. You know, maybe
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: the tile in that picture plays a bigger role than
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: you first assumed. You thought it was all the tub,
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: but maybe the tile has something to do with it.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: Maybe that's part of what really wins you over in
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: the first place. After all, no space that we look
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: at or see anywhere stands in a vacuum. You know,
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: every element that you encounter in a photo is enhanced
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: by the rest of the elements in the space. In
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: this bathroom that we're looking at that we're imagining, your
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: eye is drawn to the free standing tub, But the
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: tile could easily play a bigger role in your perception
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: of the space than you think. You know, what if
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: you could pull that off in your bathroom, or if
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: you can't do the tile either, maybe budget doesn't allow that.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: What about just white paint? You know, is it the
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: tile that you love, or is it, first and foremost,
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: just the fact that the space feels bright? You know,
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: maybe it feels bright and clean and airy, and that's
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: what's drawn you in. You think it's the tile, you
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: think it's the tub, and I'm sure it's all of
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: those things. They all help, but maybe the core quality there,
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: the or principle that's drawing you in, is just the
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: fact that it feels light, bright, clean and airy. You know, basically,
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: you're looking for these core qualities for the parts of
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: the picture that you love, and you're seeing if you
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: can steal some of those elements and create something that
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: gives you the same feel in your space in the
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: budget that you've got for the project. Another example of this,
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: if that didn't help, This one comes from a blog
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: post that I ran into on a site called Room
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: for Tuesday. Now. In that post, the author says, you
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: could find that you love the idea of a sliding
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: library ladder in your kitchen. I need something like that
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: in order to reach the middle and on top shelves,
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: but maybe you just love the look. Anyway, Let's just
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: say your kitchen doesn't have the room or the ceiling
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: height for that ladder. Now, if that's the case, you've
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: got to figure out what it is about the ladder
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: that you love, you know. Is it the wood tones
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: that it brings to your space? Is it the way
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: the ladder draws your eye upwards? It could be that
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: maybe you just like the look of a ladder. Maybe
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: your ladder person and that really speaks to your soul.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: Whatever it is, figure out what about it works for
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: you and see if you can bring that into your design.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: You know, so maybe it's adding natural wood elements to
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: your space. Maybe that scratches that itch. You don't have
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: the ladder, but you've got that natural wood, and that's
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: that's really what you were drawn to in the first place.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: Who knows, maybe it's finding a ladder, tubble rack, or
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: maybe even one of those hanging farmhouse ladder things above
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: an island that you can use as a storage rack
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: for cookware. You know, maybe there's a way to bring
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: that into your space in a way that works. All right,
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: let me throw one last example your way. You stumble
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: upon a room with high ceilings and instantly you love
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: the feel that that space has. Now from that point on,
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: that's all you see online that speaks to you. Have
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: you ever been there, You know, all of a sudden,
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: your low ceiling, dumpy, dingy kitchen. I'm speaking from experience here,
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: you're low ceiling, dumpy, dingy kitchen. To underline those words,
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: it can never be what you like. It can never
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: give you that vibe, right, that big airy vibe. Well,
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: your eight foot ceiling can't easily be made into a
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: ten foot ceiling. But as to achieving the vibe, who
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: knows the right paint color may be able to help. Also,
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: the right colors on your walls, and the right proportions
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: of your colors can help make even a smaller space
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: feel bigger again. The trick here is to do a
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: deep dive into the images and the inspirations that you find,
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: find out what you love most about them, and then
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: look for ways to bring those elements into the space
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: that you're working with. And when it comes to help
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: with colors, remember that we have color consultants at all
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: of our Repcolite locations who can help you in store.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: On top of that, a number of our locations three,
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: four or five something like that all have color consultants
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: who can visit your home and give you ideas on
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: site for a fee. So ask about that if you're interested,
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: and we can connect you with some people. All right,
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: there's more to say about this, but time is limited,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: so let's call it good for now and take a break.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: When we come back, i'll be talking about a great
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: George job for the weekend. It's short, sweet, inexpensive and
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: packs a wallet that's coming up next stick around. Well,
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: you know world's a little crazy right now, isn't it.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: I mean, we don't talk about it a lot on
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: the show because we're trying to just focus on the
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: fun stuff. But yeah, it's a little nuts out there.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: We're all feeling it. You're listening to the Repcolite home
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: improvement show sponsored by Benjamin Moore. And I never realized
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: had no clue five weeks or so ago when I
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: started recommending George jobs, you know, small projects, low expense
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: projects with big payoffs. I never suspected how much these
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: little projects were really going to be helping me personally.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: You know, I knew that they'd give me something to
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: talk about on the radio. I had no idea how
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: much I would value them as the summer played out. Now,
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: the point of these jobs was really just to take
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: a tip from George Washington's playbook, and when he was
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: overwhelmed by battlefield decisions and horrible losses during the Revolutionary War,
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: George Washington found himself working through home projects in letter form.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: You know. He'd work out details, paint colors, drapery colors,
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: you name it', all of that out in letters and
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: then send it back home to be implemented. Now, according
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: to psychologists, staying focused on those little decisions helped him
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: make bigger decisions down the road. You know, that's what
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: the psychologists claim. I also made the claim a month
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: or so ago when I dug into this, that I
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: think he was just homesick, and you know, he's away
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: from home fighting what seems to be a losing battle
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: with a ton on the line, and keeping his mind
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: on home and keeping his energy focused on making it
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: as great as it could be probably relieved a fair
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: amount of anxiety. Well, for me, these little projects I've
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: been talking about have been doing just that. They've been
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: keeping me busy, occupying my time and my thoughts. And
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: even when things outside are chaotic, you know, nuts crazy,
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: I can still bring a little bit of order and control,
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: insanity and peace to the world that I specifically live in,
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: you know, my house. Now, this week's project is just
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: like the others. It's super simple, it's a low cost investment,
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: and there's a big potential payoffs. Cleaning your siding now,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: One of my favorite paint related stories came about when
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: a friend of mine wanted to sell his mom's house. Now,
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: he knew the siding looked terrible and he wanted to
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: repaint it. But there were large areas, you know, all
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: over the place where there were big black patches of
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: something on the siding, he had no idea what, and
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: then a lot of other things going on, and just
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: the whole thing looked really bad. He needed to repaint it,
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: get it looking good again so he could put that
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: for sale sign in the front yard. Anyway, he wanted
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: me to come out tell him what he needed to
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: do to get it painted. Did he need to prime it,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: what special paint would he need? On and on and on. Well,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: I went out not knowing what to expect, and when
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: I saw the house, it was like he said, it
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: was pretty bad. But as I looked at it more closely,
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: I realized it really wasn't that bad at all. The
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: siding was vinyl, and all it looked like to me
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: was that there was a lot of dirt and mildew
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: and you know, who knows what else on it. I
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: told him he probably didn't need to paint it at all,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: just needed to clean it, and he was skeptical. You know,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure that was going to pull it off
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: and make it all look good again. But he bought
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: a gallon or two of the cleaner that we sell
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: called Joe Max, cleaned the house and then called me
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: later to let me know that that had done it.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: The whole thing looked great. He was ready to sell. Now,
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: your situation may not be that bad. You may know
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: that your siding could use it cleaning, but you know,
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: it's not that terrible. But I'm betting that if you
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: jump in and do it, you're gonna be surprised at
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: what a change it makes. And the whole thing is
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: so simple. I just did it at my house, And
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: here's what the project looks like, all the things that
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: you'll need to do now to set it up. My
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: house is mostly brick, but there's an addition on the
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: back that's vinyl. And that side of the house is
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: under two enormous maple trees. And the siding there was dirty,
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: you know, not bad, but dirty. It had mildew spots,
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: tons of spider webs, and then all kinds of junk
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: from the trees. And I know that sounds pretty bad,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: but it really didn't look that horrible. The color of
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: the siding kind of hides the spider webs and overall.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: You know, when I first looked at it, I kind
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: of figured, yeah, it'd be good to get it cleaned,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: but I didn't anticipate it becoming a folding chair and
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: coffee project. And just to explain, I talked about this before,
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: but I rate my proms and the top of the
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: rating scale the gold letter, the gold standard. The top
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: of the scale is called the folding chair in Coffee
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: project category. Now project attains that level of greatness, that
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: level of awesomeness when I find myself hauling a little
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: chair that I've got with a cup of coffee around
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: so that I can sit down and then just look
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: at the work periodically. My driveway weed removal project from
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: a few weeks ago, that was my most recent folding
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: chair in Coffee project. I didn't anticipate that washing the
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: siding on the back of the house was going to
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: be one but it turns out lo and behold, I
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: was wrong. The siding was way filthier than I had
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: originally thought, and that should not surprise me. Every single
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: time I clean anything at home. I guess not every
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: single time. Ninety five percent of the time when I
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: clean something at home, I begin the project thinking this
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: isn't that bad, and by the time I'm five minutes
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: into it, I feel like I'm living in a dumpster.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: Everything turns out to be way filthier than I had
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: originally thought it was well, same thing happened with the siding,
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: and the minute I started rinsing it off, I knew
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: I was going to be back later to look at
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: it after it dried, you know, because I knew this
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: this might be something that was going to meddle in
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: my project, you know, rating scale. And then once I
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: came back and saw it after it was dry, I realized, yep,
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: I was going to be back with my little chair
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: and my little cup of coffee so I could just
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: sit there and stare at it. And I can only
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: imagine what my neighbors think when they see me doing this.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: The inside stuff, you know, those projects, they don't see
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: see me do that ever, unless they're peaking. But I
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: don't think they're peaking. But my outdoor projects, I know
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: they see this. I know they see me do it,
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: and I can only imagine what they think. You know,
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: when it was the driveway, I assume that maybe looked
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: kind of normal when I'm sitting there with my chair.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: I've seen people do that, you know, sitting in their
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: driveways watching cars go by. That looks kind of normal,
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: you know, so they probably didn't think that much of that,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: But when I was sitting in the backyard in a
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: folding chair, you know, facing the side of the house,
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: you know, the back of the house, sitting about six
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: feet from the siding, just staring at it. Well, if
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: you imagine that, that's pretty weird optics, even for me.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: And if they saw me doing that, I'm certain they
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: questioned my sanity or at least called people to the
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: window so they could all watch me. Who knows, you know,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: I could be a meme circling the internet by now. Anyway,
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: the project turned out great. And if you want to
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: have that kind of success, you know, folding chair and
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: coffee kind of success, here's how you do it. Now.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: You need to grab a container of Joe Maax house
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: cleaner Jomax Joe Max house cleaner. It's a concentrate, so
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: you mix a little Joe Max with some bleach and
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: water and then you put it in a little garden
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: pump up sprayer. The container provides you with the mix ratio,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: but basically it's about eighty percent water, fifteen percent bleach,
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: and then five percent Joe Max, so that cleaner will
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: go a long ways. Now, using a garden hose, you're
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: going to liberally pre wet all of your surrounding landscaping
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: with clean water, cover any delicate vegetation to prevent damage
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: of any kind, and do all of this in sections.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: You know, I probably don't need to say that, it's
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: probably common sense, but don't pre wet around the whole
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: house or cover landscaping around the whole house. Just do
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: it in an area and then clean the siding on
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: that area, and then complete that process and then move
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: on and pre wet the next area and so on.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: That way, the water doesn't dry out, stays effective, and
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: also that way you don't have coverings on your landscaping
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: for lengthy periods of time. Anyway, pre wet and cover
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: any delicate vegetation, and then after mixing your joemax in
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: a little garden pump up sprayer, spray that solution onto
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: your siding and let it sit. Now, I left the
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: Joemax on my house for about five to seven minutes,
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: you know exactly what the instructions say, and then I
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: rinsed it off with a pressure washer. But you can
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: certainly use a hose as well. A pressure washer, however,
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: is going to give you a little more a little
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: more oomph but if you don't have one, a hose
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: will work just fine. Just make sure that you take
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: your time rinse the siding well with a lot of water,
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: and then rinse the surrounding vegetation one more time as well,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: just to make sure that all the cleaner is removed
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: from that area. Now, what's great about Joe Max is
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: that typically no scrubbing is required. I mean, you gotta
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: love that. You spray it on, you let it sit,
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: and then you rinse it off. Now, if you've got
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: a heavy texture or a lot of built up yuck
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: on the house, it may take some light scrubbing and
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: a couple applications to get it clean. But either way,
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: for me, it was definitely not a labor intensive project.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: You know, my vinyl on the house, Probably about a
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: third of the house is vinyl. So I cleaned about
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: that much of my house. It took about thirty minutes
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: something like that to get all of that area clean,
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: and yeah, barely broke a sweat. Well that's not true.
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: I sweat like a sailor. That doesn't make a lot
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: of sense, but I sweat a lot. Let's just say that,
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: so I was sweating. But if you sweat like a
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: normal human being. You might not even break a sweat anyway.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: The product, if you're interested, is called Joe Max. That's
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: the cleaner. It's available in quartz and gallons, and like
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: I said earlier, it's a concentrate, so it's going to
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: go a long ways. It's ideal for cleaning vinyl siding,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: aluminum siding, and more so. Stop out at a Repco
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: light near you and ask about it. All right, that's
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: the project for the week. If you're looking for a
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: little sanity and control with all of the events spinning
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: in the world around us, who knows, maybe that's something
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: to tackle. Get your mind off it and make your
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: house look great. You'll be sitting out there with a
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: folding chair and a cup of coffee, just soaking it
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: all in. All right, we're going to take a break
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: and when we come back, I'm going to be doing
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: a quick review on the power washer that I used
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: for this project. I bought an electric power washer for
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: this and a couple other projects around the house, and
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: I'll let you know what I thought of it and
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: whether or not it's worth looking into for you. That's
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: all just ahead, stick around and we're back and I'm excited.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: I bought an electric power washer recently and I'm going
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: to review it. Love doing reviews. You're listening to the
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: Rep Coolite home improvement show sponsored by Benjamin Moore, and
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago, I picked up a power
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: Right electric power washer for one hundred and twenty bucks,
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: so power Right pow capital Ryte, power Right Electric pressure Washer.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: I'll put links in the show notes so you can
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: check it out now. To start with, let me just
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: give you some basic details on the unit, and then
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: my initial thoughts, and then we're going to go deeper.
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: All right. The power Right pressure washer I bought claims
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: to be a thirty eight hundred PSI pressure washer, and
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: it claims that it's going to move two point four
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: gallons of water per minute. Came with four tips, it
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: came with a twenty foot high pressure hose that never
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: seemed quite long enough, and it came with a quart
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: sized container attached to a foaming nozzle. Now that container
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: is for various cleaners, and it's kind of cool because
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: it connects to the end of the spray wand and
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: when you trigger the pressure washer, it pulls the cleaning
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: solution from the container right at the end of the
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: wand without any of that cleaning solution having to pass
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: through the pump. And this means you can use chemicals
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: like bl each and vinegar and so on without shortening
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: the life of the pump. So that part's pretty cool.
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: I like that a lot. Now, the unit itself weighs
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: about nineteen pounds, so it's pretty light. It's easy to
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: pick up and move around. My daughter Hannah, she was
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: moving it for me as I worked, so super easy
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: to maneuver. A downside to the lightness is that it
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: seems like it's going to be kind of easy to
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: pull it over while working, especially with that twenty foot
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: hose that feels more like it's about fifteen foot long.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: Just it's coiled and it's going to pull it over
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: pretty easily. So it's light. It's a good thing. There
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: is a little bit of a downside to it. The
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: build itself seems pretty decent. I wouldn't say it's chinzy,
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: you know, it's largely plastic, but it's not chinzy. There
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: are a couple of gimmicky aspects of it, you know.
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: One is a little compartment that I think is there
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: to house the tips if you don't want to attach
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: them to the storage device on the sprayerwand. And the
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: little door that covers that compartment is utterly ridiculous, and
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: it popped off pretty much every other time I tried
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: to open it. It didn't really matter to me in
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: the end, because the spray wand also has a spot,
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: like I said, for the tips, and that's where I
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: put them. But that's a little weird to have this
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: little compartment that just seems silly on the device. Maybe
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: I'll use it for snacks. I don't know. I could
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: put some peppermints in there, maybe a popsicle, not a popsicle,
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: but what do you call those? A sucker like a
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: tootsi pop or something. I could be power washing and
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: figuring out how many licks it takes to get to
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: the center. And then if I get tired of licking
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: and trying to get to the center of the Tutsi pop,
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: I could put it in that little compartment and maybe
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: close that little door, and it'd keep it maybe somewhat clean.
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm not sure how I'm going to
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: use that. That part's a little chintzy. Moving on, let's
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: get onto more important things the handle on the pressure washer.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: It's functional, but it's all plastic and really didn't give
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: off the vibe of incredible durability. You know, it works,
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: but it is a tad flimsy. I'm not sure how
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: long that's going to hold up, or how well that's
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: going to hold up. It's not a deal breaker. The
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: unit itself, you know, that seems to be all right,
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: but something to think about. All right, So that's a
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: basic overview with a power washer. But how well did
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: it work? Let's get to that now. First off, I'm
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: typically the kind of person who would opt for a
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: gas powered piece of equipment, but in this case, I
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: went with electric because I really didn't want to spend
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: too much money for something that I wasn't really going
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: to use all that often. And my assumption, right or wrong,
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: was that I could probably get a better electric power
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: washer for the same price as I could get a
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: less great gas washer. Anyway, I snagged this one, this
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: power right pressure washer, and I used it for three
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: different quick projects. Cleaning out the expansion cracks in the driveway,
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: cleaning off the concrete on a little small patio area,
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: and then, like we just talked about in the last
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: segment cleaning the brick and the siding on the house. Now,
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: in all of these three instances, man, I'd say the
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: pressure washer performed quite a bit better than I expected
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: it to. You know, it doesn't have the power of
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: a gas pressure washer. I get that, and I should
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: pause for a second explain that while the unit claims
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: to be a thirty eight hundred psi pressure washer, I
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: don't know about that. That seems like it's really stretching.
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: I think it's possible that when you first trigger the gun,
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: the spray that shoots out of the end for just
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: a split second, fraction of a second, that might be
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: at something close to thirty eight hundred psi. But as
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: the machine kicks into work mode, I really don't think
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: I'm getting thirty eight hundred psi out of it. But
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: that didn't really matter to me. I didn't need all
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: that power for the projects I was tackling. It certainly
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: had adequate power to clean out the driveway cracks and
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: to blast the patio clean. In fact, the patio which
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: had always looked clean to me. You know, I talked
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: about that in the last segment, But I've got so
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: many things around the house that look clean to me
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: until I actually start cleaning them. Well, that patio looked
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: clean to me, and then all of a sudden, I
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: start hitting it with the power washer, and now it
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: looks black in comparison to the white concrete that I'm
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: exposing as I clean. And like I said last segment,
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: that's a little depressing. Everything I think I have that's
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: okay is actually pretty stinky. But as I was cleaning it,
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: that cleaning process wasn't fast. But I have done that
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: exact same thing before with a gas pressure washer that
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: I rented, and I don't really think I can't remember
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: that there was any kind of big difference between the
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: two in terms of speed or the quality of the cleaning.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: So seemed like it did just fine for those projects.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: And it worked really well for the siding, and like
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: I just talked about now, the electric side of things,
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: that was nice to work with in regards to the
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: noise levels. It helped a lot. You know, on a
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: vacation day a while back, the kids and I were
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: hanging out by a lake and someone at one of
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: the houses across the way was powerwashing his patio with
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: a gas pressure washer. Now he ran the thing for
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: a crazy long time, you know, a couple hours at least,
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: and it was constant noise the whole time we were there.
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: You know, no big deal, it's his house, he's doing
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: work that he wants to do. But you know, the
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: bigger point that I'm trying to make is that it
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: had to be crazy loud for him because even when
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: he released the trigger on the gun, that gas pressure
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: washer keeps going and the noise was pretty constant. Now,
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: the electric pressure washer, on the other hand, was way
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: quieter while it was running, and that made it easier
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: to work with for long periods of time. I like
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: that right off the bat. You know, the boys were
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: working on something on the driveway as I was cleaning
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: out the expansion cracks, and they were able to maintain
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: relatively normal level conversations as I worked. Nobody was shouting
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: or hollering to be heard, just normal conversation. So that
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: should give you an idea of the noise level even
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: while it was running. And then when I released the
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: trigger on the sprayer, the noise quits all together. You know,
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: gas power washers, like I said, don't do that unless
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: you turn them off. So what are the pros and cons.
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about the basic pros in favor of this thing.
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: Good price point one hundred and twenty bucks really can't
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: beat that adequate power for all of the projects that
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: I tacked so far. Lightweight and small, super easy to move,
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: super easy to store. I like that a lot. And
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: really the quiet operation that's a real pleasant pro. And
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: there's no gas or oil to have to deal with,
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: So a lot of pros. What about some potential downsides? Well,
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: I don't feel it's going to last nearly as long,
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: of course, not as a good gas power washer might.
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: You know, though, I have talked to a number of
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: people who just aren't good at the maintenance on their
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: gas power washers, and man, they find that they stop
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: working after a while as well. But you know, all
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: things being equal, I think a good electric power washer
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: is not going to outlast a good gas power washer.
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: So that's a potential con. Another con is that an
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: electric power washer is never going to be as powerful
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: or clean as fast as a good gas powered unit
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: generally will. So wrapping all of this up, I want
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: to go back a bit, and I mentioned earlier that
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: I'm a gas powered kind of a guy. I've got
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: battery powered, you know, pieces of equipment, a few of them,
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: you know, an eagle leaf blower, things like that. But
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: when it comes to bigger things, I generally tend to
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: snub electric equipment, and these electric power washers I have
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: just assumed for the last I don't know how many years,
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: that they're a waste of money and that they're going
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: to underperform on a ridiculous level. Now I've only had
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: this thing for a couple of weeks, and I've got
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: no idea how long it's going to last, you know,
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: in the grand scheme of things. But at this point
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: I'm a little frustrated with myself that I didn't give
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: it a try, you know, a long time ago. And
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: here are just a couple reasons, and then we'll wrap
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: all this up. First off, with the powerwasher in the garage,
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: I'm suddenly on my own timetable. You know, I've rented
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: gas powered units before, but while they work really well,
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: I'm always on the clock. You know, I've got a
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: day or I've got four hours or whatever that rental
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: window is. I've got that time to get my project done.
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: And every time I've rented one and started working with it,
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: I'm looking around and I'm seeing three or four other
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: things that I could be using it to accomplish, but
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: I just don't have the time before I've got a
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: return it. Well, now I've got this powerwasher in the
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: garage and I can work as much or as little
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: as I want. So I love that second and I
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: hinted at it just now with all the things I
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: just said, But having this inexpensive power washer lets me
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: tackle a number of projects that I just never really
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: could do adequately or easily before. You know, cleaning the
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: siding can be done with just a hose and a cleaner,
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: but a powerwasher really makes it easier, and it definitely
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: makes it more fun. And you know, I think the
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: fun factor is kind of important here. It moves you
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: through more projects when they're fun. Cleaning the patios, keeping
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: the driveway decent, washing cars. Those are just a few
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: projects right off the bat that I'm thinking of, and
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: I know I'm going to run into new ones all
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: the time, and then having that powerwasher is going to
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: mean that I'm going to see those projects as opportunities
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: where I can use it, especially if it's fun, rather
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: than as projects that I need to You know figure
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: out how to best tackle down the road. So bottom line,
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: I think it's a great tool as long as you
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: understand completely what it is. It's not the top of
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: the line commercial grade power washer that's going to blast
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: through everything. But if you're on the fence about electric
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: power washers, I think it's time to jump in. And
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: if you're looking for a specific model to try, I
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: think the power Right pressure washer is really worth a look.
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: I'll put links in the show notes if you want
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: to check it out. All right, that's all the time
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: we've got. We're gonna have to wrap this one up.
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: Whatever you do today makes your paints a part of it.
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: Have a great weekend, everybody, and I'll see you next week.
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: I'm Dan Hansen. Thanks for listening.