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Abandon House! How to Survive a Home Repair Fiasco

Kenny & Shari Rudolph

Released: 2025-11-28

Abandon House! How to Survive a Home Repair Fiasco - QR Code

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7 Episodes

Audio

Free New

7 Episodes

Audio

Released: 2025-11-28

Most Recent Episode

Episode 5: The Search for Bigfoot

Time: 1:07:56

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Spring 2020 brings rain, leaks, and a new level of chaos to the Rudolph house as Shari and Kenny continue their fight to fix their sinking California castle. In this episode, the couple faces a fresh wave of insurance pirates, robotic adjusters, and legal run-around as COVID restrictions complicate everything. But amid the absurdity, a new hero emerges: they let rip their new lawyer, Rip.

Kenny unleashes their Rip-informed defence on Rounders Insurance, only to be met with form letters, denials, and a settlement offer so insulting it’ll make you laugh out loud when you hear the amount (we lifetime guarantee it). Shari breaks down the emotional toll of repeatedly reliving their story for every new adjuster who enters the arena.

Then: a breath of fresh, competent air. The Rudolphs sit down with Zach Ogden, co-founder and lead project manager at HiveMind Construction, a Philadelphia-based construction cooperative known for transparent and ethical practices. Zach brings empathy, insight, and straight talk about contractor bids, bad builds, and what homeowners should be asking before they sign anything. He also shares tales from the trenches - including a renovation disaster that rivals the Rudolph’s endless window leak.

Back in California, Kenny and Shari take their lawyer’s advice and begin the hunt for the impossible: a contractor who can fix what Brady Windows destroyed once and for all. Enter: Bigfoot. Or…Borgfoot? His partner Isaac arrives unannounced, waving a moisture meter like a Jedi lightsaber, shouting “Cut the jive!” and issuing the prophetic warning, “Sometimes small jobs become big jobs.”

Is Borg the solution? A grifter? A miracle worker? A man addicted to eating takeout out of Styrofoam containers? The signs are unclear.

What is clear: the battle isn’t over.

Along the way, Kenny, Shari, and Zach discuss:

The cascade of insurance adjusters who ran through the CastleCOVID-era construction protocolsLegal wisdom from Rip, the SoCal lawyer of dreams, including where to sniff out the above board contractors in California via the State Licensing Board websiteA deep dive into co-op construction with Zach Ogden of HiveMind ConstructionThe highly dramatic entrance of Borg and Isaac to the CastleAnd the ongoing search for Bigfoot…aka, a contractor who can actually finish the jobThis podcast is the official companion to the book series of the same name Abandon House: How to Survive a Home Repair Fiasco. Book 1 is available wherever you buy books, and at this link: https://www.amazon.com/Abandon-House-Survive-Repair-Fiasco/dp/B0FJYRFYKT

Next time: Whether Isaac could see the future, cast some kind of a spell, or had Borg’s number…this small job is indeed about to become much, much bigger.

Episode ID: 1000738775185

GUID: 161f82b7-ddc4-4261-973c-5f583e855202

Release Date: 28/11/2025, 15:30:24

Description

Abandon House! How to Survive a Home Repair Fiasco is a 10-episode limited series hosted by Kenny and Shari Rudolph. Come along for laughs, groans, and tears as they share their hilarious and harrowing home repair fiasco as adapted from the 3-part book series of the same name. Whether you're a homeowner drowning in renos or just love a good love story wrapped in duct tape and drywall dust, you'll find humor, heart, and hard-won wisdom. Each episode, the Rudolphs welcome a seasoned home repair expert to weigh in on what they could have done better, and provide advice for any fellow home renovators to take heed and avoid the pitfalls they fell victim to themselves. Ultimately, their journey proves that sometimes, a house falling apart can bring people closer together - but they’d really like to help you avoid that!

Feed URL

https://media.rss.com/abandonhouse/feed.xml

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