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Décor on a Dime: 5 Money-Saving Home Decorating Ideas | Make a Splash with a Backyard Water Feature | Trash or Treasure? Tips for a Successful Garage Sale | Ep #2330

Decorating on a Budget: Get 5 money-saving ideas for sprucing up your home without spending a fortune. Backyard Water Features: Make a splash by creating your own backyard water feature. Garage Sales: One person’s trash is someone else’s…

Leslie Segrete & Tom Kraeutler, Hosts of The Money Pit by 2 Comments
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Do you have a home improvement or decor question? Call the show 24/7 at 888-MONEY-PIT (888-666-3974) or post your question here.

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0:00:29 TOM: Coast to coast and floorboards to shingles. This is the Money Pit Home Improvement show. I’m Tom Kraeutler.
0:00:34 LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.
0:00:36 TOM: And we are here to help you take on the projects you want to get done around your house. Do you have a decor dilemma? The something look just not quite right. You want to fix it, you want to change it, you want to freshen it up? Well, you’re in the right place because we do that all. You’d be happy to know that I refrained from giving the core advice. That’s why Leslie is here.
0:00:56 LESLIE: You try. It’s okay.
0:00:57 TOM: We’re a joint team here. We kind of cover all angles, but reach out to us to help you sell first at 888-Money-Pit, or better yet, for the fastest possible response, just go to MoneyPit.com/ask and click the blue microphone button. Coming up on today’s show, if you’d like to refresh your home with new decor, but you’re not quite sure of your budget is ready to handle the hit, never fear. We’ve got five ways to save lots of money decorating your home sweet home.
0:01:22 LESLIE: All right. And if you’re thinking about an outdoor project and you love the sound of a babbling brook, we’re going to tell you how you can create your very own water feature right in your yard.
0:01:31 TOM: And we were just about halfway through the summer right now, which means it’s that time of year when millions of folks transform the garages and yards into storefronts to get rid of the junk they no longer want. But whether you need to clear clutter or maybe just make a few bucks or both, we’re going to have some tips to help you make sure your garage sale goes smoothly.
0:01:49 LESLIE: All right. We love a good garage sale around here. But first, guys, what are you working on? We want to help you tackle all of your to do projects with confidence. This way, you guys can have your best home ever. So let us know what you are working on. What are your big plans for the remainder of the summer season? Perhaps you’ve got something on the horizon for the fall. Well, whatever it is that you’re planning to tackle at your Money Pit, let us give you a hand.
0:02:11 TOM: The number again is 1-888-Money-Pit, 888-666-3974. Or go to moneypit.com/ask and click the blue microphone button. Let’s get to it. Leslie, who’s first.
0:02:22 LESLIE: Cat in Arkansas, is dealing with a humid house. What’s going on there?
0:02:25 CALLER: Well, I have a new heat pump and it’s not taking out the humidity. Of course, I live in a humid area, but I just wondered why it’s supposed to take out the humidity, as I understood.
0:02:38 TOM: Well, not really. I mean, air conditioners in general, central air conditioners, which are essentially what a heat pump is, are not designed to be dehumidifiers. They do dehumidifier by virtue of the fact that they’re cooling the air, but they’re not as effective as other forms of dehumidifiers. There’s a couple of other ones that you could consider, one of which is called a whole home dehumidifier, and that’s built into the HVAC system that would be built into the duct system. And that can take out about 90 pints of water a day is another type of stand alone, deem it a fire. In fact, I just put one of these in my own house and I thought it was absolutely terrific. It’s by Santa Fe and it’s a small dehumidifier that installs. In my case, I put it in my basement and actually it’s suspended from the ceiling in an unfinished part of the basement. And it’s only 12 by 12. By 22. And it takes out 70 pints of water a day. And it’s really neat. Once I had it up for an hour or so, I went down there and you could just see this pretty strong stream of water dripping out of it. And all that water used to be in the air and now it’s no longer there. So you need to do some dehumidification. And I think that you’ll find that that will do the trick.
0:03:49 CALLER: Pat Okay. What is the average humidity supposed to be in the house?
0:03:53 LESLIE: 30 to 50%?
0:03:54 TOM: Well, yes, I see around 40. So we’re in the same neighborhood. Okay. And he put a good D amid a fire in that will be set up to a humid a stat so that you always know what the humidity is.
0:04:03 LESLIE: And it’ll come on as it’s needed. Right?
0:04:05 CALLER: Exactly. Okay. All right. Well, I thank you so much.
0:04:08 TOM: Good luck, Pat. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
0:04:12 LESLIE: All right. Now we’re going to take a call from Delaware. We’ve got Vince on the line who’s looking to do some work on a three season room. What’s going on?
0:04:19 CALLER: I have a three season room with a concrete floor, and I want to hire a contractor to put a poxy coating down. Okay. The problem is with the heavy rain, the water is coming up through the concrete. Well, the epoxy caused a bigger problem.
0:04:38 TOM: So what you need to do in that situation is since your home is below the yard, you need to install what’s called a curtain drain. So a curtain drain goes across the yard and it collects the water, intercepts the water that’s coming down the hill, so to speak. And then it gets run around the outsides of the house. So this is done by building a trench that’s usually about 12 inches by 12 inches. And there is a type of pipe called easy drain that has the aggregate attached to it. So you have the perforated pipe, you have aggregate, which in this case is made out of foam pieces. And it looks like looks like Styrofoam peanuts, but it’s not. And then there’s a filter cloth around it. So once you dig the trench, you lay this drain inside of it, you cover it with soil where the ends are. You make sure that’s lower than where you started and the water will run out there and down the sides of your house. You can take it all around the house, out of the street, or you could discharge it out to daylight, as we say. But you need to intercept that water. If you don’t intercept the water, there’s nothing you can do to stop this. You’ve got to collect that water and manage it. It’s simply a water management issue. Nothing more complicated than that. And the current drain is the way we do that. When you have a house that’s lower than the yard.
0:05:50 CALLER: Okay. Well, thank you for your help.
0:05:53 LESLIE: Now to Arizona, where it’s been super hot. Barb, what’s going on with your pool? How can we help?
0:05:57 CALLER: We have an older pool. We live in Arizona. The pool is used a lot. The pool deck has lots of cracks in it. The tile needs to be replaced. There’s some re barb that has come up from the pool deck. We would like to go over in retail and plaster the pool again.
0:06:19 TOM: So essentially what you’re telling me is that when the pool was originally constructed, there was rebar reinforcing bar that was embedded into the pool so that the pool will be properly supported. And you’re seeing that this is exposed in some areas, which means that maybe some of the surface came away, perhaps there’s some rust that set in and you want to know if that means you have to completely replace the pool or whether it’s repairable. Is that about right?
0:06:45 CALLER: That’s right.
0:06:46 TOM: Okay. So yes, I think it’s repairable. I think it’s a normal thing for an older pool for this to happen to. And there are going to be a number of products. And I suspect that they’re going to be epoxy based because they stick the best to the old surfaces of pools and they’re suitable for underwater. And I don’t see any reason that you couldn’t make a repair to that particular area. I would just caution you, Barb, to be aware that sometimes you’ll have contractors that always want to kind of show you the worst case scenario in terms of the work. And I suspect that repairing an area where some rebar has exposed become exposed is not an enormous job. I would think that it’s almost a normal seasonal job that you might have to do from time to time just to make sure that that surface stays in good shape. So if everything else is working well, then I think you probably should just make that repair. And in terms of the pool deck, of course, if it’s tile, you know, and it’s chipped and broken, then that’s a different story. But there are a lot of cool products that are out today that are literally paintball. In fact, there’s a product that’s called roller rock. There’s another one that’s a terrazzo coating. There’s a product called Spread Stone. A lot of the good ones are made by a company called Dish Coatings, and you essentially can clean that pool deck surface not on top of tile mind you, but like, let’s say if it’s a concrete surface and then apply these products and you can get really beautiful finishes, you know, without spending a whole lot of money. So I think those are some options for you to kind of spruce this up as we get into summer here and not really have a lot of work to be done before you can actually enjoy that pool because that’s why you have it. You live in a warm area, the country in this way, you can get it fixed up quickly and start to enjoy it once again.
0:08:29 LESLIE: Hey, are you a fan of our podcast? Well, leave us a five star review on Apple Podcasts and we’ll be doing a happy dance. Plus, it helps us keep the show going and growing. Just go to MoneyPit/.com/review. Pop in Delaware, you’ve got the Money Pit. How can we help you today?
0:08:44 CALLER: Yes, I have a faulty garage door opener diagnosed by the manufacturer of having a best circuit board. And the question I have to have is we were to surge protection of garage door openers. And there are two types that I can identify. One, like you might use for your electronic equipment and a special garage door opener made by a company, Chamberlain, that has not only protection for the basic motor and the circuit board, but also for the control panels.
0:09:17 TOM: Okay. So a first of all, are you going to repair the garage door opener and put the new circuit board in above?
0:09:21 CALLER: Yes. This is under warranty and there are replace the part three but the labor out to pay for.
0:09:26 TOM: Yeah, that’s kind of an unusual thing to happen. I actually have never heard of a board like that failing but okay it can happen. So now what you want to do is you’re thinking that that could have been caused by an electrical surge and you want to protect from that.
0:09:37 CALLER: Most people I talked to you do not have surge protectors on their garage door opener.
0:09:40 TOM: No, most people don’t. And I would be hesitant to probably add one because I think this is probably an anomaly. But I will say this if you are going to put this on chain, Chamberlain makes one. I would definitely trust that brand. I know a lot about that brand and the people behind it, and it’s a good brand and a good products. And so if they’re offering something that that does this, I wouldn’t be hesitant to invest in it.
0:10:04 CALLER: Yeah, it sounds good. Yeah. All these little devices we have around the house you know garage door openers and microwaves and stuff like that are all susceptible to surges of sorts.
0:10:14 TOM: But, you know, generally you put surge protection on your main panel, not on not necessarily on every appliance. And sometimes you put them on, you know, computers and that sort of thing. But this is a very unusual circumstance. But if you’re going to put something on and Chamberlain makes a product for that, I would I would trust it.
0:10:31 CALLER: Okay, Bob. Okay, Very good.
0:10:32 TOM: Thank you. Good luck. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT. Well, one of the most exciting things about owning a new home is decorating it, but rushing into decorating and buying pricey furniture. Well, that can mean making choices that you will later regret. Instead, we encourage you to think ahead and come up with a plan. So first step, spread out your expensive purchases. If you’re buying a number of high ticket items like a couch or a bed, you don’t have to get them all at once. Make a list of the pieces that you need to buy and prioritize.
0:11:02 LESLIE: Yeah. And then I think, guys, you want to make sure that you’re avoiding trendy design choices because chances are they’re going to go out of style, you know, sooner than later. So before you plunk down your money on that patterned couch, think about whether you’re going to like it in five years’ time. If it’s something you’re going to tolerate for the long haul or if it’s something that just seems too buzzworthy. Next, guys, think about splurging on the essentials. You know, classic pieces are definitely worth investing in, and you can always cover the trends with inexpensive home accents, like a throw pillow or a color in a vase or something like that. Just to bring that element in, to give you that taste of it without overdoing it next to think about decorating around a statement piece. So you want to let one item kind of anchor that room that can be a piece of furniture, a rug, artwork, anything, but sort of that’s your focal point that that’s going to be your basis for designing the rest of the room around. And then lastly, kind of think about repurposing what you already have. You know, it’s like the stuff you own is your best sort of prop closet, so hit that up first. You probably already have a lot of things that you can incorporate into that decorating and you may even have some leftover paint from an old project or accent pieces that can be refreshed. Maybe you can give your couch new life by reimposing it instead of buying a new one. A couch is a big project. You can start with a chair, you can reach out to us, will help you with the upholstery part of it. All of this upcycling really is a great way to maximize those decorating dollars.
0:12:26 TOM: Now here is my number one tip for those that are buying new homes to save lots and lots of money when you buy a new house or and I’m not talking about brand new house, but anyhow, that’s new to you. You generally want to change it, right? You get this urge to want to tear down all the wallpaper in all the rooms or do something really drastic. My recommendation wait at least 2 to 3 months before making those significant purchases and significant change is why? Well, one of two things will happen. You’ll either get used to the old decor and you’ll shift some of your existing furnishings around and discover, Hey, it’s not so bad. Guess what? Saved a lot of money or the desire to decorate is going to increase and you’ll take on the project anyway. But by waiting you’ll have a much better idea of what you really need to spend the money on.
0:13:11 LESLIE: Now we’ve got Cathy from West Virginia on the line, who’s tackling a kitchen project and has some questions about a sink. What can I do for you?
0:13:18 CALLER: Well, I’m having a hard time deciding on the type of sink. I’ve always had a I keep wanting to say double barrel washed on one side and over and then the other. Right. So it’s really hard for me to relate to a single whole thing, but they seem to be the rage. And I wanted to see really, I mean, what is the attraction.
0:13:45 TOM: Size and space? I mean, you can get a lot more in a single bowl sink than you can in one that is divided into two. And I understand the, you know, the habit of puts over one in Richmond and in the other. And, you know, listen, if you’re used to that, why not? But I think the reason people get them is because they can get the bigger pots and pans in there. They’re just a whole lot easier to use. You know, the other option, of course, is if you’re going to have a single bowl sink and you just get used to having a small plastic bowl in there, a plastic tub, I should say. And there was what we always did. So that is where all the all the soapy water goes. And then you have plenty of room on the other side to rinse. And then you can just, you know, take it out and put it away when you’re all done. So it’s really personal preference. But I think the reason they’re so popular is space. What do you think, Leslie?
0:14:29 LESLIE: I mean, I personally I have like an extra deep single bowl stainless sink, and I like it because, you know, pots and pans been there no problem. I can definitely put a lot of stuff in there as I’m trying to get things cleared up quickly and I don’t have to have it on the countertops. But I did grow up with a double sink and I too liked that. You know, I didn’t have to fill up so much water in one sink if I wanted to just wash a couple of things or, you know, you have more options with that. Now, when you’re remodeling, are you just replacing the existing sink? Are you changing out the cabinet?
0:14:59 CALLER: I’m changing everything.
0:15:00 LESLIE: I love the idea of a ceramic coated apron, front sink that looks kind of it can be modern and country sort of at the same time and have an interesting feel and you can do a double sink. I think they’re even called country sinks. You know, the apron front, they’re so beautiful. And it might be just, you know, something that’s a little different, but still familiar and a retail very well for the house.
0:15:23 CALLER: I am so attracted to those ceramic aprons, front sinks. And so before I make the commitment, I was just wondering to see, am I missing something?
0:15:36 TOM: No, I don’t think they are. I think they’re very attractive. And I think, you know, I think it’s part of that sort of farmhouse sink design that so popular to have the farmhouse decor that’s so popular today. So good luck with that project. Kathie.
0:15:47 CALLER: Okay, so here image.
0:15:49 LESLIE: Jerry in West Virginia is on the line with the soundproofing question. How can we help you today?
0:15:53 CALLER: The second floor master We want to convert into a movie room. However, it’s over our son’s bedroom. He’s six years old. And what I’ve noticed is the volume. There’s like no sound barrier between the first and second floor. So like when I hear my wife reading him a bedtime story, I can hear it very plainly upstairs.
0:16:15 TOM: And that’s typical because there’s no insulation in those walls. So you will get some sound transmission if you want to try to soundproof those walls or the ceiling. There is a there’s a number of ways to do that. There’s a type of drywall that you can apply as a second layer that will be quieter than the traditional type of drywall. It’s called quiet rock. To do that, you probably have to take out the old drywall. The other issues that wherever you have a gap in those walls for electrical outlet or light switch or anything like that, they have to be sealed properly to deliver the sound proofing. And then there’s another way to do this where you put a second layer of regular drywall on the first layer that’s already there is a material called Green Glue, which provides sort of a sound insulation barrier between the two rooms. So by improving the drywall between the surfaces, you can reduce some of the sound. But I don’t know, you said movie room. If it gets pretty loud in there, it’s probably not going to stop all of it.
0:17:15 CALLER: Yeah, we were kind of hoping to do some type of caulk floor upstairs. I thought there may be something that would help.
0:17:21 TOM: Well, I mean, that’ll help a little bit. But the drywall, the ceiling below is where you really have a chance to stop it.
0:17:26 CALLER: Okay. Well, thank you very much. I appreciate your help. And I love your show. Listen to it all the time.
0:17:30 TOM: Yeah. Good luck with that project. And with all the work you’re doing to your new house, call us back anytime. Eight, eight, eight, six, six, six, three nine, seven four.
0:17:37 LESLIE: All right, now we’ve got Janey on the line who’s calling us from Washington State. And she wants some help with a project for her 92 year old aunt. What are you working on?
0:17:46 CALLER: Well, my aunt lives by herself, so she does very well for herself. And she lives in eastern Washington state where it gets pretty cold. She has a house that she’s been in since 1963 when it was built. And she wants to see if she needs to upgrade the heating system because she’s talking about selling her house. She’s got a radiant heat in the ceiling and a couple other problems, the heat, he doesn’t work. So she may be getting a heat pump or something like that.
0:18:16 TOM: Radiant. He’s really expensive. Gosh, in Washington, she must be paying an arm and leg for her electric bill. I would definitely think. And you mentioned she’s on a full basement. I would definitely think that a heat pump is probably going to be a more affordable and efficient way to go. But since she’s selling the house, I know that when you sell a house, you know, sometimes you’re like tempted to try to do all the things that you’ve been putting off over the years to make it more attractive. But frankly, right now it’s a very hot market for homes. She may not have to do this work. If you do want to get some ideas of what needs to be done, what you could do is you could have your own professional home inspection done. So home inspectors typically work for buyers, but smart sellers often get the inspection for themselves so they can see what the home is going to look like in the eyes of a buyer’s inspector And home inspectors, with good experience of doing hundreds and thousands of inspections can give you a good sense as to what you might want to update. And they have no conflict of interest, unlike a realtor or a contractor might. So that’s one way to kind of figure out sort of where you’re at. But I don’t know that I would spend a lot of money on it because with the market as it is right now, there may be people lining up that are happy to buy it exactly the way it is and then do the work themselves, perhaps as a part of some other work that they’re going to get done. Yeah, that’s what we thought, because where she lives is a Washington state university. So my mom always called it a university with a town instead of a town with the university. So there is plenty of people who want to buy a house. And then it was a full basement. They rent out the basement to one student and all rent out the house part to somebody else.
0:19:48 TOM: Yeah, I think you may want to speak with a good, experienced real estate agent in the area and ask them the opinion as well. Why don’t you get somebody you can trust? Because I. I don’t see it being probably worth your answer while given the market that it is today to go ahead and replace the entire heating system just because she thinks that needs to be done. If she was going to live there, I’d say, yeah, go for it. But she wants to sell the house. She wants to get as much money as she can, you know, let’s save her some money on a heating system she may not need.
0:20:15 CALLER: Yes, I agree. That sounds like a good idea.
0:20:17 TOM: All right. Good luck, Jamie. Thanks so much for reaching out to us.
0:20:19 CALLER: You’re welcome. Thank you.
0:20:21 LESLIE: While water features like ponds or waterfalls can help turn your landscape into something special by providing a focal point and attracting wildlife, I mean, it really does make your yard just outstanding. Now, they can be complicated or they can be super simple to build. There are garden centers everywhere that have those manufactured ones. They’re pre-made. So all you kind of need to do is plug them in. Then there’s others that are much larger and those could be pretty complicated to build. So you’ve got to kind of assess like what your skill set is, how much you want to do and what you want it to look like. Now, most water features are built with liners for the ponds available really any size you want. And once you do the excavation, you line that with sand and then you add the liner and go from there. You’ll also find a big selection of pre-formed liners like those that you see at home and garden centers. Now, these come in all sorts of shapes and really simplify the installation.
0:21:13 TOM: It’s kind of like taking a kiddy pool minus the octopuses and all the fancy sea animals on it and sticking it in the ground. But of course, much better built that.
0:21:22 LESLIE: Much more sturdy. Yeah. Now, you know, we used to build all these water features all the time on while you were out and they’re definitely fun projects to do. You know, we’d start with those pre-formed liners and then kind of customize around them and then add the perfect sized pump. Just keep in mind that water features should look natural, so you can add lilies and things in the pond that give you that natural feel and if the pond is deep enough, I mean, you kind of usually need to be around three feet. You can consider adding koi fish and they stay there all winter long. I’m always fascinated how they hibernate during the winter season and then come right back to life once it warms up. Yeah, but just remember that unless you’re planning on making your feature a koi pond, you definitely need to drain that water feature every year. And even during the year they’ll need to be cleaned just like a pool as well. So they do take some work, but man, it can be a really fun and beautiful addition to your outdoor space.
0:22:13 LESLIE: All right. Now we’re heading out to Kansas, where David’s got a question. How can I help you today?
0:22:16 CALLER: I had a remodel done, and we installed a vent fan over the range. Okay. And when we get the same high north wind in the wintertime, it seemed like we get a lot of back feeding cold air. Coming in that vein. I didn’t know. Is there any way to stop that?
0:22:35 TOM: So the vent fan has an exhaust port on the outside wall, correct?
0:22:42 CALLER: Correct. Working to be working Vine’s opening.
0:22:45 TOM: And is there a gasket around that door?
0:22:47 CALLER: Yes, I think there is.
0:22:49 TOM: When you look at that door, do you happen to know whether or not it’s evenly striking all the way around? In other words, if it’s a little twisted because it’s metal, sheet metal. And sometimes when they’re trying to get that oil in there, sometimes if it gets cocked a little bit and it’s twisted, it may not be closing completely all the way around. Have you have you take a look at that level of detail? It’ll looks pretty good that way. And it’s just when you get the high wind, it seems to sit there and chatter back and forth a little bit. I’m saying be in the area and. Okay. Yeah. So it’s your deep pressurizing, basically, huh? Interesting. The other thing is on the round, the outside of that, where it comes through the wall, do you know if they’ve sealed that when it was put in. It usually comes through the wall and there’s usually some sort of frame around it and flashing and, and you may be able to take off that outside housing and then seal it better than it was originally. And that could help a little bit. But if the door is chattering, then it seems like the spring may not be tight enough. And I’m not sure that anything that we could suggest is going to change that. I can’t imagine a way to kind of correct that if that’s what’s going on.
0:23:59 CALLER: Yeah, well, we’ve had the similar problems. One guy renting a bathroom exhaust and we put a around, but this doesn’t have a long enough room to put a dampener in the liner. So. Yeah. Yeah.
0:24:12 TOM: Well, and of course if you put a damper in your restricting the efficiency as well.
0:24:17 CALLER: Right.
0:24:18 TOM: So that’s another issue. You know, another thing that you could do is if you put another I’m going to call it a cage, but it’s kind of like a metal box that’s made out of perforated steel. And it’s very it’s very perforated, is not enclosed at all. Right. But if you were to surround that exhaust port with a second sort of frame around it and had that sort of fence an area, then that might be enough to interrupt the flow of the air and that’s pressurizing that spot. And stop it from sort of chattering and coming up as much. And you certainly can attach it temporarily and see if it works.
0:24:55 CALLER: Or there’s something of a break. Break or wind.
0:24:58 TOM: Yeah, Some way to break the window. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Thanks for calling us, Dave. And I hope that helps you out and let us know how you make out.
0:25:05 CALLER: All right. And thank you.
0:25:07 TOM: You’re welcome, sir. Bye bye.
0:25:09 LESLIE: Marianne in Tennessee is on the line. Has some concerns about asbestos. Tell us what’s going on.
0:25:14 CALLER: Working on an older house built in 1937. I know that there I was told that there was concerns with maybe the linoleum. That’s on the floor. There’s this little bit in the kitchen and in the bathroom. And before I took it up, I didn’t know whether I needed to check it for asbestos or if there was any other places I needed to check as well.
0:25:35 TOM: This is old linoleum and we’re talking about tile here. It’s sheet linoleum.
0:25:39 CALLER: Yes.
0:25:40 TOM: I’ve not heard that she linoleum contains asbestos. I’m not going to say it’s impossible. It’s more a tile.
0:25:46 LESLIE: And it’s a nine by nine tile. And it’s always in like very specific colors that you’ll know when you see it that that’s an asbestos tile and like they don’t make a nine by nine anymore. Like this is it.
0:25:57 TOM: Yeah. I mean the only way to really know for sure is to have it tested. But linoleum is generally not something that’s associated with asbestos, and even if it did, it would be contained inside of a binder, which makes it less likely to be removed to be exposed to the air. Now, why don’t you take that up, though? We also don’t know what’s underneath it. You could be revealing some other tile like that name. I know. And Leslie was talking about. But that said, it generally is a good idea to pull up old floors before you put down new ones. So I hope that helps you out.
0:26:27 CALLER: Okay. Is there any place else I need to be concerned about on this basis?
0:26:30 LESLIE: Well, you would generally find it wrapping water pipes and it looks almost like an old fashioned cast. Like you can see it’s like a flaky substance that’s like wrapped with almost like a plaster of Paris. And you’ll know that also when you see it, and that’s asbestos. And while that has very low levels, I would not tackle it myself. You should get a pro always to do it if you see it.
0:26:52 CALLER: All right. Well, thank you very much.
0:26:54 LESLIE: Well, with the last blast of garage sale season ahead, it’s a good time to clean out and clean up by selling what you don’t need. You know, National Garage Sale Day is coming up. It’s the second Saturday in August, and it’s a good time to dig into those cramped storage spaces, get organized and make a profit in the process.
0:27:12 TOM: Okay, so to get started, lightning, your load is a lot easier when you have a plan. So here’s my plan as you go through your stuff. Sorted in three piles, things to keep things, the trash and things to sell. Now, if you don’t use it or very often or you forgot it even existed, it probably needs to go.
0:27:30 LESLIE: Yeah. And remember this, guys, Serious shoppers come early and I mean, like super-duper early when we had a garage sale at my grandma’s house when both my grandparents had passed away. People were in their cars, like overnight waiting, waiting for the morning. So be very clear that you don’t want anybody early. Close the shades. Turn the lights off. Don’t make eye contact because, hey, we’ll try. So really, really be prepared and put your best things out. A few minutes before the start time listed in your ad. You also want to be careful about selling things that may have some updated safety features like baby furniture and car seats. Now furniture, housewares, kids, sporting equipment that always sells well. When it comes time to figure out the pricing. Don’t be sentimental about your stuff and overprice it in the process. If you’re unsure, just do a quick search online and that’s going to kind of give you the current value. Keep things realistic by pricing things a quarter or a third of what they should cost brand new. And you’re definitely going to make some sales.
0:28:33 TOM: You know, you might be surprised at how much new space will create by cleaning out and how much money you’ll make by just letting go of what you don’t need. It’s also the very, very best way to organize your garage because you have to empty it, right? And once you empty it, you can really question whether you want to put that stuff back again.
0:28:50 LESLIE: Yeah. And also, maybe don’t do it when your kids are around. I feel like every time I try to clean something out and I’m like, All right, we’re going to get rid of this or we’re going to sell this. That’s the name of the song they like Love that thing. It’s the best thing they ever had. And that’s their favorite song.
0:29:02 TOM: For a day. And then it goes back into the pile and it’s just this one.
0:29:05 LESLIE: Exactly. Daniel Rodin’s team Money Pit saying, I’m replacing my bath vanity. And when I turned off the hot and cold valves, the water still ran. I even tried to tighten them with pliers, but no luck. How do I get the water to stop long enough to replace the vanity?
0:29:20 TOM: That is definitely a challenge that’s happened to me as well. It always seems that those undersea valves and even the toilet valves are not as reliable as the valves you might have at your main, which is actually where you have to go. You’ve got to go to the main water valve. Daniel, I need to turn it off there. So now you’ve turned off all the water in the house, and once that’s off, you need to replace the valves that are under the vanity. And it’s not as terrible a job if you’re handy as it might sound. Or you can always hire a plumber. Because what I would do is I would buy the PEX valves that are sized appropriately for the copper pipe that you have. And if you use the PEX valves, they’re very easy to install and they are completely watertight and they work super well. And you’ll be back in action in just a jiffy.
0:30:06 LESLIE: And you know what? If you don’t know where your water main is, when you locate it, think about it’s probably towards the front of your house. Hours is by where the mains coming from the street. So I know to look on that side of the house and once you know where it is, put a big fat tag on it that says I am the water main. Make sure everybody knows in the house where that is just in case.
0:30:23 TOM: Yep. It’s super important to know where that is. And just in case, like you say, Leslie, because when you do get a pipe break or something serious like that, that’s definitely where you got to go.
0:30:31 LESLIE: Yeah. And you want to go there quickly. All right. Now we’ve got one from Judy in Texas who says this is the second year for us to have major problems with the deer eating anything and everything they want. I have 10 to 12 in my front yard every night cleaning out my flowerbeds to the point where nothing is left. Oh, this is a Tom problem. You’ve had this many, many times. What can I do to keep the deer away from the garden?
0:30:54 TOM: Yes. I feel your pain on this. Who knew that the deer were so health conscious, right? In all of those beautiful flowers and bushes and all that salad. Yeah. All right. Listen, there’s really three things that you can do to put some space between you and the deer. First, think about deer resistant plants. Now there are jerseys and plants for every locale. And I must say, we must underline the word resistant here, not deer proof. They are deer resistant. If the deer are hungry enough, they’ll eat just about anything. But for example, in my yard I had installed Green Giant or provide these which are supposed to be resistant. In fact, they were really for the first two years and then they start eating them anyway. The second thing you can do is a physical barrier. Now, we did this in one area that was particularly bad because it was against some woods with a deer came from with a seven foot high fence in. We did it with netting, so it wasn’t like a big construction project because we wanted to protect the whole line of bushes that were in that area. But what I would suggest, it works really, really well so far is a deer repellent. I’m using a deer called Bob Beck’s Bob. It comes with a concentrate. I mix it with water. It’s like one quarter of the stuff that two gallons of water put in a pump sprayer. And I spray them every two weeks. I sprayed the bushes from basically from the ground up about four feet every two weeks. And it’s been really, really successful. So I’m a big fan of this product. It’s not terribly expensive. I bought a five gallon bucket because I have a lot to do with it. I think it was a little bit over 100 bucks for the bucket, but in the last me the entire season. But the thing is, once you start, you can’t stop because if you lay off and the deer start eating again, they’re going to pick up the same old bad habits and start doing away at whatever you had for their.
0:32:32 LESLIE: To tell their friends. Go to this house. Super yummy.
0:32:36 TOM: This is the Money Pit Home Improvement show on air and online at Money Pit dot com. We’re just about out of time. I want to take this moment to say thank you. Thank you. Thank you for spending part of your day with us. If you’ve got questions and didn’t get a chance to reach out to us, you can do that. 24, seven and 88 money Pit or always go to moneypit.com/ask for the quickest possible response. I’m Tom Kraeutler.
0:32:59 LESLIE: And I’m Leslie Segrete.
0:33:00 TOM: Remember, you can do it yourself.
0:33:02 LESLIE: 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 2023 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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  1. Kristi Arens

    I now have the urge to replace my double sink to a single, I cook with a lot of big pots and hate struggling trying to clean them. I cannot afford a complete remodel, but I can do an easy switch out. Thanks for the advice.

    Reply

    • Tom Kraeutler

      Thats a great project, Kristi. Double sinks take up a lot of room. If you sometimes need separate wash/rinse spaces you’d be better off using a basin from time to time.

      Reply

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