Latest / Repcolite Home Improvement Show / 5 Can't-Lose Home Improvement Projects for Your Forever Home
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in and you're listening to
- 0:04Speaker 1: Home in Progress by Repco White Paint, sponsored by Benjamin Moore,
- 0:08Speaker 1: and coming up on the show today, we're going to
- 0:10Speaker 1: be talking about five can't lose projects. Can't lose projects
- 0:14Speaker 1: that will significantly improve the comfort that you feel in
- 0:17Speaker 1: your home. You know, these are put together with the
- 0:19Speaker 1: idea that you found your forever home or you're for
- 0:22Speaker 1: quite a while home anyway. You know, they're not about
- 0:25Speaker 1: resale value. They're about comfort and happiness that you and
- 0:28Speaker 1: your family will feel in your home. Now, that's coming
- 0:31Speaker 1: up with a few other things, really good things. I'm
- 0:34Speaker 1: just not going to spend any time on them because
- 0:36Speaker 1: right now I want to talk about tools, and I
- 0:39Speaker 1: want to do it in a way I've never done
- 0:41Speaker 1: it before, from an angle I've never taken before anyway.
- 0:45Speaker 1: You know that we tend to think of tool use
- 0:47Speaker 1: as kind of a uniquely human thing, right but nature
- 0:51Speaker 1: begs to differ with us. And I ran into some
- 0:54Speaker 1: really really fun information and I thought i'd open the
- 0:56Speaker 1: show with it. You know, there are plenty of creatures
- 0:58Speaker 1: out there in the wild who are fashioning, wielding, and
- 1:02Speaker 1: even engineering their way through life. Here are just a
- 1:06Speaker 1: few examples of this. I think this is so fun
- 1:09Speaker 1: and so brilliant. Let's start with the world's tiniest little architects, termites,
- 1:14Speaker 1: termite mounds. They can rise more than twenty feet in
- 1:17Speaker 1: the air, which is crazy when you think about how
- 1:19Speaker 1: big termites themselves are. Twenty feet into the air with
- 1:22Speaker 1: walls that are eighteen inches thick, and they're not just
- 1:26Speaker 1: lumps of dirt, you know, they look like great, big,
- 1:28Speaker 1: huge mounds of dirt. They're way cooler than that. Inside
- 1:32Speaker 1: they're honeycombed with tunnels and chambers and air channels that
- 1:36Speaker 1: get this regulate temperature and humidity like a built in
- 1:40Speaker 1: HVAC system. Okay, that's cool, but it gets cooler because
- 1:43Speaker 1: the design is so brilliant, so smart, that architects have
- 1:47Speaker 1: copied it. The Eastgates Center in Zimbabwe, designed by Mike Pierce,
- 1:52Speaker 1: uses passive cooling modeled directly on termite mounds, and it
- 1:57Speaker 1: consumes about ninety percent less energy for ventilation than a
- 2:01Speaker 1: comparable conventional building. So termites absolutely brilliant in regards to
- 2:06Speaker 1: their building. Let's move on to sea otters. I like
- 2:10Speaker 1: this one a lot too. They use stones to crack
- 2:12Speaker 1: open clams, all right. They float on their backs, they
- 2:15Speaker 1: rest the stone on their little belly and then they
- 2:18Speaker 1: smash clams against it, and muscles and all kinds of
- 2:21Speaker 1: things like that. Some otters even have a favorite rock.
- 2:25Speaker 1: They probably put their name on it. They've got a
- 2:27Speaker 1: favorite rock, and they keep it tucked in a pouch
- 2:29Speaker 1: of loose skin under their arm so they can take
- 2:32Speaker 1: it with them wherever they go. You never know when
- 2:34Speaker 1: you're gonna need to smash something open. They want to
- 2:36Speaker 1: have that rock right there, so they keep it with them.
- 2:38Speaker 1: You know, they're using stones as tools, which is really interesting.
- 2:42Speaker 1: But when you think about it, they're also a hop
- 2:44Speaker 1: skipping to jump away from having tool belts. So that's
- 2:47Speaker 1: sea Otters love that. Chimpanzees we've probably, I'm betting you
- 2:53Speaker 1: know about this one. They fish for termites. You know,
- 2:56Speaker 1: they strip leaves off twigs and they dimp them into
- 2:58Speaker 1: termite mounds when they want a snack. And that's really interesting.
- 3:02Speaker 1: But it gets cooler than that, because different chimp communities
- 3:05Speaker 1: have entirely different tool cultures pass down like family recipes.
- 3:10Speaker 1: In one Tanzanian forest, for example, we've got two groups
- 3:13Speaker 1: of chimpanzees. They're living right next door to each other,
- 3:16Speaker 1: and they both do this fishing for termites thing with
- 3:18Speaker 1: sticks like I just talked about. But one group consistently
- 3:22Speaker 1: makes all of their tools wider and longer than the
- 3:25Speaker 1: other ones. So you got same forests, same termites, completely
- 3:29Speaker 1: different traditions, different ways to get the termites out, or
- 3:32Speaker 1: different tools that they're using, or different shaped tools whatever.
- 3:36Speaker 1: In Senegal, there's another community of chimps that's invented something.
- 3:40Speaker 1: No other chimps on Earth do. They make actual spears, right,
- 3:44Speaker 1: They get some wood or get you know, a branch
- 3:47Speaker 1: or something, they strip all the leaves off, they gnaw
- 3:49Speaker 1: the tip really sharp with their teeth, and then they
- 3:52Speaker 1: go hunting with it. You know, absolutely amazing New Caledonian crows.
- 3:56Speaker 1: They're the Einsteins of the bird world. In one phase
- 4:00Speaker 1: miss experiment at Oxford, a crow named Betty was given
- 4:03Speaker 1: two pieces of wire. All right, so picture this two
- 4:06Speaker 1: pieces of wire. One of them is bent into a hook,
- 4:09Speaker 1: the other one is straight, just a straight piece of wire.
- 4:12Speaker 1: Her cage mate steals the hook. Hey, he wants that hook.
- 4:15Speaker 1: He grabs it and takes off with it. Betty completely
- 4:18Speaker 1: on her own. Nobody shows her what to do. She
- 4:21Speaker 1: takes the straight piece of wire, jams it into a
- 4:25Speaker 1: crack in a rock somewhere, and bends it into a
- 4:28Speaker 1: hook all on her own, and then uses it to
- 4:30Speaker 1: fish meat out of a tube. And she did that
- 4:33Speaker 1: nine times out of ten when presented with that scenario.
- 4:36Speaker 1: Last one I got Asian elephants. They snap branches off
- 4:39Speaker 1: of trees, strip them down, and then shorten them to
- 4:42Speaker 1: just the right length for swatting flies. You know, they're
- 4:44Speaker 1: not just using whatever's lying around, They're modifying the tool
- 4:48Speaker 1: to fit the job. All right, So all of that
- 4:50Speaker 1: really fun. Here's the big takeaway. It's just kind of
- 4:54Speaker 1: a silly takeaway. But if termites with brains the size
- 4:57Speaker 1: of a grain of salt can build skyscrapers, crows can
- 5:00Speaker 1: engineer hooks, and otters, you know, carry around a favorite
- 5:03Speaker 1: rock and they kind of got a tool belt going on.
- 5:05Speaker 1: If they can figure that stuff out, then whatever you're
- 5:08Speaker 1: not good at, I don't know what your excuse is.
- 5:11Speaker 1: You know you can absolutely learn. I can learn. If
- 5:15Speaker 1: the animals can figure these things out, I think we
- 5:17Speaker 1: can do it right, because we're still better than them.
- 5:20Speaker 1: We can still beat them. We can whoop them in
- 5:22Speaker 1: chests and stuff like that. So don't tell yourself that
- 5:25Speaker 1: you can't learn certain things, that you're too old, or
- 5:27Speaker 1: whatever you're telling yourself. Whatever it is out there, if
- 5:30Speaker 1: it's something you want to learn, you can learn it,
- 5:33Speaker 1: all right. The animal kingdom is rooting for you, all right.
- 5:35Speaker 1: If you're settled into your forever home, the home you're
- 5:38Speaker 1: not leaving anytime soon. There are some projects that are
- 5:41Speaker 1: basically can't lose propositions. Let's dig into a few of
- 5:44Speaker 1: them right after. This Home in Progress is brought to
- 5:48Speaker 1: you by repcole Like Paints and Benjamin Moore. You know,
- 5:50Speaker 1: people often think of paint as just another line item
- 5:53Speaker 1: on the project's supply list. But here's the thing. Everything
- 5:56Speaker 1: you do, every hour of prep, every stroke of the brush,
- 5:59Speaker 1: all comes down to the quality of the paint. The
- 6:01Speaker 1: paint is the project. Make sure it's the best, and
- 6:05Speaker 1: we're back. This is Home in Progress by Repcolite Paint,
- 6:08Speaker 1: sponsored by Benjamin Moore. And all right, I want to
- 6:12Speaker 1: start with this. Here's a question for you, and just
- 6:14Speaker 1: sit with it for a second or two. Just think
- 6:17Speaker 1: about it. If you knew, you really knew, you know, without,
- 6:21Speaker 1: without a doubt, be on a shadow of a doubt,
- 6:23Speaker 1: you knew that you were never going to move from
- 6:25Speaker 1: the house that you're in now. If that was the case,
- 6:27Speaker 1: what would you change about the house first? All right?
- 6:31Speaker 1: I'm not asking what would you fix before you sell
- 6:34Speaker 1: the house? Not asking what will some future buyer want
- 6:38Speaker 1: when you do sell the house. I'm asking basically, what
- 6:41Speaker 1: would you want? You know, what's the thing that bugs
- 6:43Speaker 1: you every single day, or the space that you've always
- 6:46Speaker 1: wished you had, or the project that you've been putting
- 6:49Speaker 1: off because you know you might be moving in a
- 6:51Speaker 1: few years anyway. So I'm not going to tackle that.
- 6:54Speaker 1: You know, what would you change in your home first
- 6:56Speaker 1: if you knew, absolutely knew that you were staying now?
- 6:59Speaker 1: That question is changing the way a lot of people
- 7:01Speaker 1: think about their homes right now. And the numbers are
- 7:04Speaker 1: kind of crazy on this. I ran across an article,
- 7:06Speaker 1: a number of articles that we're talking about this. Homeowners
- 7:10Speaker 1: spending on home improvements is projected to hit five hundred
- 7:13Speaker 1: and eighteen billion dollars this year twenty twenty six, five
- 7:17Speaker 1: hundred and eighteen billion dollars. And that's taking into account,
- 7:20Speaker 1: you know, market deceleration, you know, people slowing things down
- 7:23Speaker 1: a little bit because they're not sure where things are going.
- 7:26Speaker 1: Five hundred and eighteen billion dollars homeowners will spend on
- 7:29Speaker 1: home improvements. And before you think it's all you know,
- 7:32Speaker 1: just rich, fancy people, you know, building big, expensive stuff,
- 7:36Speaker 1: it's actually not being driven by the luxury market. It's
- 7:39Speaker 1: not being driven by house flippers. It's not being driven
- 7:43Speaker 1: by people who are getting ready to sell their homes
- 7:46Speaker 1: and move on to other things. It's being driven by regular,
- 7:49Speaker 1: you know, ordinary everyday homeowners who've decided that they're staying
- 7:52Speaker 1: in their homes. You know, they're not moving. According to
- 7:56Speaker 1: the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies and a twenty
- 7:58Speaker 1: twenty six survey from Great Day Improvements, nearly two thirds
- 8:02Speaker 1: of homeowners expect to be in their current home for
- 8:06Speaker 1: eleven years or more. Two thirds of homeowners expect to
- 8:09Speaker 1: stay in their current home for at least eleven more years,
- 8:13Speaker 1: and forty four percent of homeowners now describe that where
- 8:16Speaker 1: they live right now is their forever home. It's not
- 8:19Speaker 1: a stepping stone, it's not a starter home. It's home,
- 8:22Speaker 1: you know, home home, their final resting place right well,
- 8:27Speaker 1: not exactly that, you know, not exactly, not necessarily exactly that,
- 8:32Speaker 1: but you get what I'm saying. A huge percentage of
- 8:34Speaker 1: people are staying in their homes. And if you bought
- 8:38Speaker 1: or refinanced during what was it, twenty twenty one, twenty twenty,
- 8:43Speaker 1: if you did all of that when the rates were
- 8:44Speaker 1: like with three percent or lower, you know why nobody's moving,
- 8:49Speaker 1: or at least a lot of people aren't. You know,
- 8:51Speaker 1: if that's you, you're not going anywhere. I'm not going anywhere,
- 8:55Speaker 1: not with a seven percent mortgage waiting for me on
- 8:57Speaker 1: the other side of a sale. You know. Also a
- 9:00Speaker 1: lot of people are in that boat, and they're staying
- 9:02Speaker 1: where they're at, or they're happy with their home, or
- 9:04Speaker 1: they don't want to move for other reasons, you know, whatever.
- 9:07Speaker 1: It is a lot of people, a large percentage, are
- 9:10Speaker 1: staying in their homes for a lengthy period of time
- 9:13Speaker 1: looking forward, and because of that, they're tackling projects, you know,
- 9:18Speaker 1: not so much with concerns about resale value. They're actually
- 9:21Speaker 1: tackling projects, you know, looking at things and asking what
- 9:23Speaker 1: do we really need here? You know, what do we want? Well,
- 9:26Speaker 1: my family love this, Will this make our lives better?
- 9:29Speaker 1: For the next decade, and that mind shift changes everything
- 9:33Speaker 1: about how you spend renovation dollars. So that's what I
- 9:36Speaker 1: want to talk about in the next you know, the
- 9:39Speaker 1: rest of this segment and the next one, I want
- 9:41Speaker 1: to talk about a number of can't lose projects. You know,
- 9:45Speaker 1: if you're staying in in your home, the home that
- 9:47Speaker 1: you're in right now, staying there for the next ten
- 9:49Speaker 1: years or more, these are can't lose projects. You know,
- 9:53Speaker 1: it's not about getting resale value back, it's about improving
- 9:56Speaker 1: how you feel about the home that you're in, all right.
- 9:59Speaker 1: First can't lose project is to step up your outdoor
- 10:02Speaker 1: living space. You know, in West Michigan, we have a
- 10:06Speaker 1: lot of fun I get it griping about winter weather,
- 10:10Speaker 1: right if you're in Michigan, you know, we always make
- 10:13Speaker 1: fun of the winter weather. But our springs in summers
- 10:15Speaker 1: and falls, they're really, really nice. So if you're staying
- 10:20Speaker 1: in the home that you're in right now, it really
- 10:22Speaker 1: does pay to look for ways to enhance that outdoor
- 10:25Speaker 1: experience and really get the most out of the weather
- 10:28Speaker 1: that we get and your property. You know, and I'm
- 10:31Speaker 1: not just talking about cleaning up your deck and getting
- 10:33Speaker 1: some chairs out there. I mean, that's not a bad
- 10:35Speaker 1: way to go if you don't have those things already there,
- 10:37Speaker 1: But this could be way bigger, you know, and more
- 10:40Speaker 1: lofty than that. The outdoor living space is one of
- 10:43Speaker 1: the key places that people are investing in, you know,
- 10:46Speaker 1: when they intend to stay in their home. They're building
- 10:49Speaker 1: you know, covered structures, pergolas, outdoor kitchens, hot tub areas
- 10:53Speaker 1: with outdoor safe TVs and music systems. Basically, they're making
- 10:57Speaker 1: spaces that function as actual rooms. These projects, I get it,
- 11:01Speaker 1: they don't they don't come cheap, But if you're staying
- 11:04Speaker 1: in the home, you don't think about it this way.
- 11:06Speaker 1: What will this outdoor space do for you and the
- 11:09Speaker 1: time that you can spend with your family? You know,
- 11:11Speaker 1: what's it going to do in that scope of things?
- 11:14Speaker 1: You know, from that perspective, are you going to find
- 11:16Speaker 1: yourself spending more time outside you know, hanging with the family, talking, relaxing, reading,
- 11:23Speaker 1: you know, doing things that you might not have done otherwise. Well,
- 11:26Speaker 1: or think about it this way, just a slight twist
- 11:28Speaker 1: on that. How many summer evenings do you have left
- 11:31Speaker 1: at the house that you're in, you know, how many
- 11:34Speaker 1: is that going to be and how do you want
- 11:36Speaker 1: to spend them, you know, versus how you're spending them now. Now,
- 11:39Speaker 1: for me, when I look at it that way, that's
- 11:41Speaker 1: really really effective. You know, I love the house that
- 11:44Speaker 1: I'm in, and as we work through this segment, You're
- 11:48Speaker 1: going to wonder why, because I'm going to be very
- 11:50Speaker 1: honest about the space that I'm at at the place
- 11:52Speaker 1: that I live. But I love the house and I
- 11:55Speaker 1: love the peacefulness of our yard, but I do not
- 11:58Speaker 1: have a good outdoor living space. I have an absolutely
- 12:02Speaker 1: terrible one. You know. Our deck is devoid of chairs
- 12:05Speaker 1: and seating, and as such, it never ever gets used.
- 12:08Speaker 1: We walk across it to get, you know, from the
- 12:11Speaker 1: back door onto the yard. That is all the use
- 12:14Speaker 1: that deck gets. You know. We've got four standalone chairs
- 12:17Speaker 1: that kind of sit off by the side of the
- 12:19Speaker 1: house and we drag them around from time to time
- 12:22Speaker 1: and place them on the yard or whatever. But it's
- 12:25Speaker 1: not a nice sitting area. We've got shade only from
- 12:28Speaker 1: the trees in the yard, not from a dedicated structure
- 12:31Speaker 1: or awning or anything like that, and so we end
- 12:34Speaker 1: up spending you know, time playing on the yard. For sure.
- 12:38Speaker 1: We do a phaero amount of that, but we don't
- 12:39Speaker 1: spend much time just relaxing outdoors, and I know that
- 12:43Speaker 1: we're wasting that area. We're wasting so many evenings. So
- 12:47Speaker 1: what's your situation look like. Is that a project for you?
- 12:51Speaker 1: And if your budget is too tight, you know, for
- 12:53Speaker 1: the fancy stuff that we talked about, because I don't
- 12:55Speaker 1: think my budget can handle some of that stuff. But
- 12:57Speaker 1: don't write this off yet. You know, get your deck
- 13:00Speaker 1: looking good with a good cleaning and some new deck stain.
- 13:02Speaker 1: Get some dedicated seating for that space. Create an area
- 13:06Speaker 1: for hanging out, you know, buy chairs and a table
- 13:09Speaker 1: if you need them. If you've got wood or metal
- 13:11Speaker 1: chairs already but they're not in the best shape, we
- 13:13Speaker 1: can usually help you get them cleaned up and looking
- 13:15Speaker 1: great again. So do what you can and make the
- 13:18Speaker 1: most of that outdoor space. That's the first project. The
- 13:21Speaker 1: second can't lose project if you're staying in your home
- 13:24Speaker 1: is a kitchen refresh. And I'm not necessarily talking about
- 13:28Speaker 1: a full renovation here, you know, I'm really thinking mostly
- 13:31Speaker 1: of a focused, you know, smart kitchen update. You know,
- 13:34Speaker 1: things like painting or refacing your cabinets, installing new countertops,
- 13:39Speaker 1: updated hardware, maybe a sink, you know, new sink and
- 13:43Speaker 1: a new faucet. It could mean new appliances, a new floor,
- 13:46Speaker 1: maybe new light fixtures. Now in some cases it may
- 13:49Speaker 1: mean bigger things and adjusted layout, additional cabinets and so on.
- 13:53Speaker 1: But again, even though some of those things that I
- 13:56Speaker 1: mentioned don't come cheap, a lot of them don't come cheap.
- 13:58Speaker 1: You know what comes cheap anymore? I don't know that
- 14:01Speaker 1: there's anything that comes cheap. Even the cheap stuff is expensive.
- 14:05Speaker 1: Even though these things don't come cheap, making these changes
- 14:08Speaker 1: can significantly impact your experience in a space in your
- 14:12Speaker 1: home where you spend a boat load of time. Right
- 14:15Speaker 1: the kitchen, we spend a boatload of time in there,
- 14:18Speaker 1: and the time that we spend in there is usually
- 14:20Speaker 1: tied up in work, right doing dishes, making dinners, things
- 14:24Speaker 1: like that, you know, cleaning, or it's spent in entertaining.
- 14:29Speaker 1: You know, it's a high pressure time. Whatever you're doing.
- 14:31Speaker 1: You know, it's high pressure whatever you're doing in that kitchen.
- 14:34Speaker 1: It's family time, it's time with guests, cooking and cleaning
- 14:37Speaker 1: stuff like that. A kitchen that looks good and that
- 14:40Speaker 1: functions well makes your life easier, you know, adequate storage
- 14:45Speaker 1: is something that you're going to enjoy for years. You're
- 14:47Speaker 1: never going to be sad that you've spent some money
- 14:50Speaker 1: to get adequate storage for all your tupperware containers. You're
- 14:53Speaker 1: go to be happy that every time you open that
- 14:55Speaker 1: little cupboard up twelve things don't fall out. You know,
- 14:58Speaker 1: a stove or a refrigerator or a dishwasher that's more
- 15:01Speaker 1: suited to your family's needs is going to pay for
- 15:03Speaker 1: itself in convenience over the years. And as I mentioned
- 15:07Speaker 1: with outdoor spaces, even if your budget doesn't allow some
- 15:10Speaker 1: of the bigger changes in your kitchen, don't overlook the
- 15:12Speaker 1: value of the small scale stuff. You know, new counters
- 15:15Speaker 1: and updated colors on the cabinets is going to lift
- 15:18Speaker 1: your mood dramatically. Better or updated lighting can just completely
- 15:23Speaker 1: change the entire mood of the space. You know, a
- 15:26Speaker 1: kitchen that feels dated, feels old, drags you down. It's
- 15:31Speaker 1: a bummer to be in a place like that. You know,
- 15:33Speaker 1: I've got exactly that right now. I told you earlier.
- 15:35Speaker 1: It's going to tell you about my house, and I'm
- 15:37Speaker 1: going to dish the dirt. You're going to wonder why
- 15:39Speaker 1: I'm staying there, but my kitchen drags me down. I've
- 15:42Speaker 1: got cabinets that are the eighties oak, and I know.
- 15:45Speaker 1: I joke that it's coming back. It's coming back, you know,
- 15:48Speaker 1: and it kind of is. But in all seriousness, I
- 15:51Speaker 1: don't like it, not even a little bit. I hate it.
- 15:55Speaker 1: They feel really old and they feel really dated, and
- 15:58Speaker 1: I don't like them at all. The hardware is dated.
- 16:01Speaker 1: The light fixture that I've gotten there, my goodness. The
- 16:05Speaker 1: light fixture. Let me tell you about the light fixture
- 16:08Speaker 1: for just a second. It's a track light. It's a
- 16:11Speaker 1: direct import from the eighties. It has shiny brass everything.
- 16:15Speaker 1: It's got two to three lights that actually work in it.
- 16:18Speaker 1: It's hideous, you know. That's the track light. I gotta
- 16:21Speaker 1: get that fixed. My counters they're old school for mica
- 16:25Speaker 1: that's almost lost its original color in many places. The
- 16:28Speaker 1: sink's old, the faucet's old. Everything in that space feels
- 16:32Speaker 1: dated and sad and old. And when I'm in there,
- 16:35Speaker 1: oh man, everything is dated and sad and old, me included,
- 16:40Speaker 1: and it impacts me. You know. The kitchen's clean, so
- 16:44Speaker 1: you know, don't think it's at least it's at least
- 16:46Speaker 1: not that it's not a filthy pig stick. It's clean.
- 16:48Speaker 1: You could eat off the floor, you could fish around
- 16:51Speaker 1: in the corners, you know, if you drop a gumball
- 16:53Speaker 1: or something and pull it out, and it's not going
- 16:55Speaker 1: to have too many hairs on it. It's mostly clean.
- 16:59Speaker 1: But I'm not proud of the kitchen. I don't feel
- 17:01Speaker 1: good being in that space. And if I'm going to
- 17:04Speaker 1: stay in this house and I am, and if I'm
- 17:06Speaker 1: going to be spending on average, about an hour and
- 17:08Speaker 1: a half every day in that space, I think it
- 17:12Speaker 1: would pay for me to make some updates so I
- 17:14Speaker 1: feel better about it. And you know, I got to wonder.
- 17:17Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sure people out there are asking. After
- 17:20Speaker 1: you heard me tell all of that, you've got to
- 17:23Speaker 1: be wondering, why haven't I made any changes? You know,
- 17:27Speaker 1: I can get employee discount pricing on all of my paint.
- 17:32Speaker 1: Why haven't I done it? And I haven't done it
- 17:35Speaker 1: because it's it's a lot of work. I get it's
- 17:38Speaker 1: a lot of work, and I've got so many other things.
- 17:40Speaker 1: You know, there's so many excuses that I tell myself
- 17:42Speaker 1: I've got so and they're you know, their excuses make
- 17:46Speaker 1: it sound like they're fake, you know, and that I'm
- 17:48Speaker 1: setting up false things, false obstacles. I don't mean that
- 17:53Speaker 1: they're good excuses, they're legit. I've got a lot going on,
- 17:56Speaker 1: you know, the big yard to take care of. There's
- 17:58Speaker 1: always something going at my house. We got five kids,
- 18:02Speaker 1: four or three of them are home. See, I don't
- 18:04Speaker 1: even remember how many are home. That's how much is
- 18:06Speaker 1: going on. You know. It takes a lot to keep
- 18:10Speaker 1: the house functioning and moving forward. But what I need
- 18:13Speaker 1: to remember is what I'm losing, you know, what I'm
- 18:16Speaker 1: losing by not tackling this project. Tackle the project, Dan.
- 18:21Speaker 1: It's going to take you a couple of weeks, probably max,
- 18:24Speaker 1: to get through all of that, get everything cleaned up, prepped, painted,
- 18:27Speaker 1: and looking good, you know, a couple of weeks of work,
- 18:30Speaker 1: and then from that point on, I can at least
- 18:33Speaker 1: feel good about parts of the kitchen, and then as
- 18:36Speaker 1: I get the other parts caught up, I'm going to
- 18:38Speaker 1: start feeling way better about that space. So I gotta
- 18:43Speaker 1: kind of move past the excuses and start getting things done.
- 18:46Speaker 1: I get that, But what about you? What's your kitchen
- 18:48Speaker 1: look like? You know, if you're gonna be cooking in
- 18:51Speaker 1: that kitchen for fifteen years or more, you know, making
- 18:54Speaker 1: three hundred dinners a year or so, give or take.
- 18:58Speaker 1: If you're going to be doing that, make sure it's
- 19:00Speaker 1: a place that you actually enjoy being in. All right,
- 19:02Speaker 1: I've got three other can't lose projects that I want
- 19:05Speaker 1: to hit and we're going to get to them right after.
- 19:07Speaker 1: This Home in Progress is brought to you by Repcolite
- 19:10Speaker 1: Paints and Benjamin Moore. Think about it. You spend hours prepping, sanding, taping,
- 19:15Speaker 1: and then finally painting. Don't throw all that work away
- 19:17Speaker 1: with an inferior product. The paint isn't just another supply.
- 19:21Speaker 1: The paint is the project. Make sure it's the best.
- 19:24Speaker 1: And we're back. You're listening to Home in Progress by
- 19:26Speaker 1: Repcolite Paints, sponsored by Benjamin Moore, and we're working our
- 19:30Speaker 1: way through some can't lose projects to tackle around your home.
- 19:34Speaker 1: When and if you decide that you're staying there, you're
- 19:37Speaker 1: staying put. You know, more and more homeowners are making
- 19:40Speaker 1: that choice to remain in their current home for at
- 19:44Speaker 1: least the next decade or more. That's what the statistics
- 19:48Speaker 1: are telling us. And if that's you, then your idea
- 19:51Speaker 1: of what to update and what the change is less
- 19:54Speaker 1: about what's good you know what that change is going
- 19:56Speaker 1: to do for resale, and it becomes more about what
- 19:59Speaker 1: will these updates or these changes or whatever, what will
- 20:02Speaker 1: they do to improve the time that me and my
- 20:05Speaker 1: family are spending there. We've already talked about a couple
- 20:09Speaker 1: of different can't lose projects, you know, improving the outdoor
- 20:12Speaker 1: space around your home and updating your kitchen. You know,
- 20:15Speaker 1: you can't lose with those. The next can't lose project
- 20:19Speaker 1: is taking a good long look at your current windows. Well,
- 20:22Speaker 1: and I guess it's beyond just taking the good long look.
- 20:25Speaker 1: You've got to do something about it. But you've got
- 20:28Speaker 1: to start by taking that good long look at your
- 20:30Speaker 1: current windows. You know, older homes lose an enormous amount
- 20:34Speaker 1: of heat through old inefficient windows and through attics and
- 20:38Speaker 1: rim joice and basement walls as well. Because it's not
- 20:41Speaker 1: just about windows. This is a bigger, you know, can't
- 20:44Speaker 1: lose project. But you know, take a look at those
- 20:47Speaker 1: spaces everybody's losing. You know, if you've got an older home,
- 20:49Speaker 1: you're losing a lot of heat through those spaces. Inefficient windows, addicts,
- 20:54Speaker 1: rim choice and basement walls, and every single year that
- 20:57Speaker 1: you stay in that house, you're pain for that inefficiency.
- 21:01Speaker 1: He's just leaving. The cool is just eching out, you know,
- 21:04Speaker 1: depending on the time of year, and you're writing a
- 21:06Speaker 1: check to cover it every month. So replacing old single
- 21:09Speaker 1: pain or outdated double pain windows with modern low e
- 21:13Speaker 1: glass triple pain units, combined with serious air ceiling and
- 21:18Speaker 1: insulation upgrades in your attic. Doing all of that is
- 21:22Speaker 1: one of those projects that's going to pay you back
- 21:24Speaker 1: every single month from the day it's done. And it
- 21:27Speaker 1: pays you back in a measurable reduction in your heating bills,
- 21:30Speaker 1: but also in sheer comfort, right because I know, initially
- 21:34Speaker 1: you may think insulation in the attic, you know, air
- 21:38Speaker 1: ceiling and new windows and all of that, it doesn't
- 21:42Speaker 1: feel as fancy or as fun as updating an outdoor
- 21:46Speaker 1: space or you know, updating your kitchen and all of that.
- 21:49Speaker 1: And I get that, you know, there's not this initial
- 21:52Speaker 1: sense of fun from that. But think about it this way.
- 21:56Speaker 1: It's not just the money saving. You know, the money
- 21:58Speaker 1: saving is real and you'll experience that, but it's also
- 22:02Speaker 1: an incredible increase in the comfort that you feel in
- 22:06Speaker 1: the home. You're going to eliminate drafts. You're going to
- 22:08Speaker 1: keep your warm spaces warmer and the cool space is cooler,
- 22:11Speaker 1: so you're going to enjoy the time that you're in
- 22:13Speaker 1: your home more. Now, windows they don't always pay for
- 22:17Speaker 1: themselves quickly in energy savings alone, right, I don't want
- 22:21Speaker 1: to convey that idea. You read that, You hear that
- 22:23Speaker 1: a lot that everybody's going to, you know, notice all
- 22:27Speaker 1: kinds of huge changes. I even set it. You'll you'll
- 22:29Speaker 1: have measurable changes. Measurable means you'll be able to measure them.
- 22:34Speaker 1: That doesn't mean it's going to just be you know,
- 22:36Speaker 1: piles of coins falling on you, you know, or or dollar
- 22:41Speaker 1: bills or one hundred dollar bills just you know, wafting
- 22:45Speaker 1: into the room. It's not measurable in that regard. It's
- 22:48Speaker 1: measurable in that Oh look there's a little bit of
- 22:51Speaker 1: savings here. You'll probably notice it in that regard. You know,
- 22:54Speaker 1: installation and air ceiling. You know, if you'd bring that
- 22:57Speaker 1: into the picture, that's usually going to give you, you know,
- 23:00Speaker 1: better bang for your buck. But you know, the bigger picture,
- 23:03Speaker 1: if you're in your forever home, you know, all of
- 23:05Speaker 1: that calculation stuff changes you could, because you're not just
- 23:09Speaker 1: asking am I going to get this money back? You
- 23:12Speaker 1: know when I sell, because you're staying there. You know,
- 23:14Speaker 1: you're not selling it, you know, at least not in
- 23:16Speaker 1: the near future. So it's not about getting the money
- 23:18Speaker 1: back when you sell. It's not even necessarily about getting
- 23:22Speaker 1: the money back on your energy bills. It's more about
- 23:24Speaker 1: making the house more comfortable every single day that you
- 23:27Speaker 1: live there. And by doing that, changing out the windows,
- 23:30Speaker 1: upgrading the insulation, air sealing the home, all of that
- 23:33Speaker 1: is going to make the home feel better. And on
- 23:35Speaker 1: top of that, just like the kitchen project, new windows
- 23:38Speaker 1: really do provide an emotional lift. You know, you just
- 23:40Speaker 1: feel better about your home when you've got new windows
- 23:43Speaker 1: in place, So they do provide that emotional lift, just
- 23:46Speaker 1: maybe not in the same proportions as a kitchen project will.
- 23:49Speaker 1: And again, like all the other projects that I talked about,
- 23:52Speaker 1: if your budget, you know, even if this is the
- 23:54Speaker 1: home you're staying in, if your budget doesn't allow you
- 23:57Speaker 1: to jump into a full window replacement and all of that,
- 24:00Speaker 1: don't overlook what a little paint and cleanup can do.
- 24:03Speaker 1: You know, you can't make your older windows more efficient
- 24:05Speaker 1: by painting them, but you can definitely improve the look
- 24:08Speaker 1: and the feel of them. You know, if you've got
- 24:10Speaker 1: windows that are painted shut and they bend that way
- 24:12Speaker 1: for years and years, you can get them functioning again
- 24:15Speaker 1: with just a little bit of work, you know, and
- 24:17Speaker 1: a little bit of know how. And if you're interested
- 24:20Speaker 1: in that, if you're dealing with that, I've got a
- 24:21Speaker 1: segment that I did on the show back in twenty
- 24:24Speaker 1: twenty four on opening painted shut windows, and it's got
- 24:28Speaker 1: all the info that you need and some really good
- 24:30Speaker 1: links if you want to check that out, and I'll
- 24:32Speaker 1: put it in the show notes so it's easy to find.
- 24:34Speaker 1: So that's project number three. Project number four, the can't
- 24:38Speaker 1: Lose project. The fourth one that I want to talk
- 24:40Speaker 1: about is a basement upgrade. You know, West Michigan homes,
- 24:44Speaker 1: they're almost universally going to have basements, and a shocking
- 24:47Speaker 1: percentage of them are being used for storage. You know,
- 24:51Speaker 1: basically that's it a water heater, you know, furnace and
- 24:54Speaker 1: all of those things. Maybe a treadmill hasn't moved since
- 24:57Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, you know, that's what's in a lot of basements.
- 25:00Speaker 1: It's that in a boatload of spiders, and who knows
- 25:03Speaker 1: what else. A finished basement, if you can get to
- 25:06Speaker 1: that level of achievement, a finished basement is going to
- 25:09Speaker 1: add livable square footage without adding to the footprint of
- 25:13Speaker 1: the home. You know, a home office, guest room, family room,
- 25:16Speaker 1: kids playroom that eventually becomes a teenager hangout space when
- 25:20Speaker 1: when they get older, and then you know, a home
- 25:22Speaker 1: gym when the teenagers leave. You know, a finished basement
- 25:25Speaker 1: is going to grow with you and with your family.
- 25:28Speaker 1: It's exactly the kind of project that really makes a
- 25:31Speaker 1: lot of sense. When you're staying in the home for
- 25:34Speaker 1: eleven years or more. You know, you and your family
- 25:36Speaker 1: are going to find so many different ways to use
- 25:38Speaker 1: that space. You'll never be bummed that you've made that upgrade.
- 25:42Speaker 1: You know, our lower level at the home that I'm
- 25:44Speaker 1: in right now is Walda wall paneling. Again, we're back to,
- 25:49Speaker 1: you know, the dump that Dan lives in. I love
- 25:52Speaker 1: my home, but I'm just being honest here. You know,
- 25:54Speaker 1: I'm looking at it with honest eyes. Our lower level
- 25:58Speaker 1: is Wallda wall paneling, ceiling tiles, you know, and like
- 26:02Speaker 1: everything else in the home, it feels dated, feels old,
- 26:05Speaker 1: feels like it's directly from the eighties. And yet well,
- 26:08Speaker 1: all that said, it's clean, it's carpeted, and it's been
- 26:11Speaker 1: an incredible space for people just needing every now and
- 26:15Speaker 1: then to spread out and get away from the other
- 26:18Speaker 1: people in the home. You know, it's been really great
- 26:20Speaker 1: as the kids moved through their teenage years. So give
- 26:23Speaker 1: some thought to that, and if that whole upgrade again,
- 26:26Speaker 1: if the whole upgrade isn't in your budget, cleaning up
- 26:29Speaker 1: sment floors and painting them and then getting the block
- 26:32Speaker 1: walls painted and the open ceilings painted, those things, you know,
- 26:36Speaker 1: they take work, and they take some expense, but it's
- 26:39Speaker 1: a fraction of the expense of a complete upgrade in
- 26:42Speaker 1: the basement, and they're still going to incredibly change the
- 26:45Speaker 1: look and feel of that space. You know, we had
- 26:47Speaker 1: an old Michigan basement in our first house, and I've
- 26:50Speaker 1: talked about it over and over and over in the past.
- 26:52Speaker 1: It was dark, it was dingy, it was gross. The
- 26:55Speaker 1: laundry was there. We had a tool room at one end,
- 26:59Speaker 1: and that was about it, you know about it. For
- 27:01Speaker 1: the used space. We hated being in that space. It
- 27:05Speaker 1: was creepy. You were waiting for We didn't know what
- 27:09Speaker 1: was lurking there, but it felt like something was lurking there.
- 27:12Speaker 1: So we didn't spend a lot of time there. But
- 27:14Speaker 1: about a year in to owning the home, year or
- 27:17Speaker 1: two in, I cleaned all of that up and then
- 27:19Speaker 1: I painted everything. I painted the block walls with just
- 27:23Speaker 1: a regular latex paint. You don't need anything fancy for that.
- 27:26Speaker 1: Cleaned them up, painted them. I used Repchollites care free
- 27:29Speaker 1: in a satinchine because it's economical and that satin sheine
- 27:33Speaker 1: was really going to hold up, so I did that.
- 27:35Speaker 1: I painted the floors, brought in some rugs, some improved lighting.
- 27:39Speaker 1: We even had the old windows replaced with new ones
- 27:42Speaker 1: that could open a little bit. The whole project was
- 27:45Speaker 1: really really inexpensive in the grand scheme of things, but
- 27:48Speaker 1: we went from having a space that absolutely nobody wanted
- 27:51Speaker 1: to be in to a space that became the kid's playroom.
- 27:55Speaker 1: You know. In fact, my daughter Tessa, I remember one
- 27:58Speaker 1: night I wait up to hear it's three in the morning,
- 28:01Speaker 1: and I hear noise coming from the basement, and I
- 28:06Speaker 1: absolutely convinced it's an intruder. I've told this story on
- 28:09Speaker 1: the show before. I apologize if you've heard it before.
- 28:12Speaker 1: I've got just so many stories and I have to
- 28:14Speaker 1: just rehash them from time to time. Anyway, I heard
- 28:17Speaker 1: somebody fiddling around in the basement, and you know, panic
- 28:21Speaker 1: sets in. I get out of bed. I gonna have
- 28:23Speaker 1: to confront a burglar. I know it. So I put
- 28:26Speaker 1: on my jeans. It's another part of the story is
- 28:29Speaker 1: I didn't want to confront somebody in my underpants. It
- 28:32Speaker 1: felt like that would leave me at a disadvantage, and
- 28:35Speaker 1: so I put my genes on, and a serious, serious
- 28:39Speaker 1: as a heart attack here, I put the genes on
- 28:42Speaker 1: that weren't my action genes. I have a pair of
- 28:44Speaker 1: jeens that are more for working around the house, and
- 28:47Speaker 1: I've got more movement to them, and I grabbed, you know,
- 28:50Speaker 1: more of a dress pair, and I actually tried them
- 28:52Speaker 1: out a minute and put them back and got my
- 28:55Speaker 1: action jeens out just in case. You know, I didn't
- 28:58Speaker 1: know what I was gonna have to do if I
- 28:59Speaker 1: had the yaki chan somebody down there. Anyway, I got
- 29:02Speaker 1: my jeans on, headed downstairs, and I'm kind of creeping
- 29:05Speaker 1: around the corners, you know, peeking around like the like
- 29:08Speaker 1: the police do when the police shows and stuff. And
- 29:11Speaker 1: I look and I see a flashlight playing across the room,
- 29:14Speaker 1: and oh my goodness, my heart's just pounding because now,
- 29:18Speaker 1: of course it's a burglars. Three in the morning, somebody's
- 29:21Speaker 1: in my basement with a flashlight. And I don't know
- 29:25Speaker 1: how I did it, but I drummed up all of
- 29:28Speaker 1: my courage and I leaped around the corner and there's Tessa.
- 29:32Speaker 1: She's like three years old, sitting in the dark. She
- 29:36Speaker 1: was too little to reach the light switches and turn
- 29:39Speaker 1: the lights on. She's in her playroom, just playing away
- 29:43Speaker 1: at three in the morning. And I attribute all of
- 29:46Speaker 1: that to Tessa's complete lack of fear for pretty much anything,
- 29:50Speaker 1: but also to the fact that we made that space
- 29:53Speaker 1: pretty nice. She didn't mind going down there at three
- 29:56Speaker 1: in the morning to play just a flashlight. And I
- 30:00Speaker 1: attribute all of that, most of that to the paint job.
- 30:03Speaker 1: So think about that. The paint job. It can do
- 30:06Speaker 1: a lot. You know, if you're staying in the house
- 30:09Speaker 1: for a lengthy period of time, might be good. Even
- 30:12Speaker 1: if you can't spring for the full basement upgrade. You know,
- 30:16Speaker 1: just get get the walls painted, get get the floors painted,
- 30:19Speaker 1: and it can be a big win. You know, for us,
- 30:22Speaker 1: it was a huge win. That basement room that fixed
- 30:24Speaker 1: up just gave us the extra space we needed, you know,
- 30:27Speaker 1: in a tiny little house. That gave us all kinds
- 30:29Speaker 1: of extra space. The place for the kids to have
- 30:32Speaker 1: a playroom, and the fact that we could have a
- 30:34Speaker 1: playroom there and not a perpetual playroom in the living
- 30:37Speaker 1: room was a huge win. So think about your basement.
- 30:40Speaker 1: Think about what a big update you know might do
- 30:43Speaker 1: for it, you know, if you can spring for that,
- 30:45Speaker 1: or even what a smaller paint only upgrade could do.
- 30:48Speaker 1: Keep that in mind. Can't lose with that one, all right,
- 30:51Speaker 1: last can't lose project is to update the primary bathroom.
- 30:55Speaker 1: You know, this is the spot most of us start
- 30:57Speaker 1: and end every single day, and in a lit lot
- 31:00Speaker 1: of homes, it's the room that gets the least attention
- 31:02Speaker 1: because it functions fine. You know, it's fine. I don't
- 31:06Speaker 1: really need to do a lot. It's fine. That's what
- 31:08Speaker 1: my bathroom is. It's fine, but fine is a really
- 31:12Speaker 1: low bar for a room that you use twice a
- 31:14Speaker 1: day for the rest of your life. Right, A renovated
- 31:18Speaker 1: primary bath is a quality of life upgrade that's really
- 31:22Speaker 1: hard to overstate. You know, like all of these projects
- 31:24Speaker 1: that we talked about, think about it from the point
- 31:27Speaker 1: of view that you know you're going to be here
- 31:29Speaker 1: for eleven years, maybe fifteen more years. Think about the
- 31:33Speaker 1: fact that if you're going to stay that long, think
- 31:35Speaker 1: about how much time you're going to spend in this
- 31:37Speaker 1: bathroom every day, and then multiply that by fifteen years.
- 31:41Speaker 1: Eleven years. If that's the case, if you've got all
- 31:44Speaker 1: that time that you're going to be spending in this little,
- 31:47Speaker 1: tiny space, isn't it worth spending some time to make
- 31:49Speaker 1: it work better for you, better for your family. You know,
- 31:52Speaker 1: updated tile, a new shower or a tub enclosure, a
- 31:56Speaker 1: double vanity, you know, if the space allows, if that's
- 31:58Speaker 1: your thing, good lighting, painted cabinets, new cabinets, you know, whatever,
- 32:03Speaker 1: a new bathroom fan, better counters, better sinks, better faucets.
- 32:07Speaker 1: All of those improvements pay off by making the space,
- 32:10Speaker 1: you know, just a better place to be, and that's
- 32:13Speaker 1: incredibly worth it when you're staying in the home forever.
- 32:16Speaker 1: All right, five hundred and eighteen billion dollars we started
- 32:19Speaker 1: talking about that. That's what homeowners are estimated to spend
- 32:22Speaker 1: this year on renovations. In their home. Two thirds of
- 32:25Speaker 1: homeowners are planning to stay more than a decade. Nearly
- 32:28Speaker 1: half of them are calling their current home their forever home.
- 32:32Speaker 1: We're in the middle of a genuine shift and how
- 32:34Speaker 1: people think about the places that they live. And I
- 32:36Speaker 1: think that shift is a really good thing, because homes
- 32:39Speaker 1: aren't financial instruments. They're where you live your life. And
- 32:43Speaker 1: I love the fact that things are shifting a little bit.
- 32:45Speaker 1: And maybe we're spending less time, a little less time,
- 32:49Speaker 1: a little less money fixing the house up for what
- 32:52Speaker 1: somebody else might want, you know, for resale value, and
- 32:55Speaker 1: really pouring the time and the dollars and you know,
- 32:58Speaker 1: the effort into making the home exactly what we want
- 33:02Speaker 1: for our families. So back to the question I asked
- 33:04Speaker 1: at the beginning, if you knew you were never moving,
- 33:07Speaker 1: what would you change first? Maybe this weekend is a
- 33:10Speaker 1: really good time to figure that out. And to help
- 33:12Speaker 1: you do that, I've got some questions that are going
- 33:14Speaker 1: to make it easier to identify the pressure points in
- 33:17Speaker 1: your home and where it's best to invest your money
- 33:19Speaker 1: in your time. We'll get to all of that right
- 33:21Speaker 1: after this. You're listening to home in Progress, where the
- 33:25Speaker 1: projects are real, the mistakes, they're educational, sometimes painful, mostly educational.
- 33:31Speaker 1: And the only thing more stubborn than that old wallpaper
- 33:35Speaker 1: on your bathroom wall is your determination to get it fixed.
- 33:39Speaker 1: Probably sponsored by Repolite Paints and Benjamin Moore Paint with
- 33:42Speaker 1: a purpose, people who care and everything you need to
- 33:45Speaker 1: get the job done right. And we're back. You're listening
- 33:48Speaker 1: to Home in Progress, brought to you by Repcolite Paints
- 33:51Speaker 1: and Benjamin More. And last segment we talked about a
- 33:55Speaker 1: bunch of can't lose projects. You know, can't lose projects,
- 33:59Speaker 1: can go wrong with them. But even though the projects
- 34:01Speaker 1: that I talked about can't lose, I know that budgets
- 34:05Speaker 1: are what they are, and we've only got so much
- 34:08Speaker 1: energy and time and focus, and so we've got to
- 34:10Speaker 1: take things, you know, one at a time, and we've
- 34:13Speaker 1: got to do the best project that we can in
- 34:16Speaker 1: any given moment. So how do you figure out which
- 34:20Speaker 1: is the right direction for you to move? Now? Maybe
- 34:23Speaker 1: for some of you that's super crazy easy and you
- 34:25Speaker 1: just instantly and intuitively know which is the best move
- 34:29Speaker 1: for me. I have so many things that I identified
- 34:32Speaker 1: in that last segment as places that i'd like to
- 34:35Speaker 1: fix in the home that I don't know which one
- 34:38Speaker 1: is the smartest one for me to pursue first. If
- 34:41Speaker 1: that's you and you want to figure that out, I've
- 34:44Speaker 1: got four questions that will help us identify which project
- 34:48Speaker 1: that is in your home. First question to ask yourself,
- 34:51Speaker 1: where does your house fight you every single day? All right?
- 34:54Speaker 1: Where does your house fight you every single day? You're
- 34:57Speaker 1: not asking what don't I like about my home? That's
- 34:59Speaker 1: a different question. This one is about friction. You know,
- 35:02Speaker 1: where does the house actually push back on your life?
- 35:06Speaker 1: It could be the kitchen where you don't have enough
- 35:08Speaker 1: counter space when you're cooking. You know, you're always running
- 35:12Speaker 1: out of counter space. It's very frustrating, you know. Is
- 35:14Speaker 1: that the spot for you that's the biggest friction? Is
- 35:17Speaker 1: it the bathroom? You know, where two people literally can't
- 35:20Speaker 1: get ready at the same time because you know, ones
- 35:22Speaker 1: brushing their teeth and he hits the other person in
- 35:25Speaker 1: the eye with his elbow, and then that person elbows
- 35:27Speaker 1: that guy in the stomach, you know, and then there's
- 35:30Speaker 1: a brawl going on in there. You know. Is that
- 35:33Speaker 1: the main friction in your home? Is it the living
- 35:36Speaker 1: room where you constantly are dragging chairs in from other
- 35:39Speaker 1: spaces because there's nowhere for people to sit. You know,
- 35:42Speaker 1: where does your house make daily life harder than it
- 35:45Speaker 1: needs to be? Identify those spots, Those are your pressure points.
- 35:48Speaker 1: Second question, which room do you avoid and why? You know?
- 35:52Speaker 1: You want to figure that part out too. And most
- 35:55Speaker 1: of us have a room in the house, a space
- 35:57Speaker 1: in the home that we avoid or that most of
- 36:00Speaker 1: the people avoid. And maybe it's the dining room table.
- 36:03Speaker 1: You just stopped eating at the dining room table. Why
- 36:05Speaker 1: did that happen? Maybe nobody hangs out in the living
- 36:09Speaker 1: room or that family room anymore. Maybe the back porch
- 36:12Speaker 1: furniture has just been sitting out there for three years,
- 36:14Speaker 1: but nobody actually has sat in it. Maybe it's a
- 36:18Speaker 1: basement that's technically finished, but nobody goes down there. You know,
- 36:21Speaker 1: when you quietly stop using a space in your home
- 36:24Speaker 1: that's worth paying attention to. You know, sometimes the room
- 36:27Speaker 1: you've written off is actually the room that needs the
- 36:29Speaker 1: most thought. You know, not necessarily the most money to
- 36:32Speaker 1: get it fixed, just the most intentional thinking about why
- 36:35Speaker 1: it stopped working. So think about that. Which room do
- 36:38Speaker 1: you avoid and why? Number three? Once you think you
- 36:41Speaker 1: know which space needs your attention. Ask yourself this before
- 36:44Speaker 1: you spend anything. Are you solving a real problem or
- 36:47Speaker 1: are you just updating a surface. You know, new countertops
- 36:51Speaker 1: on a kitchen with a bad layout is still a
- 36:53Speaker 1: bad kitchen. You know, the layout hasn't changed. The counters
- 36:56Speaker 1: look better, but they don't hold anymore, you know, pots
- 36:59Speaker 1: and pans or give you more space for food prep.
- 37:03Speaker 1: New tile in a bathroom with no storage is still
- 37:06Speaker 1: a frustrating bathroom. So think about that before you commit
- 37:10Speaker 1: to anything. Ask yourself, honestly, if I fix the thing
- 37:13Speaker 1: that I'm thinking about fixing, well I actually feel better
- 37:16Speaker 1: about the space in a significant manner, or am I
- 37:19Speaker 1: going to finish the project and still be annoyed by
- 37:22Speaker 1: the thing underneath it? Am I going to even be
- 37:24Speaker 1: more annoyed because I've spent money on countertops, let's say,
- 37:28Speaker 1: and I still really need to overhaul the whole layout,
- 37:32Speaker 1: which could mean that the money spent on the countertops
- 37:35Speaker 1: is either going to be wasted or now you've really
- 37:37Speaker 1: got to live with it because you can't let yourself
- 37:40Speaker 1: waste that money and can't really fix the problem. So
- 37:43Speaker 1: think about that. Are you actually fixing the problem or
- 37:45Speaker 1: are you just updating a surface. Number four fourth question.
- 37:49Speaker 1: If budget weren't a factor and your DIY limitations weren't
- 37:52Speaker 1: a factor, what would you change first? And I love
- 37:55Speaker 1: this question because most of us self limit. You know,
- 37:57Speaker 1: we draw boundaries for what's possible in our home based
- 38:00Speaker 1: on budget or skill, and we rarely consider those things again.
- 38:04Speaker 1: But when you strip all of those self limits out
- 38:06Speaker 1: of the way for just a second and you spend
- 38:09Speaker 1: some time in fantasyland, you can find some interesting truths there.
- 38:14Speaker 1: You'll usually gain some really good insight into what's really
- 38:17Speaker 1: bothering you about your home, what really might be beneficial to fix.
- 38:21Speaker 1: And once you've identified what it is, then go ahead
- 38:24Speaker 1: and reassert reality. Because we always got to come back
- 38:26Speaker 1: to reality, you know, reassert reality. But now you might
- 38:30Speaker 1: be able to look at it and see that there
- 38:31Speaker 1: are alternatives to the bigger solutions that you initially thought
- 38:36Speaker 1: you needed, you know, the things that you couldn't tackle,
- 38:38Speaker 1: you that you couldn't afford. You might find solutions that
- 38:41Speaker 1: you can implement, or maybe you'll realize that it's definitely
- 38:45Speaker 1: worth saving up the money for that this is the
- 38:47Speaker 1: project that will have the biggest impact in your space.
- 38:50Speaker 1: Just try it. It's a fun thought experiment. Now, last
- 38:53Speaker 1: thing that I'll say as we get to the end
- 38:54Speaker 1: of the show for the week, last thing I want
- 38:57Speaker 1: to do is remind you I probably don't even need to,
- 38:59Speaker 1: but I'll mind you that there's really no better bang
- 39:02Speaker 1: for your buck project than some new paint in a space.
- 39:05Speaker 1: Even if you can't afford or don't have time for
- 39:08Speaker 1: some huge renovation, new paint can really really change things,
- 39:12Speaker 1: and often it might be more than enough to get
- 39:15Speaker 1: you by for a few years or more until you've
- 39:17Speaker 1: got the money and the energy to tackle the basement
- 39:20Speaker 1: or that kitchen or whatever. So think about paint. It
- 39:24Speaker 1: can do a lot. All right. That's gonna do it
- 39:26Speaker 1: for this episode. If you want to catch it again,
- 39:28Speaker 1: you can find it online at Repcolit dot com. Whatever
- 39:31Speaker 1: you do today makes your paints a part of it.
- 39:33Speaker 1: Have a beautiful Memorial Day weekend, and I'll see you
- 39:36Speaker 1: next week. For Home in Progress by Repcolite Paints. I'm
- 39:39Speaker 1: Dan Hanson. Thanks for listening.