November 13, 2025 • 52 mins
Today, we dive into the wild world of 50-year mortgages—yes, you heard that right! Just when you thought home loans couldn't get any longer, the Trump administration decided to throw a 50-year option into the mix. Eric G and John Dudley break down the absurdities of this idea, weighing potential benefits, like lower monthly payments, against the ridiculous long-term interest costs that could turn your dream home into a financial nightmare. It's a rollercoaster of math and sarcasm as they discuss whether this trend is a blessing or just a really bad joke. Plus, stick around for some rants on home improvement trends that are already on their way out—who knew shiplap would go the way of the dodo? Buckle up, because it’s about to get real in the realm of home finance and decor!
Get ready for a wild ride through the world of home financing and what the heck is happening with 50-year mortgages! Eric G and John Dudley kick things off with a hearty debate about the recent buzz around these long-term loans. You know, the kind that makes you question if homeownership is a marathon or a never-ending treadmill session. They dive into the pros and cons, looking at how these mortgages could potentially help first-time buyers squeeze into the housing market while also raising eyebrows about the implications of being shackled to a mortgage for half a century. Spoiler alert: the math isn't pretty if you look too closely! They also touch on the discipline needed to manage such a long-term loan without getting distracted by shiny objects like new guitars or that sweet catamaran you’ve always wanted. And just like that, they give you a crash course on how to navigate this mortgage minefield, which could either save you cash or have you singing the blues decades down the line. Buckle up, folks, because Eric and John are here to guide you through the absurdities of long-term home loans, and trust me, it's a rollercoaster!
Takeaways:
- The idea of a 50-year mortgage might sound like a sweet deal, but let’s be real—who wants to still be paying off that house when their grandkids are moving in?
- While a 50-year mortgage lowers monthly payments by stretching out the debt, it also means you’ll be handing over a mortgage payment longer than most people keep cars!
- You might think you’re saving money with a longer mortgage, but don’t forget about the big bad wolf of interest rates lurking in the shadows—your total interest paid could skyrocket!
- If you think a 50-year mortgage will make you financially savvy, just remember—it's like deciding to take a leisurely stroll through debt instead of running a marathon!
- Homeowners associations are basically like the high school hall monitors of the housing world—always watching and ready to write you up for the tiniest infractions, even if it’s a city street!
- The latest trends in home design are moving away from the cold, stark whites and grays that scream 'just moved in' and heading towards warm, inviting hues that say 'come, sit, and stay awhile'!
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Boeing Credit Union
- Dave Ramsey
To get your questions answered by Eric G give us a call in the studio at 833-239-4144 24/7 and Eric G will get back to you and answer your question and you might end up in a future episode of Around the House.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(01:04):
Foreign.
Welcome to around the housewith Eric G. Your trusted source
for all things home improvement.
Whether you're tackling a DIYproject, hiring it out, or just trying
to keep your home runningsmoothly, you're in the right place.
With over 30 years ofremodeling experience, certified
(01:27):
kitchen designer Eric G. Takesyou behind the scenes with expert
advice, industry trends, andthe latest innovations for your home.
Home.
It's everything you need toknow without the fluff.
Now let's get this showstarted with our host, Eric G. And
John Dudley.
Welcome to the around theHouse show, your trusted source for
(01:50):
home improvement information.
I'm Eric G. And we got JohnnyD over here in the co pilot seat
today.
Good to see you, my friend.
Hello, sir.
Good to see you.
Good to see you.
You know, here's theinteresting thing.
You and I have been talkingabout this for a while, but we've
been trying to figure out howto all of you guys out there that
listen to the show every weekand really be able to answer your
(02:13):
questions even better and even easier.
So Johnny and I have beentalking about some stuff.
We got some new stuff comingup in the future.
But right now if you have aquestion you're trying to figure
out, maybe you're like, Idon't know where to go from here.
I got a project.
Or I've been trying to trackdown this noise in my house or what
does my toilet do thiswhatever it is you've got a question
(02:34):
with.
The easy way to get a hold ofus is to head over to around the
house online.com and just headover to the contact us page there
and you can reach out and sendus a message.
It runs right into my emailbox and that way I can get back to
you and maybe we can cover iton an upcoming show.
Maybe we'll even have you comeon the show.
(02:57):
So we'd love to hear yourquestions, ideas for things, any
of that stuff.
We're here to communicate withyou as well as on social media and
you can find all that over@aroundthehouseonline.com.
what do you think, Johnny?
Yeah, I think, I think, youknow, just getting the audience involved
is exciting for us.
We tired of talking to eachother all the time and we provide
(03:20):
as much value and informationas we can.
But you know, it's for youall, it's for the audience.
And so you've got a newproduct you're not sure about.
My mom just did this to us theother night.
Hey, guys, what does thisstuff work?
Right?
This is you Know, pour somegravel, spray some glue on it.
That's what we're up doing at11 at night looking at, you know,
(03:43):
glued gravel products.
So, you know, you're startinga new project, you're thinking about
buying a new appliance, you'rethinking about doing a remodel, you're
trying to pick a contractor.
Hit us up.
We love talking about thisstuff and we want to help you the
best we can with our 70 plusyears collective knowledge and, and
(04:04):
help you get it done rightwith the least amount of problems
for the best amount of money.
And yeah, don't be shy man,open up to us.
We're here to talk to you guys.
Yeah.
So yeah, we really encouragingthat lately and may have been brief
on it in the past and justkind of mentioning it at the end,
but you guys are the show, sohit us up, please.
(04:25):
Absolutely.
And if you got that domesticdispute, how do you load the dishwasher?
Do you pre rinse it, whateverthat is, you know, whatever those
questions are.
We're here to help.
We're here to help.
Today is going to be a littlemore of a rant filled episode of
Johnny and I talking aboutsome latest stuff that's in the news
and there's been someinteresting stuff out of there.
(04:48):
And the cool thing is Ihaven't talked to Dudley here about
this stuff.
So we're kind of keeping thisfresh to see what the pluses and
minuses are of this topic.
And the first one I wanted totalk about was hitting the news this
last week and it was the Herein the US the Trump administration
(05:08):
exploring the idea of having a50 year home loan, not the 25 or
the 30, but a 50 year homeloan to try to help people get into
homes.
And I think it's aninteresting topic, but there's some
things that really scare mewith that as well.
(05:28):
If you do the math, and I havethe math here, it does help a little
bit.
As long as you're not countingthe interest of what that is 50 years
later.
Yeah, what's your take onthat, Johnny?
Man, I'll tell you what, ifthey do it on sailboats, I'm in.
(05:53):
Well, that being said,property I legit.
Raj and I legit got a 30 yearamortized loan on the catamaran we
bought.
Really years, years back.
Yep.
God bless credit unions.
Actually Boeing Credit Union.
Nice bcu those guys.
Gotcha.
Yeah.
So our payment was like, youknow, I don't know, ridiculous.
(06:15):
200, $300 a month or something.
Perfect.
Was it great?
Absolutely.
We were young, we could affordit, and we were riding around the
catamaran.
Nice.
Is it the smartest financial decision?
Absolutely not.
Like if you could pay yourhouse off in 15 years, pay it off.
And again, now here's another rule.
(06:37):
Like I'm a guy that.
I'm a guy that will not payoff a loan one day early if it's
amortized for 15, 30, 500 years.
If it's got me at 3% and I cango make 13, right?
Sure, depends.
Okay, it's 50 year mortgage,but interest rate's 12%.
(07:01):
Well, I'm going to lose money.
Yeah.
You know, so here's 30 at 7%and then I can actually not pay that
mortgage a day early.
Use the other 7% or make theother 7% by using the money.
I'm not.
You get it?
You know, absolute generalrule, you know, put it in the market,
make 12 to 13%, don't makeextra payments on your house.
(07:25):
That's my take.
Plenty of people argue against it.
Dave Ramsey, I think he fallswith me on that one.
But I can't remember kind of.
Yeah, you know, he's, he's the heat.
You know, Ramsey's rules areat least.
Yeah.
Pay off everything as soon asyou can and then you have all the
money that's yours.
You're not paying anybody elsefor money.
Right.
And he does that unless you can.
(07:45):
Use other people's money tomake more money.
And that falls under that.
So.
Well, here's the impact hereon a 50 year loan.
So we're gonna use somegeneral numbers here.
In my house, in myneighborhood here or my metro area,
I couldn't buy a house for this.
So it's just a kind of coolthing anyway.
But if you had a $300,000 loanat 4% interest over 30 years, you
(08:11):
got a monthly payment of about 1432.
So 1,432 bucks on that, on thesame loan over 50 years, that takes
it down to $1,100.
So it takes your payment downby 23%.
So by adding the extra 20years to it.
(08:35):
So the benefit that I see isthat it could get more people into
entry level homeownership.
Because now you're starting toget under there where it's cheaper
to buy a house than it is torent an apartment in many places
and you get something back outof that.
So that could help, you know,so you get the lower monthly payments
(08:59):
on that, and that's good.
And that extra what, 332 buckscould free up money that you're investing
or paying off other stuff withas well.
So that's what you do.
That's what you do.
And I like that.
I like that.
That's the real question.
What kind of discipline do you have?
(09:20):
Like if your grandpa, mygrandpa, you're gonna pull that off.
If you're me, I'm buying extraguitars every couple of months.
Exactly, exactly.
It's not gonna go where it should.
Now they've been doing this inJapan for a while.
So this isn't like some new thing.
But like in Japan they allowprepayments without penalties, giving
(09:43):
borrowers that flexibility topay off early if they're making more
money, you know, if they'refive years into it.
And like, wow, I got a huge raise.
I was in a first time homebuyer and now I got a better career.
I'm not flipping burgers, I'mactually working at the, you know,
working for the government orgot something going on.
They can go, oh, I'm going topay it off earlier.
They make it a 30 year, but itstill has a 50 year if I want to.
(10:06):
Okay.
I see that.
You know, penalty free.
Great.
Yeah, absolutely.
Now when we come back here and.
That, I mean that's idealsituation, right?
No really need a home right now.
Can't afford it like that.
But if I could get it forthis, just for the first five years,
(10:26):
you know, almost kind of aballoon payment.
Ideal.
Although no balloon payment.
But yeah, I mean that, that's great.
Yeah.
So Johnny, we're gonna watch abreak here.
Come back.
I want to talk about the costsof this.
What's it going to cost you todo this?
How much extra does it cost you?
(12:32):
We'll do that just as soon asaround the House returns don't change
that dial instrument.
(12:59):
What's up?
This is sticks it in you and.
Satchel from Steel Panther andyou are.
Listening to around the Housewith Eric.
G. Yeah, we love Eric G. Andyou should too.
1987.
Welcome back to the around theHouse show.
Your trusted source for homeimprovement information.
(13:22):
Johnny, if anybody out therehas questions for us, where do you
think they should go?
Aroundthehouse online.com hitus up in the.
Contact form, let us know where.
Yeah, give us your opinion onthis particular subject.
Let us know what kind of loanyou're in or, or if you're having
a bad time with a reversemortgage or if you wish there was
a 50 year loan because whatwould you do with the extra money?
(13:46):
There's always been this wholelife this is a, whatever lifelong
question, right?
Pay off your mortgage early,don't pay off your mortgage early.
And there's definitely twodivided sides.
And not that anybody has theright answer.
It's what makes you comfortable.
And I'd be curious to see,please somebody, some folks out there
listening to.
Tax deductions if you're itemizing.
(14:08):
So where's that land?
There's a complex question.
It is and it affects a lot ofthings in your life, including comfort
of living.
So love to hear some storiesout there.
We took a 15 year mortgagebecause we wanted to pay it off early
because we wanted to do X, Yand Z.
That can make perfect sense.
We got a settlement and paidoff our mortgage first thing and
(14:28):
then took what we got fromthat house and built a house free
and clear.
There's a million differentsituations, but no, it'd be a hoot
to hear about some of you allsand bring them up on the next episode
and revisit this because thishas always been a fight I've had
with friends.
Not a fight, but always been ano, you're a fool.
No, you're a fool.
(14:48):
Including my mother.
It's a hot subject, brother.
Love to get some outside opinions.
Yeah, absolutely, man.
When we went out to break, Itell you what, we told the good part
of the story.
Now here's the more expensivepart of the story.
The cons of what a 50 yearloan would be and total higher interest
costs.
(15:09):
Of course that seems obvious,but there is a serious number to
that.
Before we were talking aboutlike a what a $300,000 loan of 4%
would be.
Now at a 30 year loan, yourtotal interest would be $215,600.
But at a 50 year loan, adding20% of that onto that, you're at
(15:30):
360,000 in total interest, a67% increase of interest.
So to me that kind of reduceslong term wealth accumulation off
of that because you're payinga lot more on that.
You're taking another 150 offthe top basically in round numbers.
And so that's interesting.
(15:51):
Also I see that you could bebuilding slower equity, right?
If you've got a 50 year loanand you're not accounting for, you
know, the real estate marketright now is not booming here in
the States.
Across the country you haveplaces that are doing okay.
Many places are getting betteror falling behind.
If you got a slow roll over 50years of equity making those payments,
(16:14):
you could be five years into that.
And if you've been just makingthe Minimum payments.
You're not going to see muchof a difference on what your equity
is from your payments becausea lot of that's going to interest
on the front end.
All but $2.
You go to sell it, you couldbe a wash or even upside down in
it.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
It's kind of like having afive year car loan.
(16:37):
You go to trade it in twoyears and they're like, man, you
still owe more than this, thisthing's worth.
And you're like, what are youtalking about?
I've done that math before andit didn't work.
So that's actually a reallygood point.
That can be super dangerousbecause yeah, you're really not making
a dent in, in what would showas equity in your home for a lot
(16:59):
of years when it's amortizedout so long.
Yeah.
So you're doing fundamental math.
Even at just 30 years.
The first five years is just interest.
You go to sell and unless themarket's gone crazy, you're like,
we didn't, we haven't made adime because we've just been paying
the interest down.
Which is why a lot of peoplemake that extra payment.
(17:21):
And it is effective.
Yeah.
10 years on a 50 year.
On a 50 year loan, theborrowers probably paid down 10%
of the principal where itwould be 20% on a 30 year loan.
Big difference.
It makes a big difference.
And especially, first of all,I don't, I don't know anybody that
(17:43):
stayed in a house for 50 years.
My grandparents stayed in thatone house for 35 or maybe 40.
But point being is that theodds are pretty good you're going
to move anyway.
And when you move, you wantthe biggest amount of equity you
can possibly have in there.
If it takes that to get into ahouse for the first, like you said,
Eric, the first five years orso or three years and there's no
(18:06):
penalties to adjust and bumpit down to a 30.
Okay, maybe that's the plan.
But I think the bigger topicis you have to consider all these
different situations and whatthey look like.
Run them out, run them throughyour head and go, if we're just paying
interest for the first fiveyears, you're going to walk out with
nothing.
(18:27):
Yeah, it's a lot, it's a lotof math, a lot to consider.
When you think about Japan.
So they have 50 year loans.
They also have hundred yearmulti generational ones.
Oh geez, I can't imagine that.
Hey kids, by the way, welcometo college.
You get the mortgage in 10 years.
Yeah.
I don't want to live in this house.
(18:47):
Too bad.
Yeah.
I don't how the numbers evenmake sense on things like that.
That just keeps naughty.
All right, let's wrap a bowaround that one.
And again, if you guys havecomments on that one, you want to
say something about it, makesure and email us or send us a Message
over to roundthehousonline.comon the contact Us page.
Like to hear your take on it.
Now then it's a great one tosend out the audience because there's
(19:09):
so many different situationsand so many different reasons for
doing it a multitude of ways.
Absolutely.
And they all could make sense.
It's just I love hearing aboutthe options and how people have utilized
that and what they regret accomplished.
Absolutely.
Now, the next one here issomething that I ran into here, and
(19:31):
this is just over the lastcouple months.
I didn't even realize itbecause I'm not in an hoa.
We're seeing a huge trend inthe States where large builders,
these are those big nationalbuilders that are putting in townhome
projects or residentialcommunities where the houses are
pretty tight together, thatkind of stuff.
Large builders are running theHOAs for the communities they build.
(19:56):
Yeah, We've touched on this before.
Yeah.
And I want to go off on thisbecause the more I see, the more
I go, wow, this is incredible.
Monkeys running the zoo.
What's going on now is you'regetting a community being built,
and the home builders retaincontrol of the HOA board during the
initial phases of communitydevelopment, sometimes for years,
(20:19):
until a certain percentage ofhomes are sold.
But the crazy part is that ifyou're complaining about it, you're
complaining to the builder.
And the builder goes, yeah,HOA board said no.
They hired the HOA board.
Yeah.
They're their employees.
Their interest is, number one,where the residence is number two.
And that's kind of interesting.
But here's what I'm seeing.
(20:40):
And before we're heading outto break here in a second, what I'm
seeing is they're staying onboard still.
So the one here where mygirlfriend's house is, they're still
in control of this thing sevenyears later.
They're the kind of ghostcompany behind it.
I want to understand how that works.
I'll let you go.
(21:01):
But, yeah, it's crazy.
Now, what happens, though,when you have a builder that built
things incorrectly, or whatyou and I would call defects in construction
of materials.
They make sure the HOA coversit and charges the homeowner for
it because they don't want toget sued.
But if they deal with thatthrough the HOA and it gets fixed,
(21:22):
you're eliminating theliability of the builder.
The HOA is not going to suethe builder for defects in materials,
siting, falling off.
We're going to have some issues.
Now when we come back, I wantto talk about some of the other stuff
that we're seeing with thisand stuff that you need to look for
as a homeowner.
We'll do that just as soon asaround the House returns.
(21:43):
Don't change that dial.
(23:34):
Welcome back to the around theHouse show, your trusted source for
home improvement information.
You want to get a hold of us,send us a message over to Roundthe
House online dot com.
I'd love to hear your HOAstories because I know you've got
them.
You know, there's people outthere that have dedicated YouTube
channels for this subject.
So you gotta have some out there.
(23:55):
And I've never really been in one.
Johnny, you've never reallybeen in one.
I am in one now and I tell youwhat it is.
The one I'm in is really scammy.
And it's a national homebuilder that if I name the name,
which I won't.
But for instance, what they dohere is they'll send out a message
(24:16):
on Sunday or Monday orwhatever and go, all right, we've
got an HOA meeting on Tuesdayat 2 o'.
Clock.
Yeah, everybody's work.
Thanks.
Yeah, nobody's coming to that.
Nobody's coming to that.
So I think what I'm going tostart doing is I'm going to be a
little proactive in this.
I think when that happens, I'mgoing to surprise and I'm going to
(24:37):
start showing up and then I'mgoing to bring my camera and record
it to make sure that it'sshared with everybody.
I think that's a fantastic idea.
And I'll tell you, I've had mybuddy Bryce, he bought a condo in
Arizona.
They had an hoa.
I didn't know much about it.
I just listened to him bitchabout it like everybody does.
(24:57):
And my mom is also involved inone up in Lake Taps.
But I guess the confusion Iwanted to ask you about because I
myself have never beeninvolved in one, is it's a homeowners
association.
So a.
Wouldn't there be a directionthat you have to be a homeowner there?
(25:19):
Not counting.
I'm a builder that hasn't solda home, so I technically own that
empty home that should not Count.
And secondly, some kind ofregulation that says you can't be
the general contractor on the job.
They said it's a.
There should be no relation.
It's a total conflict of interest.
(25:40):
Right.
The homeowner stationassociation should be a voted group
of actual homeowners that livethere and monitor situations and
rectify them accordingly,whether that's going out and getting
bids on the jobs that need done.
I've worked for several ofthem as a contractor.
Worked for plenty of them.
(26:01):
I don't remember any of them being.
Yeah, I'm the generalcontractor that built this whole
complex.
And I honestly, I can't seehow that's feasibly legal, even it
seems.
I'm sure there's plenty of loopholes.
It's just an hoa.
But come on, guys, thatdoesn't seem fair.
Doesn't seem right, doesn'tseem just.
And these guys are crazy herebecause the streets out in front
(26:24):
are the city.
They're the city streets.
They're not the homeowners association.
Yeah.
They're not a private drive.
But like the neighbor, he wasgetting fined because he had too
many cars parked on thestreet, which has nothing.
To do with the housing complex.
No, it's city street.
That's.
Call the police, have them,ticket them.
(26:44):
Yeah, I'd be fighting that onein court.
They used to come by and givemy girlfriend a hard time because
dogs, she.
If you walk from onedirection, there's all this landscaping
stuff, and the first greengrass is her yard.
If she was getting brown spotsfrom dogs peeing in the grass, they
would try to find her forspots in the grass from the dog,
(27:06):
pee from.
Not her dog.
I get super.
Well, I get vigilant overstuff like that.
I'm like, man, that's why I'mgetting involved.
Break open.
Let's break open the books here.
You've.
Yeah, I think it's time tohonestly see what's going on.
Let's see what's going on.
Let's see your relationshipsto the contractors that you are hiring
(27:27):
to come in and repaint and fixthese things.
And.
And let's see whose cousin'sgetting paid from who and how much
is going back into your coffers.
And I mean, that's legitconcern this.
I would have an HOA memberthat is not one from the general
contractor.
Go talk to an attorney and go,how are they getting away with this?
(27:48):
Oh, yeah.
Seriously.
Yeah.
And the crazy thing is, too,is that now the homeowners in the
homeowners association underThese warranties, especially on buildings
like this, the developments,it's usually not just a one year
warranty.
You can get them years laterfor defects in material and stuff
(28:09):
like that.
Right now the homeownersassociation is paying stuff for what?
Especially on condos in these places.
The homeowners association isnow paying for what the builder should
be on the hook for.
They're able to shirk thatresponsibility somehow.
This just gets so crooked andI don't understand.
(28:30):
Her place is what, 10 yearsold or something?
Seven.
Yeah, seven.
And you're having to repaintit and the paint's falling off and
the wood's rotten and it'stheir responsibility to take care
of the exterior of the building.
How is nobody pitching a firearound this camp?
Like, seriously?
Oh yeah.
Guess what I'm going to bedoing, brother?
(28:50):
Do it.
Do it.
We'll have tons of fodder forthe show.
I'm curious.
I'm really curious.
And again, please speak to the audience.
Like if you've got any kind ofexperiences like this with HOA stuff,
please share the wealth with us.
Because it's something I'm notreal knowledgeable in, but I'm also
no dummy to do the math to go,that's the horse run and the trainer,
that's the monkey run in the zoo.
(29:11):
That's okay.
And you know, that's people'shard spent money that's going to
waste and going into pocketswhere it shouldn't go on.
No.
Yeah.
It's crazy.
It's.
I want to come out there andget busy.
Yeah.
I'm going to have some funwith that one.
That's going to be my sportfor the winter and fall and spring
here is going to be starting alittle bit of a battle, brother.
(29:33):
I wanted to transition nowover to another subject which is
going to be probably even morecontroversial from that point of
view.
I want to talk about style andhot things that are out for 2026.
Not a big fashion guy, butlet's go.
Ah.
And you might agree with someof this stuff.
(29:53):
One of the big ones that aregoing away in most homes is the Chip
and Joanna Gaines Shiplap.
That's been done with respectto wall covering or wall coverings
in floor.
You know where you come in,you take the white MDF boards, you
paint it wire, you paint itgray and you put it up on the wall
(30:14):
and it's that kind ofminimalist, 50 shades of gray inside
the house.
Wainscoting of sorts or fullwall cover, planks of boards.
You've been out of thecountry, so you haven't seen that
as much here.
It's been just, you know, it here.
It's been.
(30:34):
Sheesh.
As popular as roosterwallpaper in the 90s.
It was just everywhere.
Huh.
So that's a big one.
That started in about 2015.
It's been going for a decade.
It's done now.
And is that going for a rusticvibe or a modern vibe?
You say 50 shades of gray.
(30:55):
Modern Farm out is what Iwould call.
Okay, yeah, that's what I'm thinking.
I mean, great in a beachcabin, but yeah.
And that's the thing.
I still think that it has its place.
That's one of the exceptions.
The beach cabin not in a downtown.
You're not putting in the loft.
High rise townhome.
Yeah, not at all.
(31:17):
So you're seeing thatbasically being gone.
Sorry, Chip and Joanne, I gotnothing against you, but that's just
a style you brought in, andit's definitely worked its way, like
almost every style does 10years ago.
It's a great run.
What's replacing it?
You're seeing a lot of morewall treatments with more depth,
sophistication.
You're actually seeing stuffright now, like new kinds of lime
(31:41):
wash or plaster finishes.
There are some people outthere that do really good artisan
work where it looks like it's.
And we're not talking the2000s Venetian plaster, but we're
talking about the crazy coolstuff that you're seeing where it
looks like it makes the walllook like concrete or it makes it
look like some kind of stone.
(32:03):
It looks really cool.
It's good for that kind ofMediterranean or modern look, even
rustic.
And it's all done with plasterand painting, which is really cool.
I don't know if you've seen.
I put it at my last house.
It's that vertical wall slatwhere you've got a slat of walnut,
a micro slat of felt flowerblack behind it.
And so it gives you thatstriped wood look.
(32:26):
Acoustical panels.
Yeah.
Brings back that 70s vibe.
That's a great one right there.
So good for a pool room.
Absolutely.
That stuff is super cool.
Now we come back, we got a lotmore to go through, so we're gonna
have to lightning roundthrough these so we can get them
touched on, because there's alot more that's out for next year.
(32:47):
So if you're starting thatproject right now, you might want
to think about this stuff alittle bit around the house.
We return after theseimportant messages.
Keep an Eye out for those sponsors.
They're the ones that keep theshow going.
For more information on theshow, head to aroundthe house online.com
around the house show will beright back.
(34:41):
All right, welcome back, guys,to the around the House Show.
Your trusted source for homeimprovement information, Johnny Dudley
and I have been sitting heretalking about a lot of different
things this hour, but if youhave a comment on these, if you didn't
like my shiplap commentearlier, send us a message over to
(35:01):
roundthehouse online.com we'rehere to help.
And if you have one that youthink is out that we didn't talk
about, love to hear it fornext week's episode.
Might be able to slide you inthe show.
That might be something coolwe could do.
Johnny, would be to sit thereand have a comments from last week's
show section.
We absolutely need to.
We haven't done enough ofthat, in my opinion.
(35:23):
So, yeah, y' all are going tohear us pushing, prodding a lot more
to get more of your input.
Make sure we're staying on thebeam and giving you what you want
and always getting better,always finding new ideas, always
hearing new opinions.
That only helps us to help you.
So please reach out.
We love it.
We love it.
Love it.
(35:44):
Absolutely.
All right, here's my next one.
We've talked about this a fewepisodes ago, but that vinyl plank
flooring, the click togethervinyl plank flooring, I think that
has finally run its course andI think a lot of it is because it
promised a lot of great thingsand it has been pretty durable out
(36:05):
there.
But they'll give you a 30 yearwarranty on the floor.
But you can walk through astair transition and wear the edge
of that off in 10 months.
Or you walk across an olderfloor or a floor that's got a little
spring to it.
Maybe when the builder builtit, they didn't block it out well.
And so it's got a little bitof spring to it and it just makes
everything come unconnectedand you have to remove the floor
(36:25):
and relay it down again.
I think there's been enough ofthat that the vinyl plank floor I
think is on the way out.
I think this 2025 is the lastyear of that being hot.
And I know there's a lot ofpeople, even John and I were talking
before we came on going, butthe stuff was so easy to lay.
Yeah.
But when he had to come backand fix it six months later, it wasn't
(36:46):
so cool.
Yeah.
Nobody likes warranty claims,Nobody likes warning claims.
All right, ready for the nextone, Johnny?
What do we got?
All white or all gray interiors?
That stark minimalist look ofall white or gray on gray spaces.
Super popular.
2010, 2020s has now gone coldand impersonal.
(37:09):
Yeah.
Same thing happened in 89.
Yeah.
Think about in the 90s howeverything was like brass doorknobs,
just bright brass.
Bright brass, Bryce brass.
And you got into the 22thousands and everybody went fresh
bronze, rub bronze, all thatkind of stuff.
It was just.
It's always like a big sweep.
(37:29):
So what's hot now?
Warmer neutrals.
You're seeing those creamy beiges.
Beiges like a taupe, even aterracotta sage.
All these different colors are dominating.
It's almost like the 70s, midto late 70s colors.
Our back.
Yeah.
I think the world's lookingfor a little comfort.
(37:49):
Yeah.
On the horse we get allmechanical and I don't know how to
say it exactly, but minimalistand super modern.
And I think society as awhole, just people cycle with things
start getting awry and gettinga little crazy in the world.
We're like, we're looking forthat comfort food and it comes in
(38:12):
paint colors.
Absolutely, absolutely.
And the other thing I'm seeingtoo is stainless steel appliances
in some kind of contexts aregoing away as well.
You're seeing in higher endproducts, like higher end kitchens,
you're seeing much more of apaneled look.
You're seeing where they'rebuilt in flush.
(38:33):
Even the oven front of theoven is flush with the cabinetry.
You're seeing a lot of that stuff.
You're seeing bold coloredranges where it's a avocado green
or a yellow or a red or a purple.
You're seeing that where theranges that way.
But really stainless steelappliances have now gone to where
white appliances used to be,where you walk in and go up.
(38:54):
That's the builder basic oneswhere you.
Sounds like it speaks to thesame point we were just talking about
back to like we need color andcolor brings emotion and senses.
And we look for comfort in ourhomes as a general rule.
And when the world feelsscary, ah, it makes sense that we
(39:16):
go back to some comforting,soothing mel.
Not metal.
Cold, white, steep.
Like you want a little applepie in there.
Yeah.
Warm.
All right, man, the wholeworld's beating me up.
I want to come home to a nicewarm yellow stove or whatever.
Whatever.
Yeah.
Here's the other thing, too.
(39:37):
Authentic spaces are big.
What I mean by that is notusing all the fake plastic stuff
in there, using real wood,using Real stone.
Sometimes when you go intoyour Home Depot's or Lowe's or some
of those more builder basicplaces, those finishes are inauthentic
in a way you can.
(39:57):
Oh, that looks like plastic.
That's not real.
Yeah.
You know where outside thingsare going to composite for durability.
Inside, it's going back intowood warmth, which is awesome.
And that's a big one.
Warmth is big.
That's what's in.
So you're seeing those earthyneutrals, kind of like those bold
jewel tones or natural woodsto really create inviting spaces.
(40:21):
And so I think that's big.
Now, one of the things thatI'm seeing, and we're going to run
out of time here pretty soon,but one of the things that I'm seeing
too is you're seeing designersflip this way.
Many designers aren't ontowhat the current trends would be.
And I wanted to talk aboutthis since we're talking trends.
What, how trends change so fast.
(40:42):
Now, Johnny, when you and Istarted out in construction, if we
grabbed the latestArchitectural Digest magazine at
the grocery store, forinstance, we knew that project was
designed probably four or fiveyears ago.
It was built the next year anda half.
(41:02):
It got completely done.
Then they took pictures and ittook nine months to a year before
that hit a magazine.
So that project could havebeen done for four or five years
before the public saw it.
Heck, now if you and I had aconstruction meeting showing drawings
to a client with textures andpieces of samples, they'd have it
(41:25):
on Internet on their Pinterestboard within 10 minutes of the meeting
being out.
And it's out in the public.
Yeah, huge difference.
Styles would change almost bythe decade.
There was a 70s look, therewas an 80s look, there was a 90s
look.
Now that's a, yeah, 2005 look.
(41:46):
There's a 2000.
So it really can change on a dime.
And it was funny.
When I was designing higherend projects, I knew a style was
starting to die in those days.
When it showed up at HomeDepot or Lowe's, they were the last
to get there because they hadto pivot.
This big ship might take themfour or five years to believe that's
a style.
(42:06):
Then it comes out and the newone's coming in.
Back when we were going at ittogether, you could walk in nine
out of 10 kitchens and youknew it was cherry cabinets, shaker
doors, granite countertops,Viking range.
Like it just it.
We printed them out like Volkswagens.
(42:26):
Yeah.
And yeah, you're right, it'sway quicker.
The Quickening has become.
And a large part of that'sInternet and accessibility and people
making their own decisions andnot relying on stuff.
For the last four years, it'sbeen this, so it must be this.
It's just.
It's a different world,different game, and it's changing
(42:47):
yearly, which is.
Can be unfortunate becauseyou're like, no, I love this year.
And then next year it's gonewhere you at least used to get a
good 5 years before yourkitchen look dated.
After you spent 50k on that,you're like, what do you mean it's
dated?
Yeah, brother.
In our last minute here, theway to prevent that is if you pick
a good natural wood.
(43:07):
Natural woods tend to be in nomatter what, to some extent.
And then if you do knobs onthe hardware in the kitchen so you
can change those out to thenext hottest color, right?
Yep.
And you do a tile backsplashthat you're not sold on, that maybe
in five to 10 years you canswap out and you stay on top of paint
colors and hopefully picksomething kind of natural for the
(43:30):
countertop.
You're probably going to begood to go.
And you can slide it into places.
Yeah.
You can fudge stuff aroundwhere just like you said, swap out
all the drawer pulls in thecabinet handles, paint it a different
color, and you'll probably getin the ballpark, maybe change an
appliance after three years or something.
But, yeah, generally speaking.
Yeah, generally speaking, it'smore about decoration at that point
(43:52):
than it is about.
More about aesthetics than itis about the actual products that
are in the kitchen at that point.
Like, how do you keep up with.
Pretend it's Christmas, butit's for the whole year.
Absolutely.
Decorate accordingly.
And by the way, when you'reworking with a designer out there,
the last thing I want to saybefore we get a break is your personal
taste matters.
Your designer is the personyou hired for that project.
(44:13):
So make sure that what you'regetting what you want.
But maybe they're steering youto make sure that you're not making
any glaring mistakes, thatyou're picking something that's either
outdated or is going to beoutdated or is not going to last
for you.
Pay attention to that designerbecause they are there to help.
You're paying for their expertise.
Definitely lean in becauseyou've already hired them.
(44:34):
Or if you have any doubts, youemail Eric G. And he'll dial you
in.
There we go over to RoundtheHouse online dot com.
All right, guys, end of the show.
Thanks for tuning in.
Feel free to reach out to us.
We got a great show coming upnext week as well.
That excited?
We're coming up towardsThanksgiving already.
I don't know what's going on,what other alternative universe we're
(44:55):
in, but it's creeping up, andwe got to get ready for it.
Crazy.
Are you ready, Johnny?
Yeah, I don't.
I miss it down here.
We don't really have it, so.
Yeah, there we go.
There we go.
No, no panic.
No stress for me.
I like it.
Easy, easy.
All right, guys.
I'm Eric G. Exactly.
(45:16):
And I'm Johnny D. You've been listening.
To around the House.
Enjoy your taco.
With.
Foreign.
Welcome to around the housewith Eric G. Your trusted source
for all things home improvement.
Whether you're tackling a DIYproject, hiring it out, or just trying
to keep your home runningsmoothly, you're in the right place.
With over 30 years ofremodeling experience, certified
(01:27):
kitchen designer Eric G. Takesyou behind the scenes with expert
advice, industry trends, andthe latest innovations for your home.
Home.
It's everything you need toknow without the fluff.
Now let's get this showstarted with our host, Eric G. And
John Dudley.
Welcome to the around theHouse show, your trusted source for
(01:50):
home improvement information.
I'm Eric G. And we got JohnnyD over here in the co pilot seat
today.
Good to see you, my friend.
Hello, sir.
Good to see you.
Good to see you.
You know, here's theinteresting thing.
You and I have been talkingabout this for a while, but we've
been trying to figure out howto all of you guys out there that
listen to the show every weekand really be able to answer your
(02:13):
questions even better and even easier.
So Johnny and I have beentalking about some stuff.
We got some new stuff comingup in the future.
But right now if you have aquestion you're trying to figure
out, maybe you're like, Idon't know where to go from here.
I got a project.
Or I've been trying to trackdown this noise in my house or what
does my toilet do thiswhatever it is you've got a question
(02:34):
with.
The easy way to get a hold ofus is to head over to around the
house online.com and just headover to the contact us page there
and you can reach out and sendus a message.
It runs right into my emailbox and that way I can get back to
you and maybe we can cover iton an upcoming show.
Maybe we'll even have you comeon the show.
(02:57):
So we'd love to hear yourquestions, ideas for things, any
of that stuff.
We're here to communicate withyou as well as on social media and
you can find all that over@aroundthehouseonline.com.
what do you think, Johnny?
Yeah, I think, I think, youknow, just getting the audience involved
is exciting for us.
We tired of talking to eachother all the time and we provide
(03:20):
as much value and informationas we can.
But you know, it's for youall, it's for the audience.
And so you've got a newproduct you're not sure about.
My mom just did this to us theother night.
Hey, guys, what does thisstuff work?
Right?
This is you Know, pour somegravel, spray some glue on it.
That's what we're up doing at11 at night looking at, you know,
(03:43):
glued gravel products.
So, you know, you're startinga new project, you're thinking about
buying a new appliance, you'rethinking about doing a remodel, you're
trying to pick a contractor.
Hit us up.
We love talking about thisstuff and we want to help you the
best we can with our 70 plusyears collective knowledge and, and
(04:04):
help you get it done rightwith the least amount of problems
for the best amount of money.
And yeah, don't be shy man,open up to us.
We're here to talk to you guys.
Yeah.
So yeah, we really encouragingthat lately and may have been brief
on it in the past and justkind of mentioning it at the end,
but you guys are the show, sohit us up, please.
(04:25):
Absolutely.
And if you got that domesticdispute, how do you load the dishwasher?
Do you pre rinse it, whateverthat is, you know, whatever those
questions are.
We're here to help.
We're here to help.
Today is going to be a littlemore of a rant filled episode of
Johnny and I talking aboutsome latest stuff that's in the news
and there's been someinteresting stuff out of there.
(04:48):
And the cool thing is Ihaven't talked to Dudley here about
this stuff.
So we're kind of keeping thisfresh to see what the pluses and
minuses are of this topic.
And the first one I wanted totalk about was hitting the news this
last week and it was the Herein the US the Trump administration
(05:08):
exploring the idea of having a50 year home loan, not the 25 or
the 30, but a 50 year homeloan to try to help people get into
homes.
And I think it's aninteresting topic, but there's some
things that really scare mewith that as well.
(05:28):
If you do the math, and I havethe math here, it does help a little
bit.
As long as you're not countingthe interest of what that is 50 years
later.
Yeah, what's your take onthat, Johnny?
Man, I'll tell you what, ifthey do it on sailboats, I'm in.
(05:53):
Well, that being said,property I legit.
Raj and I legit got a 30 yearamortized loan on the catamaran we
bought.
Really years, years back.
Yep.
God bless credit unions.
Actually Boeing Credit Union.
Nice bcu those guys.
Gotcha.
Yeah.
So our payment was like, youknow, I don't know, ridiculous.
(06:15):
200, $300 a month or something.
Perfect.
Was it great?
Absolutely.
We were young, we could affordit, and we were riding around the
catamaran.
Nice.
Is it the smartest financial decision?
Absolutely not.
Like if you could pay yourhouse off in 15 years, pay it off.
And again, now here's another rule.
(06:37):
Like I'm a guy that.
I'm a guy that will not payoff a loan one day early if it's
amortized for 15, 30, 500 years.
If it's got me at 3% and I cango make 13, right?
Sure, depends.
Okay, it's 50 year mortgage,but interest rate's 12%.
(07:01):
Well, I'm going to lose money.
Yeah.
You know, so here's 30 at 7%and then I can actually not pay that
mortgage a day early.
Use the other 7% or make theother 7% by using the money.
I'm not.
You get it?
You know, absolute generalrule, you know, put it in the market,
make 12 to 13%, don't makeextra payments on your house.
(07:25):
That's my take.
Plenty of people argue against it.
Dave Ramsey, I think he fallswith me on that one.
But I can't remember kind of.
Yeah, you know, he's, he's the heat.
You know, Ramsey's rules areat least.
Yeah.
Pay off everything as soon asyou can and then you have all the
money that's yours.
You're not paying anybody elsefor money.
Right.
And he does that unless you can.
(07:45):
Use other people's money tomake more money.
And that falls under that.
So.
Well, here's the impact hereon a 50 year loan.
So we're gonna use somegeneral numbers here.
In my house, in myneighborhood here or my metro area,
I couldn't buy a house for this.
So it's just a kind of coolthing anyway.
But if you had a $300,000 loanat 4% interest over 30 years, you
(08:11):
got a monthly payment of about 1432.
So 1,432 bucks on that, on thesame loan over 50 years, that takes
it down to $1,100.
So it takes your payment downby 23%.
So by adding the extra 20years to it.
(08:35):
So the benefit that I see isthat it could get more people into
entry level homeownership.
Because now you're starting toget under there where it's cheaper
to buy a house than it is torent an apartment in many places
and you get something back outof that.
So that could help, you know,so you get the lower monthly payments
(08:59):
on that, and that's good.
And that extra what, 332 buckscould free up money that you're investing
or paying off other stuff withas well.
So that's what you do.
That's what you do.
And I like that.
I like that.
That's the real question.
What kind of discipline do you have?
(09:20):
Like if your grandpa, mygrandpa, you're gonna pull that off.
If you're me, I'm buying extraguitars every couple of months.
Exactly, exactly.
It's not gonna go where it should.
Now they've been doing this inJapan for a while.
So this isn't like some new thing.
But like in Japan they allowprepayments without penalties, giving
(09:43):
borrowers that flexibility topay off early if they're making more
money, you know, if they'refive years into it.
And like, wow, I got a huge raise.
I was in a first time homebuyer and now I got a better career.
I'm not flipping burgers, I'mactually working at the, you know,
working for the government orgot something going on.
They can go, oh, I'm going topay it off earlier.
They make it a 30 year, but itstill has a 50 year if I want to.
(10:06):
Okay.
I see that.
You know, penalty free.
Great.
Yeah, absolutely.
Now when we come back here and.
That, I mean that's idealsituation, right?
No really need a home right now.
Can't afford it like that.
But if I could get it forthis, just for the first five years,
(10:26):
you know, almost kind of aballoon payment.
Ideal.
Although no balloon payment.
But yeah, I mean that, that's great.
Yeah.
So Johnny, we're gonna watch abreak here.
Come back.
I want to talk about the costsof this.
What's it going to cost you todo this?
How much extra does it cost you?
(12:32):
We'll do that just as soon asaround the House returns don't change
that dial instrument.
(12:59):
What's up?
This is sticks it in you and.
Satchel from Steel Panther andyou are.
Listening to around the Housewith Eric.
G. Yeah, we love Eric G. Andyou should too.
1987.
Welcome back to the around theHouse show.
Your trusted source for homeimprovement information.
(13:22):
Johnny, if anybody out therehas questions for us, where do you
think they should go?
Aroundthehouse online.com hitus up in the.
Contact form, let us know where.
Yeah, give us your opinion onthis particular subject.
Let us know what kind of loanyou're in or, or if you're having
a bad time with a reversemortgage or if you wish there was
a 50 year loan because whatwould you do with the extra money?
(13:46):
There's always been this wholelife this is a, whatever lifelong
question, right?
Pay off your mortgage early,don't pay off your mortgage early.
And there's definitely twodivided sides.
And not that anybody has theright answer.
It's what makes you comfortable.
And I'd be curious to see,please somebody, some folks out there
listening to.
Tax deductions if you're itemizing.
(14:08):
So where's that land?
There's a complex question.
It is and it affects a lot ofthings in your life, including comfort
of living.
So love to hear some storiesout there.
We took a 15 year mortgagebecause we wanted to pay it off early
because we wanted to do X, Yand Z.
That can make perfect sense.
We got a settlement and paidoff our mortgage first thing and
(14:28):
then took what we got fromthat house and built a house free
and clear.
There's a million differentsituations, but no, it'd be a hoot
to hear about some of you allsand bring them up on the next episode
and revisit this because thishas always been a fight I've had
with friends.
Not a fight, but always been ano, you're a fool.
No, you're a fool.
(14:48):
Including my mother.
It's a hot subject, brother.
Love to get some outside opinions.
Yeah, absolutely, man.
When we went out to break, Itell you what, we told the good part
of the story.
Now here's the more expensivepart of the story.
The cons of what a 50 yearloan would be and total higher interest
costs.
(15:09):
Of course that seems obvious,but there is a serious number to
that.
Before we were talking aboutlike a what a $300,000 loan of 4%
would be.
Now at a 30 year loan, yourtotal interest would be $215,600.
But at a 50 year loan, adding20% of that onto that, you're at
(15:30):
360,000 in total interest, a67% increase of interest.
So to me that kind of reduceslong term wealth accumulation off
of that because you're payinga lot more on that.
You're taking another 150 offthe top basically in round numbers.
And so that's interesting.
(15:51):
Also I see that you could bebuilding slower equity, right?
If you've got a 50 year loanand you're not accounting for, you
know, the real estate marketright now is not booming here in
the States.
Across the country you haveplaces that are doing okay.
Many places are getting betteror falling behind.
If you got a slow roll over 50years of equity making those payments,
(16:14):
you could be five years into that.
And if you've been just makingthe Minimum payments.
You're not going to see muchof a difference on what your equity
is from your payments becausea lot of that's going to interest
on the front end.
All but $2.
You go to sell it, you couldbe a wash or even upside down in
it.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
It's kind of like having afive year car loan.
(16:37):
You go to trade it in twoyears and they're like, man, you
still owe more than this, thisthing's worth.
And you're like, what are youtalking about?
I've done that math before andit didn't work.
So that's actually a reallygood point.
That can be super dangerousbecause yeah, you're really not making
a dent in, in what would showas equity in your home for a lot
(16:59):
of years when it's amortizedout so long.
Yeah.
So you're doing fundamental math.
Even at just 30 years.
The first five years is just interest.
You go to sell and unless themarket's gone crazy, you're like,
we didn't, we haven't made adime because we've just been paying
the interest down.
Which is why a lot of peoplemake that extra payment.
(17:21):
And it is effective.
Yeah.
10 years on a 50 year.
On a 50 year loan, theborrowers probably paid down 10%
of the principal where itwould be 20% on a 30 year loan.
Big difference.
It makes a big difference.
And especially, first of all,I don't, I don't know anybody that
(17:43):
stayed in a house for 50 years.
My grandparents stayed in thatone house for 35 or maybe 40.
But point being is that theodds are pretty good you're going
to move anyway.
And when you move, you wantthe biggest amount of equity you
can possibly have in there.
If it takes that to get into ahouse for the first, like you said,
Eric, the first five years orso or three years and there's no
(18:06):
penalties to adjust and bumpit down to a 30.
Okay, maybe that's the plan.
But I think the bigger topicis you have to consider all these
different situations and whatthey look like.
Run them out, run them throughyour head and go, if we're just paying
interest for the first fiveyears, you're going to walk out with
nothing.
(18:27):
Yeah, it's a lot, it's a lotof math, a lot to consider.
When you think about Japan.
So they have 50 year loans.
They also have hundred yearmulti generational ones.
Oh geez, I can't imagine that.
Hey kids, by the way, welcometo college.
You get the mortgage in 10 years.
Yeah.
I don't want to live in this house.
(18:47):
Too bad.
Yeah.
I don't how the numbers evenmake sense on things like that.
That just keeps naughty.
All right, let's wrap a bowaround that one.
And again, if you guys havecomments on that one, you want to
say something about it, makesure and email us or send us a Message
over to roundthehousonline.comon the contact Us page.
Like to hear your take on it.
Now then it's a great one tosend out the audience because there's
(19:09):
so many different situationsand so many different reasons for
doing it a multitude of ways.
Absolutely.
And they all could make sense.
It's just I love hearing aboutthe options and how people have utilized
that and what they regret accomplished.
Absolutely.
Now, the next one here issomething that I ran into here, and
(19:31):
this is just over the lastcouple months.
I didn't even realize itbecause I'm not in an hoa.
We're seeing a huge trend inthe States where large builders,
these are those big nationalbuilders that are putting in townhome
projects or residentialcommunities where the houses are
pretty tight together, thatkind of stuff.
Large builders are running theHOAs for the communities they build.
(19:56):
Yeah, We've touched on this before.
Yeah.
And I want to go off on thisbecause the more I see, the more
I go, wow, this is incredible.
Monkeys running the zoo.
What's going on now is you'regetting a community being built,
and the home builders retaincontrol of the HOA board during the
initial phases of communitydevelopment, sometimes for years,
(20:19):
until a certain percentage ofhomes are sold.
But the crazy part is that ifyou're complaining about it, you're
complaining to the builder.
And the builder goes, yeah,HOA board said no.
They hired the HOA board.
Yeah.
They're their employees.
Their interest is, number one,where the residence is number two.
And that's kind of interesting.
But here's what I'm seeing.
(20:40):
And before we're heading outto break here in a second, what I'm
seeing is they're staying onboard still.
So the one here where mygirlfriend's house is, they're still
in control of this thing sevenyears later.
They're the kind of ghostcompany behind it.
I want to understand how that works.
I'll let you go.
(21:01):
But, yeah, it's crazy.
Now, what happens, though,when you have a builder that built
things incorrectly, or whatyou and I would call defects in construction
of materials.
They make sure the HOA coversit and charges the homeowner for
it because they don't want toget sued.
But if they deal with thatthrough the HOA and it gets fixed,
(21:22):
you're eliminating theliability of the builder.
The HOA is not going to suethe builder for defects in materials,
siting, falling off.
We're going to have some issues.
Now when we come back, I wantto talk about some of the other stuff
that we're seeing with thisand stuff that you need to look for
as a homeowner.
We'll do that just as soon asaround the House returns.
(21:43):
Don't change that dial.
(23:34):
Welcome back to the around theHouse show, your trusted source for
home improvement information.
You want to get a hold of us,send us a message over to Roundthe
House online dot com.
I'd love to hear your HOAstories because I know you've got
them.
You know, there's people outthere that have dedicated YouTube
channels for this subject.
So you gotta have some out there.
(23:55):
And I've never really been in one.
Johnny, you've never reallybeen in one.
I am in one now and I tell youwhat it is.
The one I'm in is really scammy.
And it's a national homebuilder that if I name the name,
which I won't.
But for instance, what they dohere is they'll send out a message
(24:16):
on Sunday or Monday orwhatever and go, all right, we've
got an HOA meeting on Tuesdayat 2 o'.
Clock.
Yeah, everybody's work.
Thanks.
Yeah, nobody's coming to that.
Nobody's coming to that.
So I think what I'm going tostart doing is I'm going to be a
little proactive in this.
I think when that happens, I'mgoing to surprise and I'm going to
(24:37):
start showing up and then I'mgoing to bring my camera and record
it to make sure that it'sshared with everybody.
I think that's a fantastic idea.
And I'll tell you, I've had mybuddy Bryce, he bought a condo in
Arizona.
They had an hoa.
I didn't know much about it.
I just listened to him bitchabout it like everybody does.
(24:57):
And my mom is also involved inone up in Lake Taps.
But I guess the confusion Iwanted to ask you about because I
myself have never beeninvolved in one, is it's a homeowners
association.
So a.
Wouldn't there be a directionthat you have to be a homeowner there?
(25:19):
Not counting.
I'm a builder that hasn't solda home, so I technically own that
empty home that should not Count.
And secondly, some kind ofregulation that says you can't be
the general contractor on the job.
They said it's a.
There should be no relation.
It's a total conflict of interest.
(25:40):
Right.
The homeowner stationassociation should be a voted group
of actual homeowners that livethere and monitor situations and
rectify them accordingly,whether that's going out and getting
bids on the jobs that need done.
I've worked for several ofthem as a contractor.
Worked for plenty of them.
(26:01):
I don't remember any of them being.
Yeah, I'm the generalcontractor that built this whole
complex.
And I honestly, I can't seehow that's feasibly legal, even it
seems.
I'm sure there's plenty of loopholes.
It's just an hoa.
But come on, guys, thatdoesn't seem fair.
Doesn't seem right, doesn'tseem just.
And these guys are crazy herebecause the streets out in front
(26:24):
are the city.
They're the city streets.
They're not the homeowners association.
Yeah.
They're not a private drive.
But like the neighbor, he wasgetting fined because he had too
many cars parked on thestreet, which has nothing.
To do with the housing complex.
No, it's city street.
That's.
Call the police, have them,ticket them.
(26:44):
Yeah, I'd be fighting that onein court.
They used to come by and givemy girlfriend a hard time because
dogs, she.
If you walk from onedirection, there's all this landscaping
stuff, and the first greengrass is her yard.
If she was getting brown spotsfrom dogs peeing in the grass, they
would try to find her forspots in the grass from the dog,
(27:06):
pee from.
Not her dog.
I get super.
Well, I get vigilant overstuff like that.
I'm like, man, that's why I'mgetting involved.
Break open.
Let's break open the books here.
You've.
Yeah, I think it's time tohonestly see what's going on.
Let's see what's going on.
Let's see your relationshipsto the contractors that you are hiring
(27:27):
to come in and repaint and fixthese things.
And.
And let's see whose cousin'sgetting paid from who and how much
is going back into your coffers.
And I mean, that's legitconcern this.
I would have an HOA memberthat is not one from the general
contractor.
Go talk to an attorney and go,how are they getting away with this?
(27:48):
Oh, yeah.
Seriously.
Yeah.
And the crazy thing is, too,is that now the homeowners in the
homeowners association underThese warranties, especially on buildings
like this, the developments,it's usually not just a one year
warranty.
You can get them years laterfor defects in material and stuff
(28:09):
like that.
Right now the homeownersassociation is paying stuff for what?
Especially on condos in these places.
The homeowners association isnow paying for what the builder should
be on the hook for.
They're able to shirk thatresponsibility somehow.
This just gets so crooked andI don't understand.
(28:30):
Her place is what, 10 yearsold or something?
Seven.
Yeah, seven.
And you're having to repaintit and the paint's falling off and
the wood's rotten and it'stheir responsibility to take care
of the exterior of the building.
How is nobody pitching a firearound this camp?
Like, seriously?
Oh yeah.
Guess what I'm going to bedoing, brother?
(28:50):
Do it.
Do it.
We'll have tons of fodder forthe show.
I'm curious.
I'm really curious.
And again, please speak to the audience.
Like if you've got any kind ofexperiences like this with HOA stuff,
please share the wealth with us.
Because it's something I'm notreal knowledgeable in, but I'm also
no dummy to do the math to go,that's the horse run and the trainer,
that's the monkey run in the zoo.
(29:11):
That's okay.
And you know, that's people'shard spent money that's going to
waste and going into pocketswhere it shouldn't go on.
No.
Yeah.
It's crazy.
It's.
I want to come out there andget busy.
Yeah.
I'm going to have some funwith that one.
That's going to be my sportfor the winter and fall and spring
here is going to be starting alittle bit of a battle, brother.
(29:33):
I wanted to transition nowover to another subject which is
going to be probably even morecontroversial from that point of
view.
I want to talk about style andhot things that are out for 2026.
Not a big fashion guy, butlet's go.
Ah.
And you might agree with someof this stuff.
(29:53):
One of the big ones that aregoing away in most homes is the Chip
and Joanna Gaines Shiplap.
That's been done with respectto wall covering or wall coverings
in floor.
You know where you come in,you take the white MDF boards, you
paint it wire, you paint itgray and you put it up on the wall
(30:14):
and it's that kind ofminimalist, 50 shades of gray inside
the house.
Wainscoting of sorts or fullwall cover, planks of boards.
You've been out of thecountry, so you haven't seen that
as much here.
It's been just, you know, it here.
It's been.
(30:34):
Sheesh.
As popular as roosterwallpaper in the 90s.
It was just everywhere.
Huh.
So that's a big one.
That started in about 2015.
It's been going for a decade.
It's done now.
And is that going for a rusticvibe or a modern vibe?
You say 50 shades of gray.
(30:55):
Modern Farm out is what Iwould call.
Okay, yeah, that's what I'm thinking.
I mean, great in a beachcabin, but yeah.
And that's the thing.
I still think that it has its place.
That's one of the exceptions.
The beach cabin not in a downtown.
You're not putting in the loft.
High rise townhome.
Yeah, not at all.
(31:17):
So you're seeing thatbasically being gone.
Sorry, Chip and Joanne, I gotnothing against you, but that's just
a style you brought in, andit's definitely worked its way, like
almost every style does 10years ago.
It's a great run.
What's replacing it?
You're seeing a lot of morewall treatments with more depth,
sophistication.
You're actually seeing stuffright now, like new kinds of lime
(31:41):
wash or plaster finishes.
There are some people outthere that do really good artisan
work where it looks like it's.
And we're not talking the2000s Venetian plaster, but we're
talking about the crazy coolstuff that you're seeing where it
looks like it makes the walllook like concrete or it makes it
look like some kind of stone.
(32:03):
It looks really cool.
It's good for that kind ofMediterranean or modern look, even
rustic.
And it's all done with plasterand painting, which is really cool.
I don't know if you've seen.
I put it at my last house.
It's that vertical wall slatwhere you've got a slat of walnut,
a micro slat of felt flowerblack behind it.
And so it gives you thatstriped wood look.
(32:26):
Acoustical panels.
Yeah.
Brings back that 70s vibe.
That's a great one right there.
So good for a pool room.
Absolutely.
That stuff is super cool.
Now we come back, we got a lotmore to go through, so we're gonna
have to lightning roundthrough these so we can get them
touched on, because there's alot more that's out for next year.
(32:47):
So if you're starting thatproject right now, you might want
to think about this stuff alittle bit around the house.
We return after theseimportant messages.
Keep an Eye out for those sponsors.
They're the ones that keep theshow going.
For more information on theshow, head to aroundthe house online.com
around the house show will beright back.
(34:41):
All right, welcome back, guys,to the around the House Show.
Your trusted source for homeimprovement information, Johnny Dudley
and I have been sitting heretalking about a lot of different
things this hour, but if youhave a comment on these, if you didn't
like my shiplap commentearlier, send us a message over to
(35:01):
roundthehouse online.com we'rehere to help.
And if you have one that youthink is out that we didn't talk
about, love to hear it fornext week's episode.
Might be able to slide you inthe show.
That might be something coolwe could do.
Johnny, would be to sit thereand have a comments from last week's
show section.
We absolutely need to.
We haven't done enough ofthat, in my opinion.
(35:23):
So, yeah, y' all are going tohear us pushing, prodding a lot more
to get more of your input.
Make sure we're staying on thebeam and giving you what you want
and always getting better,always finding new ideas, always
hearing new opinions.
That only helps us to help you.
So please reach out.
We love it.
We love it.
Love it.
(35:44):
Absolutely.
All right, here's my next one.
We've talked about this a fewepisodes ago, but that vinyl plank
flooring, the click togethervinyl plank flooring, I think that
has finally run its course andI think a lot of it is because it
promised a lot of great thingsand it has been pretty durable out
(36:05):
there.
But they'll give you a 30 yearwarranty on the floor.
But you can walk through astair transition and wear the edge
of that off in 10 months.
Or you walk across an olderfloor or a floor that's got a little
spring to it.
Maybe when the builder builtit, they didn't block it out well.
And so it's got a little bitof spring to it and it just makes
everything come unconnectedand you have to remove the floor
(36:25):
and relay it down again.
I think there's been enough ofthat that the vinyl plank floor I
think is on the way out.
I think this 2025 is the lastyear of that being hot.
And I know there's a lot ofpeople, even John and I were talking
before we came on going, butthe stuff was so easy to lay.
Yeah.
But when he had to come backand fix it six months later, it wasn't
(36:46):
so cool.
Yeah.
Nobody likes warranty claims,Nobody likes warning claims.
All right, ready for the nextone, Johnny?
What do we got?
All white or all gray interiors?
That stark minimalist look ofall white or gray on gray spaces.
Super popular.
2010, 2020s has now gone coldand impersonal.
(37:09):
Yeah.
Same thing happened in 89.
Yeah.
Think about in the 90s howeverything was like brass doorknobs,
just bright brass.
Bright brass, Bryce brass.
And you got into the 22thousands and everybody went fresh
bronze, rub bronze, all thatkind of stuff.
It was just.
It's always like a big sweep.
(37:29):
So what's hot now?
Warmer neutrals.
You're seeing those creamy beiges.
Beiges like a taupe, even aterracotta sage.
All these different colors are dominating.
It's almost like the 70s, midto late 70s colors.
Our back.
Yeah.
I think the world's lookingfor a little comfort.
(37:49):
Yeah.
On the horse we get allmechanical and I don't know how to
say it exactly, but minimalistand super modern.
And I think society as awhole, just people cycle with things
start getting awry and gettinga little crazy in the world.
We're like, we're looking forthat comfort food and it comes in
(38:12):
paint colors.
Absolutely, absolutely.
And the other thing I'm seeingtoo is stainless steel appliances
in some kind of contexts aregoing away as well.
You're seeing in higher endproducts, like higher end kitchens,
you're seeing much more of apaneled look.
You're seeing where they'rebuilt in flush.
(38:33):
Even the oven front of theoven is flush with the cabinetry.
You're seeing a lot of that stuff.
You're seeing bold coloredranges where it's a avocado green
or a yellow or a red or a purple.
You're seeing that where theranges that way.
But really stainless steelappliances have now gone to where
white appliances used to be,where you walk in and go up.
(38:54):
That's the builder basic oneswhere you.
Sounds like it speaks to thesame point we were just talking about
back to like we need color andcolor brings emotion and senses.
And we look for comfort in ourhomes as a general rule.
And when the world feelsscary, ah, it makes sense that we
(39:16):
go back to some comforting,soothing mel.
Not metal.
Cold, white, steep.
Like you want a little applepie in there.
Yeah.
Warm.
All right, man, the wholeworld's beating me up.
I want to come home to a nicewarm yellow stove or whatever.
Whatever.
Yeah.
Here's the other thing, too.
(39:37):
Authentic spaces are big.
What I mean by that is notusing all the fake plastic stuff
in there, using real wood,using Real stone.
Sometimes when you go intoyour Home Depot's or Lowe's or some
of those more builder basicplaces, those finishes are inauthentic
in a way you can.
(39:57):
Oh, that looks like plastic.
That's not real.
Yeah.
You know where outside thingsare going to composite for durability.
Inside, it's going back intowood warmth, which is awesome.
And that's a big one.
Warmth is big.
That's what's in.
So you're seeing those earthyneutrals, kind of like those bold
jewel tones or natural woodsto really create inviting spaces.
(40:21):
And so I think that's big.
Now, one of the things thatI'm seeing, and we're going to run
out of time here pretty soon,but one of the things that I'm seeing
too is you're seeing designersflip this way.
Many designers aren't ontowhat the current trends would be.
And I wanted to talk aboutthis since we're talking trends.
What, how trends change so fast.
(40:42):
Now, Johnny, when you and Istarted out in construction, if we
grabbed the latestArchitectural Digest magazine at
the grocery store, forinstance, we knew that project was
designed probably four or fiveyears ago.
It was built the next year anda half.
(41:02):
It got completely done.
Then they took pictures and ittook nine months to a year before
that hit a magazine.
So that project could havebeen done for four or five years
before the public saw it.
Heck, now if you and I had aconstruction meeting showing drawings
to a client with textures andpieces of samples, they'd have it
(41:25):
on Internet on their Pinterestboard within 10 minutes of the meeting
being out.
And it's out in the public.
Yeah, huge difference.
Styles would change almost bythe decade.
There was a 70s look, therewas an 80s look, there was a 90s
look.
Now that's a, yeah, 2005 look.
(41:46):
There's a 2000.
So it really can change on a dime.
And it was funny.
When I was designing higherend projects, I knew a style was
starting to die in those days.
When it showed up at HomeDepot or Lowe's, they were the last
to get there because they hadto pivot.
This big ship might take themfour or five years to believe that's
a style.
(42:06):
Then it comes out and the newone's coming in.
Back when we were going at ittogether, you could walk in nine
out of 10 kitchens and youknew it was cherry cabinets, shaker
doors, granite countertops,Viking range.
Like it just it.
We printed them out like Volkswagens.
(42:26):
Yeah.
And yeah, you're right, it'sway quicker.
The Quickening has become.
And a large part of that'sInternet and accessibility and people
making their own decisions andnot relying on stuff.
For the last four years, it'sbeen this, so it must be this.
It's just.
It's a different world,different game, and it's changing
(42:47):
yearly, which is.
Can be unfortunate becauseyou're like, no, I love this year.
And then next year it's gonewhere you at least used to get a
good 5 years before yourkitchen look dated.
After you spent 50k on that,you're like, what do you mean it's
dated?
Yeah, brother.
In our last minute here, theway to prevent that is if you pick
a good natural wood.
(43:07):
Natural woods tend to be in nomatter what, to some extent.
And then if you do knobs onthe hardware in the kitchen so you
can change those out to thenext hottest color, right?
Yep.
And you do a tile backsplashthat you're not sold on, that maybe
in five to 10 years you canswap out and you stay on top of paint
colors and hopefully picksomething kind of natural for the
(43:30):
countertop.
You're probably going to begood to go.
And you can slide it into places.
Yeah.
You can fudge stuff aroundwhere just like you said, swap out
all the drawer pulls in thecabinet handles, paint it a different
color, and you'll probably getin the ballpark, maybe change an
appliance after three years or something.
But, yeah, generally speaking.
Yeah, generally speaking, it'smore about decoration at that point
(43:52):
than it is about.
More about aesthetics than itis about the actual products that
are in the kitchen at that point.
Like, how do you keep up with.
Pretend it's Christmas, butit's for the whole year.
Absolutely.
Decorate accordingly.
And by the way, when you'reworking with a designer out there,
the last thing I want to saybefore we get a break is your personal
taste matters.
Your designer is the personyou hired for that project.
(44:13):
So make sure that what you'regetting what you want.
But maybe they're steering youto make sure that you're not making
any glaring mistakes, thatyou're picking something that's either
outdated or is going to beoutdated or is not going to last
for you.
Pay attention to that designerbecause they are there to help.
You're paying for their expertise.
Definitely lean in becauseyou've already hired them.
(44:34):
Or if you have any doubts, youemail Eric G. And he'll dial you
in.
There we go over to RoundtheHouse online dot com.
All right, guys, end of the show.
Thanks for tuning in.
Feel free to reach out to us.
We got a great show coming upnext week as well.
That excited?
We're coming up towardsThanksgiving already.
I don't know what's going on,what other alternative universe we're
(44:55):
in, but it's creeping up, andwe got to get ready for it.
Crazy.
Are you ready, Johnny?
Yeah, I don't.
I miss it down here.
We don't really have it, so.
Yeah, there we go.
There we go.
No, no panic.
No stress for me.
I like it.
Easy, easy.
All right, guys.
I'm Eric G. Exactly.
(45:16):
And I'm Johnny D. You've been listening.
To around the House.
Enjoy your taco.
With.
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