In With the Old on Magnolia Network

     In With the Old on Magnolia Network is my kind of show. I really loved the series, and like The Craftsman, IWTO was recommended to me by someone who knows how passionate I am about saving old houses and how I approach my projects.

Radiator Springs

    In With the Old struck a chord with me on multiple levels. For example, one episode takes place in a small town that, like Radiator Springs in the animated movie Cars, was adversely impacted when the new freeway opened and dried up the robust flow of drivers passing through. I think this resonates with me because the small town where we filmed the Restoring Charleston houses is comparable. Yet for St. George, South Carolina, the Interstate system was twice as impactful; both I-95 (Florida to Maine) and I-26 (Charleston to Asheville, NC) take drivers around this rural village. Now travelers spend money at highway exit chain restaurants, gas stations, and hotels rather than in town at family-owned places like they did before the freeways were built, and this circumstance has devastated rural towns from coast to coast. I imagine the first episode of IWTO will inspire more than a few folks of seemingly forgotten towns now off the beaten path; people living in places that have empty buildings with potential.

The Creek House
in York County, Pennsylvania

    Another installment in this four-episode season is set in York County, Pennsylvania. A good many of my distant relatives were Pennsylvania Dutch, and I knew immediately that one of them was born in York County. Who knows, maybe my great grandmother's great grandma, Susie Gable Welty, was from the actual town of episode two. In a way, the borough of this episode serves as an example of a rural area dealing with the consequences of Americans traveling in cars instead of by train. When people stopped riding the rails, train stations closed up and eventually fell into disrepair before being demolished. Now, countless country towns are dealing with the long-drawn repercussions that have come from losing their train depots decades ago. And just like the first episode, I'll speculate that this small town in Pennsylvania will motivate some viewers to work together and restore a special building in their historical railroad village.     

    The third episode is in Wheeling, West Virginia, an old river city that enjoyed its heyday before the railway or interstate systems were ever imagined. I helped build water tanks in 'The Friendly City' in the summer of 1991, and our crews lived in a place called the McLure House. The project in episode 3 of IWTO is called 'The McLain House;' one small 'c' and a large 'L' just like the nice hotel where we stayed in downtown Wheeling. The McLain House brought back fond memories of my days as a student at The University of Cincinnati. The Ohio River towns remind me of going down a street where the houses are different yet look similar. This makes sense since cities like Wheeling and Cincinnati (between Pittsburgh and the Mississippi River), were built when the Ohio River was one of the nations' main thoroughfares and when our waterways were the best way to travel; as if the Ohio River was one big, wide, long street where all the nearby houses were built around the same time.

The Seam of The Hunger Games

   And finally, the fourth episode of In With the Old is here in the Carolinas. It's North Carolina on the fringes of the Appalachians, very different from the Lowcountry of South Carolina, but we're all still Carolinians. I'm not sure how I recognized the setting so quickly, and it's not mentioned throughout the episode, but if you've ever seen the Hunger Games movies, you'll know what I mean. The final episode takes place in Katniss' hometown, the 'Seam of District 12,' and the home they rehabilitate in the season finale is called 'House 12.'

    I'm intentionally being vague and leaving out the coolest points of the In With the Old series. More than home rehab shows, these are wonderful stories about people and families that are connected by a restoration project. I hope you are entertained and inspired as much as me.

THE CRAFTSMAN ON MAGNOLIA NETWORK

    

Eric Hollenbeck is The Craftsman

    The Craftsman, a new Magnolia Network show, was recently recommended to me. Viewers can meet Eric Hollenbeck on discovery+ or the Magnolia app. He is the owner of Blue Ox Mills in Eureka, California, a city nestled between the Pacific Ocean and the famous redwoods of Trinity National Forest.

    Those who know me will quickly understand why I enjoyed the show and am hoping Eric Hollenbeck and Team Magnolia make more episodes. You definitely need to check it out for yourself, but I'll go ahead and tell you that Eureka looks like an amazing place for old house lovers. The Carson Mansion is one of the most famous examples of extraordinary architecture in "The Lumber Baron Town." Mr. Eric

Carson Mansion

knows how to replicate and/or repair all the intricate pieces and parts of these Victorian gems, and in his shop, he has the tools for the job - I'm talking super cool tools. Now, you can see him using modern gadgets too, but the old school equipment to complete the featured restoration totally captured my attention. I can only imagine how these antiquated tools allow him to really feel what he's crafting. But again, you need to see this talented woodworker in action by watching.

    Besides Eric and Eureka, you'll get to meet the Hollenbeck Family and see the shop where the master operates. It's a half-hour episode that showcases a picturesque setting, great project, and an amazing transformation all framed around skilled craftsman Eric Hollenbeck, with experience and knowledge he shares in the aptly titled show.    

          

Wanted: Bamboo Buyers and Brokers

       This is an exciting time of year at Annie Leila's. The camellias are still colorful, the azaleas are about to bloom, and the bamboo will soon be popping up out of the ground! The property is almost nine acres with an amazing bamboo grove which I adore. Since buying the property in 2016, I have learned a lot about this evergreen plant and there appears to be even more to understand.

      

      Like most people, I've been aware of bamboo flooring for decades. I've never installed it, but I'd use it on the right project. And I also knew about bamboo being used to build scaffolding and homes in other parts of the world, or to make fishing poles, rafts, wind chimes, Tiki torches, and fencing. But now I know that it's also used to make shirts, drinking straws, toilet paper, skate boards, toothbrushes, underwear, structural building components, bicycles, and the list keeps going. Several years ago I starting hearing about the future of bamboo farming in the United States. It's an intriguing narrative and the upside sounds enormous.

    Besides making useful things, bamboo shoots are a super food with health benefits. Plus, bamboo can also be used to make tea, beer, and wine! B

    Bamboo has two harvests each year; spring for the edible shoots and fall for the trees/timber to make things. And these harvests don't wipe out the grove by clear cutting. It's a managed process which allows the majority of the plants to keep growing.   

    The bamboo grove that runs through Annie Leila's covers several acres and I have access to other sizable thickets in the area; at least ten acres total. St. George, SC is next to the intersection of Interstates 26 and 95 making it easy to transport spring or fall harvests quickly. 

    Since 2019, I've been reading and learning about the bamboo market, but have yet to connect with a buyer or broker serious about my shoots or trees. If you know of someone in the bamboo industry please contact me or pass on my info.: bloodsweatandpigsears@hotmail.com 

How Stephen Covey's 7 Habits Have Influenced My Rehabs

   In a previous post (Snowman on Miami Beach) I recognized the influence of Dr. Norman Vincent Peale on my life and career. And while I was writing that one, I realized that Stephen Covey has been notably influential for me as well. In one of my part-time jobs during college, I borrowed an audio abridgment of Mr. Covey's top selling book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I loved the lessons and the stories that drove the habits home and Mr. Covey was the voice teaching me on the tapes, so in a way it felt as if I got to know him personally as I listened. I soaked in every word of the 6 hour version while I worked and as I bounced around Cincinnati in my car. The tapes of the book just weren't just educational, I found the stories that accompanied them simultaneously entertaining and inspirational; a palatable mix. I probably listened to this collection of cassettes a dozen times or more.  

Stephen Covey
1932-2012

    Fast forward two decades to me as a a self-employed home rehabber with a couple shows on TV and
a daughter in the fourth grade at Summerville Elementary. SES was a Leader In Me school which means the 7 Habits were an integral part of the curriculum. At SES, Covey's teachings had been woven into the lessons Tatiana learned throughout the school day. They were part of the school's décor in the hallways and classrooms, and in songs the children sang to help them learn and remember the habits. It was sweet and cute, but in my eyes, significant and this is when I realized how much the 7 Habits had become a part of my life. Somehow, I had forgotten the source but not the wisdom, yet I'd internalized these specific habits profoundly, so much so, that I had begun teaching them to my daughter without realizing or remembering where or how I'd learned them. So when I made this connection, I was instantly grateful that the SES Team would be helping me instill these fundamentals that had helped me be more effective.

    From the beginning of my home renovation career, I have unconsciously applied Mr. Covey's 7 Habits. Here are a few examples:

1. Be Proactive - On my rehabs, Habit 1 is all about helping me work safely while I save time and money, by thinking ahead, trying to anticipate and avoid pitfalls before they might impact the project.

2. Begin with the End in Mind - One of the first steps on my project is to draw up a modified floorplan showing how I want the house to be when I'm finished. From this moment I start to picture in my mind how rooms will look on the inside and how the house will appear on the outside. From the beginning I have my "silk purse" in my mind's eye. 

3. Put First Things First - Working in the proper sequence is critical on a rehab and on that first project, it really stressed me out. I worked hard to take on my project in proper order, but I messed more than a few things up, redid these scopes, and learned from the missteps. Habit 3 exemplifies the importance of doing the most urgent things first. It makes sense, but if you've ever watched an episode of Renovation Realities on DIY, you know that not every rehabber puts first things first. (I don't know if that show is still on, but it's awesomely hilarious with me feeling as if I'm often laughing at my past self.) 

4. Think Win-Win - Habit 4 is essential to a successful project, especially when hiring contractors. A win-win attitude is a necessity for me, but I also want to hire people with this as a professional value. I want my contractors to make a profit and I want them to be onboard with my goal; transforming the house as planned and receiving my certificate of occupancy. Projects with win-win people are the safest and most profitable.   

5. Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood - Again, in dealing with folks hired to help me get to the finish line of a rehab(the C.O.) it's helpful to apply habit 5 from the first meeting to the last check. I can ignore this, but this oversight will lead to mistakes and disagreements which ultimately cost time and waste money.

6. Synergize - This habit is recognition that other people are an asset that can help me finish quicker, and safer with the largest profit margin possible. I may think I know everything, but as the saying goes, two heads are better than one and if two people can be two and half times as productive, then capitalizing on the help from eight, ten, or or twenty experienced people makes the project better to a degree that's difficult to measure. Put another way, think of two people each lugging a sheet of plywood individually, versus two people carrying two sheets together. Team work makes the dream work and is an example of Habit 6.   

7. Sharpen the Saw - I love what I do, but I have to remember to pull back to rest, exercise, and recharge. In addition, I need to be mindful of new trends in real estate design and be open to adjust my approach. And I don't renovate exactly how I did twenty years ago. I have a larger arsenal of tools and have learned techniques that I was oblivious to back when I started in 2000. This old dog has to constantly be willing to learn some new tricks to be safe, efficient, and competitive. 

No matter who you are or what line of work you're in, the wisdom of the 7 Habits will be an asset to you and synergistically speaking, to those around you. 

Snowman on Miami Beach

            

            I still had plenty to learn when I left home after high school and the world began roughing me up before I even unpacked my suitcase. I was dragging bottom by age twenty, with the confidence of a snowman on Miami Beach when I visited the Cincinnati Public Library and checked out the book, The Power of Positive Thinking. The cover of this edition said, "Read this book and change your life," and this sentence would ring true for me as I became a young man capable of surviving in the Queen City.  

                        

            My struggles with pessimism and negative thoughts still haunt me, but three decades later I’m acutely aware of how profoundly Dr. Norman Vincent Peale’s most popular book impacted my life and my career renovating houses, which I lovingly call ‘pig’s ears.’

We all know the classic example of a positive mindset: seeing a glass as half-full instead of half-empty. This attitude has become such a part of my life that I apply it to everything, most especially my project houses. I’m not sure how I could do what I do without this steadfast optimism.

My third pig’s ear was a home I call the Hurricane House. It was severely damaged by Hurricane Hugo in 1989 and its owners sold it to me for the value of the land in 2006. Soon after the closing, I walked the property with the head of the building department and said, “It's really not that bad,” since my approach to saving a condemned house focuses on what’s good and what’s salvageable. My ability to focus on real estate assets and past liabilities is the most significant quality I honed and cultivated from Dr. Peale's book.

However, as I finished my optimistic property appraisal, the building department chief, without much hesitation, said: “This house has to be torn down.” Clearly, he was looking at the all the damage and rot that dominated the Hurricane House. He was looking at the building as half bad or 50% rotten, while I was looking at it as half redeemable. After he said that a thought bolted into my head; “Oh. Now it’s on.” At this stage of my career, I was a confident freelance home renovator, verging on cocky, and his pessimism was the nudge I needed to get ready to grind. In addition, I had enjoyed enough success with my own projects that I had money in my savings to finance this one without a mortgage from the bank. The only person who needed convinced that this was a viable effort was me, and I was certain it was a winner. 

The roof of 
The Hurricane House

        The foundation and the brick façade of the Hurricane House were sound. Half the roof sheathing was fine, as well as half the structural framing. The sewer line to the street was good to go, plus the site had a beautiful grand live oak tree, a towering magnolia, and some antique camellias that survived the demolition/clean up phase. There was a lot going for this property before I even started, but it looked awful because Hurricane Hugo had torn it up.

Inside the Hurricane House
after the demolition phase:
a lot of good to work with.

                        The head inspector’s negative estimation could have doomed the Hurricane House to a date with a bulldozer and a trip to the landfill. Yet, in a quirky way this vocalized hopelessness became a blessing that echoed in my head throughout this project, energizing me until I received my Certificate of Occupancy and beyond. And when I closed out the project, the Hurricane House was the biggest profit margin of any of my houses thus far. 

I’m not saying the Hurricane House was an easy project. I don’t think I’ve had a simple rehab yet, so I’m not sure what that looks like. It was a good challenge, and I had a team of talented contractors helping me get it done. But my point is this; the positive attitude that began with that library book made it possible. I don't think I would have made it through college, moved to South Carolina, gotten my General Contractors License, or defied that building official without knowing everything I learned from Dr. Peale.

Maybe you want to be a home renovator and lack the confidence to take the next step. Or perhaps you're renovating a home right now and are at that stage in the middle where you feel like you’re never going to finish. Besides telling you these are normal feelings, I’d like to recommend that you go to your local library and borrow The Power of Positive Thinking. It just might change your life, too.