Show Notes
In this podcast episode, we debunk a popular but misguided lawn care strategy for mowing your grass. We’ll also discuss why metal roofs are winning over homeowners by promising protection for decades, then delve into advancements in hardwood flooring. Tune in for insights on tackling your home improvement projects with expert guidance!
Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
- Lawn Care: Follow these mowing tips to ensure a healthy lawn that’s a cut above the rest.
- DIY Queen: Listen in for an interview with home improvement expert Cara Newhart.
- Hardwood Floors: Easy-to-install hardwood flooring brings beauty and value to a home.
Top Questions & Answers
- Kitchen Renovation: Mark needs some ideas for renovating his kitchen on a budget. Cabinets from IKEA are a good option worth considering.
- Porch Design: Marla wants to screen in her porch that has lots of columns. She should consult with an architect because it would definitely change the style of her home.
- Tiling: What kind of prep work is needed to tile over a textured wall? David can simply rough up the surface with sandpaper to make the tile adhere properly.
- Wet Basement: Debra has questions about dry locking her basement. She shouldn’t be concerned about odors harming her pets and we have tips about improving drainage.
- Grout: Nicole is having a hard time getting her bathroom grout white again. We suggest using a professional grout cleaning or grout stripping product, and then a sealer.
- Home Value: How should Mike list his home to indicate the home improvements he’s done? Creating a list of projects he’s done in recent years would be appealing to home buyers.
- Mortar: Can Stacey use mortar to fill the spaces in her brick fireplace? Adding tile or stone around the fireplace are better options for creating a smooth finish to the surface.
Ask Your Home Improvement Question
Podcast Transcript
Read Transcript
| 00:00:21 | LESLIE: Welcome to the Money Pit, where we make good homes better. I’m Leslie Segrete, and our mission here is to help you guys build that dream home. Whether you are working on a big project or a small project, whether you’re doing it yourself or you’re hiring a pro, whatever the scope of your project’s work is, we here at Team Money Pit are here to lend you a hand. So how can we help? Coming up this hour, we’ve got a lot of great information to share. If you think that the best way to save time and energy is cutting your grass with the mower set as low as possible so you don’t have to mow again that often, well, you might be surprised to find out that that can end up being more than enough. We’re going to share more work in the long run. We’re going to share why just ahead. And also joining us this hour, we have DIY queen and host of the Make a Space podcast, Cara Newhart, to help you take the leap into your dream home one project at a time. You guys are going to love her. Also ahead, few home improvements bring more beauty and value to your home than adding a hardwood floor. So we’re going to share some tips on advances in hardwood flooring that make this product easier to install. But first, we’re here to offer expert help for the care and maintenance of your home. We’re in feeding of your oldest child. Talking about your house, you guys. And to help you create your best home ever and tackle those to-dos with confidence. So give us a call right now to 888-Money-Pit. Jim, who’s first? |
| 00:0 | JIM: Heading out to Ohio, Leslie. We’ve got me. Well, not me. We’ve got Mark. |
| 00:01:48 | LESLIE: A neighbor of yours, potentially. |
| 00:0 | JIM: Yeah, potential neighbor out here in Ohio. Absolutely. Mark, you’re doing a kitchen remodel on a budget, right? What’s going on there? |
| 00:01:57 | CALLER: Got a kitchen. It is sadly in need of a renovation. We’d like to do it on a budget, like you said. We’re looking at Ikea. But then I’ve seen a couple of things on there that say Ikea doesn’t last very long. And then there are other ready-to-assemble companies out there or maybe some other ideas on where to go. I mean, I don’t mind putting the work in. I just don’t want a $30,000 budget. |
| 00:02:20 | LESLIE: Well, I’ll tell you, our experience with Ikea in terms of quality has always been really good with their kitchen cabinets. I mean, we used kitchen cabinets for some projects we’ve done. I know Tom had used it in an apartment that he built for like a mother-daughter situation at their home. And they’re really great. They’re very well-priced. They’re super easy to install. I mean, unlike traditional cabinets with their wall cabinets, you kind of put a bar on the wall. And then you attach the cabinets to that bar and they hang off of them rather than sort of lifting the cabinet, attaching it into the stud. This is sort of like one rail that everything hangs off of. Right. So you’re not doing everything individually. And it does make that process a lot easier. And on the base cabinet, there’s no kickboard built into it. They kind of have feet. You know, they’re like on little legs. So you put a ledger board on the wall, probably about six inches off the floor, and you rest the back edge of the cabinet on that ledger. And the feet go in the front of the cabinet. And you can adjust them to make sure you’re getting everything level. Once those cabinets are adjusted to the right height, there’s a kickboard that snaps over the whole thing. So the installation is super, super easy. And, you know, Ikea’s prices have come up a little bit, but I like their door styles. I like their finishes. They always have like a fun color in there. Their hardware options are fantastic. So I would definitely say take a look at an Ikea cabinet because if you’re trying to stay more budget-conscious, if you go to a big-box store and try to find something that fits your needs, that’s definitely an in-stock option. That’s going to be your best bet. But you’re going to have to assemble it from a big-box store to help it be more cost-effective. So I would say if you’re sort of assembling things on your own anyway, if you go to Ikea, they’re finished. They’re super cute. They can help you come up with a customized plan. I just always like checking them out first. |
| 00:04:19 | CALLER: Right. I plan to do all the work myself. |
| 00:04:21 | LESLIE: Yeah, I remember when Tom had a two-family house, and I would say the kitchen was from like the 50s, and everything was like yellow and plaid and weird. I remember Tom taking out those cabinets and going with stock cabinets from Ikea, and I want to say everything was less than like $2,000. Now, that was a few years back, so prices have probably come up, but it’s definitely budget-friendly. |
| 00:04:45 | CALLER: Okay. I liked it. My son did Ikea, and he liked his really well. He said it went in really easy. But then I just started reading other reviews. It was probably what it was. It was probably part of an ad for somebody else, and they got this guy to make it look like Ikea. So we’re going to make an appointment with Ikea, and I think we’ll do the – I got Home Depot nearby, so we’ll look at them as well. |
| 00:05:05 | LESLIE: Yeah, so your son’s on to something too. All right, check out all your options. Home Depot, Ikea, get a sense of what’s going to be most cost-effective for you, and good luck with that project, Mark. |
| 00:0 | JIM: Bye now. I just learned a new East Coast word, Leslie. Kickboard. |
| 00:05:19 | LESLIE: Toe kick, kickboard. |
| 00:0 | JIM: Toe kick is what we call them on the Midwest. |
| 00:05:24 | LESLIE: Toe stopper, yeah. I’m sure we’ll come up with some new terms in our time together, Jim. |
| 00:0 | JIM: And I look forward to that, Leslie. |
| 00:05:32 | LESLIE: Yeah, right? |
| 00:0 | JIM: Leslie, let’s head to Louisiana and talk to Marla. She’s on the line and has a question about her porch. Marla, fill us in. |
| 00:05:43 | CALLER: I have an old house built in 1910. It has about 22 columns on the porches, two stories. And my question is, if I want to take in part of my porch downstairs and screen it in or just take it in and make a sunroom, how can I do that with those huge columns in the way, because they are not a perfect shape and they’re round, and they have the big Corinthian beautiful caps on top? So how would I do that when I have to take the columns off and just box in the porch? |
| 00:06:27 | LESLIE: I mean, first of all, Marla, this sounds absolutely gorgeous. Like, what a beautiful period-style home you have. And those columns, not only are they beautiful, I mean, they’re doing a pretty important job of holding up a good portion of your roof, I would imagine. So if you think about kind of boxing them in, that’s going to change the architectural style of the home. If you want to disassemble and move them, then you have to support what’s behind it, and then you’d have to square them off again. It’s going to change the architectural perception of this beautiful home. So a couple of things. I mean, if you want to do a big, big project here, you can talk with an architect, maybe think about redesigning the front of the house, get it closer to kind of what you have in mind. Truly, the style of your home isn’t really leaning towards modification, and it would be kind of odd to have a screened-in porch sort of shoved in a space that’s covered by all those columns. These columns are what makes your home unique. So I think you trying to piece together this screened-in porch with the style of home you have is just not going to sort of read correctly, and it will end up looking like a mishmash of styles. Definitely consult with an architect. Generally, you can have those sort of first consulting meetings, a rough sketch sort of at like one price point before you head into working drawings, et cetera. So it might be worth it to sort of meet with an architect, get an idea of what can be done, what does that look like? And if you’re on board with that, then the next step would be to have that architect draw up working drawings, take that to different contractors for bid, and just see if it’s worth it in the long run changing your home that much to create the screened-in porch. But I think kind of working with what you already have and adding that in is not going to be the answer. |
| 00:0 | JIM: Oh, come on, Leslie. You’re not going to entrust Corinthian pillar supports to the average handyman? Come on. |
| 00:08:21 | LESLIE: No, Jim. You know what this house looks like. This is like an estate. This is like in a historical home. This part of Louisiana always has such beautiful architecture, so you want to get it right. |
| 00:0 | JIM: Hey, Leslie? Yeah? How about some tiling advice for David in Anchorage, Alaska? You’re the tiling aficionado. |
| 00:08:40 | LESLIE: You’re making me this expert on everything. I just want to talk to this guy about the Northern Lights. Thanks. |
| 00:0 | JIM: Or would it be aficionada? |
| 00:08:47 | LESLIE: I’m going to go with O. |
| 00:0 | JIM: Head down to Anchorage, Alaska. We’ve got David on the line who’s looking to do a tile project. What’s going on, David? |
| 00:08:53 | CALLER: Up here, we use a lot of textured walls rather than smooth drywall, sprayed on with a textured gun, and then it’s knocked down. Well, I wanted to put some tile on a bathroom wall, and I’m wondering what kind of prep work do I need to do to this textured wall? It’s not a heavy texture. Like I said, it’s a knockdown. |
| 00:09:12 | LESLIE: Okay. So it’s more like an orange peel. Now, orange peel is kind of a thing that’s really adhered well. So if yours is stuck pretty well, what I would do is thinking you could leave it or you could sand it to rough it up a bit, and that’s going to help you get better adhesion from the tile adhesive. But as long as you can place that tile, once you’ve got the adhesive or the mastic in place, and that tile lays flat, that’s your goal there. So you can sand the surface a little bit. You want to get rid of any dirt or grease or gloss that’s on the wall right now. Because you want to be able to glue that tile on and basically go right on top of that texture. Okay. |
| 00:09:50 | CALLER: Well, I’ve seen YouTube videos on scoring at first with a knife and things like that. And I’m just wondering how important that is. Yes. |
| 00:09:57 | LESLIE: Scoring, sanding. I mean, it’s kind of the same effect. And the interesting thing here is because you’re going to tile over, whatever you’re doing to prep that wall, you can’t make it look too rough. You kind of can’t overdo the roughness. So I would sand it, make sure you’ve got some good glue for it to stick to, score it with a knife if you want. That’s kind of the same idea. But if you have like a really rough sandpaper, like a 60 grit or something, and you just even hand sanded those raised spots, as long as you feel like you’ve got a clean, flatter surface for the glue to adhere to, and you’re going to be able to tell, you should be good to go. |
| 00:10:34 | CALLER: A random orbit sander and just run over it with a 60 grit would be sufficient. |
| 00:10:38 | LESLIE: You know, if it’s a small area, you really could just do it by hand. But certainly, if you want to use an orbital sander, that’s fine. I mean, it’s a wall. Make sure you use breathing protection. Make sure you’re wearing a mask. But that dust is going to get everywhere, all right? Okay. All right. Well, good luck with your project, Dave. Hey, Money Pit Podcast fans. You want to help us out? Well, go ahead and leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, and we’re going to give you a virtual high five. Plus, you’ll be helping us spread the word about our show. Just go to MoneyPit.com slash review. Jim, let’s get back to the phones. All right. |
| 00:1 | JIM: Deborah in Tennessee, you’ve got the Money Pit. How can we help you today? |
| 00:11:15 | CALLER: I’m calling about dry locking my basement. I have my concerns about, well, number one, the odor, because I have pets. And number two, where does that water go if you just trap it in the cinder block? So, I’m in a debate with my other half about, yes, we should do it. No, we shouldn’t. We had one water incident in 15 years, and that’s the only thing that’s happened since, but I still would rather be safe than sorry. |
| 00:11:41 | LESLIE: Yeah, that’s a great question, Deborah. So, first of all, dry lock is a product that does have some odor. I mean, it’s not a terrible odor. I remember Tom did a project in his basement, and I remember him talking about how he kind of had to use a fan and keep the windows open, and kind of stuck it in one of the windows just to make sure it pulled up some air out of the basement and was okay. You know, but I remember him saying it wasn’t terrible. And I mean, I wouldn’t have any concerns about your pets while you’re using this product. Obviously, don’t leave it right next to your pets or have your pets use it. I mean, I wouldn’t leave my pets in the same room, but I wouldn’t be concerned with having the pets in the house. Now, you asked the question, so what happens to the water? Am I keeping it out? So, listen, this is kind of a point of misunderstanding. Dry lock isn’t keeping the waves of the ocean out of your basement. I mean, it’s not that kind of thing. It’s stopping some of the evaporation that will come from the block in the wall getting damp. But it doesn’t stop a lot of water coming in. If it wants to get in, it’s going to get in. And the way that you’re going to do that is you’re going to have to keep the water out of the house. And if you stop that, though, especially since you mentioned that this has only happened once in 15 years, you’ve got a problem with drainage. And I can tell you right now that if you look at your gutters, they’re either blocked or the downspouts are disconnected or maybe they’re not even extended away from the house or the soil around the house is kind of sloping or sagging toward the walls. All of this thing sort of causes those floods. So you don’t have to worry about sealing your house against the water. Your house is going to stay dry. If you stop the water from getting there by working on your drainage. You know, head on over to MoneyPit.com and on the homepage, you can read a post about wet basements and how to prevent a wet basement. There’s a lot of step by step information that you need there in that post. So check it out. And I promise you, those problems will probably magically disappear. Well, most people don’t really give their grass cutting much thought, but they should. If it’s done right, you will enjoy a beautiful, healthy life. But if you do it wrong, you’re going to end up with a weed-filled dust bowl. So here’s what you need to know. First of all, avoid cutting that lawn too short. You know, a shorn lawn is vulnerable to diseases and weed infestation. Taller grass kind of develops a deeper root system, which creates a lawn that truly can better withstand drought. Now, the general rule is to never remove more than one third of the total grass blade length in a single cutting. You want to avoid mowing in the same pattern each time you mow. If you do that, it will compact the soil and create ruts. So switch it up a bit and maybe try to make a pattern. Keep your mowing blade sharp, and that’s going to give you the best mowing results. Sharpen those blades at least a couple of times during the mowing season. And that’s not a difficult DIY project. You just follow those manufacturer guidelines for removing the mower blade, and then reattach it after it’s sharpened. I know an R.A. There’s a couple of bike shops that also service lawn mowers and snow blowers. So if that’s not a project you want to tackle, there’s definitely somebody nearby that can lend a hand. |
| 00:1 | JIM: All right. Now, Leslie, we need your expertise here on grout cleaning so things don’t look so yucky for Nicole. Nicole, what’s going on there? |
| 00:14:58 | CALLER: I have had trouble trying to get my grout in my bathroom to look white again. And I’ve tried a bunch of different cleaners. I heard that lemon juice and water cleaners. I think it’s a little bit of a no-no. Oh, it’s not. I’ve been working on my bedroom tiles, and that’s the only way I can do that. I think that’s the only way I can do that. |
| 00:15:18 | LESLIE: I love it. I love that grout cleaning is my area of expertise, Jim. Thank you. Thank you so much. I really do enjoy that chore very, very much. |
| 00:15:56 | LESLIE: Subtitles by the Amara.org community This is a situation where you need to use a professional grout cleaner or an even tougher product which could be a grout stripper and that’s probably the best material out there because that really strips into that dinginess of the grout and kind of removes those upper layers where all of that like yuck has settled in and then it pulls it out. I mean recently I needed to re-grout a shower and I found that it had also gotten quite dingy and you know no matter how hard sometimes you clean something you’re just not going to get it as white as it was so you can use a grout saw which basically looks like a very small kind of file and you kind of dig away at the grout in between the tiles it doesn’t damage the tiles and you kind of scrape out most of the grout and then you can re-grout it and once again you’re going to have that beautiful bright look. I mean you’re never going to get it quite as bright as the day it was put in so here’s a great chance for you to really re-do that. There’s all kinds of things you know again once you get it to the look that you want the grout whether it’s through cleaning or re-grouting you can get a grout sealer and that’s an additional product that you put on top of the grout once it’s cured and that’s definitely a great way to make sure that that finished product that finished look will kind of look good. So there’s a lot of different approaches I mean if you put the sealer on I’m not saying you don’t ever have to clean the grout because you will have to clean the grout but no one wants like a dingy looking grout the other thing is if you just don’t ever want to deal with cleaning the grout choose a darker color grout that’s like cheating no doubt you know it’s eventually going to look kind of yucky so why not go with a cool gray or like a black you know think of it like a like a pre-washed jean or like something that has more of like an effect on it but you know it kind of you know two birds one stone cool looking grout grout you don’t have to clean still seal it just some ideas Nicole and there you have it joining us today we have Cara Newhart and Cara hosts the make a space podcast and has just launched a new women’s workwear line called do the work Cara is on a mission to empower everyday women to take charge of their homes and design their spaces that they are obsessed with. |
| 00:18:16 | CALLER: Cara is going to teach you how to create your dream home one project at a time Cara welcome to The Money Pit I Leslie thanks for having me oh my gosh this is so exciting to have you I mean your website is really darling it’s filled with a lot of great information I love everything that you’re doing what kind of started your love and passion of home improvement and sharing your love of design oh yeah so it was a windy path as I think all creative ones are yeah they’re never straight but they’re never straight. It’s never straight yeah started in finance and oil and gas and needed a creative outlet I just saw my first house in Denver and had big dreams but a little budget and God to work hands on decided to just do it myself. So I learned one tool at a time and I was terrified to use the saw when I first started. So I would go and go home depot and have them cut all the wood for me. |
| 00:19:09 | LESLIE: I mean I can remember my first time with a table saw table saws are terrifying yeah there’s no joke I mean. |
| 00:19:16 | CALLER: You should be scared a little bit. You need to stay safe, but don’t let that fear hold you back. |
| 00:19:20 | LESLIE: Agreed. I mean, there’s so much that you can tackle once you sort of gain control of your fears and start working with those tools. So what kind of was that first project that you felt the confidence to dive in and tackle it with the tools? |
| 00:19:34 | CALLER: Yeah, so we bought a builder grade home. So I had the most basic ever powder bathroom, literally just a closet with a toilet and a sink. And I wanted to, you know, give it some personality and some storage. So I built a couple of shelves just out of like really basic lumber and cut a slit in it. So I had this like circle mirror that like went down into the shelf. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. |
| 00:19:56 | LESLIE: It’s awesome. And how many mirrors did you go through because you broke them? |
| 00:19:59 | CALLER: How many mirrors? Oh, at least three. Now it’s interesting. So 14 years of bad luck. |
| 00:20:05 | LESLIE: No, no, I don’t believe in any of that because I feel like if it’s a project and you, you know, you’re working with the mirror. Like, sometimes you can’t avoid it. So I think that bad luck goes, you know, away. I think it gets reflected off that mirror and away from you. And speaking of you say, is this the home that you mentioned that you truly think is haunted? |
| 00:20:23 | CALLER: Oh, no, that’s the one I’m in now. So it’s a 200 year old home diagonal from a cemetery and there’s two others in the neighborhood. |
| 00:20:29 | LESLIE: So, yeah, it’s pretty wild over here. That is insane. I think we will save that for another interview when I have you come back, maybe like a Halloween October time so we can really talk about the spooky stuff. |
| 00:20:41 | CALLER: Oh, yeah. |
| 00:20:41 | LESLIE: There’s so much. We’re talking with Karen Newhart, host of the Make a Space podcast and creator of a women’s workwear line called Do the Work, which is brand spanking new. Can you tell us about this women’s workwear clothing line that you’ve created? |
| 00:20:53 | CALLER: Yeah, I wanted it to be super functional for women, just like me, tackling projects. So it’s medium duty workwear, more pockets than you could ever dream of. Looks like athleisure and has tons of functions so that you can tackle projects and have all your tools right there handy and not have to be in boxies. So it’s really, really scaled down men’s pattern. |
| 00:21:13 | LESLIE: No, and it really, I mean, it’s adorable. It looks great. It truly does have pockets everywhere. I love that you sort of have a level like right in your back, almost like your quiver of arrows where you can just grab things that you’re looking for. Right. Draw your level. Yeah, truly. I will get my level and I will make this work. I think that’s great. How is the clothing line doing so far? Do you have a good holiday season with it? I know you said it launched just around the holiday time, right? Yeah. |
| 00:21:37 | CALLER: Yeah. It’s been amazing so far. I think it’s just so needed that we get to have stuff that’s really cute and really functional because I don’t think we should have to pick. So seeing the response has been just incredible. Oh, that’s awesome. |
| 00:21:50 | LESLIE: I just love everything that you’re doing and I kind of like this idea when I was, you know, looking through all your stuff, you mentioned this messy middle, which is kind of like, you know, for a lot of people and for you especially, this is sort of like the launching part where you’ve started a project but now you really kind of get the evolution of it while you’re in the middle. |
| 00:22:09 | CALLER: I had to learn this the hard way. I’ve been in it so many times where I demoed something. I don’t know, you know, what I’m doing. I’m crying on the floor like, will this even work? But then what I realized is that’s where the magic is. When you’re problem solving, when you’re pushing yourself to learn new things, it’s the process of transformation that we don’t see online with the before and after. It’s when the caterpillar gets into the cocoon and turns to literal goo, you know, before he had legs, he had friends and now he’s goo and it’s like, will I be a butterfly? So learning to get comfortable with that process. Yeah. It’s like the beauty of creating something and it teaches you a lot about yourself and it makes really incredible projects if you can embrace it. |
| 00:22:47 | LESLIE: But it’s hard at And I think, you know, you’re right. I think you’re sort of at a part where it can get really scary in the project. You know, it’s like you have self-doubt. You are curious what it’s going to look like. And I think because it’s your home, your project, your thing, it’s super affects you. Whereas if a builder would have come in and he’d be like, or he or she would be like, well, I just took down the wall. So what? You know, they don’t face that. But because you’re so invested in the space, but it is a great chance to grow and truly create the spaces that you’re going to love. Right. |
| 00:23:17 | CALLER: And get to push yourself. So sitting in it’s really uncomfortable. You know, you have to sit there and look at the wall you demoed where the builder gets to close the door and go home. Yeah, you’re sitting in it. Yeah, right. But when you embrace it, it’s like there’s a lot of problem solving. There’s a lot of like cool ideas that come through and you get really comfortable with the process. And that’s what, yeah, that’s where the magic is in the messy middle. |
| 00:23:37 | LESLIE: Oh, I love that. Before I let you go, Kara, when do you know it’s a project that you should really leave to the pros? |
| 00:23:43 | CALLER: Oh, yeah. Okay. So plumbing, I personally don’t touch because I’m not that great at it. |
| 00:23:47 | LESLIE: Same, same. |
| 00:23:48 | CALLER: Electrical. |
| 00:23:49 | LESLIE: Same, because you could die. |
| 00:23:50 | CALLER: My dad was an electrician growing up, so I know my limits. Like I never opened the panel. I would say those two are the two big ones where unless you’re really comfortable, it’s always worth it just to have it done right. |
| 00:24:00 | LESLIE: All right. Well, that’s all excellent advice, Kara. Excellent, excellent work. I’m so proud of everything that you’re doing. We’ve been joined by Kara Newhart, host of the Make a Space podcast and creator of an amazing women’s workwear line called Do The Work. You can check it out at DoTheWork.com, but it’s spelled a little different. It’s D-O-T-H-E-W-R-K.com. It’s a great gift for all of the female builders in your life and those DIYers. Kara, thanks so much for stopping by the Money Pit. We hope you’ll join us again real soon. Of course. Thank you so much for having me. And I promise I’m coming back to you in October. I want to learn all about this haunted house. I mean it, guys. We’re going to learn. Jim, who’s on the line? |
| 00:2 | JIM: Down in Little Rock, Arkansas, we’ve got Mike, and you’ve got the Money Pit. Mike, what can we do for you, bud? |
| 00:24:45 | CALLER: Well, I’ve been doing some remodeling on my house, and it’s been going on since about 2018. I’m kind of doing it piecemeal as I can afford things, and we’re getting ready to list it probably later this springtime. And I want to know if I can list it as newly remodeled or freshly remodeled. What would be the best way to list it? Because it has taken me three, four years to do it. |
| 00:25:16 | LESLIE: I mean, listen, you spent three years fixing up this house, so I think it’s fair to say that I don’t think you’re misrepresenting anything. And then you could fill in the blanks and let folks know what you did. In fact, that would give you a kind of a leg up on the competition, too. We always say it’s a good idea to have an inventory that lists your improvements when you put the house on the market, you know, especially if you have anything that’s energy-saving, because all of those are really attractive to people as they’re looking. So you could say, updated windows to energy-efficient models in 2025, you know, changed out the flush and the flapper valve in summer of 2024. You know, everything, silly things, big things, it just kind of shows that you care about the house. You’re maintaining it. You’re taking care of it. It’s all of those details. And I think that’s very appealing to a buyer. So I would kind of create this list and list all those benefits and improvements. Great. |
| 00:26:12 | CALLER: I appreciate that. That’s what I’ll do. |
| 00:26:14 | LESLIE: All right. Good luck with your project. And we hope that you sell it quickly and, you know, for a lot of money. Well, it used to be that unless you installed a hardwood floor right when that home was built, it was pretty much impossible to add it after the fact. But today, the availability of durable, pre-finished hardwood flooring has made it a very doable project and something that offers real value to a home, which is why you almost always see real estate agents calling out the hardwood floor in their listings and the advertisements. Now, another benefit of having hardwood flooring is that it doesn’t trap dust and dirt like a carpet. So it’s definitely a better choice for the allergy sufferers in your life. And they’re also easier to maintain. And they do last longer than carpeting. If you’re thinking about installing it, there’s really one of the longest-lasting flooring options that you can have because with a hardwood floor, you can sand and refinish it multiple times. And that’s really depending on the thickness of the floorboards themselves. So when it comes time to install, solid hardwood flooring could be installed on or above grade level, but they’re really not recommended for anything below grade, like a basement. Because those areas tend to have a lot of moisture. They’re damper. There’s a type of hardwood called engineered hardwood that’s definitely made to stand up to the moisture levels that you find in a below-grade space. Finally, you want to keep in mind that solid hardwood flooring needs to fully acclimate prior to your installing of it. And that just means you need to leave it in the room where it’s going to be installed, you know, where it’s going to live, for just a few days before you plan on installing it. This way, it kind of gets used to the moisture content. The temperature differences throughout the day, you know, the attitudes of all your family members, it’s going to make it difficult to install. I’m just saying. No, seriously, though. You’ve got to leave it in the space a few days. And if you do that, you’re going to have a beautiful floor in any room of your choice. |
| 00:2 | JIM: Heading out to Minnesota, Leslie, we’ve got Stacy. Stacy, what’s going on at your money pit? |
| 00:28:15 | CALLER: A question about using some mortar to fill in the spaces between the brick and our fireplace. We’ve purchased a 1968 Rambler that needs a lot of work. And we’re thinking if we fill in the space between the bricks on the fireplace and then paint it with a lime wash. |
| 00:28:34 | LESLIE: All right, Stacy. So I’m a little confused because it sounds to me like maybe you’re trying to fill in that mortar so you have a smooth surface and not really repoint the bricks. And when I say repoint, I’m talking about the grout, really, between the bricks. So do you still want to see the brick face and have that smooth line between that’s at the same level? I mean, I think that might be kind of weird if you have like a brick face texture and then sort of like a smooth grid going around it. But if you’re talking about a lime wash, which is kind of like a pickling finish, that really only works on wood because a lime wash is going to sit on a wood grain and goes into the wood grain. And then reacts with the grain itself and grinds. And causes it to have this sort of white, chalky finish in the graining. And then the smooth parts of the wood just kind of take on a milky wash. I don’t think you’re going to get the same effect on brick because it’s not going to absorb into the brick in the same way. It’s just going to kind of get stuck in a lot of places. And you might get a lot of, you know, differences in looks between where the filling is, the mortar, the brick, etc. You know, I think if you’re trying to go for a smooth finish, that’s something completely different from what you’re trying to get. You know, you can think about the idea of tiling or, you know, a stone fascia to go over the brick just to give you a completely different look. But I think this sort of effect that you’re envisioning here, maybe I’m not picturing it right, but I think the way I’m visualizing it seems a little bit odd. You know, you could do stucco also. That’s another option, but that’s just a different texture. And that goes on top of the brick forever. And it would be a real pain in the butt to ever take away. The faux stone really does look beautiful. And you can find things sort of in like maybe something that’s very linear, like a ledge stone or something more natural, like a river rock or something. And you can get them in those sort of white finishes that I think is what you have in mind. So let’s do a little bit more exploring, Stacey. And if you want to come back to us with some more ideas, I’m very, very happy to help you out. Jim, what do you got? |
| 00:3 | JIM: Tyler writes in and he says, Is there a DIY solution for getting rid of ants or do I need to call an exterminator? |
| 00:30:54 | LESLIE: Yeah, Tyler, ants are the worst this time of year. I feel like I’ve just had them in my basement. Luckily, they’re not in the kitchen this year. It’s just the time of year where everything is kind of moist and yucky and ants love that. And there’s actually a lot of different things that you could be doing that will work well as an insecticide for ants. You can leave borax around where they kind of seem to be coming through and see if that has an effect. If you’re looking for a cheaper, less toxic solution, for your ants, you can find it at your local produce aisle. It’s mint. They hate the smell of mint. Really? They hate it. I love it. And it looks really cute in little pots and planters. So that’s a great natural approach. But if this isn’t working and you do opt for a pro, you can be confident because those pros will use the right amount of product and the right product in the exact spot to eliminate those bugs. So there’s lots of different things that you can do. You can head on over to MoneyPit.com as well for some more info. |
| 00:3 | JIM: Are you ready for spring cleaning in the days ahead? Well, if that includes doing loads of laundry, Leslie has a few tips for you here in today’s edition of Leslie’s Last Word. Leslie? Yeah. |
| 00:31:58 | LESLIE: You know, after a cold and snowy winter and all of this cleaning up that we’re doing, truly, we’re ready to get back to these warmer temperatures of spring. That includes spring cleaning, bringing those clothes, you know, out of the attic and basement and swapping around all the seasonal stuff. So you could be facing more laundry than usual. But if you’re a mom, a mom of teen boys, it’s just another day of laundry because I do a lot of laundry. So if that’s you and you’ve got lots of laundry to do, let’s follow these tips to help you save some money and just tackle this, you know, mountain ahead of you. You always want to run full loads. You’re going to use the same amount of energy with a full load versus only throwing in a handful of things. You want to switch the loads as you start to do multiple loads in a day when that dryer is warm. It kind of allows that heat to stay inside and gets that cycle up to the right heat quicker and will kind of dry everything faster too. So be quick about swapping it. Don’t forget that those clothes are sitting in there and then be like, oh, I got to go do it. Just stay on top of it. I always set a timer on my phone because the washer is 37 minutes. The dryer is 76 minutes. |
| 00:3 | JIM: I do the same thing. |
| 00:33:06 | LESLIE: I do. I want to make sure I’m on top of it. I cannot guarantee that it won’t sit in the basket at the foot of my bed or in the chair in my bedroom for a day or two, but it will be warm. It will be washed and dry. |
| 00:3 | JIM: Better sitting in the dryer than, yeah, sitting in the washer waiting to go in the dryer. That’s my thing. Correct. I got to get in there. It drives me nuts. |
| 00:33:24 | LESLIE: Yeah, you got to do it. The other thing is, and I always, you know, I’ve got that little rental property in Vermont, and I’m always amazed when I go up there that people don’t empty the lint filter in the dryer. You got to empty it every single time. Also, I don’t want to empty your dryer lint, folks. So if you’re sharing a space, empty your own dryer lint. It’s kind of gross. But it will also make your dryer run more efficiently, more safely. I mean, dryer fires are like the leading cause of home fires. So just clean that lint trap. If it does turn out that you’re ready for some new appliances, go with an Energy Star certified washer dryer. They’re going to use 20% to 25% less energy than a conventional model. And lastly, wash with cold water instead of hot. It can cut a load’s energy use in half since you’re not using that water heater to raise the water temperature. And get this. The cold water cleans just as well as the hot. Unless you’re doing white with bleach, go cold all the way. Coming up, guys, next week on The Money Pit. I promise no more laundry projects. But have you ever had a painting project that didn’t dry right? Or maybe it wouldn’t cover a stain or it peeled off faster than it should have? We’re going to share some solutions to painting predicaments because painting is a great spring project. Can’t wait to see you guys next week on The Money Pit. Remember, you can do it yourself, but you don’t have to do it alone. |
| (Note: The above referenced transcript is AI-Generated, Unedited and Unproofed and as such may not accurately reflect the recorded audio. Copyright 2025 Squeaky Door Productions, Inc. No portion of this transcript or audio file may be reproduced in any format without the express written permission of Squeaky Door Productions, Inc.) |
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