Home improvement television
Tristan Schmid, host, List-en Up!))

Schmid: It’s no secret that home improvement TV shows are tremendously popular. But even we were surprised to learn that 79 percent of Angie’s List members indulge in them. Shows like ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” often appear in the Nielsen rating system’s top 10 broadcast programs, and HGTV, a cable network entirely dedicated to home and garden shows, earned its highest ratings ever in the first quarter of 2008. Nine of the network’s top 10 programs are real estate reality shows, including “House Hunters” and “Designed to Sell.”

Michael Dingley, senior vice president of programming and content strategy for HGTV, says the TV shows help people learn how to do things themselves, and also inform them about what to look for when it comes to hiring professional contractors.

Dingley: It’s a very emotional thing for people; it’s a very personal thing. And for most people, it’s one of the most expensive investments in their lives. So they want to do all they can to further not only enjoy their home, but also to further enhance the enjoyment and the value of their home. People are empowered to not only do the work themselves, but when they do hire professionals, they’re a little more savvy now about what to anticipate or what to look for when working with a professional on improving their home.

Schmid: You probably remember the roots of the current home improvement TV wave. “This Old House” began airing on PBS in 1979. Hosted by Bob Vila, the show chronicled a home renovation throughout an entire season. Vila’s no longer with the program, but the influence of “This Old House” is still evident when viewers tune in to channels such as HGTV.

HGTV - launched in 1994 – created the DIY Network in 1999, and those cable channels, along with TLC, air more than 90 home improvement and makeover shows combined.

Brant Pinvidic, senior vice president of programming for TLC, says like “This Old House,” TLC’s long-running “Trading Spaces” has proven quite popular amongst viewers.

Pinvidic: It sort of renewed that interest in the entertainment/makeover area, which has been kind of fun.

Schmid: He also says a good host is integral to a home-improvement show’s success.

Pinvidic: Paige Davis coming back to Trading Spaces is a huge lift to the series, and it really showed how important the right personality can be - it kind of ran its course without a host. Bringing her back has reinvigorated it.

Schmid: A great storyline is as important as a great host.

Pinvidic: I think you have to have, at the core, a great before and after. There needs to be some stakes to the show — you have to care whether the person succeeds or fails.

You want to tune in and have a good time, be engaged in the story and interested in the before and after and see how things happen or how it works, but it’s always important to have a little bit of the show be relatable or reflective of what’s going on in the audience’s lives and how they can use or apply it to what they’re going through at home.

Schmid: HGTV’s Michael Dingley agrees.

Dingley: It has to be relevant to people’s lives. If it’s not a homeowner that people out there will go “I can relate to them, or I like them, or I’m rooting for them,” it doesn’t matter what the product is.

Schmid: Dingley says “hybrid shows” strongly appeal to viewers.

Dingley: We’re taking two popular concepts — physical transformation and how to increase the value of one’s home — and combining them into one show. “Designed to Sell” is about how “I want to sell my house, but I want to get every dollar I can out of it.” So that’s about how to get the most value out of your home. But in order to do that, we’re going to do a transformation of your home to increase that value. You’ve got a design makeover show in there and a property-enhancing show all wrapped up in one in “Designed to Sell”.

Schmid: Increasing value has always been a keystone topic for home-improvement shows. The housing market in the United States has taken some especially hard hits lately, and home improvement shows have helped homeowners figure out how to invest in their home wisely in the face of economic turmoil.

Dingley: The number one thing is they want to enhance their further enjoyment of their home. And then number two, they want to make sure as they’re doing that, they’re not unintentionally reducing the cost of their home. because at some point in time —not today, but maybe a year from now, decades from now — they may have to move. They want to make sure they’re doing the right thing.

Schmid: Whether the economy is healthy or hurting, Dingley says home-improvement TV will always be relevant.

Dingley: The economy is very iffy right now; I always say people are strapped for three things in this society: time, effort and money. Those three ebb and flow depending on what’s going on. A few years ago, people would say “I’m time-starved.” I want to have a great impact on my home, but I don’t have the time and I don’t want a lot of effort, but I’ll spend a little bit more money on it. But now two or three years later, it’s like “I want to have an impact on my home and make it better and further enjoy it, but I don’t mind doing a little more elbow grease, a little more effort, spending a little more time, but I don’t want to spend a lot of money.”

Schmid: What’s your favorite show? Let us know by leaving a comment at our website, angieslistpodcasts.com. And if you’ve seen some great home improvement work on TV and are looking for a contractor to do the same to your house, make sure you check the ratings and reviews on Angie’s List!

Until next time, this is Tristan. Thanks for taking the time to list-en!

Natural lawn care
Tristan Schmid, host, List-en Up!))

Schmid: Most of us love lush, beautiful yards with vivid green grass and vibrant flowers. Unfortunately, those yards are often created by using copious amounts of synthetic fertilizer and gasoline, but alternatives do exist.

Ladd Smith, co-owner of In Harmony, a sustainable landscape company based in Bothell, Washington, says his company uses organic fertilizers in their work.

Smith: They are derived from materials that break down and feed the soil, not just the plants. It’s how Mother Nature has worked through the years: manures and plant debris has been broken down by the soil organisms. Traditional fertilizers are quick-release, and they don’t do anything to feed the soil or the soil biology. It’s mostly a quick nitrogen fix.

Schmid: Matt Broering, owner of Broering Landscaping in Indianapolis, says organic fertilizer is important for the safety of pets, children, local water supplies, and the environment.

Broering: The main reason for using organic fertilizer is to relieve the environment of all the harmful chemicals associated with herbicides and other fertilizers on the market. When it comes down to the best nutrients for any plant, organic is by far the best way to go.

Schmid: Ladd Smith says there’s a wide variety of organic fertilizers available to homeowners.

Smith: There’s a plethora because everyone’s getting into it. All the major fertilizer companies are making organic products. Some are manure-based, like chicken manure. Some are soybean-based, which gets nitrogen from plant material. Most of the materials are found in any garden stores now because of their popularity.

Schmid: So if you can buy organic fertilizers at your local home & garden store, why pay someone to apply them for you?

Smith: Nowadays, a lot of people are so busy that it’s difficult to understand all the different fertilizations and the different times of year the products should be down in order to get the results they’re looking for. Plus, having someone to run questions by just gives added value of having that expertise on the property, not just the fertilization.

Schmid: Matt Broering says many homeowners have difficulty properly applying fertilizer.

Broering: If you do some areas and miss others, you’ll have a striping effect where it gets really green, and areas that didn’t get nutrients will be much more yellow, especially if there’s a drought in that region of the country.

Schmid: You might pay twice as much for organic fertilizer compared to the traditional synthetic fertilizer. However, rising petroleum costs are leveling the playing “field”, so-to-speak. Broering and Smith agree that though organic fertilizer is traditionally more expensive, the cost is well worth the benefits.

Smith: There might be a little bit of a price difference in beginning, but they find they’ll be using less and less in the future because the soil is becoming healthy enough that it’s possible to use materials and the minerals in a more efficient basis — you don’t have to put so much fertilizer down. Also, we need people to understand the environmental costs of using too much of these products or fertilizers with pesticides connected to them. We’re seeing environmental problems when too much of these products get into our streams and waterways and underground water systems. If people added those costs of the problems that we’re having to clean up as taxpayers and consumers, they’ll find organic products are the best.

Schmid: If you’re interested in saving money in your yard, you might also be interested in native plants, which are more resistant to climactic swings, reducing the need for watering and saving you money while beautifying your yard. Broering says it’s easier to care for plants indigenous to your home’s region.

Broering: They require a lot less watering — virtually no watering except for establishing them after planting. They’re more disease- and bug-resistant to the region that you’re in, more so than one brought in from another part of the country.

Schmid: Smith says native plants also help your local wildlife.

Smith: We think native plants are best to use as a transition zone from our landscape into native areas, to give hedgerows so it’s a transition zone so animals have protection, homes, shelter and food sources.

Schmid: As with organic fertilizer, it’s wise to hire an expert to help you with native plants.

Smith: For most people it’s a pretty daunting undertaking, trying to understand everything about the landscape and what they’re looking for.

Schmid: Broering agrees.

Broering: You’ll probably see a better planting method out of a professional: we know what’s required to get the roots to take off and for the plant to not see much shock. That’s one of the biggest reasons they die when they’re planted by homeowners, just because they’re not planted correctly.

Schmid: Most professional landscapers are happy to work with organic fertilizer and native plants. If you hire a highly rated pro off of Angie’s List, odds are good they’ll be willing to help your lawn and garden, naturally!

Organic fertilizer and native plants help with a healthy lawn, but you can go even further with a “green” lawnmower. Andy Humphrey is owner of Ecomowers, an online purveyor of earth-friendly goods based in Traverse City, Michigan. He says the United States’ gradual shift towards eco-friendliness has brought increased demand for push-reel mowers, which have zero emissions in addition to other benefits.

Humphrey: They’re really quiet, there’s no noise, they’re easy to store —— sometimes storage becomes an issue when you have a townhouse and don’t have a shed — and they’re good for exercise.

Schmid: Humphrey says old-fashioned reel mowers were difficult to push because the blades came in direct contact with each other, causing friction, and gasoline-powered mowers were more convenient and widespread. Today’s reel mowers, though based on the original versions, are better.

Humphrey: The older metals that were used were much heavier, and the concept of reel mowing disappeared. Now that metals are lighter — technology’s changed — these mowers are actually very easy to push.
There’s no metal on metal contact, which would cause the mower to become dull. We’ve seen them last 7-10 years without a sharpening.

Schmid: Humphrey says the short-term costs are often less than that of a new gasoline-powered push mower.

Humphrey: I think you can go to a typical big-box store and buy a fairly inexpensive gas mower. I can’t tell you that it’ll last more than a year, so we tend to say that the long-term costs are much lower with an ecomower. There really is no need for tune-ups with these mowers: no replacing spark plugs, air filters, oil filters, sharpening the blades, and so for about $10 a year for basic cleaning equipment, that’s the only long-term cost.

Schmid: Expect to pay about $150 for a basic earth-friendly push-reel mower, on up to about $250 for a top-of-the-line model.

For links and more info on natural and earth-friendly lawn care, check out our website, angieslistpodcasts.com.

Until next time, this is Tristan. Thanks for taking the time to list-en!

Medical ratings launch
Tristan Schmid, host, List-en Up!))

Schmid: Last month, Angie’s List launched medical ratings categories, in which members can write reports and submit ratings for various medical service providers. Angie herself shared the launch with the public here on the Angie’s List campus in Indianapolis.

Angie Hicks: For the past 13 years, we’ve been rating all types of local service. We started in home improvement in ‘95, and have expanded to cover auto repair, lawn care, and you may’ve even planned your wedding based on categories off of Angie’s List. Last year we added childcare as well as elder care services, and this year we’re adding the medical services. This came out of demand from our members. We polled our members and about ¾ of them said “Yes, we definitely want you to start rating health care providers.” People are looking for a doctor they can talk easily to and be open with. The key to a patient-doctor relationship is being able to communicate easily, and that’s the kind of information you can get from reading reports on Angie’s List.

Schmid: As with other service providers, those in the medical categories won’t be able to add themselves to the List.

Hicks: It’s all based on customers. The doctors will be added to the list when a patient has reported on an experience with them. The doctors don’t pay to be listed, so it’s all based on consumer feedback.

Schmid: Chris Austin knows all about the reports on Angie’s List. He joined the company eight years ago in customer service representative, and learned all about the List in several other positions. Today, he’s in charge of Angie’s List’s medical categories.

Austin: People in general get a little emotional when the subject of health care comes up. You never go to the doctor’s office when things are going great. Even if it’s a happy purpose, like you’re having a baby, you’re still taking a big step into which you’ve invested a lot of thought and emotion, and I think that goes into every visit and every exchange you have. There’s definitely an interest from the members, who want to see what each other have to say. There are a lot of physicians out there doing good work. I think people are generally happy with the care that they receive, and it’s fair to present that feedback.

Schmid: Angie’s List members can submit reports in 55 categories — with many more to come. Everything from Allergy & Immunology to Pediatricians to Vascular surgery is included. For the time being, members will be able to access medical reports and categories without having to pay anything extra.

Austin: We’re still collecting feedback about all the things people want to report on. We have a category called “MED: unrated services” so people can give us feedback even if we don’t already have the category in place for it, and we’ll reassign it as the new categories come online. There are a lot of things people are telling us about services that weren’t in the first batch. Acupuncture, podiatry, naturopathic medicine or alternative medicine, as well as more specialized things that aren’t as common or people don’t go to as often. Our goal is to eventually have spots for each of the specialties.

Schmid: As a member, if you have a problem with a health care provider and file a negative report, it’s possible to receive a response from the provider.

Austin: If members have had experiences they feel didn’t go the way they wanted it to and they want to share that with other members, they can do that with our forum and still have the same privacy as with positive experiences. Certainly the health care provider, if they have an interest in finding out who had this unsatisfactory experience, they can check with us and find out which of their patients had this experience. They then have options: they can go directly to the customer outside of Angie’s List and see if there’s anything they can do to make it right and see if the person would reconsider that report, or if that’s not practical, then there is wiggle room where they can give a response that would be a little less detailed than the contractor reports, but they will have the option to tag the report with their feelings about it.

Schmid: Chris says the feedback will help medical providers ensure better service.

Austin: It’s almost unfair to say, “Just tell us the good stuff and don’t tell us anything that went wrong,” to just exclude negatives altogether and say everything is just fine. Contractors on the list say they learn more from reading the negative reports than the positive reports, and giving people the chance to give that feedback benefits everyone to some degree.

Schmid: Austin says that though the reports will contain helpful information, they shouldn’t be your only resource in finding a healthcare provider.

Austin: It’s intended to be a tool where they can educate themselves and get some perspective on, ‘Does this sound like a physician that I might like to use?’ or ‘hey, everyone, here’s a physician I like to use.’ There will be a link library on the web site that provides external resources people can access on a variety of general and specific topics. We want to put that out there for people’s convenience. If you were to get on a search engine and type in a term, you’d get information overload fairly quickly and would find some information that wouldn’t be helpful and might in some cases be the opposite. While we can’t say that these external resources are anything people should rely on to the exclusion of seeking treatment, hopefully they’d be better informed when seeking treatment. It will include links to the AMA and other governing bodies like state medical boards.

Schmid: Though Austin says support has been generally positive, there has been some skepticism from members of the medical community.

Austin: Some of that boils down to the idea of being rated in general. If you send people an email saying, ‘Hey, you’re about to be graded on how you do today!”, that’s going to make most people nervous. And physicians are under a tremendous amount of pressure anyway. Think about how your office is when there are a few people sick, and people are edgy and tired and cranky. Well, that’s a doctor’s office every day. They have to deal with that on a good day. They have to keep up with what’s new in their practices, they haven’t stopped publishing medical journals, along with all these other electronic information resources. And people asking them about what they saw on ER or Nip/Tuck last night. There’s a variety of things that come at them every day that make them a little edgy or worried when you start to question that. But certainly there are doctors who use Angie’s List, and I think if you ask them if they’re in a position to rate services that they’ve used, they would agree that they are, and when you ask, well, should those same people have the opportunity to think about what you do and report on it in an informed manner, should they be able to do so? Some people agree with that and some people shrug.

Schmid: In spite of some skepticism, Austin says the ratings have gone well so far.

Austin: The response has been great. We’ve gotten quite a few reports. Things are still overwhelmingly positive. For the most part, people have been really excited, and there are people who’ve submitted multiple reports. A few people have cried out “Why are you doing this!? This isn’t the List I’ve known and loved all these years!” But certainly the excitement and positive feedback has been the overwhelming response.

Schmid: Austin says the List has received a tremendous response from Angie’s List members participating in the Medical Report Drive.

Austin: In an effort get reports flowing in quickly, we’ve instituted a medical report drive that will include reports that go back to when we launched the medical categories, on march 14th, and the contest is extended to may 16th. Any reports received during that time frame and within the rules — available at the website — will go into a drawing. The grand prize will be for a pair of bikes, in trying to keep the focus on health. We’ll work with the bike shop that suits them. Also, in addition to one lucky person for that, anyone who submits 3 qualifying reports will receive a tee shirt; if they submit 7, they will get a tee as well as Thighmaster Gold. If they submit 12 reports, which could cover a big range of medical options for the household — primary care, eye doctor, dentist, pharmacy — in addition to a tee and Thighmaster, there will also be a 7-inch digital picture frame. Each of those reports also gives you a shot at the grand prize.

Schmid: So far, Austin says the five categories with the most reports have been dentists, primary care providers, OBGYNs, pediatricians, and chiropractors. There are still a few weeks left to enter the contest, but Austin says even after that, there will continue to be other incentives to submit reports in these and the other medical categories.

Austin: Even after the report drive, we want people to keep giving feedback. We’ve come up with ideas that people will be very excited to not only give feedback, but to participate in what we’ve got in store. So be on the lookout!

Schmid: Submit your reports about medical services now, and read other members’ reviews at angieslist.com!

Until next time, this is Tristan. Thanks for taking the time to list-en!