So if you're just start buying a house, there's just so much new to you that everyone else probably knows who's owned a house. There's so many unexpected expenses that I found when I first bought a house I was not prepared for. And so this checklist helps bring those things to mind, what to look for and what to prepare for. Welcome to the Up Your Average podcast, where Keith and Doug give no nonsense advice to level up your life. So buckle up and listen closely to Up Your Average.
Micah Lemak is in the house, she's in the building, and that's really important because Micah knows how to build a building. And today on Up Your Average, we're going to be talking about home improvements, anything in the house, anything in a commercial building. But first I want to start it off with a little business stuff, Micah. Okay. So it was not that long ago.
Mhmm. You were out by your truck working on Gimbal's Cottage behind us. And I say to you, Micah, great job taking the risk to start your own business. Just a couple years ago. And do you remember what you said to me? What risk? Yeah. You said what risk? You said, I didn't know there was a risk. And I immediately knew what you were talking about, but I'd never framed it up like you just succinctly said to me.
What wrist? And and why did you say what wrist? The spirit tells you to go do something, you should do it. Yeah. Yeah.
So if you've listened to this podcast one or two or several times, you will know that just living by faith is a big part of our worldview, and we think it's a fantastic way to do life. So Micah is a And great example of when you shared that with me, what risks, really resonated to me. I remember I came back inside and I thought, man, I was really encouraged by what you had to say because it doesn't mean it's going to be easy. It could be very expensive. But you are doing what you're supposed to be doing.
So Micah, just a few years ago, started your own company. We did. And so tell us about your company. Rest Grace Solutions. Resting in God's grace. They provide solutions. Okay. That's we like to do interior home repairs, all the small stuff nobody else likes to do. Give me some examples of some of the small stuff nobody else likes to do. Because you're talking to a guy who doesn't own tools. Caroline owns tools. Right.
And so, like, what are some of those small things that I should be not wanting to do? You're funny. So we do lots of it's the jobs where people don't have time in their schedule to come do it. They want to do something bigger. So I do like changing faucets, changing sinks, outlets, electrical repairs, troubleshooting, ceiling fans, lots of drywall repair and painting.
All those little things that just take a few hours to do, that's it. And have you found do those things just stack up over time where someone reaches out to you and they're like, hey, we've probably been needing to do this for ten years? Or do you have people who are like meticulous and constantly on stuff? Like, does your client look like? They are both ranges.
Okay. Some people send me a monthly list. Some people save it up. And when you show up, they say, I've got one thing for you to do when you show up, and then suddenly they have 10 or 12 things. So it's While you're here. There's a whole range of people out there. Okay. So so you have folks who put together a list for you, and then you can come and knock those out, you know, when you can squeeze it in. That's That's pretty thoughtful. It is very thoughtful Yeah, for both that's pretty cool.
So we've been doing this theme for this pretend make believe couple, Paul and Bridget Williams. And the idea has been is let's share with people how they might improve their lives, how they might wanna get started, or how they might wanna think differently about some things. And Keith, he's on assignment right now, so it's just you and me. But Keith, he is always prepared. And so he sent me a whole list, and I was sharing with Michael what makes Keith and I work so well together, is he's always got the list, and I'm more the spontaneous person.
You guys all know that. But he some questions for you. Now I know you got stuff too because top of your class. And so Michael is top of his class, and so he's got stuff prepared. But okay, this one I really like. This is from Keith. This one from me. If you were to share with a first time homebuyer or homeowner, what tools do they need to own? It completely depends on their skill level. K.
If they are very say they have lots of abilities, they probably already own the tools. Right. If they don't and they're willing to learn, you can either be taught by looking it up online, although there's a lot of bad information online, or watching the person who's helping repair and learn from them. But basic kits are always helpful to have, just wrenches, hammers, sockets, so you can assemble an IKEA piece. Okay.
So that's a good start. I think it is. Yeah. That makes sense. Anything that you could assemble at IKEA because they give you that little tool. That's really annoying. Yes. And so alright. So sockets, hammers Some wrenches. Wrenches, screwdrivers. Yeah. That's the basic thing. So you can take an outlet cover off or retighten an outlet. Or Yeah. You know, I think one of the worst things home maintenance wise is a towel rack.
They're not put up well usually. Like, what do you need to put up a towel rack? An expert. You do, don't you? Thank you for saying that. That makes me feel so much better. Like, if you came to this dream house, there's like a a drywall chump that's like that big where I tried to screw in something. Didn't hold. Nope. And my boys could have been doing chin ups on it too. Your boys would. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So so those are some of the basic tools.
Any power tools? Depends on your level of ability. Let's say I got no skills at all. Probably don't need one. Hey. Yeah. Need to call an expert. Okay. Now that's that is the next question. Okay. What experts? That's the hard one. It's people you want to find someone you trust. Yeah. So usually you find that by word-of-mouth. You can go what we were talking about earlier, look on billboards. Yeah. But
usually, those who are recommended word-of-mouth aren't advertising because they're staying busy. Yeah. That's that's good. However, there there are different levels also. If you want to be in charge of finding people to come do your maintenance, you can go through all that work.
That's a lot of hours, a lot of time trying to vet people, trying to determine who you want in your house. Yeah. But there's also, like, home concierge services out there that are available who will do all that labor for you. And I help a number of them also. I didn't know that existed. It's very neat. It's something it's something pretty new. Okay. And so home concierge service would reach out to they they would have a plumber relationship, a a heating and cooling relationship. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
Those are are very helpful. They've got electrical, heating, plumbing, painting, drywall, handyman repairs, concrete. Yeah. Anything that you wanted done, you just tell them, and they take care of finding that person. There's things like Angie's List also, but that is not as reliable as it used to be. Okay. So where would where would you send Paul and Bridget, like, to find a concierge? How do you even find a concierge? One very common one here in town is Abode. Abode? Abode.
Ned Morrison started it, and it's an excellent company. Very cool. Abode. That's worth checking out. It is. Yeah. What experts, that's such a big deal. I know I've been very fortunate just to have friends in the business. And to start something with a high trust level, it's so life giving where you don't have to think about, what am I paying for this? Am I paying too much?
Am I going to get the job done? Just to have friends that you could trust is so huge. And if you don't have that, to have a concierge who's vetted people, that's really great. Keith also did you have anything else to add to that? No.
Keith also wanted to ask what routines and checklists a new homeowner would need to be thinking about. And I suppose that depends. You're buying a home with a warranty that was just built, that could be a little different than buying a home that's maybe thirty years old. But I'm sure there are some crossovers where there are checklists that you need to do regardless. What comes to mind?
So when I think of a home, it's a big envelope. You've got your roof, your walls, your foundation. The whole purpose of this home is to keep the elements out or rodents or intruders. Look at the big picture. That's the big picture of it.
So I like to do walk arounds of a home and just visually look to see is the home actually performing on the outside the way you're wanting it to. You've got water is probably your biggest culprit because when you see a problem from water, it's already too late. Yeah. It's already a lot of damage. So if you're being proactive and trying to look once a month or so, just walk around. Shannon and I do that. We walk around our property and just look. Once a month? At least. Sometimes weekly.
Yeah. Yes. But What is something that you might see? Like, you and Shannon are walking around your house, which is well taken care of. You're the man. You're in the business. Mine is the least taken care of.
But what what is something like if we walked around the Gimbal property, what what is something that your eye might see, and what is something that my eye might see? Recently, I was walking around, and I saw a branch laying on a a roof. But then when I looked a little closer, I realized that branch went through the roof, and it was not a big branch, but it had made a hole. So that was an obvious one. Yeah.
But from the the ground, it just looked like it might be just laying there, but there was a hole. Mhmm. Or you might say you might notice, like, water pooling in your yard where your gutters overflowed because your gutters are clogged. And then if it's not graded properly, that water is just coming right back into your home. So you're looking to see as you're grading correctly. Correct. Okay. You're looking for your doors and your windows. Do they all lock? Are they secure?
Are they cracked? Are they do they functionally right? Man, that just that makes so much sense to just walk around and observe. Like, I'm gonna buy a used car or if I'm gonna rent a car, we do the walk around and we observe. Mhmm. But I've don't think I've ever walked around my house and observed. I'll let Carolyn have some time
to start. Okay, so on the routine maintenance on the checklist, it starts with walking around and observing. That's how I choose to. Yeah, Yeah. And then you brought a checklist with us today. I did. Before that though, exterior keeps water out. Interiors provide comfort. K. Where you make your memories, your that's where you live inside.
On the inside, you do a walk around also. And you think you there's different smells, different sounds. I don't know if to what level people pay attention to that, but I can often hear something that sounds out of place and know that there's an issue there. What might you hear? Smile.
Sometimes you hear the water running through a line and realize there's a leak and uh-huh. Down below. Okay. Or you might hear a squeal in your dryer or a squeal in the when the furnace kicks on, something like that. You might hear you might hear excess noise from outside and realize windows are open. They weren't closed. Almost closed. Looked closed, but not quite. Mhmm. Yeah.
You might smell something burning that nobody's been cooking. Either a bug got caught in a light and got smoked, or maybe there's an outlet going bad. So comfort on the inside, that's your rest, that's your castle. Yes. And so just on the inside to make sure you're comfortable.
I think one of the problems, I'm just speaking for me, is I could walk around in an environment that I've been walking around, breathing in, and there might be stuff going on that I've just it's just what I'm used to. Yes. And so to have someone else come in and maybe hear something for the first time, that's just been white noise to me. Mhmm. I can see it where that'd be really helpful. That can. We also all excel in different areas. Not everybody can hear those things. Of course. Mhmm.
Things that annoy you, though, you know and you see, and they seem to annoy you more. If they don't get repaired, like if there's a loose outlet and you get tired of putting your extension cord into it or something, Every time you do it, you get more annoyed. So those kind of things, you know more than somebody just walking around not being able to see that. Yeah. Yeah.
Anything else? Start with the exterior. Go to the interior. Go go to the interior. And then I do have this maintenance assessment that I created. It's just a walk through to help you check the different things as you walk through the building. It's cool. You started with the foundation. Yes. Well, that's the foundation isn't good.
The rest of the house, there's no reason to do too many more repairs. Right. I tried to do it in that kind of order. Yeah. So you start with foundation, look at the walls and the roof. If the exterior isn't taken care of first, there's no reason to do lots of repairs inside because water is going to get in and just create more work for you. Yeah. Yeah.
So that's the direction I went. Foundation, walls, roof, yard, your exterior stuff. So if you're just start buying a house, there's just so much new to you that everyone else probably knows who's owned a house. There's so many unexpected expenses that I found when I first bought a house I was not prepared for. So this checklist helps bring those things to mind,
what to look for and what to prepare for. That's what I found it to be. We first bought a home, we bought a home off HUD. That was our first home. And so it was a foreclosed home, $80.
And it was a great house, but it needed some help. And thankfully I have a father-in-law who knows how to use tools and isn't afraid to point things out. And Caroline was quick to call father-in-law for any problems. And I can remember in those early times, my cat, I was like, She never asks me to do any And of this it took me a long time to be able to accept it and just be okay with myself. And so Keith has a core principle.
I don't know if they're on his desk. We're at Keith's desk. He's got a core principle, and it's by wisdom. Yes. And so when you're young and you just bought the HUD house, you bought the HUD house because you have no money to buy a normal house.
And so when you're young and you have no money and you need to buy wisdom, I could see where this checklist would help me prioritize where you really need to spend some money and and where you might be able to do some of the stuff yourself. But if if you're starting with the foundation, my guess is no matter what drill you have or what saw you have or what tools you you could have a snap on ratchet set, but you don't know how to do the foundation. And so I can see where this would really help prioritize. And so Micah has provided this list for us. This list is for residential maintenance.
And then also he has one that's souped up, fair enough, for commercial properties. And we have we have several clients who who own several pieces of real estate. So Yes. If you're one of those folks, the commercial piece might be of interest to you. And Mike is happy to get these in your hands, and and you could just reach out to Caleb, c tinergimbalfinancial dot com, and he'll get you one of Micah's maintenance assessments.
Yes. When you finish the exterior, you go for interior. And I started with life safety there, like smoke alarms, security. Maybe you don't want security system. That's okay. Yeah. Maybe you need a doorbell. Things like that. Life safety things. And then it goes to your comforts, your HVAC, your electrical, your plumbing. Thankfully, we live in an age where we can enjoy all those things.
But I wrote down different things to check as you go through those things. It's probably a good idea to look under your sinks once a month, see if there is a leak. Water heaters are another big area. Big expense. How often do you drain your My personal one? I've never drained it. True confessions. I drain a lot of people's Yeah. Because that's what they want.
Okay. In Indiana, though, the scale builds up so fast that it gets almost to be too large of chunks to actually flow out. Yeah. Even if he did it on a regular basis. Yeah. Interesting. But water softeners make a big difference for that. Oh, man. That is so true. When we built our house, I cheeked out on a couple of things.
Caroline wanted a water solver, and I was like, ah, that's you know, we're spending all this money to build the house, you know, an extra thousand dollars. No. We're not gonna do the water solver. That was a big mistake. In Indiana. That was a huge mistake, Micah. And so we added a water softener even recently. It's probably within the last few years. And just having somebody who would have said, hey, Doug. You you gotta do that.
Do you ever consult people and say, hey. This is one where you really need to you really need to spend the money? We do. My first house did not have a water softener. I just chose to live with it And then ended up replacing every faucet in there because they all lined up and quit working. Yeah. Yeah. My house
now has one, and I encourage it a lot. Water softener. Are are there any any other pieces of a of a house that you recommend people have that they might overlook, that they might not spend money on? I mean, a water softener's a pretty easy one. I think of like a garbage disposal maybe. I don't know if that's something that every home has now or not. I do not. You don't have one? I don't have a garbage and I don't have a dishwasher. Well, you don't have to worry about maintaining those.
No. And I don't. But I replace a lot of those for other people I bet. Because they just go bad. Yeah. Well, they're a working part. Yeah. The whole house is a working part. Eventually, you replace most of the parts. Yeah. That is wild. And so kinda like buying a car. The car is is one thing. It's a big purchase, but the ongoing maintenance needs to be a big part of your financial life as well. Need to plan ahead for that. Yeah. If you don't deal with it when it's small, it will become big.
Yeah. That's a good word. Yeah. What else? You have a whole bunch of notes there. I bet there's some good stuff on there. What else do you want to hit and talk about? I think we've covered most of them. We have covered every one of them. For real? Serious. Man, that is You're awesome. That is so cool. Well, we planned that perfectly. And Go ahead. There is one other critical. Dry laundry room.
If you have a dryer That's on the bottom. You need to do a dryer vent. You need to clean the dryer vents. Okay. So at our house, our laundry equipment is in this nice custom made cabinet type thingy, and we just got a new dryer maybe a year ago. I think that was the first time I cleared the the vent to the outside of the house. You're saying that's what I need to clear? Yes. The vent from the dryer to the outside of the house. Okay.
Yeah. They build up with lint, and that becomes quite the fire hazard. So how do you do it? Well, you can hire an expert, or you can go to get a lint brush and put it with a power drill and run it through the the line to clean it. Okay.
But then, if you have an expert do it, they usually have a large vacuum hooked to it, and so they have a lot more force to remove the lint, the buildup. So there's a business that does just that? Yes. Dryer vent cleaning. And they also can do vents for your heating cooling vents.
How often would you have somebody clean their dryer vent? They say once a year. It really depends on your your dryer. Yeah. There there are some people's houses that I go to, their dryers don't collect lint very well, and so we have to, like, every six months. I mean, our washing machines are running twenty four seven at our house. But if your dryer is collecting the lint well and you're able to remove it from your lint trap Yeah. You don't have to do it as often. Yeah. Yeah.
We've got kind of a short Short Oh, those lint makes the difference. Yeah. Yeah. I think it does too. No. That's a good word. Anything else on there that really stands out that you would think is obvious, but like there are people like me who just we don't know what we don't know. Floor drains. Okay. If you have a drain, like, your laundry room in the floor or next to your water heater, often those during the winter months here, it's so dry, those go dry.
Sewer gases come in, and you start getting that bad smell in your house, and you can't figure out where it's coming from. You think you have a backup sewer or something. Okay. You need to just pour water down that drain every month or so during the winter. Yeah. That's a simple very simple fix that I actually get called a lot on. Okay. Yeah. Man, that's good stuff.
There is one or a couple other things. If you just purchased a house, you need to know where the water shutoff is. Oh, yeah. I think that was one of Keith's. Oh, is it?
And and so I only shut it off when I go on vacation. Should I be shutting it off more than that? No. So why do you say you need to know it? If you had a pipe burst or a faucet that won't shut off, toilet overflowing, and you can't get the normal shutoff to work, you need to know where your house shutoff is so you can prevent further damage.
Yeah. I mean So I would say probably over half the homes I go to, people have no idea where their home, their water shutoff is. And it's normally got a bunch of boxes and cleaning equipment stacked right in front of it, if they're anything like our house, if you can find it. Same with the electrical panel. You need to know where that is, and it'd be great if all the breakers were labeled. Yeah. Very few people do that. Have you ever gone into a house and relabeled all of them? Mhmm.
Yes. Yeah. People have asked to do that. Yeah. I know we had to touch ours up with a fresh magic marker because they they were just getting faded. So we had to do that. Labels work really well. Better than magic marker? Printed label. Yeah. Little label maker, and then you can just put it on there. Yeah. Good call. Good call. But knowing where those two things are is pretty critical for a new homeowner. They don't think about it until something goes wrong, and they have no idea where it was.
Right. Right. Okay. Now I I I got a couple of things. I'll question specific. Uh-oh. Leaf guards. I don't own them. That's a tough one. There's a lot of knit companies out there making money doing that. They do help keep the leaves out to a point, But a lot of twigs get caught in them, and then those twigs catch the leaves. And then you look up there, and you see a pile of leaves right at your gutters. So you still have to go up and clean it.
Yeah. Yeah. What about wrapping your AC unit during the winter? Most. Over half of the new furnaces going in in Indiana are heat pumps. So then you don't wrap the outside because that is being used during the winter to provide the heat. Yeah. If it's an old air conditioner or still the only an air conditioner style, you can. I've never done it. Yeah.
I don't think I'd waste the time to do it. Keith asked a question here about he says, does driveway direction matter? What do you think Keith means by that? It matters a lot. Okay.
Tell me about it. I don't remember talking with him about it, but if you have a house where the driveway faces south, the sun is going to melt that snow and ice. If it is facing north, you're going to have ice build up where the house is blocking the sun, and it's always slippery walking up to your house. Yeah. I'm betting that's what he's talking about. Yeah. So even before the purchase, When I looked for a home, I was very specific to not buy a house that was on the south side of the road.
Interesting. Yeah. You know, you're just wondering what inside of the house is on. Is that what you're doing over there? Okay. This blast is fine also. Now I I got one last fun one, then we're gonna wrap this thing up, the bookcase.
One of the things I love about your house is you have a wood shop in your garage. And so you've been able to incorporate something that was once kinda like a a hobby that turned into a business that that is a love. And so when somebody has something that they really enjoy, brings them peace and joy, and they want to create a shop. What's the best way to create a shop? Is it a garage?
Is it a shed? If if somebody wanted to create a wood shop specifically today, what would you tell them to do? Boy, that is If this wood shop, let's stay on wood shop. That's totally dependent on ability also. Ability and income. Yeah. You can go crazy and have 8,000 square foot shop, or you can do it in a little shed with 400 square feet or 200 square feet. And so if they wanted to get started today, what's what what are the couple things they're gonna need? Probably used equipment. Mhmm.
The safest used equipment you can purchase. Yeah. What you need. Probably need a teacher, an instructor, someone to help you through the first couple, and then allow you to just run and be on your own. Yeah. Well, that's good. You need a teacher. I think that's the theme of this whole podcast, Micah, is you need a teacher. You need somebody to walk around with you. Up your own bridge.
Yeah. And then, come inside, take a look, to know which expert to call. Yeah. Well, thanks for coming in. Do reach out to Caleb, check out Micah's checklist. And, if you need to hire an expert, we know the guy for you. So you guys have a great week and thanks for tuning in.