May 27, 2025 • 22 mins
Ever wonder what really happens behind the walls of a renovation project? What contractors actually find during demolition, and why some renovation estimates seem so much higher than expected?
On this revealing episode, we peel back the layers between television renovation fantasy and construction reality. Host Chris Kirby, owner of three construction companies on the Alabama Gulf Coast, shares a valuable recommendation for Fine Home Building Magazine as an essential educational resource for anyone serious about quality construction principles. The magazine's detailed illustrations and expert advice sections make complex techniques accessible to professionals and enthusiasts alike.
The conversation takes an important turn as we discuss the alarming disconnect between homeowner expectations and construction realities. We share a recent experience where a client believed a $130,000 budget would cover extensive renovations, only to discover unpermitted additions, dangerous electrical systems, and code violations that would have doubled the cost. As professionals committed to safety and quality, we explain why walking away from certain projects is sometimes the most ethical choice.
Television renovation shows have created an entertainment-first portrayal of construction that often misrepresents timelines, budgets, and processes. We reveal insider information about how these shows are produced, including the fact that on-camera personalities often arrive after most of the real work is complete. This discussion extends to the challenges of working with clients who've watched countless YouTube tutorials but lack understanding of the comprehensive skills required for successful projects.
Ready to share your own construction journey? We're extending an open invitation to tradespeople, contractors, designers, and DIY enthusiasts to collaborate with us. Whether you have fascinating stories from the field, technical expertise to share, or simply want to document your renovation adventure, we want to help amplify your voice. Connect with us at thehomebuildingshow@gmail.com to join our growing community of construction professionals dedicated to honest education and quality craftsmanship.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Home Building and Remodeling Show.
Let's go.
Welcome everybody to the HomeBuilding and Remodeling Show.
My name is Chris Kirby and I'llbe your host.
(00:21):
I am the owner of threeconstruction companies on the
Alabama Gulf Coast.
The show is about residentialconstruction.
We're going to cover topics ofhome building and remodeling.
Are you thinking of doing aremodel or building a home?
Are you a contractor looking toimprove your knowledge base or
grow your business?
Have you ever done a remodelproject or built a home?
(00:42):
There were so many things youwish you knew or that you could
have done differently during theprocess.
Then this show is for you.
We break down the process ofbuilding and remodeling and how
to have the best results duringyour project.
Whether you're a DIYer lookingfor tips, someone looking to
hire a contractor to do aproject, or a contractor looking
(01:04):
to expand your knowledge baseor your business, welcome aboard
.
Glad to have you.
Stay tuned.
We kick off the show with mythoughts on home building and
remodeling.
I'll share best practices andtalk about some of our
experiences in business and outin the field.
These shared thoughts andlessons learned are meant to
help you on your very ownjourney.
(01:25):
Let's go.
I wanted to shake it up alittle bit and I wanted to be
able to give you some solidreading material, and I don't
know what we're going to callthe segment.
Moving forward, however, I'mgoing to share with you each
week different reading ordifferent material that you can
gain knowledge from, and thisweek I have here Fine Home
(01:46):
Building Magazine.
I love this magazine I've beensubscribed to it for a long time
but I also love to learn, andso I have quite a few different
magazines and different booksthat I have learned so much
information from.
I'm gonna share with you once amonth probably.
(02:07):
It'd be tough to share a book aweek, so this week we're going
to focus and hone in on finehome building.
They also have a podcast veryprofessional, you know, compared
to what we do here.
They have a whole productionteam.
So a great reading, fine homebuilding, great podcast to
listen to if you are interestedin home building and remodeling.
This is the June 2025 issue andthey are talking about a more
(02:31):
resilient roof.
But one of my favorite sectionsin here Ask the Expert section
of Fine Home Building magazinethis week they're talking about
installing pre-finished cabinetmoldings, and not only do they
talk about it and they answeryour questions that you send
into the magazine, but they alsodo a great job of the
(02:52):
visualization and showing younot just in words but also in
pictures of what it is thatthey're talking about, based on
the questions that you submit.
So for this month of May 2025, Iam going to shout out
continually the Fine HomeBuilding Magazine.
You can get a subscription.
(03:13):
I'm not exactly sure what I payfor ours, but I always enjoy
getting this every month in themail and reading through it.
And again, I'm going tocontinue to give you and share
with you different books,magazines and material that can
further your education andprofessional development in our
(03:33):
industry, and so I look forwardto giving this segment a name.
I look forward to giving it atitle.
So I would love for you towrite in email
thehomebuildingshow at gmailcom.
Let us know what you think Ishould call the segment where
I'm going to be sharing thisreference material magazines,
books, reading material tofurther your education and once
(03:55):
a month I'm going to give you anew one, and ours for this month
is the Fine Home BuildingMagazine.
Go like it, subscribe to it, gowatch the videos, visit the
website, and the podcast isamazing.
Another thing me and Adam weretalking about on the episode
this week were some of the crazystories in remodeling and we
(04:15):
want you to get to know us andwe want to get to know you and
we want to tap into the audience, and so what I'm going to start
doing is allowing differentcontractors and businesses even
homeowners, if you want.
If you've got a DIY page, Iwould love to check it out.
We would love to check it out.
We would love to bring you intothe fold and shout out your
company, your page, yourbusiness.
(04:36):
We love this content and wewant to bring it to the masses
and we want to share our stories, your stories, our journey,
your journey with everybody,while educating and empowering
people to go into the trades, totake that risk of doing that
home remodel, to become anexpert in the field, to start a
(05:01):
contracting business.
We want you to be in ourindustry.
We want to open the door to ourlives and what we do every day,
so it may inspire you to doyour next project.
Hey, and you know what?
We would love to come andconsult on that project.
So we definitely are open to.
We've had friends come herebefore and people that were
(05:24):
strangers have come to ourfacilities and trained and
worked and went to projects withus.
We are definitely open to youcoming to visit with us,
training with us, going toprojects with us, learning with
us, and we would love for you toopen your doors and allow us to
come into your world.
(05:45):
I would love to get with somecontractors out there that are
willing for me to tag along, askthem questions, put them on
video and do some of their ownhow to's, because we are doing
the best we can but we're notthe experts in everything.
So if you are open to that,please reach out to.
Our email isthehomebuildingshowatgmailcom.
(06:08):
Again, that'sthehomebuildingshowatgmailcom,
and send us an email.
Let us know what type of workyou do, and we'd love to travel
to your site and just film, talkto you, get educated by you and
, again, build thoserelationships.
And this is open to anybodythat is in the home building,
remodeling, that's a tradesmanelectrical, plumbing, any of
(06:31):
that type of stuff will wideopen.
If you are a DIYer and you'vebeen doing your own projects and
you've got a cool setup or aproject you'd like us to be a
part of, that you would like forus to see, please open that
door, reach out to us atthehomebuildingshowatgmailcom
and we look forward to hearingfrom you and we look forward to
(06:52):
you continuing to listen to usand leave us comments, shares,
likes, and let us know what youliked about the show, what you
don't like about the show andwhat you would like to see more
of, what you'd like to see lessof, and share your story.
Okay, we want you to share yourstory with us.
If you want to come on the show, come on the show.
(07:12):
We want you to be a part of it.
We want to shout you out and wewant to celebrate our industry
together.
On the show this week, there wasanother topic when we were
talking about TV timelines.
We were talking about realisticexpectations as far as how
renovations should go.
We dove deep into some coolfinds.
Adam was telling us one of thecraziest things he'd ever found
(07:32):
behind a wall, and then we werealso diving deep into you know,
as an estimator, our lives arepretty interesting.
As far as you know, it can beboring and monotonous because
you know you've seen one kitchen, you've seen them all, but it's
just not true because we havebeen to some sketchy areas.
(07:54):
We discussed that on the showthis week, adam shares a story
of basically a homeowner thathad an encampment going on and
had some squatters on theproperty with some huts and
different things, and we want toopen the door for you to be
able to share those style ofstories.
I'm sure there are so many morethat you know you may have
(08:16):
pulled up and walked intosomething crazy.
I've had my share of thosestories as well.
So this week I wanted to ask youwhat is stopping you from
starting your own company?
This show is for home buildersand remodelers, interior
designers, people who are in thehome industry in general, home
(08:36):
service professionals and DIYerseven.
But I wanted to encourage you,I want to take this time during
this episode to encourage you tostart your own show, share your
journey.
Don't be afraid to get outthere and put yourself out there
.
Okay, that's kind of how westarted this show and it really
(09:00):
started with befores and aftersand going on our our sites and
we would get a lot of clicks andlikes and follows because our
before and after reveals are sodramatic, from, you know, the
before picture to the after andas we built on it, I decided I
wanted to continue to deep diveand really learn about our
(09:22):
industry and learn bestpractices, because I wanted to
take in and soak in as muchinformation as I could to make
my company better and now thatwe're so far down the road in
this journey, I am starting toget inspired by others that I'm
watching.
Some of my favorite videos comefrom other what I call
(09:45):
construction influencers or homeinfluencers and the HGTV types
without the big brand of HGTVout there, doing it on their own
on YouTube, on social media,and I just wanted to shout them
out.
But I also wanted to encourageyou this week If you're
listening to the show, don't beafraid.
(10:07):
You can be the next constructioninfluencer, you can be the next
person going on TV or you canjust be the next person sharing
your story.
You may have seen a lot thatyou have to share.
You may have a great amount ofexperience, but you're scared to
shoot the content and shareyour story for some reason.
Well, whatever that reason is,get it out of your mind and get
(10:29):
it out there.
I am very willing to help youout.
If you want to email thehomebuilding show at gmailcom,
you definitely can reach out ifyou have any questions and want
to know any tips or tricks, andI'm not the best producer right.
So I'm doing this all from myiPhone and at the house right
now, and the videos we shoot areall done from my iPhone, with
(10:52):
me behind the camera.
And we had a media person, amarketing person, that did
social media for my company, formy businesses, for a while, but
we still do a lot of this stuffand self edit.
I spend a lot of time producingand editing myself to get it
how I like it.
Ok, it can definitely be better.
(11:13):
It can definitely be better, itcan definitely be more, but
we've got a couple hundredthousand followers just by
sharing what's on our hearts andminds and taking the time to
really dive deep into theindustry.
So, if you're listening to thisthis week, we definitely want to
encourage you to share yourhome journey, and I would love
to shout you out, call you outand put you out there.
(11:33):
So let me know in the commentswhat it is that's stopping you
from doing this or getting yourjourney started, and I really
wanna encourage you.
So please, please, feel free toreach out to me at
thehomebuildingshowatgmailcomand let me help you out and get
this journey started for you.
And now we move into Shop Talk.
(11:57):
It's the portion of the showwhere I bring in a co-host and
we cover trending topics in homebuilding and remodeling.
Hope you enjoy, let's go.
We went over there and youlooked at it and they had a
$130,000 budget, but they had anaddition that wasn't permitted
(12:17):
to be on there, so that wouldhave had to come off, which is
what would you say was abouthalf the house.
That would have had to beentore down and rebuilt and then
get everything back up to code.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Yeah, Nothing was in code there.
Yeah, the ledge goal running tothe main breaker box was just
coming out from underneath thehouse.
No conduit, nothing coming into the breaker box and just.
I mean the wires were uncoveredthat far coming out of the
breaker, like if you you couldget seriously hurt.
(12:51):
It would have been there,wouldn't have been a cover on
the thing.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Yeah and so just kind of it's just a fire hazard.
But you gave it an honesteffort, like you.
Came back you started workingon the bid but then we started
going through the pictures andthen the inspection report and
knew right away A, that's atough city when it comes to
building standards anyway, right?
(13:17):
So you know, in our countythere are the county inspectors,
there's multiple cityinspectors and that city is one
of the toughest to get just anormal everyday remodel through
because they're pretty strictwith their standards.
But there was no way we weregoing to be able to without.
I mean, there is always a way.
(13:38):
It's just how much money is itgoing to take and what he was
expecting for the budget.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
He was 100 grand out.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Yeah.
So you know, adding 100 granddoubling the budget of what he
thought was going to be the highend of his initial budget, it
wasn't going to be worth it,plus the time, delays and
headache.
And we do that.
So we try to communicate withthe client and we'll walk away
from things like that, Justbeing honest, saying hey, that's
(14:06):
not for us and probably isn'tfor you either, Right?
Speaker 2 (14:10):
that house I went to with reggie was uh, that bedroom
was one of the weirdest thingstoo.
What do you mean?
What?
What well, he told me.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
He's like hey man oh I know he was like gosh.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
He's go ahead and tell this story it smells like
death in there, just so you know.
And I was like you know, I meancan't be worse than anything
I've ever smelled before.
I'm not good with smells and Iopened that door and I started
gagging and about threw up on anold boy and I shut the door
back real quick and he's like Igot the measurements on that
(14:45):
already.
So it was the same thing,though, right, but something was
dead or had been dead in there,and no people lived in there
too.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
And what freaked me out was you.
I thought you were telling methat the owner, or whatever,
died and maybe had died in thatroom, and that was the smell,
right, but it wasn't the ownerhad passed away but the kids had
inherited or something.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
But these were all rentals, so she or he was not
part of dying in there, Gotcha,it's just it smelled like.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
I thought you were saying they died in there and so
when you went in there thesmell of death was still in
there.
I was like heck, no, but youknow that comes with the
territory, all right.
So going back to you said thehomeowners thought it had good
bones, probably had been toldthat what is the one thing that
(15:41):
every homeowner thinks they knowbut they really don't know
about construction?
Speaker 2 (15:48):
A lot of things.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
I said one thing.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
You said that was a lot there's too much tv and
shows for people to watch, youknow, and they're not getting a
realistic view of how itactually comes together, because
we have a friend that does itfor a living.
Yep, and she had told us, youknow like.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Oh, it's all rigged up, and ready it's already ready
.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Yeah, and when she walks on the set, she just
sticks the last couple pieces oftile or whatnot.
She didn't do any, so all thereal heavy lifting is in the
background.
She knows how to do the stufffrom speaking with her.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
So timeline right.
One of the things you weresaying is so that makes it look
like, hey, on all these TV showsthey never show, unless it's
one of the like zombie homes orsomething.
They just do all kind of crazystuff, but they never show the
real dirty stuff.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
No, they want you to see the before.
It's like extreme home makeover.
Yeah, they remodel it in aweekend, right, how do you?
You know that's not real.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Correct can Right, how do you?
You know that's not realCorrect.
And so we see that so oftenwhere people have these
preconceived notions on timelineand it kills me because they
will get somebody that tellsthem, yeah, it can be done,
because they want the work,because they want to win that
bid.
They will tell them, yes, wecan do it.
In that and don't get me wrong,like estimating is exactly what
its name is, Estimating right,you are given an estimate.
(17:22):
So even though we've done ahundred bathrooms, you know a
hundred kitchens, whatever itmay be, everyone and every
scenario is different.
So we've got to be very careful.
And, yes, those TV shows killit because they're just you're
seeing, you know, months of workcome together in a 30 minute
(17:43):
episode.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Those people do it one way and they think that's
the only way it's supposed to bedone.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Yeah, true.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
But there's, you know what's this?
Speaker 1 (17:50):
But that's the 30 ways to skin a cat.
Yeah, that's the YouTubewarriors too, where they'll get
on there.
And don't get me wrong, we postour own videos so people may
watch ours.
There are so many differentways.
Even with the way that we'vebeen trained and we show in our
how-to videos, we get thousandsof comments on hey, you should
(18:11):
have done this different or youcould have done this quicker.
This is a better tool to usefor that.
You know what I mean.
Did you think of this?
Which is great, because we lookand read the comments and we,
you know we use that feedbackand to get better.
But there are so many differentways in construction to do stuff
and what we try to do is justlike perfect our way.
(18:32):
So if it's not working, wetrain to it, get better at it.
But, yes, so timeline is onething and then how to do
something you know.
So we've been doing it.
The reason they usually call usis because they see something
on our social media or ourwebsite, or just some work or
(18:53):
referral social media or ourwebsite or just some work or
referral.
So there's a reason that theycalled us to begin with.
But to get to those prettyafter pictures as builders as
remodelers.
We just want to do our job.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Right.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
And so being micromanaged by the client is
tough, and it happens morefrequently these days because
there's so many bad actors outthere.
There's so many contractors, orstories of contractors who have
done this or that, and people towhere you know they're cautious
(19:27):
going in as it is.
Plus, our projects aren't cheap, right?
Our projects cost a lot ofmoney, so they're already a
little bit apprehensive.
They may be giving you whatthey've saved up for years and
years and years to get that done, and so they are going to be
super cautious, but a lot oftimes it's just the fact that
(19:47):
they've watched the YouTubevideos and you can Google
anything and Google is going tospit out a whole thing of how to
do something.
So you know, that's one thingtoo that's starting to hinder
hinder us and what we do, and itdoes start to mess up with the
flow.
If you've got the clientquestioning, well, wait, stop,
let's have a conversation aboutwhy you're doing what you're
(20:08):
doing, right.
That's another reason we do ourhow to's to, to reflect the
process, but like if they'reover your shoulder, nothing, I
think, makes a contractorespecially our workers, our team
more nervous, yeah, or stressedout.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
You have to tell them that costs more for our
audience.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Yeah right, and you make those jokes with them, but
also in the back of your mind,you're kind of like I'm not
joking, please stop staring.
You know what I mean?
And sometimes we get a lot ofthem that are just genuinely
interested, so they want to talkand they want to watch while
you're doing it, but it's stilllike it's taking time and stuff.
(20:46):
They're wanting to to grind itout, our team's wanting to grind
it out, and you're in therelooking asking questions.
So, um, but yeah, so that's onething like um, you know,
homeowners think they knowbecause they've watched
something, but the reality isevery video, even our videos,
are cut up to be to best fit anaudience.
It's not the entire processeverything's edited down yeah,
(21:10):
absolutely so.
just so everybody out thereknows that's.
That's one thing.
You just be cautious whenyou're, when you're watching and
listening, because we'recutting these things down.
What took us eight hours is cutinto a 30 second short or a one
minute video.
So there's so much more to thebackground and everything that
we do.
Um, and we're not going to boreeverybody with the 55 steps we
(21:36):
took.
You know what I mean.
We're just doing the highlights, so that's one thing that kind
of gets us messed up.
All right, so let's go to this.
This is a good one, because werun into this quite a bit too
bit too, but we do have a goodperson that does the plans for
(21:58):
us and that has done the plansfor us for dang near our whole
time, which is eight years.
But what is the one thing thatyou wish architects and
designers understood more aboutthese projects and the plans.
Thanks for joining us today.
As always, we are grateful forour listeners and your continued
support.
Please subscribe to our YouTubechannel, follow us on social
(22:21):
media via Facebook, instagramand TikTok.
Get more info at our website,wwwthehomebuildingshowcom.
And, as always, remember who weare are the home, building and
remodeling show you.
The Home Building and Remodeling Show.
Let's go.
Welcome everybody to the HomeBuilding and Remodeling Show.
My name is Chris Kirby and I'llbe your host.
(00:21):
I am the owner of threeconstruction companies on the
Alabama Gulf Coast.
The show is about residentialconstruction.
We're going to cover topics ofhome building and remodeling.
Are you thinking of doing aremodel or building a home?
Are you a contractor looking toimprove your knowledge base or
grow your business?
Have you ever done a remodelproject or built a home?
(00:42):
There were so many things youwish you knew or that you could
have done differently during theprocess.
Then this show is for you.
We break down the process ofbuilding and remodeling and how
to have the best results duringyour project.
Whether you're a DIYer lookingfor tips, someone looking to
hire a contractor to do aproject, or a contractor looking
(01:04):
to expand your knowledge baseor your business, welcome aboard
.
Glad to have you.
Stay tuned.
We kick off the show with mythoughts on home building and
remodeling.
I'll share best practices andtalk about some of our
experiences in business and outin the field.
These shared thoughts andlessons learned are meant to
help you on your very ownjourney.
(01:25):
Let's go.
I wanted to shake it up alittle bit and I wanted to be
able to give you some solidreading material, and I don't
know what we're going to callthe segment.
Moving forward, however, I'mgoing to share with you each
week different reading ordifferent material that you can
gain knowledge from, and thisweek I have here Fine Home
(01:46):
Building Magazine.
I love this magazine I've beensubscribed to it for a long time
but I also love to learn, andso I have quite a few different
magazines and different booksthat I have learned so much
information from.
I'm gonna share with you once amonth probably.
(02:07):
It'd be tough to share a book aweek, so this week we're going
to focus and hone in on finehome building.
They also have a podcast veryprofessional, you know, compared
to what we do here.
They have a whole productionteam.
So a great reading, fine homebuilding, great podcast to
listen to if you are interestedin home building and remodeling.
This is the June 2025 issue andthey are talking about a more
(02:31):
resilient roof.
But one of my favorite sectionsin here Ask the Expert section
of Fine Home Building magazinethis week they're talking about
installing pre-finished cabinetmoldings, and not only do they
talk about it and they answeryour questions that you send
into the magazine, but they alsodo a great job of the
(02:52):
visualization and showing younot just in words but also in
pictures of what it is thatthey're talking about, based on
the questions that you submit.
So for this month of May 2025, Iam going to shout out
continually the Fine HomeBuilding Magazine.
You can get a subscription.
(03:13):
I'm not exactly sure what I payfor ours, but I always enjoy
getting this every month in themail and reading through it.
And again, I'm going tocontinue to give you and share
with you different books,magazines and material that can
further your education andprofessional development in our
(03:33):
industry, and so I look forwardto giving this segment a name.
I look forward to giving it atitle.
So I would love for you towrite in email
thehomebuildingshow at gmailcom.
Let us know what you think Ishould call the segment where
I'm going to be sharing thisreference material magazines,
books, reading material tofurther your education and once
(03:55):
a month I'm going to give you anew one, and ours for this month
is the Fine Home BuildingMagazine.
Go like it, subscribe to it, gowatch the videos, visit the
website, and the podcast isamazing.
Another thing me and Adam weretalking about on the episode
this week were some of the crazystories in remodeling and we
(04:15):
want you to get to know us andwe want to get to know you and
we want to tap into the audience, and so what I'm going to start
doing is allowing differentcontractors and businesses even
homeowners, if you want.
If you've got a DIY page, Iwould love to check it out.
We would love to check it out.
We would love to bring you intothe fold and shout out your
company, your page, yourbusiness.
(04:36):
We love this content and wewant to bring it to the masses
and we want to share our stories, your stories, our journey,
your journey with everybody,while educating and empowering
people to go into the trades, totake that risk of doing that
home remodel, to become anexpert in the field, to start a
(05:01):
contracting business.
We want you to be in ourindustry.
We want to open the door to ourlives and what we do every day,
so it may inspire you to doyour next project.
Hey, and you know what?
We would love to come andconsult on that project.
So we definitely are open to.
We've had friends come herebefore and people that were
(05:24):
strangers have come to ourfacilities and trained and
worked and went to projects withus.
We are definitely open to youcoming to visit with us,
training with us, going toprojects with us, learning with
us, and we would love for you toopen your doors and allow us to
come into your world.
(05:45):
I would love to get with somecontractors out there that are
willing for me to tag along, askthem questions, put them on
video and do some of their ownhow to's, because we are doing
the best we can but we're notthe experts in everything.
So if you are open to that,please reach out to.
Our email isthehomebuildingshowatgmailcom.
(06:08):
Again, that'sthehomebuildingshowatgmailcom,
and send us an email.
Let us know what type of workyou do, and we'd love to travel
to your site and just film, talkto you, get educated by you and
, again, build thoserelationships.
And this is open to anybodythat is in the home building,
remodeling, that's a tradesmanelectrical, plumbing, any of
(06:31):
that type of stuff will wideopen.
If you are a DIYer and you'vebeen doing your own projects and
you've got a cool setup or aproject you'd like us to be a
part of, that you would like forus to see, please open that
door, reach out to us atthehomebuildingshowatgmailcom
and we look forward to hearingfrom you and we look forward to
(06:52):
you continuing to listen to usand leave us comments, shares,
likes, and let us know what youliked about the show, what you
don't like about the show andwhat you would like to see more
of, what you'd like to see lessof, and share your story.
Okay, we want you to share yourstory with us.
If you want to come on the show, come on the show.
(07:12):
We want you to be a part of it.
We want to shout you out and wewant to celebrate our industry
together.
On the show this week, there wasanother topic when we were
talking about TV timelines.
We were talking about realisticexpectations as far as how
renovations should go.
We dove deep into some coolfinds.
Adam was telling us one of thecraziest things he'd ever found
(07:32):
behind a wall, and then we werealso diving deep into you know,
as an estimator, our lives arepretty interesting.
As far as you know, it can beboring and monotonous because
you know you've seen one kitchen, you've seen them all, but it's
just not true because we havebeen to some sketchy areas.
(07:54):
We discussed that on the showthis week, adam shares a story
of basically a homeowner thathad an encampment going on and
had some squatters on theproperty with some huts and
different things, and we want toopen the door for you to be
able to share those style ofstories.
I'm sure there are so many morethat you know you may have
(08:16):
pulled up and walked intosomething crazy.
I've had my share of thosestories as well.
So this week I wanted to ask youwhat is stopping you from
starting your own company?
This show is for home buildersand remodelers, interior
designers, people who are in thehome industry in general, home
(08:36):
service professionals and DIYerseven.
But I wanted to encourage you,I want to take this time during
this episode to encourage you tostart your own show, share your
journey.
Don't be afraid to get outthere and put yourself out there
.
Okay, that's kind of how westarted this show and it really
(09:00):
started with befores and aftersand going on our our sites and
we would get a lot of clicks andlikes and follows because our
before and after reveals are sodramatic, from, you know, the
before picture to the after andas we built on it, I decided I
wanted to continue to deep diveand really learn about our
(09:22):
industry and learn bestpractices, because I wanted to
take in and soak in as muchinformation as I could to make
my company better and now thatwe're so far down the road in
this journey, I am starting toget inspired by others that I'm
watching.
Some of my favorite videos comefrom other what I call
(09:45):
construction influencers or homeinfluencers and the HGTV types
without the big brand of HGTVout there, doing it on their own
on YouTube, on social media,and I just wanted to shout them
out.
But I also wanted to encourageyou this week If you're
listening to the show, don't beafraid.
(10:07):
You can be the next constructioninfluencer, you can be the next
person going on TV or you canjust be the next person sharing
your story.
You may have seen a lot thatyou have to share.
You may have a great amount ofexperience, but you're scared to
shoot the content and shareyour story for some reason.
Well, whatever that reason is,get it out of your mind and get
(10:29):
it out there.
I am very willing to help youout.
If you want to email thehomebuilding show at gmailcom,
you definitely can reach out ifyou have any questions and want
to know any tips or tricks, andI'm not the best producer right.
So I'm doing this all from myiPhone and at the house right
now, and the videos we shoot areall done from my iPhone, with
(10:52):
me behind the camera.
And we had a media person, amarketing person, that did
social media for my company, formy businesses, for a while, but
we still do a lot of this stuffand self edit.
I spend a lot of time producingand editing myself to get it
how I like it.
Ok, it can definitely be better.
(11:13):
It can definitely be better, itcan definitely be more, but
we've got a couple hundredthousand followers just by
sharing what's on our hearts andminds and taking the time to
really dive deep into theindustry.
So, if you're listening to thisthis week, we definitely want to
encourage you to share yourhome journey, and I would love
to shout you out, call you outand put you out there.
(11:33):
So let me know in the commentswhat it is that's stopping you
from doing this or getting yourjourney started, and I really
wanna encourage you.
So please, please, feel free toreach out to me at
thehomebuildingshowatgmailcomand let me help you out and get
this journey started for you.
And now we move into Shop Talk.
(11:57):
It's the portion of the showwhere I bring in a co-host and
we cover trending topics in homebuilding and remodeling.
Hope you enjoy, let's go.
We went over there and youlooked at it and they had a
$130,000 budget, but they had anaddition that wasn't permitted
(12:17):
to be on there, so that wouldhave had to come off, which is
what would you say was abouthalf the house.
That would have had to beentore down and rebuilt and then
get everything back up to code.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Yeah, Nothing was in code there.
Yeah, the ledge goal running tothe main breaker box was just
coming out from underneath thehouse.
No conduit, nothing coming into the breaker box and just.
I mean the wires were uncoveredthat far coming out of the
breaker, like if you you couldget seriously hurt.
(12:51):
It would have been there,wouldn't have been a cover on
the thing.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Yeah and so just kind of it's just a fire hazard.
But you gave it an honesteffort, like you.
Came back you started workingon the bid but then we started
going through the pictures andthen the inspection report and
knew right away A, that's atough city when it comes to
building standards anyway, right?
(13:17):
So you know, in our countythere are the county inspectors,
there's multiple cityinspectors and that city is one
of the toughest to get just anormal everyday remodel through
because they're pretty strictwith their standards.
But there was no way we weregoing to be able to without.
I mean, there is always a way.
(13:38):
It's just how much money is itgoing to take and what he was
expecting for the budget.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
He was 100 grand out.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Yeah.
So you know, adding 100 granddoubling the budget of what he
thought was going to be the highend of his initial budget, it
wasn't going to be worth it,plus the time, delays and
headache.
And we do that.
So we try to communicate withthe client and we'll walk away
from things like that, Justbeing honest, saying hey, that's
(14:06):
not for us and probably isn'tfor you either, Right?
Speaker 2 (14:10):
that house I went to with reggie was uh, that bedroom
was one of the weirdest thingstoo.
What do you mean?
What?
What well, he told me.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
He's like hey man oh I know he was like gosh.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
He's go ahead and tell this story it smells like
death in there, just so you know.
And I was like you know, I meancan't be worse than anything
I've ever smelled before.
I'm not good with smells and Iopened that door and I started
gagging and about threw up on anold boy and I shut the door
back real quick and he's like Igot the measurements on that
(14:45):
already.
So it was the same thing,though, right, but something was
dead or had been dead in there,and no people lived in there
too.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
And what freaked me out was you.
I thought you were telling methat the owner, or whatever,
died and maybe had died in thatroom, and that was the smell,
right, but it wasn't the ownerhad passed away but the kids had
inherited or something.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
But these were all rentals, so she or he was not
part of dying in there, Gotcha,it's just it smelled like.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
I thought you were saying they died in there and so
when you went in there thesmell of death was still in
there.
I was like heck, no, but youknow that comes with the
territory, all right.
So going back to you said thehomeowners thought it had good
bones, probably had been toldthat what is the one thing that
(15:41):
every homeowner thinks they knowbut they really don't know
about construction?
Speaker 2 (15:48):
A lot of things.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
I said one thing.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
You said that was a lot there's too much tv and
shows for people to watch, youknow, and they're not getting a
realistic view of how itactually comes together, because
we have a friend that does itfor a living.
Yep, and she had told us, youknow like.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Oh, it's all rigged up, and ready it's already ready
.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Yeah, and when she walks on the set, she just
sticks the last couple pieces oftile or whatnot.
She didn't do any, so all thereal heavy lifting is in the
background.
She knows how to do the stufffrom speaking with her.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
So timeline right.
One of the things you weresaying is so that makes it look
like, hey, on all these TV showsthey never show, unless it's
one of the like zombie homes orsomething.
They just do all kind of crazystuff, but they never show the
real dirty stuff.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
No, they want you to see the before.
It's like extreme home makeover.
Yeah, they remodel it in aweekend, right, how do you?
You know that's not real.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Correct can Right, how do you?
You know that's not realCorrect.
And so we see that so oftenwhere people have these
preconceived notions on timelineand it kills me because they
will get somebody that tellsthem, yeah, it can be done,
because they want the work,because they want to win that
bid.
They will tell them, yes, wecan do it.
In that and don't get me wrong,like estimating is exactly what
its name is, Estimating right,you are given an estimate.
(17:22):
So even though we've done ahundred bathrooms, you know a
hundred kitchens, whatever itmay be, everyone and every
scenario is different.
So we've got to be very careful.
And, yes, those TV shows killit because they're just you're
seeing, you know, months of workcome together in a 30 minute
(17:43):
episode.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Those people do it one way and they think that's
the only way it's supposed to bedone.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Yeah, true.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
But there's, you know what's this?
Speaker 1 (17:50):
But that's the 30 ways to skin a cat.
Yeah, that's the YouTubewarriors too, where they'll get
on there.
And don't get me wrong, we postour own videos so people may
watch ours.
There are so many differentways.
Even with the way that we'vebeen trained and we show in our
how-to videos, we get thousandsof comments on hey, you should
(18:11):
have done this different or youcould have done this quicker.
This is a better tool to usefor that.
You know what I mean.
Did you think of this?
Which is great, because we lookand read the comments and we,
you know we use that feedbackand to get better.
But there are so many differentways in construction to do stuff
and what we try to do is justlike perfect our way.
(18:32):
So if it's not working, wetrain to it, get better at it.
But, yes, so timeline is onething and then how to do
something you know.
So we've been doing it.
The reason they usually call usis because they see something
on our social media or ourwebsite, or just some work or
(18:53):
referral social media or ourwebsite or just some work or
referral.
So there's a reason that theycalled us to begin with.
But to get to those prettyafter pictures as builders as
remodelers.
We just want to do our job.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Right.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
And so being micromanaged by the client is
tough, and it happens morefrequently these days because
there's so many bad actors outthere.
There's so many contractors, orstories of contractors who have
done this or that, and people towhere you know they're cautious
(19:27):
going in as it is.
Plus, our projects aren't cheap, right?
Our projects cost a lot ofmoney, so they're already a
little bit apprehensive.
They may be giving you whatthey've saved up for years and
years and years to get that done, and so they are going to be
super cautious, but a lot oftimes it's just the fact that
(19:47):
they've watched the YouTubevideos and you can Google
anything and Google is going tospit out a whole thing of how to
do something.
So you know, that's one thingtoo that's starting to hinder
hinder us and what we do, and itdoes start to mess up with the
flow.
If you've got the clientquestioning, well, wait, stop,
let's have a conversation aboutwhy you're doing what you're
(20:08):
doing, right.
That's another reason we do ourhow to's to, to reflect the
process, but like if they'reover your shoulder, nothing, I
think, makes a contractorespecially our workers, our team
more nervous, yeah, or stressedout.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
You have to tell them that costs more for our
audience.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Yeah right, and you make those jokes with them, but
also in the back of your mind,you're kind of like I'm not
joking, please stop staring.
You know what I mean?
And sometimes we get a lot ofthem that are just genuinely
interested, so they want to talkand they want to watch while
you're doing it, but it's stilllike it's taking time and stuff.
(20:46):
They're wanting to to grind itout, our team's wanting to grind
it out, and you're in therelooking asking questions.
So, um, but yeah, so that's onething like um, you know,
homeowners think they knowbecause they've watched
something, but the reality isevery video, even our videos,
are cut up to be to best fit anaudience.
It's not the entire processeverything's edited down yeah,
(21:10):
absolutely so.
just so everybody out thereknows that's.
That's one thing.
You just be cautious whenyou're, when you're watching and
listening, because we'recutting these things down.
What took us eight hours is cutinto a 30 second short or a one
minute video.
So there's so much more to thebackground and everything that
we do.
Um, and we're not going to boreeverybody with the 55 steps we
(21:36):
took.
You know what I mean.
We're just doing the highlights, so that's one thing that kind
of gets us messed up.
All right, so let's go to this.
This is a good one, because werun into this quite a bit too
bit too, but we do have a goodperson that does the plans for
(21:58):
us and that has done the plansfor us for dang near our whole
time, which is eight years.
But what is the one thing thatyou wish architects and
designers understood more aboutthese projects and the plans.
Thanks for joining us today.
As always, we are grateful forour listeners and your continued
support.
Please subscribe to our YouTubechannel, follow us on social
(22:21):
media via Facebook, instagramand TikTok.
Get more info at our website,wwwthehomebuildingshowcom.
And, as always, remember who weare are the home, building and
remodeling show you.
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