(upbeat music) - Hi friends, welcome to The Savvy Cast, where we'll talk food, family, beauty, health, relationships, and more. Join me for conversation designed to help us live our best and savviest lives. So grab a cup of coffee, and let's talk. (upbeat music) - Hello everyone, welcome to The Savvy Cast. This is Jamie, and I'm very glad that you're here today, whether you're watching on YouTube or listening to the podcast. I had something happen this morning, and I'm gonna share it, and it made me think, this is a podcast that needs to happen. Because as a woman, I always am concerned about things that will be helpful, beneficial, inspiring, or educational to other women. Women are my jam. This is what happened, and what I'm gonna just sort of title this episode is, "Who Are You Gonna Call?" Those of us, you know, older than 50. We remember the movie "Ghostbusters" and the song "Who Are You Gonna Call?" So that's what I wanna title this episode. Zane had an on-site business thing last night, so he was gone, and so Tucker and I took her sleeps with me. Well, even when Zane's home, he usually sleeps with us. But everything was great, and then 5 a.m., both of us, Tucker and I were awakened by this loud. It's like a mini explosion. It was still dark outside. Tucker and I got up, walked around. I felt like I heard water, but I couldn't really see, so I knew that it had to be something to do with water, either our sprinkler system or something with our water system. I immediately texted our plumber, used the same one for over 15 years, and now, mind you guys, I'm assuming that they have their phones off and that they'll just get these messages when they wake up. I would never bother someone that early, but most people's phones are off. So I texted my plumber and then I texted our sprinkler person and I copied Zane on the sprinkler person. Well, long story short, we had two issues with our plumbing and my plumber, Mike, who loved, loved, loved him, have had him for years. He said, Jamie, I am honestly surprised you did not have a flood. Like, there was an expansion valve, that that was the big explosion that I heard. It had, for lack of a better word, exploded. And then there was a pressure gauge. Both of those things had to be replaced. I just felt so relieved. The sprinkler people found a big break in one of the pipes, so we had two major issues. Now, two things I want you all to note in this situation. Number one, I'm having to handle this myself because Zane is gone. It's Tucker and me. Number two, even if Zane were home the way we roll at this house, I handle all of the resources related to professionals that help us, the people that I call. That's not what Zane does Zane. You know, he works hard, provides, but I do all that kind of thing. Guys, if I had not had two resources that they know me by name, I'm in their phones, they're in mine, I could have, I probably would have ended up because it's Friday. This is Friday. And they always, but things usually happen on Friday or on a holiday. I probably still would be waiting. It would probably be next week for a sprinkler system company and a plumber. And I would definitely probably have a flood and we would probably have a $3,000 water bill because they told me what to do. I've turned the water off at the street, all of that. I did ask Mike, my plumber, as I was riding the check, we were conversing. I said, Mike, do you have what long-term clients or do you get a lot of people just calling you when there's an emergency? And he says, well, I've got a lot like you. He said, but I will tell you, I have a lot of emergencies when people are calling me after they have had issues with a roto-rooter. He said, you would not believe how many people will call roto-rooter. And he said, you will sometimes get people who are not professional plumbers or licensed. I think that at some point they have to become licensed. I'm not exactly sure how he explained that. But he said, I have had more messes to clean up and I've walked in and thought this person could not have had their license. He said, whatever you do, tell your people, just don't call roto-rooter. But guys, even more so than that, who wants to be googling, plumber, Birmingham, whatever? It's just a Russian roulette. So have your person, just go ahead and write down all of these things and start calling friends who are savvy with this kind of thing and say, hey, who do you use? Who do you recommend? Maybe you have a neighborhood directory with listings. I'm not sure about Angie's list. I have Jamie's list. 'Cause I'm all about resources in my area. So my friends actually call me. Typically, if they need someone, but just find someone. What I want to discuss very briefly is just having your people, for lack of a better word, having that roledex all set with people who can help you when there is like an emergency, a home emergency. And guys, I've already addressed one, a plumber, a plumbing professional. Guys, if your water's messed up, you're messed up. Even waiting on my plumber, the water pressure because it was spinning at the street, it took me forever because I took a shower. I had worked out early this morning, came home filthy, sweaty, the water was just trickling. And I was like, oh, my goodness. That or not having hot water. Guys, it's not fun when you have a, no, and then not having water, that's really bad. So a plumber is the utmost importance. Like I said, I have had my plumber for over 15 years. He picks up the fountain answers, first ring, hello, Miss Tarnes. You can have that too, but you have to find someone the best way, in my opinion, to find a good solid professional in your area is word of mouth. Now word of mouth pretty much is my number one thing. And then Google reviews. Google reviews are usually 100% accurate. And then they're gonna be usually good or bad. So people love to lay the Google reviews if they're mad at a business. And they love to leave them if they love a business. So those are the two ways. Let me just give you some tips, regardless of what professional we're talking about. Build a relationship with that person where they just can't wait to come help you. This morning when I texted Mike, he said, listen, it may be sprinkler. I'll just come out and look and I'm not gonna charge you. And I said, oh, no, no, sir. I'm gonna pay you. I don't want you to come free, especially on a Friday, just to look. And it ended up that there was definitely a problem. But I feel like knowing them, knowing the professional, knowing that you value them, you value their time, and you would never take advantage. They in turn will go above and beyond. So, and then also whoever does the scheduling, their whole team, it's just smart to be just a helpful, kind, easy to work with client, and you will get more than enough in return. So, I would also schedule, and I do this with almost all of my service professionals. I schedule, like I say, do you have a routine yearly or bi-yearly maintenance? To me, that is worth every penny. It's usually just a couple of hundred dollars. And that's like insurance, because you are catching things before they happen, which usually costs way more, and it's a big headache. Okay, another super, super, super important professional to have is an electrician. It's hard to survive in the dark with no electricity. That doesn't last long. And you just have to think about electricity. If you do not have a whole house generator, which we have, and I will say again and again, it's the best money we've ever spent, worth every penny. But I recall when we did not have it, I have thrown away entire freezers full of food that costs at least $700 and up, just throwing it away because of the heat and the electricity went out, couldn't get it back on. That kind of thing, food waste, boilage, not being able to work, use your laptop. So an electrician is wonderful to have on hand. And if you have a relationship with one, they'll come when there's an emergency. Most of them will, mine will. And it's just so wonderful to know. And I'll just say, I love my electrician. He's a dear friend. I've given him bread. We just have the best time when he's here. He teaches me all about how to choose the right light bulbs for my filming, the food videos. I mean, he's awesome. He loves Tucker. He's just like part of the family. So guys, the people who help you keep your home intact, literally it behooves you to treat them like family and not view them as just somebody to reach out to when you need something. Okay, here's another biggie, heating and cooling. I'm here to tell you guys another long term, over 15 years relationship with a heating and cooling person. And I do not even know where I found Jeff Champion champs heating and cooling. When I tell you, and even saying, because he came for an emergency at the farm, Jeff championed it and saying to Jamie, it's probably one of the nicest men I've ever met in my life. But Jeff has come in multiple emergencies. And when you're heating and cooling goes off in Birmingham, it's almost always an emergency, but it's probably 90 to a hundred degrees unless you're in the dead of winter. I'm just gonna tell you a quick, quick little truth story about my heating and cooling friend. This was, and again, this happened when Zayn was gone. We didn't have the children or all, I think with his mom that weekend. I Saturday night, of course. And it was during a very large Alabama football game. I wanna say it's like Alabama LSU. That was a big, big game. And Jeff is a huge Alabama fan. Well, I look up and water is coming out the roof from the top floor. So I texted Jeff and I said, "Jeff, I know that it's a Saturday and I know there's a game. I'm gonna sit and I sit in a video." Guys, he came out during that ball game, crawled in my attic and was at my house for over an hour. We had the entire upper unit. Water was coming out. It could have been a disaster. I will never be able to repay him. There's no check too big to write. There's not thanks enough. I can't give his name out enough because that kind of sacrificial service just, and guys, they don't charge that much. If you think of what you pay, plumber, electrician, HVAC, it's nothing compared to what service that they are providing. So I will never forget that. And then we had at the farm a few weeks ago, it was actually right before the 4th of July. Zane had gone out early. All the family was gonna go out for the 4th. And Zane called. He said, "Boo, go ahead and put out a family text. The air conditioners out." And of course everybody, no, no. We can do it outside and now it was so hot. It was in the hundreds. Jeff champion went all the way to the farm and he fixed it. Guys, I'm telling you, have your people, have good people, love on them, be good to them, and they'll be good to you when you need them. So we've covered the Biggies, plumbing, electricity, heating and cooling. Find good people, put them in your phone, have them put you in their phone, build that relationship, and then that will cover the majority of the big issues. Now, car problems are another biggie. Again, that is a little outside of my realm. We just have service where I get my car and it's pretty much we can only take it to one place 'cause it is a foreign car. So I don't really know how to advise them on that, but as for the home, those are my biggest tips. I asked Mike, the plumber, I said, Mike, I have so many people that I know who go on vacation or they even go somewhere just overnight or for the weekend, and they come home and they have a flooded room, flooded basement. He said, Jamie, mine, my kitchen flooded a few months ago. We just went away for the weekend and came back. He said, tell your people the way to prevent that, if you're gonna be gone longer than 24 hours, turn your water off to the house, turn it off. I said, do you go to the street? He said, you can go to the street. He said, the water company doesn't like people fooling with it, they sorta don't like that, but of course we can do it anyway if we're trying to protect our house from flooding. But he said, the optimal way is if you have a basement, like we have a walk-in basement, unfinished portion, and you can see it, it's on the wall and it has the turn spout. He said, if you've got a crawl space, then you're probably gonna have to go to the street 'cause you don't wanna crawl under to try to find that. He said, just turn it off. And then he said, also, go to your hot water heater and turn it to, I think he said, stand by, or there's a setting for if you're gonna go away. He said, so do two things, turn the water off to your house and turn your hot water heater like on standby. He said, the pilot line will still work, but you don't have to worry about flooding or like an explosion. He did give another tip. He said, if you go to the street, if you have to go, well ours is at the street. If you go to your outside where the water people come and measure, he said, that is a very, very popular place for black widows. And he said, if you open your water, the flat to the water thing, it's your street. And you see webs, he said, just don't even risk it. He said, black widows have very irregular looking webs. They're not neat like other spiders. But he said, do not stick your hand down there because you can have a whole infestation of black widows. So he said, you can get, I think there's a latch type thing that you can use to turn it, that you can get at Home Depot. But anyway, those two tips to me are we're gonna be doing that from now. We just, we don't do that. Zain and I will go off for a week and we don't do either of those, but now we will. So I hope that this helps one of you or any of you who happened to be going on a trip and maybe would not have done that. I hope it saves you from coming home to a flooded house. I'm trying to think before I wrap this up, if I have hit every major professional and I think I've hit the ones that really do matter, but of course, I would definitely, you wanna have a regular pest control person. 'Cause if you see roaches or if you see a rat, it's great. Like I saw a roach the other day. I had my guy, I said, John, just saw a roach. Can we take care of this next week? He was out there Monday. You wanna have your lawn people. To me, having your lawn people, you know, knowing that your grass will be cut, that it will be blown. We have a great relationship with ours. If I'm having small group or a shower or a party, I'll say, hey, do y'all mind doing it? Just on or before this day. I always accommodate. So just having those relationships with people who keep your house looking and running its best is just super important. Well guys, I hope that this little practical podcast was helpful. As always, feel free to reach out. I love hearing from you all with any tips, suggestions, questions. And I'm so grateful for you and until next time, you have a fabulous rest of your day. Hi everyone. I hope you enjoyed this episode of The Savvy Cast. If you'll take the time to rate, review, and subscribe on iTunes, that would mean so much. As always, thank you for listening and have a blessed day. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) You
