This is the Simply Home Podcast - Ladies Who Build, a podcast for women by women.

This is Ashley Wainscott and Michelle Mullins.

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Welcome to Episode 23 of Ladies Who Build - How To Run A Successful Project. So today we're going to be talking about what factors contribute to a successful project, why our specific process works, the outside factors that can make or break a project and the details behind the curtain.

Ooh.

So we have a very special guest with us today. His name is Adam Isabel, and he is going to be sharing a little bit about himself here in a second. And per usual, we'll be diving into all of the fun things about Adam's background and what he sees in his job on a day to day. So without further ado. Adam. Hello.

Hello. Hi.

Thank you for being here.

It's good to be here. Thanks for having me.

Of course. So tell us all about your background and what led you to where you are today.

Alright. Yes, so my name is Adam, it is good to be here. I, mainly, my background, funny enough, it's actually in restaurants, not construction. I did it for about 20 years, I guess, from when I, my first job as a host at a pizza place.

Then I worked my way up from there. Held every job in restaurant industry, I guess it was almost four years ago now that I knew I wanted to change. I didn't want the restaurant hours anymore. I was getting home at 12, 1:00 AM and I knew I didn't want that anymore especially with starting a family. So the girl I was dating at the time who is now my wife worked in new home construction and she introduced me to the field manager position, which is basically the construction manager position that we have and I loved it. It was very different than what I've been doing. There are some similarities, but I mainly loved the hours, of course.

And then I love this very rewarding job. I mean, getting clients into a new home that can be, you know, a client’s dream is to own a home one day. And so that's what we got to do. So that was the most rewarding part. So I am originally from Nashville. We just moved to Austin in March and I did look around for a job in the new home space, but just couldn't find anything.

And then one day, the recruiter called and said, here's this company. And I was like, that sounds interesting. Let's do it and here we are. And it's been great so far. It's been similar to the new home construction. It's also, you know, extremely rewarding to, you know, get to go through the process with the clients and then, show them that finished product in the end. So, yeah, it's been good.

Adam, that made me hungry. When you were talking about pizza.

I got one, after all that, right back to the restaurants.

I know, I know. I mean, it's such, you have such an extensive history. I'm also curious other than being hungry for pizza. How that prepped you, or if they're like, are there any similarities between?

I think the number one thing is in restaurants, you have no idea what's going to happen day to day. I mean, you can do all the prep. You can lay out a good game plan. You can do your presets meeting and then your freezer can break or like you can have, you know, we had crazy things happen. One day we had a car literally drive through the front window of our restaurant.

Oh my gosh.

I mean.

What?

That's not always that extreme.

You don’t know what’s going to happen.

Did someone forget to hit the brakes?

Yeah. I mean, and it was, it was weird cause it was a parking lot where mostly people drove very slow, but I don't know what happened to this girl.

Oh my gosh.

That's going fast who missed the turn and just came right through.

She really wanted a drive and a drive in, right?

Right. That's what she was hoping it was for.

But, yeah, so that's, that's, I'd say the biggest similarity is it's, you just never know. And I guess with, in renovations, that would be like, you know, we do all the planning, you have the plans, the CAD is like all laid out. You do like all this upfront work and then demo happens and there's mold or there's termites or so. But that was, I think it's similar in that, in the restaurant that was challenging, but also the most rewarding to be able to face that head on and not like get discouraged by it or not let it defeat you really.

And if you just go into with the right mindset, then you know, you're like, yeah, stuff happens, but you know, we did plan well and we're ready for it. And we've probably seen it before, not the car coming through your window. But we've probably seen a lot of the stuff before, so we're well prepared for it.

Yeah, you have to be quick on your feet in both worlds and you have to maybe enjoy the day-to-day of what is coming or what's new, or what do I have to deal with today.

Because some people, they need the consistency of like, I need to know what's going to come every day in my job. And that's great, but construction's not that world.

No.

You know.

No.

And so you kind of have to enjoy that newness every day.

Yeah. I mean, even though sometimes you're like, oh, that like what in the world, this is like a crazy, you know. Like the house we're working on now. There's some crazy stuff, but it's like, that's like, think we're a little bit of the excitement comes from. Like I would hate to have just a desk job where I'm doing the same thing over and over. I would not last long in that position. I would hate that.

Yeah.

So.

That's why you were built for this.

That's right.

Yeah. I mean in the job you're talking about too, I think that's interesting. And kind of how it plays into this episode of like some of the things that y'all found at this house.

Yeah.

And there are some projects that you know, you'll potentially not really find anything, It'll be uneventful, go really smoothly, but then there's other projects where it's like a magic show and.

Yeah.

Like what have y'all found? Y'all found cast iron.

Cast iron. Yes, we’ve found lots of cast iron. Thinking back as far as surprises go, like we did have a house, I guess that'd be the end of last year where we discovered that the house had no insulation and no exterior walls at all. And we're like, well, that's different.

That's not ideal.

And the client said, she had actually got the house from her dad. And we were like, did your dad never say anything? Like were his utility bills, like through the roof? And she said, no, he said everything was normal. So we're like, well, we're here now. So would you like insulation in your exterior walls. And she said yes.

So that was, that was definitely a big surprise, but it's, it's stuff like that all the time. And it keeps you on your toes. And you know, it's the, it's the fun part of this, I think.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Cause then did y'all have to like do the spray foam in the walls and.

Yes. One day. Yeah. We knew that obviously we weren't going to remove all the drywall. So, our guy drilled about how to have been a hundred holes in the wall to do the spray foam.

Yeah, that’s tough.

And so. Yeah. So when the drywall guy showed up, he had a hint slight moment of panic like, this is not what it looked like when I did this job. So, but he was, it was fine. It all worked out in the end. Client was very happy. And now we have a well-insulated home.

Yeah, that's not drafty.

Yeah.

I mean, between the extremes here in Austin, from like the 12 degree week that we were having to the I don't know, a hundred and something.

Yeah. I couldn't believe that her dad had said that everything seemed normal. And he didn't have a problem. It's critical in his house. I was shocked.

Yeah. So you probably were just like a full on parka in the winter. He's like, I'm fine.

Yeah.

She's like that.

I'm content.

Yeah.

I could see someone from that generation being like, what do you mean? I'm good.

Yeah. We just figured it out.

Tough it out.

Yeah.

Okay. So as a construction manager, we have a little bit of a different process, so you are partnered with a project manager. And so both of y'all tackle one project Together, or multiple projects together. But what is one thing as a construction manager, whose job is to be in the field to really making sure that the control is well managed on these projects with vendors and the work. Explain a little bit, the different types of things you have to juggle on a daily basis to make sure that that project is successful.

Yeah. I think the biggest thing when I was thinking about this, the first thing that popped into my head was juggling the vendors’ and or clients’ personalities. And because I guess like we were talking about earlier, you can do all the planning in the world, but you never really know how you're going to work with a client until you're like in it for a few weeks and you get to talk to them. And then you know, one thing I've seen is a client who says in the beginning, you know, we always ask the question - how involved do you want to be, you know, is this like a completely hands-off experience for you or do you want to be here every day?

And are you going to be all up in it with us and I've seen that they say one thing and then the project starts and it's like completely opposite of what they said. So there's juggling that. And really as the construction manager, you know, the way our process goes, there really isn't supposed to be that many points of contact between construction manager and client.

But what I've seen is that it just happens, honestly. It's like, you know, cause well we can't tell them not to be at their house, right? So if they're there and they see me then, you know, they're going to ask questions. So it's trying to figure out how to work best with them and then also with the vendors. And then I think another part of that is just seeing this recently is, trying to figure out there's like a juggling act with the client comes in contact with the vendor. And it's like, you know, we just talked about this yesterday in the team meeting.

I'd say maybe discourage that because for a number of different reasons. So just trying to figure out how to navigate that has been a little interesting. But, yeah, I think obviously there's a thousand different things you have to juggle during the project, but that was just the one that really stuck out to me when I first thought about this.

Yeah, there are so many people involved in a remodel. Gosh, yeah, so many people. And so you're right. You have to, every single person's different in the way that they operate. And I think as a construction manager too, you have to get to know your vendors really well because you might have to be very descriptive with one vendor.

And then another vendor is just like, give me the high level, give me the plans. I'll let you know I'm done or in another, it has to be like coaxed and followed up with, and did you do your job properly? So it's like then understanding who you have to do that with. And that's, that takes a lot of time, too.

Yeah. And it's, it's different than a lot of industries in that I remember talking with a lead or client one day and they were like, oh yeah, well, we're in project management. You know what, like what's the difference. I remember then there was a difference in our process of like, oh, well, why can't this just be like a three week project, right? And one of the variables that I was describing to them was specifically that we're not working with people who are, we're working with professionals and experts at what they do, but not professionals in like I'm going to wear a suit and I'm going to say all the right things and show up 10 minutes early to my meeting and blah, blah, blah.

We're working in construction and so like, we always have to cater to all their personalities and to all their isms and to how they like to work. And it's not like other industries where we all just meet at a meeting and we're professional. We say what we need to say. We signed the contract and that's how we move. It's just not that way. And so you're navigating all those people.

Yeah. There's one guy I have in mind who even if, even if there's, even if he's working on one end of the house and someone else is on the up, he's like, I want to be in the house alone. Like, I'm not going to work. Like, I just want, I'm going to send that stuff up, which takes like an hour, to get his music going. And he's like, I just want the house too much. He does great work. But he wants to, he has a certain process and that's just, it is what it is. And we know if we have them. Nothing else should be scheduled. We should maybe do a little, like a couple more days added to his time because he's slow but he’s great. And, you know, but that's just one of the, it's just another thing to manage.

It's like the schedule management schedule is a huge part of All of this and that's just another weird little thing that you would never know that as, especially as a newer person.

Yeah.

But then after a few jobs, you're like, okay, now I know. If this guy is here then, you know. We know exactly what you're going to get.

Yeah. You have to make a lot of accommodations to all of their needs and they have a lot of needs. It's like, I mean, the only example I could think of is like a musician or somebody that's going to go play and they are like I'm going to request. I only want red M and M's. I want the temperature to be 73 degrees in my room. Right? We're working with like, in a sense a lot of those, sometimes like 30 to 40 on a project.

Yeah.

Yep. They all want to do it their way.

Yes, they do.

But I guess this is a really good segue into the question, if I'm a potential client and no matter whatever I'm working on, whatever the project is, do you think that all clients should hire a GC?

So. I think mostly yes. I think probably like 95% of clients should. And I think mainly that's because you know, you're like, I'm just doing my bathroom. It's small, like, I'm just, it's just a simple swap out of the tub to shop. It's like no matter what you think you're getting into over here, there's almost always a surprise behind the wall. There's, there's definitely something that, you know, you can Pinterest all the things you want or watch, watch all the YouTube videos you want, but there's going to be something that you don't know about. And you're not going to know how to fix, or you don't know what steps to take or who would even do it or who, like, you just don't know. I mean, you don't know what you don't know. Right?

Like I was saying earlier, there's a good chance that either myself or somebody on the team has seen what it is you're going through and we'll have answers or at least know where to get the answers. So I think, you know, it sounds fun and it can be fun. I think it's fun to do renovations, but like, there's definitely going to be something that goes wrong and that's what we're here for. And that's why you should absolutely hire a GC. Unless it's just like paint.

Right.

Yes.

If you want to swap out hardware on your cabinets, sure.

Right.

Other than that, give us a call.

Yeah, there's been not like one story I've ever heard anybody ever say that if they did manage their own project, because people do it all the time, but there's, it's either never turned out well, It was a negative experience, They always had something to negative to say about it, how hard it was, how long it took it. It was never like, that went really well. Because I am in project management, in this industry, and I just knew I just did it. You know, like no one said no one ever, you know, that just doesn't happen. So, yeah, I think that that's a really good point too.

It's like we either know the answer to a problem or we know where to find the answer. Yeah.

Yeah.

And the people that we know to hire, to do the job the right way the first time, you know. If you're not in the industry, what do you do? Just a Google search and like hope.

Right.

Maybe there's some good reviews on somebody, but obviously, most of the vendors we have, we've worked with for a while. So you know, we know exactly who needs to be there and when they need to be there and what they need to do.

And like what pricing is. What it looks like, how do you know if you're going to get gypped?

Yeah, and what to expect pricing-wise and quality-wise. The overall work, you know, like you would know, looking at so many bathrooms throughout your life, like why did you do that? That looks really weird or that's not normal. Whereas somebody else would just believe them. And I was also thinking about our invoicing structure, right? We do all the due diligence to ensure we have proper legality contracts. We follow proper payment systems and structures, invoicing.

I mean, I'm thinking about projects I've managed on my own. And it was so stressful because someone would want this percentage down and I'd have to keep track of the other percentage and then they added something. And then, right. So all of a sudden you're like, you need to put on your, like accountant advisor and you're hitting the calculator button and you're like, well, wait, what, I'm confused. And you have to keep track of your checks and homeowners don't have to do that.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm also, I was just thinking about everything behind the pretty stuff. Like if you want to just. So you redo your shower. You're like, well. I saw this tile that I love, so take the old off and put the new on.

Well, it's like, okay, so when you demo the old tile, you don't know what's behind there. With us, we know that there needs to be, you know, proper drainage and like maybe a Schluter system or a red guard. And like, if you, if you would've told me, he said any, either of those things before I was in this industry. I would have said, I have no idea what you just said. Schluter, what?

And they’re like, I don't need it.

Exactly.

Hard pass, That sounds weird.

Oh, is it like an extra cost? Well, yeah, it was like, I'm good. Okay, well, get ready for some rot behind.

Right.

Because there’s gonna, you know, water inevitably finds a way to get, you know, where it shouldn't be. If it's not done right the first time, so like, that's another thing. It's like, we know all the stuff behind the walls, And then, you may know all the pretty stuff as we say. But like, trust us, you're going to want the stuff behind the walls done correctly, or you're going to be redoing this in a month.

I mean, that is the stuff that matters actually. It’s the.

Yeah.

The stuff behind the walls. And I do typically, remind that to anyone that's talking to us about potentially working with us, is listen, no matter who you're interviewing or whoever you're talking to. Making sure that they're properly waterproofing because we don't mess. I mean, water and fire and you know, having licensed electricians. Like plumbers, you don't don't skimp on that. I did want to ask too about what can make a project go south or what kind of surprises you've seen, which we kind of already have been talking about. Was there anything else that you wanted to add to that?

This was, again, the first thing I thought of was, if a client sees things before we do, or if they see things and they don't know that we've addressed it, or we are addressing it, I think what I've seen is there can be loss of trust there. And that can make it seem like the project is sort of going off the rails. But I think., I think it's easy enough to sort of get it back on track to gain that trust back.

If you say, I'm sorry that you saw that first, or I'm sorry that, you know, we did see it, but like we just didn't then let you in on it. Because I think if we did, if a client did know about like every single little thing, they would probably be overwhelmed by it. Like that can make it seem like the project has gone south in a hurry. But I also think it's a pretty easy one to get back and to gain the trust back.

And especially as a client, they might think something is a big deal. When, you know, I think we were talking about this with the team the other day, but like the base, baseboards may look really awful, but you just need to caulk them. You know, like something may seem, oh that’s so, it looks so bad or so I'm finished, but in actuality you have a plan.

Yep.

The team has a plan and the client, if they trust you in the process, they know that you're going to finish it out and you'll handle it.

Yeah, like, just at the project we have the big project we have going on now. There were some issues with the plumbing and so that it seemed like it was going south in a hurry. The client had lost faith in the plumber. And the client was like, okay, before drywall, I want to test all of the plumbing to make sure it works and it runs properly. I'm like, okay, we passed inspection, the plumbing has done the right way. But let me just show you and I actually walked him into the kitchen. It was like, here's your rough in plumbing for your kitchen sink. You can't test it. There's no way to turn this on. Look at it like, you see what it is. It's just too. So, dig it out a little wall. I promise you. I said, listen, it's, it's all part of the process. Like this is why we have inspections. This is why we do these quality control checks. Like you can see that's the PEX lines that we require, like, and he, after a minute, he was like, okay, I understand it's part of the process.

And I said, you know what? If by chance something does go wrong with the plumbing, guess what, there's another process for how to get that fixed and like, and he's like, well, there's going to be drywall. And so yes. We'll take the drywall off and then there's a process for getting them back on and getting them back to new again. And he just, you know, that he just wanted to test his plumbing. And I said, we can't. But as part of the process and it's okay.

I've wanted to do that before, too, because we've had a situation where a rough in was manufactured poorly. It just came in and it didn't work. And there's no way to know until it's done and it's trimmed out.

Yeah.

Right? But the thing is, it is like the chances of that happening are so small and so rare that for us to build a process to try and test the rough-in parts, it just doesn't make sense moving forward. But that one instance, it was a bummer for sure.

Yeah.

But these, but those little things can happen where plumbing parts are manufactured incorrectly. And what do you do?

It's hard because everybody is so different. And we talked about, we've talked about a lot about personalities and client personalities, but, and it's hard to tell someone, don't freak out over this or don't worry about this because we've got it because people just worry about things, different things, you know? So you can't control that. But I think to your point, it really does boil down to the communication that we're constantly providing for the client. And I remember being a project manager, you know, we have this process of going through the expectations in the beginning. Here's what you can expect. Here's what's going to happen. Here's what might happen.

But at the beginning of the project, the clients are really excited. They just want to start like, yeah, yeah, whatever. That's not gonna happen to me. It's gonna be fine. And so I remember that it was always intentional for me to keep repeating those expectations of like, hey, remember when I said this was going to happen or this could happen. Hello, it’s happening. You know, it’s always like, it was just always like.

We’re here.

Yes. Like we know what might happen. Here's how we're going to handle it, but it's hard to not have people freak out because again, they're spending a lot of money and so. You know, the understanding of the emotion being there is, is okay, but we have to be there to kind of mitigate it and be like, this is part of the process.

And I always wish we could just like do remodels with like the big blue bus and we can just move it and then they can move out. And you're like, here's your big, beautiful project.

Move that bus.

Yeah. Move that bus. Cause they're like seeing the inner workings and it's like, that's not the pretty part.

Yeah. I mean, the unknown is scary. It's always going to be scary and some people can handle the unknown better than others.

Yeah.

And other people like a little bit more in control.

Yeah.

True.

You know?

I had a good talk with this guy just yesterday, actually, because you know, he was the one who I said that he wanted to be pretty hands-off. And now he's there every day. We get messages every day from him. And I was talking to him. I was like, this is like, my baby right now. This is like my big project right now. I'm like, I'm going to be here every day. And he, he, he's just one where he wants to know that he's being heard. He wants us to know that we care. And so when I said, this is like my baby, this is my like, main project right now.

He was just thrilled. I mean, he was like, Adam, that is so good to hear. And then also he shared a little bit about why it's so important, like him, his life. They've only had apartments or they like, we're in this like shared living situation. So this is their first house together, not an apartment. And the, where they've got to pick out things on their own.

And so it's obviously very important to him. So when I said what I said about that being my baby right now, he was, he was very happy. So that's, that explains, I think that explains a lot about why he is the way that he is. Being there every day.

Right.

Yeah.

So it's a big investment.

Oh yeah.

I get it.

I think that's what makes you good at your job though, is understanding where people are coming from and their intention. Because if you weren't listening to where he was coming from and what was important to him, then it probably would be more personal, right? Where you're like, what's the big deal? What's the problem?

But he had the reasons behind it.

But having that insight, you know, just helps you that relationship with the client.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay. Is there something that you do specifically on a daily or weekly basis that is imperative to the success of projects that maybe a client doesn't see or whatever know about or see?

There's a lot.

I know. I'm sure there's a lot of things. Basically, what your specific process where you're like, okay, I've set this job up well. I feel good about this, or when you reflect back on projects that have gone well, You know, what did, what'd you do in your process to make sure that happened?

I think, so a big, well, a part of it for me is, you know, we get the plans. I will go through all the bid emails, see like each vendor scope. But like a big and a huge important part for me is actually, tt's a yeah. It's the PM meeting. Because, so for me, I am a visual learner. I need to, so I can sit and look at a CAD plan all day long. But once I get into the space, we're with the client and we're actually walking through, like, you know, we're demoing these things or, or this is where these are gonna get, like, whatever it may be. That part of the process is the most important to me to actually be in the space to try to, or you feel what it is now.

And you get from the client what they want it to feel like and what they want it to look like. So that's a huge part of the process for me. And then the next thing that says the most important for me is when the vendor, or if it's the vendor's first time at the project. So I go walk the scope with them that I think I have found is one of the most important parts of my job. Because I think what I found early on was a lot of the vendors were, you know, no matter how much work was done up front with the planning with them, like over on the sales side or them, you know, hearing about the scope for the first time. I was seeing some of them would get to the house and then they would call me and be like, what am I doing here?

And I'm like, did you read the email? Did you go over the plans? Like I know you have all this information. I know you do. And they're like, oh, I didn't check the email or I didn't really look at the plan or like, I didn't really understand the scope. I'm like, okay, no problem. But I, so I found like, that, I've like made sure that that that's like a high priority thing for me to be at every single time.

And I think it's crucial to getting things done right the first time. So, yeah, that's, that's basically the process, you know, in the beginning and then like, when the project gets going, there's obviously, you know, lots of quality checks, checks for accuracy. And, and like we talked about earlier, there's a lot of that managing the schedule and managing lots of people's weird little quirks and personalities. Yeah.

And or like, maybe you don't do this, I did this back in the day. Remember how often my phone went off at alarms because I would be like, I got followed up but the plumber, did he actually go, did he send me photos? And so I have a short term memory loss. I like to say it's not funny, but like have to remind myself all the time to follow up with these people because I needed to make sure by the end of the day, what I was telling the client was actually true and accurate. But behind the scenes, I'm like you know, calling all these people. Yeah.

No, I do the same thing. My phone is loaded with alarms.

Yeah.

Like work stuff and personal stuff.

Yeah.

It was probably like seven alarms on both of my phones.

Surprisingly, none of them have gone off right now.

I know.

Do not disturb, do not disturb.

But I think, you know, like there's so many things clients don't see that's happening on the backend. And I, I remember it was hard not to get emotional about it, like, oh, well, are you managing this? Are you doing this? And like, you don't even know. My alarms are all going crazy. I am managing it, you know?

Yeah.

I'm being buzzed all the time.

All the time.

But that's your smart management of to me, how you set yourself up for success because you know it's impossible to remember that while you have other things going on. I mean, I know I can get sucked into something and then I come back up and I'm like, what time, should I be in the meeting? What time is it? Right?

Yeah.

Like it's just hard to remember all of that, but it's a great strategy.

Yeah. I put, I try to even put like the littlest things in my calendar, but also I used the alarms, all of them every day.

Where will we be without our I-phones?

What do you wish our clients knew about a remodel project?

I wish all clients knew that things are going to break. Things are going to be messy. Things are gonna happen that you could have never planned for or imagined. But if you have patience and you do have trust I think in your GC. Then in the end, you're going to get hopefully exactly what you wanted. And, you know, it's going to be a rewarding process, But the main, the big things I think are, it's probably going to be messier. It's going to take longer and things aren't going to go the way that you thought they should or what go, But that is okay. And that's what we're here for.

And that's what you should expect.

Yeah.

Absolutely. Yeah.

I mean that really kind of hits it all on the nail for sure.

On the head. And the nail of the head.

What did I say?

On the nails. I mean, that's very perfect. For construction.

Have you had a favorite project so far?

I have. Had a favorite project.

What type of project?

It was a whole home. Well we didn't do a lot of work in the bedrooms. Bedrooms just got new floors, new paint, some new lights, but we did a full kitchen run out and then bathrooms. That was, I mean, for a number of reasons, it was my favorite. It was the, that was an awesome neighborhood. The clients were awesome. The house was awesome. The vendors were great. Things went wrong along the way. This was the house that didn't have insulation in the exterior walls. But, I think the main reason why that was my favorite project was because of the clients, honestly, they were so easy to work with. They were patient, they were understanding. And it was really the project itself. I mean, they picked out some great finishes in their house. Like it just turned out to be a beautiful home. But the, the. clients we work with, I think will go a long way with whether or not you can look back on the project and say, yeah, I really enjoyed that for that really tested me.

Yeah. It's so true. Because we've done some beautiful projects, but then maybe if the clients, you know, we're a little bit different and so then you're like, well, I wish I loved that project as much as I wanted to love it. So they can totally, it can, it can make a successful one for sure.

Yeah. And making sure clients are the right fit for us. Happens a lot in the beginning of the process, you know, like they know if we're going to be a good fit. And anyone who's meeting our team on the front end is similar to our team on the construction end. Making sure we establish that it is a right fit and making sure that they're comfortable with our process, because if they aren't comfortable with it, then it's and they're going to be fighting us every step of the way, then it's just not going to be good for them or us.

Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

What we've noticed too, the relationship that the clients have with each other. Like the husband and wife, how they interact with each other is, can actually be very dependent on how the project is going to go. Because if one person's like, oh I'll handle all the communication and payments, but then you have a person's left in the dark. We kind of are like, well, wait, are you not telling your partner about this? Like, are we supposed to be telling your partner about this? Like who's telling who about this? So it's like the communication they have between each other can probably possibly make or break.

Yeah, it was this project that I was talking about, it was funny because I would say, 95% of the decision making was on her. And he didn't care at all. And he was just like the one thing, no, sorry. There's two things that he, that were very important to him and it was the ceiling fan height in this bedroom.

Love that. Hilarious.

And the other thing was the height of his outlet for his TV.

Oh, my God.

Priorities.

And literally we would be talking with her and she'd be like, oh, I need to call my husband or I need to FaceTime him and we’re like, we know that you probably don't, but yeah. You can call him. I know, I know he’s going to say, I don't really have an opinion. You’ve said that a thousand times. Except that ceiling fan and that outlet.

That he cares to be breezy and cool. And have his TV.

Sighs when he's watching.

Yeah.

That is so funny.

Okay, shall we go to some fun questions? I know that you just moved here in March. But what is the best kept secret of Austin, Texas?

Yes. When I was thinking about this, I thought I'm the one that needs to know this. I mean, the only thing I could think of was the food, but I don't think that's really a secret anymore. I mean, I think everybody, most people know that Austin has great restaurants. We're still working our way down the list of what our favorites are. So I'm the one that needs the secrets. But if we're talking about Nashville, I can tell you the secrets.

Austin TBD.

Yeah. I don't know. I'm excited to learn though.

Yeah.

I did take him to Maudie’s.

Maudie’s is good.

And we did have a lot of flies. It wasn't, it was a strange fly day.

There was a lot of flies.

Okay, gross.

Yes. I mean, we've met my wife and I, our favorite, I think, is Bulevar. We go there.

The bar?

All the time. Bulevar, it’s the.

No.

Not that neighborhood sports bar.

I’m like the whole one that's really been there for like a hundred years.

It’s like upscale Mexican.

Literally never.

It replaced Haas at the Arboretum.

Oh, I haven't been there yet.

Oh, that's great. I actually have a reservation tomorrow.

Oh.

See you there, I'm just kidding.

Oh, I was like, okay.

That sounds good.

Yeah. Okay. What is a hidden talent of yours?

My hidden talent is that I can throw pizza dough, like a true pizzaiola.

Is that the name of that? The pizzaiola.

Pizzaiola.

Pizzaiola. That's like a legitimate, like trained Italian pizza person.

Wow, okay.

We need to see this.

I know.

We should've gotten some dough ready.

If we only knew.

To demonstrate.

We should have a talent show at Simply Home.

We should.

That'd be so funny actually.

I actually. That's funny when you said that because a few years ago for Christmas, my family, my dad's side of the family, we decided to do a talent show and this is what I did.

Nice,

I made pizza dough and brought it. And I'll turn some music on and I was like, throw in the dough to family members.

He likes throwing in their mouths.

Yeah, it was fun. I have videos I can share with you.

Okay. We have to see that at some point.

Yes. Out of all office supplies, by the way, I wasn't expecting that talent. Out of all office supplies, what would be your favorite item? It's gotta be a good ink pen. So satisfying on paper, but not paper, like on a hard surface paper on paper.

Cushioned paper.

Cushioned paper. Exactly.

I know.

So satisfying.

Do you have a favorite ink, like a pen?

Probably the, the G2. What is it? Is it a bic? GT?

We have a little GT?

I don’t know. It sounds like a car, which is why I was laughing. You know that G2.

What's something positive in the media world you've seen lately?

I saw recently that this is kind of a weird one, but because I hate flying. I saw recently that 2023 was the safest year in aviation ever.

Oh, wow.

Okay.

As far as, like, there weren't any major, like jet, like the big planes that you're not flying, I'm not like, you know, they're like. small, private.

Yeah. They always have issues.

But as far as big airlines, no crashes.

Wow.

Except the door’s flying off mid air but that's fine.

Except what?

Door's flying off mid air.

Oh, yeah.

Was it this year?

Maybe that was this year that happened, maybe like.

Oh yeah. It was this year. Adam's like, no, no. That's 2024.

Keep it in 2024. 2024.

Oh, gosh, just thinking about that makes me anxious.

But you know what it, but like they were saying how in the movies, they say like, if a part falls out, you're all gonna get like sucked out of the plane? And I was so relieved to see that nobody got sucked out of the plane.

Oh yeah. But they said they would have, if somebody was sitting next to it, But nobody was sitting in that seat.

Wait, seriously.

You know that this happened. Number one, the wing flew off and hit a window and a girl got sucked out and she died.

Yeah.

No.

Her family sued the airline. Yeah. her whole face, like, like her skin, her whole face, like flew off. Because a part of the wing hit a window, the back window and she was sitting next to it. And of course it got a massive lawsuit. And that's insane.

But she died?

She died later. She didn't die like in the moment. Yeah and people were like trying to pull her back in.

What?

No.

But I don't know if that was in 2023, maybe 2022.

So should I go in like an astronaut suit on the plane?

The point is, don't sit by the window.

Don't sit by the window.

I love the window seat.

I'm not going to sit by the window.

Yeah.

No. Never.

No.

Anyways. Well, that’s a wrap.

Alright.

Thank you all for joining us.

Yeah. Adam, thanks for being here.

Thanks for having me.

Episode 23.

Yeah, thank you.