Keeping Things Moving and Keeping Everyone Happy

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Homer Modeling Show, brought to you by
Edge Construction Online. Edge Construction Company dot com. Tell them
number six so eight six three six three three four
three that number so ways to remember it's six three
six Edge joined in studio this morning by Mike two
Wig of Edge Construction.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Mike are you doing this week?

Speaker 3 (00:15):
Sean?

Speaker 1 (00:15):
I feel like one of these one of these years,
And I know i've I've we've talked about this before
on the show, but we do like a like a
pre show recording, just like a video special where we
kind of solve all the problems of the world before
we come on the air.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
Each week. We're the two Smarts. Yeah course, nobody else here.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
But oh, it's great to see you, and we've got
a great topic ahead and understanding when it comes to
some Homer modeling, some of the little tip about some
of the do nots and and uh, you know, ways
to make your renovation go smoothly and all.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
Yeah, like just some of the things that I was
thinking when we maybe once a year we venture into
this topic, you know, and it's to me it's related somewhat. Okay, okay,
how from our side, how does the homeowner get the
best result out of remodeler and then the other. The
other thing I want to just people to think about

(01:08):
is when there's you know, there's some really good trades
out here, and when we if you know, we don't
really subcontract much, but if we you know, our plumbers.
We actually made a change on heating a couple of
years ago, uh to a company I've known for my
whole career. But and it was a great change. And
they're fantastic, and we do everything we can to make

(01:30):
sure they want to do our work because it's like
the results is fantastic, they're budget friendly, there's all these
all these things. So if you want these great contractors
to be around, you know, you can't make life miserable
for them either. So I get into that.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Well, we'll talk with Mike about that. I mentioned the
website to Edge Construction Company dot com. That's Edge Construction
Company dot com. Well, you get a chance to head
on over there. They're always updating and if you've been
there recently, definitely want to bookmark and check in regularly
because they're updating frequently. Projects also links there to Pinterest, Facebook,
and How's ho u z z, which is an amazing
resource when it comes to getting some ideas for remodeling.

(02:06):
I just had on over to Edge Construction company dot
com and think about doing that project. Mike and the
team with the Edge Construction love to talk with you.
I'll gotta pick up call six eight six three six
three three four three. That's six three six Edge and Mike,
as we kind of you mentioned that kind of getting
the best results, and I know one of the great
things about Edge Construction and the system you have in place,
it's really designed obviously to get the best results, but

(02:29):
also to really have things structured, like a process structured,
so everybody's kind of on the same page and working
obviously towards that goal. But having that having that structure,
having that plan in place. I'm having those initial meetings,
putting together these plans. It really does help get uh one,
when when the work starts going, it starts going, but

(02:49):
it also ensures that that the final product is what
everybody expected, doesn't it.

Speaker 3 (02:55):
Yeah, I mean I think like that process and like
we call everything from first meeting to contract the design process,
so like that, that whole thing is geared to to
write the book. Right, we wanna we wanna take through
that process and it you know, I always have the saying,

(03:15):
it's a it's always a lot of money, whether it's
ten thousand dollars or a lot more. And so you know,
you want to make sure that you're making decisions that
are gonna uh, that are going to be good for you.
You want to rush through those. And and the contrast is,
of course the home builders, which we pick on a lot,
but we actually work for a lot of home builders.
I don't want to be too tough on them, but

(03:36):
the home building process, that design thing is much faster.
So we find that home owners that have been through
the home building process once uh, and now maybe they've
got a house they want to remodel, they're expecting, you know,
you're you're gonna get into actions super fast. And that
is how that is geared. The feedback, by the way,

(03:59):
on that process to is not good. It's not been
a roaring success. Yes, it gets people into houses fairly quick,
but I think there's a lot of regrets. We built
houses for people that you know, they're they've been through
that process a few times. Those homeowners, by the way,

(04:19):
make great decisions. They don't they spend the time up
front generally to to get you know, go through that
design process and end up with a better result and
they kind of know themselves better. But yeah, that you
know that we've we've said the words builder grade a
lot on the show, and we end up replacing a
lot of that. To me, that's like a sort of

(04:41):
a waste of resources, right.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
Think it's it's footsting. We talk about that stuff. Heah.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
I know a lot of times you come into some
of these projects where the builder great stuff had gone
in and you know, day one in the new place,
it's fine, it works well. You suddenly start to notice
some of those deficits and also start to realize that
I should have done something maybe a little better up
for And I was going to ask you about that too.
We think about indecision, You think about planning, and you
know it's for all of us. You're going through a
Homer model. There's a lot of choices to be made,

(05:08):
and some of them you may be on the fence
about do I want to go with A or B
or those type of things. Indecision is fine in the
planning phase. It's it's perfect. It's the time to be
like I'm gonna mull over this that stuff. When you've
got work going on that it's not the time to
be to be dithering on ideas or concepts.

Speaker 3 (05:24):
Right, right, right, So you want to spend that time
upfront to handle all that and go through that, you know,
even kind of second guessing yourself and optioning different things, right,
And I think or a model or good remodeler can
help you a lot by saying, Okay, there's a whole
host of products that we're not going to use. There's

(05:46):
there's some of that I'll pick on a couple. So, okay,
I've got a good friend that bought us spack house
from one of the local builders six years ago, I
think five or six years ago. The carpet's worn out,
you know, especially on the stairs and the wear areas,
but even needed to be stretched in bedrooms they haven't used.

(06:07):
I don't know how that worked out. But three of
their windows don't operate. And let's see what else. There's
some LVT flooring that the joints are coming loose, so
it's a floating floor. And if you look at those
products individually, you go, you know, they said, okay, I said,
you know, were you beating up this builder? On price.
They're like, no, they got to pick out those things,

(06:29):
but the builder told them that was their standard product. Well,
so as a homeowner, you know, we don't expect you
to know everything about these products. You you have to
trust us a little bit if we say, well, we're
not going to use that product or this product. You know,
sometimes you get homers. They could say I want to
use this product. We're like, that's not for us. I'm sorry,
we'll find you. Yes, it might be a little more expensive,

(06:49):
but you're gonna be happier in the long run because
we know, you know, if you're gonna if you're gonna
be replacing your carpet in five years, I'm gonna probably
get a phone call and ask why did you sell
me this product? Right? But the builders they seem to
have absolved themselves from that. I think it's wasteful not
just of your time, design time, even if it went quickly,
but it's also wasteful of products. So like, okay, a

(07:13):
good carpet, let's say they generally get milled down south.
So a good carpet rides on a truck up here,
just like a crap you one, right, Yes, yeah, the
process is probably a little more expensive. Maybe they spend
a little more time, maybe they use a little better
raw resources, but generally the energy expended to make that
product is the same. And so okay, if you pay

(07:35):
a little more for that better product and it lasts
instead of five years at last twenty years, well boy,
that's that's quite a game. But Homers have kind of
been sold this idea that, you know what, you don't
worry about the next guy, you know, like, don't worry
about the next person that's going to own this house.
You know, put in something good enough to last how
long you think you're going to be here. And I've
heard this process even said to people, and it's just

(07:57):
a terrible idea.

Speaker 2 (07:58):
What about you? And I guess mentioned carpet.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
I don't know we're on track any Well, you're causing
me to start thinking. I never thought, like I obviously
think about like flooring and things to think of like
build or grade or like like applying faucets and those
type of things.

Speaker 2 (08:15):
I don't always think about carpet.

Speaker 1 (08:16):
And that was just one of those areas I thought
that's interesting to even think about.

Speaker 2 (08:19):
Is because yeah, I always want to be honest.

Speaker 3 (08:23):
There's been a you know, as long as we've been
doing the show, I think there's been as this slow
move away from carpet right to the heart service floor.
I've seen research now that says some of that movement
away from carpet is because people people's with view of
carpet is not good, because certain builders use such a
terrible gredit carpet that they think all carpets were out

(08:45):
five years or eight years or ten years even. And
it's like, no, that's not really true. There are some
great product out there that lasts a long time if
you take care of it. But the marketplace is affected
by these things.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
I think it's some of the I like some of
the photo and some of the work you guys have
done at edge construction on staircases and other things, and
I think I look at some of the kind of
that runner carpet there and I think that is some
that is some nice stuff. And so you talked about that,
and you were mentioning earlier about carpet on stairs wearing
out and other things. Uh, those are you know, you
talk about the wastefulness of that. You really want to

(09:18):
make sure and I think of the stuff that you
guys are using on your project, something that's gonna last in,
something that's not only going to look great year one,
it's gonna look great year ten as well.

Speaker 3 (09:27):
Yeah, and and you know, we're we're I think we're
a little privileged because we get to we get to
shop the products and go, you know what we don't
we don't we're if we put this in, we're you know,
there is a market for you know, really reasonable products
that solve a problem immediately. A lot of people. You

(09:47):
know that. I get that it's a budget friendly product,
but from our standpoint, we don't have to offer those
products because we're not We're not really I don't want
to say that we don't want to do budget friendly
products because that's not true. But I really want a
product that I can stand behind and believe in. And
and some of those just don't work out.

Speaker 1 (10:05):
Is that Some of it too, is you know, kind
of understanding who your who your clients are, who you're
working with. I think of, you know, I think of like,
for example, you're you're buying your first home, you may
not know a lot about it. I then think about
folks that are that are calling edge construction saying we've
got a house we want to remodel, we want to
up upgrade or updated.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
It seems to me like a.

Speaker 1 (10:24):
Understand, like that's they're calling you because that's what they want,
these these higher these these better quality finishes.

Speaker 3 (10:31):
And I think so and like, you know, we get
we had asked to bid things like like a rental, okay,
rental downtown Madison. I have this joke about when my
daughter went to Madison, Uh, we're in six friends rented
the floor of a house up by Camp Randall. And
when we walked in there and it was supposed to
have been cleaned up by the whoever owned this building,

(10:52):
and you couldn't tell the car the color of the carpet,
I'm like, okay, we're not going to probably put it
really you know, high end carpet. That's that's foolish. And
we lose. We don't get those kind of jobs because
like the people that generally own the rentals aren't aren't
you know, they're they're not stick in the neck out
with with good product. They know that uh somebody might
come along and ruin it and and they're just going

(11:13):
to put in a more reasonable product. But I think
of it a lot of times, like did you have
anything that you didn't like when you were a kid,
but but it was good for you, and mom said,
you're gonna eat it.

Speaker 2 (11:24):
Oh liver, there we go, There we go. I actually,
as an adult, I like liver worst, especially as a kid.
Ot stuff.

Speaker 1 (11:33):
She used to lie to me and tell me it
was steak and that was the only way to keep
But yes, yes, there were things like that.

Speaker 3 (11:39):
Yeah, and this is similar to that, right, like if
if a modeler takes a stand on procuct go, you
know what I've been. I've been burned by this product.
I'm not going to put it in. This is better
for you. In a long run, you'll thank me. I hope.
Maybe maybe not, but I think that that Sometimes it's
like the liver conversation.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
Did you ever get like that?

Speaker 1 (11:58):
Cravey for like brown Shad, You're just like, oh yeah, yeah,
a couple of times a year, just for some.

Speaker 3 (12:03):
Of his friend. We'll see if he listens. But I
grew up eating chicken livers blue or yeah. I don't
know why. But and so whenever we go to his house,
totally grosses out our wives. But uh, he makes chicken livers.
If we eat chicken levers and throw some bacon in there.
You can't put anything bacon and anything fantastic.

Speaker 1 (12:24):
We want to think too, when you were mentioning some
of the apartment in rentals downtown, kind of a different
obviously different standard. I know a project you you, you
and I talked about recently that you guys worked on
was actually previously a rental that somebody was converting into uh.
And I think as we talked about as a kind
of invasion, like who you work with at Edge Construction

(12:45):
and kind of the differences out there, there's a prime
example of of who's somebody that you guys work with
as somebody that's saying, you know what, we want to
get rid of this rental stuff and make it actually
like a comfortable hole.

Speaker 3 (12:56):
So I'm glad you brought that up. It's actually the
our newest projects are as the first project that you
see on the website. So you click to that, it'll
it'll take you there in that project now has made
it up on the website and the uh you know,
this was one of those houses that was, you know,
a little horrifying when we first walked into it because
it had been a rental for a long time and
it was just abused and and not taken care of.

(13:21):
And if you look at some of those before, I
don't think they can really do it justice at all.
By the way, so we could. We didn't have a
budget to just top to bottom make this thing like new,
but the areas we touched we did. So two sisters
bought it actually pretty you know, kind of younger ladies,
and and uh they had enough to kind of do

(13:41):
two sort of master bedroom miss suits and get it
of the upstairs kitchen and make it come together. A
lot of a lot of painted they did some They
did some elbow grease in there. They did a bunch
of painting, fixed things up. I think we exposed a chimney.
Uh did a bunch of uh probably the most dramatic

(14:02):
changes in the kitchen because it went from uh uh,
like I said, a little frightening to very workable. It's
a gally kitchen, but it's long. I mean that thing
was probably over twenty feet long, is it?

Speaker 2 (14:13):
Is it that?

Speaker 3 (14:16):
And you know we had it. We had a lot
of weight coming down from different areas in that house.
So we ended up doing some beams in through that
kitchen and did cabinets around them. Yeah. So we got
fancy with some things, but there there was a reason
for it. And uh so, I don't know, I think
you can kind of look at like we did the
toughest stuff and homewers want to want to keep going

(14:37):
at it on their own and get what you know,
finished the rest office hopefully.

Speaker 1 (14:41):
But that is so cool and if you had over
to Edge Construction Company dot com, it's the vibrant Haven project.
Check that out and really really cool. It ties in
again perfectly with what we're talking about this week, and
again you think about projects and having those projects, ways
to make them go smoothly, and of course the importance
of of of of you know, planning head in those areas.

(15:01):
Ask Mike a little bit more about about some of
his some of his recommendations, some advice to get those
best results. We will do that in just a moment
in the meantimemeb to the website Edgeconstruction Company dot com.

Speaker 2 (15:10):
Get there now.

Speaker 1 (15:11):
Also check out their links to Pinterest, Facebook, and house
telephon number edge Construction six h eight six three six
three three four three That number six three six edge.
Of course Edge Construction brings you the Homer Modeling Show
right here on thirteen ten WIBI. This is the Homer
Modeling Show, brought to you by Edge Construction Online, Edge
Construction Company dot Com TELF number six so eight six
three six three three four three that number six three

(15:32):
six Edge during this week about ways to get the
best results make a project run smoothly. A lot of it,
of course, has to do with with proper planning and
making a lot of decisions up front for good reason
because once the project gets moving, uh, the faster, the
better and the less expensive as well. I know delays
was that haste makes waste, but it also can cost
a little extra right again, and you do occasionally run

(15:54):
into you know, I I of stuff like that that
that does need to come up.

Speaker 2 (15:58):
Let's talk a little bit about those situations.

Speaker 3 (15:59):
I mean, uh, it's not like when you sign the
contract and we start construction and you change your mind.
Uh We're like no, no, it's alry. I mean uh,
and and that does happen. I mean we we had recently,
We're a homeowner. We started picked a color. Uh Gary,
my painter was over there getting painting, and Homer thought

(16:22):
it went, oh, hold on, put the brakes on, because
I'm not sure if you liked it and wanted, I
want some time to think about it, and ended up
making a change and it was a good change, and
so we were not opposed to that at all. We
want you to be happy obviously. Uh. And by the way,
a lot of times, most of the time, I think
the changes make sense. So like we want those great
pictures online as we're modeler. That's that's that's one I

(16:44):
was things, but that doesn't happen very often. I was
trying to think of we were talking this week in
our meeting, and you know, when was the last time
that's happened. I think it's been a couple of years.
The designers are aren't so good at helping you through
that process to pick out stuff that it doesn't change
too much. We we have a uh sometimes homers do

(17:04):
like to delay decisions like we've had because the rest
of the world works on what we call allowances, and
it's like.

Speaker 2 (17:14):
You're perfect, let's talk about allowances.

Speaker 3 (17:17):
Yeah, So they that is like a very common It
was common when I started in construction. I mean I
started off that way too, and it was because as
a remodeler, you know, you want to get into action
because once the once the hammers start flying, money starts flowing,
and you know you've got bills to pay in a
family to feed, and and so you go, okay, well,

(17:41):
I think cabinets are going to cost twenty grand for
your job, so we'll put an allowance in the contract
for that. We think counttops are going to be seventy
five hundreds, we'll put allowance in for that. We'll we'll
take a stab at at flooring and some other things,
and yeah, you're going to pick a can. The The
problem with that is it's sort of like piecemeal design, right,

(18:02):
Like we're gonna get started, then you're going to pick
out cabinets and and hopefully tops at the same time
at least. But you know, from a design standpoint, we
want you to picking out all that stuff at one time,
Like really you should be you should be doing all
of those finishes together so you can see the samples together,
and it starts to make sense. And that's I think

(18:23):
a chance to for for problems to occur. I mean,
there is one more thing I just want to touch
on that reason to not do this and and to
get all that kind of out there before you get
into construction, is that you underestimate the stress of a
bunch of people you don't know coming in and tearing

(18:43):
part the house that you love. And so now you've
got to start making decisions while that's going on, and
that's pretty tough.

Speaker 2 (18:49):
Think about building the boat after you already started sailing.

Speaker 3 (18:51):
It's not good.

Speaker 1 (18:52):
It's not a good situation because and I wrote down
to just feeling rushed. And I think that's the other
thing too, is like if if you know, like I
have to have this done by next week because they're
coming in to do it, you don't make as good
of decisions or as beneficial of decisions. Where I think of,
like you know, in the way that that you guys
do at edge construction is having this stuff up front,
there isn't that rush is obviously personal feelings you want

(19:15):
to get it done soon. But if you today is
not the day anything, we'll come back and huddle up
tomorrow or next week.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
There's no pressure there.

Speaker 1 (19:22):
And I feel like with some of these allowances, it
seems to be a lot of pressure for home owners
to make those decisions to keep it right.

Speaker 3 (19:28):
And you know, when you're going through that design process,
there's a lot of times there's a lot of times
home owners are kind of wrestling with you know, different product,
Like there might be three countertops they like, and you'll
our designers will say something like, well, just take those
samples home seemen, your house seemen, your light seem When

(19:49):
we're not hovering over you, Hey, which one do you like?
I think it gives you a little more time. And like,
I think sometimes people need to strip away some of
that stress of Okay, I got to make decisions to
like seen it at home in your environment. And and
there's a lot of times someone of homers have said
to me, you know, we got it home. We're like, oh,
this is ridiculous, We're not using that one. You know,

(20:09):
I just it was it was like an impulse thing.
I like it, but sometimes you just don't like it
in your house.

Speaker 1 (20:16):
And when you mentioned that perspective too, I think a
lot of us have maybe seen online on some of
the social media platforms, it will be like a like
an image of like a circle and it'll be like
different types of gray and they'll be like cover it up.
You discover it's all the same gray. It all depends
on like the environment, and you think about like and
I know with colors especially, is different lighting, just different

(20:37):
spaces they can kind of pop differently or just appeal differently.
And having the opportunity to kind of take that stuff
home and just kind of you know, hold it up
against like house is going to look and kind of
mitch mixing and matching and getting it just right is
a great, great feeling. Talking this week with Mike two,
weigg about some some tips for homeowners when it comes
to working with a contractor ways to get those best results,

(21:00):
talking about some of the some of the planning that
goes into it and really not wanting to you know,
like delay decisions and other and other things as well.
And one of the things that that that can lead
to also is, I know, when when the guys are
at the house, they're working, uh, and anytime they've got
to be taking calls or questions are things that slows

(21:20):
the process down. Again, there's going to be questions that
come up throughout the process, and that that's perfectly fine,
but at some point you got to go, like, it's
important to keep this keep this ball moving and not
just ongoing kind of dial I don't even know if
that's the right word to do it, but it becomes
a distraction and it becomes kind.

Speaker 2 (21:36):
Of an issue.

Speaker 3 (21:36):
I mean, uh, I know all of our people handle
it a little bit different because there's you know, we
live in a in an instant world, right, Yes, if
you whatever thoughts you have right now, you can send
to somebody and uh and home owners are like this
to and some you know, since COVID, there's there's quite
a few homewers that are still around home and you're

(21:57):
seeing this from otel at stages that you you probably
normally wouldn't right when it's in process. Maybe by the
end of the day, we're cleaning up and we're taking
care of things, and you might not notice thing, but
if you can walk through there at lunch and go, okay,
what's this. Homers generally have a lot of questions, and
we get that. We understand that. I h okay. If

(22:20):
if Mike was king, which he's not, by the way,
even in his own company, he would say, Okay, I'm
gonna let those questions come in and I'll probably answer those,
kind of kind of take care of that at once,
maybe tomorrow morning before I get rolling. I've been working
with this week. I was working with one of our

(22:40):
one of our guys and his phone was blown up
from home or I said, you know, we're we're framing.
We got stuff over our head as it could just
text back, is this an emergency? And they he did,
and Homer immediately said, no, it's not. I'm just wondering
something and Kyle sorr, I'll call you later. And I
thought that was a healthy way to handle it. Some

(23:02):
home owners are okay with that, some aren't. Like some
want it. You know, you're not communicating, you're not you're
not getting back to me, and it's like, well, okay,
there's there's sometimes it's not even safe for these for
these people to do this, and I think sometimes these
thoughts need to marinate a little bit. Uh. You know,
before we started out ton Sehwan, how you know fifteen

(23:24):
twenty years ago, when I was, before all these people
were helping me do this work, we didn't have this
instant communication, and so homeowners kind of I'm sure had
thoughts or reservations during the week, but by Friday, when
we got together and talked things out, some of those
went by the wayside. They're going, you know what, it
wasn't as big a deal as I thought, or it's whatever.

(23:45):
So so now when you have those instant thoughts, you
can reach out and it's like I jokingly say, we
have over communication. Yes you probably know what I mean.
Oh yeah, as possible.

Speaker 1 (23:58):
As we sit here on the radio and literally people
will message you while you're on the radio saying blah
blah blah blah blah.

Speaker 3 (24:04):
Get back to me.

Speaker 1 (24:05):
You're like, turn on the radio because we're on the
But yes, I know exactly. And I think too as
we talk about, you know, the process at edge construction
and you know that importance as we started this conversation
off about the planning and the design phase, those type
of things really reduces this stuff as well. Is it
really helps your guys keep going because the homeowner knows

(24:25):
what they're doing because they've walked through all of this
stuff previous to the actual workday.

Speaker 3 (24:30):
And we want, you know, like kind of orderly communication.
Like I think that a good designer can set us
up for the construction side, and even at the start
of construction, whoever's running that job for us can establish Okay,
what's an acceptable now, if it's an emergency, if something's
leaking or smoking, or I don't know right now, if

(24:52):
any of that stuff's happening. Please get a hold of
the call over if you can make sure we tell
us of emergency. But you know there's a lot of
times we have there. There's a lot more time than that.

Speaker 2 (25:01):
To deal with it.

Speaker 1 (25:01):
Yeah, excellent stuff this week as we talk with like
two week owner of edge Construction the website edge Construction
Company dot com. That's all one word, Edgeconstruction Company dot com.
Great website resource to learn more about edge construction. Also,
they're regularly updating it with recent projects, so you want
to check back off and again it's Edgeconstruction Company dot com.
Feel links there also, you should definitely be checking out Facebook, Pinterest,

(25:22):
especially their house link as well Houzz. Again, just head
on over to Edge Construction Company dot com.

Speaker 2 (25:27):
Think about doing some remodeling, give me call.

Speaker 1 (25:29):
Six oh eight six three six three three four three.
That number so easy to remember, that's six three six edge.
More of the Homer Modeling Show with Edge Construction comes
your way next right here at thirteen ten doll you ivey,
this is the Homer Modeling Show brought to you by
edge Construction Online. Edge Construction Company dot com. Great website
resource learn more about edge construction season great projects also
check back regularly because they're always updating. Edge Construction Company

(25:52):
dot com. Think about doing a remodeling project, people give
a call six oh eight six three six three three
four three that number six three six Edge during this
week about getting the best results. And I think the
word honesty is not not used enough in the world
these days. And sometimes having an honest conversation with your
contractor about the project and about the home and about

(26:12):
is it ultimately worth it. And I know one of
the things at Edge Construction you guys do quite a
few of each year is you'll do either an addition
or a complete home rebuild. And it just to start
from scratch, a complete build of a home, because at
some point there may be certain projects that you're better
off completely starting from scratch, right. I think that one
of the notes say is don't put a lipstick on

(26:33):
a pig. The reality is there are some projects where
there's not much salvageable no.

Speaker 3 (26:38):
And that's you know, that's a pretty extreme one turn
on the house. But that we've done that several times,
usually have to be talked into that by the homeowner.
The most recent one was in Minota and homwer was
pretty cable and had done some remodeling that realized at
some point, Okay, this is just not going to work.

(26:58):
And in my head, I'm every house is worth you
know something, and Homer's like, well we don't, we want
to stay here, and I'm talking prior to going out there,
and then when I went out, I went, Okay, I
get it. This was a house that was It was
probably a catalog house. Do you know what those are?

Speaker 1 (27:17):
Yeah, the seers and came on the trains and yes,
show up in a box and weilt.

Speaker 3 (27:22):
You know, a lot of those houses didn't have you know,
we talked about nominal sized lumber, like two by four
walls or two by six walls. These had three inch
that that had like cut down studs, so they were
like inch and a half by three inch extra studs inch.
Your walls were two inches, I believe. Framing it was
very small, pretty flimsy. It's like, okay, you're gonna are

(27:43):
you gonna do a new roof? The foundation was crap.
All the systems need updating that from you know, heating
to plumbing to everything, uh, windows, siding. Okay, it's just
not much to invest in there. And okay, they could
have sold that house because it still was livable, just
wasn't great and you know, livable now is still bringing

(28:03):
a lot of money. But the lot was around an
acre in Monona, beautiful location. I was like four or
five hundred feet deep. This lot is a great lot,
not not too far off the lake there, and I go, Okay,
this is a great candidate. We're gonna get rid of this.
Literally gone on a day, dug the foundation the next

(28:24):
day and we're and we're off to the races.

Speaker 1 (28:26):
Doug and spinning like two way. Owner of Edge Construction, Mike.
We kind of talk about that that area as well,
about the lipstick on a pig. Is that frozen where
they sing let it go, Let it go. I mean
at some point too, I think I think trusting, you know,
you go back to the importance of that, that great relationship,
trusting your builder. I think of sometimes people saying, well,
I want to preserve this, or I want to save that,
or let's say cabinets, all these cabinets look great. Yeah,

(28:48):
that's there's there's a there's a reason why cabinets are
replaced the way that they are, and there's a reason
why you work with a good contractor is to get
their honest opinion, are they worth saving for or whatever
the thing is. Trust their their professional judgment on that right.
And you know it's uh, what's the joke. The hardest

(29:08):
word for a contractor say is no, ye like. But
there are times I go, you know what, these cabinets
are just okay on the face of them. You know,
I'll look at a kitchen that's you know, we've taken
out some on the face, pretty beautiful cabinets, like their
cherry cabinets. But I look at what's behind them. It's
all particleboard. It's swelled up, it's it's starting to lose
its shape. It's it's just not worth putting a bunch

(29:31):
more work into them. That being said, once in a while,
we have a spot where you go, you know, I
to be a waste of money to get rid of
these cabinets.

Speaker 3 (29:38):
They're in really good shape. You don't like how they'll look.
We have a process for that. We can we can paint,
we can do we can we can refurbish. There's other
ways to go the lips to kind of pick that.
I just want to touch on one that I think
it'll make a lot of sense. So this this is
a house that we ended up remodeling. Uh, I think
twice at least Silver in Middleton and and uh beautiful

(30:01):
little house, nice lot. And the first time I hoped
throwed up to this house, it was in the winter
and I and I swear they had a foot thick
ice dam on the on the front of this house.
And they're having me either look at their kitchen, and
I was thinking, oh boy, you know, you better think
about the ice dam first. But it was first time
home b are they just weren't you know, weren't very knowledgeable. Uh,

(30:24):
didn't have good did not get good advice, and uh,
I don't know, maybe the home inspector didn't see it
in the winter, you know, He's like, okay, Uh, this
house was going to need to roof anywhere. So we
didn't do that job, but we recommended, listen, we'd love
to do your kitchen. We ended up doing their kitchen
and then we did a couple of bathrooms in there later,
and I think we did a we did some outside work,

(30:47):
but they got the ice dam fixed right. It was
an insulation inventing problem. Uh. When I walked inside the
house by the way, I could see water on the
inside walls. It was like really bad and uh, you know,
the house just not gonna last very long under those conditions.
So that was that was a spot where I say, listen,
I think we need to slow down a little bit.

Speaker 1 (31:07):
And those are in the In those we go back
to kind of having that good relationship with your with
your contractor those are the type of things to be blunt, Mike.
I mean, you could have easily done the project and
just been like, that's the kitchen exactly. But but if
you talk about you know, first time or new homeowners
don't always think about that stuff. We all want the
you know, the beautiful courts, countertops and the great floors,

(31:28):
but which for good reason. But at some point too,
you got to make sure that the structure that you're putting.

Speaker 3 (31:32):
On, you know, needed breaks, but you wanted to paint it.
If your kids said that, you'd smack them right like,
this is crazy. You can't do that money paint the
exactly exactly.

Speaker 2 (31:46):
I wanted things too.

Speaker 1 (31:47):
It's just on on that on that thing about sometimes
people maybe wanting to hold on to things that may
everywhere that I know a lot of times too, like
online I'll see like especially like on pinch risks or
like some of these sites where they'll show like these
very almost i don't know, like very extravagant looking like

(32:07):
sinks or other things from manufacturer may have never heard of,
and sometimes trusting that that may look cool or may
look cool in the picture, it's probably not the best
product for longevity. Again, we're not talking about just like
a thing that you're going to use for a year
and done. I think of you know, faucets or sinks
or all these stuff. These are things you want you
want to make sure that they don't just look good.

Speaker 2 (32:29):
But they're just solid.

Speaker 3 (32:30):
The stew separate issues the sink part. Generally the sink
you know, as they get fancier and more are optioning more,
those aren't a mass produced product, so they tend to
be somebody smaller that is that has done, you know,
is making a decent product. On the On the fossa side,

(32:52):
there's this five lar word. I think it starts with
CN ends with A. That is that is shipping in
maybe over half of the plumbing fixtures in the US.
Some are good, some I want to stay away from.
It's very hard for somebody like us to go Okay,
which ones, where's the good stuff? I only want to
buy the good stuff, yea. So we tend to stick
with Color a lot because I know what I'm getting

(33:13):
and they stand behind their products, and there's there's a
lot of reasons, but you know that country, I'm grouping
them in as a manufacturing plant, but they copy every
cool thing that Color does. I mean like it's if
Color shows it one year, it's shown up next year
at the builder show and for a lot less money.
And so to me, it is risky. I want there
are certain things that I want to put in and

(33:34):
really not have to worry about. The worst phone call,
by the way, for a remodeler is water, my roof
is leaking. Are something failed and now I've got an
I've got damage in my house. And second worst is
something electrical. So I tend to like say, okay, these
are important products. Let's really make sure they're good stuff.

(33:56):
And you know, I know that I'm you know, even
even the budget builders in the area, I'll just call
them that, you know, like they're trying to hit that
from half of the home buyer, first time home buyer market,
they're there. They tend to put in Coaler stuff. I mean, uh,
now if somebody comes us with, uh, mowing or something else.
It's not that I don't trust those companies. We have

(34:18):
a lot of experience with those companies. It's just, uh,
you got to pick a direction.

Speaker 1 (34:21):
Is there something too for those that I think of,
you know, things like faucets and fixtures, those inevitably, I
mean in the life of things, there's there's rubber gaskets
and other things that and and partridges are things that
are gonna you think about a brand like Coaler, Uh,
it doesn't matter if it's a year old or one
hundred years old.

Speaker 3 (34:36):
If you need some there's a there's a bit the part. Yeah,
there's a.

Speaker 1 (34:40):
Catalog somewhere, whether it's paper or online where you can
literally get that exact replacement and you'll have to replace
the whole the whole piece.

Speaker 3 (34:47):
Yeah, it's pretty nice. And like if you're if you're
gonna stand behind your product, yeah, it costs a little more,
but if you're gonna stand me on that product, you're
gonna They tend to standardize things so they don't have
to make ten thousand different gaskets. They make one hundred
or or fifty. I don't know. I don't know what
the number is, but I think it makes it easier

(35:08):
on their end because they go, Okay, what is this for.
It's a bathroom sink. Okay, there's a really good chance
to already know what you're what you're missing. And I
will say, Okay, it's not because we've never had problems
with Coller. We've had you know, now, there's a lot
of specially finishes, the dark finishes, the black finishes, matt whatever.
We've had some that kind of failed a little bit,

(35:30):
maybe flaked off or didn't wear well, and Caller came
right back with a fix, came right back with new stuff.
And you know, if you're if you're buying something off
the clearance rack at a big box store, there's just
less inclined. Maybe you're less inclined to complain. Yeah, and
maybe they're less inclined to fix it.

Speaker 1 (35:48):
They do have to cover any of it. That's that's
interesting perspective too. As we talked this morning with Mike Twoing,
owner of Edge Constructions, we talk about again those best
results when it comes to your project, having your remodel
go smoothly, as well, importance of great communications, established communication lines,
the importance of quality when it comes to the parts
and the things that are being done here. I was
wellcome to our conversation with Mike a little bit more

(36:09):
about about getting those best results. Don't forget if you
have been to the website, Yeah, definitely check it out
book market Edge Construction Company dot com. That's all one
word Edge Construction Company dot com, delf number six So
eight six three six three three four three that number
six three six Edge. We've talked a little bit more
about getting the best results. We also probably reference a
little bit more that recently completed project down on the
Isthmus where the did the conversion from the duplex to

(36:31):
a back to its glory of a beautiful, beautiful home.
Probably talk about that as well with Mike next. So
you definitely want head on over Edge Construction. Of course,
Edge Construction brings you the Homer Modeling Show here on
thirteen ten double UiB a thirteen ten doubuiba and the
Homer Modeling Show brought to you by Edge Construction. Before
the break, I started to give the website and cut
myself off. It's Edge Construction Company dot com. All one
word Edge Construction Company dot Com. I just said Edge

(36:53):
Construction online. You can do that too. Edge Construction Company
dot com twelf number six eight six three six three
three four three and number six three six edge hanging
out this morning with Mike two Egg, owner of Edge Construction.
Mike talking this week about getting getting some of the
best results and talking about just things to kind of
address before and during during a remodeling project. And earlier
this week, I have a veterinarian on the radio with

(37:15):
me and talking about different different myths about pets, and
one of them was, are all are all certain breeds
of dogs? Yeppi in as somebody with a chihuahua. If
you come over to my house, you will believe that
my chihuahua bark's NonStop. The fact is my dog is
super quiet. Only when people come over or come into
our yard, or a deer walks through the property does

(37:35):
he suddenly make noise. He's very quiet. The rest of
the time. I think of if, if, and when Edge
Construction's over doing work at the Preble household, I'm gonna
have to find a place for Homer, because he's gonna
he would drive your your guys completely insane. But that
is a legitimate thing to talk about. Right, it's like
managing pets and children during that construction project.

Speaker 3 (37:55):
It is, and you know, we want to do things
to kind of separate the construction zone from the family
living zone as much as we can. But pets are
really good at getting around that stuff. I mean, like
you've got a plastic wall up. Okay, it's going to
contain ninety plus percent of the dust, but your little

(38:17):
dog can squeeze right through there. So you're thinking that
the homer might not like all that noise and.

Speaker 1 (38:24):
At all no he's hanging out with me that week
at work and places.

Speaker 3 (38:29):
Our people are generally they want they want to please you,
so like I I know our people, you know, when
they really get to know homers have like let people's
dogs out during the day, try not to let the
cats out, whatever the whatever the thing may be. We've
also had the other route where you know, I don't
want them to be holding tools and back up and

(38:50):
not know that a pet is there and step on
them and injure them, or you know, I'm thinking of
all the bad things could happen. This can also happen
with small kids. If any carpent it's been on the
job very long working in somebody's house. Little kids are
just drawing to those toolboxes. Yeah, and it's very easy
for a small child to reach in there and pull
out a chisel or something that could really hurt them.

(39:12):
So we worry about that stuff. We want to have
those conversations during the design phase this so that homeowners
have a plan. You know, you mentioned the dog being ippy.
We know these pets are part of your family, but
we've had certain dogs that start marking the minute you
walk in. They're very nice tons, I'm sure, but boy,

(39:33):
it's really tough for people working there, you know, if
they're just barking at you on the other side of
the fence like that all day long. So we want
to we want to kind of get to dig into
that a little bit and discuss it also.

Speaker 1 (39:45):
And it's all those kind of those little things we
talk about, you know, what what gets you that best
outcome and what makes the remodel project go smoothly having
those conversations. We started this this week's show talking about
those upfront conversations. These are the type of things that
you guys bring up in these initial meetings and and
bring up as far as planning.

Speaker 3 (40:03):
Don't you they we do, and you know, I'm gonna
I'm gonna throw the neighbors in there with the pets
and the kids because you know, okay, we talked about
that job downtown. It was on Dayton Street, and I'm
sure the neighbors got sick. There's no parking down there
right any have the I don't know what it is.
From eight till noon on Thursday. You get towed if
you've parked on this side of the street, and so

(40:26):
the it kind of exacerbates the problem. But you know,
we're trying to make things better. We're trying to preserve
these houses. We're trying to get it going, and I
really encourage homeowners to talk to their immediate neighbors at
least say, you know, it's probably gonna be noisy. It's
gonna there's gonna be a lot of people coming in
and out, a lot of a lot of materials coming

(40:46):
in out, trucks, parke the middle of streets. Sometimes we
just got to get through it. And when when, when
it's your turn, I'll be gracious also, but hopefully hopefully
we can all get along. And it's it's really good
to have those conversations.

Speaker 1 (40:57):
Really all that stuff is really important and really great day.
As we talk about starting that conversation, learn more about
Edge Construction website Edgeconstruction Company dot com. To start that
conversation about thinking about about doing summer modeling, I can
just pick a phone, give a call six so eight
six three six three three four three the number six
three six edge and again the website Edgeconstruction Company dot
com and Edge Construction brings you the Homer Modeling Show

(41:19):
right here on thirteen ten dol w u IV eight