Under the Influence (with Jo Piazza) - What No One Teaches You About Taking Care of a House

00:00:00.000 hey y'all joe here and welcome to under the influence i gotta tell you that my house is

00:00:17.060 kind of a hot mess right now it is it is we are switching up the kids bedrooms and also doing

00:00:24.920 about four different DIY projects. So everything is all over the place. I'm just, I'm stepping on

00:00:32.420 crap all the time, but I keep telling myself that it's all going to be worth it. It's all going to 0.96

00:00:38.340 look so good in the end. It is. It is. I just, I have to say it out loud. I really do. Today,

00:00:47.200 I'm talking to someone who has genuinely changed the way that I look at my home.

00:00:51.960 You might know Kasey Finn already.

00:00:54.240 She is the force behind the DIY playbook on social media, and she's a true inspiration.

00:01:00.360 If you have ever thought that DIY was only for people with massive budgets and a camera crew,

00:01:07.460 which would be easy to believe after the massive rise of HGTV, Kasey is gonna convince you otherwise.

00:01:15.020 She's been doing this for a long time.

00:01:16.740 you know that I really like talking to OG content creators because they get it. They get it. They've

00:01:22.400 been here for all the changes and they're good at what they do. There's no BS. Casey started

00:01:27.800 sharing home projects back in 2013 before Instagram was even really a big thing. And for the past 12

00:01:33.980 years, she's been building DIY Playbook into a trusted space for real, honest, and I gotta tell

00:01:40.180 just ridiculously gonzo, useful home advice, which I think is something we all truly need.

00:01:48.940 What I really like about her account is that Casey doesn't just show us the pretty after photos,

00:01:53.720 but she also shows us the labor, all of the work, the elbow grease, sometimes the gross stuff

00:02:02.120 that goes into taking care of our home. And she also does something that HGTV does not do enough 0.90

00:02:08.520 of. She shares the real numbers about what it costs to change things in your house. And I gotta 0.88

00:02:16.580 tell you, I'm going to talk about this on this episode. I got totally hoodwinked after watching

00:02:21.200 way too many home renovation shows. When we bought this house, I was like, oh my God,

00:02:25.900 I could totally redo this bathroom for like $10,000. Friends, this bathroom has not been

00:02:30.980 redone yet because that is not what it will cost. Nope, not even a little bit. So in our

00:02:37.260 conversation today we're going to talk about the fun stuff like like renovating a room by yourself

00:02:41.920 but we're also going to get into the unsexy stuff which is kind of my favorite like cleaning out

00:02:46.780 your dryer vent so your house doesn't catch on fire. Casey talks about all of those things all

00:02:52.580 of the little nitty-gritty things about taking care of your house but she makes it seem fun

00:02:57.240 and you know she might be the only person who's ever really inspired me to do something like clean

00:03:02.560 out my dryer vent. Hello, Casey. Hi, Jo. Oh my god. I'm so excited to be here. I'm so excited

00:03:17.020 for you to be here. I have to tell you that I'm obsessed with your content. I am, I'm such a

00:03:24.980 junior varsity DIYer, but I want to do more. And you make me believe that I actually can. So thank

00:03:33.360 you. You can do more. I'm going to move you from JV to varsity girl. Yeah. That was the whole,

00:03:39.200 whole mastermind plan behind this episode is that this is just, this is gonna, this is going to

00:03:45.540 move me from JV to at least the bench, at least the bench on, on varsity. We're, I want to get

00:03:52.280 into everything about how you have created such an incredible social diy channel but first

00:04:00.200 you have taught me how to put on a duvet cover yay oh my goodness right it's one of those life

00:04:07.220 things that stinks every time you want you're like i don't want to wash this thing because i

00:04:11.700 have to put it back on like what the hell it's so hard can you just can you just tell our audience

00:04:15.920 what is the best way to put on a duvet cover yeah so i have like a few different methods some people

00:04:21.200 do like a burrito roll and I've shared that but I think it's harder so really what I do is I flip

00:04:28.380 the insert well I first I take the duvet cover and I put it inside out put the duvet insert on top

00:04:34.940 then you're gonna like reach your hands on in there grab it all pull it through and shake shake

00:04:41.780 shake and usually you have to like get on your bed and look like a crazy person and shake it up and

00:04:46.340 yeah pretty much i mean it's kind of like a workout it's a workout it's effective okay my

00:04:51.920 kids actually think it is hilarious when when i do the jump on the bed shake shake shake and

00:04:56.880 sometimes we shake it off on and it becomes a whole thing i like that tip okay i'm gonna do

00:05:02.080 that next time yeah my kids would love it yeah it's yours now yeah yeah yay so you you've been

00:05:08.060 sharing diy projects online for over 12 years which is wild to me i know what was the landscape

00:05:15.540 like online when you first started doing this? Yeah. I'm definitely like a grandma blogger.

00:05:22.300 So yeah, I started in 2013, which now, I mean, Instagram was not even like really much of a

00:05:27.920 thing back then, especially for, you know, as a job, no way. So really it just started as like

00:05:33.440 a little blog spot, like a little journal where I shared projects I was doing. And mostly I thought

00:05:39.500 my mom's going to read this, you know, who's going to read this. So it was mostly for my family and

00:05:43.600 friends and a way for me to document projects I was doing for fun. Never in a million years did

00:05:48.880 I think anyone else would read it or that it could ever be a job. No way. But it is a job.

00:05:54.580 It is a big job now. It is a whole media brand. How did you go from that to this?

00:06:02.580 Well, for me, it's been a slow burn. I know some people have overnight success. Mine has been 12

00:06:10.820 years in the making. I did it on nights and weekends while working. I worked in TV as a TV

00:06:16.440 reporter for, um, most of my twenties and I loved doing projects on the side and I was making like

00:06:24.040 no money working in TV news. I'm sure, you know, but I wanted my place to look cute. So I turned

00:06:32.020 to DIY projects. I would go, you know, to flea markets and the antique stores. And that's the

00:06:36.700 way like I created the look for less. So I started sharing those projects for fun. And then my

00:06:43.220 audience kind of grew and grew. I was just very consistent with it. And every night and on

00:06:49.260 weekends, that's all I did was work on the DIY playbook. And after five years of doing that,

00:06:54.900 you know, a full time job and this on the side full time, pretty much, I was making enough money

00:06:59.940 to quit TV. And I was like, let's let's see where this goes. So that was eight years ago. And so

00:07:05.240 I've been doing the DIY playbook as my full-time gig now for that long.

00:07:09.820 Yeah, which is incredible.

00:07:11.700 And I think you are providing such a service to us too

00:07:15.740 because as you've been doing this,

00:07:18.120 we've seen the evolution of like home renovation shows, right?

00:07:24.180 Which, I mean, I love them.

00:07:26.460 I love a good home renovation show.

00:07:28.780 But no one is renovating a bathroom for $3,000.

00:07:32.640 Oh my God, it kills me.

00:07:34.420 What are these? It's made of crap, right? It's made of crap. It kills me every time. But you 1.00

00:07:40.600 are actually showing us the work. You're showing us how to do it ourselves, what to put in,

00:07:46.080 what labor it takes. And I love that because I think so much of social media strips the labor

00:07:50.580 out of it. And you're like, no, this is the elbow grease that's going to take it to get this done.

00:07:56.860 But then you're going to have this beautiful thing. And I think that that is why your content

00:08:00.680 is just so satisfying. Oh, that's so sweet of you, Joe. And I do share real numbers. Like we,

00:08:07.100 we have a 100 year old home. We've renovated every bathroom, every kitchen. And I've always

00:08:12.520 done like a line item blog post with, this is how much our, our kitchen costs. And people are always

00:08:18.040 like, it's always scary publishing. People are like, you spend 80 grand on a kitchen. They're

00:08:22.140 like, this is how much a kitchen renovation costs. I live in Chicago. This is how much

00:08:26.580 things cost these days. And I think people are always like a little like aghast by that. But

00:08:32.300 many also write to me like, thank you so much. Now I know what to budget for. Now I know that

00:08:38.560 my contractor was maybe overcharging me for this. So I just want it to be as accessible

00:08:44.280 for people as possible. You know, here are all the numbers and here are ways that you can save

00:08:48.760 money by doing these aspects yourself. Yeah, no, exactly. Exactly. And I do think that so many of

00:08:54.020 those renovation shows made it certainly made me believe when we were moving into our more than

00:08:59.300 100 year old house yeah we walked around when we walked around the first time i'm like oh my god

00:09:03.080 yeah so it's just gonna be like three grand to fix this whole bathroom and this kitchen's gonna

00:09:07.200 be like 30 grand um yeah our our kitchen our kitchen reno bled into the first floor of our

00:09:15.400 house so i mean it was kind of like a whole first floor facelift in a way and that was a hundred

00:09:21.380 thousand dollars and I when we bought this house I was like that's a thirty thousand dollar project

00:09:26.800 because I didn't know right and people are so strange talking about money but we're all doing

00:09:33.220 these kinds of projects so I think it's important to be honest about you know what does it take

00:09:38.240 I totally agree I totally agree being yeah transparent about that it's so good so so good

00:09:44.880 for people to know everyone's working on their homes and you want to know the real dollars behind

00:09:49.680 it i want to know the real dollars behind it but then i also want to know the things i can

00:09:53.860 accomplish myself right and like that's where you come in with the bigger tasks to the smaller

00:10:01.500 things like weather stripping which is another thing that i learned really sexy stuff right

00:10:07.380 like sexy stuff yeah yeah yeah yeah weather shipping cleaning fridge coils just like

00:10:13.740 yeah all the dust around the house i'm gonna find it somehow and i'm gonna

00:10:17.760 tell you that you need to clean it i know i know but i love that because i also need that level

00:10:22.840 of encouragement and reminder to do these things um and the fact that i can do them

00:10:29.300 myself like it is really encouraging to me yeah that so for most of my time doing the diy playbook

00:10:37.520 i've shared a lot of before and after makeovers renovations but in the last two years i i've

00:10:42.880 pivoted to more of the home maintenance stuff the unsexy stuff that keeps a home running smoothly

00:10:47.680 and honestly I've gotten the biggest response from that and I think it's because everyone can

00:10:53.720 do it some people don't know they should be doing it but I'm kind of teaching them and showing them

00:10:58.440 how to be accountable and you spend your house is usually your biggest asset and no one tells you

00:11:03.560 how to take care of it so I want to help I want to be here to say hey these are the things you

00:11:08.820 should be doing every three months every six months and then you know your hot water heater

00:11:12.940 is not going to die. Your AC is going to be well-maintained. So things like that, that people

00:11:18.800 just don't even really know what to do. No one teaches you this stuff. No one teaches you this

00:11:23.580 stuff because, I mean, it's for the schools that even still have HOMAC, which I don't think most

00:11:28.560 of them do, this isn't what we're learning in those classes. And so it's just, it's so useful

00:11:36.040 um and and inspiring and i think that people are really hungry for it what is what is the most

00:11:43.900 watched thing you put up that you're like this is the least sexy thing that i could possibly put up

00:11:49.060 and people are like i want more of this yeah i think one of the most popular ones has been

00:11:55.760 cleaning your dryer vent which again not sexy but i mean there are a lot of fires from dryer

00:12:02.480 vents. We actually had a bird's nest stuck in ours. You know, our dryer just was not working

00:12:07.660 and we kept smelling things. We're like, something's wrong here. So, you know, I pull it all

00:12:11.300 out, find a legit bird's nest in there. An actual bird's nest in your dryer. It got in there for the

00:12:17.580 outside, created a little home over winter. So that's when I really started. I was like, I need

00:12:23.380 to do more home maintenance. That's kind of with one of the shifts for me. And so now I'm very on

00:12:28.440 top of the dryer bed cleaning but yes i think people just you know clean the lint tray and i

00:12:32.440 think that's good enough but really like it gets all in there and yeah you gotta yeah i'm gonna

00:12:36.660 admit twice a year no no no i i really i am a person who just thinks you have to clean the

00:12:43.160 lint tray and maybe the issue is my vent it could be yeah if you're dry if your clothes don't dry

00:12:50.060 or like it keeps shutting off and you're like oh my gosh i just turned this on it might be that

00:12:54.260 yeah and then you're like you know you just like stick a thing down there you get like a nice

00:12:58.800 vacuum it's very satisfying that's the best part all of god i'm like it takes 20 minutes and you're

00:13:04.320 like why didn't i do this like i built it up in my head and then you do it and you feel like a

00:13:08.760 goddess you're like oh my god like i could do god i'm amazing i can literally do anything

00:13:13.320 now that i cleaned out this dryer vent all right i'm gonna do i'm doing it right as soon as we get

00:13:18.360 off this i'm gonna keep you accountable i'm gonna keep you okay great i'm gonna send you all the 0.61

00:13:21.860 Show me the lynch. 0.64

00:13:22.980 Show me the lynch.

00:13:23.560 Show me.

00:13:24.120 No, not just the lynch. 1.00

00:13:25.080 Whatever that bird that is in that gyro right now, which would totally, totally be happening. 1.00

00:13:31.160 OK, let's take a quick break. 0.98

00:13:32.500 And when we get back, I want to talk about one of my favorite projects of yours.

00:13:36.460 And it's also so simple, but so joyous.

00:13:40.180 The kids closet update that is like NASA, NASA mission control.

00:13:47.320 Yes.

00:13:47.940 Oh, my gosh.

00:13:48.480 I'm so excited we're going to chat about this. 0.95

00:13:51.860 okay we are back i'm i'm totally stealing this from your diy playbook you converted what was 1.00

00:14:04.800 kind of a useless ish space in your house into the most magical freaking place for children ever 0.59

00:14:10.340 can you describe it please for our audience yes so we have a basement and underneath the stairs 1.00

00:14:16.700 we had this closet that was just pretty much like jam-packed with shit. Like we would put 0.94

00:14:22.080 all of our extra bedding in there. I mean, you would open it up and stuff would fall out at you.

00:14:26.880 And it was such a pain point for me. I was like, how can I organize this? And like nothing was

00:14:31.240 working. So I thought, I'm going to make something cool for my kids. And my daughter, Rory, is really

00:14:38.240 into outer space. She like knows everything about the solar system. Same, same, same with my girl.

00:14:43.540 yeah right yes she loves it i'm gonna be an astronaut and i'm like yeah you go girl heck

00:14:48.800 yes so i was like how can i you know show her that mom is cool and can do badass stuff and that

00:14:56.100 she's also a badass too and give her like a space to explore this interest of hers so i took

00:15:02.300 everything out of this terrible hellhole of a closet and i wallpapered it with this really

00:15:07.640 beautiful starry night scape and I added a mission control board that I made out of like wood and I

00:15:14.640 like asked all of my neighbors for random keyboards and old phones and calculators to make

00:15:19.920 a whole little station for them and I added a big moonlight and lights in there and somehow I kept

00:15:27.360 it a secret from them while I was working on it oh my god they didn't know yeah I love that

00:15:32.300 a good little surprise they had no idea and then they came downstairs my two kids and thought and

00:15:38.600 they were just blown away and now it's it's like the hot spot for all the kids in the neighborhood

00:15:43.300 they all want to come over and playing like we have little like jackets where they can like lab

00:15:47.500 coats and we have like a full-blown astronaut outfit so they all like turn we just picked it

00:15:52.880 up we went to uh the air and space museum at dolla love it yeah no it's a good one it's a

00:15:59.260 It's in an airplane hangar, and we got the full NASA-approved space suit and helmet,

00:16:06.060 and she hasn't taken it off in weeks.

00:16:08.340 Okay, yours is, like, legit.

00:16:09.900 I need to get one of those.

00:16:11.240 That's awesome. 0.51

00:16:11.660 Yeah, you've got to take her because they've got one of the shuttles there, which is super

00:16:15.560 cool for them to see.

00:16:17.040 I love it.

00:16:17.240 Yeah, yeah.

00:16:17.840 I love it.

00:16:18.640 Yeah.

00:16:19.160 So, yeah, they must just love this.

00:16:21.220 Oh, it's so fun.

00:16:22.360 You know, it's a great little space, and, you know, who knows how long they'll love it.

00:16:26.200 I'm sure I'll turn it into something else in five years, but for now.

00:16:29.260 it's so cool it was so fun to create and just like a little magical childhood closet right

00:16:34.780 yeah no exactly i mean i love creating places of wonder in our house like that is that is that is

00:16:42.320 one of my goals like you know not everything in the house is going to be perfect all the time but

00:16:46.680 like i do want there to just be little moments one of my favorite things was when we were in

00:16:52.940 lisbon my husband and i were taking a vacation without the kids and we went in this cool hotel

00:16:57.520 bathroom and the toilet paper was bright yellow and i was like oh my god like this is just like

00:17:04.520 such a fun moment of wonder and so now i've ordered like hot pink toilet paper and bright

00:17:10.920 yellow toilet paper i didn't even know that was a thing oh it's a thing girl yeah and it brings

00:17:15.220 people so much joy in your bathroom yeah oh my gosh i could just hear like the the gasp when

00:17:20.800 like someone goes in like oh i have to go to the bathroom and they're like and then they're like

00:17:23.560 toilet paper in this i'm gonna admit something i loved it so much that i i i totally took a roll

00:17:31.180 and put it in my purse and i smuggled i smuggled this roll of toilet paper out of this lisbon hotel

00:17:36.600 i left a very we all would okay everyone would we all everyone yeah okay um and yeah and now

00:17:42.080 it's just like we had people over uh for pizza before back to school last night and yeah i got

00:17:46.600 the gas for someone like being like and i actually heard somebody like yellow toilet paper and i'm

00:17:50.000 like calling from the door like I know it's awesome right well it just shows like how thoughtful and

00:17:55.000 your you know attention to detail I love it yeah well you know and I think about my home a lot and

00:18:02.260 prioritizing it like for me at first I was worried that it would feel frivolous you know to spend the

00:18:09.260 money on this renovation and I was talking to Gabby Blair I was interviewing her for this podcast

00:18:15.200 years ago you know she's just the guru behind design mom and love her so much uh and she's like

00:18:22.100 no she's like your home is where you spend the majority of your time it's where your family

00:18:28.180 becomes a family she's like if you have the means you do what it takes to make it your place and i

00:18:34.280 think about that all the time yes okay first of all i love her design mom she's like the goat to

00:18:41.000 me. She's the go. And yeah, she's the go. And that's exactly it. I hate when I get messages

00:18:46.380 from people and they say, oh, like I want to paint this room this color, but someone might not buy

00:18:52.580 that someday. Or like, I really like this bold tile, but what about if it's bad for resale? And

00:18:57.740 I'm like, who the hell cares about this imaginary buyer? If you like it, do it. If you like it,

00:19:03.980 do it. Because, you know, some realtor, who knows, you may not sell your house for 20 years

00:19:08.100 and then some realtor is going to come in and whitewash it anyway so who gives a shit 0.91

00:19:11.960 exactly do it for you you're living there now enjoy it enjoy it what has been the favorite 0.59

00:19:20.500 space for you to redo in your house oh this is such a good question and also a hard one

00:19:27.760 i know yeah that's a hard one i'd have to say my daughter's room i feel like i'm not giving

00:19:33.220 my son enough love. I love him too. I swear. But I went through three years of infertility

00:19:44.040 and IVF to have our daughter. And when we purchased this house, we didn't have any kids

00:19:49.620 yet. We kind of bought it out of a place of like desperation for a new happy chapter.

00:19:55.560 And I thought, you know, I'm going to put all of my time and effort into making this house amazing

00:19:59.940 because the kid thing is just not happening right now and then we worked on this home for three

00:20:05.540 months did like a really big renovation before we moved in and the week we moved in I found that I

00:20:10.600 was pregnant from IVF and being like in her nursery and like envisioning it and envisioning

00:20:18.300 like actually bringing a baby back there was just like that's what kept me going and then we had

00:20:25.160 our daughter april 2020 so it's like you know oh my gosh crazy and we did the we renovated her

00:20:33.280 entire space while i was pregnant leading up to her birth and being able to bring her back home

00:20:37.880 here it was just so special so it's now a little bit different we've created a big girl room now

00:20:43.720 but it's still so magical for me yeah no i get i get that first baby room was a big deal for us

00:20:52.900 Although we're about to start going through a new transition and I've been scouring your page for tips because for the first time in five years, we're not going to have an au pair living with us.

00:21:05.340 And so we're getting a room, a whole new room.

00:21:08.720 And my son's getting his own room for the first time since my daughter was born five years ago.

00:21:14.000 And then the two girls are moving in together.

00:21:16.240 So I'm like, oh, my God, how do I have two whole spaces to completely change?

00:21:20.480 That is so exciting.

00:21:21.800 Oh, I'm so excited for you.

00:21:22.980 And kids' rooms are really fun to do, you know.

00:21:25.160 Oh, I love it.

00:21:26.700 Kids' rooms are just the best.

00:21:28.800 We also, at our cabin this weekend, we ripped out two built-in closets so that we could move the kids' bunk bed and just have, like, more space in there.

00:21:39.900 And then we went to a ridiculous rummage sale in this old creepy mansion upstate and bought like one of those like needlepoint things that looks almost like carpet from the 70s of baby bears playing.

00:21:54.640 Oh, my God.

00:21:56.000 I know.

00:21:57.460 I know.

00:21:58.000 It's so bizarre and also perfection.

00:22:00.860 Yes, exactly.

00:22:02.120 OK, you are not JV.

00:22:03.240 You are varsity for sure. 1.00

00:22:04.840 Oh, shut up. 1.00

00:22:05.840 You're taking both things out. 1.00

00:22:07.680 You're going to rummage sales.

00:22:08.840 is like all right put her in coach she's ready i'm ready to play i am ready to play it is true

00:22:15.060 so you're putting you're putting so much of your house out there online and that's a really

00:22:20.620 personal thing how do you choose what to show and what not to show and has that evolved over the

00:22:27.800 years oh such a good question yes it's completely evolved i do sometimes think it's strange

00:22:33.940 like people know where my underwear drawer is, you know, like I'll do an organizing post. Here's

00:22:39.640 my closet. So people like know where my underwear is. So that's a little strange. I have, um, it's

00:22:45.680 been, it's evolved over the years because I've, I've shared a lot of personal stuff, not just

00:22:50.880 home. You know, I shared our entire infertility journey, having our daughter. Um, I had like

00:22:55.820 insomnia a couple of years ago. I shared that and like getting on anxiety medicine. So it's been

00:23:00.040 more than even just DIY tutorials. My community has been with me from getting married to now

00:23:07.100 being a family of four, they've seen all of Casey. So there has been putting up boundaries

00:23:14.060 over the years. Like, what am I going to share and what am I not? And honestly, listening to

00:23:18.340 Under the Influence, when you did the podcast about children and influencers sharing their

00:23:22.980 children, after that, I stopped sharing my kids online. You like scared me straight. So

00:23:28.160 Yeah, I know.

00:23:28.700 I get it anymore.

00:23:29.640 I get it.

00:23:30.340 I know.

00:23:30.840 I know.

00:23:31.300 I mean, I went to a place where I completely took them off.

00:23:36.540 I mean, pretty much I took 99% of them off.

00:23:39.140 Now, they've been back on a little bit more lately.

00:23:44.220 But I think I'm going back the other way.

00:23:46.680 I mean, yeah, I just, it's a scary, the internet is a scary place to be sharing so much of our lives.

00:23:53.220 But then also when you're building a brand online, you kind of don't have a choice.

00:23:59.260 So I think I just think it's so interesting to ask different people how they choose to do this.

00:24:04.100 Yeah, I know. It's been really I don't share our family much.

00:24:08.800 I kids all show them from behind now and then.

00:24:12.240 But I would never share like, you know, their personal lives or struggles or anything like that.

00:24:17.320 So I try to keep it to mostly home. Home content, DIY, things that are going to help my community. And then I sprinkle in, you know, some day to day, my personality here and there. But yeah, it's been hard to figure out what's too much, what's not enough, what makes me feel good. So I think it's kind of ever changing and probably is for most influencers.

00:24:41.700 Yeah, I think it's a lot of trial and error, too, right?

00:24:44.680 Like, it's a lot of us just being like, okay, this feels good.

00:24:46.940 This doesn't feel good.

00:24:48.660 This works for me.

00:24:50.380 This doesn't work for me.

00:24:52.780 I show a lot of our messy house because I find that, you know, people are kind of hungry to see, like, what normal homes look like these days.

00:25:02.740 Yes, totally.

00:25:04.440 And then also how people clean up normal homes, you know, which is where so much of your stuff comes in.

00:25:10.420 exactly exactly you're seeing all the dust bunnies in my house and all the weird stuff

00:25:15.420 i'm pulling out when i'm you know making the bad like here's my husband's sock and here's oh my

00:25:19.360 god there's always a sock why does a man leave a sock in a one sock like literally every time

00:25:24.040 oh it's so bad they're everywhere and he's a he's a sock man they're all over the house

00:25:29.320 and kills i know it's like men just shed socks all over the house and i don't i don't get it

00:25:35.940 i don't know how to fix it if i look i've got a lot of complaints about men but like that's up

00:25:41.460 there in my top five stop shedding socks all over the house yes agreed agreed and the beard stubble

00:25:46.860 after a shave that one gets me oh my god i'm like here's the club um they just came today why did

00:25:52.860 why couldn't you have done this yesterday come on why did you make this choice why did you choose

00:25:56.760 this yes yeah no exactly exactly yeah it's it's just it's infuriating and i'm also trying to raise

00:26:03.500 a boy human that doesn't do it like i see him take off a sock and he's about and i'm like what

00:26:08.180 what are you gonna do with that sock mister yep it's like i'm gonna be like daddy i'm just gonna

00:26:14.140 put it here i'm just gonna put it here yeah my daughter would never she would never know

00:26:18.840 all right all right we are we are gonna take one more quick break and we will be right back

00:26:24.060 all right we're back so do you ever get backlash like do you ever get any negative comments

00:26:38.000 at all you know for the most part i'm very grateful that most of my community is

00:26:42.960 extremely positive i think like i have people who've been with me for 12 years like they've seen

00:26:48.700 my whole life the whole thing yeah yeah exactly so those you know I have many followers who are

00:26:54.520 like that and they've just been around since the start and they know me um but then you know

00:26:59.780 something will go viral and you get kind of the randoms coming in that don't really know

00:27:03.620 I'd say within my niche it's mostly like men who come in to try to mansplain stuff like that's

00:27:11.580 and I'm like oh block delete I don't need to hear from you you know no no no I don't need to hear

00:27:15.800 i don't need you to man clean things yeah that's so that's that's what i was curious about if you

00:27:19.880 ever get men coming and being like you could do that better this is how you do that yes exactly

00:27:24.920 exactly and i'm like excuse me sir i want to see what your house looks like come on come on yes

00:27:30.680 please please show me your dryer vent mister yes yes so yeah so i don't take it to heart

00:27:37.100 you know especially the the creepy men who who say stuff like that i don't take it to heart

00:27:43.000 um let's see backlash mostly i mean not in terms of home stuff i'd say maybe like when i was sharing

00:27:52.180 more of my kids i couldn't take it if anyone told me i was like mothering wrong like oh i know oh

00:27:57.380 my gosh it kills me so i think you've got time yeah yeah yeah i can't i'm like you don't know

00:28:03.200 me you're not here the whole day and with my kids so so yeah so that stuff i think that really

00:28:09.380 influenced me to stop sharing my kids because i'm like i don't want your unsolicited advice 0.93

00:28:13.560 no i mean but also i mean i just feel like as women who live a life online you're kind of damned

00:28:19.440 if you do and damned if you don't and i do feel like we often cannot get it right for everyone

00:28:25.620 generally the diy space seems pretty friendly to me though i agree i totally agree joe if i was in

00:28:33.340 a different niche i don't know if i could do it but this one i know seems like the good one to be

00:28:38.640 you know everyone's uplifting and encouraging and i'm like i'm what who am i harming i'm just

00:28:44.140 trying to teach you how to do things and i'm all about girl power and empowering women like how

00:28:49.320 could we i'm gonna be sad about this come on people how can we be sad about this exactly

00:28:54.220 exactly because i mean there are so many spaces on the internet that i'm like i would just love 0.57

00:28:58.180 to get off of this totally but i want i want i want to live in the diy playbook this is this is 0.90

00:29:05.060 If I could just look at paint colors all day, I could choose paint colors with you all day long. 0.99

00:29:09.340 Let's do it.

00:29:10.060 Let's do it.

00:29:10.780 So soothing.

00:29:12.300 So good.

00:29:13.300 I totally agree.

00:29:14.400 So soothing.

00:29:14.960 And also organizing a drawer.

00:29:16.660 I got asked a lot on Booktour.

00:29:19.480 They're like, well, what social media rabbit holes do you fall down?

00:29:23.200 And I'm like, for a while, it was just like single drawer organization.

00:29:28.360 I just want to watch.

00:29:29.320 Like the ASMR of it, right?

00:29:30.660 Yes.

00:29:31.140 Yes.

00:29:31.660 I want to watch this drawer get cleaned out.

00:29:34.820 I want to watch things get thrown away and then and then I may or may not clean a drawer but it's

00:29:40.260 so soothing to me everyone loves a good before and after everyone even if it's just a drawer

00:29:46.820 even if it's just a drawer right I know I know well I'm a good I'm gonna post a before and after

00:29:51.680 on my newsletter when I promote this episode I was so proud of myself okay my husband always

00:29:57.480 doubts what I can do with spray paint what I can do with Rust-Oleum spray paint and we had like a

00:30:04.400 crappy old metal toilet paper roll holder in our bathroom at the cabin. And I got some high gloss

00:30:11.420 yellow paint and it looks so good. To go with the yellow teepee? Yes. Yes. Yeah. I love this.

00:30:18.680 The tone on tone look. I know. I know. Yeah, no, it looks so good. And I was just like,

00:30:24.640 Nick Astor, why do you doubt me? I'm like, I can do anything with spray paint. I really can.

00:30:29.120 Have you posted photos of your cabin? Because I want to see this.

00:30:32.040 i put i post a couple i haven't posted them i haven't posted them recently i will i will send

00:30:36.840 you uh the backroom diy that we did we got a dumpster last week which just like getting a

00:30:43.500 dumpster to be able to like dump things in a dumpster and i i hate waste like we're all about

00:30:47.680 sustainability and keeping things out of the landfill but some things have to go in a dumpster

00:30:50.920 okay exactly it was very satisfying and then we opened up that dumpster to the whole neighborhood

00:30:55.780 so it became like a neighborhood dumpster and i just i think that we could really bring people

00:31:01.580 together if we all just like once in a while and got a dumpster moment bring your garbage it's a

00:31:05.880 dumpster party it's a dumpster it's a dumpster party like the good kind of dumpster party yeah

00:31:11.440 yeah um so yeah that was highly highly satisfying and it brought all the neighbors together people

00:31:17.540 had some beers they they chucked things in the dumpster it was a it was a good time the bear

00:31:22.040 did try to get in the dumpster at one point but you know i'm stealing this this party idea i'm

00:31:26.780 stealing this party steal it because you're in your neighbors well thank you because everyone

00:31:30.200 has stuff that is dumpster worthy that has been sitting in their basement for like three years

00:31:35.440 the trash guys aren't going to take it no one wants to drive to the dump and like you will

00:31:38.660 make new friends okay i love this i love this dumpster party adding to my my vision yes yes

00:31:47.080 exactly exactly um what is what is next for you like what what is coming up in the end of 2025

00:31:55.500 for you. So, and I'm going to need your advice on this. I'm actually writing a book.

00:32:00.660 Oh my God. Shut your mouth. Yeah. So I created this digital guide about a year ago and one of 1.00

00:32:07.180 my followers worked in publishing and reached out and she's like, we need to turn this into a book.

00:32:10.840 So I signed a book deal at the beginning of 2025, actually just turned my manuscript in

00:32:15.580 and your home playbook is the title of the book will come out January, 2027.

00:32:21.000 oh my gosh is so i love this for you and i think yes this is also what everyone needs and i'm here

00:32:29.380 i'm here for all of the advice i know all i know all of the things all of the things about one will

00:32:33.680 be coming your way for sure yes yeah no i can't i i can't wait so is it is it based on the digital

00:32:40.580 guide because i love i tell i want to tell everyone a little bit about the digital guide because i

00:32:43.860 think it's so useful yeah so really it's like a one-stop shop for taking care of your home

00:32:48.780 it has month by month here are the tutorials you need to follow to maintain your home it also has

00:32:55.840 like a your home diary where you write all of your information so all of your manuals all like your

00:33:01.880 mortgage info a list of all the contractors paint colors really just like you had this file where

00:33:07.640 you can access everything about your house and then you know ways to keep up with it so it will

00:33:12.620 be kind of a larger version of the digital guide we'll have like some renovation chapters in there

00:33:19.380 as well and yeah we shot all the photos this summer it'll be kind of like a copy table book

00:33:25.020 that you can then reference month by month to keep your home running smoothly so it should be fun

00:33:32.080 kind of like a mix of like a how-to guide there's nothing really like there like it out there it's 0.53

00:33:37.500 a lot of like manly old family handyman type guides nothing from a woman so i'm like okay

00:33:45.460 we need to change this up we need to change this up we need to change this and i love that you're

00:33:50.500 breaking the stereotype of like the old bro dude handyman right like the one that was literally on

00:33:59.060 there was one on every 80s television show that was oh my god yes yes exactly and really that's

00:34:05.040 what's out there especially in terms of books it's still you're hearing from an old white dude

00:34:09.580 who assumes you know everything about your water heater and i'm like no no we're gonna like

00:34:14.600 roll this back let's let's put this in terms that everyone understands so it'll be more like that

00:34:20.460 no one knows everything about their water heater no one no no my husband teaches himself to do

00:34:26.240 most things on reddit these days to be honest that's how i've learned is like youtube and

00:34:31.620 research and read it things like that finding out from other people who've done it before and

00:34:36.000 giving it a try yeah one of your posts that i think is really great is 13 basic diy skills

00:34:44.880 that are just useful just useful in the world what are some of those yeah so how to change

00:34:52.980 your air filter everyone's got an air filter you should know how to change it shouldn't be that

00:34:57.200 hard where your water main shutoff valve and where your gas shutoff valve is. These are things that

00:35:04.140 every homeowner should know in case of emergency. So really things like that. You don't have to know

00:35:09.220 how to, you know, use a saw and do like big scary projects. It's more like the basic DIY skills

00:35:15.440 that come with being a homeowner that I want to teach people, especially women, so that they don't

00:35:20.620 need to rely on their husband to do it or call their dad or something like that. Like, no, you 1.00

00:35:25.580 could do this yeah yeah no um through that post i actually learned how to fix holes in my drywall

00:35:31.400 oh good good good yeah that's another thing that everyone has everyone's got holes

00:35:36.440 everyone's all got holes exactly and and also and also oh my gosh we've gone we've gone to some

00:35:41.920 places um yeah yeah yeah although like i still haven't moved on to operate a power drill and

00:35:48.000 that's okay that's okay you'll get there you'll get there not that i'm on the varsity team i mean

00:35:53.040 there's just you are yeah we'll give you like a nice issued basic drill for you to try out now

00:35:58.580 that you're yeah well i mean but it's also some things that when you go through the list you're

00:36:02.140 like oh my god why don't i know how to use a fire extinguisher yeah oh that's that's a big one i mean

00:36:07.560 i'm saddened by how many times we've used ours my husband is a big griller but sometimes whoa

00:36:13.740 i think we've gone through at least like four in the last six years of living here yeah i've never

00:36:17.620 had to use one but we have we have we have them here we have them there like we have them in all

00:36:21.780 the places but like i've never and until like i took took a look at that i had never really thought

00:36:26.620 i'm like huh yeah i know it's there but i don't you're like in tannic and you're like oh i totally

00:36:33.780 agree after our first grill fire i was like okay i'm gonna make sure we all know how to use this

00:36:38.600 we're gonna stock it here and there yeah well and i also i love stocking a toolbox too this is my

00:36:48.660 this is my go-to graduation gift for every woman graduating from college. I make them a toolbox. 0.79

00:36:57.420 Okay. I love this. Yes. Yes, Joe. Oh, that's such a good one. And you know what? So my mom growing

00:37:04.940 up, so my dad was in business and he traveled a lot. So I didn't learn anything handy from him.

00:37:09.680 He was the one to call people. But my mom, somewhat handy and because she kind of had to be

00:37:15.720 because no one else was around to do it. But she had this like pink tool set, which like makes my 1.00

00:37:22.280 heart want to like cry because it's like just so speaking down to women. And it's got this hammer 1.00

00:37:27.920 that weighs like nothing. And I'm like, mom, she still has it. She's almost 70. And I'm like, mom,

00:37:33.380 we need to get you some better tools. We can't use this hammer that weighs like nothing. This

00:37:37.820 will not do anything. So I think it's called do it herself toolkit or something. She's had it

00:37:44.600 forever yes yes so i'm glad that you're giving like real tools a real toolbox putting your stamp

00:37:52.700 on it don't do it herself no one else is owning you this right and then it's just like and then

00:37:58.620 sometimes i put little bottles of liquor in it as you should as you should that's the perfect

00:38:04.260 gift for 20 something yes it really is booze and tools exactly not mixed together but you know

00:38:12.020 mix together no i drink it after you hang something and you're like yeah yeah i'm awesome

00:38:16.300 for a job well done i know i had to give nick rules because he like i'm like you can have a

00:38:22.420 beer after you use the power tools like do not take the chainsaw out and go try to cut down some

00:38:27.940 trees man after you had an idea okay just like tools first beer later yes yes that's always good

00:38:36.820 that's always a good good it's good advice it is um i could i could talk to you forever except it

00:38:42.920 is the first day of school pickup and i have to go yes wow uh yeah oh my gosh yeah which but

00:38:48.740 they've been gone all day which has been so nice oh i feel yeah i feel yeah just love an empty house

00:38:54.220 quiet around here what's happening oh why it's so clean it's so clean with me just a little bit

00:39:00.220 longer for 10 more minutes will you tell everyone where they can find you and all of your wonderful

00:39:05.680 content. Yes. So you can head to my website, the DIY playbook.com there. You'll find over 2000

00:39:13.100 tutorials since I've been doing this a long time. And then on Instagram, you'll find me at DIY

00:39:18.540 playbook and pretty much all the social channels, all the places. Thank you so much. Thank you for

00:39:23.740 elevating me to varsity. I'm not going to, I'm going to do you proud. Yes, you are. I'm proud

00:39:29.720 of you, Joe. Awesome. All right. I'm going to go check my dryer vent now. Bye Casey. Thanks, Joe.

00:39:35.680 Thank you.

00:40:05.680 Thank you.

Under the Influence (with Jo Piazza) - August 28, 2025

What No One Teaches You About Taking Care of a House

Episode Stats

Transcript