September 18, 2025 • 32 mins
Renovation or rebuild? That's the question many homeowners face when their current space no longer meets their needs. In this episode, Donnie and E break down the fundamentals of home renovation, sharing insider knowledge that helps you make informed decisions about transforming your living spaces.
The kitchen remains renovation central for most homeowners, but approaches have evolved. Rather than gutting everything, strategic updates to cabinets, countertops, and backsplashes can deliver dramatic results without breaking the bank. Small changes like hardware upgrades or cabinet painting offer budget-friendly alternatives, though Donnie cautions that even seemingly minor updates can add up quickly when multiplied across an entire kitchen.
Master bathroom renovations reveal fascinating shifts in homeowner preferences. The once-coveted soaker tub is rapidly losing popularity, with many choosing to replace these rarely-used fixtures with expansive walk-in showers. This transformation typically involves converting the tub area to a shower while repurposing the original shower space for additional storage – a perfect example of how renovations can improve both aesthetics and functionality.
Perhaps most surprising is the dining room revolution. As formal dining becomes increasingly rare in busy households, these spaces often sit unused. Creative homeowners are converting dining rooms into valuable additions: extra bedrooms that boost home value, expanded kitchen areas with island seating, or oversized pantries that keep countertops clutter-free. These adaptations reflect evolving lifestyle needs while maximizing every square foot.
For exterior updates, deck renovations deliver exceptional return on investment. Donnie shares a brilliant hack from a viral Instagram post: flipping weathered deck boards to expose the less-damaged underside, then sanding and sealing for several more years of life. It's this kind of practical, money-saving advice that makes renovation accessible to more homeowners.
Whether you're considering minor updates or contemplating a complete rebuild, this episode provides the guidance you need to approach your project with confidence. Visit thecarolinacontractor.com to connect with Donnie and submit your home improvement questions for future episodes.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Carolina Contractor Show with
your host, General ContractorDonnie Blanchard.
Let's talk about the elephantin the room, Donnie.
Football season is back.
It's an exciting time.
It's the most wonderful time ofthe year, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
It is man, I can't lie, this is my absolute
favorite sport to watch on TVand I think they put us through
baseball, baseball, a hundredand some games a season on
purpose all summer, just to makefootball that much better.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
You're right, yeah, a hundred and a sixty two, sixty
four games.
So I do want to mention I don'tlike having to pay, and when
they made NFL red zone havecommercials and they tried to
justify the commercials, I'mlike that's it, I'm not going to
do it.
So I don't know if I can getthis on camera without pulling
out TV.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Look what I bought.
What in the world do you gotthere, rabbit ears, oh my gosh
Old school, so a lot of peopledon't realize.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
With your HDTV you'll have an antenna plug-in point
and that picks up those over theair HD channels and I got a
first sweep.
I got like six, next I got like12 and now I got 26 channels.
But I got all the networks andplus already have Amazon prime
so I can watch Thursday nightgames, I can watch the college
football on Saturdays, I can getSunday games, I can get Monday
night.
I'm like I ain't paying adollar and I got technology from
(01:23):
the fifties Nice and I paid a$14 for that thing and it works
like a charm.
Your mileage may vary, but ifyou want to save some bills, buy
a little UHF thing and youdon't have to pay ESPN or red
zone to watch their commercials.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Best tip of the show E thank you for that.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
There you go, and and this isn't about technology for
TV viewing and football it'sthe Carolina Contractor Show,
and for those of you going, Ican't see anything.
Well, we do a YouTube show also.
We will record the show andit's on the radio.
We make it a podcast.
We also put it up on ourYouTube channel.
Now, to make things simple,donnie made this website called
(02:05):
thecarolinacontractorcom, and ithas links to all our podcasts.
It has links to the YouTubepage, the Facebook page, the IG
page which I'm going to get onin a minute and it gives you a
basic idea of what we do.
Donnie's a general contractor.
I work in sales of constructionmaterials, so we kind of know
about your house, building it,renovating it which will be
something else we'll discuss ina minute Upkeep, maintenance
(02:27):
inside, outside, all sorts ofstuff, and we just like talking
about it, and hopefully you dotoo.
Donnie also came up with thisgreat thing called From the
Construction Site to the StudioMic, because basically, donnie,
you just came from work, right?
Speaker 2 (02:43):
I did, I did.
I don't understand how I signmyself up to do the show after
hours.
You know, I hit five o'clockand feeling like my brain is
fried and somehow we muster upthe mental energy to put it
together every week.
So thankful for that.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Yeah, it's some work.
It looks like it's all gloryand wine and roses but there's a
lot of stuff that goes onbehind the scenes.
But that website has everythingyou need.
It also has a ask thecontractor button.
So if you have a question aboutyour house, donnie is real good
at answering those questionsdirectly and we'll do some
upcoming shows which we justanswer a whole bunch of
questions and rapid fire forumabout your house Again, whatever
(03:21):
it is, the inside, the outside,the roof house Again, whatever
it is the inside, the outside,the roof, electrical plumbing we
will do our best to answer it.
But you got to start atthecarolinacontractorcom.
Now I mentioned the YouTubepage and the Facebook page.
We also have an IG page.
So if you just search theCarolina contractor show, you
can find it.
Kudos to Donnie.
It is a team effort on our show.
But Donnie put up a viral video.
(03:42):
What three weeks ago, two weeksago, two weeks ago?
Well, he put up a video.
It went viral.
It's now got 264,000 views.
We've got a lot of new peoplethat have started following us.
So welcome aboard.
And this is a weird fact.
Uh, and it's, this is a weirdfact.
(04:03):
You can see all the the uhspecific stats of your video and
your page, our IG page.
3% of our audience from downunder Australia.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
At least they speak the same language.
They can understand what we'resaying.
I wonder if they try to imitateour accent.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Oh, they probably make fun of us, and I'm
perfectly fine with that becausewe have a sense of humor.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Exactly no a for clarity.
I know a lot of people IGacronym for Instagram.
So it seems like, out of allthe popular social media sites,
that Instagram is the one thatpromotes videos pertaining to
what we do every day.
You know, if you put somethingon Facebook, I think that's a
generally an older audience,generally an older audience, and
(04:46):
it's more about Facebook.
I think it's more of like a um,uh, social place between people
that want to air out theirpersonal lives kind of thing,
and I think Instagram istailored more towards businesses
.
So if you want to get tips andtricks, you know that seems to
be the place to go.
And um, yeah, very grateful thateverybody liked the video.
And, uh, I waited for it to hitabout 150,000.
I told the homeowner.
I said you have no idea thateverybody in the world loves
(05:07):
your video, so that really madeher feel good.
And, uh, we weren't evenfinished with the.
Uh, we weren't finished withthe bathroom completely, we were
98%.
The only thing I hadn't done inthat video, if you'll notice
that I didn't add the crown tothe top of the tower between the
two sinks.
And so my fiance that was thefirst thing she said well,
where's the crown on the towerand I was like sweetheart.
The video is great and you know, of course that's what she
(05:32):
picks up with her critical eye,but, um yeah, everybody loved it
.
I was so thankful for theinteraction and, you know, maybe
now we figured out the recipe,so I'll try to do a lot more of
that.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Yeah, and it was funny because some of the
comments were exactly what theyour fiance said Well, it would
look better if it had crown.
Well, it's not finished, Comeon, just settle down everybody.
But yeah, if you want to gocheck out the video, just search
for the Carolina ContractorShow on Instagram Now, today.
What we're going to talk aboutwe'll see how far in the deets
(05:59):
we can get with it is aboutrenovating your house, and a
little bit.
Maybe renovating isn't thething you need to do.
You might have to do a wholenew build and things you got to
consider, but you do renovations, Donnie, right All the time, oh
all the time.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
We love renovations.
A lot of people are scared ofthose because oftentimes the
homeowner lives theresimultaneous when the work is
being done.
But you know, if you take theright approach and set the right
expectations, renovations cango beautifully and and really
you know, the transformationthat you get at the end.
Uh makes everything worthwhile.
I think the major part of thatrecipe is having a good fit
between the contractor andhomeowner, but we've been
(06:35):
fortunate enough to work withsome really good people.
Uh turned into be lifelongcustomers and friends, so that's
good.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
And I guess there's a few things you have to consider
before you're going to do arenovation or, if it's a new
construction, is you've got toconsider why are you doing it?
I mean, obviously you want tomake your place more comfortable
to live.
Maybe it's not functional.
You need to take out a wall.
Or you want to be able to seeinto the living room from your
kitchen Aesthetics.
You might just think that trimor that stairwell is plain old
(07:03):
ugly and you want to change it.
Or, as I like to say, do youwant a new vanity because of
your vanity?
But it's pretty normal to lookat your house and go man, it's
not that this is a mistake, butI would like to change this or
update it or fix some things andthat's where the whole thing of
(07:25):
renovation comes from andgetting multiple estimates I
guess this is obviously yourwheelhouse.
Donnie is finding a contractorwho can not only do the work but
handle the permits and thelittle things that a homeowner
wouldn't know what to do.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Yeah, I think the threshold in North Carolina is
still $30,000.
So if the renovation is goingto exceed $30,000, you're going
to need somebody with a legitcontractor license.
I want to say the levels of thelicense are a half million for
that.
The lowest is now $750,000.
(08:05):
They moved the intermediate to$1 million and then the
unlimited is just that.
So I think finding the rightcontractor not that you would
need an unlimited for arenovation, but I guess in some
cases that might work be thething.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
But yeah, finding the right contractor with the right
license limitation, getting anidea for your budget, I guess
would be the starting point forthat, and again for those of you
watching on video uh, daisy,the, uh, the mascot of the show,
once again, every time shehears your voice it seems like a
joke by baby Um, she has tocome and make a visit, so you,
your voice, uh attracts the beesof the canine world.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
I've been a dog person all my life.
I don't know what it is.
We're going to build a housefor an awesome couple.
They listen to the show, shoutout to Mitzi and Ron.
I met with them yesterday andtheir dogs all approved of me,
so I think that was a big partof the homeowner contractor
acceptance process I had one ofmy dogs almost attack an
ex-girlfriend and then when mywife met my dog, the dog loved
(09:12):
all over.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
So I agree, Dogs can tell good people.
So you talked about when youhave a renovation.
You need to have a goodrelationship with your
contractor because you're goingto become best buddies very
quickly because they're going tobe in your house all the time,
depending on the scope of therenovation.
And, Donnie, you own SureTopRoofing and getting a new roof
for the most part is not veryintrusive on a homeowner.
When the process is going onthere would be hammering and
(09:33):
nailing and things like that.
Maybe you hear a nail gunfiring off, but for the most
part it's all outside on top ofyour house.
But if you're going to get yourkitchen redone, your life is
going to be greatly impacted andif you're going to get the
master bathroom done, yourpersonal life is going to be
greatly impacted because thoseare longer processes and very
(09:56):
intrusive.
Is that something you prepare aclient?
Speaker 2 (09:59):
for Absolutely A lot of times you're not able to do
the work while they live in thehouse.
If it's a kitchen or a masterbath, it depends on their
situation with their children.
A lot of times you'll have athree bedroom house at a minimum
, and they'll have anotherbedroom or another bedroom
bathroom combo that they can usewhile you're doing the work.
If it's a bathroom renovationsimilar to the one we just
(10:19):
finished on the viral video thatyou mentioned earlier, but in a
kitchen situation, they have toreally be prepared.
So we have a renovation goingright now and it's a split level
, so we're doing the downstairs,which is where their primary
kitchen is.
They do have an alternativeupstairs to be able to have
running water and everything,but what we did in that
circumstance is they had a pipeburst, so downstairs on the slab
(10:41):
flooded minor flood but stillruined the cabinets and
everything.
We set up a temporary sink and acoffee bar and some things like
that.
So you know, very bougie for arenovation, but uh, I would love
to take credit for that.
But Hannah and Matt actuallythought of that and they said,
hey, is there any way we can getrunning water down here,
because they have three childrenand you know it's just not.
It's not reasonable to to tohave three kids in the house
(11:07):
without some sort of uh,makeshift kitchen in place.
So we did that and we actuallyhad to.
We just said the cabinet.
So we had to pull thattemporary sink, but we bought a
utility sink, uh, from theplumbing supply house for about
$150, you know, utility sink,faucet combo, and it was a very
cheap thing to get them down theroad so they could live in the
house while we were doing thework.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
We're going to kind of focus on North Carolina,
hence the name of the show, butsome of these renovations are
very popular nationwide.
But I did a little research ofwhat was popular in our
beautiful North state.
You're just talking kitchens.
What are the common upgradesfor renovations there?
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Really just cabinets and countertops.
And if you're okay with thecabinet layout that you have,
you could just do cabinet doorsyou know everything shaker style
doors or what's in right now,but raised panel is what people
did right up until that.
So I still am a fan of both.
I think it depends on thebasically the style of the house
.
So a cheaper way to just do aminor makeover is just to do the
(12:07):
drawer and cabinet doorhardware but to get away from
the cabinets.
You know you, you get to thecountertops and the backsplash.
I think that's what makes a bigchange to the appearance of the
kitchen.
And really, you know, overallyou could paint the cabinets if
you wanted to keep existing andjust do countertops and a
backsplash, and just thatchanges the color scheme of the
(12:27):
whole kitchen.
So you know, there's so manyways to skin that cat.
But I think one big thing thatI like with the countertop folks
that I use uh and they're localas well Um, they give you a
sink with the countertopsbecause they usually want to
mount those undermount sinks tothe countertops.
They don't want a plumbercoming in and giving it a whirl
and doing it wrong.
So, uh, with with mine, I'mgoing to change my countertops
(12:50):
out eventually, but I reallyliked the fact that I can change
my sink.
I would have done itdifferently if I had put those
on today, but, um, just a littleadded bonus there.
But I think cabinets,countertops and backsplash are
the big ones.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Yeah, my wife and I have talked about doing a
cabinet painting, which we wouldsand them and repaint them a
different color and I looked atchanging the hardware which we
might.
But I like the soft closehinges and that you mentioned
about changing out your hardwareis an easy little fix.
You got to be prepared going into buy even hardware, hinges
(13:22):
and new handles and stuff,because they can get really
expensive.
The soft close hinges can beanywhere from three to five
times more than your standardhinge for a cabinet and if you
go into your kitchen and counthow many cabinet doors you have
and usually you have to multiplytwo hinges all of a sudden it
adds up quick.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
I'll tell you a solution to that, and it's not
always a solution, but we havebought more cabinet hardware on
Amazon this year than everbefore, and it's just like they.
Every year they add more andmore options and we've got
hardware stores in Greensboroand in Raleigh that we can send
homeowners to.
But you know, everybody seemsto be busy.
And when you can get just aboutthe same thing on Amazon and
(14:05):
I'm not a supporter of buyingthings that are made in China,
but once in a while, when it'syour quality of life and if you
have extra time versus orderingit right now and it'll be here
before you wake up tomorrowsometime that's the easiest
route.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Yeah, I will never argue the expediency of
something like that, but if youhave old hinges you're trying to
match, you gotta be careful.
You gotta know yourmeasurements to the 16th of an
inch, cause if you even buy newhinges, if you don't know what
you're doing, you can look atsomething oh, this is going to
be the hinge that will match myother, and then you'll find out
they don't match, they don't fitinto the existing route.
(14:44):
All sorts of things can happen.
So it is good to have acontractor where you're doing
that and that sounds like asmall renovation, but the
kitchen is the most popular onewhere you really get into it.
Next would be the bathroom andyour experience of a bathroom
renovation.
Is it a downstairs or anupstairs that's done the most?
Speaker 2 (14:56):
I'm talking a half bath versus a full oh full bath
for sure.
You know half bath basicallyjust swap out the fixtures and a
lot of times those half bathshave, you know, a pedestal sink.
So you really can't go backwith much else besides a
pedestal, because the plumbingis is coming out of the wall a
different way behind a pedestalthan it would if you had a
vanity cabin.
So you know you're kind ofbound to that pedestal if that's
(15:17):
what you had to start with.
But uh, definitely, butdefinitely.
Master bathroom remodels seemto be the most popular and I
agree with that.
If you're paying the housepayment, then you should
renovate the space that you useevery day and maybe, if there's
anything left over, give that tothe visitors or the kids.
And but yeah, the bathroomremodels seem to be the most
(15:38):
popular out of the three.
The main thing that everybodywants to do now is sort of like
I know we'll get to the diningrooms later, but people are
abandoning soaker tubs anddining rooms these days, so
nobody wants to take a bath.
I mean, you have a handful ofpeople that want to take a bath
and what I'm seeing the peoplethat actually put a bathtub in a
master bath renovation.
They're usually like a clawfootfancy tub.
(15:59):
So it's something that's castiron, you know, very heavy, and
A lot of people still take bathsthe majority of the folks that
reach out to us do not.
So what we're doing now istaking those big soaker tubs
that usually sit on a big tilebase.
We're pulling those out ofthere and we're putting a
walk-in shower in place of that,and usually, where they had a
(16:21):
three-by-three or even smallerwalk-in shower in the master,
we're turning that into just abigger closet for the bathroom
so they can put their linens inthere.
And that seems to be the swapthe bathroom that went viral on
Instagram.
That's exactly what we didthere, and I'll try to put
another video up showing wherewe started and what we finished
with.
But that shower that you see inthe video used to be where the
(16:43):
soaker tub was.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Well, let's jump to the dining room, because you
make a good point.
We have a dining room that cancomfortably sit six, but with
one kid in college and two olderones and a funky life schedule,
it tends to hold things morethan hold dinners.
So there's a couple optionspeople don't think about if
you're going to renovate adining room, what you can turn
(17:05):
it into.
Give them examples.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Yeah, a big thing.
When we did the TV show acouple years back, we basically
renovated several smaller houses.
I'd say seven out of the 10episodes we had houses under
1,200, 1,300 square feet and ahouse that size is not very
friendly to bedrooms and if youdo have two or three bedrooms,
they're usually small.
One particular one that comesto mind is a house that it was
(17:30):
two bedrooms, one bath and ithad a big dining room and there
was no point for the big diningroom.
And the dining room actuallyhad a little inset which we
turned into a closet.
But all we did is basicallyframe the walls in and close the
dining room in.
We turned that inset into afull-blown closet with a door
and cool thing was it turnedthat two bedroom into a
(17:50):
three-blown closet with a door.
And cool thing was it turnedthat two-bedroom into a
three-bedroom.
So it upped the value of thehouse by about $60,000 for about
I don't know less than $2,000or $3,000 worth of work.
And you were going to put afloor in there.
Anyway, it was just the walls,the drywall and the interior
doors and trim.
So there was that Another thingwith a dining room, if it's uh,
(18:11):
with sort of like the greatroom approach where it combines
with the kitchen.
There's no walls in between, youknow.
That gives you the possibilityto expand your cabinets in there
and do what they call an eat-inkitchen.
Uh, that seems to be a popularthing these days because
everybody congregates around anIsland, so the big island with
the wraparound countertop andbarstool space.
(18:32):
That's a popular thing.
And I would say the only thingthat I've done other than that
is close that dining room in tomake a massive pantry.
So people seem to not wantthings on their countertops
these days, meaning toasterovens, coffee makers and you
turn a dining room into a pantryand it basically gets all the
(18:52):
clutter off of your counter,which I kind of like.
That I wish we did sit down andhave more dinners where
everybody sat across the tableand did that sort of thing, but
with busy lives and separateschedules, that's just not
realistic.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
No, but I think it's a fantastic idea to.
If you have a multi-level houseand you don't want to sell it
as you get older, you can addthat bedroom into a lower room
in the house.
It's not utilized.
We have a dining room.
We have an even larger what wecall playroom that could easily
be a master bedroom.
It's so big through aconversion and maybe people are
(19:29):
hesitant right now to go.
I don't know if I want to makeit turn my dining room, maybe
someday.
What about holiday?
No, go ahead and do it.
Trust me, it's a.
It's a great idea to takeadvantage of all that floor
space.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Yeah, I agree 100%.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
All right, uh, not everybody has a basement.
Uh, some people do.
And converting a basement intoa livable space, instead of just
leaving it block, wall orsomething, you could make it a
great room, a cool room, a mancave, you could make it a
recording studio even, but youdefinitely would add value to
the overall square footage ofthe house and you've done that?
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Yeah, absolutely you.
You totally get credit for anykind of heated and cooled square
footage, whether it be basement, uh, or you know, if you
finished out, turned a garageeven, or an old carport into a
living space, you know you stillget credit for that on a sale
by the square foot.
And, um, what I did is, uh, Ibuilt my house in 2011, I
believe, and then, right around2015, um, decided to uh go ahead
(20:30):
and start the renovation, sodid this massive clean out, and
it was pretty cool because mykids were tiny and we just kind
of shove them in the basement,let them just bump into walls
and do whatever they wanted todo.
And about 2015, they got oldenough where they could take
care of something a little nicer.
So, um, I sat on a bucket in acorner of my basement and
thought, what can I make where?
And, uh, basically had a little10 by 10 that I turned into a,
(20:54):
a secondary office, and then Ileft the main area open like a
sort of like a great roomconcept.
And, um, of course, I went toApp State, so I made a mountain
theme and I did all wood wallswith pine walls, uh, tongue and
groove walls, and I dressed itout with cedar around the
doorways and the casings.
But cool thing we did isdesignated the back room, which
(21:14):
is about maybe 13 by 15, into amovie room.
So I don't have one of thosefancy theater, movie theater
rooms with the staggered seatingand the stepped up everything.
But you know there's a bathroomoff that room, so it's all one
level and we just basically havea sectional couch and a
recliner in there and a greatbig TV.
But I went all dark and so darkcarpet, dark walls, and then I
(21:39):
had my brick mason come in andhe basically built a stone
archway.
So we continued the stonearchway around the back wall of
the kitchen and the backsplashand man, I'll put some pictures
up.
I try not to put the personalstuff out there, but it is
really cool and it definitelyhas a mountain feel.
But we have a small kitchenettewith a sink and a refrigerator
(21:59):
and ping pong pool tables.
And I guess my favorite and notalways, but I'm trying to do
better is that we had one roomthat was about 30 feet by about
12 feet wide and it was justlong, awkward and narrow and we
turned that into a gymnasium.
So I have this App State-themedweight room and traded out a
lot of things in the weight rooma lot of equipment, dumbbells
(22:23):
and that sort of thing withsomeone for some roof work a
while back, so kind of got luckythere.
But we've got this black andyellow room with all the App
state memorabilia.
We've got commercial gradecarpet in there, so you can't
really hurt that and, um, youknow, the stereo and the TV, so
it's a good place to go jam out.
And only thing about that iswhen you get home, last thing
you want to do is more work.
So you gotta be motivated.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Yeah, that definitely is the case.
Now that's a lot of the insideparts of a house.
We're going to talk exteriorsand things you can renovate on
the outside of a house.
This is the Carolina ContractorShow.
I'm going to quick go over thecurb appeal stuff which I guess
can qualify as a renovationdepending on how deep it goes.
But we talked about in pastshows that people can go listen
(23:04):
to, about return on investmentthe ROI.
Stone veneers give you a goodROI, change the front of your
house instantly.
So does siding and paint.
We've talked about that a lot.
Garage door replacement hasalways been a super high ROI,
but the more I thought about itand consciously looked at houses
(23:24):
that had nice garage doors andnice framing, it really can make
a house look a lot more regalthan it is or than it was
looking before.
But a big thing would be to me,whether it's wood or composite,
is wood deck or composite deckadditions to a house.
You come across those a lot.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Donnie, yeah for sure , and I think the reason is they
wear out, and not so much thecomposite as the wood, but 80%
of the decks out there, or more,are treated lumber and you know
, heaven forbid it be on theNorth side of the house, which
was my scenario at the personalhouse, and of course, five years
, six years, in that treatedwould look terrible, and so you
either have to really try hardto maintain the treated, uh, and
(24:06):
babysit that thing year to year, or just go composite and
forget about it.
And of course there's differentgrades of composite.
We could get into that, but Iwon't, and that's that we.
We hear that oftentimes we puta video up on the Instagram, and
I hate to circle back to thatwith all this, but did you see
the one about?
It was a lady and she took hertime and went basically took up
(24:30):
all the screws and flipped thedeck boards.
Yep, brilliant, I thought sotoo, and that's about the
cheapest, smartest way to do adeck renovation.
If you can't afford to gocomposite and you want to get
another four to five years outof your existing deck, just flip
the deck boards and put thescrews in there and stain that
baby and call it a day.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
I agree, and it might not be quite as simple because
you might have some curvedboards, but still the overall
idea is the majority of themwill flip.
You'll be able to screw themright back into the joist, sand
it, stain it, seal it and maybeeven get more than five years.
But yeah, kudos to her, Ithought that was good.
Um, also like a grillingstations I know are big and and
(25:06):
fire pits and stuff.
You get those occasionally too,I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Yeah, um, yes, I do.
And I just finished a houseinsanely awesome house and I
can't wait when they, when theyget moved in, we're going to
clean her up and take someprofessional pictures, but it's
about 7,000 square feet justunder that.
And, um, the, the homeowner andI forged a heck of a friendship
and he, he's awesome, just a gogetter, I mean, one of the
hardest working guys I know, butjust a good family man.
(25:30):
On top of that.
I have encouraged him to takeup grilling and I said, dude,
you know you're not going to bein the city limits anymore.
You're going to spend a ton ofmoney eating out and it's going
to take you a lot of time to doit.
I encourage you to get a grill.
So he goes out and buys thisbadass grill Excuse my grill,
(25:51):
excuse my language, but buys anice one.
He works hard, he deserves it.
And the one thing I said is wehave stamped concrete on the
back patio there.
I said, please invest in agrill mat.
It's 30 bucks on Amazon.
A grill mat goes under there.
And he says I got a grease trap.
I said, dude, don't trust thegrease trap because it'll
overflow.
You're either going to babysitor just get some cheap insurance
.
So if you do the grill stationon the deck, you know, grab one
of those grill mats for 30, 20or 30 bucks off of Amazon and
(26:11):
you won't regret it.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
So another thing with renovations comes design trends
.
We're not going to spend a lotof time on it because that's a
personal preference, but I'msure as a contractor it's fun to
talk with people.
We one time put up the videofrom the notebook where he's
going what do you want?
She's like I don't know and I'msure you've lived that movie
scene many times, so you weren'tactually telling her or yelling
(26:33):
at the client.
But we've done shows on energyefficient systems and we've done
several shows on smart tech.
That's a big thing.
When you're renovating you havea chance to upgrade, changing
window sizes that's reallypopular when people come into
our store and they want newwindows, or talking with a
contractor about opening it up.
More Painting I'll get intothat later this year, some
(26:55):
changes and stuff that I'll bedoing.
But painting new colors, broadcolors Talk about a cheap
renovation is painting a room or, as I said, changing your
kitchen cabinet, sanding them,painting them, sealing them.
There's paints by, likeBenjamin Moore that are
specifically designed forcabinets and and wood design
(27:17):
that looks really, really goodif you want to do it.
Uh, we talked again aboutkitchen stuff you can do.
But when I mentioned renovationat the beginning of the show
Donnie I also talked about.
You could come acrosssituations that are going to be
more than renovation, and arethere a few examples you can
give or something for people toremember whether they should be
(27:38):
renovating or maybe juststarting almost over from
scratch?
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Yes, several Um.
One of the things that come tomind that I've experienced
before is that if you know you,you love your house, but it's
outdated.
That's renovation all day long,because you can upgrade the
house even though the layout maybe dated as well.
You can blow walls out.
A lot of those older homes.
The bones are so strong thatyou have to find the load
bearing walls and get anengineer involved and that may
(28:04):
cost you $700 to $1,000, butit's well worth it because it
completely changes the look ofthe house.
A lot of times a contractorwill be able to tell you that
without an engineer, but that'sa good starting point if you
have an older house.
There's one other circumstancewhere you have a good location
but you don't love the house.
I definitely think that'srenovation as well, and in that
(28:25):
circumstance, if it doesn't fityour family, you could always do
an addition.
What I find when we doadditions a lot of times is
they'll want to, we'll get intothe addition and they love the
addition so much.
They say we want this themethroughout the house.
So we go in, take out all theold doors.
We, you know, match all thedoors in the casing and we
basically repeat that, thattheme throughout.
(28:50):
If you don't love the house orthe location, that's a scenario
where that's a new build all theway and not going to get in
your way.
If you want to do that, bringit on, but a lot of times
there's an older house that aremodel is going to require
major, major surgery andstructural changes.
I think that's a scenario wherethat's a new build all the way
as well.
So stay where you are if youcan and if you like the location
.
You know I love my house butI'm pretty far from civilization
(29:14):
and so if I had to change onething, I'd like to pick this
house up and put it, you know,maybe five miles outside the
city limits, but that's notalways a luxury.
So if you got a nice house, yougot a nice lot and it fits your
family, school district andthat sort of thing, then I think
remodel will will do the trick.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Yeah, I'm definitely in that camp of.
I'm very content with thelocation I live in, the
neighborhood I'm in, and I don'thave any big issues with the
house.
But you do want to sit thereand make changes and improve the
house and so I'd I'd be arenovation target and, uh,
nothing major, like I don't wantto add a third floor or, you
know, add on a new room.
I mean maybe a glass in thescreen porch so you can sit out
(29:54):
there in cold or rainy weatherand drink coffee and enjoy it
year round.
But I mean so many options andpeople get scared when they
think renovation.
They think, oh, this is goingto cost me $150,000.
And there's so many things.
When you hire a generalcontractor, like Donnie
Blanchard, for example, that cancome in and say, no, we can
make some incredible renovationsfor a lot less than you think
(30:17):
and all it's going to doregardless is increase the value
of your home.
So of course, you make therenovation because you like it.
But there's a win-win situationright there with a renovation.
You think you're ready to beyour own contractor, yet E, no,
I don't have the, uh, I haven'thad the liquid courage yet to uh
, take that next step?
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Oh, come on.
You know, last month was ourseven year anniversary doing the
show, or it's a seven yearanniversary, I know?
And you didn't even give me acar.
Well, it was that we startedthe show, or I started the show
in August of 2018.
So you and I got together inJanuary of 2019.
So we still have ouranniversary I'll.
I'll remember the card, don'tworry.
All right, I like flowers too.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
Just just just saying .
But we thank everybody, by theway, as the show is is grown and
leveled out and then all of asudden, it's taken off again.
We've got hundreds and hundredsof new followers.
We really appreciate that,especially you down under in
Australia and South Africa, whoknew 1% of the audience is South
Africa.
We're worldwide I guess Ishould say that and I'm the and
(31:22):
what's my IG name?
World's famous, world's mostfamous DJ.
And now I can say that's true,I'm in different continents for
this show.
So check out the IG page, theYouTube channel where we put
these shows up.
Also download them podcast forme and find all the details at
the website that Mr Blanchardhas assembled,
(31:42):
thecarolinacontractorcom.
And again, we just thankeverybody for tuning in and
helping the show expand.
It's not because we reallydeserve it.
You guys just like what we doand we appreciate that.
You tell us things you'd likeus to talk about, and that's
what we try to do every week.
Absolutely Appreciate it, guys.
All right, and we will see younext week on the Carolina
Contractor Show.
Have a great day everybody.
(32:02):
Thanks for listening to theCarolina Contractor Show.
Visit thecarolinacontract.
Welcome to the Carolina Contractor Show with
your host, General ContractorDonnie Blanchard.
Let's talk about the elephantin the room, Donnie.
Football season is back.
It's an exciting time.
It's the most wonderful time ofthe year, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
It is man, I can't lie, this is my absolute
favorite sport to watch on TVand I think they put us through
baseball, baseball, a hundredand some games a season on
purpose all summer, just to makefootball that much better.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
You're right, yeah, a hundred and a sixty two, sixty
four games.
So I do want to mention I don'tlike having to pay, and when
they made NFL red zone havecommercials and they tried to
justify the commercials, I'mlike that's it, I'm not going to
do it.
So I don't know if I can getthis on camera without pulling
out TV.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Look what I bought.
What in the world do you gotthere, rabbit ears, oh my gosh
Old school, so a lot of peopledon't realize.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
With your HDTV you'll have an antenna plug-in point
and that picks up those over theair HD channels and I got a
first sweep.
I got like six, next I got like12 and now I got 26 channels.
But I got all the networks andplus already have Amazon prime
so I can watch Thursday nightgames, I can watch the college
football on Saturdays, I can getSunday games, I can get Monday
night.
I'm like I ain't paying adollar and I got technology from
(01:23):
the fifties Nice and I paid a$14 for that thing and it works
like a charm.
Your mileage may vary, but ifyou want to save some bills, buy
a little UHF thing and youdon't have to pay ESPN or red
zone to watch their commercials.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Best tip of the show E thank you for that.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
There you go, and and this isn't about technology for
TV viewing and football it'sthe Carolina Contractor Show,
and for those of you going, Ican't see anything.
Well, we do a YouTube show also.
We will record the show andit's on the radio.
We make it a podcast.
We also put it up on ourYouTube channel.
Now, to make things simple,donnie made this website called
(02:05):
thecarolinacontractorcom, and ithas links to all our podcasts.
It has links to the YouTubepage, the Facebook page, the IG
page which I'm going to get onin a minute and it gives you a
basic idea of what we do.
Donnie's a general contractor.
I work in sales of constructionmaterials, so we kind of know
about your house, building it,renovating it which will be
something else we'll discuss ina minute Upkeep, maintenance
(02:27):
inside, outside, all sorts ofstuff, and we just like talking
about it, and hopefully you dotoo.
Donnie also came up with thisgreat thing called From the
Construction Site to the StudioMic, because basically, donnie,
you just came from work, right?
Speaker 2 (02:43):
I did, I did.
I don't understand how I signmyself up to do the show after
hours.
You know, I hit five o'clockand feeling like my brain is
fried and somehow we muster upthe mental energy to put it
together every week.
So thankful for that.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Yeah, it's some work.
It looks like it's all gloryand wine and roses but there's a
lot of stuff that goes onbehind the scenes.
But that website has everythingyou need.
It also has a ask thecontractor button.
So if you have a question aboutyour house, donnie is real good
at answering those questionsdirectly and we'll do some
upcoming shows which we justanswer a whole bunch of
questions and rapid fire forumabout your house Again, whatever
(03:21):
it is, the inside, the outside,the roof house Again, whatever
it is the inside, the outside,the roof, electrical plumbing we
will do our best to answer it.
But you got to start atthecarolinacontractorcom.
Now I mentioned the YouTubepage and the Facebook page.
We also have an IG page.
So if you just search theCarolina contractor show, you
can find it.
Kudos to Donnie.
It is a team effort on our show.
But Donnie put up a viral video.
(03:42):
What three weeks ago, two weeksago, two weeks ago?
Well, he put up a video.
It went viral.
It's now got 264,000 views.
We've got a lot of new peoplethat have started following us.
So welcome aboard.
And this is a weird fact.
Uh, and it's, this is a weirdfact.
(04:03):
You can see all the the uhspecific stats of your video and
your page, our IG page.
3% of our audience from downunder Australia.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
At least they speak the same language.
They can understand what we'resaying.
I wonder if they try to imitateour accent.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Oh, they probably make fun of us, and I'm
perfectly fine with that becausewe have a sense of humor.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Exactly no a for clarity.
I know a lot of people IGacronym for Instagram.
So it seems like, out of allthe popular social media sites,
that Instagram is the one thatpromotes videos pertaining to
what we do every day.
You know, if you put somethingon Facebook, I think that's a
generally an older audience,generally an older audience, and
(04:46):
it's more about Facebook.
I think it's more of like a um,uh, social place between people
that want to air out theirpersonal lives kind of thing,
and I think Instagram istailored more towards businesses
.
So if you want to get tips andtricks, you know that seems to
be the place to go.
And um, yeah, very grateful thateverybody liked the video.
And, uh, I waited for it to hitabout 150,000.
I told the homeowner.
I said you have no idea thateverybody in the world loves
(05:07):
your video, so that really madeher feel good.
And, uh, we weren't evenfinished with the.
Uh, we weren't finished withthe bathroom completely, we were
98%.
The only thing I hadn't done inthat video, if you'll notice
that I didn't add the crown tothe top of the tower between the
two sinks.
And so my fiance that was thefirst thing she said well,
where's the crown on the towerand I was like sweetheart.
The video is great and you know, of course that's what she
(05:32):
picks up with her critical eye,but, um yeah, everybody loved it
.
I was so thankful for theinteraction and, you know, maybe
now we figured out the recipe,so I'll try to do a lot more of
that.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Yeah, and it was funny because some of the
comments were exactly what theyour fiance said Well, it would
look better if it had crown.
Well, it's not finished, Comeon, just settle down everybody.
But yeah, if you want to gocheck out the video, just search
for the Carolina ContractorShow on Instagram Now, today.
What we're going to talk aboutwe'll see how far in the deets
(05:59):
we can get with it is aboutrenovating your house, and a
little bit.
Maybe renovating isn't thething you need to do.
You might have to do a wholenew build and things you got to
consider, but you do renovations, Donnie, right All the time, oh
all the time.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
We love renovations.
A lot of people are scared ofthose because oftentimes the
homeowner lives theresimultaneous when the work is
being done.
But you know, if you take theright approach and set the right
expectations, renovations cango beautifully and and really
you know, the transformationthat you get at the end.
Uh makes everything worthwhile.
I think the major part of thatrecipe is having a good fit
between the contractor andhomeowner, but we've been
(06:35):
fortunate enough to work withsome really good people.
Uh turned into be lifelongcustomers and friends, so that's
good.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
And I guess there's a few things you have to consider
before you're going to do arenovation or, if it's a new
construction, is you've got toconsider why are you doing it?
I mean, obviously you want tomake your place more comfortable
to live.
Maybe it's not functional.
You need to take out a wall.
Or you want to be able to seeinto the living room from your
kitchen Aesthetics.
You might just think that trimor that stairwell is plain old
(07:03):
ugly and you want to change it.
Or, as I like to say, do youwant a new vanity because of
your vanity?
But it's pretty normal to lookat your house and go man, it's
not that this is a mistake, butI would like to change this or
update it or fix some things andthat's where the whole thing of
(07:25):
renovation comes from andgetting multiple estimates I
guess this is obviously yourwheelhouse.
Donnie is finding a contractorwho can not only do the work but
handle the permits and thelittle things that a homeowner
wouldn't know what to do.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Yeah, I think the threshold in North Carolina is
still $30,000.
So if the renovation is goingto exceed $30,000, you're going
to need somebody with a legitcontractor license.
I want to say the levels of thelicense are a half million for
that.
The lowest is now $750,000.
(08:05):
They moved the intermediate to$1 million and then the
unlimited is just that.
So I think finding the rightcontractor not that you would
need an unlimited for arenovation, but I guess in some
cases that might work be thething.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
But yeah, finding the right contractor with the right
license limitation, getting anidea for your budget, I guess
would be the starting point forthat, and again for those of you
watching on video uh, daisy,the, uh, the mascot of the show,
once again, every time shehears your voice it seems like a
joke by baby Um, she has tocome and make a visit, so you,
your voice, uh attracts the beesof the canine world.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
I've been a dog person all my life.
I don't know what it is.
We're going to build a housefor an awesome couple.
They listen to the show, shoutout to Mitzi and Ron.
I met with them yesterday andtheir dogs all approved of me,
so I think that was a big partof the homeowner contractor
acceptance process I had one ofmy dogs almost attack an
ex-girlfriend and then when mywife met my dog, the dog loved
(09:12):
all over.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
So I agree, Dogs can tell good people.
So you talked about when youhave a renovation.
You need to have a goodrelationship with your
contractor because you're goingto become best buddies very
quickly because they're going tobe in your house all the time,
depending on the scope of therenovation.
And, Donnie, you own SureTopRoofing and getting a new roof
for the most part is not veryintrusive on a homeowner.
When the process is going onthere would be hammering and
(09:33):
nailing and things like that.
Maybe you hear a nail gunfiring off, but for the most
part it's all outside on top ofyour house.
But if you're going to get yourkitchen redone, your life is
going to be greatly impacted andif you're going to get the
master bathroom done, yourpersonal life is going to be
greatly impacted because thoseare longer processes and very
(09:56):
intrusive.
Is that something you prepare aclient?
Speaker 2 (09:59):
for Absolutely A lot of times you're not able to do
the work while they live in thehouse.
If it's a kitchen or a masterbath, it depends on their
situation with their children.
A lot of times you'll have athree bedroom house at a minimum
, and they'll have anotherbedroom or another bedroom
bathroom combo that they can usewhile you're doing the work.
If it's a bathroom renovationsimilar to the one we just
(10:19):
finished on the viral video thatyou mentioned earlier, but in a
kitchen situation, they have toreally be prepared.
So we have a renovation goingright now and it's a split level
, so we're doing the downstairs,which is where their primary
kitchen is.
They do have an alternativeupstairs to be able to have
running water and everything,but what we did in that
circumstance is they had a pipeburst, so downstairs on the slab
(10:41):
flooded minor flood but stillruined the cabinets and
everything.
We set up a temporary sink and acoffee bar and some things like
that.
So you know, very bougie for arenovation, but uh, I would love
to take credit for that.
But Hannah and Matt actuallythought of that and they said,
hey, is there any way we can getrunning water down here,
because they have three childrenand you know it's just not.
It's not reasonable to to tohave three kids in the house
(11:07):
without some sort of uh,makeshift kitchen in place.
So we did that and we actuallyhad to.
We just said the cabinet.
So we had to pull thattemporary sink, but we bought a
utility sink, uh, from theplumbing supply house for about
$150, you know, utility sink,faucet combo, and it was a very
cheap thing to get them down theroad so they could live in the
house while we were doing thework.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
We're going to kind of focus on North Carolina,
hence the name of the show, butsome of these renovations are
very popular nationwide.
But I did a little research ofwhat was popular in our
beautiful North state.
You're just talking kitchens.
What are the common upgradesfor renovations there?
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Really just cabinets and countertops.
And if you're okay with thecabinet layout that you have,
you could just do cabinet doorsyou know everything shaker style
doors or what's in right now,but raised panel is what people
did right up until that.
So I still am a fan of both.
I think it depends on thebasically the style of the house
.
So a cheaper way to just do aminor makeover is just to do the
(12:07):
drawer and cabinet doorhardware but to get away from
the cabinets.
You know you, you get to thecountertops and the backsplash.
I think that's what makes a bigchange to the appearance of the
kitchen.
And really, you know, overallyou could paint the cabinets if
you wanted to keep existing andjust do countertops and a
backsplash, and just thatchanges the color scheme of the
(12:27):
whole kitchen.
So you know, there's so manyways to skin that cat.
But I think one big thing thatI like with the countertop folks
that I use uh and they're localas well Um, they give you a
sink with the countertopsbecause they usually want to
mount those undermount sinks tothe countertops.
They don't want a plumbercoming in and giving it a whirl
and doing it wrong.
So, uh, with with mine, I'mgoing to change my countertops
(12:50):
out eventually, but I reallyliked the fact that I can change
my sink.
I would have done itdifferently if I had put those
on today, but, um, just a littleadded bonus there.
But I think cabinets,countertops and backsplash are
the big ones.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Yeah, my wife and I have talked about doing a
cabinet painting, which we wouldsand them and repaint them a
different color and I looked atchanging the hardware which we
might.
But I like the soft closehinges and that you mentioned
about changing out your hardwareis an easy little fix.
You got to be prepared going into buy even hardware, hinges
(13:22):
and new handles and stuff,because they can get really
expensive.
The soft close hinges can beanywhere from three to five
times more than your standardhinge for a cabinet and if you
go into your kitchen and counthow many cabinet doors you have
and usually you have to multiplytwo hinges all of a sudden it
adds up quick.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
I'll tell you a solution to that, and it's not
always a solution, but we havebought more cabinet hardware on
Amazon this year than everbefore, and it's just like they.
Every year they add more andmore options and we've got
hardware stores in Greensboroand in Raleigh that we can send
homeowners to.
But you know, everybody seemsto be busy.
And when you can get just aboutthe same thing on Amazon and
(14:05):
I'm not a supporter of buyingthings that are made in China,
but once in a while, when it'syour quality of life and if you
have extra time versus orderingit right now and it'll be here
before you wake up tomorrowsometime that's the easiest
route.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Yeah, I will never argue the expediency of
something like that, but if youhave old hinges you're trying to
match, you gotta be careful.
You gotta know yourmeasurements to the 16th of an
inch, cause if you even buy newhinges, if you don't know what
you're doing, you can look atsomething oh, this is going to
be the hinge that will match myother, and then you'll find out
they don't match, they don't fitinto the existing route.
(14:44):
All sorts of things can happen.
So it is good to have acontractor where you're doing
that and that sounds like asmall renovation, but the
kitchen is the most popular onewhere you really get into it.
Next would be the bathroom andyour experience of a bathroom
renovation.
Is it a downstairs or anupstairs that's done the most?
Speaker 2 (14:56):
I'm talking a half bath versus a full oh full bath
for sure.
You know half bath basicallyjust swap out the fixtures and a
lot of times those half bathshave, you know, a pedestal sink.
So you really can't go backwith much else besides a
pedestal, because the plumbingis is coming out of the wall a
different way behind a pedestalthan it would if you had a
vanity cabin.
So you know you're kind ofbound to that pedestal if that's
(15:17):
what you had to start with.
But uh, definitely, butdefinitely.
Master bathroom remodels seemto be the most popular and I
agree with that.
If you're paying the housepayment, then you should
renovate the space that you useevery day and maybe, if there's
anything left over, give that tothe visitors or the kids.
And but yeah, the bathroomremodels seem to be the most
(15:38):
popular out of the three.
The main thing that everybodywants to do now is sort of like
I know we'll get to the diningrooms later, but people are
abandoning soaker tubs anddining rooms these days, so
nobody wants to take a bath.
I mean, you have a handful ofpeople that want to take a bath
and what I'm seeing the peoplethat actually put a bathtub in a
master bath renovation.
They're usually like a clawfootfancy tub.
(15:59):
So it's something that's castiron, you know, very heavy, and
A lot of people still take bathsthe majority of the folks that
reach out to us do not.
So what we're doing now istaking those big soaker tubs
that usually sit on a big tilebase.
We're pulling those out ofthere and we're putting a
walk-in shower in place of that,and usually, where they had a
(16:21):
three-by-three or even smallerwalk-in shower in the master,
we're turning that into just abigger closet for the bathroom
so they can put their linens inthere.
And that seems to be the swapthe bathroom that went viral on
Instagram.
That's exactly what we didthere, and I'll try to put
another video up showing wherewe started and what we finished
with.
But that shower that you see inthe video used to be where the
(16:43):
soaker tub was.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Well, let's jump to the dining room, because you
make a good point.
We have a dining room that cancomfortably sit six, but with
one kid in college and two olderones and a funky life schedule,
it tends to hold things morethan hold dinners.
So there's a couple optionspeople don't think about if
you're going to renovate adining room, what you can turn
(17:05):
it into.
Give them examples.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Yeah, a big thing.
When we did the TV show acouple years back, we basically
renovated several smaller houses.
I'd say seven out of the 10episodes we had houses under
1,200, 1,300 square feet and ahouse that size is not very
friendly to bedrooms and if youdo have two or three bedrooms,
they're usually small.
One particular one that comesto mind is a house that it was
(17:30):
two bedrooms, one bath and ithad a big dining room and there
was no point for the big diningroom.
And the dining room actuallyhad a little inset which we
turned into a closet.
But all we did is basicallyframe the walls in and close the
dining room in.
We turned that inset into afull-blown closet with a door
and cool thing was it turnedthat two bedroom into a
(17:50):
three-blown closet with a door.
And cool thing was it turnedthat two-bedroom into a
three-bedroom.
So it upped the value of thehouse by about $60,000 for about
I don't know less than $2,000or $3,000 worth of work.
And you were going to put afloor in there.
Anyway, it was just the walls,the drywall and the interior
doors and trim.
So there was that Another thingwith a dining room, if it's uh,
(18:11):
with sort of like the greatroom approach where it combines
with the kitchen.
There's no walls in between, youknow.
That gives you the possibilityto expand your cabinets in there
and do what they call an eat-inkitchen.
Uh, that seems to be a popularthing these days because
everybody congregates around anIsland, so the big island with
the wraparound countertop andbarstool space.
(18:32):
That's a popular thing.
And I would say the only thingthat I've done other than that
is close that dining room in tomake a massive pantry.
So people seem to not wantthings on their countertops
these days, meaning toasterovens, coffee makers and you
turn a dining room into a pantryand it basically gets all the
(18:52):
clutter off of your counter,which I kind of like.
That I wish we did sit down andhave more dinners where
everybody sat across the tableand did that sort of thing, but
with busy lives and separateschedules, that's just not
realistic.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
No, but I think it's a fantastic idea to.
If you have a multi-level houseand you don't want to sell it
as you get older, you can addthat bedroom into a lower room
in the house.
It's not utilized.
We have a dining room.
We have an even larger what wecall playroom that could easily
be a master bedroom.
It's so big through aconversion and maybe people are
(19:29):
hesitant right now to go.
I don't know if I want to makeit turn my dining room, maybe
someday.
What about holiday?
No, go ahead and do it.
Trust me, it's a.
It's a great idea to takeadvantage of all that floor
space.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Yeah, I agree 100%.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
All right, uh, not everybody has a basement.
Uh, some people do.
And converting a basement intoa livable space, instead of just
leaving it block, wall orsomething, you could make it a
great room, a cool room, a mancave, you could make it a
recording studio even, but youdefinitely would add value to
the overall square footage ofthe house and you've done that?
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Yeah, absolutely you.
You totally get credit for anykind of heated and cooled square
footage, whether it be basement, uh, or you know, if you
finished out, turned a garageeven, or an old carport into a
living space, you know you stillget credit for that on a sale
by the square foot.
And, um, what I did is, uh, Ibuilt my house in 2011, I
believe, and then, right around2015, um, decided to uh go ahead
(20:30):
and start the renovation, sodid this massive clean out, and
it was pretty cool because mykids were tiny and we just kind
of shove them in the basement,let them just bump into walls
and do whatever they wanted todo.
And about 2015, they got oldenough where they could take
care of something a little nicer.
So, um, I sat on a bucket in acorner of my basement and
thought, what can I make where?
And, uh, basically had a little10 by 10 that I turned into a,
(20:54):
a secondary office, and then Ileft the main area open like a
sort of like a great roomconcept.
And, um, of course, I went toApp State, so I made a mountain
theme and I did all wood wallswith pine walls, uh, tongue and
groove walls, and I dressed itout with cedar around the
doorways and the casings.
But cool thing we did isdesignated the back room, which
(21:14):
is about maybe 13 by 15, into amovie room.
So I don't have one of thosefancy theater, movie theater
rooms with the staggered seatingand the stepped up everything.
But you know there's a bathroomoff that room, so it's all one
level and we just basically havea sectional couch and a
recliner in there and a greatbig TV.
But I went all dark and so darkcarpet, dark walls, and then I
(21:39):
had my brick mason come in andhe basically built a stone
archway.
So we continued the stonearchway around the back wall of
the kitchen and the backsplashand man, I'll put some pictures
up.
I try not to put the personalstuff out there, but it is
really cool and it definitelyhas a mountain feel.
But we have a small kitchenettewith a sink and a refrigerator
(21:59):
and ping pong pool tables.
And I guess my favorite and notalways, but I'm trying to do
better is that we had one roomthat was about 30 feet by about
12 feet wide and it was justlong, awkward and narrow and we
turned that into a gymnasium.
So I have this App State-themedweight room and traded out a
lot of things in the weight rooma lot of equipment, dumbbells
(22:23):
and that sort of thing withsomeone for some roof work a
while back, so kind of got luckythere.
But we've got this black andyellow room with all the App
state memorabilia.
We've got commercial gradecarpet in there, so you can't
really hurt that and, um, youknow, the stereo and the TV, so
it's a good place to go jam out.
And only thing about that iswhen you get home, last thing
you want to do is more work.
So you gotta be motivated.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Yeah, that definitely is the case.
Now that's a lot of the insideparts of a house.
We're going to talk exteriorsand things you can renovate on
the outside of a house.
This is the Carolina ContractorShow.
I'm going to quick go over thecurb appeal stuff which I guess
can qualify as a renovationdepending on how deep it goes.
But we talked about in pastshows that people can go listen
(23:04):
to, about return on investmentthe ROI.
Stone veneers give you a goodROI, change the front of your
house instantly.
So does siding and paint.
We've talked about that a lot.
Garage door replacement hasalways been a super high ROI,
but the more I thought about itand consciously looked at houses
(23:24):
that had nice garage doors andnice framing, it really can make
a house look a lot more regalthan it is or than it was
looking before.
But a big thing would be to me,whether it's wood or composite,
is wood deck or composite deckadditions to a house.
You come across those a lot.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Donnie, yeah for sure , and I think the reason is they
wear out, and not so much thecomposite as the wood, but 80%
of the decks out there, or more,are treated lumber and you know
, heaven forbid it be on theNorth side of the house, which
was my scenario at the personalhouse, and of course, five years
, six years, in that treatedwould look terrible, and so you
either have to really try hardto maintain the treated, uh, and
(24:06):
babysit that thing year to year, or just go composite and
forget about it.
And of course there's differentgrades of composite.
We could get into that, but Iwon't, and that's that we.
We hear that oftentimes we puta video up on the Instagram, and
I hate to circle back to thatwith all this, but did you see
the one about?
It was a lady and she took hertime and went basically took up
(24:30):
all the screws and flipped thedeck boards.
Yep, brilliant, I thought sotoo, and that's about the
cheapest, smartest way to do adeck renovation.
If you can't afford to gocomposite and you want to get
another four to five years outof your existing deck, just flip
the deck boards and put thescrews in there and stain that
baby and call it a day.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
I agree, and it might not be quite as simple because
you might have some curvedboards, but still the overall
idea is the majority of themwill flip.
You'll be able to screw themright back into the joist, sand
it, stain it, seal it and maybeeven get more than five years.
But yeah, kudos to her, Ithought that was good.
Um, also like a grillingstations I know are big and and
(25:06):
fire pits and stuff.
You get those occasionally too,I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Yeah, um, yes, I do.
And I just finished a houseinsanely awesome house and I
can't wait when they, when theyget moved in, we're going to
clean her up and take someprofessional pictures, but it's
about 7,000 square feet justunder that.
And, um, the, the homeowner andI forged a heck of a friendship
and he, he's awesome, just a gogetter, I mean, one of the
hardest working guys I know, butjust a good family man.
(25:30):
On top of that.
I have encouraged him to takeup grilling and I said, dude,
you know you're not going to bein the city limits anymore.
You're going to spend a ton ofmoney eating out and it's going
to take you a lot of time to doit.
I encourage you to get a grill.
So he goes out and buys thisbadass grill Excuse my grill,
(25:51):
excuse my language, but buys anice one.
He works hard, he deserves it.
And the one thing I said is wehave stamped concrete on the
back patio there.
I said, please invest in agrill mat.
It's 30 bucks on Amazon.
A grill mat goes under there.
And he says I got a grease trap.
I said, dude, don't trust thegrease trap because it'll
overflow.
You're either going to babysitor just get some cheap insurance
.
So if you do the grill stationon the deck, you know, grab one
of those grill mats for 30, 20or 30 bucks off of Amazon and
(26:11):
you won't regret it.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
So another thing with renovations comes design trends
.
We're not going to spend a lotof time on it because that's a
personal preference, but I'msure as a contractor it's fun to
talk with people.
We one time put up the videofrom the notebook where he's
going what do you want?
She's like I don't know and I'msure you've lived that movie
scene many times, so you weren'tactually telling her or yelling
(26:33):
at the client.
But we've done shows on energyefficient systems and we've done
several shows on smart tech.
That's a big thing.
When you're renovating you havea chance to upgrade, changing
window sizes that's reallypopular when people come into
our store and they want newwindows, or talking with a
contractor about opening it up.
More Painting I'll get intothat later this year, some
(26:55):
changes and stuff that I'll bedoing.
But painting new colors, broadcolors Talk about a cheap
renovation is painting a room or, as I said, changing your
kitchen cabinet, sanding them,painting them, sealing them.
There's paints by, likeBenjamin Moore that are
specifically designed forcabinets and and wood design
(27:17):
that looks really, really goodif you want to do it.
Uh, we talked again aboutkitchen stuff you can do.
But when I mentioned renovationat the beginning of the show
Donnie I also talked about.
You could come acrosssituations that are going to be
more than renovation, and arethere a few examples you can
give or something for people toremember whether they should be
(27:38):
renovating or maybe juststarting almost over from
scratch?
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Yes, several Um.
One of the things that come tomind that I've experienced
before is that if you know you,you love your house, but it's
outdated.
That's renovation all day long,because you can upgrade the
house even though the layout maybe dated as well.
You can blow walls out.
A lot of those older homes.
The bones are so strong thatyou have to find the load
bearing walls and get anengineer involved and that may
(28:04):
cost you $700 to $1,000, butit's well worth it because it
completely changes the look ofthe house.
A lot of times a contractorwill be able to tell you that
without an engineer, but that'sa good starting point if you
have an older house.
There's one other circumstancewhere you have a good location
but you don't love the house.
I definitely think that'srenovation as well, and in that
(28:25):
circumstance, if it doesn't fityour family, you could always do
an addition.
What I find when we doadditions a lot of times is
they'll want to, we'll get intothe addition and they love the
addition so much.
They say we want this themethroughout the house.
So we go in, take out all theold doors.
We, you know, match all thedoors in the casing and we
basically repeat that, thattheme throughout.
(28:50):
If you don't love the house orthe location, that's a scenario
where that's a new build all theway and not going to get in
your way.
If you want to do that, bringit on, but a lot of times
there's an older house that aremodel is going to require
major, major surgery andstructural changes.
I think that's a scenario wherethat's a new build all the way
as well.
So stay where you are if youcan and if you like the location
.
You know I love my house butI'm pretty far from civilization
(29:14):
and so if I had to change onething, I'd like to pick this
house up and put it, you know,maybe five miles outside the
city limits, but that's notalways a luxury.
So if you got a nice house, yougot a nice lot and it fits your
family, school district andthat sort of thing, then I think
remodel will will do the trick.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Yeah, I'm definitely in that camp of.
I'm very content with thelocation I live in, the
neighborhood I'm in, and I don'thave any big issues with the
house.
But you do want to sit thereand make changes and improve the
house and so I'd I'd be arenovation target and, uh,
nothing major, like I don't wantto add a third floor or, you
know, add on a new room.
I mean maybe a glass in thescreen porch so you can sit out
(29:54):
there in cold or rainy weatherand drink coffee and enjoy it
year round.
But I mean so many options andpeople get scared when they
think renovation.
They think, oh, this is goingto cost me $150,000.
And there's so many things.
When you hire a generalcontractor, like Donnie
Blanchard, for example, that cancome in and say, no, we can
make some incredible renovationsfor a lot less than you think
(30:17):
and all it's going to doregardless is increase the value
of your home.
So of course, you make therenovation because you like it.
But there's a win-win situationright there with a renovation.
You think you're ready to beyour own contractor, yet E, no,
I don't have the, uh, I haven'thad the liquid courage yet to uh
, take that next step?
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Oh, come on.
You know, last month was ourseven year anniversary doing the
show, or it's a seven yearanniversary, I know?
And you didn't even give me acar.
Well, it was that we startedthe show, or I started the show
in August of 2018.
So you and I got together inJanuary of 2019.
So we still have ouranniversary I'll.
I'll remember the card, don'tworry.
All right, I like flowers too.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
Just just just saying .
But we thank everybody, by theway, as the show is is grown and
leveled out and then all of asudden, it's taken off again.
We've got hundreds and hundredsof new followers.
We really appreciate that,especially you down under in
Australia and South Africa, whoknew 1% of the audience is South
Africa.
We're worldwide I guess Ishould say that and I'm the and
(31:22):
what's my IG name?
World's famous, world's mostfamous DJ.
And now I can say that's true,I'm in different continents for
this show.
So check out the IG page, theYouTube channel where we put
these shows up.
Also download them podcast forme and find all the details at
the website that Mr Blanchardhas assembled,
(31:42):
thecarolinacontractorcom.
And again, we just thankeverybody for tuning in and
helping the show expand.
It's not because we reallydeserve it.
You guys just like what we doand we appreciate that.
You tell us things you'd likeus to talk about, and that's
what we try to do every week.
Absolutely Appreciate it, guys.
All right, and we will see younext week on the Carolina
Contractor Show.
Have a great day everybody.
(32:02):
Thanks for listening to theCarolina Contractor Show.
Visit thecarolinacontract.
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