SUMMARY KEYWORDS
bathroom, toilet, paint, plumbing, shower curtain, mildew resistant, replace, mold, light fixture
00:02
Before you start your next do it yourself project, listen to this. You Got This! is on the air. You Got This! is hosted by ABT plumbing electric heat and air owner, Andrew Twidwell, and Rosalie Brown with a helping hand. Here are Andrew and Rosalie.
00:18
This is Andrew Twidwell, owner of abt plumbing electric heat and air, here once again with the show You Got This!, the show of DIY do’s and don’ts. I’m zooming in here with Rosalie Brown. She’s down in lovely LA. And I am at our Auburn office today, and it’s foggy. It’s kind of a trip. foggy and cold. What is it? 50 degrees right now. In Auburn. Yeah, weird. Weather weather down here. I’ve spent so much time up in the mountains in open Grass Valley, Nevada City, where you’re above the fog. And the but I’ve also spent a bunch of time in montara on the coast and Pacifica. It’s kind of like it’s weird to me that there’s like fog in the valley. trips me up. It’s really, really weird. It was just a coastal thing. But yeah, I’m in the fog, and it’s cold. I think they’re in lovely LA.
01:13
Well, so last time we spoke, I think I had the AC on. It was like 89. So that was kind of a bummer. I wasn’t ready for that. But then we get to call their weekend. We agreed on Monday. And now it’s going to be a high of like 68 the next couple days. So Wow. predicted, so we’ll see. I mean, it’s kind of like, yeah, it’s perfect. It’s but it’s that fall spring, you know what I mean? Like it’s like, oh, a moment of summer. And then there’s winter. And then there’s spring I think we’re going to be in spring for a while. I don’t know if I told you is I’m going of all places. So the beach is like 20 minutes from me. But I’m going I’m going all the way to Texas to go to the beach. So
01:56
yeah, very different beach. Right. The Gulf is different than the Pacific coast.
02:01
Flying into Corpus Christi, Texas. So nice. I’m imagining a little tiny, little tiny guy from like Dallas to the coast like little tiny small wings model airplanes. We’re picturing. They only fly a couple of flights in a day. Like going on some very remote spots. Yeah. This feels weird. So I’m actually going to be getting my sun rays at the beach on the Gulf. And it’s kind of weird for me to think about. But yeah, I hope I think I’m going at the right time of year where we’re not going to be like a bunch of humidity. And because that’s the worst, right? Humidity is the worst, you know, because I’ve been to the Midwest and
02:45
South coasts, and it’s tough. I was just Yeah, Tolu Yeah, was pretty humid in saloon. But yeah, I’ve got a guy to actually, I was gonna fly down to LA next week, but I think I’m gonna have one of my technicians do that and go pick up a truck. Do that. Yeah. We had all these great ideas. We’ll be going down there and maybe visiting a shop or two. And then there’s a trade show in Palm Springs. And like, I can pop over to Palm Springs and go to this trade show. And stay here.
03:15
That’s not a bad place to be right now. Good. Tell me here. Good timing.
03:19
time of year. I love it up here. Yeah. Yeah. It’s, it’s good. So yeah, so things are good here. So the business is crazy. And weather is interesting. And we have a good topic to talk about.
03:32
But before we get into that, I just want to say we’re doing the show. We’re recording like March 30. And then this show airs and then the next show, so we’re gonna skip a very important milestone. So I just want to put this out there a couple days before your birthday, you ever broke up and a couple of days? And I just want to say, because honestly, if not for you, The Wizard of plumbing, plumbing, we wouldn’t have a VT so like, yeah. Big milestone.
04:03
Major middle age,
04:04
right, which is again, it goes back to were talking about off off camera. You know, you gotta take it easy, man. You’re not at your age anymore. Not college aged.
04:13
Yeah. So yeah, speaking PCs. I went to a birthday party. A couple of my wife’s friends had they were both turning 60 And oh my gosh, they know how to party. So yeah, rented at a bar. Had a DJ. My ears are still ringing because like loud music, you know, really loud music trip. And then one of my one of them, whatever friends has nine kids. And so she’s got kids ranging from like, you know, late 20s to like teenager, and they’re like five of them there. And the other other girl had her two kids there and they were just their friends boyfriends or girlfriends. Oh my goodness. They were they were fun.
04:53
The youngins but you can open bar, adult children you and I I both know that it’s kind of time to pass the torch like you you can enjoy but you cannot keep up because they’re living a different life, man. They are not waking up to the same realities that we are okay.
05:11
They were dancing hard. They’re fun. It was a it was a fun time.
05:17
But now you’re middle agent takes three days to catch back up.
05:21
Yeah, I think it’s more hours, man, it took a long time to
05:27
get back. Yeah, that’s my disclaimer. First they switch. So show really like changed? It’s because you’re still recovering from a party. Right? That’s my disclaimer. Very clever segue.
05:39
Yeah. Well, that kind of segues into Yeah, this. Well, fortunately, though, I wasn’t utilizing this but for that reason. But spring, spring cleaning and spring projects, good time of year to start working on the bathroom. We’ve hit a lot of these subjects before topics before but some of them are new. And a lot of them are just kind of good to go over. Because these are some pretty easy DIY stuff. Or if you get in over your head, you can get somebody out there to help you with them. But the bathroom is, you know, the bath bathrooms and kitchens are where you’re going to see the best return for your block in terms of remodeling dollars. The other thing is if you fix up your bathroom, I notice on our left, we were just we stayed over down to the Bay Area. And both my wife and I missed our new bathroom. So that was kind of interesting, because we have a really nice bathroom now and it made us want to go home, you know, so, nests. So it’s kind of it’s kind of nice when you fix up your bathroom to make it make a little spa like and can enjoy it. But and there’s here’s some easy ways to do that, that don’t cost you as much money. Yeah, as much money as we spent on our rich model. But you can still do some stuff and make it feel a lot nicer. One of the the easiest thing to do is remove and thoroughly clean any Windows screen so your bathroom can welcome in fresh, clean breeze. And I can’t tell you how often I’ve seen Windows screens that are, you know, people leave the window a crack open and it’s just like lint stuck to that one little space right on the window screen. And they pop out pretty easy. And it just hose it off and reinstall it take your five minutes and clean the window. It make does make a big difference. And that reminds me because then my wife spit on me like, we really need to clean the windows. Okay, okay, I’m on that. That’s kind of my, my, my job outside is my job. Second, relatively easy one I say that with with a caveat because this toilet, it’s replacing your toilet. And toilets can be one of those. Ironically, one of the simplest things to work on. Yet one of the most difficult things to work on. We’ve had a lot a lot of callbacks because of different products and inside of the toilets, not working with other products. And also replacing a toilet. It is relatively easy. As long as everything is there and installed correctly to begin with, and isn’t so old and broken that you’ve got to build stuff. But replacing an old toilet with a new one. Pretty easy project. And we’ve talked about this before. You know if you’ve got a toilet that’s, you know, really old, I mean, it says here replaceable Waterhog new toilet. But we really haven’t been put installing water hogging toilets for I think 30 years now. So if you’ve got a toilet that’s still water, hard things, vintage things old, you know, driving a 30 year old car, I imagine. Or if you do, it’s sitting in the garage, and it’s a weekend driver. You’re relying on this on a daily basis. So replace that with a new toilet. The other thing is even and some people will hold on to if they do have one because it has so much water and it really flushes Well, right. And low flow toilets got a bad rap when they first came out because they were just designed, they just learned how to design them to keep up with 1.6 gallons per flush. So it took a little while for the engineers to figure out a way to make it work properly. Now we’ve got toilets that will flush with a gallon of water. And they’re doing way better than even the ones that I was installing 3020 years ago, the engineering has gotten so much better. So even if you’ve got a toilet that isn’t 1.6 but it clogs up every once in a while. Go out and buy a new toilet and you can get some nice looking toilets. And then I say that I was looking toilet how nice but you can there’s some with some decorative styling and can really can change the room. The other thing you can do with a toilet is you know, you can put one that’s a little higher. So it’s like ADA height, so it’s a little easier to get off of which is Nice as we get older, we’ve got one of each in our house because I installed one in the master bathroom. But my wife’s only five, two. So she didn’t like the higher toilet because her feet were dangling kind of thing. So I put a regular toilet sized toilet in one in the master and the taller one on the guest. But you could do that you can have the higher toilet, which makes it look, you know, as we age, it makes it easier to get off the toilet. But if you’re short, they’re not always the best thing.
10:31
Yeah, that’s funny, I just want to talk about so I want to say, trying to account old I am and when this would have happened. So I believe my my dad built the house that we that I grew up in, I think he built that house in like, like 1969 1970 I want to say so, you know, was around before I came into the world. But my folks had this really nice, you know, my dad was a custom home builder, and just did a bang up job. I mean, it’s beautiful house and my parents had this beautiful master bath and in the toilet that my dad chose or my mom, whoever, it had a day already built into it, which you don’t really see. I don’t think much I never I remember even as a kid like going to other people’s houses and be like, Oh, they have a normal toilet because I have this like a day built into there. And I just remember,
11:28
but it wasn’t it wasn’t in the toilet. Sofer was a separate fixture. I feel like it was because it during that time, we were putting in separate fixtures for total for the days. It was it was kind of a rage for a while
11:39
you know you might be right, it might have been a separate fixture. I just remember thinking that every bathroom I was gonna go into outside of my I was gonna have this big day, and then never and then realizing
11:51
they were big for high end homes back in the day. But now we do have the day toilet seats that you can install. And there yeah, there’s a couple Kohler makes a really nice one total mix, really nice one, the Japanese are kind of fanatical about their bathrooms. So like totos has heated seats, remote control, wireless remote control, a fan, a filtered fan, heated water, and a one that comes out and goes back to that shoots the water. So it’s all you know, very
12:28
high. Can I just say this, though? I know. I’m crazy. I know I’ve read that, right? Because it’s like, just like that’s a throwback, right? Like, you just don’t see it that much anymore. But honestly, if I had a lot of money, the amount of time I spent in the bathroom or want to spend in the bathroom is so perhaps different than my ancestors. I don’t want a bunch of like fancy technology in the bathroom. I feel like the bathroom is like you know what you’re there to do you know how to do it, and then do your business. Get out, get it done and get out and like enjoy the rest of your house. So for me, I probably wouldn’t be spending a lot of high end money in the in, especially on a toilet because it’s got like one function. But even if it had, even if I had a bad day, I don’t think I would be in my bathroom that much longer. But it’s interesting how people really what you said a little bit earlier though. Like, look, if you there are people that are going to invest the money in the bathroom and those little extra things because, look, it’s your house, your home a lot, you want to really enjoy it. I just personally wouldn’t pour my money into that, you know, a toilet that knows what to do. I feel like toilet knows. It doesn’t need a personality. But but it is fascinating, right? How people spend their money. I mean, you know,
13:38
I don’t know that my parents are a big thing.
13:39
I don’t know that my parents needed a birthday. But I they had one and it was kind of I think it was being fancy. My dad was like, I’m fancy. My house was fancy. I got a fancy toilet, you know, so we got fancy. But I’ve lived most of my life without fancy when it comes to back.
13:57
You get used to the United States doesn’t have a good day. Yeah, that’s the United States. But you definitely see what are we talking about toilet. So the toilet is an easy, relatively easy thing to upgrade and install. And there’s different options for you. And yeah, you can’t get a bidet toilet seat, you do need power for them. So that’s one other thing like on our remodel, I put I took I put outlets behind the toilets, just in case we ever do decide to do that. We don’t have them installed. Anyway,
14:26
I knew you weren’t that fancy. I knew you were facing but you weren’t that
14:29
we haven’t gone there yet. Project Number three on this list is brightening up the bathroom with new light fixtures. And again, you know, lighting is you’re dealing with electricity. So again, this is for entertainment value. You can’t replace a lighting fixture, a light fixture. It is relatively easy. But please if you do decide to do it, make sure you know what you’re doing. Because if you’re dealing with electricity, we just had our safety meeting about electricity and I’ve known people that have died from electrocution. And so it’s one of the things you you want to be aware of Have His you don’t want to be touching wires and get get a shock. And we’ve joked about that our parents, our fathers didn’t really think much of us getting, it was kind of fun for them to watch.
15:12
OSHA didn’t believe in child labor laws. So it’s a different time now,
15:17
yes, different times let’s 70s anymore. So if you do want to do that, that is a relatively easy way to, to change the look of the bathroom is just changing the light fixture. Or change the light fixture or even changing the mirror at the same time. Some really easy things. Oh, speaking of the mirror, building a frame around the mirror is a really big thing right now too. So if you’ve got one of those frameless, just painted glass mirrors on the wall, getting some nice wood trim and putting around it can really completely change the look of the bathroom. And then you’re talking about a couple hours worth of work and some paint and brings it up to date, because the just the sheet of glass mirrors are really kind of not something we install very much anymore. Another number project, it’s easy, and then I’ve done this multiple times is Stop stuffing stuff in the back of the drawers. So one of the things that happens in the bathroom is we tend to store a lot of stuff in the vanity, and any kind of cabinets inside of there. Pull that stuff out, figure out what’s in there, go through the stuff, I think that old stuff, get rid of it, you’re gonna save a unit gain so much more square footage for putting stuff away. It’s amazing. You know, what a project like that how much more storage you can get, because you’ll probably have stuff I know when we do it with you five stuff that’s been sitting there for three to five years, and you’re never going to use it. If you haven’t used it in the last two years, you’re probably not going to use it tomorrow. So get rid of it. Give yourself some more space. You can even put in shelves to get a little more little more space in those cabinets. But if you’re putting it underneath the sink, be careful because if you put a shelf underneath the drain and you need to need to work on the drain, it’d be in the way and it can be expensive for difficult to remove it to actually work on stuff. So make sure it’s not blocking any of the plumbing. We’ve talked about this before too. But this is this is like near and dear to my heart because you toss out that worn out moldy shower curtain and curtain liner. And also while you’re at it, new towels and a rug. You know those things are pretty inexpensive. One of our rentals I had to we had two guys living in it to 20 year old dudes. And oh my god, the shower curtain was orange. The mold was orange and the corners of the of the shower. Orange mold. So yeah, we rip everything out sprayed it all down with bleach completely cleaned it up, replaced it all. But yeah, get rid of it. Just if it’s got any mold on it, get rid of it. They’re cheap. 12 bucks, you’re getting the shower liner.
17:59
Hey, you’re sour linen, you can get for like two bucks. It’s the shower. Yeah. Like, I have spare shower curtain liners because I just pick it up when it comes to store. So like, hey, things get weird, I just take some
18:11
minifigure gross just just just replace all investments of investment. Yeah. And it’s gonna make you enjoy your bathroom. Not much more, because it’s not nasty. And it’s like we talked about before about like the nose blind or you start not noticing it. But hopefully this was the show that will make you notice these things. So you take care of us. So when that friend does come over and happens to use your master bathroom, they’re not grossed out.
18:36
It’s because people notice stuff like that. And then your friends talk.
18:39
Yeah, we notice a lot more in other people’s homes than we do in our own homes. Let’s be honest. Get colorful in the bathroom, repaint your bathroom, using Mildew resistant paint, like perma white. Those are some great to completely change the look of the bathroom by putting new paint and you’re talking about a small space. So really, theoretically, no, like I used to paint so it doesn’t take me very long. But you could have a bathroom painted in a day and an afternoon almost because there’s not a lot of square footage in there. So that’s a really good way of updating your bathroom. painting the walls. Can I see the painting the vanity? The vanity, you can completely change? Yes, I
19:21
see a question real quick. So you said Mildew resistant paint? Yeah. So is there actually a product on the market that is known as Mildew resistant paint or is that
19:31
they use this permanent weight from zis Zinsser z i n s s e r is one of the manufacturers but there’s there’s more than one manufacturer of Mildew resistant paint, and it’s just an additive they put into the paint. You can even buy the additive to put it into the paint. So it will it’s not going to stop mold but it will help resist it. If you’ve got a really wet, damp environment, it can overrun the stuff that’s kind of wiping the mold spores out But for the most part, it’ll keep it a lot cleaner. So and just painting, man, it just changes. I mean, obviously, we all know when you just put a coat of paint on, it completely changes a room. And in the bathroom, you’re talking about such a small space, it’s really easy to pay. It’s hard to paint a vanity, because you’re dealing with hardware and stuff like that hinges on the handles and things like that drawers and doors. But that also can really change the look of a bathroom. And while we’re on Oh, no, this is a good one. I was gonna move on to the next one. But I like this one. You know, the fan inside the bathroom. Those things are pulling air out of the bathroom and exhausting to the outside, right, because it’s, we affectionately call them fart fans, because that’s what they’re doing. But they also get rid of mildew and stuff, they get rid of water vapor. But they get nasty. I mean, if you got a fan that’s been installed for 20 years, chances are, it’s really dirty inside there. So turn the switch off, pull the plate off of it, look inside there, a lot of times the the fan itself will just be plugged inside the housing, there’s an outlet, unplug it, and then clean every all the surfaces off. It’ll take you maybe an hour with a ladder. But it really helped the longevity of it. Plus, this is not nasty. And you don’t have like little bits of lint dropping on you when you’re in the bathroom. Because it will accumulate so much that will look like a bathroom mat. I’ve seen them just caked with dust, you know,
21:32
kind of reminds me, you know your ceiling fans, no one ever looks up, right. But if you have pets, and you’re on your AC, don’t forget to look up because to me, I look up no matter how often I cleaned the ceiling fan. I’m like, you know, it’s just constantly grabbing stuff. And I’m thinking, oh, man, so your bathroom fan is like that. But times I would say a lot more, you know, a lot more
21:54
behind you know, it’s behind that, that white cover, so you don’t necessarily see it. Yeah, but you will notice a difference when you clean it up. Yeah, and it looks like we got time for a couple more. So I’m gonna go with change changing the hardware on in your bathroom. This is huge. I mean, if you’ve got any talking building houses in the 70s if you got the old oak towel racks and oak and brass and stuff like that from the 70s and 80s Time to re renew those have never came back. Those were good for a finite amount of time. Some things come back, those never came back. So changing the hardware toss you know, it’s really relatively expensive couple 100 bucks, you can change all the hardware in your bathroom towel hooks, towel bars, handles on the on the vanity hinges on the vanity, changing all the one metal one look. So like if you’ve got Chrome, go all chrome. If you’ve got well Rubbed Bronze gold oil rubbed bronze, and you can find some nice stuff. You can find some really nice stuff at a local hardware stores online at the plumbing supply houses and it’s not going to cost you an arm and leg and it’s something that definitely DIY it will change the look of your bathroom. And
23:09
you know where else you can find some good stuff is that the restore if your community has yester which Nevada County I know for sure does. And I’m pretty sure Placer County does as well. The Restore has got some really cool stuff. You just never know if you’re gonna buy some gems. Yeah, yeah,
23:22
it’s that’s more of a shopping trip. Because yeah, you lucked out because most of the stuff is, is of that vintage 70s and 60s, but you can find some good stuff as well. Wow. Okay, that that makes her show. So cool. Hoo.
23:38
Okay, so if you have any plumbing, electrical, ah bacne
23:42
like deer in the headlights.
23:44
You can call ABC plumbing, electric heat mayor at 53023090925302309092 Awesome. Visit us online. You can at easiest att.com Find us on Facebook and we post some cool stuff there. And I think that’s kind of all the cool places to find this. Yeah, like
24:04
the last tip on how to find a woodstove behind the wall. I mean, that’s huge. So yeah, we got some really good tips there. So check us out on Facebook. Anyway, thanks for listening, and we’ll catch you guys next week.
24:14
Bye. Thanks, Andrew. Thanks, Rosalie. Now let’s get that project started. You got this. We’ll be back next Friday morning at nine o’clock on Cancio Newstalk 830