May 20, 2025 • 23 mins
Renovation reality checks take center stage as Chris Kirby and co-host Adam pull back the curtain on what really happens behind the scenes of home improvement projects. Ever wonder why your renovation took three times longer than that similar project on HGTV? The answer lies in the dramatic difference between televised renovations and actual construction work.
Drawing from decades of combined experience with their construction companies on the Alabama Gulf Coast, the hosts reveal how an eight-hour workday gets compressed into just 22 minutes of screen time, creating fundamentally distorted expectations. They share stories of homeowners who attempted DIY projects after watching deceptively simple tutorials, only to call professionals weeks later, desperate for rescue from half-completed disasters.
The conversation takes fascinating turns as they discuss the strangest discoveries hidden behind walls during renovations—from antique vanities mysteriously walled up in inaccessible spaces to century-old receipts and the occasional deceased cat. These unexpected findings represent just one category of complications that make accurate timeline estimation so challenging.
Perhaps most valuable is their candid discussion about project timelines and why experienced contractors appear to overestimate project duration. Whether it's material delays, subcontractor scheduling issues, hidden structural problems, or dozens of other variables, the hosts explain why buffer time protects both contractors and clients from disappointment. They even address the surprising phenomenon of homeowners expecting refunds when projects finish early!
Whether you're planning your own renovation, working as a contractor, or simply fascinated by the construction process, this episode offers invaluable perspective on managing expectations, understanding estimates, and approaching renovation with realistic timeframes. Follow along as Chris and Adam share their professional wisdom and amusing anecdotes from years in the business.
Ready to start your renovation journey with clear expectations? Subscribe to our channel, follow us on social media, and visit www.thehomebuildingshow.com for more expert insights on navigating your next home improvement project.
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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 All right.
So, on this week's show, we kindof loosened it up a little bit,
myself and my co-host, adam.
I was able to ask him a seriesof different questions, and one
of the questions was some of thecraziest things you had found
behind the wall duringremodeling.
And what I would love to knowfrom you, from the audience, is
(01:46):
what are some of the craziestthings that you found while
doing a remodel or doing aconstruction project, and have
you ever found anything that wassuper valuable?
From what he was saying, theythought they had found something
that was super valuable.
You'll have to hear about it inthe episode, but I look forward
to you listening this week.
(02:07):
This is our 63rd episode.
We are super excited to keep itgoing.
So as we dive into that episode,we also got into the topic of
TV versus reality, and there'stwo sides to that as well,
because YouTube is so popular aswell.
So we have some YouTubewarriors, even though this is
(02:29):
going to go on YouTube.
So it's quite funny for me totalk about that.
But you have people who arewatching these how to's.
They even watch our how to'sand you'll hear me talk about it
with Adam.
One of the things that we wediscuss is even our videos.
Even what you're watching rightnow is so edited for production
(02:50):
that it's not reality.
How long it actually took me torecord this video to make it
usable for the audience thatlistens to our show is dramatic
in comparison to reality.
When we're doing our how-tosit's very dramatic in comparison
to reality because we aretaking our time and shooting,
(03:14):
but there's so many edits and onTV.
So where we got thisinformation is.
We actually have a friend who isnow on HGTV.
She's going to have her ownshow and she was shooting over
the winter and kind of justgiving us some insight on how
this stuff works.
(03:35):
She has a long, long journeywith TV production and things
like that and the bottom line isyou're getting an eight hour
production day boiled down intoa 30 minute episode.
You may be getting multipledays on the same project boiled
down into a 30 minute episode,actually into a 22 minute
(03:55):
episode, and then you addcommercials for TV on ours.
It's the same concept mindset.
So you have to be diligent inwho you're watching and who
you're paying attention to andjust get the video is boiled
down to the meat and potatoes ofwhat we're actually talking
about and the reason my heart'sso heavy on this topic this week
(04:17):
and the reason we did a deepdive on the show, me and Adam is
because this is distortingreality when it comes to
remodeling, home building,timelines, education, what
people know versus what theythink they know.
Right, I ask him what's the onething that homeowners quite
often think they know but theyreally don't?
(04:38):
Timelines was his biggest one.
For me, that is huge, becausewhen we do an estimate or when
we do a bid, it is just that weare giving you a quote, an
estimate, a bid, whatever youwant to call it and we're doing
the best we can based onprevious experience, right?
So timelines are a big one.
(05:00):
I'd love to hear some of whatyou have to say as far as what
you wish a homeowner actuallyknew versus what they think they
know, because that is a verytough go for us.
There are so many bad actorsout there contractors getting in
trouble between us and a clientand you know that we're
(05:23):
completely perfect in all ofthis, because we're not.
We just talk about what we do,probably more than most people,
and we're not afraid to talkabout the hard times we go
through, but the reality is thatthe how to's are just that.
It's how to do something, butit takes so much longer and so
much more practice by our expertteam to actually do the
(05:48):
projects.
I could take a let's just saywe were going to build a table.
I could take that entireprocess and cut it into 30
second shorts and give you ahundred videos, and it actually
takes multiple days, multipleweeks sometimes, to do the
project.
So timelines are a big one, andfor the audience that's
listening to this, that aren'tcontractors or aren't remodelers
(06:11):
or aren't tradesmen or women,please hear me out when I say,
when somebody gives you atimeline, they are doing that
based on experience.
However, each build, eachremodel, comes with its own set
of differences.
Every build is different, everyremodel is different.
None of them are exactly thesame.
(06:32):
What we've learned to do iswe've learned to navigate these
problems over time.
So it may be that when we firststarted doing this, our
timeline may have been two weeks, but then we hit a material
delay.
We had COVID, we had a sub blowus off.
Okay, let's move it to threeweeks.
(06:52):
Okay, three weeks is doable.
And then again, during thatthree-week time period on your
project, the homeowner hadsomething go on and we had two
days of delay because they weresick or they were out of town.
We couldn't get a key whilethey were on vacation.
There are so many differentaspects to a project that the
(07:16):
smart contractor, the smartremodeler, the smart tradesman
is going to overestimate.
Right, they should.
They shouldn't tell you twodays and finish in 10.
They should be telling you 10days and finishing in two.
And you know, we've also hadproblems where people feel like
they're getting ripped off.
I don't understand this.
So contractor bids 10 days, youfinish the job in two days.
(07:42):
You would think the homeownerwould be happy.
Well, some homeowners in factfeel like they should get money
back.
Well, the project only took two.
You charged me for 10 days, oryou gave me a timeline of 10
days.
Do I get a discount?
Do I get a rebate?
Do I get some money back?
No, you should be happy thatthe project finished early.
(08:03):
And the reason we gave you a10-day timeline is because there
are so many variables in aremodel that we can never just
give you an exact date to finisha project, because we ourselves
could be hindered in some wayfor that project.
We could get knee-deep intothis thing we could get injured
on the job.
So we have to take into accountas many variables as possible
(08:27):
when given an estimate and wegotta make sure that we cover
ourselves to not let you down.
So when a contractor gives youa two-week timeline, a
three-week timeline, a four-weektimeline and they finish a week
ahead, don't hard time thembecause they finished a week
ahead, because it easily couldhave been a four-week, five-week
(08:47):
, six-week project because ofdifferent variances, different
variables and delays in theproject.
So as we're talking about itthrough the show, through this
episode, you'll hear me and Adamjust kind of go through a
series of events and why weestimate and why we budget the
way we do.
But don't let TV boil it downso much that it seems so easy
(09:09):
that you think you can do itright.
It can become a DIY project.
Listen that right.
There is another factor thatwe've had to navigate right.
We get homeowners call us andthey say you know what?
I was watching a show, or I waswatching YouTube or a video
wherever Instagram it could be,any of those platforms these
days and they call us and sayit's a lot harder than what I
(09:32):
thought.
I've been working on my showerfor two weeks and I have no clue
.
Could you come bail me out?
You know we do have those callsthat happen because again, we
are boiling down the process to30 seconds short for attention,
okay, and the longer videos.
(09:53):
So our long form videos are onYouTube and those videos tend to
be 30, 30 minutes and up, 20,30 minutes and up, and those are
where we want you to go andwatch the full blown version of
what we're doing on the project.
And again, 30 minutes is boileddown from days and weeks of
training sometimes.
So I just wanted to put that outthere.
(10:14):
It's been on my heart.
I want to help thesecontractors out.
I want to help the homeownerswho are trying to get these
projects done.
I want you to understand thatnothing is as it seems in a
remodel and it's not very easyto do a remodel.
It's not easy to do the work wedo and I want to make sure that
you show some grace and givesome leniency to your remodeler
(10:36):
or your contractor, understandthey're just trying to do the
best that they can.
And, like I said, and I'llrepeat this, so I'm blue in the
face.
An estimate is exactly what itsays it is.
It's estimated.
It is not a guarantee.
It's very hard to look we getit right.
(10:57):
We get it right a lot when wesay we're going to be there for
two weeks.
We can usually make that happen.
But we set that expectation andwe've practiced this and we've
done this project repeatedlyover time.
So again, just show them someleniency, show them some grace
when they're there to do yourproject.
And now we move into Shop Talk.
(11:20):
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 All right, welcomeback.
It's Chris and co-host Adam,and we're going to kind of liven
it up a little bit, let you getto know us a little bit more,
and we're going to share somemore stories and different stuff
(11:43):
.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
We're going to start with what's the weirdest thing
you've ever found behind thewall so one time I was doing a
kitchen remodel and we didn't Ididn't realize, because I hadn't
been in another portion of thehouse at the time that the wall
we were taking out to get alittle bit room, um, we cut into
(12:06):
the wall and there was likethree sets of cavities in there
and one of them had an antiquelooking like makeup vanity,
automatically like in a cubby orit was a separate room or no,
it was in.
There was another wall aboutthree foot and it was just Open
space in between and it coveredin.
Wow, there was no access to it.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Ain't that that's kind of weird.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Yeah, I thought there was money in it.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Because it was an antique house.
I was like, man, there'ssomething got to be in there,
yeah, and there was nothing.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Nothing and there's something got to be in there,
yeah, and there was nothing.
Nothing, it was empty.
Yeah, we and we've seen somestuff, but the lady was happy
she got the.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
It's like she was.
She started cleaning that thingup like the next couple days
and was going to refinish it andeverything.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
It's pretty cool in some of the older buildings
we've done like that firstbuilding we did over there, we
found some old newspapers andstuff and and then when we did
our building we just moved outof, we actually donated a bunch
of stuff to the Loxley Museum.
There was some old all the wayback to the 1920s.
There was some old receiptsfrom Gulf Hardware, which is
(13:16):
pretty cool to see.
You know 100-year-old receiptsfrom different things back in
the past and how they used towrite invoices.
We've also seen plenty ofstories like the dead animals,
and I remember last year we wereworking at Mr Hines I think it
was Mr Hines' house, Wasn'tthere?
Like a dead cat or something?
No, no, no, that was the guyright down the road and what was
(13:37):
that?
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Okay.
So the man's soffit had rottedout, yeah, and when I got there
he had put it up like somechicken screen up there and he
was like, well, I'm trying tokeep.
He's like I got some cats thatkeep trying to get up in there,
yeah.
So I put the screen up and hewas like could y'all fix it?
(14:00):
So we went out, replaced thatportion of the soffit, painted
it, got done with the projectand about six months later he
called and said hey, I gotanother spot that's starting to
rot out.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Let's go ahead and fix it, do it as well, yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
And so they go to pull that old soffit and a cat.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
It was a dead cat.
Yeah, sorry, but there was adead cat, I remember.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
It had been up there for a good minute.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
So it was like stinking rot.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Yeah, we may have covered it up in there.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Oh goodness, all right.
So and they were refusing totouch it.
So, just so everybody knows,right before we move into the
next question, I'm a big Saintsfan, pelicans fan.
I grew up here on the AlabamaGulf Coast and so Saints
(14:52):
Pelicans weren't around backthen.
So I was actually a Lakers fan,shaq fan back in the day too,
kobe fan.
But Adam and I don't know youknow we're both Alabama fans,
crimson Tide fans, roll Tide.
But there's one big thing thatwe differ in, and that's what
NFL teams we support, and youare a what?
(15:13):
Cowboys fan oh my gosh A Cowboysfan, let's go Get out of here
with that.
Yeah, so Probably win the superbowl this year.
Yeah, every year I mean we havethis running thing he's he's in
here talking about we're gonnawin the super bowl and we the
boys and all that, and then,good, we win one playoff game up
yet and then they can't evenget to the playoffs.
(15:34):
Man, or they're knocked outfirst round, or they're butt
fumbling or something's going on, somebody's getting getting
hurt, and there's always areason for the Cowboys, so I'm
hoping he doesn't pick one ofthem as who it is for this next
question.
But my next question for you isif you could remodel any
celebrity's house, who would itbe?
Speaker 2 (15:57):
It would be either John Bale, dave Spools, that's
the front man for WidespreadPanic on the Basis.
Who would it be?
It would be either John Bale,dave Schools.
Who is that's the front man forWidespread Panic on a basis?
Probably be either BillyStrings.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Billy, okay.
Or Bobby Weir, bobby Weir, okay, that's pretty cool, and for me
I would say, just being atraditionalist and people may
not think of him as a celebrity,but I sure do it would probably
be Saban man.
Could you imagine First?
(16:30):
Could you imagine?
Well, maybe I need to take thatback, because the standard
probably applies to all aspects.
No, doubt.
Could you imagine having NickSaban watching you when you're
trying to remodel the house andtelling you?
It would be Miss Saban.
She's the big boss, that'sright.
She might be a little bit nicerwhen it comes to the standard.
(16:51):
But no, for me it wouldprobably be Nick Saban.
If I had anybody else to choose, it would probably be Shaq.
I was a big Shaq fan growing up.
Still am a big Shaq fan growingup.
Still am a big Shaq fan.
He's done a.
He's done a lot of stuff, so Ithink that would be pretty cool.
Maybe I need to rethink thesaving thing, because that might
be a little bit tough on me.
One tool what is your go-to?
(17:13):
So what?
What is the majority of thework that you've done like?
If you had to call yourself atradesman, what trade or craft
would you say?
You spent most of your timedoing Cabinets, trim, so like
trim carpentry, finishedcarpenter would be okay.
So if you had one tool that youhad, or one that you wish you
(17:33):
had, that would save you time,money or help you out, or just
your go to, what would it be?
Speaker 2 (17:40):
I'm not sure I know a multi-tools got me out of a
multi-tool.
Yeah, yeah they are very handyto have on you as you under.
They never had them, you know.
I mean, though, was the brand?
Rockwell was probably the firstbrand to come out with them.
Nobody ever had them, really,and they were all corded yeah,
everything's corded multi -tool.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
So I mean there's a lot of different areas that I
mean where you're having to cuttrim shims.
You know what I mean.
Trim off a little bit so Icould see how that would be for
a trim carpenter.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
But you got, I mean just a good table saw and miter
saw really.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Yeah, miters, yeah, true, compound miter saw, yeah,
digging a little bit more intowhat you do for us.
Now Adam does the estimatingfor both Kirby Homes and for
Kirby Custom Renovations.
You've seen your share ofhouses, you've seen your share
of remodels.
Now new construction Been allover the place doing estimates
(18:38):
small, very small estimates tohuge estimates.
What would you say is theweirdest or sketchiest estimate
that you had to go to?
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Probably the weirdest one is that I went to a house
in Mobile.
It was about a year or so ago.
It was a newlywed couple, theywere probably 21, 22 years old.
They didn't have a clue whatthey were doing and she had
inherited this house from herdad that had moved away or
whatnot, and I mean the roof wascaved in Like caved in.
(19:14):
Yeah, it hasn't been lived inprobably for years.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
And they were wanting to remodel it to live in it.
And I was trying to tell them Iwas like it's going to be
cheaper for you to build.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Like do a new construction, do a new
construction?
Speaker 2 (19:29):
And we've run into that kind of, and she's like
there's no way it's got goodbones and I was like your whole
roof system is caved in.
They don't have that great ofbones.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Yeah, the bones aren't good with the roof, it's
caved in.
But we've run into thatmultiple times actually.
And now we get to the point sowe've done super in-depth,
extensive remodels, uh, onhouses and we're talking from
floors all the way up, just tokind of keep the house intact.
We've, we've went in and andgutted, basically gutted that
thing down to the bones, pulledup floors, installed new joists.
I mean we've, we've done thatin the past and it is expensive
and some people just have suchan attachment to the house that
(20:11):
they want to keep, you know,keep the home no matter what at
all costs.
Yeah.
And then there's a lot of timeswhere we're like it's just not
even worth it for us to messwith, like it is actually
cheaper to do a new construction.
And people don't they'reusually attached, but that leans
me back to.
So you said the client was like, well, it's got good bones.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Yeah, but I could tell somebody had told her that.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
That it had good bones.
Yeah, because she didn't knowwhat she was looking at but that
also runs into and we see thistoo where she was probably
already given a bid or told bysomebody else yeah, we can, we
can do that work right.
You know what I mean when, infact, and and what we do is is
(20:57):
we try to be real with our, withour clients.
It's not all about winning thebid, you know.
It's about about being goodneighbors and making sure that
we let them know.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
That house was at the point where an engineer was
going to have to go out and redothe structural integrity of
this home.
Yeah, they wasn't scabbing onthe stuff, yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
And we just did this over in Fairhope with a guy that
you know he's on the chamberwith me and he wanted to use
this because we're on the boardtogether.
You went over there and kind ofchecked that out and what did
that house have going on it?
Was in rough shape too.
We should have a whole podcastlike the weirdest stories.
(21:39):
In Vermont there was folksliving in it.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
So there were.
So it was in rough, but therewere, it was rough.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
But it was kind of like an encampment or something
going on too right.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
So the guy lived in there and he had like one of his
grown-up kids in a camper overhere, one in the camper over
there.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
So there was a couple of campers on the property.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Yeah, and then a random in the back there was
like a hut made out of tarp andsomebody was living back in this
tarp hut.
So the guy who called us I wastrying to leave and apparently
he told what's his name that itwas up to them to figure out
where they were going, like hiskids, I guess he's telling them
Because he was the only oneworking there and stuff.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
So we were called.
The guy that called us wasgoing to use it as an investment
, or he may have moved into it,but he wanted to invest.
He wanted to kind of get thisthing redone, and the person
that currently owned it and wasliving there was just tired of
being there and tired of peopleliving off of them.
We went over there and youlooked at it and they had a
(22:42):
$130,000 budget, but they had anaddition that wasn't permitted
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 (23:00):
Yeah, Nothing was in code there.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
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 media viaFacebook, instagram and TikTok.
Get more info at our websitewwwthehomebuildingshowcom.
Wwwthehomebuildingshowcom.
(23:24):
And, as always, remember who weare the Home Building and
(23:47):
Remodeling Show.
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 All right.
So, on this week's show, we kindof loosened it up a little bit,
myself and my co-host, adam.
I was able to ask him a seriesof different questions, and one
of the questions was some of thecraziest things you had found
behind the wall duringremodeling.
And what I would love to knowfrom you, from the audience, is
(01:46):
what are some of the craziestthings that you found while
doing a remodel or doing aconstruction project, and have
you ever found anything that wassuper valuable?
From what he was saying, theythought they had found something
that was super valuable.
You'll have to hear about it inthe episode, but I look forward
to you listening this week.
(02:07):
This is our 63rd episode.
We are super excited to keep itgoing.
So as we dive into that episode,we also got into the topic of
TV versus reality, and there'stwo sides to that as well,
because YouTube is so popular aswell.
So we have some YouTubewarriors, even though this is
(02:29):
going to go on YouTube.
So it's quite funny for me totalk about that.
But you have people who arewatching these how to's.
They even watch our how to'sand you'll hear me talk about it
with Adam.
One of the things that we wediscuss is even our videos.
Even what you're watching rightnow is so edited for production
(02:50):
that it's not reality.
How long it actually took me torecord this video to make it
usable for the audience thatlistens to our show is dramatic
in comparison to reality.
When we're doing our how-tosit's very dramatic in comparison
to reality because we aretaking our time and shooting,
(03:14):
but there's so many edits and onTV.
So where we got thisinformation is.
We actually have a friend who isnow on HGTV.
She's going to have her ownshow and she was shooting over
the winter and kind of justgiving us some insight on how
this stuff works.
(03:35):
She has a long, long journeywith TV production and things
like that and the bottom line isyou're getting an eight hour
production day boiled down intoa 30 minute episode.
You may be getting multipledays on the same project boiled
down into a 30 minute episode,actually into a 22 minute
(03:55):
episode, and then you addcommercials for TV on ours.
It's the same concept mindset.
So you have to be diligent inwho you're watching and who
you're paying attention to andjust get the video is boiled
down to the meat and potatoes ofwhat we're actually talking
about and the reason my heart'sso heavy on this topic this week
(04:17):
and the reason we did a deepdive on the show, me and Adam is
because this is distortingreality when it comes to
remodeling, home building,timelines, education, what
people know versus what theythink they know.
Right, I ask him what's the onething that homeowners quite
often think they know but theyreally don't?
(04:38):
Timelines was his biggest one.
For me, that is huge, becausewhen we do an estimate or when
we do a bid, it is just that weare giving you a quote, an
estimate, a bid, whatever youwant to call it and we're doing
the best we can based onprevious experience, right?
So timelines are a big one.
(05:00):
I'd love to hear some of whatyou have to say as far as what
you wish a homeowner actuallyknew versus what they think they
know, because that is a verytough go for us.
There are so many bad actorsout there contractors getting in
trouble between us and a clientand you know that we're
(05:23):
completely perfect in all ofthis, because we're not.
We just talk about what we do,probably more than most people,
and we're not afraid to talkabout the hard times we go
through, but the reality is thatthe how to's are just that.
It's how to do something, butit takes so much longer and so
much more practice by our expertteam to actually do the
(05:48):
projects.
I could take a let's just saywe were going to build a table.
I could take that entireprocess and cut it into 30
second shorts and give you ahundred videos, and it actually
takes multiple days, multipleweeks sometimes, to do the
project.
So timelines are a big one, andfor the audience that's
listening to this, that aren'tcontractors or aren't remodelers
(06:11):
or aren't tradesmen or women,please hear me out when I say,
when somebody gives you atimeline, they are doing that
based on experience.
However, each build, eachremodel, comes with its own set
of differences.
Every build is different, everyremodel is different.
None of them are exactly thesame.
(06:32):
What we've learned to do iswe've learned to navigate these
problems over time.
So it may be that when we firststarted doing this, our
timeline may have been two weeks, but then we hit a material
delay.
We had COVID, we had a sub blowus off.
Okay, let's move it to threeweeks.
(06:52):
Okay, three weeks is doable.
And then again, during thatthree-week time period on your
project, the homeowner hadsomething go on and we had two
days of delay because they weresick or they were out of town.
We couldn't get a key whilethey were on vacation.
There are so many differentaspects to a project that the
(07:16):
smart contractor, the smartremodeler, the smart tradesman
is going to overestimate.
Right, they should.
They shouldn't tell you twodays and finish in 10.
They should be telling you 10days and finishing in two.
And you know, we've also hadproblems where people feel like
they're getting ripped off.
I don't understand this.
So contractor bids 10 days, youfinish the job in two days.
(07:42):
You would think the homeownerwould be happy.
Well, some homeowners in factfeel like they should get money
back.
Well, the project only took two.
You charged me for 10 days, oryou gave me a timeline of 10
days.
Do I get a discount?
Do I get a rebate?
Do I get some money back?
No, you should be happy thatthe project finished early.
(08:03):
And the reason we gave you a10-day timeline is because there
are so many variables in aremodel that we can never just
give you an exact date to finisha project, because we ourselves
could be hindered in some wayfor that project.
We could get knee-deep intothis thing we could get injured
on the job.
So we have to take into accountas many variables as possible
(08:27):
when given an estimate and wegotta make sure that we cover
ourselves to not let you down.
So when a contractor gives youa two-week timeline, a
three-week timeline, a four-weektimeline and they finish a week
ahead, don't hard time thembecause they finished a week
ahead, because it easily couldhave been a four-week, five-week
(08:47):
, six-week project because ofdifferent variances, different
variables and delays in theproject.
So as we're talking about itthrough the show, through this
episode, you'll hear me and Adamjust kind of go through a
series of events and why weestimate and why we budget the
way we do.
But don't let TV boil it downso much that it seems so easy
(09:09):
that you think you can do itright.
It can become a DIY project.
Listen that right.
There is another factor thatwe've had to navigate right.
We get homeowners call us andthey say you know what?
I was watching a show, or I waswatching YouTube or a video
wherever Instagram it could be,any of those platforms these
days and they call us and sayit's a lot harder than what I
(09:32):
thought.
I've been working on my showerfor two weeks and I have no clue
.
Could you come bail me out?
You know we do have those callsthat happen because again, we
are boiling down the process to30 seconds short for attention,
okay, and the longer videos.
(09:53):
So our long form videos are onYouTube and those videos tend to
be 30, 30 minutes and up, 20,30 minutes and up, and those are
where we want you to go andwatch the full blown version of
what we're doing on the project.
And again, 30 minutes is boileddown from days and weeks of
training sometimes.
So I just wanted to put that outthere.
(10:14):
It's been on my heart.
I want to help thesecontractors out.
I want to help the homeownerswho are trying to get these
projects done.
I want you to understand thatnothing is as it seems in a
remodel and it's not very easyto do a remodel.
It's not easy to do the work wedo and I want to make sure that
you show some grace and givesome leniency to your remodeler
(10:36):
or your contractor, understandthey're just trying to do the
best that they can.
And, like I said, and I'llrepeat this, so I'm blue in the
face.
An estimate is exactly what itsays it is.
It's estimated.
It is not a guarantee.
It's very hard to look we getit right.
(10:57):
We get it right a lot when wesay we're going to be there for
two weeks.
We can usually make that happen.
But we set that expectation andwe've practiced this and we've
done this project repeatedlyover time.
So again, just show them someleniency, show them some grace
when they're there to do yourproject.
And now we move into Shop Talk.
(11:20):
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 All right, welcomeback.
It's Chris and co-host Adam,and we're going to kind of liven
it up a little bit, let you getto know us a little bit more,
and we're going to share somemore stories and different stuff
(11:43):
.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
We're going to start with what's the weirdest thing
you've ever found behind thewall so one time I was doing a
kitchen remodel and we didn't Ididn't realize, because I hadn't
been in another portion of thehouse at the time that the wall
we were taking out to get alittle bit room, um, we cut into
(12:06):
the wall and there was likethree sets of cavities in there
and one of them had an antiquelooking like makeup vanity,
automatically like in a cubby orit was a separate room or no,
it was in.
There was another wall aboutthree foot and it was just Open
space in between and it coveredin.
Wow, there was no access to it.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Ain't that that's kind of weird.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Yeah, I thought there was money in it.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Because it was an antique house.
I was like, man, there'ssomething got to be in there,
yeah, and there was nothing.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Nothing and there's something got to be in there,
yeah, and there was nothing.
Nothing, it was empty.
Yeah, we and we've seen somestuff, but the lady was happy
she got the.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
It's like she was.
She started cleaning that thingup like the next couple days
and was going to refinish it andeverything.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
It's pretty cool in some of the older buildings
we've done like that firstbuilding we did over there, we
found some old newspapers andstuff and and then when we did
our building we just moved outof, we actually donated a bunch
of stuff to the Loxley Museum.
There was some old all the wayback to the 1920s.
There was some old receiptsfrom Gulf Hardware, which is
(13:16):
pretty cool to see.
You know 100-year-old receiptsfrom different things back in
the past and how they used towrite invoices.
We've also seen plenty ofstories like the dead animals,
and I remember last year we wereworking at Mr Hines I think it
was Mr Hines' house, Wasn'tthere?
Like a dead cat or something?
No, no, no, that was the guyright down the road and what was
(13:37):
that?
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Okay.
So the man's soffit had rottedout, yeah, and when I got there
he had put it up like somechicken screen up there and he
was like, well, I'm trying tokeep.
He's like I got some cats thatkeep trying to get up in there,
yeah.
So I put the screen up and hewas like could y'all fix it?
(14:00):
So we went out, replaced thatportion of the soffit, painted
it, got done with the projectand about six months later he
called and said hey, I gotanother spot that's starting to
rot out.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Let's go ahead and fix it, do it as well, yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
And so they go to pull that old soffit and a cat.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
It was a dead cat.
Yeah, sorry, but there was adead cat, I remember.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
It had been up there for a good minute.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
So it was like stinking rot.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Yeah, we may have covered it up in there.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Oh goodness, all right.
So and they were refusing totouch it.
So, just so everybody knows,right before we move into the
next question, I'm a big Saintsfan, pelicans fan.
I grew up here on the AlabamaGulf Coast and so Saints
(14:52):
Pelicans weren't around backthen.
So I was actually a Lakers fan,shaq fan back in the day too,
kobe fan.
But Adam and I don't know youknow we're both Alabama fans,
crimson Tide fans, roll Tide.
But there's one big thing thatwe differ in, and that's what
NFL teams we support, and youare a what?
(15:13):
Cowboys fan oh my gosh A Cowboysfan, let's go Get out of here
with that.
Yeah, so Probably win the superbowl this year.
Yeah, every year I mean we havethis running thing he's he's in
here talking about we're gonnawin the super bowl and we the
boys and all that, and then,good, we win one playoff game up
yet and then they can't evenget to the playoffs.
(15:34):
Man, or they're knocked outfirst round, or they're butt
fumbling or something's going on, somebody's getting getting
hurt, and there's always areason for the Cowboys, so I'm
hoping he doesn't pick one ofthem as who it is for this next
question.
But my next question for you isif you could remodel any
celebrity's house, who would itbe?
Speaker 2 (15:57):
It would be either John Bale, dave Spools, that's
the front man for WidespreadPanic on the Basis.
Who would it be?
It would be either John Bale,dave Schools.
Who is that's the front man forWidespread Panic on a basis?
Probably be either BillyStrings.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Billy, okay.
Or Bobby Weir, bobby Weir, okay, that's pretty cool, and for me
I would say, just being atraditionalist and people may
not think of him as a celebrity,but I sure do it would probably
be Saban man.
Could you imagine First?
(16:30):
Could you imagine?
Well, maybe I need to take thatback, because the standard
probably applies to all aspects.
No, doubt.
Could you imagine having NickSaban watching you when you're
trying to remodel the house andtelling you?
It would be Miss Saban.
She's the big boss, that'sright.
She might be a little bit nicerwhen it comes to the standard.
(16:51):
But no, for me it wouldprobably be Nick Saban.
If I had anybody else to choose, it would probably be Shaq.
I was a big Shaq fan growing up.
Still am a big Shaq fan growingup.
Still am a big Shaq fan.
He's done a.
He's done a lot of stuff, so Ithink that would be pretty cool.
Maybe I need to rethink thesaving thing, because that might
be a little bit tough on me.
One tool what is your go-to?
(17:13):
So what?
What is the majority of thework that you've done like?
If you had to call yourself atradesman, what trade or craft
would you say?
You spent most of your timedoing Cabinets, trim, so like
trim carpentry, finishedcarpenter would be okay.
So if you had one tool that youhad, or one that you wish you
(17:33):
had, that would save you time,money or help you out, or just
your go to, what would it be?
Speaker 2 (17:40):
I'm not sure I know a multi-tools got me out of a
multi-tool.
Yeah, yeah they are very handyto have on you as you under.
They never had them, you know.
I mean, though, was the brand?
Rockwell was probably the firstbrand to come out with them.
Nobody ever had them, really,and they were all corded yeah,
everything's corded multi -tool.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
So I mean there's a lot of different areas that I
mean where you're having to cuttrim shims.
You know what I mean.
Trim off a little bit so Icould see how that would be for
a trim carpenter.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
But you got, I mean just a good table saw and miter
saw really.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Yeah, miters, yeah, true, compound miter saw, yeah,
digging a little bit more intowhat you do for us.
Now Adam does the estimatingfor both Kirby Homes and for
Kirby Custom Renovations.
You've seen your share ofhouses, you've seen your share
of remodels.
Now new construction Been allover the place doing estimates
(18:38):
small, very small estimates tohuge estimates.
What would you say is theweirdest or sketchiest estimate
that you had to go to?
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Probably the weirdest one is that I went to a house
in Mobile.
It was about a year or so ago.
It was a newlywed couple, theywere probably 21, 22 years old.
They didn't have a clue whatthey were doing and she had
inherited this house from herdad that had moved away or
whatnot, and I mean the roof wascaved in Like caved in.
(19:14):
Yeah, it hasn't been lived inprobably for years.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
And they were wanting to remodel it to live in it.
And I was trying to tell them Iwas like it's going to be
cheaper for you to build.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Like do a new construction, do a new
construction?
Speaker 2 (19:29):
And we've run into that kind of, and she's like
there's no way it's got goodbones and I was like your whole
roof system is caved in.
They don't have that great ofbones.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Yeah, the bones aren't good with the roof, it's
caved in.
But we've run into thatmultiple times actually.
And now we get to the point sowe've done super in-depth,
extensive remodels, uh, onhouses and we're talking from
floors all the way up, just tokind of keep the house intact.
We've, we've went in and andgutted, basically gutted that
thing down to the bones, pulledup floors, installed new joists.
I mean we've, we've done thatin the past and it is expensive
and some people just have suchan attachment to the house that
(20:11):
they want to keep, you know,keep the home no matter what at
all costs.
Yeah.
And then there's a lot of timeswhere we're like it's just not
even worth it for us to messwith, like it is actually
cheaper to do a new construction.
And people don't they'reusually attached, but that leans
me back to.
So you said the client was like, well, it's got good bones.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Yeah, but I could tell somebody had told her that.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
That it had good bones.
Yeah, because she didn't knowwhat she was looking at but that
also runs into and we see thistoo where she was probably
already given a bid or told bysomebody else yeah, we can, we
can do that work right.
You know what I mean when, infact, and and what we do is is
(20:57):
we try to be real with our, withour clients.
It's not all about winning thebid, you know.
It's about about being goodneighbors and making sure that
we let them know.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
That house was at the point where an engineer was
going to have to go out and redothe structural integrity of
this home.
Yeah, they wasn't scabbing onthe stuff, yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
And we just did this over in Fairhope with a guy that
you know he's on the chamberwith me and he wanted to use
this because we're on the boardtogether.
You went over there and kind ofchecked that out and what did
that house have going on it?
Was in rough shape too.
We should have a whole podcastlike the weirdest stories.
(21:39):
In Vermont there was folksliving in it.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
So there were.
So it was in rough, but therewere, it was rough.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
But it was kind of like an encampment or something
going on too right.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
So the guy lived in there and he had like one of his
grown-up kids in a camper overhere, one in the camper over
there.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
So there was a couple of campers on the property.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Yeah, and then a random in the back there was
like a hut made out of tarp andsomebody was living back in this
tarp hut.
So the guy who called us I wastrying to leave and apparently
he told what's his name that itwas up to them to figure out
where they were going, like hiskids, I guess he's telling them
Because he was the only oneworking there and stuff.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
So we were called.
The guy that called us wasgoing to use it as an investment
, or he may have moved into it,but he wanted to invest.
He wanted to kind of get thisthing redone, and the person
that currently owned it and wasliving there was just tired of
being there and tired of peopleliving off of them.
We went over there and youlooked at it and they had a
(22:42):
$130,000 budget, but they had anaddition that wasn't permitted
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 (23:00):
Yeah, Nothing was in code there.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
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 media viaFacebook, instagram and TikTok.
Get more info at our websitewwwthehomebuildingshowcom.
Wwwthehomebuildingshowcom.
(23:24):
And, as always, remember who weare the Home Building and
(23:47):
Remodeling Show.
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