Building Your Dream House, Things you need to know with Dennis from Builder Brigade

April 4, 2023

79. Building Your Dreamhouse, Things you need to know with Dennis from Builder Brigade

In this engaging episode of "Tell Us How to Make It Better," host George Siegal speaks with Dennis, the man behind the wildly popular Builder Brigade videos. They share expert insights and first-hand stories to guide you through the process of building or buying a new home. Dive into the importance of early decision-making, how communication between homeowners and builders can make or break the project and learn the concept of using a checklist to avoid issues and save money. Dennis also shares his experiences transitioning from a construction and Army background to helping people navigate the overwhelming world of DIY projects.

Discover why it's crucial to address concerns right away, discussing communication expectations, and being present during construction. Learn about unique features and insulation types, as well as important factors to consider when customizing your dream home. Listen to practical advice on prioritizing your vision and preparing for resale value while avoiding the potential dangers of improper construction.

Topics discussed:

- Overwhelming experience of building/buying a new home

- Importance of early decision making

- Communication between homeowners and builders

- Using a checklist to avoid problems and save money

- Unique home features and insulation types

- Resale considerations

- Addressing issues and potential dangers of improper construction

Here are some ways to follow and contact or follow Dennis:

Social Media:

IG: https://www.instagram.com/builder_brigade/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BuilderBrigade

Important information from Homeowners Be Aware:

Here are ways you can follow me on-line:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/homeownersbeaware/

Website: https://homeownersbeaware.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-siegal/

If you'd like to reach me for any reason, here's the link to my contact form:

https://homeownersbeaware.com/contact

Here's the link to the trailer for the documentary film I'm making: Built to Last: Buyer Beware.

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Thanks for listening!

Transcript

George Siegal: 0:00

Hi everybody. I'm George Siegal. Welcome to the Tell Us How to Make It Better podcast. If you've ever gone through the new home buying process, you know how overwhelming it can be. Things start off smoothly, but then you have to make decisions, and if you don't make them, the builder makes them for you. There are also numerous things along the way that you might be able to do to a home to make it better, but you never thought of them. It's much easier and much more affordable if you figure this out early rather than late. And as most buyers know, builders charge you a change order fee for anything you change during the process and that can get expensive. My guest today is a guy I came across on Instagram and the first thing I noticed was he had almost 300,000 people following him for his Builder Brigade videos. So I started watching, and I can see why he has so many followers. He shows you things you might wanna do or should be doing to your home, and it can make the home building process go much more smoothly. I'm George Siegal, and this is the Tell Us How to Make It Better podcast. Your home is probably your biggest investment, and every week we show you warning signs and solutions to help you protect it. Tell Us How to Make it Better is partnering with The Readiness Lab, the home for podcasts webinars and training in the field of emergency and disaster services. Dennis, thank you so much for joining us today. I really appreciate your time.

Dennis Comstock: 1:26

Yeah, thank you very much for having me. I appreciate it.

George Siegal: 1:29

Now I love your videos. Uh, as somebody who has built several houses and and bought houses, I always have things come back to bite me, and, and it's bad when they do. And you go, gosh, why didn't I think of that? So first of all, how did you think of this idea? Because it is, it is great.

Dennis Comstock: 1:47

Exactly what you're saying right now. It's, uh, had a house built and there was, during the process and then even after, even right now, yesterday, it's like I'm always finding things where I'm like, man, I wish I would've done that. And um, now I have a community that I can reach out to and then they tell me the things that they found. So it's just a never ending list that just keeps growing and growing. Cause there's so many things to consider.

George Siegal: 2:12

I think when people sign up with a builder, For the building process in the beginning, it starts out like a very loving, friendly relationship. But there's competing interests here, as I've discovered. They're in this to make money. They're not necessarily into it for what's best for you, the home buyer. So how can these videos help smooth that process out? Because it's a, it can be a rocky one.

Dennis Comstock: 2:37

For sure. Yeah. It's, uh, I think more often than not you're gonna have, it gets a little, it makes the relationship a little bit rocky by the end of the build. There's just so much going on and, and honestly it is just, it's a miracle that homes get built with if you really kind of consider every single piece that has to come together and all the different people who have to work together. And that's facilitated by the builder. So I'm a huge fan of builders. I mean, I just think they're doing insane work to try to organize all this together. And when it comes to the homeowner, I think the biggest issue that people are seeing is communication. So the, the, the homeowner has this grand vision in their head of exactly what they want and they're kind of not really knowing it, but they're thinking that the builder knows exactly what they want. And the miscommunication there is when they start to have trouble.

George Siegal: 3:25

That could be, that could be huge and, and I think people get the wrong idea when they go buy an existing house or you walk into a model house, something that's finished. But there's a million things that have to be done with new construction that most people don't think about. And if you don't think about 'em in advance, then you have to pay for it later with change orders. So what's the best way for somebody to come into the process and tackle this daunting challenge?

Dennis Comstock: 3:52

Well that's, I mean, that's funny because that's kind of like what started, everything that I'm doing is it all started from a checklist that I made for my friends who were building around the same time, and they're a little bit behind me. So I'm thinking all these problems that I'm running into now, let me make a checklist for them and now that's kind of like my solution to this problem right now is my checklist. So I sell that checklist to homeowners and then those homeowners builders and contractors reach back to me and give me feedback, and I just keep improving it, you know, send out the updated copy to the previous customers, and that's my solution right now. And that checklist is things to consider. All the insane, massive amounts of things to think about when it comes to what you want to choose for your house. It's not just paint. There's just so many things to choose. It's, it's outta control. It really is.

George Siegal: 4:44

It is. And you know, when I, when I first saw that and I, I went to your website and I go, oh, you mean I have to pay for these? And then I thought, this is cheaper than a change order. I mean, to have this list could save you. I'm not on commission here, but as somebody who's been down this road, you could save a lot of money by knowing exactly the direction you want to go in.

Dennis Comstock: 5:01

Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, and it's, uh, I really am, I guess I don't really like go crazy trying to advertise the thing because I think it's just kind of doing it itself. People are recommending it to other people and, um, yeah, it's just, uh, it's just the only way that I can see to just kind of put everything into one location. I'm also working on a web app to where it's essentially the checklist, but it's on the web. I haven't really mentioned it publicly yet, but, um, it's getting close to finish, so I'm hoping to get that going and maybe that'll make it even easier for the homeowners.

George Siegal: 5:34

Now, do you have a building or construction background? What were you doing? Cuz this looks time consuming now. What were you doing before this?

Dennis Comstock: 5:41

Yeah, so well, now this is my full-time thing. So before my construction background was pretty minimal. Like I, I was framing houses in Florida and I did that for a few years. And then I joined the Army, completely unrelated skills in the Army, and I did that for quite a few years and did some contracting work for those guys. And then while I was doing contracting work, is when I built my house and when I was having the built I'm always just building stuff, right? And I have that little bit of construction knowledge so I know how all the trades work together and I'm thinking, man, my house is gonna be legit. I'm not gonna miss anything. It's gonna be amazing. And it was just problem after problem and I'm thinking, man, if that's happening to me, you know, I know guys at work who don't like hanging their own pictures on the wall, so I know that they would have a lot of trouble trying to go through this process. So that's me trying to like fill that void, I guess, and solve that problem.

George Siegal: 6:34

What part of the country did you build your house in?

Dennis Comstock: 6:36

So I'm in Georgia and then I was framing in Florida.

George Siegal: 6:40

So, you know, I mean there are problems that people here if they don't think about, it's not just the cosmetic stuff, it can be life threatening stuff, and there's a lot of details and things that people need to ask for. To me, one of the biggest ones is concrete block versus wood. And I see a lot of houses here. I live near the water in Tampa and I see people saving a little money by putting wood on the second. Or, you know, just areas where they're cutting corners. What are your thoughts on how much safety you should put into the, the build of your house? I mean, just saying it's built to code to me is not enough. It, it needs to be safe.

Dennis Comstock: 7:15

I agree with you. I don't think building to code, I mean, I guess that's just personal preference, right? It's, um, yeah, you can build to code, but you can look at a wood structure and be like, all right, if some, if a crazy storm came ripping through here, do you feel comfortable? Like that thing's gonna hold up or you drive by a blockhouse or an I C F, like, you know, solid poured walled house and look at that house and go like, where would I want my family? It's, I mean, I guess that's, it's more of a personal preference and I'm with you. I'm a huge fan, especially growing up in Florida's. I came to Georgia and I was like, whoa, all the houses here are wood frame. That's odd because all you see down there is block, so. It is a little bit of a transition even here. Um, I see a lot of guys who are building concrete, like safe rooms in the middle of their house, so they, so they do have a place to go when things get a little bit crazy. So if you're not gonna go like full blown, like block style house, I think just having a safe room is a good idea and I can nerd out on that. Like I'm a little bit of a prepper, uh, you know, deep down. So I have to kind of make sure I don't go too far off the deep end with it.

George Siegal: 8:21

Sure. But it's amazing how many people don't think about it. They get wooed by the granite countertops, maybe the nice backyard, the the fancy wood flooring that was put in or the appliances, and they're not saying, well, how was the roof bracketed to the walls? How was the front door constructed? I mean, I think that knowing the safety features should probably be the number one thing that people are concerned about.

Dennis Comstock: 8:44

Yeah, I mean, I'm, I'm with you. And then that's the beauty of like building brand new is you can kind of have a say in all that thing. Like, for instance, so in my house I wasn't, I, I was tight on my budget. We were getting near the end and it was just like, I'm outta money. I'm just trying to, just cuz you want all these extra things, right? And I'm thinking, all right, I need a storm, sort of like safe room. And we're not really dealing with hurricanes like you guys are in Florida. So the best thing I could come up with was a safe room instead of my family going in the bathtub. Like they would tell us, you know, back in the day to, you know, survive a storm. We just took, I got some, uh, two by six, eight inches on center with three quarter inch plywood nailed all the way up. So in a worst case scenario, my family has like a good solid place to go and it's not gonna, you know, be the safest place in a F five tornado. But, you know, historically that's not a concern here in Georgia. So I'm just, you just do what you can and being able to build new construction. You can kind of come up with these ideas and, you know, build it per your specification.

George Siegal: 9:47

We learned that in, in making my documentary film The Last House Standing because some of the best built houses are by Habitat for Humanity, and those are not expensive houses, but they put, first of all, they care. They put detail into things. The people that are there want to be there, but they go those extra steps and how the, the nails they put in, how they bracket the roof, those little details can make a major.

Dennis Comstock: 10:11

Oh yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. And, and you, I wouldn't have thought that Habitat for Humanity, I would've thought the opposite. That it maybe wouldn't have had as much quality because it's one of the, it's on, its, you know what I mean? It's just not the regular process that you would go to getting a house.

George Siegal: 10:27

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Dennis Comstock: 11:29

So I'll tell you from my perspective, I was here every single day cause I, I just wanted to make sure and, and for good reason because there were some issues I caught that were, that you cannot fix after the fact, right? Like, here's a crazy one. I showed up and my wife was telling me, I'll just give you this quick little story because it's kind of insane and this is a good reason why it is important to show up and just double check and make sure everything's right. We show up to the job site and we just got started and the slabs poured and my wife's looking and she's like, man, this just looks really small. This doesn't seem, seem to look right, and I'm telling her, You don't know what you're talking about, just relax, you know? Just give these guys a minute. The last thing I'm gonna do is call the builder out here. Two days go by and we're looking for the house plans, asking for the builder. Hey, can you send me the, the finalized house plans? We don't really have 'em yet. And they're already, you know, they're moving on the build. And I come out there, uh, the next day and here's the drawings flapping in the wind. I'm like, oh, great. Here they are. So we run over and look at the plans they're building the wrong house. I mean, we are moving forward. The house is wrong. They've got the, the slab being poured, so they had to make a bunch of adjustments and get it right. You know, it didn't come out of our pocket, but we, we wouldn't have caught that. I mean, the way that we structured our home build, we probably would've, if we didn't like the, the layout of the house, we would've had to go with a different house.

George Siegal: 12:58

And that kind of amplifies one of the things I always talk about is, is to make sure people have everything in writing. When I was building a house, we wanted these two large windows up on the top of the living room to let light in because there was a patio that it would've been a really dark room, and they put the wrong size in. And I called the builder out on it and I said, you have the wrong size windows here. There's not gonna be much light. And he goes, those are right. I'm the builder. I know what I'm talking about. So he pulls out the contract and he goes, you're right. Those are the wrong size windows. So they had to tear 'em out. The other ones, if you are not on top of your game, you can't necessarily rely on them catching everything.

Dennis Comstock: 13:35

Yeah. Nobody cares as much as you do. Right. It's your hard-earned money going into your house. So, I mean, I'm with you. I think you definitely gotta have your hands in it and you can kind of like judge it by the builder. Right. The builder just seemed to be. You're not gonna be quote unquote, like micromanaging as much. You're gonna feel, you know, like you're in good hands. So I think that comes into it. And um, and when you talk about like having it in writing, I got a lot of homeowners who they'll make their own a specific email account and run all communications through an individual like dedicated email account. And anything that they talk about is in writing for that exact instance that you're talking about. You know, windows, it can get pretty crazy for sure.

George Siegal: 14:16

It does, and it's, it's hard to sue builders in, in a couple of the states I've lived in, they have a big lobby group that makes sure that building codes stay down there and it, and so you can only take 'em to arbitration. I don't think any builder wants stand up in front of a jury trial, but what, what I find interesting is the superintendent is also really important because they're the ones watching the guys on a regular basis. The guys are gals that are out there working, and when I've seen houses that have had flood damage and they tear open the walls, you see food wrappers inside, you see beer cans. You see to me, a job site. How you see that job site maintained, tells a lot about what's going on. What are you, what are your thoughts on that when you, when you see that?

Dennis Comstock: 14:54

Oh, I'm all about it? Yeah, I mean, that's a, that's a big one. And some people say that you shouldn't just be showing up on the job site, but if I'm about to throw down a bunch of money on, you know, On a house, I wanna see what the other house in the area are looking like. And that is a very good indicator of what you're gonna get, right? One is you call the builder and they don't call you back for three days. Well, if they're not gonna get back to you on the initial reach out and it's gonna take 'em three days, how long do you think they're gonna take to get back to you when they're like, In the middle of building. You know, that's one good indicator. And the other one being, when you go to that job site, if it's outta control super messy, then that's a problem. One thing I always tell people is if you go there and they just got done framing a house like in the neighborhood, and you see just framing scraps all over the place, that's okay. Now when you go out to that job site and they're in the middle of framing and you're seeing like trades back, like, let's say they're in, they're in Sheetrock, right? And you're seeing, you're seeing HVAC material, you're seeing framing material, you're seeing electrical and plumbing, all still laying around. That's a problem. That means that there was never any cleanup after those trades. So that would definitely be a sign to, you know, watch out for.

George Siegal: 16:06

Yeah, there was a post on Next Door recently here showing a house on Davis Islands that was being built. And the, the lot was a mess. There was trash everywhere. And my feeling is when they're showing you stuff outside, that's a mess, then it makes you wonder what's going on inside that's a mess. And you know, I've had posts that have been, we've opened up to put a camera inside and you see where it's not bolted down, uh, where a roof is leaked and you see that they ran out of protective water barrier and they used paper to, to finish it.

Dennis Comstock: 16:36

Oh, no.

George Siegal: 16:37

I mean these things you, I'm like a needle in the haystack for problems, I guess. But it, to me, it just highlights that you really have to be on your game. And I think that's one of the beauties that things I like about your videos is it just brings things up you don't think about and, and you wanna find a builder that's open to communicating and wanting to work with you. If they don't, you should probably just go the other way.

Dennis Comstock: 16:58

Yeah. Yeah, I agree. And yeah, and so I, I started a Facebook group and I just kind of opened it up and, and dropped a couple posts in there. And that thing has blown up. I mean, there's like 40,000 members in there and some of the stuff that's being posted is pretty shocking. I mean, it goes right off of everything that you're saying. They're running into those problems and it, and it kind of helps them to drop the problems in there and then for everyone to just scream at the top of their lungs, like, dude, that is wrong, and you should get it fixed immediately. Because when you're having a house built, you kind of get in this position to where you're like, I don't know if I should bring this up to the builder. I don't know. You don't wanna micromanage 'em. You don't know if they're already planning on fixing that. So I like the Facebook group because they can just kind of go in there, drop a picture, and then get a sanity check and make sure they're not crazy for saying something to the builder.

George Siegal: 17:50

Sure. That's, that's, that's a great idea. And, and what you find is, If you don't say something after the fact, it's too late. There's a bunch of stories that have been, you can see 'em on YouTube with DR horton and a lawsuit that's going on against them from a, an entire community that was built poorly. And a, a home is peop is likely people's biggest investment. And it's heartbreaking. Oh yeah. When you see the walls caving in the, the mold, the leaks, the windows that aren't put in, right. I mean, it's such a personal process that it's better to be on top of it and blow the whistle than it is to be a victim.

Dennis Comstock: 18:24

Yeah. Yeah, it's it. There might be some uncomfortable conversations, but I'm always gonna lean towards that uncomfortable conversation and a very, it's gonna be rare that you're gonna be the worst guy on the job. You know what I mean? These builders have to talked to a lot of homeowners, and I think they're kind of used to these questions. So I think if, if it's bothering you, definitely, or you might think it's a concern. Just bring it up to 'em and you can even, even if you're concerned about that, maybe have that weekly meeting to where you're not texting 'em every single day or however you're communicating. You just hit 'em up every Friday. You meet 'em out there on the job site. You say, Hey, these are the things, and you can go down your list. And then that makes you feel better knowing that you're not bothering them because it's your dedicated time. And having that dedicated time is probably something worth mentioning when you're negotiating with the builder before you sign the contract. Like, Hey, can we have a dedicated time to meet, to discuss some of those, those issues that you're talking about?

George Siegal: 19:21

Yeah. If they don't wanna make the time for you, I, I would buy another house. I, I would run away from that. Now, when I was watching your videos, there's some that are, are fun and some that are scary. You had a fail video with a ceiling beam that fell, that wasn't installed properly. Tell me about that. That is, that's pretty scary.

Dennis Comstock: 19:39

It is. Yeah. So that was a, so it's supposed to be like a decorative beam in, you're seeing that a lot in like living rooms and kitchens where they're running that, that beam, and they're just using drywall anchors to attach it to the ceiling joist, which that's not what you want. You want to install it directly to that, that joist there and not, not running into the drywall. It's just kind of ridiculous. But that was a homeowner who sent me those, so I'm getting those fairly often. They'll DM me some of these, these fails that they're running into, and it is, man, it's definitely scary.

George Siegal: 20:13

Yeah, somebody could get killed from that. We had, uh, shelves installed in our garage, you know, the ones from the ceiling. Mm-hmm. And they didn't install those properly. So when I went up there and put weight in it, it almost came down just for me putting my hands on it. I mean, when you're doing things that could kill you or your family, you really have to be careful with things like beams and stuff like that. How would you, how could they have been more on top of it and not found that out? I mean, I guess there's some things that you just have to hope they're doing right.

Dennis Comstock: 20:40

Yeah. I mean if you're, I mean if you, cause if you just don't know you don't know. Like if you dunno that that's how they're supposed to be attached directly to the ceiling joist then there's no way for you to know. So that, I guess that's, I try to make videos to show that, um, yeah, that is it. It gets tricky. It really just comes on. You got, you got, you have to put some trust in, in the people who are doing work on your house for sure.

George Siegal: 21:03

I've seen hurricane brackets installed upside down. Um, you know, just stuff that makes you wanna pull your hair out now for sure. The cool stuff that you had. There's a, but I, I haven't seen this one. You asked if people liked it, the bath shower combo that had the half door on a hinge. Yeah, I would think, depending on who's using that, that could be a real, uh, challenge. They have 'em in Europe, but maybe there's a reason we don't see a lot of those.

Dennis Comstock: 21:26

Yeah, so that was the first time I've saw, I've seen one in a house and I love it. And I, and that homeowner style man, she killed it at her house. She has like a modern look to her house and it's just really awesome. Um, Yeah, I think I like that half door. And like the comments we're saying, that half style, like shower door with the hinge, it is very common in Europe and some people are complaining that some of the water was was leaking there. And I'm not sure that could have been because there wasn't like a seal there. I see that it was just regular shower doors. People don't put like a plastic seal there so the water just comes out. So I'd be curious to see how that inop operation would work. But I definitely like the look of it for sure.

George Siegal: 22:07

I would tell people if you're, you have teenagers or younger kids, that would not be the right one to have because they are not gonna, they'll be hanging on it. Only bad things can happen. Now, insulation is a huge deal and you show different types in your video. I happen to be a, a fan of the spray insulation to create that barrier in the attic in case water gets in. What, what do you find? What do you like in houses?

Dennis Comstock: 22:31

And this is just my personal preference. Cause like I said, I'm not a builder and, and I can't give anyone recommendations for like a nationwide, this is the number one. Um, but for me, especially like here in Georgia, I had a home with a spray foam insulation, just a open cell spray foam in the attic. And I was living in Savannah and I, that attic was shocking. You go up there and it's just cool as a cucumber. And, and I mean, that's where all of your you know, equipment is being housed for, for the hvac, and I just think it just makes too much sense to put that up there. So me, myself, I like doing the, the spray foam in the attic and then the walls would be the bat. Like maybe some rock wool batting on the side, uh, on the exterior walls. That would be like my go-to. But then if you got the money to spend and the flashing bat where it's the closed cell spray foam mixed with the bat insulation, I think that's, that's the best you could do. But um, again, that just depends on your budget.

George Siegal: 23:30

Now what about sound insulation? Like if between the first and the second floor, what should go in that or sometimes they have nothing. I've seen a lot of houses. It's just, it's just air in there. And then others where they put something to deaden in the sound.

Dennis Comstock: 23:43

Yeah, that's a real common misconception where people think that their interior walls are insulated. And I talk about that quite a bit, as well as, um, is, and I mean, you have your choices, you, I haven't seen spray foam used there, but I'm sure you could. But, um, just some bat insulation, whether that's Rockwell makes some sound damping insulation for that specific reason. And, um, yeah, I'm a big fan of, of having that put in the bathrooms, especially if your bedroom is on the same, that's sharing the same walls as the living room. I think it's good to put some interior insulation there. So yeah, if you're having a new construction house built, that's a big one because you can't do it after, you know what I mean? It's, it's just one of those things. If you can scrape up the extra change to have the interior insulation done, do it. That's a, that's a good call.

George Siegal: 24:31

What I think people need to think about and, and, and correct me if, if you completely disagree, but if you see something during the process that you think is a boil or a problem or something that somebody else might not like, inevitably when you go to sell that house, that's the first thing they put on their list to the realtor. I didn't like this house because there wasn't enough closet space, or it was too noisy, or the driveway was too steep. So thinking of them in advance can make a difference in in resale also.

Dennis Comstock: 24:56

Oh, for sure. Yeah, it's, and yeah, resale. You know what? That's another thing I think of is when you're having your house built is, I tell everyone to record. So record the build and look behind, so you'll be able to give that next homeowner, Hey, that might be icing on the cake. I don't think it's going to push them over the edge to buy the house, but you can see behind those walls, all the wiring, all the plumbing I've used mine multiple times, anything in the ground, the sprinkler lines, you can record those while they're being installed. Um, so yeah, to your point, I mean, thinking ahead on resale, that's a, that's another big one as well, because things are a little bit cheaper most of the time if you're in construction, right? If you're gonna have the trim guy in there building like custom. You shelving and things like that. It's gonna be way cheaper to do that in while you're under construction and doing it all at once than to have somebody come in a finished house and add that built in whatever cabinets you're gonna be doing then.

George Siegal: 25:50

I know, I know some people that say, well, I didn't really wanna surround sound, so I didn't pre-wire it. Pre-wire it. It's so inexpensive to throw wires in for an alarm system, for a camera system when it's a shell of a house then when those things are closed up.

Dennis Comstock: 26:06

Absolutely Smurf tubing. I'm a super fan of Smurf tubing. I should have, um, all the stock in the world when, for the companies who make smurf tubing, cause it's like, it's just conduit that you can put in the wall and change out the wiring after the house is built. So, for instance, I wanted to run another camera in my house and I knew that it was gonna be a hard location to get to when the house was being built. So I ran smurf tubing. It's just a little plastic tube that I could fish the wire and add that later. So I couldn't afford all the cat cable at the time. There was just so much things I wanted added, so I just put the smurf tubing in those locations that I knew I was gonna wanna add later on. So that's a good one.

George Siegal: 26:47

Yeah. And another one, I, I, I wanna see this as a video that, that you do down the road is when people have their doorbell put in, the builder always puts the doorbell, not necessarily in the best place to put a ring doorbell. And so when they come out to put that in at our house, they had cut nicked the wire so the doorbell didn't even work, and you can't tear open the stucco of a house to fix that. So we had to have one. We had to have an a wireless doorbell now. So it, you can, it works, but it doesn't, it's not hardwired.

Dennis Comstock: 27:18

Oh, that's a good, I'm jotting that down right now. So like a ring doorbell location. So having that doorbell in a good spot, because, I mean, ring doorbells are just, they're on every house.

George Siegal: 27:27

Yes. And, and, and the builder doesn't always put them in the place that gives you the best camera angle to see people. Mm-hmm. It's the best angle just to push the button. I think thinking of that in advance could be a huge, um, savings. Because if they screw it up, you don't get a second crack at it.

Dennis Comstock: 27:43

For sure. I nerd out on all that stuff. I'm always trying to think ahead on like, where would I put this? You know? And then you can do the same thing with outlets. You know, like the outlets always do well's, plug them in there. You don't run extension cords. Yeah, just outlets galore. If you're gonna hang your vacuum, have a high outlet, things like that. It's just those easy things at zero, actually, sometimes those cost you $0. You're like, Hey, I would like this outlet a little higher. No, $0. That cost you $0 because that's exactly what you wanted.

George Siegal: 28:17

And if you're gonna have a room, we have a treadmill and a bicycle, but there's not enough power going to that room. We had to run another line later. Make sure you have enough power by having the right voltage going there. So you could handle that kind of stuff.

Dennis Comstock: 28:30

Yeah, I had a dedicated, a few dedicated circuits installed because I knew I was gonna make like a mini network room in my house, like a, almost like a brain like hub in the center of the house. And I didn't want any power issues, so I just asked them to run a circuit, which is just a dedicated wire that goes from the panel to that room. And then I knew that there would be no complications. Like say they used the same wiring in another room and somebody plugged in something heavy, it would kill that power. So now since it has a dedicated line it's good to go without issues. So yeah, that's a good one for sure.

George Siegal: 29:03

Man, if I just gave you my list of problems, you'd have a year's worth of video. So the, a couple others, cuz I know you, you're, you're a busy guy, but the blow torch weed killer, you know, kids don't try this at home, but I thought it was pretty cool. Explain how that was working.

Dennis Comstock: 29:16

Uh, I was, uh, as soon as you said that, I'm like, he's either gonna love it or he is gonna hate it cause. I, I don't go into comments too much cuz it can make my day or ruin my day. So sometimes I don't see the feedback on all the videos, but, uh, I'm glad to hear that you like that one. That, that I forgot where I got. Oh, I made a video about, um, using Roundup and everybody in the comments was like, dude, get away from Roundup. It's, you know, they all had stories about family members who were getting cancer, so, Enough said, so I got rid of the roundup and, and somebody recommended the blow torch. So I tried it and uh, I love it. Yeah, it works out really good. Just kill all your weeds with that massive bow torch.

George Siegal: 29:55

That was, that was it. That was entertaining. And then some of the cool stuff, the dog wash station, that was pretty awesome. I mean, I, how many people go, God, where do I wash? Bathe my dog? Do I have to go outside and do it where it's dirty. You have a dog?

Dennis Comstock: 30:09

Yeah. Cold. Your dog probably doesn't like that cold, uh, hose water, right? No, not at all. Yeah, the, uh, that, those are becoming fairly popular now. I'm starting to see in those, in more houses on like the higher end custom homes where they're putting in a dog wash station. Um, some of them are low and some of 'em are high. Like if they have a big dog, they'll put 'em low and the smaller dogs will have 'em up high so they're not having to bend over and wash their dog. It's pretty cool little feature, and I would think it's not crazy expensive if you don't go and add a bunch of insane tile work or anything like.

George Siegal: 30:41

Okay. So what's your favorite feature and your least favorite thing that, that somebody's added to a house? Like what's the coolest thing and what's one that you've gone, eh, I don't know about that.

Dennis Comstock: 30:51

Um, the coolest thing I've seen, I would say I saw a pool recently on the house that we're talking about, and just the retractable, I'm gonna give you a bunch, right, because it's hard for me to just pick one on the spot, the retractable cover. I really like, um, on the pool. I don't see those enough. I just think that just makes having a pool that much better. And the outdoor heaters, those are a big one. I think that we're gonna start seeing way more of those. They're gonna find more, um, budget friendly heaters to put on your back porch. That just makes changes the game for, um, having the outdoor area. And one that I didn't like. I, I don't wanna say I didn't like it because it's, I don't care either way. But I just found it funny was, uh, I saw a cat litter fart fan. I call it. It's more than that. I just, I gave it that name cuz it kind of made me chuckle. But it was a fan, it's actually a really good idea. It's a for the cat litter box, and it has a little exhaust fan that goes to the outside and they can just turn it on and off. So when it starts to stink, they can just push all that stinky air outside. And that got me thinking you could also put a smart switch on there to kinda kick on and off with movement in the room or, uh, you know, particular time of day. So, yeah, that was another good one.

George Siegal: 32:11

Or just change the litter box more often. Hey, there's an idea. You know, on, on, on the pool cover thing, it really depends on the shape of your pool. We had a rectangular pool several years ago with small children. That electric cover is gold cuz it gives you that peace of mind that your kid can climb a fence. They're not getting in with a cover like that. Yeah. Or your pets. I mean that you have to have the right shape pool for that.

Dennis Comstock: 32:33

That's true. That's a good point. Yeah. You can't have one of those crazy gunite pools that ain't gonna.

George Siegal: 32:38

No, no, no, no, it wouldn't. So, okay, let's leave people with a number one piece of advice. I'm building a house, or I'm remodeling a house. What's the main thing, mindset or thing I can do to get me going in the right direction?

Dennis Comstock: 32:52

I can only give one? It's, it's really nailed down your vision and everything that you're wanting. So go through everything that is like the top of your list that you wanna get done. Make a list of that. You need to give that to your builder and portray your vision to your builder. So you guys are both working on the same sheet of music. So however that is, whether it's the checklist or you're making your own sheet, just make sure you have the main meat and potatoes that you want on your house and make sure that he's, he or she is tracking that. So it gets handled because you're gonna find, if you don't start thinking about this early, you're gonna get in the middle, middle of your build and it's already gonna happen. So try to avoid as much as you can. It's like, damn, I wish I would've thought of that. You know? So that's the whole point of doing that.

George Siegal: 33:37

And that's really a crummy feeling to go I wish I would've thought about that. Especially with all the resources that are available. I mean, if somebody just sits down and spends 10 or 15 minutes watching your videos, they're gonna go, alright. I gotta, I gotta up my game here. That's awesome. Awesome. I'm just letting too many things slip by that I should be on top of.

Dennis Comstock: 33:55

There is, there's so much, it's, it's shocking. I think my checklist is at like 40 pages now. It's insane.

George Siegal: 34:02

Yeah. But it's a lot easier to do the work front than to try to play catch up later, isn't it?

Dennis Comstock: 34:06

Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. For sure.

George Siegal: 34:10

Hey, Dennis. Uh, I appreciate your time. All your information's in the show notes. I, I would tell people to go watch your videos, but it looks like everybody in the world already is. But, uh, you're doing great and, uh, continued success to you. I appreciate your time.

Dennis Comstock: 34:23

Thank you very much. This is a good time. I appreciate it.

George Siegal: 34:26

Thank you for listening to the Tell, Us How to Make It Better podcast. All of Dennis's information is in the show notes. And if you have any ideas for future podcasts or an interesting story of your own that you'd like to share I would love to hear from you. There's a link to a contact form in the show notes and all my contact information is there as well, along with a link to my documentary film, the Last House Standing. Thanks again for listening. See you next time.