Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp the
Speaker 1: House Whisper on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Today. I
Speaker 1: want to talk to you about what's going on with
Speaker 1: your house. I have no agenda but to talk with
Speaker 1: you and see if I can help. Let's try and
Speaker 1: get to Brad. Hey, Brad, welcome home.
Speaker 2: I have a nineteen sixty house with ten foot ceilings
Speaker 2: in the family room and I need to replace the
Speaker 2: light bulbs in the ceiling fixtures. And I was wondering
Speaker 2: how to determine how to get the correct bulbs for
Speaker 2: the correct for brightness and also that are safe.
Speaker 1: Okay, So you've got obviously nineteen sixties fixtures, their standards,
Speaker 1: screw in type bulbs. There, there are LED, there are
Speaker 1: LED light fixtures and trims for those kinds of cans
Speaker 1: that come with a little adapter so that they plug
Speaker 1: from the LED fixture into a screw in adapter for
Speaker 1: an older can light, a non LED dedicated can light.
Speaker 1: So number one, that's what you're looking for. Number two,
Speaker 1: you're looking for one of those kinds of trims that
Speaker 1: are dimmable so that you've got complete control over all
Speaker 1: of the lighting aspects. Through the room. Number three. You're
Speaker 1: looking for, if we're talking about living room lighting, you're
Speaker 1: looking for warm light. Warm not heavily ambered light, but
Speaker 1: warm light. And what that means is that every light package, now,
Speaker 1: especially LED lights, will have listed on it a temperature.
Speaker 1: It's a color temperature. It's not a heat temperature. It's
Speaker 1: a color temperature in terms of degrees kelvin. And so
Speaker 1: it's gonna say it's gonna be a big number, and
Speaker 1: then it's gonna be followed by a K. It's gonna
Speaker 1: say something like four thousand K, five thousand K, three
Speaker 1: thousand K. What we are looking for in living room lighting,
Speaker 1: the LED equivalent of just old style incandescent bulbs is
Speaker 1: roughly in the area of twenty eight hundred kelvin. Twenty
Speaker 1: eight hundred K okay, definitely no greater than three thousand,
Speaker 1: and that is not a that's color temperature. That's not
Speaker 1: about brightness. But you get over three thousand K, which
Speaker 1: is kind of daylight rated. At that point the light
Speaker 1: becomes blue. It gets really blue, really harsh and uncomfortably
Speaker 1: blue for an interior space. The closer you go down
Speaker 1: in the other direction under three thousand, the more amber
Speaker 1: the light gets. So, just to give you an idea,
Speaker 1: you know, four thousand K is essentially sunlight and eighteen
Speaker 1: hundred K is candle light. Okay, so what we're looking
Speaker 1: for that replicates the old incandescent is basically, you know,
Speaker 1: roughly twenty eight hundred K. Now brightness. That's the tricky thing,
Speaker 1: but fortune lighting companies are making the transition easy. So
Speaker 1: take a look at the wattage of the incandescent bulb
Speaker 1: that you had in there, one hundred watts, sixty watt, eighty,
Speaker 1: you know, whatever that might be when you're looking and
Speaker 1: shopping for LEDs. The trick is that wattage was never
Speaker 1: a measure of brightness. Okay, wattage is at is a
Speaker 1: measure of energy consumption, but with an incandescent bulb, the
Speaker 1: two go hand in hand. The more energy it consumes,
Speaker 1: the brighter it is. And that's why we've all gotten
Speaker 1: used to the idea like, oh, I think I need
Speaker 1: a hundred watt bulb here for brightness as opposed to
Speaker 1: a fifty watt bulb. LEDs don't work that way. LED's
Speaker 1: power consumption is like four watts or six watts or
Speaker 1: eight watts and so there's no way for us to
Speaker 1: equate that except the manufacturers do it for you. On
Speaker 1: the package. What you'll see are terms like forty watt equivalent,
Speaker 1: one hundred watt equivalent. Okay, that's what you're looking for.
Speaker 1: And while we're at it, everybody, we need to start
Speaker 1: transitioning out of thinking about light bulb brightness in terms
Speaker 1: of watts and do what scientists and lighting designers and
Speaker 1: cinematographers have been doing forever, and that is using the
Speaker 1: proper term, which is lumens. Lumens is the quantity of
Speaker 1: bright light in a room. Okay, there you go. Let's
Speaker 1: talk to Mike. Hey, Mike, welcome home.
Speaker 3: Yes, we have a tankless tankless journal in our comedy club.
Speaker 3: Two days after changing the filter, the proprietor complains that
Speaker 3: it smells like that outhouse. Is there any fixed with that?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 1: Uh, okay, So when you say tankless you mean a
Speaker 1: waterless urinal.
Speaker 3: Yes that.
Speaker 1: I'm just writing this down here because I've literally never
Speaker 1: had this question before. Waterless urble at the comedy club
Speaker 1: is smelling. So the trick with waterless urinals is that
Speaker 1: they've got to be maintained properly. Of course, there's a
Speaker 1: filter system connected to it. But also you got to
Speaker 1: double check with your personnel to make sure they're being
Speaker 1: cleaned the right way. Most people make the mistake of
Speaker 1: assuming that, hey, it's a waterless urinal. So every once
Speaker 1: in a while, when we clean this out, we better
Speaker 1: flush it with some water, because a waterless urinal couldn't
Speaker 1: possibly be cleaned in any other way, And in fact,
Speaker 1: that's the exact opposite thing to do, because of well,
Speaker 1: urine has scale, hard water scale deposits, and with that
Speaker 1: comes build up on the inside of the pipes, and
Speaker 1: then it becomes a place when it interacts with water
Speaker 1: that bacteria starts to grow. So I am not an
Speaker 1: expert in this area, but I do know this when
Speaker 1: it comes to waterless urinals, there is a very very
Speaker 1: specific cleaning methodology for them. And once a filter has
Speaker 1: changed out, you may if anybody has induced water introduced
Speaker 1: water into that drain pipe, then you gotta let it
Speaker 1: dry out and then you got to return to standard
Speaker 1: cleaning protocols, and they are very very specific. There's usually
Speaker 1: a puck or an additive to go into the waterless system,
Speaker 1: which begins breaking down the build up on the pipe.
Speaker 1: Wall and killing off the bacteria and allowing it to
Speaker 1: return to its clean, fresh smell once again. But the
Speaker 1: one thing you don't do, and the thing I've heard
Speaker 1: most often when a waterless urinal starts to smell, is
Speaker 1: that somebody has cleaned it with water, which is just
Speaker 1: not the right thing to do. That's the best I
Speaker 1: can tell you, Mike. Return to those protocols. Make sure
Speaker 1: nobody at the comedy club is cleaning that thing improperly.
Speaker 1: If water was introduced, even in the change out of
Speaker 1: the filter, like somebody felt like, oh we should also,
Speaker 1: you know, we're changing out the filter, we should rinse
Speaker 1: this out while we're at That could be the whole
Speaker 1: issue right there. Waterless means waterless, and so refer to
Speaker 1: your owner's manual when it comes to how to clean
Speaker 1: that thing, and it's usually a dry puck that goes in,
Speaker 1: starts absorbing on the sides of the pipe wall with
Speaker 1: what tiny moisture is there and neutralizes the bacteria, takes
Speaker 1: the smell away. There you go.
Speaker 5: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 5: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: All right back to the phones, Tony, Welcome.
Speaker 6: Home, Hi Dan, how are you. We're doing a complete
Speaker 6: kitchen remodel with cabinets, floors, and appliances, and my question
Speaker 6: is do the cabinets should those sit on the subfloor
Speaker 6: or do we install all of the wood floors first?
Speaker 6: And the part that seems the most trickiest from what
Speaker 6: I've read is how to handle the dishwasher?
Speaker 1: Ah? Yes, okay, So it's a good question, really good question.
Speaker 1: And it depends. It depends. And I say that in
Speaker 1: all sincerity because I don't know. Maybe I would say
Speaker 1: maybe seventy five percent of the time. Typically we will
Speaker 1: not install on top of the floors, on top of
Speaker 1: the hardwood floor or the tile sometimes just purely from
Speaker 1: the practicality that you know, why do you want to
Speaker 1: run the expense of hardwood all the way underneath cabinet
Speaker 1: kicks where it will never be seen again, so simply
Speaker 1: to save square footage of cabinets. But there's also another reason,
Speaker 1: I see, I'm sorry, save square footage of flooring material.
Speaker 1: The other reason is that sometimes, quite often floors are
Speaker 1: not perfectly level, and so your cabinet installers will quite
Speaker 1: possibly have to shim up the rough cabinet kicks. Now
Speaker 1: these days, rough cabinet kicks get shimmed, and then there
Speaker 1: is a finished kickplate that goes over it, and then
Speaker 1: the shims are hidden and they meet the floor very nicely.
Speaker 1: So but that's a consideration as well. But I would
Speaker 1: say typically what we're aiming for is to not run
Speaker 1: material underneath the cabinet kicks because it's unnecessary. Now when
Speaker 1: it comes to the dishwasher, whatever the flooring is in
Speaker 1: the room that we do run into, because the dishwasher
Speaker 1: is just an area, a void area, So we go
Speaker 1: ahead and run that material into the dishwasher area so
Speaker 1: that the dishwasher doesn't get trapped behind flooring material down
Speaker 1: in the recess there. And I know some people are like, well,
Speaker 1: I don't know if I want to run hardwood in there,
Speaker 1: because what if the dishwasher leaks. I guarantee you, if
Speaker 1: the dishwasher leaks and you've got hardwood in your kitchen,
Speaker 1: it's going to go way beyond just the wood that's
Speaker 1: directly underneath. It's going to affect wood in the whole
Speaker 1: area there. So it's kind of a moot point when
Speaker 1: it comes to of that argument. I just prefer the
Speaker 1: idea that we can easily slide the dishwasher in and
Speaker 1: out for installation or service or what have you. So
Speaker 1: my recommendation is typically save the money on the extra
Speaker 1: flooring material. Now, occasionally there is a situation where it's like, well,
Speaker 1: I don't want to put the cabinets in yet because
Speaker 1: there's all this other stuff and if we have to
Speaker 1: set the cabinets then then they're going to get in
Speaker 1: the way and they're going to get beat up. So
Speaker 1: I'd rather have the flooring go in without the cabinets. Well,
Speaker 1: you can ask your cabinet manufacture or installer to put
Speaker 1: in rough kicks, just the kicks themselves detached from the
Speaker 1: cabinet boxes, and that way, once the kicks are in place,
Speaker 1: they determine the cabinet set and then your flooring people
Speaker 1: can get in there and lay all the flooring in
Speaker 1: the kitchen without the cabinets in their way. That's only
Speaker 1: something that happens though, when it comes to cabinets that
Speaker 1: have detachable kicks, where the kicks are separate from the
Speaker 1: boxes themselves, and you have to talk to your cabinet
Speaker 1: person about that. But typically, eh, we wouldn't you recommend
Speaker 1: wasting material underneath a cabinet Kate, does it matter, though
Speaker 1: not really, it's not really going to change the install much.
Speaker 1: Always account for the height of the hardwood floor, though,
Speaker 1: so don't set yourself up for a thirty six inch
Speaker 1: tall countertop, then put in, you know, five eighths or
Speaker 1: three quarters of an inch of hardwood and find yourself
Speaker 1: with shorter cabinets. So the kicks have to be taller
Speaker 1: if they're going to go in before the hardwood. Thanks
Speaker 1: for the question, Tony Herman, Welcome home.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 6: I got a question.
Speaker 3: I want to build a retaining wall in my backyard
Speaker 3: by myself.
Speaker 6: How can I go about.
Speaker 1: That retaining wall in your backyard by yourself? It all
Speaker 1: depends on what you want the wall to look like.
Speaker 1: If you want it completely straight up and down vertical,
Speaker 1: you want it out of cinder block, you want to
Speaker 1: cover it with stucca or plaster or something like that.
Speaker 1: But I can tell you this. The general rule is
Speaker 1: this for most municipalities, and I say this as a qualifier.
Speaker 1: I say most municipalities, even though it's pretty much all
Speaker 1: there are depending on the size of your lot, the location,
Speaker 1: and the soil conditions. Sometimes there are deviations of this,
Speaker 1: but for most municipalities, any retaining quote unquote retaining wall
Speaker 1: that is holding back less than three feet of soil
Speaker 1: you can do without a permit and without engineering. The
Speaker 1: easiest way to go about doing that is to head
Speaker 1: on down to the building supply, whether you've got a
Speaker 1: stone yard near you, a home depot, Low's, you know,
Speaker 1: a lumberyard, and get those interlocking, stacked, racked back retaining
Speaker 1: wall blocks. There's several different versions, but they lock into
Speaker 1: each other and you can simply line out the bottom.
Speaker 1: Now they do slope back ever so slightly, because every
Speaker 1: course above the previous course sets back just ever so slightly,
Speaker 1: and you can build a nice little garden retaining wall
Speaker 1: out of that material in an afternoon or a couple
Speaker 1: of days, depending on how long obviously the wall is.
Speaker 1: But basically, you lay a course, you backfill it with
Speaker 1: a little soil up to that course, set the next course,
Speaker 1: keep backfilling and setting and backfilling, and legally you can
Speaker 1: go in most municipalities up to three feet and that'll
Speaker 1: hold just fine, and it'll last long, and you'll get
Speaker 1: plant growth out of it, which I really like, because
Speaker 1: I don't like bare walls when it comes to that
Speaker 1: kind of landscaping stuff. So that's the general gist of it. Herman.
Speaker 1: If you have special soil conditions on your property and
Speaker 1: you know it, then you might need a permit. If
Speaker 1: you are going to be retaining more than three feet
Speaker 1: of soil surcharging the back of the wall, then you're
Speaker 1: going to need a permit, and you need some engineering.
Speaker 1: And that engineering is going to be for the proper
Speaker 1: sized footing and steal in that footing so that the
Speaker 1: pressure of the soil behind the wall doesn't basically roll
Speaker 1: the wall over, doesn't doesn't knock it down. How about
Speaker 1: some more of your calls when we return. You are
Speaker 1: listening to Home with Dean Sharp the house whisper.
Speaker 5: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 5: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: Welcome home, Thank you, Dean.
Speaker 4: I'm noticing a pattern. I am sixty, early sixties, and
Speaker 4: I'm noticing that guys that come in to quote me,
Speaker 4: the contractors, the four that have come in in the
Speaker 4: last three months, have all said, after I tell them
Speaker 4: what I want, you don't want that, and you don't
Speaker 4: want to go through the city, and we don't need
Speaker 4: to permit and no one's going to know because you
Speaker 4: live here now and you need to staff and now
Speaker 4: we want to save five grand or more, so you
Speaker 4: don't want to go through the city. So telling you this,
Speaker 4: every one of them they don't know. I work with
Speaker 4: the city, not for but with them for my second job.
Speaker 4: It's just not even that so insulting. And they want
Speaker 4: to get someone younger. They're like, what do you want
Speaker 4: to do, and they're really straightforward. You're going to need
Speaker 4: a permit and there's no nothing else. They're just respectful.
Speaker 4: So I don't know if it's something like on the
Speaker 4: slim shady like older generation, but I'm very disappointed because
Speaker 4: I left these strangers in my home and you know,
Speaker 4: with all the health to take you all the health
Speaker 4: situations is like it ends up not crash and burn.
Speaker 4: I can't hire any one of these four. And I'm
Speaker 4: I'm really disappointed, thank you. I'm very disappointed that I
Speaker 4: held out for these guys, you know, and I'm just
Speaker 4: there and when they come in, I tell them what
Speaker 4: I want. I'm very professional, and they're like, you don't
Speaker 4: want that, and they've reconfigured my whole They're telling me
Speaker 4: what to do and I don't want to argue with them,
Speaker 4: which I could, because I'm scared if I'm the only
Speaker 4: one home. I don't want them to get hurt in
Speaker 4: my house because I will not back off, but I
Speaker 4: do because I'm intimidated by their quote. But we're bearing this.
Speaker 4: I just don't know if it's a whole thing that
Speaker 4: I should just go with a younger contractor that goes
Speaker 4: by the book. You know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel you. I feel you. I wish I
Speaker 1: wish that what you were telling me was something that
Speaker 1: was not very common surely, but you know what the
Speaker 1: truth is, there is just let's just talk about it
Speaker 1: for a second. There is a lot of agism in
Speaker 1: the contracting world, and there's a lot of sexism in
Speaker 1: the contracting world still, and yes, you're gonna find it
Speaker 1: in general now. I you know, I gotta be really
Speaker 1: careful that because I don't want to. There are some
Speaker 1: brilliantly fantastic contractors out there who are older, you know,
Speaker 1: men and women who've been doing this for a long time.
Speaker 1: They've got a lot of experience and they are intensely
Speaker 1: respectful and they don't pull that kind of crap on people.
Speaker 1: But for whatever reason, there is a certain kind of
Speaker 1: neanderthalic old school builder still out there that and I
Speaker 1: hear stories about it all the time of that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff happening. So let me just dissect really quickly
Speaker 1: a couple of things that you said, or deconstruct it,
Speaker 1: just to make sure that we're clear on this number one.
Speaker 1: There is no room for that kind of thing. And
Speaker 1: it's not just about somebody's mannerism. I say this all
Speaker 1: the time. When you start to work with a contractor,
Speaker 1: it is a relationship that you're having. Okay, You're going
Speaker 1: to be in that relationship through thick and thin, through
Speaker 1: very stressful moments, through all sorts of mess and trial
Speaker 1: and circumstance. And if you don't feel comfortable with a
Speaker 1: vibe that is being put off, then I don't care.
Speaker 1: I don't care what their price is, I don't care
Speaker 1: how high their level of so called expertise is. Pass
Speaker 1: you know what, because they're not the only fish in
Speaker 1: the in the sea. They just aren't. There are a
Speaker 1: lot of contractors out there, and so, you know, unfortunately
Speaker 1: for you, it sounds like the first three or four
Speaker 1: were kind of all fell into that category. But I'm
Speaker 1: just going to encourage you. There are more you do
Speaker 1: not want to enter into a relationship for a remodel
Speaker 1: something so important with a contractor who is going to
Speaker 1: talk down to you. And especially this as a designer,
Speaker 1: this just gets under my skin all the time builders
Speaker 1: coming in and saying, oh, no, no, you don't want that. Now,
Speaker 1: I will give this caveat Okay, if three builders come
Speaker 1: into a situation and look at a plan and they
Speaker 1: all have the same constructive critique of a particular plan,
Speaker 1: my ears are open, and so should yours be. If
Speaker 1: somebody is coming in and saying because I do that
Speaker 1: sometimes as a designer, I do it all the time. Actually,
Speaker 1: I walk into a home and I'm like, this idea
Speaker 1: right here, I'm not sure this is the best way
Speaker 1: to approach this, because I think you're going to run
Speaker 1: into problem ABC and D. Okay. If you're getting a
Speaker 1: consensus of contractors you respect telling you I'm not sure
Speaker 1: this is a good idea, then it may be a
Speaker 1: good idea to step back and reevaluate the plan. But
Speaker 1: just the idea. There is a kind of builder out
Speaker 1: there who has their opinion about what your house should
Speaker 1: look like, and you know it. Guess how much I
Speaker 1: care about that. As an actual home designer, I care
Speaker 1: about it zero percent. And how many times do I
Speaker 1: have this conversation with contractors whenever I need to? There
Speaker 1: are times when you know, and I have the advantage
Speaker 1: because I've been a builder myself for thirty five years
Speaker 1: and so plus years now, I'd like, I'm just going
Speaker 1: to stick with thirty five instead of saying plus. But
Speaker 1: a lot of contractors actually shame designers and architects as
Speaker 1: well because are like, well, you guys don't have the
Speaker 1: hands on knowledge of what happens. I happen to have both.
Speaker 1: So I get to look back at them and say, listen, bud,
Speaker 1: I'm going to show you exactly right now how much
Speaker 1: I care about your opinion of what this should look like.
Speaker 1: I care zero percent. You are here to build this plan.
Speaker 1: You either do it or we'll move on to somebody else.
Speaker 1: And that's the way it's going to be. I am
Speaker 1: not concerned about what your opinion of this is. Do
Speaker 1: you want to build this or don't you? So yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's kind of a hot button for me too, surely.
Speaker 1: So Number one, don't ever get into a relationship with
Speaker 1: a contractor who you're not feeling a good vibe with
Speaker 1: number two, don't let them talk down to you or
Speaker 1: man explain you or tell you that what you want
Speaker 1: is something that you shouldn't have. And finally, if it
Speaker 1: is a Now, there are some aspects of home remodeling
Speaker 1: that don't require permits. Flooring, kitchen, cabinet, tree, things like that,
Speaker 1: although when you do a kitchen cabinet remodel, if we're
Speaker 1: moving electrical and plumbing, that requires a permit. So there
Speaker 1: are facets of work in the house that don't require permit.
Speaker 1: But if it's something that requires a permit and you
Speaker 1: want to pull the permit and you're the homeowner, you're
Speaker 1: the boss, and that's the way it's going to be.
Speaker 1: So there you go, very simply put, Sureley, thanks for
Speaker 1: the call. I am sorry that you've run into that
Speaker 1: kind of trouble, but my own encouragement to you is
Speaker 1: stick to your guns. There are more fish in the sea.
Speaker 1: Don't settle for these losers. You are listening to Home
Speaker 1: with Dean Sharp the House Whisper.
Speaker 5: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 5: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: If your Home with Dean Sharp, the house whisper, It's
Speaker 1: time to go to the phone. Let's find out what's
Speaker 1: going on with you. Why don't we talk to well,
Speaker 1: let's just go right to the top, Karen, Welcome home.
Speaker 7: I live in Los Angeles County and in my backyard,
Speaker 7: I have a detached twenty three by twenty garage twenty
Speaker 7: three wide, and I want to make an eight hundred
Speaker 7: tware foot accessory dwelling unit. So the garage is built
Speaker 7: in two thousand and five. Is it going to be
Speaker 7: cheaper for me knock down the garage and start all
Speaker 7: over again? And just so you know, the washer and
Speaker 7: dryer is currently in the garage. Is it going to
Speaker 7: be cheaper to knock down the garage and start fresh
Speaker 7: and clean with that detex eight hundred square foot unit,
Speaker 7: or will it be cheaper to knock out the wall
Speaker 7: and extend it to forty wide from twenty three wides?
Speaker 1: Okay, here is my answer. Okay, I don't know, I
Speaker 1: don't know. Oh no, but here are the factors involved. Okay,
Speaker 1: it may very well be cheaper to just to go
Speaker 1: with the existing structure, because you've got an existing structure, right,
Speaker 1: It's really a question of how well the garage is built.
Speaker 1: Is the garage built, Can the garage be brought Is
Speaker 1: it at code? Can it be brought up to code?
Speaker 1: Is the slab on the garage sloped? Are you gonna
Speaker 1: have to contend with that because it's got a eighth
Speaker 1: inch per foot slope on it? Or is it perfectly
Speaker 1: flat and ready to become a floor of a dwelling unit.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of factors that go into play. Now,
Speaker 1: the question of as far as the city is concerned, Okay,
Speaker 1: as far as La County is concerned, they're just gonna
Speaker 1: put their hands up and say, hey, whatever you want
Speaker 1: to do, We're fine with you converting the garage, but
Speaker 1: it's going to have to be to code. We're also
Speaker 1: fine if you want to knock it down and go
Speaker 1: for eight hundred square feet new. Ideally, if it works
Speaker 1: with your design and you've got structure there that's worth saving, ideally,
Speaker 1: it will probably be the best and least expensive route
Speaker 1: to keep it and just build off of it. You know,
Speaker 1: I always say this when it comes to room editions
Speaker 1: in general, and one of the reasons as a designer,
Speaker 1: when I come into your home and you're like, you
Speaker 1: know what, I just need, we need more space, so
Speaker 1: we're gonna push out, we need a new master bedroom
Speaker 1: pushed out of the back of the house. And you know,
Speaker 1: room edition, room edition, room editions. So many people are
Speaker 1: talking room edition, and I put a pin in that
Speaker 1: at the beginning of our conversation and say, Okay, are
Speaker 1: you sure that you need more square footage or just
Speaker 1: to improve the flow of your existing home. And the
Speaker 1: reason I do that is not because I've got anything
Speaker 1: against room editions. I don't. It's just that slabs and
Speaker 1: roofs are expensive and they're not the kinds of things
Speaker 1: that we experience on a daily base. So if you've
Speaker 1: already got one, you've already got half of the slab
Speaker 1: that you need. If you already have half of the
Speaker 1: roof that you need, why not you know, build onto it.
Speaker 1: So I think, Karen, your best situation is to figure
Speaker 1: out what a plan might look like back there, see
Speaker 1: if the garage can become a part of it. Talk
Speaker 1: to a build or get a contractor or two over,
Speaker 1: have them take a look at the garage and give
Speaker 1: you their professional eyes on opinion as to whether the
Speaker 1: garage is just a you know, shambles in terms of
Speaker 1: current code or whether they're like, no, no, no, we
Speaker 1: can work with this relatively easy. And that's just that's
Speaker 1: just a whole nother segment of the new build that
Speaker 1: you don't have to duplicate.
Speaker 7: Can the city say eight hundred like they had before
Speaker 7: the ADU, they.
Speaker 8: Had a requirement that, as an example, a one bedroom
Speaker 8: must be like, let's say eight hundred square feet, right,
Speaker 8: I'm not exactly sure of the numbers, but let's just
Speaker 8: say it was a one bed. If I was going
Speaker 8: to build a branding place with the ADU, am I
Speaker 8: exempt from that? Can I still turn eight hundred square
Speaker 8: feet into two bedrooms? Or could they say no, under
Speaker 8: o les, eight hundred square feets not is only big
Speaker 8: enough one bedroom?
Speaker 1: Nope, Now you can show them. You show them on
Speaker 1: the plan where you get two habitable rooms plus you know,
Speaker 1: a useful kitchen and bathroom and closet space out of that,
Speaker 1: and they are no longer in a position to shut
Speaker 1: you down on it.
Speaker 8: So thank you, sir.
Speaker 7: And my last question is on a contractor. Is there
Speaker 7: a contractor like to contractors do the plans and contracting
Speaker 7: or I have to get an architect and a contractor.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, okay, a couple of modifications on both of
Speaker 1: your both of these answers. Yes, there are contractors that
Speaker 1: do design build. Okay, I'm always a little you know,
Speaker 1: I'm a I'm a home designer and have been a
Speaker 1: builder for many years, and as a design I'm always
Speaker 1: a little bit wary of design build contractors. Not that
Speaker 1: there aren't some fantastic designers out there who also build,
Speaker 1: but a lot of contractors who call themselves design build
Speaker 1: are really not going to give you all your money's
Speaker 1: worth in the design department. So just be aware of that.
Speaker 1: But they are there, and you certainly should investigate that. Uh.
Speaker 1: You you asked the question about an architect, So just
Speaker 1: to be clear, yeah, you can totally hire an architect.
Speaker 1: But in the state of California, Uh, you don't have
Speaker 1: to be a licensed architect. You can be an experienced designer,
Speaker 1: a licensed art You don't have to be a licensed
Speaker 1: architect to build a residential structure up to three stories
Speaker 1: in height. You could design it yourself if you want to.
Speaker 8: Sure, Okay, that's very good.
Speaker 1: You don't need a licensed architect, or you can hire
Speaker 1: a designer, a decorator, anybody who's got the talent to
Speaker 1: get that design just right for you, okay, and that
Speaker 1: thank you.
Speaker 8: Great pay you too.
Speaker 1: Karen, thanks for these questions, really really good. You're listening
Speaker 1: to Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper on KFI.
Speaker 1: This has been Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper.
Speaker 1: Tune into the live broadcast on KFI AM six forty
Speaker 1: every Saturday morning from six to eight Pacific time, and
Speaker 1: every Sunday morning from nine to noon Pacific time, or
Speaker 1: anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app