Building Moxie’s JB talks family projects, remodeler scholarship contest, and fixing up houses with Mark & Theresa.
Theresa: And you are inside MyFixitUpLIfe with my husband Mark.
Mark: And my wife Theresa. And your hair looks wonderful today I have to add.
Theresa: Oh well, thank you darling. Your hair looks pretty good, too.
Mark: Thanks. I cut it the exact same way that I always cut it.
Theresa: You don’t cut your own hair.
Mark: Oh no. I don’t cut my own hair.
Theresa: But I do cut our son’s hair and it is kind of an adventure.
Mark: That is a wrestling match.
Theresa: It’s an athletic adventure actually. It’s the most athletic haircut I’ve ever experienced before.
Mark: Yes if you’re into judo as part of your hair cutting. But as much as we’re into cosmetic improvements, we’re also into home improvements. And we are joined by the editor, chief blogger, chief DIY guy of buildingmoxie.com, and I hope I get it right — JB Bartkowiak. JB are you still listening?
JB: That’s about right. I’m having difficulty hearing you guys.
Theresa: You are?
Mark: How can that be?
JB: I am, you’re breaking up a little bit.
Mark: When you hear a pause in the questions just say anything.
JB: Say anything. Alright, I’ll go with that. That’ll be my stock answer.
Theresa: Stock answers include: Yes, I’d love to do that, and that was awesome.
JB: Okay. Yes, I’d love to do that, and that was awesome.
Theresa: Perfect. We’ll use that in all kinds of things. You’ll love it. It’s great. Now I’m excited to talk to you because I know you’re on vacation right now and you’re taking time out for us.
JB: Well anything for you guys, no doubt. Big fans.
Mark: Awesome.
Theresa: That’s another really good stock answer…add it to the list.
Mark: Good answer. Where in the country are you vacationing so I can be either jealous or really jealous?
JB: Well Delaware Beach, Delaware Shore right down the road from you guys. Right near my partner, Barry Morgan, who is unavailable today, he’s out on a jobsite. But we get to have our annual summit when I’m on vacation.
Theresa: An annual summit. Now do you guys wear special outfits?
JB: We don’t have special outfits yet.
Theresa: Okay. I can make some suggestions if you guys need some advice.
Mark: I’m thinking, considering that we’re at buildingmoxie.com, some kind of late 70’s James Bond villain uniform.
Theresa: Why?
Mark: Just because.
JB: We’re good guys.
Mark: Well JB what are you working on? Besides your tan?
JB: Well I think we’re here to talk today a little bit about the 106 Yard Fund which is sort of a fundraiser we’re doing this year to raise money, thankfully we’ve gotten sponsors for it too, to bring a remodeler to the Remodeling Show in Baltimore, Maryland in October this year.
Theresa: That is really exciting because last year you guys raised $2,200 so that you guys could go to Chicago to the Remodeling Show and that’s a pretty cool kind of thing.
JB: Well I had the opportunity to meet you guys briefly before you went on the air, and got a sweet shirt by the way — you may remember.
Theresa: Are you wearing it right now?
JB: Yes. No I’m not wearing it.
Theresa: Oh, you framed it. That’s fine. That’s totally cool, I understand.
Mark: It’s up there with the rest of your celebrity memorabilia.
JB: Well, yes.
Mark: Brad Pitt’s handkerchief.
Theresa: Seriously? That’s where you go with that? So that 106 Yard Fund, you have sponsors right now and they include American Standard and is it DAP too? Who else?
JB: DAP too and we recently got Houzz — the online marketing presence, and Wilsonart.
Theresa: Oh wow.
JB: They are a high-end laminate line.
Theresa: That’s fantastic. So you’re going to send a remodeler to the Remodeling Show in Baltimore?
Mark: And what does that include? Travel? Hotel? Food? Stuff like that?
JB: Well we’re going to try to pack it with a little bit of spending money, but basically budgeted for travel from L.A. to Baltimore round trip, and then also a show approved housing room. So yes — lodging, travel, and a little bit of spending money, access to the show and that’s about it.
Theresa: So how can someone find out information about this if they’re listening and they are like ‘I totally want to go to the Remodeling Show. How can I apply or find out when you can apply to be considered?’
JB: I plan to launch the contest, or sort of contest — my partner Barry will call it a scholarship fund — but a sort of contest probably with a blog post, around the first week of August. I’d say about August 9th. I’ll be doing incremental updates up until August 9th about the contest and what I have. It will probably be a simple blog post where either someone can nominate themselves or we can have someone else nominate a remodeler to come and then we will have a group of judges, and I was hoping that you Mark and Theresa, would help us judge the contestants that we have.
Theresa: We would love to do that.
Mark: Oh, yes we would. Let me get out my red pen.
Theresa: Now can there be a sort of a way that they have a do a creative use for one of the sponsor’s products or something like that? You know some kind of — can I complexify it? Because that’s what I do, I complexify things.
Mark: I’m going to have to take a nap. JB hold on.
Theresa: That’s my role as the wife and the woman in this whole thing is that I have to make things a little bit tricky.
JB: Complexify. I love to do that. I think that was a stock answer, no? I love doing that.
Mark: I love doing that, yeah.
Theresa: I love doing that, I’m a big fan, I’ll do anything.
JB: I don’t want to complexify. I want to make it real simple, and I do think it should be based a little bit on need, you know a growing business, someone that needs the show. If you’ve had a chance to do the conference portion of the show there’s tons of educational and networking opportunities, and we’ll go from there I guess.
Theresa: Well I think that’s wonderful, and I don’t think remodelers will want to complexify it because everyone is so busy trying to make a living and trying to do what’s right for their customers. But if you do want to make something else that’s really complicated, come to me. I’ve got lots of ideas. I ideate all day long, that’s my whole thing: I ideate.
Mark: I ideate, and JB I’d like to add, I don’t know what that means. So whatever she just said sounds terrific and I support her because she’s my wife and I love her, but honestly I don’t know what happens most of the day.
Theresa: That’s another stock answer — I support her and I love her.
JB: I’ll have to use that on my wife later.
Mark: Yes, nice play.
Theresa: So other things that are going on at Building Moxie too, if you’re not a remodeler and you’re listening to this, what can people find out if they go to your website right now, or if they — you know we follow you on Twitter and Google Plus and Mark’s phone is constantly beeping with your updates.
JB: Well, we pretty much just follow the stream with whatever comes our way. We try not to pass up any opportunities; we have tons of guest posters from all over the place. Different fields, different studies if you will, and we just go. Unfortunately we’re not posting this week simply because the editor is on vacation, but we pretty much cover it all — anything to do with home-related stuff.
Theresa: Well, I kind of liked too that you and your wife are actually really involved in fixing up houses and you’ve moved like five times right?
JB: That’s pretty close. I think we’ve moved three times. We got the bug, I mean I got the bug when we bought our first house in Baltimore, and really haven’t given it up yet. It’s become a part of life that the Mrs did a flip. Has a flip on the market, her first as a real estate agent. So she just did one on her own, and of course I’m busy with our own house, which is not yet finished five, six, seven years into it. But working on houses is part of our life you know, it’s a fix it up life if you will.
Theresa: Well you know that’s exactly how we are and so we always like to hear about other people that are doing the same thing as us because we’re not all alone. There are so many people like us out there who we’re fixing up our houses and we’re trying to raise our family and trying to juggle all the different things, and we learn so much from sharing.
JB: The juggling is the ticket here you know. The girls, I’d like to have them more involved, we have a seven year old and a nine year old. Maybe they’ll get it, maybe they won’t, we’ll see.
Theresa: Oh, they can totally get involved. I’ll give them a list of projects.
Mark: I think he means the bug.
Theresa: They’ll get the bug.
JB: The bug, yes the bug.
Mark: The bug.
Theresa: It’s like a little disease.
Mark: The bug picks you sometimes.
Theresa: I guess, but there’s is always something about your home — like everybody needs to have certain kinds of skills to be able to do simple fix ups around their house. Especially girls. You don’t want to have to wait for your husband or boyfriend, or your dad to come over to your home to help you do simple repairs, so you know it’s good to have a little bit of the bug, even if you’re a little princessy, too.
Mark: Absolutely. And is one of your skills, JB, to climb down off the ladder with a paintbrush or finish nailer or whatever then jump in your car and immediately go get them at an activity and bring them somewhere?
JB: When you have kids you have to fit it in when you can, right Mark?
Mark: It’s true.
Theresa: That’s so true.
Mark: Now how is the flip house actually progressing for your wife? She’s got it, is it on the market did you say?
JB: It is on the market. They finished up about two weeks ago and it was listed about two weeks ago. They’ve gotten a hand full of showings, some interest as far as phone calls etcetera, but no offers yet. It’s her first one so she’s still trying to get the lay of the land. We’re very optimistic, I feel like she’s got it priced right, and it looks great, so it’s just a matter of time I think.
Mark: Well I’m pessimistic at the moment because we have to jump into a break.
Theresa: So go to buildingmoxie.com and follow them on Twitter and find out about the contest you remodelers because somebody is going to get to go to Baltimore for the show.
Mark: And we’re going to go into a break. We’ll be back with more MyFixitUpLife.
