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13: Liz Morrow, Interior Designer & DIY Evangelist
86 Plays3 years ago
Brought to you by Grit City Women - A female forward organization that nurtures a creative approach to empowering female entrepreneurs, small business owners, and leaders in Tacoma. Join host Krystle Edwards and guest Liz Morrow, interior designer and DIY evangelist as they discuss:
1. Empowering Women in DIY Spaces
2. Tips and Tricks of Planning your DIY project
3. Navigating home renovations with contractors
Learn more about Liz visit:
1. Empowering Women in DIY Spaces
2. Tips and Tricks of Planning your DIY project
3. Navigating home renovations with contractors
Learn more about Liz visit:
- Website : lizmorrowstudios.com/
- Insta : @liz.morrow
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to Gritty is the New Pretty, a podcast by Gritt City Women. Gritt City Women is empowered by Melissa Newell, Edward Jones Financial Advisor, and Columbia Bank. On this episode of Gritty is the New Pretty, we are happy to feature Liz Morrow, interior designer and DIY evangelist.
Supporting Grit City Women
00:00:24
Speaker
Looking for ways to support Grit City Women and keep these podcasts going? Visit our online store at gritcitywomen.com. Welcome, Liz. Hi. I'm so glad you could join us today. I'm really excited for this podcast. I think it's going to be super fun and informative.
Liz's Tacoma Journey & DIY Passion
00:00:45
Speaker
Why don't you go ahead and start off by telling us a bit about yourself? Well, I am. I've been living in Tacoma now for
00:00:53
Speaker
I think it's been a decade, which I think makes me a Tacoma person now. I'm transitioning from transplant to I'm from here. I'm an interior designer and I like to really focus in the
00:01:11
Speaker
DIY home renovation realm, specifically geared towards encouraging women to engage in that space and feel comfortable in that space. So that's kind of really what my focus is with everything that I do. How did you get started on that journey? I grew up in a family that DIYed all the time. My dad was a carpenter when he was younger.
00:01:38
Speaker
And so he knew how to do all the things. And so growing up, anytime our house needed anything, he would just do it. He would just dive in. He would do it. Or if we were hiring a contractor, he would always be right there and just asking them what they're doing and learning from that. And so then he would know how to do it. So I grew up...
00:01:58
Speaker
being his little right hand tool person or he would need a tool and I would hand it to him. And so I felt really comfortable in that space. I felt really invited into that space with my dad and it was always really frustrating to me growing up.
00:02:14
Speaker
in my 20s and renting and not seeing things in rentals or whatever and being like, I just want to knock down that wall. It would make the flow of this place feel so much better.
Empowering Women in DIY
00:02:26
Speaker
When my husband and I bought a house, we actually bought a house that was a fixer-upper. The insurance company would not give us an insurance policy until we demoed the siting and redid the siting because it was in such bad shape.
00:02:42
Speaker
we like had to just hit the ground running and we recited the whole house and that kind of was the kickstart for me getting back into that space because I was a fashion blogger and then I was a wedding photographer and so getting back into DIYing a house
00:03:08
Speaker
felt really comfortable in a space that I really wanted to get more into. So I just decided to dive in with both feet and just start
00:03:18
Speaker
doing it for myself and then other people were like, help me, help me with my house. So I started helping other people and focusing my online presence in that realm and helping people beyond just my Tacoma community, especially women. That's always been my focus is being able to empower women and
00:03:40
Speaker
I love being able to do that in this hardware store space of you walk into Home Depot and men think that they need to tell you what all the things are. You're like, no. I know what all the things are. Thanks, though.
Challenges & Learning in DIY
00:03:56
Speaker
What has it been like working with women specifically, and why do you think it's so important in those spaces?
00:04:05
Speaker
It's one of those spaces that men just feel like they own a lot of men. Obviously, hashtag not all men. My husband's a carpenter and he is like, do whatever you want to do. You know how to do it.
00:04:20
Speaker
don't let me step on your toes. But you know, I think every woman knows the experience of walking into like Home Depot and you know, some man says something about like, oh, you need some help there sweetheart. And I think there's something to be said about women.
00:04:37
Speaker
seeing other women online using tools, you know, and also me telling women, this is how you use this tool. And then them not feeling like they're being mansplained to or talked down to just like, Hey girl, like this is how you use this tool. And I want you to like feel empowered to like, go out and use it and practice with it and not feel like
00:05:01
Speaker
you don't know what you're doing or that you're dumb or you know. So I think that that's really important for women to see other women doing those things that typically are something they see men doing and it invites them into that space to be able to say I belong here and I maybe I've wanted to do this but I haven't felt like this is a place where I can belong so.
00:05:27
Speaker
Yeah and it can feel really overwhelming just if you don't have any experience in carpentry and maybe you own a home on your own or you know you've just bought this house and you're like so excited and then you realize there's something that needs to be fixed.
00:05:43
Speaker
And to call someone in is going to be a huge bill. So then you start watching YouTube videos, right? And then you go into the hardware store and that process alone can be really intimidating. And I know it was a little bit for me when I bought my house. One thing I had to get used to was that I was going to make mistakes.
00:06:03
Speaker
when I would like fix something or try to do something creative. It's something that my dad, my dad does a lot of work now remodeling and stuff too. And he's like, you know, you guys are going to make mistakes and you got to have to either fix them or figure out how to make it better and just move on because you have to learn just like anything else. You have to learn and practice. And I have the same thing when I go to Home Depot, depending on what I'm wearing.
00:06:27
Speaker
Like one time I went in just in like yoga pants and flip flops and so many people asked me if I needed help. And I didn't because I do know some stuff from living in a house for seven years, an old house, you know, and hilltop. And then one time I went in. Yeah.
00:06:43
Speaker
in like, I was digging a drainage system in my yard. So I had my overalls on and mud. I mean, I had mud everywhere, like on my face, in my hair, like it was disgusting. I had to go get some more pieces for the drainage piping because, you know, I didn't have what I needed. And so I go in there and nobody offered me help.
00:07:03
Speaker
I was like, because they know I was filming or something. But it is interesting to see that. I feel like there's times too, if people are like, well, I'll come help you. Well, that's great. But can you also show me so that way, if it breaks again, I can
00:07:21
Speaker
Fix it on my own and I don't have to call you to come help me and I think There's a little bit of like I'm gonna be a savior and save the day and fix your stuff for you and do all this You know repair work, but it's like I also want to learn at least something, you know So I think that great what you're doing and I I love it. It makes me inspired to want to do more than just
00:07:47
Speaker
the basics. Like when I see your Instagram, which is amazing, by the way, it gives me the inspiration to do a little more creativity in my upgrades. Yeah, I feel that with like,
Fear of Failure in DIY
00:08:08
Speaker
the idea of problem solving and you might not get it right on the first try and that's okay. And I think as adults, we are really afraid of that because as kids, kids fall down 500 times and they're like, it's fine. I'll try it again. But as adults, we're just so afraid of that.
00:08:26
Speaker
looking dumb or just fear of failure in general. And I think that that's a huge aspect of overcoming that barrier to being like, it's fine if I mess this up or like just, you know, you don't know how to use a skill saw. You don't have to try it on something, a project that you're afraid of messing up on. Use it on like some scrap wood, like get used to it. Get used to how it works. Get used to how it cuts, how it feels in your hands.
00:08:56
Speaker
You don't have to like, like maiden voyage these, you know, things on something that's like a big deal. You can practice and get to know things and, you know, approach it more in that aspect of like, I'm learning and this is how I'm learning. And I don't have to be great at it in the beginning because who's great at anything in the beginning. It's like, that's not how being a human works.
00:09:19
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And I definitely appreciate that sentiment because I feel like I fail at a lot of things a lot of the time, but it takes
00:09:29
Speaker
a little bit of work to realize that those are just opportunities. And I know it's something that we talk about a lot with Grit City Women is there's always opportunity and failures. And it is still hard to say because I think we still have that innate fear of failure and what we're going to look like or what we're going to feel like. That's basically practice. Everything is practice.
00:09:51
Speaker
It's the same thing with DIY, you know, and design and stuff like that. What are some of the biggest lessons that you've learned in your journey with DIY?
Flexibility in DIY Projects
00:10:04
Speaker
I feel like that idea of just going for it and not overthinking things is a really important lesson because, I mean,
00:10:16
Speaker
There's I mean there's different personality times and I'm definitely more of the personality type to just jump in With both feet and then say like I'm gonna figure this out on the way and I think that a lot of people can get caught up in the like
00:10:31
Speaker
Uh, you know, I got to figure out all the steps before I start or I have to figure out exactly what's going to happen because you never know. Like things are going to be weird. And especially if you're renovating old house, like all these ones in Tacoma, like you're going to take down like that wall and you're going to be like, Oh,
00:10:50
Speaker
Okay, we got a pivot here because somebody before us who owned this house did something real weird and you have to work around that. It's really a process of playing it by ear and figuring things out as you go and having a really good vision to guide you, but allowing for the ebbs and flows of renovation, which will happen regardless of if you're DIYing it or if you're hiring a contractor. You're always going to end up with
00:11:20
Speaker
You know, some things, it's not going to go smoothly. It's going to take twice as long. It's probably going to cost twice as much as you budgeted for. Like, and I think that's another thing to like, yeah, things are going to take at least twice as long as you think. And they're definitely going to cost more than you think. So just, just always keep that in mind because otherwise you're going to be a little bit frustrated. So keeping that open mind and, and being flexible, I think is really, really important.
00:11:50
Speaker
Absolutely. And you're probably going to go to the hardware store two or three more times than you anticipated.
00:11:57
Speaker
I go to Home Depot, what was it, Tuesday? I went there three times in one day. I feel like there was one point where my son's in preschool now, but before he was in preschool, I would be bringing him with me to the Home Depot. And one time one of the employees was like, oh, your little guy isn't with you today. And I was like, oh no, they know who I am. They know me.
00:12:21
Speaker
Oh, that's awesome. Home Depot, I feel like I know my way around there more than any store. People will be like, where's this? And I'm like, oh, you know, it's over there. And when I have a project, if it's like a lot of little pieces and you're kind of like not sure exactly what will work, I started bulk buying.
00:12:43
Speaker
And I hope Home Depot doesn't get lost. But I buy as much as I think I might need different size wise and that just to minimize the amount of trips I'll take and because they do return it and you know, you just don't open ruin what you buy. But that's something that I started doing is being diligent about returning stuff. And even if you've had stuff for a long time, as long as you have the barcode on it still, they will take it back.
00:13:12
Speaker
and give you store credit for it. So I did find that out. That's great. Yeah. We always have like a to return to Home Depot bin in our garage because yeah, you were always buying things that we don't need or things, yeah, too much of something. So yeah, that is, it's great. And they also have a great app, which I think is great for women because their app, if you just look up what you need, it'll tell you the aisle and the bay number of that
00:13:42
Speaker
product. You don't have to walk into Home Depot like a deer caught in the headlights. You can just be looking on your phone. You know exactly what aisle you need to go to, exactly what bin or bay. You can look like you know what you're doing, even if you feel like you don't. Yeah. I think with COVID, I don't know if they're still doing it, but you can order it online in curbside pickup.
00:14:07
Speaker
You know, you can, if you really are, you know, nervous about going on that first step of getting in there and doing your first project and purchasing all the stuff and not knowing what you're doing, buy it all online and just have them bring it to your car. Then you don't even have to worry about anything. You're just like, Oh.
00:14:23
Speaker
I know what I'm doing. I'm so cool. I don't have to get out of the car. That's great. Yeah. Put it in the back. Put it in the front, guys. And
DIY Home Renovation Planner
00:14:33
Speaker
you also have a workbook for women looking to do DIY. Tell us a little bit about that and what that can do for you. Yeah. I made a DIY home renovation project planner.
00:14:51
Speaker
It's kind of like a regular project planner, but it's focused on DIY projects, renovation projects. It's got graph paper pages, pages for writing down what are your to-do list of steps that you need to do to finish that project.
00:15:11
Speaker
you know work out your whole budget of all the items that you need which is another thing like the Home Depot or Lowe's websites are great because you can just like all right I know I'm gonna need this this this and this and you just add them to your cart and then you see how much that's gonna cost so that's a great way to like really get a feel for what your project is gonna cost
00:15:30
Speaker
So you can work all that out in that project planner. You've got brainstorming pages. If you're working with any contractors, like for stuff like plumbing and electrical, you're going to have to hire a contractor because those are.
00:15:43
Speaker
a lot of the times you're gonna need permitting, depending on what you're doing. So you can keep track of who your contractors are, what their numbers are. And so it's just kind of like, I know that I used to have all of my plans for things just on random pieces of paper, strewn about my house, like, okay, I have all of my plans everywhere. Let's just make a booklet and it'll be all in one place and I won't have to,
00:16:11
Speaker
be digging through scraps of paper. I don't know if anyone else is like me, but I have a lot of scraps of paper. Yeah. I think when I saw that online, I was like, I have to get one of those and I am going to get one because I just moved into a new house and it doesn't need a ton of work, but it needs some updates, you know, and I want to be creative with it. And so, you know, over time, I want to be able to tackle these little projects like do tiling because I haven't done tiling yet.
00:16:39
Speaker
I know that I can't, it's just I have to like go through that process of learning. And so I feel it's almost like a goalbook too, in a way, you know, because you can plan projects ahead of time. And you could say, I want to tackle this one first. And then you write down all the different steps you need. And then you, you know, all the materials, whatnot, any contractor information, whatever goes into that project. And it's almost like that manifestation that you're going to do it.
00:17:09
Speaker
because they say that writing things down is, and I think that's great because there's so many times where I'm like, I'm going to get to that one day. I'm going to get to that one day. And I feel like it's still like, even though it's a fun DIY thing, it's still in the back of my mind that I haven't done it. But if I write it down and I'm ready to go, when I'm ready to go, I feel like that would take
00:17:31
Speaker
a weight off my shoulders and I can be like, okay, here's where I put this manifestation of what I want my home to look like. You've kind of created your own living space and you've put a plan for it, which I think is really cool. I love it. Yeah, and it's great. When you write down the whole budget for it, then you know exactly like, okay, if I want to make this happen, this is what I need to save for that project. You're not just going into things
00:17:58
Speaker
you know, willy-nilly and then halfway through realizing that you ran out of budget and you're like, well, now I just live with this half-finished project, which if you're like me, your whole house is half-finished projects anyway, so maybe that doesn't bother you, but I just like, that's my entire, that's the story of my entire house is just half-finished projects. So if you're fine with that, then that's okay.
00:18:18
Speaker
And I think you brought up a really great point in the beginning about it depends on what your personality type is like. You're one of those people that has to be very methodical about how you approach the process. Then, you know, if you can recognize that, okay, I'm one of those people, I can use this guide for that. And then if you're not necessarily one of those people, you could still use the guide, right? But use it at your own pace, however you want to do it.
00:18:46
Speaker
And I think a lot of times we don't even look at how we go through the process. And so I thought that was really insane. What kind of person are you? Is this going to frustrate you if you don't finish this project on time? Because if it is, then maybe you need to do a little bit more planning, or maybe you need to wait until you're ready to accept that it may not be finished on time. And you're going to have this amount of work then. Because that can be stressful on your own.
00:19:16
Speaker
If you're very particular about how you like things in your home and it's not finished for a few weeks, some people that can really frustrate them. So yeah, I definitely think that's a great tool so they can visualize what that process is going to look like and use some of your courses and e-courses to learn. So they have a really much better understanding of what they're getting into. I love it.
00:19:41
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Tell us about your e-courses.
Homemaker E-course & Techniques
00:19:44
Speaker
What do those look like? What do they offer women? So my main e-course right now, it's the homemaker e-course. So kind of a play on words. You can be a person who makes your home instead of being someone who just keeps it tidy and such. Yeah, so the homemaker e-course
00:20:09
Speaker
gives you a really great overview on a bunch of
00:20:15
Speaker
ways that you can update your home. It gives you a tutorial on framing. If you need to frame something, a wall, a half wall. If you need to tile, it gives you an overview on how to tile. Quite a few of the modules have videos. I actually have a video in the tile module of me actually tiling my shower surround.
00:20:42
Speaker
giving people a visual of like, this is exactly what it looks like. This is what my process was for doing that. And it goes, not just the nuts and bolts, but also thinking about design. How do I formulate a design? How do I think about a color scheme for a room? How do I think about
00:21:04
Speaker
you know, color theory, what, you know, what colors work good together. Because like a lot of those things for me come kind of, I'm an artist, so I've been doing art stuff my whole life. But a lot of people, you know, like, how do I decide what colors look good together and they can second guess themselves, you know, till the cows come home. So it goes kind of through that process of like, all right, I'm going to formulate my design concept,
00:21:30
Speaker
Okay. And then I'm going to build out my design. I'm going to do the DIY with all of the, you know, nitty gritty nuts and bolts, all that. And then also kind of on the backend of it, like, what does it look like to style a space? How do I, how do I style open shelving? Like I love seeing the cute open shelves in people's kitchens or living rooms on Instagram, but like, how, how do you do that? You know, what are the actual steps that it takes to like,
00:22:00
Speaker
put together something that looks really balanced and pleasing to the eye. So it kind of gives you an overview of all of that process from the beginning of your design to the end of your design. And then I'm in the process of breaking that
00:22:16
Speaker
larger e-course out into smaller individual modules that you can get those individually. So if you don't want the whole e-course, you just want to know, I need to tile my kitchen backsplash. I don't need to know how to frame anything or all that kind of stuff. I just really want to know about tiling. You can just pick the tiling module e-course individually. So that's on the horizon. I'm still working on breaking those out, but
00:22:46
Speaker
I'm going to definitely be doing some tiling at some point. Maybe this summer, we'll see.
COVID-19 Impact on DIY
00:22:51
Speaker
A little bit earlier, we talked about budgeting. And I know that COVID-19 has affected many businesses, yours and mine. We've had to go online and really pivot where we thought we were going. But it has also affected the industries, especially the lumber industry.
00:23:14
Speaker
Do you have any insight that you can offer about lumber, lumber prices, how you may want to redirect some designs, like given the cost of lumber right now?
00:23:26
Speaker
I mean, it's hard because so many things are wood-based products. I did hear something funny about someone. Someone said, builders are building houses with a lot more windows now down on framing costs. I don't know if that's true, but that's funny. Yeah, and I don't have any concept for when those prices are coming down. I was talking to a contractor recently about
00:23:55
Speaker
project and he was very upfront about you know this is where we're at right now and we don't know when it's coming down so it's kind of just something you know if you're doing a big project it's definitely going to come into play you know if you're building an addition on your house
00:24:13
Speaker
You used to be able to build for $150 a square foot, and now with everything, it's up to like $215. So do we really want to build that right now or is that something that we can put off? And for some people, it'll be fine and they'll just build it. And for some people, they'll say, I'm going to wait. We're going to see if the market goes down. I know that I have been more meticulous about reclaiming any lumber that I have demoed.
00:24:40
Speaker
We just demoed our porch railing on our front porch and I'm like out there pulling all the nails like, this is good lumber. Like I can't throw this away. This is not going to the dump. I will be reusing this. So we just bought a house and it has a big backyard and it had kind of this really small rundown concrete patio. And originally we wanted to do a really awesome
00:25:04
Speaker
wood deck and with lumber prices and also maintenance, we just, it's going to be a huge deck. So talking to our contractor, he was like, I think you want to go with concrete or patio because it's going to be really expensive right now. So we needed to go for concrete, which is fine. I had no real strong feelings either way. I just love the look of the wood, but we were also going to build a pergola, like an over
00:25:35
Speaker
sheltered outdoor space and that was the same thing. And he told us to buy one at Costco because it's going to be way cheaper than the labor because Costco had some great ones. They're sold out now, but cheaper than the labor and the wood. And we just decided, you know what? We're going to even wait on that. And because we don't necessarily need it, but it's a it's a, you know, on our like dream list, but hopefully the prices go down that point.
00:26:05
Speaker
Um, or there's other options available, but yeah, it's, it is interesting, you know, um, I love the look of wood and a lot of your designs have some wood features and, and all that kind of stuff. And I'm like, I want to do that, but I'm not sure if I want to want to go that direction. Yeah, it's, it's difficult and you can sometimes get things like, you know, if you're not looking for the actual like wood tones, you know, you could, there's.
00:26:35
Speaker
You want to do like a shiplap ceiling or something like that, but you're going to paint it. They have like MDF shiplap that's going to be cheaper than your wood options. So that's at least nice that those are available that you can still do stuff with. But yeah, if you like the look of wood, it's going to be a little bit more spendy these days, unfortunately.
00:27:01
Speaker
the world we live in. I know. It's crazy. And I feel like DIY has really taken off even more so because people are home more. Homemakers,
Pandemic DIY Boom
00:27:14
Speaker
people are starting to make their home and design it, especially if you're teleworking and you want to have this really incredible space that reflects your personality. And so I think that there has been a big uptake in that.
00:27:29
Speaker
since COVID. I know when I first saw lockdowns happening, I did go on Home Depot and I ordered a ton of shiplap. And I was like, if we're going to be on lockdown, I need stuff to do because I'll lose my mind. So I didn't work, but I didn't know. I mean, I didn't think that it would last this long. You know, I thought it would be like a month or, you know, three weeks or something. And then it was like, okay, I can't just keep doing projects for this entire group.
00:27:58
Speaker
Yeah, and I think too that there's something to be said about women getting tired of their male partners not doing the honeydew list and being like, hey, I asked you to build that fence months ago and it still not happened. And then having that realization of like, I could do that. There's no reason that I'm not capable of doing that thing that my husband... For me, I like doing it just because I like doing it.
00:28:27
Speaker
and also my husband's a carpenter, so he does that stuff all day. And so I'm like, look, I'm not going to make you build things all day and then come home and in your free time build more things. If he wants to help, that's fine. But I think that it's something that women are like, hey, I can do that. I don't need
00:28:50
Speaker
you to do that. I'm fully capable of doing that and I think that that's kind of a realization that a lot of women had too during that lockdown of everybody's at home, everybody's looking at their house, you're stuck in your house and you're staring at the things that haven't gotten done that you've been wanting to get done and they're just staring you in the face and like, oh, I could do that.
00:29:13
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's a great point is you don't have to wait for someone to do it for you, you can, you can do it, you know, I'm sure that is helpful if both partners can
00:29:26
Speaker
Contribute in that way. So the burden isn't necessarily on one unless they love doing it, you know But there's some things that I do that my husband hasn't done before and that he'll kind of let me take the lead on That he's just not comfortable with but then there's like, I mean, yeah to like he got a new saw like he's all into that he'll just be cutting wood for no reason practicing, you know
00:29:51
Speaker
So you know what we like and so I let him do that kind of stuff and then I do other things but
00:29:57
Speaker
Yeah, you don't have to wait for someone to do it for you. I mean, you've got a lot of resources that you can offer women and, you know, just be safe is I think what I would say to women that might be trying something new for the first time, anything electrical, right? I wouldn't do unless you, cause there's some minor things that you can do on your own, like, you know, replace the light fixture or whatnot. But you always want to make sure your panel is off, right?
00:30:27
Speaker
If you haven't done it before and you haven't had someone show you, definitely wait to have someone help you with
DIY for Independence & Savings
00:30:35
Speaker
that. That's a big thing. My husband won't touch anything electrical at all. He won't. I do any of the change outs of switches or anything like that because I've been taught by someone who knows how. I think that that's one of those realms too where if it's something that you want to do and you are uncomfortable or you just don't know what you don't know, bringing in an electrician
00:30:57
Speaker
To do it and being there with them and watching them and asking questions while they're doing it because yeah changing out a light fixture changing out your switches or your outlets like those are very
00:31:09
Speaker
approachable things to DIY when it comes to working with electrical. And just having that expert there to walk you through it and you can watch it. And then if you need to go back and watch a YouTube video, you've had your physical eyeballs on somebody doing it. Because sometimes it can be hard to
00:31:31
Speaker
watch a video and then you're trying to go back and forth from the video to what you're doing. So having that in-person experience I think is really important for learning and definitely with electrical. I'm comfortable with electrical because my dad, he's done a bunch of electrical stuff and I've watched him do it and I've done it with him. So changing out light fixtures and that kind of stuff, I'm like easy peasy. But yeah, I mean,
00:31:54
Speaker
No one wants to get zapped by a live wire. You don't want to burn your house down by shorting out your electrical. So it's definitely a little bit higher on the advanced scale of entry-level DIY stuff.
00:32:11
Speaker
Yeah. And then once you learn how to do some of that smaller stuff that can save you money, you know, like long term, right? Because you don't have to hire someone and pay them a hundred bucks an hour, pay a company all this money to change out a light switch.
00:32:26
Speaker
You don't need an electrician for that. You don't need an electrician to install a light fixture. So that's one thing that I think is really empowering in a way is because we tend to just call someone to fix some of these things and some of them are very manageable and if you can just
00:32:46
Speaker
You know, step out on the limb a little bit. If you do have a little extra time, if you are able to take some online courses or look at some videos or have a friend show you how to do it once, right? Take notes, you know, and do it yourself. That's going to save you so much money in your lifetime. If you probably add it up, you know, over time, right? Yeah.
00:33:08
Speaker
And I always ask people if I hire someone, I'll ask them all sorts of questions. I'm sure they're always like a little annoyed at first, but once they understand like they are learning and not nagging that they're usually very helpful. And yeah.
00:33:25
Speaker
I noticed that I had this discussion with a friend just yesterday, actually. She was having some issues with some plumbing and talking about someone came and gave her an estimate. And she was asking her husband all these questions because she wasn't there. And he's like, I don't know. I didn't ask any questions. She's like, you didn't ask any questions. And her and I had this discussion. I said, you know,
00:33:47
Speaker
Also in our line of work, we are taught to have a questioning attitude so we can understand what's going on. So that's just kind of the nature of how we are is kind of ingrained from our just career. But I was like, Mike does the same thing. He won't ask questions. And I'm like, I have 500 questions for this person that's coming to look at this thing because I want to know
00:34:11
Speaker
what my options are. I want to know how I can, if there's anything that's not necessarily necessary, what kind of things can I do on my own to save money, and what kind of things maybe can I do now scheduled later so I can budget for that. And so I definitely encourage women, if you are bringing in contractors or people to do work for you, or just to even check something out,
00:34:34
Speaker
ask tons of questions ask them is that absolutely necessary what's going to happen if i don't do this what's going to happen if i don't do that yeah what can i do on my own um and if somebody tells you you can probably do this stuff on your own it's pretty easy i i feel like that is to me like the golden ticket because you have someone who's not trying to just
00:34:55
Speaker
charge you and charge you for things to do because I get super irritated when I charge for things and then I watch them do it and I'm like, are you kidding me? I could have done that myself. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that women feel like if they feel like they don't know enough to ask questions or if they don't feel comfortable pushing back on something that a contractor is telling them, that's a space too where you're going to
00:35:24
Speaker
you know, get charged for things that you don't need. Or I know for me, I want things done in a very specific way. Like this is the, you know, like I built my own hood vent range hood. But if I hadn't, and if I had had a contractor build that, I'm like, so sure they would have been like, well, that's not how we build it. You know, you build it like this, you know, like they've just built things the same way. And a lot of people want things the same way. But if you want something to look a certain way,
00:35:53
Speaker
they can do it. Like sometimes they just don't want to do that thing that way. That doesn't mean that it's not possible. That just means that, you know, they're very used to doing things in a very specific way and they'll give you some resistance to it. But that doesn't mean that it doesn't mean that A, you're stupid for asking to, you know, have done what you want done.
00:36:21
Speaker
And it doesn't mean that they can't do it. And also, I think it's important to really to not let them gaslight you. I had a friend who had her whole exterior siding redone and new windows, and they had ordered the wrong windows. And he was like, no, this is the one that you asked for. And she's like, no, it's not.
00:36:41
Speaker
I want the right ones. You ordered the wrong windows. This is not my problem." And I think that that's a hard thing because then they'll tell you that you don't know what you're talking about or what have you. But I think it's important for women to really feel like they can stand up for themselves and know what they want and know that what they're asking for is probably doable.
00:37:09
Speaker
Sometimes it might not be, but sticking to your guns and really saying, no, I really want this to be like this. And pushing it until maybe you are like, okay, I see that this is really not possible. Let's compromise on something. But holding your own against contractors.
Working with Contractors
00:37:32
Speaker
A lot of times they're used to, and some of the companies are used to dealing with contractors and contractors are used to just giving an invoice at the end of the job. And so you kind of just, you're not really engaged in the process very much. And then you're kind of like, wait, that's not what I wanted. That's not what we talked about. And yeah.
00:37:49
Speaker
You know, I've learned with some of the work that I've had that I, I follow up and I put it in writing and email and I'm like, Hey, I just want to follow up. And I'm sure they're not very much, they're very used to because usually everyone's just like, I want this. And then they come in and do that job. You know, they don't, like you said, do anything special. They do what they normally do. And I'm really lucky that, you know, my contractor is my uncle and he does a lot of design stuff too. So he actually gives me advice on the design as well and make sure
00:38:19
Speaker
But I have worked with people where it's not, I was like, this isn't even like what we talked about, you know, or the invoice isn't even right. It's just, it's very strange. But when you're paying a lot of money for a service like that, and a service that's going to be in your home and impact how your home looks, make sure that they get it right. Put it in an email, attach pictures, don't worry about what they might think you look like. If they think you're nagging, who cares because it's your money and it's your home.
00:38:49
Speaker
Yeah, like I have to live here once you guys pack up and leave. You got to do it the way I want it done. You got to do it right. Where can people go if they want to utilize your services and how can they get in touch with you?
Connecting with Liz Morrow
00:39:04
Speaker
Pretty much everything that I have is on my website, which is lizmorowstudios.com and my Instagram is at liz.morow. So that'll be where I have my Tools Day Tuesday episodes on IGTV and pretty much all my progress on any projects that I have going on around my house, all my half-finished projects.
00:39:31
Speaker
I am on Pinterest, but I'm not really super active on there, but I'm at Liz Morrell on there as well. Fantastic. Well, I just want to congratulate you as well on your award with South Sound Magazine for Interior Designer of the Year. Yeah. That was really fun. Yeah.
00:39:52
Speaker
Yeah, so congratulations on that. That's incredible. It's definitely well-deserved from what I can see. And I appreciate the work that you're doing empowering women to really make their home and not just tidy up, but take control over it, make it your own space. I think that's really fantastic. And even if you've only been here 10 years, you are a great city woman. We'll take you. We'll take you. Thank you.
00:40:22
Speaker
All right. Well, it was a pleasure to have you, Liz. Yeah, thank you for bringing me on. This is so much fun. Absolutely. To learn more about grit city women, visit grit city women.com or follow us on Instagram at grit city women and we look forward to getting gritty with you.