Designed Happy The Podcast

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) and which ones are not (hi, Rockville), and why missing a submission deadline by one day can cost you seven weeks. TJ shares the three-month curb cut saga from building his own house,...

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 elevation, walks through how to check if your property is in a flood zone, and shares a story about clients whose floodplain changed mid-project - they couldn't even build a deck. Ka...

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 plank engineered floors and humidity, Katie Googles what can go wrong, and things take a dramatic turn she did not recover from. Also: psych is apparently making a comeback, TJ remot...

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 look like compared to inflation. Spoiler: a gallon of milk roughly doubled in 25 years. A high-end kitchen more than tripled. Katie flies without an outline for the first time and delive...

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 decision, and drops a stat that 10,000 people turn 65 every day. TJ realizes one of his own clients has been doing this all along without him fully connecting the dots. Katie briefly ta...

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 Designed Happy: The Book, including pronoia, vulnerability, thank you notes, and why you don't want your service professional rolling their eyes before they pick up the phone.

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 tell Bruce Willis and Michael Keaton apart as a kid, Katie and TJ fall into a Newsies rabbit hole, and TJ makes enough blanket statements to warrant a drinking game.

It's one of the most commonly asked questions in remodeling. And a lot of times the answer is yes, you technically can...but should you? Katie and TJ talk through the things you need to think about before you commit, from noise and dust to water and phasing. TJ regrets a loud river cruise, Katie reveals a short-lived career as a party princess, and neither one of them would ever live through a rem...

Join Katie and TJ as they review the wonderful world of tile with the President of Architessa, David Benson. They review tile basics, like the difference between ceramic, porcelain, natural stone, and LVT. They discuss large format tile and porcelain slabs, and what to consider when choosing an installer. They explain what overage is and why it's important to remember when figuring out the amount...

No rain drops on roses in this episode. Katie and TJ get personal and each share their 3 favorite things about their homes. Somehow, and maybe unsurprisingly, they end up discussing 1950's toys.

In the follow up to their smash hit, The Toilet Episode, Katie and TJ do a deep dive on showers. What to consider when you're planning a curbless shower, the difference between thermostatic and pressure balance valves, digital shower setups, steam showers, and more...

In our second Happy Home Stories episode, Katie and TJ are joined by Meera. She discusses her basement remodel, why she did it, how her experience went, the value of RealTIME Design, and what she learned.

Remodeling or rebuilding isn't an infomercial. Katie and TJ talk (briefly) about the wonderful rotisserie oven of the 90's. Then get to the topic at hand about why and how to get involved in your project, and how your brain values the project based on your level of involvement.

Today, Katie and TJ are talking toilets! You're probably thinking, how can they talk about toilets for a whole episode?? Katie thought the same thing. And then this episode ran long. There's a lot to cover, and when you're done, be sure to take our brand new TOILET QUIZ! Special surprise when you pass it. www. DesignedHappy.com/toilet

If you polled 100 people and asked them: "what is the most important word in architecture?", how many of them do you think would say: Buildable? Probably not that many. In this week's episode Katie and TJ discuss why it actually is. Katie also offers us one of her patented, Duh's.

For years and years and years we've all talked about our home as our biggest asset. And sure, it is. But we're approaching a tipping point where people are starting to realize that the Return on Enjoyment might be just as, if not more important than, Return on Investment. Katie and TJ take a deeper dive on ROI vs ROE. They also talk about a board game from the 70s, and do their best to define the...

Do you hold your luckiest lucky charm as you sign on the dotted line with a contractor? Should it all be up to luck? Of course not. Katie and TJ discuss a step-by-step strategy to remove luck from the process and help you to choose a contractor that is the right fir for your project. But can they get through the whole episode without doing Irish accents? When you're at the Fit Score step, you can...

Does a hair cut have anything to do with home remodeling? Actually, yes, a whole lot! Katie and TJ discuss Katie's new style, her process for getting there, what it felt like before the first snip, and how all of that is exactly what this podcast has been about from the beginning.

Can Katie and TJ making discussing different contract types fun? Will this episode be more like eating your vegetable, or the cool teacher putting on a movie in class? Either way, we're talking about different types of remodeling contracts and when they make sense.

This week, Katie and TJ take you behind the scenes of how we create our monthly comic strip, Nailed It. They review of few of their faves, share the stories that led to their creation, and discuss how they collaborate with local artists. You can find all of our comic strips here: https://www.designedhappy.com/blog/category/nailed-it And if you want to see the comic before everyone else, subscribe...

Happy Valentine's Day! We hope you had a wonderful day celebrating. This week Katie and TJ talk about trust - how to earn it, when it's at its most fragile, and if you can regain it. They also discuss how they each celebrate Valentine's day, and TJ shares a balsamic glaze story gone wrong.

Katie and TJ think back to when Kat had TJ design a kitchen around a sink. Katie wants to know what kinds of other things clients have designed around, and well, things got a bit weird by the end. And to give credit to the comic TJ couldn't remember, here is the clip: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/xqcSILeOwhA

In this week's episode, Katie and TJ discuss how words change over time, and how a word like Custom, used to mean something different than it does today. They talk about why that's important, a word to use instead, and pecan pies for people with silk scarves.

In this episode Katie and TJ review the 2026 trend predictions made by HOUZZ. Do we love them all? No. But do we love most of them? Also no. We'll give them this - we have our finger's crossed for a couple of them. Also, Katie's about to have a great year, and TJ explains door doors (not a typo). Check out the HOUZZ predictions here: https://pro.houzz.com/pro-learn/blog/sneak-peek-houzz-reveals-11...

After months of teasing it and building anticipation, it's finally time to review The Fit Score. Katie and TJ breakdown what this tool is, how to use it, and why it exists. They also talk about re-re-recording, and something about a horse and Perrier where you get to hear the punchline but not the setup.