Coming at you from out of the sink. This is unacceptable.
It is the easiest fix with the biggest payoff. She's plumbing and she's electrician today.
With our 1970s home we're working with a lot of outdated and inefficient things today with the
home depot canada i'm sharing some secrets on how you can make your home healthier and more
efficient i promise it's not just about buying shiny new and expensive appliances
these are small investments that you can make that will really help with your utility
bills let's get started when we first moved into this house everybody was really excited
for us they said wow you have a fireplace your heating bills are going to be so much
better now and we were very excited to hear that i love my fireplace not only for ambiance but it
really does warm up the room but i have to say that it doesn't do anything for our heat bills
because all of the warmth in the room gets trapped and stays in here same problem happens in the
basement you know in the summer when the basement is nice and cool but the rest of the house is hot
or in the winter when the basement is the warmest place in your house we've already closed up all
the vents in the basement in hopes to push all the air up through the rest of the house but
it's still not quite enough so i was introduced to the latest and greatest i've never heard of this
it's a smart register fan it is a wi-fi controlled fan that you pop into your vent it does exactly
what the fans around the house does by pushing air around the house and equalizing the temperature of
your overall home i have one installed in every level of the house in the living room as well
as the bedroom and so when we're watching tv at night and we're running the fireplace
the air pushes upstairs into the bedroom and i don't have to go to bed cold anymore
because all of the fireplace heat has actually moved into other areas of the house for once
you can install the app or tie it in with your existing thermostat it runs according to your
settings on the app and it's super quiet growing up at my parents place we had fans all over the
house at the base of the stairs in the basement pushing air up and circulating it around the house
but fans around the house is not a cute look and it's a little cluttered for me i don't want to
have to walk around all these bulky appliances that i have to run all the time and it's in now
run a test i'd say that's pretty subtle compared to a big old fan so you'll hear how quiet it is
first night update after using this this room is always so cold because this is an
external wall it was toasty we were so happy to actually have a warm room to go to sleep
too steph was super impressed with this he said and i quote oh so that's what hot air
feels like coming out events aside from fixing up switched off switching fixing up switchers
aside from switching out fixtures we've also had to install our own lights because
a lot of the bedrooms the two main bedrooms here didn't have any ceiling lights and we
only had a sconce with an incandescent light it was on one side of the wall it still is on one
side of the wall let me show you there it is that's gonna either stay a decorative sconce
a decorative led sconce or we might just cover it up because they're not big bedrooms not only were
the old ones inefficient and wasteful they were also hot and we added dimmers to ours
we just put two pot lights in each room
and it's plenty bright we bought these led puck lights in a box of 12 12.
yes they're ultra slim pot lights and it was relatively easy for
staff to install aside from really really small footprint lighting this is something that will add
a lot of value to your home and if you can get an electrician you can buy the lights and then
have them wire the lights for you you can see how low profile they are compared to the ones
in the living room those ones are a little bit trickier to rewire we're keeping them for now
but they're super sleek and a great upgrade to the house i like to add that almost everything that
i'm working on today is something that i've never done before and i'm doing for the first time ever
i know it can be very overwhelming to maintain the home and as a baby homeowner herself
it is a lot to learn so i'm hoping that these tips and tricks can help
the home depot actually also has a huge resource guide for everything under the sun they are a
wonderful resource in learning how to do your own projects around the home today is the day
i'm so excited it's finally the day to take this light down six bulb incandescent light
that has collected dust over the years in our kitchen and we're trading it in for a sleek
scandi led track light system i said how do you how do i know if it's going to be
bright enough for the kitchen he said how many lumens is it and i said i don't know
we've had this problem steph's going over right now to get the ladder we're going to see what he
does we were running through this issue i had the light ready to go you know we're we're ready to
tackle this chandelier and then i was like do we have a ladder what millennial has a ladder
we're running through all these scenarios in our head steph was trying to think of how he
could get it from his parents but we don't have a big car can we get a huge ladder delivered this
morning he said oh why don't we just ask the neighbors which being from a city you're just
not used to asking your neighbors for things we are on great terms with our neighbors i still
feel bad for asking them but then i decided to try and ask oh my gosh she's out there right now
yes the ladder
you can touch it
look
i'm gonna start flipping breakers okay you're gonna yell when the light turns off
oh there you got it wow so this is what it's like to see the world from your perspective
first thing before we unscrew anything uh-huh we're gonna take the caps off
okay oh there's a draft here too yeah we should weather strip this
and then untangle the wires it's too small to hold yes yes
oh wait it's not do you guys hear how he talks to me are you sure he he does it in like the
nicest way he doesn't say you're wrong or he doesn't say oh you know you don't know
what you're talking about he just lets you figure it out on your own you don't figure
it out on your own then you'll never learn yeah yeah you're really nice though are you sure
oh my gosh goodbye you know this is step one of our kitchen renault yeah this is the very first
thing that we're changing we have a hole just let me know when you're tired and then i'll um
i'll swap with you for a sec but i'm gonna work as fast as i can put them so they're
both facing the same way okay yeah and now take the cap oh and screw them together
okay okay so now yeah working overhead is tough
okay now the moment of truth you have to do the honors no no no
you did it i electrician my own lights
we wanted to swap out our light fixtures anyways but remember that it can be as simple as swapping
out your bulbs to led bulbs and that's all you need to save energy we have a variety of windows
in our house and some of them are updated some of them are not you can hear the draft coming
in i think because of the age of the house we have barely any insulation between our walls and to the
point where there might not be any insulation i think it's just exterior wall and drywall
so unless we want to rip down all the walls and re-insulate the entire house which is not going
to happen we can make some small improvements to help with drafts i can physically feel the
of the cold air seeping in through these doors really any entry and exit point
is opportunity for warm air to escape your house and cold air to get in so the solution to all this
is weather stripping there are all kinds of different weather stripping options so depending
on if you have an exterior door a window or something that you're only closing up temporarily
so my exterior door already has weather stripping installed and there is such a thing as doubling
up on your weather strip as long as you find the right size for the rest of the house i'm going to
be weather stripping in different ways i'm just gonna bundle up first but for around my door
specifically i have a silicone self-adhesive gasket that i'm going to be adding in
in between this big rubber weather strip that i already have existing my neighbors are outside
right now dealing with their ice issues this is the most canadian thing i've ever seen
hello now for these windows in particular which is my old sliding windows i'm going to be using
this rubber window seal gasket so that's going to go in between the doors
and this weathersteel tape which is a great like beginner to draft prevention tool
oh feel how nice i feel how nice this feels
oh wow
whatever old weather stripping they had in between here is already all rubbed off i'm
doubling down on all the weather strip around these windows this is the most satisfying snip
there's also temporary caulking that you can use as well as
door sweeps but depending on any exit or entry point in the house i'm gonna be using a variety
a trick baby wipes to seal up the cool air because you could feel the cold around the window frame
all of these options are removable or replaceable and it is the easiest fix with the biggest payoff
look at how good my application is you don't even notice it's right here i'm going on a draft attack
i think this is the most fun i've ever had in my life so steph and i have had some disagreements
on temperature agreements around the house in our old apartment we would just fight over the
thermostat you know one person will go up and adjust the temperature and then another person
will go up and adjust that temperature so this i would say is not only a relationship saver but
also the first investment i would make moving into any home us as humans we only know how we
feel it could be our mood it could be our stress levels but having a smart thermostat that controls
the temperature digitally because it just runs your appliances efficiently enough that it knows
when to turn it on and when to turn it off so that you don't have to worry about any of it you don't
have to manually adjust anything you just set it and forget it really it just manages temperature
much easier in your home than compared to yeah that feels right another great perk that i love
is that when we leave the house and if i either i forget or i've been out of the house for a long
time i'll just go on my phone and turn it off and turn it back on maybe even an hour before
i get home so that it warms up the house they also sync up to my furnace filter reminder as
well as now the smart register booster that ties in together into a harmonious ecosystem of climate
control we've had this kitchen faucet since we moved in and it's been leaky since we've moved in
so when you turn on your tap and run a sink it's called gpm gallons per minute the average kitchen
faucet runs for about 2.5 you can actually swap out your faucets to a low flow faucet
or getting an aerator for your faucet the new one that we got is a 1.5 gpm all of this sounds
like a bunch of numbers i know if you were to calculate which i have calculated here
we're at point zero one nine cents a gallon just on the kitchen stick alone you do the dishes you
run the water let's say it's about 30 minutes a day that would be 1.425 a day the same rate on
a 1.5 gpm faucet for 30 minutes a day is 85 cents a day doesn't sound like that big of a difference
monthly it's 42.75 to run this faucet but it's only 25.65 to run the new faucet that's
a whole dinner we're itching right now to get our kitchen renovations going and ideally i would be
swapping out the basin as well but because we're definitely getting new countertops for the kitchen
i don't know if we're gonna get a drop-in sink or an under mount sink for now it's just the faucet
she's plumbing and she's electrician today mouths are off okay now get rid of the rest of the
water that was nothing
yup welcome to plumber's life now we gotta get the faucet out will these move
no no they're hard pipes okay just why this is gonna be a little difficult
yeah yeah you're a plumber now
coming at you from out of the sink
uh still looking pretty cute i'd have to say always tie up your hair
don't know why i didn't think of that sooner
and now yeah top okay pull it
goodbye there is also a common misconception that you know a low flow faucet won't have
as much power and people are wary of using it because it won't wash the dishes as well
that all depends on faucet technology and if you get a good faucet
the design of the faucet itself gives it just as much power but just less water use
look don't catch me oh okay okay that should be you think that's good i think so well we'll
turn the water on and find out after i'm so excited maybe for once i'll do the dishes
oh my oh that was really scary i thought that was gonna you know movie spray
1.5 gpa oh it's strong 1.5 gpm baby
hey i have a confession this is my first time ever changing our furnace filters listen it's
it's a common afterthought for everybody this is also me giving you a gentle reminder to
change your furnace filters the furnace filter is kind of like the not all heroes wears capes
device not only does it catch all the dust and allergens around the house but it gets
overworked too it also needs a break the good thing is that you know these companies understand
changing your filters often comes as a second thought if you have a digital thermostat or if you
have the filtrate app they have auto reminders set to remind you to change your furnace filter every
depending on the amount of hours that you put in or depending on how long you've had it for when
you don't change your furnace filter your furnace is running over time trying to get through all of
that dust and allergen just to give you clean air clean warm air and i'm going to take a look
for the first time to see what my furnace filter looks like right now moment of truth
it's so bad oh no oh no old new this is unacceptable it's
opaque with dust installation really was just uh ah done no longer will this happen not on my watch
the age of our furnace is already not great which means that things aren't running efficiently
at all but there is at least one thing that you can do to make it run a little bit better
there are many options nowadays that can help you create a more healthy and efficient home
while providing relief for your monthly utilities from one dollar
sign to three dollar signs you can make a lot of improvements to your home that save energy
and money it's a win-win situation if you find the right product all products mentioned today
are listed in the description or you can find out more at the home depot canada or at home depot
ca if you want more home content you can find me on all social media at leticia q
including instagram and tick tock and i will see you in my next video bye