Designed Happy The Podcast

Surprise episode. No outline, no agenda, no idea what the topic is until they're rolling. Once they land on roofs, it turns out there's a lot more to decide than a triangle and some shingles. Katie and TJ get into roof...

Mark Cashin, first ever returning guest, is back to talk about what the luxury real estate market looks like this fall. He explains the little-known micro season that shows up a few weeks after school starts, why the...

Katie and TJ welcome DC realtor Jack Shorb to talk about the flip side of the downsizing episode: upsizing, or upgrading, which turns out to mean very different things to different people. Jack and TJ break down the big...

Katie takes her usual measured approach and TJ, well, does not. This one is a rant with a point. TJ explains why HGTV is entertainment dressed up as education, why those $20,000 kitchen reveals are real numbers that...

The air horn is back. Katie and TJ celebrate 50 episodes by each sharing their three favorites, and TJ takes a well-deserved victory lap for calling the Knicks winning the NBA Finals back in the Houzz predictions...

TJ didn't want to say the title, but he said it anyway. Katie and TJ walk through the cabinet decision tree, from custom versus semi-custom to framed versus frameless to inset versus full overlay, and TJ builds a...

Katie and TJ get judgy for a good cause. They walk through the red flags (and a few green ones) to watch for when you're browsing a designer or architect's website, including what the web design choices signal about the...

Katie is a thriver, not a survivor, and her comfort depends on temperature control. TJ didn't think this topic could fill 30 minutes. He was wrong. They cover the building envelope, the difference between Tyvek and Zip...

If your home is in a "city of" or "town of," there's a whole extra layer of approvals between you and your building permit. Katie and TJ break down what that means, which municipalities are helpful (hi, Falls Church)...

Katie knows nothing about floodplains (her words). But by the end of this episode she's earned her architecture license (again, her words) and is spending her Friday evening on the FEMA website. TJ explains base flood...

You think it's all the same? False. Katie and TJ dig into the flooring decisions that trip people up, from LVP thickness and wear layers to the relationship between old wood floors and new ones. Then TJ gets into wide...

<p>TJ actually did research for this one, like for real research. He goes behind the remodeling industry curtain to find out if the old line about it costing more next year is actually true, and what the real numbers...

<p>Katie and TJ welcome Realtor Jeff Wu to the podcast to talk about downsizing, or as some are calling it, right sizing. Jeff shares his 5D framework, explains why downsizing is more of an identity shift than a house...

<p>What does it mean to be a great client and why should you care? Spoiler: it's not about making your design team happy. It's about making your experience better. Katie and TJ walk through the seven-piece puzzle from...

<p>They sound almost the same. They're not. Katie and TJ break down the differences between design build and design bid, including the pros, the cons, and the nuance that nobody talks about. TJ also reveals he couldn't...