Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp The
Speaker 1: House Whisper on demand of the iHeart Radio app. Hey,
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Speaker 1: for you house whisperer dot Design. All right, I want
Speaker 1: to take one, maybe two more calls from our callers
Speaker 1: today and then move on to how do you rebuild
Speaker 1: and what the expectation is after a whole neighborhoods have
Speaker 1: been wiped away? So for now let's talk to Richard. Hey, Richard,
Speaker 1: welcome home.
Speaker 2: My question today was about the water curtains, and you
Speaker 2: kind of answered it, but John brought up about the
Speaker 2: limitations of a private water system, which I could actually
Speaker 2: give you some numbers on that.
Speaker 1: Okay, So do you have a question left about the
Speaker 1: water curtain idea around the house or I.
Speaker 2: Was actually interested in your opinion at them, but you
Speaker 2: kind of gave it during the program.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean so again real quickly again, like John said,
Speaker 1: is it a bad idea? No, you know, I mean
Speaker 1: the idea of a curtain of water falling from the
Speaker 1: eaves of your home all around it, the idea of
Speaker 1: a water curtain. But I will tell you this, that's
Speaker 1: not how fires are most effectively fought with a wall
Speaker 1: or a curtain of water. I mean, if it was
Speaker 1: you know, Niagara Falls, that would be one thing, clearly,
Speaker 1: But a wall or curtain of water it's not the
Speaker 1: most efficient use of water because water is really If
Speaker 1: you ask any firefighter, you know they constant trade those
Speaker 1: streams of water, not on the tops of upper flames usually,
Speaker 1: but at the base of the fire where it's actually
Speaker 1: uh you know, where where the actual consumption of materials
Speaker 1: is taking place, the actual ignition is taking place, and so,
Speaker 1: you know, a curtain of water again, it's sort of
Speaker 1: like our previous caller talking about an automatic system too,
Speaker 1: to spray the gel fire gel on the house. A
Speaker 1: water hose in the hands of a of an experienced
Speaker 1: human being, focusing the water where it counts the most
Speaker 1: on a fire is going to be far more efficient
Speaker 1: than a curtain of water. Now, could you get lucky
Speaker 1: and turn that on before you evacuate and and not
Speaker 1: run out of water by the time the fire reaches Sure,
Speaker 1: that's all possible, but generally speak, we're talking about areas
Speaker 1: where there's a lot of cost involved. It affects the
Speaker 1: function of your home, undoubtedly on some level, and will
Speaker 1: it be there to help when the moment arrives. So
Speaker 1: I'm not going to say no, I'm just going to say,
Speaker 1: you know, be informed. I think far wiser is to
Speaker 1: listen to the advice of people like John White, experienced
Speaker 1: firefighters who are telling us that, hey, do those at events,
Speaker 1: clear the defensible space around your home, get the junk
Speaker 1: away from your house, all of those kinds of things,
Speaker 1: because this is the stuff they deal with all the time.
Speaker 1: They see how it is that fires go down and
Speaker 1: affect structures. So that's my encouragement to you, Richard. Thanks
Speaker 1: for the question, Thanks for hanging in there. And yeah,
Speaker 1: so that's where we're at. Everybody, all right, So here
Speaker 1: is where we turn next. It's an interesting situation. Interesting.
Speaker 1: I don't mean that to downplay the situation at all.
Speaker 1: It's interesting and a very different kind of scenario when
Speaker 1: you've had a wildfire that has done something like the
Speaker 1: Palisades Fire and the Eaten fire have done like the
Speaker 1: Paradise fire did just a few years back in Paradise, California.
Speaker 1: Any fire that gets into an actual residential and urbanized
Speaker 1: area and clears it out what happens next, How does
Speaker 1: that change the rebuilding timeline? What can you expect? So
Speaker 1: I want to speak to that, and I also want
Speaker 1: to speak to the basics of what do you do
Speaker 1: after you've evacuated and then you have found out that
Speaker 1: you've lost your home to a wildfire? What is next?
Speaker 3: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 3: KFI Am six forty.
Speaker 1: We've just finished up talking about hardening your home. What
Speaker 1: those options are. Now I want to transition and talk
Speaker 1: about the very unique situation that the Palisades and the
Speaker 1: Eaten fire presented for us here in southern California. This
Speaker 1: is not like it's unheard of. You know, Paradise fire
Speaker 1: went through this entire town was essentially leveled in that fire.
Speaker 1: What are the expectations. We've got kind of two prongs
Speaker 1: on this fork. One is what are the normal things
Speaker 1: that will happen by way of fire damage anytime anybody's
Speaker 1: house burns to the ground. And number two, what happens
Speaker 1: when it's not just your house, but an entire neighborhood
Speaker 1: or a region that has burnt to the ground. How
Speaker 1: does that affect the rebuilding process and all the decisions
Speaker 1: that come next. Okay, so let's start with that first
Speaker 1: of all, always first steps. I mentioned this yesterday. I'm
Speaker 1: going to repeat myself here for those listening right now.
Speaker 1: First steps, get out, get safe, and get rested, and
Speaker 1: take a breath. That's what you need. And who do
Speaker 1: you have. You've got friends, You've got relatives, You've got
Speaker 1: loved ones who are reaching out and offering help. You
Speaker 1: have FEMA. Make sure if you have lost your home
Speaker 1: in these fires, that you have registered with and made
Speaker 1: contact with FEMA. There are potential money. Now, FEMA is
Speaker 1: not there to rebuild your house, but they're there to
Speaker 1: help with emergency costs and expenditures along the way. It
Speaker 1: will help. Nothing cures, but it will help. The Red Cross,
Speaker 1: of course, is available. There are shelters, there's food, there's water,
Speaker 1: there's rest areas, there's medical attention. All of that has
Speaker 1: to happen in order to get you, you and your
Speaker 1: loved ones safe and away from the danger. Okay, now
Speaker 1: now comes insurance. Insurance is a sticky wicket. It just is.
Speaker 1: I've spoken on this before and we're going to be
Speaker 1: speaking about it again in the next few weeks. Insurance
Speaker 1: is a strange thing. Because you enlist the help of
Speaker 1: an insurance company to protect your home and your property,
Speaker 1: you pay them premiums. Those premiums sometimes are very, very costly,
Speaker 1: and then when the event happens, you know, it's kind
Speaker 1: of like a legalized gambling situation when the event actually
Speaker 1: occurs and the loss is suffered. And this is everything
Speaker 1: from you know, broken pipe in your kitchen to your
Speaker 1: whole house burning down. When that happens, the insurance company
Speaker 1: who bet that nothing would happen to your house in
Speaker 1: order to make the profits that they wanted to make
Speaker 1: from your premiums not going you know, unpaid. That company
Speaker 1: now has approached you from the perspective. Now I'm not
Speaker 1: saying that they are that they're being nasty with you.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying that their perspective is their priority is
Speaker 1: minimizing loss, financial loss on their part. Okay, So does
Speaker 1: that put you in an adversarial position with your insurance company.
Speaker 1: The reality is yes, yes it does, and at a
Speaker 1: time when you need it, that situation laid on your
Speaker 1: doorstep the least. But it's just the way this business works. Okay.
Speaker 1: So here's the first thing that you need to know.
Speaker 1: You need to make a claim. And it's not about like, oh,
Speaker 1: there's plenty of time, nothing's happening over No, you make
Speaker 1: a claim, okay, especially in a massive disaster, because some
Speaker 1: insurance companies may not survive this disaster. They will pay
Speaker 1: out until they can payout, and so you make your claim.
Speaker 1: Make your claim. That also gets certain balls rolling in
Speaker 1: the state of California. It is my understanding, okay, and
Speaker 1: correct me if I'm wrong about this, but it's my
Speaker 1: understanding in the state of California. If your house is
Speaker 1: completely destroyed in an event that resulted in a state
Speaker 1: of emergency being declared, and which these fires were a
Speaker 1: state of emergency officially declared by the Governor's office in
Speaker 1: the state of California, in those events, your insurance company
Speaker 1: is required to immediately pay you a minimum of one
Speaker 1: third of the estimated value of your personal belongings that's
Speaker 1: known as contents in your policy, and a minimum of
Speaker 1: four months worth of rent for the local area in
Speaker 1: which you live. That's cash that's available to you right now,
Speaker 1: and those payments are required of them, whether an adjuster
Speaker 1: has inspected your home or not. Do you understand that
Speaker 1: those are just automatic payments. So this is why you
Speaker 1: make your claim. Okay. You can also in some situations
Speaker 1: ask your insurance provider for cash advances for living expenses
Speaker 1: such as renting out furniture. And there are companies out
Speaker 1: there if you did not know, that can come to
Speaker 1: your temporary residence, your temporary home that you just rented
Speaker 1: and furnish it, furnish it. I mean, if you've lost
Speaker 1: everything in the fire, you don't have much other than
Speaker 1: maybe what you got in your car and the clothes
Speaker 1: on your back. There are companies that will furnish that
Speaker 1: rental home, that temporary residence, down to the towels and
Speaker 1: kitchen utensils, Okay, all the way through. Okay, so understand
Speaker 1: that that is at your disposal. Secondly, okay, the next
Speaker 1: thing that and I know this is a difficult thing
Speaker 1: as well, especially in a time of stress, but secondly,
Speaker 1: it's time to start what's called a recovery diary. Okay.
Speaker 1: All I'm saying is it's not dear diary, I had
Speaker 1: a bad day today. No. A recovery diary is just
Speaker 1: a book or a set of records in which you
Speaker 1: begin to take detailed notes on people that you've talked
Speaker 1: to when you talk to them, the phone numbers that
Speaker 1: you called, who has called you, what was said. Keep
Speaker 1: your paperwork organized. Take photos of receipts, hotel bills, you know,
Speaker 1: pet receipts, boarding receipts, so you can have them all accessible. Okay,
Speaker 1: now the other thing is this is no I know
Speaker 1: I've been talking about after you've left and your home
Speaker 1: is burnt down. But one more item of advice for
Speaker 1: those of you who are in a you may evacuate
Speaker 1: situation soon. You haven't been ordered to evacuate yet, but
Speaker 1: you've been told that it may be coming. You've got
Speaker 1: time right now to do one of the most important
Speaker 1: things for your financial future, and it's in your hands,
Speaker 1: probably in your pocket, your cell phone, your camera. If
Speaker 1: you have not evacuated yet but are on the edge
Speaker 1: of potentially evacuating, you need to take video and photos
Speaker 1: of everything everything. Everything in your home, your valuables, your electronics,
Speaker 1: stuff in your drawers, everything in the kitchen, all the appliances,
Speaker 1: everything inside the cupboards. I mean literally, somebody somebody video
Speaker 1: and the other person walk in front like a host
Speaker 1: tour guide and just walk through the house and point
Speaker 1: out here are our two sofas. Here's our leather recliner,
Speaker 1: here's our seventy two inch flat screen TV. Here's this,
Speaker 1: here's that, And document your possessions, everything that may not
Speaker 1: survive that fire, because when it's ash, it's hard for
Speaker 1: anybody to walk up and say, oh, and I also
Speaker 1: had a you know, five thousand dollars gold necklace in
Speaker 1: this drawer. Uh, how do we know? Document it? Document
Speaker 1: it all? Does that make sense? I hope?
Speaker 2: So.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's again I'm jumping back to before you've evacuated,
Speaker 1: After the evacuation, after you've learned that your home has
Speaker 1: been descinated, there's going to be a point in which,
Speaker 1: at some point you are allowed to return to the
Speaker 1: property when you do photos and video. Again, what's the
Speaker 1: best way for me to communicate this. I want you
Speaker 1: to treat your property like a crime scene, Okay, like
Speaker 1: the police treat a crime scene. And what I mean
Speaker 1: by that is, don't go in there and just start
Speaker 1: shoveling and removing stuff. Okay, there's going to be a
Speaker 1: time for that, but go in and simply, without disturbing
Speaker 1: as much as possible, go in and document everything you can,
Speaker 1: everything that you can on site. Without just starting cleanup
Speaker 1: and throwing stuff away. Okay, document, document, document everything possible, visibly, photographs, video,
Speaker 1: You get the idea. Okay. All of this leads up
Speaker 1: to the beginning of negotiations with your insurance company, and
Speaker 1: when we come back from break, I'm going to talk
Speaker 1: to you about what that expectation is going to be
Speaker 1: and what other resources are at your disposal in order
Speaker 1: to make that as beneficial for you as possible, because honestly,
Speaker 1: insurance companies make billions of dollars. I want to now
Speaker 1: focus on you getting what you need out of that
Speaker 1: disastrous situation. And you may need some help. You probably
Speaker 1: will need some help. Where will you find it? Talk
Speaker 1: about that right after.
Speaker 3: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on Demand from
Speaker 3: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: I've been a general contractor and a builder for decades.
Speaker 1: I know your home. I know my home inside and out,
Speaker 1: and if I were to lose everything on my property
Speaker 1: to a wildfire and had to deal with my insurance
Speaker 1: company straight up, I would probably seek out this help,
Speaker 1: even for myself. So that's the kind of underscore I'm
Speaker 1: placing under this advice, Okay, And what kind of help
Speaker 1: is available to you. Well, there's two kinds in general.
Speaker 1: One is a public insurance adjuster. The other is a
Speaker 1: attorney who specializes in damage law. How public insurance adjuster
Speaker 1: is It sounds like they would not work for you personally,
Speaker 1: but that's exactly what that title means. A public insurance
Speaker 1: adjuster is an experienced insurance adjuster, very likely somebody who
Speaker 1: has worked as an insurance adjuster for an insurance company
Speaker 1: but now works directly with you for you, solely on
Speaker 1: your behalf. And it puts them in a position, because
Speaker 1: of their experience, to negotiate with your insurance company on
Speaker 1: your behalf. Now, what kind of value does your insurance
Speaker 1: company have to listen to them? Yes, if you sign
Speaker 1: a contract with a public insurance adjuster, who, by the way,
Speaker 1: gets paid a percentage of your recovery of loss, your
Speaker 1: loss recovery, and by and large, in my experience, they
Speaker 1: are more than worth it because the money that you
Speaker 1: will pay out to them will be from a return
Speaker 1: of lost value far greater than if you were to
Speaker 1: simply deal with your insurance company directly yourself right to
Speaker 1: well worth the money spent. It's kind of like, should
Speaker 1: I have an agent if I'm in the movie business
Speaker 1: or the entertainment business. Well, they cost money to have
Speaker 1: an agent, but they can get you a deal far
Speaker 1: better than you can negotiate on your own. That's the idea. Okay,
Speaker 1: So a public insurance adjuster has that experience, and yes,
Speaker 1: your insurance company is legally obligated to deal with them
Speaker 1: because they become upon you signing that contract, they become
Speaker 1: your agent in regards to loss mitigation for your property.
Speaker 1: The same is true of an attorney that specializes in
Speaker 1: damage law. They're not that common, to be quite honest
Speaker 1: with you, and you want to be careful, and you
Speaker 1: want to make sure you're dealing with an attorney who
Speaker 1: really does specialize in I'm going to make a recommendation
Speaker 1: for you right now. If you live in the Greater
Speaker 1: Los Angeles area, which you know, if you've been affected
Speaker 1: by these fires you do, I want you to go
Speaker 1: to my friends at Damage Law. This is a pair
Speaker 1: of attorneys who decided that their entire practice is going
Speaker 1: to be focused solely in this area. They are great guys.
Speaker 1: They're actually going to be on the show in early February. Okay,
Speaker 1: in just a couple three weeks. I'll have them on
Speaker 1: our Sunday program to talk at length about this, but
Speaker 1: just for the moment and let them know that I
Speaker 1: sent you Damage law dot Com. What will an attorney
Speaker 1: do essentially kind of fulfill that role of the public
Speaker 1: insurance adjuster, with the addition that there's one thing they
Speaker 1: can do that a public insurance adjuster can't do, and
Speaker 1: that is they can threaten a lawsuit if they feel
Speaker 1: like the insurance company is not treating you right. Okay,
Speaker 1: and sometimes quite honestly, it's necessary. And so these are
Speaker 1: the two main forms of professional assistance that you can
Speaker 1: have that you're not left to your own devices. You
Speaker 1: don't need to just deal with the insurance companies recommended contractors.
Speaker 1: And we've talked at length about that before. And I
Speaker 1: don't want to get into the weeds on that because
Speaker 1: there's more that I want to cover with you, But
Speaker 1: that's essentially where what you're looking at. These are the responses. Now,
Speaker 1: what's the expected timeline for all this? Well, if you
Speaker 1: just lost your house from a house fire and your
Speaker 1: neighborhood is intact, then the amount of claim and the
Speaker 1: beginning to rebuild can happen almost immediately, almost immediately that's
Speaker 1: what's different about this situation, because we're not talking about
Speaker 1: just an isolated house lost in the middle of a
Speaker 1: functioning neighborhood. How is the timeline affected when the entire
Speaker 1: neighborhood goes down. It is affected in the extreme. And
Speaker 1: so that's why you do these things that I'm suggesting
Speaker 1: you get them moving as quickly as possible. But also
Speaker 1: I want you to realize, and this is why you
Speaker 1: get the adjuster and or an attorney really advocating for you,
Speaker 1: that there are some law you're going to need some
Speaker 1: long term payouts just in the area of you know,
Speaker 1: temporary housing when it comes to this, because this is
Speaker 1: not a four month process. This is not a seven
Speaker 1: month process. This is going to be easily easily a
Speaker 1: year plus process of just getting to the point where
Speaker 1: rebuilding is feasible and you making the decision if you're
Speaker 1: going to rebuild. Yet, are you hearing me? The reason
Speaker 1: is this The very first thing that the city is
Speaker 1: going to have to deal with is they are very likely,
Speaker 1: in a devastating event like this, going to take point
Speaker 1: on general cleanup. Now I don't mean that they're going
Speaker 1: to be going in and cleaning every area of your property,
Speaker 1: but general cleanup from a devastation like this is something
Speaker 1: the city has an interest, a vested interest in handling.
Speaker 1: Number One, there's a lot of toxicity in those neighborhoods
Speaker 1: right now in the debris, because we're not just talking
Speaker 1: about pine trees and chaparral brush burning in a brush fire.
Speaker 1: We're talking about chemicals and glues and furniture and clothing
Speaker 1: and synthetics and petroleum by all sorts of things have
Speaker 1: been altered chemically as a result of the fire and
Speaker 1: exposed to the environment. And so there's going to be
Speaker 1: a cleanup effort not left to individual homeowners, and it
Speaker 1: could be limited or more extensive. We'll have to wait
Speaker 1: and see exactly what the situation calls for. But the
Speaker 1: very first thing is that the city will likely take
Speaker 1: point on general cleanup. And then before you are allowed
Speaker 1: to even get started with anything, then there are infrastructure concerns.
Speaker 1: Infrastructure meaning not just your house being burnt to the ground,
Speaker 1: but the neighborhood being affected. The heat of the flames,
Speaker 1: the amount of water poured upon them and gotten into
Speaker 1: certain systems, has likely affected roadwork, asphalt, It has affected
Speaker 1: all the visible structures clearly. But the heat from the
Speaker 1: fire has damaged power lines, water lines, gas sewer lines
Speaker 1: running in. All of these things are going to have
Speaker 1: to be pulled, tested, examined, repaired, replaced Before a single
Speaker 1: home gets reburnt. It gets reburned, sorry, rebuilt in a
Speaker 1: devastated neighborhood. In other words, imagine you've all driven by
Speaker 1: home developments before, right, just regular home developments where a
Speaker 1: developer is building a new neighborhood full of homes. You've
Speaker 1: seen that for months. First there was grading and heavy
Speaker 1: equipment out there moving soil around. Then there were streets
Speaker 1: that got laid in, and underneath those streets were power
Speaker 1: lines and gas service and electrical service to those new
Speaker 1: homes that are about to be built. All of that
Speaker 1: infrastructure has to be done before a single house individually
Speaker 1: starts to be built in a new development. Well, here,
Speaker 1: we've got all of that stuff in place, and yet
Speaker 1: it's damaged. And if you can imagine the likelihood of
Speaker 1: the city and all of the local power utilities jumping
Speaker 1: in and getting it all reworked in the first few weeks,
Speaker 1: you know that that's not the case. We have a
Speaker 1: long wait ahead. While just the basic cleanup and infrastructure
Speaker 1: gets rebuilt so that an individual home could potentially start
Speaker 1: that process, and then there are questions that people have
Speaker 1: about those individual homes. My home burnt to the ground, Okay,
Speaker 1: my slab seems to be intact. Can I rebuild my
Speaker 1: home on my old existing slab. I'm going to tell
Speaker 1: you that chances are eighty percent no, and eighty percent no,
Speaker 1: not because the concrete necessarily although concrete can be damaged
Speaker 1: from high heat exposure, but it's not necessarily that. But again,
Speaker 1: it's like I said out in the street, it's not
Speaker 1: just the fact that the slab and the footings are
Speaker 1: still intact. It's that there are plastic drain lines that
Speaker 1: run underneath your slab that the heat has melted and affected.
Speaker 1: There are electrical conduits potentially running underneath your slab that
Speaker 1: have been affected. Now, if you look in any building
Speaker 1: code post fire in La County, building code is no
Speaker 1: exception to this. They'll say things like they may allow
Speaker 1: a conduit that underneath a slab that has been through
Speaker 1: a fire to remain in place and be reused, but
Speaker 1: the conductors, the wires themselves, they have to be pulled.
Speaker 1: They may have melted in place. There's all sorts of
Speaker 1: trouble that fires cause below ground where we can't see it,
Speaker 1: as well as above ground. So the likelihood of your
Speaker 1: slab being kept no, And this is another one of
Speaker 1: those areas where we make sure that that cost is
Speaker 1: being reimbursed in terms of insurance because most of these
Speaker 1: home slabs, most of these properties will have to be
Speaker 1: scraped bare and started fresh and anew. And then if
Speaker 1: you think that for a thousand homes that the local
Speaker 1: building and Safety department is going to be able to
Speaker 1: expedite and get those permits done quickly, you need to
Speaker 1: have another thought about that because a lot of people
Speaker 1: are under the the misunderstanding that well building safety will
Speaker 1: just they'll push fast permits forward. If there's been a
Speaker 1: little bit of damage to a house and it's a
Speaker 1: minor non structural issue that needs to be paired, building
Speaker 1: safety is happy to push those forward. But we're talking
Speaker 1: about building a new home. The local department of Building
Speaker 1: and Safety in charge of that is not going to
Speaker 1: rush that process. It's going to be treated just like
Speaker 1: a regular plan check and process for these new homes.
Speaker 1: So understand the most the city could do is prioritize
Speaker 1: your permit application over you know, somebody on the other
Speaker 1: side of town who just wants to, you know, remodel
Speaker 1: their house. Those may get put on hold to prioritize
Speaker 1: permit applications when the time comes if it's a fire
Speaker 1: devastated related rebuild. But they aren't going to speed up
Speaker 1: the process of actually going through and making sure your
Speaker 1: home is planned properly and is being built properly. That's
Speaker 1: the facts, and so we have a long road ahead.
Speaker 1: I wish I had better news for you, but that's
Speaker 1: the truth of it. There's a long road ahead, and
Speaker 1: we'll have to take it step by step. All right,
Speaker 1: let's hear some news and then we'll come back and
Speaker 1: wrap this all up for today.
Speaker 3: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 3: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: Welcome home. We have come to the end of a weekend.
Speaker 1: A lot of fire coverage this weekend, A lot of conversations,
Speaker 1: none of it happy stuff, none of it positive. Hey, great,
Speaker 1: you know, I hope you're having a great day kind
Speaker 1: of stuff, but necessary, necessary conversation. So I hope that
Speaker 1: they have been beneficial to you. I want to touch
Speaker 1: on one last thing that I promised I would speak to.
Speaker 1: It is not directly related to fire hardening your home,
Speaker 1: but a lot more people on the outskirts of these
Speaker 1: fires have experienced power outages, lots and lots of power
Speaker 1: out and as a result have been left with you know,
Speaker 1: susceptible too, Like when maybe you've got medical equipment and
Speaker 1: things that need power to run. You know, power went out,
Speaker 1: hasn't gone on for three days, and now all the
Speaker 1: food in your fridge needs to be tossed out and
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff, and a lot of questions. Every
Speaker 1: time this happens, whether there's wildfire happening or not. Every
Speaker 1: time an extended heavy Santa Ana windstorm starts knocking out power,
Speaker 1: there's a run on generators. You know, home depots got
Speaker 1: no generators today. You know that they ran out on Thursday,
Speaker 1: and everybody in town who normally carries them. So a
Speaker 1: quick note on emergency power. There are basically three approaches
Speaker 1: to this that are running on the top of my
Speaker 1: mind right now, and I'm just kind of riffing from
Speaker 1: my experience on it. There are three approaches to it.
Speaker 1: Number one, if you've got a solar system, then you
Speaker 1: should consider or you may have solar backup batteries. It's
Speaker 1: never a bad idea for that to be the case
Speaker 1: because those are emergency power supplies when power goes down. Now,
Speaker 1: different batteries, the amount of the energy they can provide
Speaker 1: to the house, that's all something that has to be discussed.
Speaker 1: The cool thing about solar backup batteries is that they
Speaker 1: are being without fuel cost, being restored and recharged on
Speaker 1: a daily basi as long as the sun is out
Speaker 1: and on windy firestorm windstorm days, guess the sun is
Speaker 1: out because if it was cloudy outside, there would be
Speaker 1: that way because there's no wind all right, and chances
Speaker 1: are your power hasn't gone down. So it's a good
Speaker 1: thing to have or to consider a backup battery that's
Speaker 1: tied into your solar system if you have solar plus
Speaker 1: these days, the way that energy is measured and handled
Speaker 1: in the state of California with your solar energy, a
Speaker 1: smart backup battery is a great way to continue to
Speaker 1: save the most amount of money and have your solar
Speaker 1: system be as efficient as possible. So there you go,
Speaker 1: solar and or solar powered or solar rechargeable generators or
Speaker 1: backup batteries. The second way to go is to have
Speaker 1: a whole house generator installed that runs off of natural gas.
Speaker 1: Some are dual fueled, but most runoff of natural gas,
Speaker 1: and they kick in immediately as soon as the power
Speaker 1: goes down and are capable of powering most, if not all,
Speaker 1: of most sized homes. That's the second way to go. Now,
Speaker 1: it's an expense, it's less expense, about half the price
Speaker 1: of getting a solar battery, but they don't recharge. They
Speaker 1: are dependent on natural gas. But typically in everything except
Speaker 1: maybe an earthquake scenario in southern California, at least the
Speaker 1: natural gas supply to homes is strong and consistent, even
Speaker 1: if the power company is shutting down power to be safe,
Speaker 1: or that transformers are being blown over, and so on
Speaker 1: and so forth. The final way to go, if you
Speaker 1: don't have thousands and thousands of dollars to invest on
Speaker 1: these systems, is simply a good quality, portable inverter style generator.
Speaker 1: It's quiet. It can run either plugged into your house
Speaker 1: through a transfer switch that you can have an electrician
Speaker 1: rig for you, or you can simply run extension cords
Speaker 1: into your home. I'll just tell you this. It is
Speaker 1: a worthy investment to have a backup generator. A generator.
Speaker 1: I prefer the ones that run off of propane because
Speaker 1: it's safer to store, and they they run longer. Like
Speaker 1: one canister of propane for one of my inverter generators
Speaker 1: will run it at twenty five percent draw for like
Speaker 1: thirty six hours, so they go a long ways and
Speaker 1: they're easy to store. And the kind of generator I'm talking,
Speaker 1: I've got like a twenty five hundred watt Champion generator
Speaker 1: that's whisper quiet because it was actually designed for RVs
Speaker 1: for camping. It's whisper quiet, twenty five hundred watts. It
Speaker 1: can be linked together with another one to give five
Speaker 1: thousand watts of emergency power, and it's like a six
Speaker 1: hundred dollars generator, right, And it's not cheap, but it's
Speaker 1: also not expensive in the long run. So these are
Speaker 1: your areas of consideration. Just think it through.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: It's lovely to think, Hey, I've got this whole system
Speaker 1: in place where as soon as the power goes out,
Speaker 1: my house comes back on and I don't have to
Speaker 1: think about a thing or alter the way I behave
Speaker 1: at all. But you pay a mint. For that kind
Speaker 1: of scenario, a small generator can literally get you through
Speaker 1: and radically change your ability to either stay in the
Speaker 1: house while the power is down or have to go elsewhere.
Speaker 1: All the difference maker could be a small, portable generator.
Speaker 1: So give it thought. All right, That's all I got
Speaker 1: for today for y'all. Remember we're on social media. We're
Speaker 1: there for you on Facebook, TikTok x, Instagram, Home with Dean.
Speaker 1: The house Whisper podcast is everywhere your favorite podcasts are found,
Speaker 1: and if your home is in need of some personal
Speaker 1: house Whisper attention, you can book an in home design
Speaker 1: consult with us at house Whisper dot Design. I'm hoping
Speaker 1: that next weekend we can return to uplifting moving forward topics.
Speaker 1: That's the plan we'll see because our first priority and
Speaker 1: always priority, is to give you what you need at
Speaker 1: the time that you need it. That being said, I'm
Speaker 1: going to leave you with this thought today. These fires
Speaker 1: remind us that it's hard to let go of things
Speaker 1: that feel permanent. They also remind us that the things
Speaker 1: that feel permanent and actuality aren't. So let me tell
Speaker 1: you a little story. The small valley that I call
Speaker 1: home was first settled by humans some twelve thousand years ago.
Speaker 1: That was a time when mammoths and saber toothed cats
Speaker 1: and giant cave bears and one hundred and fifty pound
Speaker 1: four foot tall dire wolves very likely roamed through what
Speaker 1: is now my backyard. It's hard to believe, but it's true.
Speaker 1: The humans who settled this area came to be known
Speaker 1: as the chew Mash or the bead Makers. They spread
Speaker 1: their villages along the California coast from what is now
Speaker 1: northern Los Angeles to more Obey. I live a short
Speaker 1: walk from the site of a chew Mash village known
Speaker 1: as Sapwee, which means house of deer. By the way,
Speaker 1: if you live in this area, and even if you don't,
Speaker 1: there are still some Chumash place names that you might recognize.
Speaker 1: I bet you will, names like Napomo, Ohai, Pismo, Piru, Lompoc, Sadakoi, Somus,
Speaker 1: see me, and yes, Malibu. For twelve thousand years, tens
Speaker 1: of thousands of people were born and lived and died
Speaker 1: where I drink my coffee. Twelve thousand years. That's four
Speaker 1: hundred generations of joy and fear, pleasure and pain. Four
Speaker 1: hundred generations of loving families and intimate friendships, the memories
Speaker 1: of four hundred consecutive lifetimes, tens of thousands of lives.
Speaker 1: And here's the thing. I'll never know a single one
Speaker 1: of them, and they will never know me. They were
Speaker 1: all gone long before I was born, and long before
Speaker 1: I arrived here. Their settlements, their huts, are all gone
Speaker 1: now and now my house is here. And this feels
Speaker 1: quite permanent to me, this place, but I'm sure it
Speaker 1: did to four hundred generations of Chumash and the mammoths
Speaker 1: and the bears and the dire wolves. True. Also, the
Speaker 1: truth is it won't be long before I am gone.
Speaker 1: It won't be long before my house is gone. It
Speaker 1: won't be long before all that remains of my life,
Speaker 1: my friends and family, my entire generation, is nothing more
Speaker 1: than a curiosity of history. There's a line from a
Speaker 1: movie that I love, and it's true. It goes like this.
Speaker 1: All these moments will be lost in time, like tears
Speaker 1: in the rain. It's not a happy thought. It's hard
Speaker 1: to let things go that seem permanent. It's even harder
Speaker 1: to acknowledge that I am not permanent. So as someone
Speaker 1: tearfully asked me earlier this week, Dean, what is the point.
Speaker 1: The only answer I have for that question is, however
Speaker 1: impermanent life may be, life is a miracle. Even if
Speaker 1: there are billions of civilizations spread throughout the universe, life
Speaker 1: is still incredibly rare, and you and I we have
Speaker 1: it right now. It doesn't matter how long it lasts,
Speaker 1: or if anyone will ever remember it. Life is miraculously rare,
Speaker 1: and you and I, against all odds, are part of that.
Speaker 1: Trouble sometimes comes, sometimes the things we count on, the
Speaker 1: things that seem so permanent to us, Sometimes those things
Speaker 1: burn to the ground. The trick is to hold it
Speaker 1: all loosely, hold yourself loosely, and live the miracle that's
Speaker 1: in your hands for as long as you are. We
Speaker 1: are all my friends, sand castles, here one moment and
Speaker 1: gone the next. That doesn't make this moment meaningless. It
Speaker 1: makes this moment miraculous. It has meaning because it means
Speaker 1: something to you, and it means something to me. And
Speaker 1: that's enough. So don't miss the miracle, don't let the
Speaker 1: moment pass, live it and use it to build yourself
Speaker 1: a beautiful life. I hope that comforts you in some way. Today.
Speaker 1: Take that thought with you this week, and we will
Speaker 1: be right back here for you next weekend. This has
Speaker 1: been Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper. Tune into
Speaker 1: the live broadcast on KFI AM six forty every Saturday
Speaker 1: morning from six to eight Pacific time, and every Sunday
Speaker 1: morning from nine to noon Pacific time, or anytime on
Speaker 1: demand on the iHeartRadio app