Ever wondered how someone can build a successful career in construction from scratch? Our guest for this episode, Tina Georgopolous, is the perfect person to answer that question. Serving as an inspiration to all our DIY enthusiast listeners, this handy lady and general contractor shares her exciting journey. She talks about how she dove headfirst into the construction industry, the challenges she faced, and her adventures with full-blown rehabs. Wait till you hear about the tiles installed backward that kept popping off and her near-fall from a 26-foot ladder!
But that's not all. As we navigate through real estate horror stories, we emphasize the importance of hiring the right team and our duty to protect clients. The episode won't be complete without touching on the transformative power of refinishing cabinets in the kitchen. We also delve into the world of painting kitchen cabinets and the best countertop options, discussing the importance of using an alkyd based paint and prepping the surface with a trisodium phosphate. You'll also learn about the difference between countertops. So, buckle up as we embark on this exhilarating ride into the world of construction and renovation with Tina Georgopolous!
Ever wondered how someone can build a successful career in construction from scratch? Our guest for this episode, Tina Georgopolous, is the perfect person to answer that question. Serving as an inspiration to all our DIY enthusiast listeners, this handy lady and general contractor shares her exciting journey. She talks about how she dove headfirst into the construction industry, the challenges she faced, and her adventures with full-blown rehabs. Wait till you hear about the tiles installed backward that kept popping off and her near-fall from a 26-foot ladder!
But that's not all. As we navigate through real estate horror stories, we emphasize the importance of hiring the right team and our duty to protect clients. The episode won't be complete without touching on the transformative power of refinishing cabinets in the kitchen. We also delve into the world of painting kitchen cabinets and the best countertop options, discussing the importance of using an alkyd based paint and prepping the surface with a trisodium phosphate. You'll also learn about the difference between countertops. So, buckle up as we embark on this exhilarating ride into the world of construction and renovation with Tina Georgopolous!
The guy put the tiles on backwards and literally what? Yes, they start one. It was like a mosaic tile and they literally started popping off one by one. It was absolutely hysterical. It was like the popcorn, like all of a sudden bing, bing. I was like holy cow, what's happening in here? They put the tile on backwards.
Speaker 2:What's the five Ps? Do you remember it?
Speaker 3:Proper preparation prevents poor performance.
Speaker 2:There you go. It doesn't matter how much money we get, if we don't close it's no money, right? So no, close is no money. I'm everything that I am because of my dad's death, and I wouldn't be as successful without his death.
Speaker 1:Hi, I'm Sophia Klopis with the Klopis Straton team at Berkshire Hathaway, and this is Tina George Apollos. Yeah, and Tina is a wonderful rehabber construction. Tina, tell us a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 3:Hi everyone. I am a handy lady and general contractor. I am based mainly on the Northwest side well, the Northern suburbs right now. I used to be in Chicago. I mainly do stuff on the North side. I just moved about a year ago.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you're no longer working in the city proper? No, not so much.
Speaker 3:Not so much.
Speaker 1:So tell us a little bit about how you actually got started. As a handy lady, I like that, not a handyman, a handy lady, yes, ma'am. So tell us about. How did you decide to get started in that?
Speaker 3:Well, it's a funny story. This is my fifth business and the previous one. I had a factory. We manufactured Jell-O products Jell-O.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'd use.
Speaker 3:Jell-O products for the Hispanic market. Cool. There were some issues with cold chain distribution. We had some recalls. Long story short, I had to close the business down and I lost everything and I was sulking in bed and I didn't wanna get out of bed and throwing myself a little pity party and I said, well, I need to get out of the house. So let me try this thing called task rabbit.
Speaker 1:Mm, we use task rabbit all the time. Oh, it's great, I love it. It's great, you know. And the plug for task rabbit, right, I know. So we have handy lady.
Speaker 3:So I started doing simple things. You know, Let me. I don't care, I just needed to get out of the house. Let me mow your lawn, Let me make a little money, exactly. But I needed a purpose, I needed something, so I was mowing lawns and cleaning gutters and somebody asked me hey, can you mount a TV? And I said, you know, yeah, of course.
Speaker 2:I know how to mount a TV.
Speaker 3:I can mount a TV, can you recock my bathtub? Can you install this vanity? And just slowly, I just kept acquiring more tools and skills and building a client base. And it was an accident. You know Some of it, you were self-taught Like.
Speaker 2:so what did you like?
Speaker 1:going like my nephews. They live for YouTube. I mean you asked them anything.
Speaker 3:Oh my God, hold on, I'm gonna go YouTube it. You can learn anything on YouTube. So is that, is that what you did? You can do open. You can learn open heart surgery on YouTube.
Speaker 1:On YouTube. Yeah, so you learned a lot on YouTube.
Speaker 3:Yes, YouTube and reading, and you know, talking to people.
Speaker 1:That had the skills that you can lean on. That had the skills, yeah exactly you know.
Speaker 3:But honestly, there's just so much information at your fingertips there's no excuse for anybody to say they don't know how to do anything.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, you could tell your uncle, frank, that Tina is also my niece and my husband is hit her mother's brother and we argue about changing late bulbs.
Speaker 2:So you could change your uncle.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you started that whole thing, but I mean I think you, from you know knowing and loving you, you've absolutely grown your trade into full blown rehab. I mean, I was talking to a client of yours yesterday and she showed me the work that you did.
Speaker 2:And you did spraying the kitchen cabinet. Yeah, Amanda's house.
Speaker 1:I mean it looked beautiful and obviously you did a great job because, from what I could tell, they got a really great price for their property, all because of me.
Speaker 1:Well, she said they had their inspection yesterday and there really wasn't anything. So Obviously you know what you're doing and I think that probably might be a great segue into Like what's the worst thing you've ever walked into when you've gone into do a rehab, like, is there one thing that sticks out or a couple things? I mean, I know I've seen some real crazy things. You know, being in real estate for 22 years.
Speaker 3:I mean, you're talking the stuff that I see it it's. I don't know where do I begin. I've seen professional, what we would call professional property management companies. Oh, I've seen them take mailers, you know, like those, those garbage, like pizza things and whatever, to cover up a hole on the outside of a building with like foam.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 3:Lord, okay, and they would charge and say that, oh, it's repaired. You know, okay, I've seen Not full proof. I've seen, like you go in bathrooms not water proofs at all on people putting the wrong type of material on tile to where, oh, it looks good for literally five minutes and then they run the shower and the tiles falling off. Oh God that happened at our house.
Speaker 1:See, the guy put the tiles on backwards and literally what? Yes, they start one it was like a mosaic tile and they literally started popping off one by one. It was absolutely hysterical. It was like it was like the popcorn, like all of a sudden I was like what's happening in here? They put, they put the time on backwards and so that the the cough part that was holding the tile was actually attached to the paper that was supposed to be on the outside protecting the face of the tile.
Speaker 1:Oh no, this did happen at my house twenty two years, six twenty years ago. But yeah, yeah, I understand.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like the other thing would be like failed home inspections where you know you have. You know this is an old city, we have old houses. There should never be a report that's under 40 pages. There should never be a report under 40 no, I mean you could, you, you will find something wrong.
Speaker 1:That's their job, of course.
Speaker 3:Of course you will find something wrong in new construction, like there's not sometimes more than sometimes yeah, but like you know, when you have a report that's 30 pages long for, you know, 3000 square foot home that's 100 years old. You know, I walked in and I would see Visible water damage. You know you pilot like. You could see it with your eyes.
Speaker 3:You don't need an infrared camera that was missed Um staircases that, like the boards were, literally they were sinking in. You know even crazy stuff like that and you would think that that would show up. Unfortunately, a lot of people they don't do a good job of picking their team when they're buying a home which is why, like, I really respect you guys and what you do.
Speaker 3:you guys really know your stuff and you know you protect your clients, and that's what I want to do. You know, when somebody invites you into their home, they invite you into their life. You have a really huge responsibility to do the best you can and protect them, you know the right information.
Speaker 1:So yeah for most people, their home is the largest investment for my percent.
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah so yeah, it is.
Speaker 1:It is a very serious matter. Let's just talk about the elephant in the room.
Speaker 3:Oh no.
Speaker 1:What happened here?
Speaker 3:Everybody. I don't know if you can see it or you can see it. Well, I was at a house in Barrington and it was a tall house and unfortunately they had a lot of water damage coming in and we were trying to figure out where it was coming from and we determined there was some caulking missing from windows. Long story short, I threw up my 26 foot ladder on this newly asphalted driveway that was very slick. Oh yeah, it rained yesterday.
Speaker 3:And the oils must have mixed. I don't know. It slipped out from under me. I should have jumped off and ruled off, but I was just caught by surprise. How then for dear life. I did, I landed flat and I landed like a cat, I guess, like on my hands and knees, and it didn't really hurt that badly to begin with, probably because of the adrenaline. Sure, of course, yeah, but yeah, as the day went on. Thank God you didn't break your teeth.
Speaker 1:I always think about save the teeth Well you can always get new ones, right, yeah, but then they're still fake.
Speaker 3:That's true.
Speaker 1:OK, but you're going to be OK Always.
Speaker 1:Always going to be OK, all right, so tell us, what do you find? I mean, I always talk to my clients my younger clients especially like sweat equity when they're buying their first house. Everybody's always budget conscious, but I find that first time home buyers are more budget conscious than others just because they're scraping their pennies together to buy which is so great instead of renting. And I always tell them I'm like you guys, buy something that needs a little work, 100%, because you can get the work done for less than what you're going to pay for it on the open market. So what do you think? Or what are your favorite things? Or when someone hires you and says, Tina, come on in, what can we do to this space? They've closed on it. I mean, I know what I always think like it's going to sell the most, but what do you think is the greatest thing to do to a house? To update it.
Speaker 3:Bathroom and kitchen.
Speaker 1:Bathroom and kitchen. Okay, well, those are the obvious. Yeah, the kitchen. So, for example, I saw your client's kitchen, amanda, yesterday. Yes, and she didn't need to take down all of the cabinets and replace the cabinets. You just were able to refinish them right. Yes, tell us about that process, because some people think they just take a paintbrush.
Speaker 3:No yeah right.
Speaker 2:But this is what happens.
Speaker 1:I can't tell you how many times I've walked into a place and I'm like, oh well, we refinished the cabinets. I'm like, no, no no. That looks like a two year old took a paintbrush and did one of these jobbers. Yes, so why don't you sort of explain the actual process of painting kitchen cabinets?
Speaker 2:Because it's not the same as one, two drawers. Don't just do it.
Speaker 3:And especially and I want to make a PSA, I guess in this beautiful woodwork city that we have you know, especially in older building.
Speaker 3:You have this beautiful original woodwork. Do it right. You know, don't hire somebody who's going to give you the cheapest price, because they're going to come in and they're not going to use an Alcat base paint. They're not going to. They're going to use the cheapest production paint they have and they're going to attack it with paint brushes. And then you're just going to have brush marks all over this beautiful, you know, six inch crown and right the beautiful molding Exactly.
Speaker 3:It'll ruin it Anyway, for the cabinets. What happens with cabinets is that not only are the in the kitchen and they're being exposed to greases and oils.
Speaker 3:Yeah there's also grease and oil on your fingertips. So whenever you touch a cabinet, you know you're depositing your oils on the cabinet. Now you have to remove all of the oils from any surface that you're painting. That includes walls. So you have to prep, you have to use a trisodium phosphate to get rid of oils and deposits. Okay, if anybody has ever washed or tried to polish something with like a pledge or like an orange base oil, it's terrible, it's the worst thing. Yeah, because it doesn't come off. No, and it'll create fish eye on your finished product, which is those little bubbles, right?
Speaker 2:You know, and when you're looking at cabinets and you're painting them.
Speaker 3:They need to be flawless.
Speaker 1:They need to be flawless, especially if it's a vertical surface and light hits it and you're just seeing it all the time.
Speaker 3:Exactly, yeah, so you need to Sand it, not all the way down to remove the finish, but you do either need to degloss it or or get rid of any kind of scratches or imperfections. You need to wash it with TSP to get rid of any kind of grease or oil. You need to prime it, ideally with like what's TSP?
Speaker 1:I've heard this before trisodium phosphate.
Speaker 3:Okay, so it can come. It comes in a powder form, but you can also get a liquid substitute. Okay, the best thing for cleaning Tip for all the homeowners the best thing for cleaning grease in the kitchen, ceilings, walls. It's a no rinse kind of a deal. Oh yeah, right, and then on the shopping list. But protect your hands. Okay, use it. So after that you have to prime it and you can't just use like a sticks or a water-based primer, because the tannins Will bleed through from the wood if you're doing a light color or doesn't matter you need either an oil-based primer or you need a shellac base primer.
Speaker 1:Okay, so this process on like an average size kitchen, like this prepping and getting rid of all the oil days. This is days. That's slurl.
Speaker 3:Okay, and this is a this is in my like professional workshop when I set it up and I have a table like, if this is a homeowner, this is gonna take them longer to do it.
Speaker 1:But I'm saying for you, so you it's this will be a week. This is a week just the priming and prepping. I know the whole thing, the whole thing.
Speaker 3:Okay, yeah, right. So you remove the cabinets, you make sure they're all labeled, because even if they're the same size, they're not. It's not going to it's like a puzzle.
Speaker 2:It's a puzzle, yeah right percent.
Speaker 3:You clean it or you sand it. You clean it, you prime it and then you have to spray it. You have to spray it. I mean you could maybe get away with rolling it with a foam roller, but it's just. The result is not gonna be the same the smoothest finish is always a spray.
Speaker 1:Yes, and then, no matter darker lights or anything, hundred percent, yeah okay, yeah, and you can't.
Speaker 3:I mean, you could buy like a very affordable sprayer and do it yourself, but you're talking about Keeping that stuff of everything to write.
Speaker 1:isn't dust a big problem? It's a huge problem.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a huge problem With everything you know if, when you go to paint your car yeah, same thing, you know they house people don't paint their car, that's true, well, you have an accident, yes, when you paint your walls but you can't really see it.
Speaker 1:But yeah, you know that's always a discussion when someone is doing stuff. They're always like well, do you do the floors first or do the walls first? Right, you do the floors first, then you're possibly have dust all over the walls.
Speaker 3:Well, you got to clean the walls.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I always do, at least you know I mop.
Speaker 1:So you like, to the painting of the kitchen cabinets. I think that's like a huge return on investment.
Speaker 3:Huge, and make sure you're using a quality paint because, Some things you cannot touch up you know they can't touch up you cannot. Some paints especially, I don't. I don't want you to be allowed to say brands yeah right. Sure, okay, sure, williams, atrocious, the worst. Do not use no touch up paint and no. And also, I find that when you get it wet it it starts to streak a little bit, especially if there's any kind of like salt based Cleaner okay, yeah, all right, no dead, all right.
Speaker 1:So the cabinets and then the countertops.
Speaker 3:Right, I'm not a huge huge, huge difference in my opinion. I agree with you. You know, and there's so many things you can do you, you can.
Speaker 1:Um, yeah, it doesn't have to be like $50,000 marble, it can be a quartz.
Speaker 3:Quartz, and sometimes that's out of somebody's price range, you know. But you can do. If you want to DIY it, you could do a cast-in-place cement.
Speaker 1:Oh, you know that's, it's affordable like you can do it, and that's sturdy for a kitchen. Oh yeah, okay, yeah, there you go. Super is a nice option.
Speaker 3:Um, if you wanted like a warmer look, you could do the butcher block.
Speaker 1:I would love a butcher block me too, especially on like an island?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it seems like it fits in more. It does. It's appropriate, right? Yeah, um, and then there's just, there's so many options, even the for mica, now it's it can be deceiving. It did have a really bad, bad rap. It did carry one time.
Speaker 2:It's that for mica.
Speaker 1:And then you know, what I always love is the hardware, because I feel like the hardware is the jewelry it makes right, I make the room, love hardware and faucets, the fittings, the fixtures. I think this can be repeated also, like the same conversation for the bathrooms. 100% right, I mean, the bathrooms have gotten so pretty.
Speaker 1:Right, it's just, you know, it's behind the door. I mean, the powder room is like the greatest place ever. Right, love putting up like Fun wall coverings. You know, I tell my clients, you know, dude, they always say, do I have to take down the wall covering in the powder? I'm like, don't touch it, it's beautiful, okay. So yeah, those are some great ideas.
Speaker 3:The one thing I will say about redoing a bathroom, it's if you have any kind of like Older plon, if you have galvanized, if you still have galvanized, yeah, and you're gonna redo your bathroom replace.
Speaker 3:Those are the water lines, the plumbing right when she's saying galvanized, switch to copper because, taking Taking off, like if there's any of our kind of leak or anything that goes wrong, you're just gonna end up having to remove all of the beautiful work that you just did. That's a great point to replace it. And a lot of people think, oh well, I'm gonna save money here, because they want all of their budget to go towards the flash, the pretty yeah the thing that they think is gonna sell, but, honestly, the stuff you don't see is sometimes far more important.
Speaker 3:Oh sure, I always call it the non-sexy stuff the non-sexy, like when I have a house that needs work.
Speaker 1:Yes, like, but the clients have redone the roof, they've replaced all of the appliances. They've pointed. I'm like, listen, all the non-sexy stuff is done. Now you can like put your stuff on it, yes, but that stuff is actually almost. I mean, you know, unless you're doing a hundred thousand dollar fridge right, but I mean right that stuff is as expensive. Oh yeah it's just you don't see it. But you certainly appreciate it.
Speaker 3:Well, you appreciate it when that's the thing. You don't know that something's there until it goes wrong, right? You know, just like your car, like it's not a car Until something goes wrong.
Speaker 2:And then it becomes a problem.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, it's just it's the thing that gets you from here to there. You don't really think about how it works. It's the same thing with your plumbing and your electrical. You know. If you still have cloth wrapped wires, Well, I'm sorry. Like you, you're gonna have an issue in the future. Right, you might have a fire if you have. You know the the put. Have you seen those? The circuit breaker? Circuit breaker, sure yeah that's a brochure.
Speaker 1:There's cloth wiring in there, yeah, yeah. So cloth wiring is what they used to use before they did metal tubing. And a lot of old homes I've sold sold many houses that still have cloth wiring and the process to remove is arduous but definitely worth it. They're literally pulling, yeah, the lines.
Speaker 3:It's not that bad to be honest. It's really not you know, um, but More importantly, you know, make sure when you buy your home. There's been boxes that have been recalled. Literally you're not supposed to have an electric box.
Speaker 1:Yes, right and.
Speaker 3:You know, your insurance won't cover it if there's a fire. So make sure some inspectors don't Know that you know especially younger inspectors who aren't familiar right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we've heard that about the electric boxes. I'm sure you know.
Speaker 3:But like for younger real estate agents, maybe you weren't very familiar.
Speaker 1:I do think a good quality inspector is really important.
Speaker 3:I think it's oh my god yeah, your first line of defense.
Speaker 1:Yeah, your inspector and having an attorney who will absolutely fight for what your inspector found. The real estate agent is involved in that part, but the attorney really writes the letter to hit home. Okay those are all great things. Do you have anything else you want to add about the home process?
Speaker 3:I guess the only thing I would say is that most issues with homes they either their result of either ignorance or procrastination when something goes wrong.
Speaker 1:When something goes wrong.
Speaker 3:So you know, do the best you can to keep yourself informed and stay on top of your quarterly maintenance. Right, that's important, yeah, you know, clean your gutters, check your downspouts, check your clocking. You know you're talking about something that would take you maybe an hour just to do a walk around.
Speaker 1:You know right, Do you do that? Is that something? Yeah, of course that you offer. I do offer you, offer that a service. Okay, well, how do people get a hold of you?
Speaker 3:Well, you can give me a call. My number is 224-628-8295. Email me at tina-nososgccom or how do you spell that, tina? At what? Oh, sorry, n-o-s-t-o-s-g-ccom, or on Instagram, great.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Tina. Well, thanks for remembering Tina G.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you'll find her. Thanks, Tina, for joining us and we will see you all soon. Thanks,