Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp The
Speaker 1: House Whisper on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Welcome home
Speaker 1: your Home with Dean Sharp, The House Whisper, where every
Speaker 1: week we talk about ways to turn your ordinary house
Speaker 1: into an extraordinary home. And you know, this very program
Speaker 1: is also what's known as the House Whisper podcast that
Speaker 1: you can listen to anytime, anywhere on demand. This very
Speaker 1: episode that we're doing right now, this broadcast becomes a
Speaker 1: podcast about an hour after we go off the air,
Speaker 1: and every one of our broadcasts have done the same
Speaker 1: hundreds of episodes, all searchable by topic. It is a
Speaker 1: home improvement reference library. You can find it on the
Speaker 1: free iHeartRadio app or wherever your favorite podcasts are found,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, Spotify. You just search for Dean Sharp or
Speaker 1: The House Whisper or Home with Dean Sharp. Find it Boom,
Speaker 1: you'll pop up. You'll see my ugly mug right there
Speaker 1: underneath our orange logo, and you know you have come
Speaker 1: to the right place. So, if you've missed any part
Speaker 1: of today's show, and you've missed any of the tips
Speaker 1: and tricks of DIY fix it that we have talked
Speaker 1: about thus far this morning. You can just go back
Speaker 1: and listen to the podcast and listen to it as
Speaker 1: many times as you like, whenever you want. And if
Speaker 1: you're thinking, that's all great, but what we really need
Speaker 1: is Dean and Tina in our house solving some very
Speaker 1: specific problems, well you can do that too. You can
Speaker 1: book an in home design consult with me and the tea.
Speaker 1: You just go to house whisperer dot design. You'll know
Speaker 1: when you're there. You'll see Tina's beautiful smiling face right
Speaker 1: up front where it belongs, and you'll see my ugly
Speaker 1: mug somewhere in the background where it belongs way back there.
Speaker 1: You'll know you're in the right place when you get there.
Speaker 1: All right, I want to continue our list of DIY
Speaker 1: tips and tricks, a very specific list though. Okay, this
Speaker 1: is not the kind of stuff that you're gonna find
Speaker 1: on YouTube or in regular instruction videos, because these are
Speaker 1: not necessarily the steps that you take to get one
Speaker 1: project done or another. These are the little tiny things,
Speaker 1: the little techniques and skills that you end up doing
Speaker 1: while you're doing that project that you realize I'm not
Speaker 1: good at this, and I don't really know what I'm doing.
Speaker 1: Case in point, let me make it about as simple
Speaker 1: and ridiculously simple as possible. I say ridiculously simple. I
Speaker 1: don't think it's ridiculous, but you might think, oh my gosh, really,
Speaker 1: you're about to tell us how to use a screwdriver, Dean, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I am. I am about to tell you that. Okay,
Speaker 1: here is why the secret of using a screwdriver is
Speaker 1: not as obvious as what a lot of people would imagine.
Speaker 1: A screwdriver is a great device, and for the sake
Speaker 1: of making like easy, Okay, I don't even want to
Speaker 1: talk about the complexities of using a flathead screwdriver with
Speaker 1: a slotted screw. Okay. That is what I'm about to
Speaker 1: tell you is you take this and you magnify the
Speaker 1: importance of these skills ten times. If you're gonna take
Speaker 1: a flathead screwdriver and use it to loosen or to
Speaker 1: screw in a slotted head screw. Okay, it's so much
Speaker 1: trickier than most people realize. But let's start with a
Speaker 1: very very simple, basic, and maybe the most universal situation
Speaker 1: these days, and that is a Phillips head screwdriver. Phillips
Speaker 1: head screwdriver has got that little cross shaped on the
Speaker 1: end of the screwdriver. The tip is not flat, it's
Speaker 1: divided into four fins. And you know that a Phillips
Speaker 1: Head screw has that little cross shaped indentation in it. Okay,
Speaker 1: So what's the big deal Dean with that? What's the
Speaker 1: big deal with using a screwdriver? You stick the screw
Speaker 1: driver in the whole of the screw and you turn it. Well,
Speaker 1: go right ahead, and then you can call me later
Speaker 1: and tell me all of the hassles about doing that.
Speaker 1: Here is the thing, This is what nobody ever tells
Speaker 1: you that when you're starting. And let's just say, for
Speaker 1: the sake of argument or for the sake of our illustration,
Speaker 1: that we're going to put a wood screw into a
Speaker 1: piece of wood. And it's a Philip's Head screwdriver and
Speaker 1: screw tip. Okay, And yes, I know there are Torques
Speaker 1: heads out there that do this easier. I'll get to that.
Speaker 1: Philip said, screwdriver has a point to it. Okay. There
Speaker 1: are angles, and those angles correspond to the angles that
Speaker 1: are down inside that indentation in the screw, the recess
Speaker 1: in the screw. Here is the thing. You cannot simply
Speaker 1: put a screw on the end of a screwdriver, touch
Speaker 1: the tip to a piece of wood and start turning it. Otherwise,
Speaker 1: because nothing happens, the screw falls off, the screwdriver comes out.
Speaker 1: It's what we call camming out. It just comes out
Speaker 1: of the top of the screw. You have to apply
Speaker 1: some pressure. But if you apply too much pressure, if
Speaker 1: you put put it there and you push really hard
Speaker 1: while the screw has yet to go into the wood,
Speaker 1: then the next most likely thing that's going to happen
Speaker 1: is you're gonna get it a little sideways. It's going
Speaker 1: to fall off to the side. The screw goes off
Speaker 1: to the side, and the screwdriver goes right into the
Speaker 1: wood and makes an ugly indentation, and you've just marred
Speaker 1: the surface that you're trying to fix and or a
Speaker 1: fix and repair. Okay, yeah, now you know what I'm
Speaker 1: talking about. You've been there. This has happened to you,
Speaker 1: and if it hasn't happened to you, it will. So
Speaker 1: here is the point. A screwdriver requires pressure gradient pressure.
Speaker 1: You start with light pressure with you holding the top
Speaker 1: of the screw and the screwdriver in thumb and fore finger,
Speaker 1: and you get the fatty flesh of those two fingers
Speaker 1: around both the end of the screwdriver tip and holding
Speaker 1: on to the top of the wood screw itself so
Speaker 1: that you're holding it in place. And then light pressure,
Speaker 1: not so much pressure that you're going to make the
Speaker 1: thing go cock eyed and ram that screw into your
Speaker 1: finger and or the wood, but just enough light pressure,
Speaker 1: and you begin to turn gently pressurized until the tip
Speaker 1: of the screw starts penetrating into the wood, and as
Speaker 1: you turn it, the first beginning part of the thread
Speaker 1: starts to take and hold How long how far do
Speaker 1: you know that you need to go until you can
Speaker 1: remove your finger from the screwdriver tip and the the screw.
Speaker 1: When the screw has started and it's now standing up
Speaker 1: on its own, it's far enough in that it is
Speaker 1: now sticking up like a tree standing on its own
Speaker 1: out of the wood. Now we reapproach. You still use
Speaker 1: your fingers lightly there, and we're going to re engage
Speaker 1: the screwdriver and understand that from here on out the
Speaker 1: screw is going to encounter more and more resistance from
Speaker 1: the wood, but it will become more stable the further
Speaker 1: it goes in, and so you as a result will
Speaker 1: need to apply greater and greater forward pressure as you
Speaker 1: rotate it, so pressure starts light, just light enough to
Speaker 1: get it started. And then as you turn the forward
Speaker 1: pressure of the screw driver into the screw head so
Speaker 1: that it doesn't cam out, meaning spin and strip and
Speaker 1: come out of the screw head, you continue to apply
Speaker 1: greater and greater pressure until you've got that thing all
Speaker 1: the way in. This is something that I as far
Speaker 1: as I know, no YouTube video that I've ever seen
Speaker 1: has ever covered. But this is how a screwdriver works
Speaker 1: well without screwing up the project that you have prepped
Speaker 1: so so very carefully. That's how you use a screwdriver. Now,
Speaker 1: of course, there are screw heads out there these days,
Speaker 1: torquees head screws that cam out far less. They're superior
Speaker 1: to a Phillips head screwdriver, and that's why they're by
Speaker 1: and large replacing Phillips heads in most places. They're kind
Speaker 1: of star tipped, they have more surface area, they create
Speaker 1: more tension, they go down straight or and further into
Speaker 1: the screw. But the same principle still has to apply
Speaker 1: because the further a screw gets into a piece of wood,
Speaker 1: the more pressure you have to apply behind it to
Speaker 1: take it the rest of the way. And they don't
Speaker 1: tell you that. You just think, oh, you just turn
Speaker 1: the thing and it goes in on its own. No
Speaker 1: it doesn't. But too much pressure up front will screw
Speaker 1: the whole thing up way too early. It is a gradient,
Speaker 1: kind of a bell curve of pressure as you put
Speaker 1: a screw into the wood. All Right, you're either saying, Wow,
Speaker 1: you just wasted five minutes of my life, or you're
Speaker 1: thanking me forever. Hopefully it's the latter and not the former.
Speaker 1: All Right, we got more of these for you right after.
Speaker 2: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 2: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us on the program today. I am
Speaker 1: running down my own special list, a very very special
Speaker 1: list of DIY tips and tricks, because you know, it's
Speaker 1: the season. It's time for you to get out and
Speaker 1: get that honeydew list handled. And I know, I know
Speaker 1: you're great at following instructions. I know that you're going
Speaker 1: to take your time and you do your research and
Speaker 1: you make sure that that project that you're about to
Speaker 1: tackle the you've taken everything into account. But I'll tell
Speaker 1: you what doesn't end up on those instruction lists or
Speaker 1: those YouTube videos or the kind of little things that
Speaker 1: I'm talking about today. And sometimes it's the little things
Speaker 1: that you have to do again and again and again
Speaker 1: and again in a project that ends up giving you
Speaker 1: the greatest frustration or the greatest victory. And so that's
Speaker 1: why I want to make sure that these little things
Speaker 1: are handled and that you know what to do. We've
Speaker 1: talked about how to glue wood. How many times do
Speaker 1: you turn a pipe thread? You know how much of
Speaker 1: a pipe thread has to be covered to know that
Speaker 1: it's on right. The kinds of things that you only
Speaker 1: start to think about once you're actually doing it and
Speaker 1: you realize, I don't know this, I don't know how
Speaker 1: far I'm supposed to screw this pipe in here. That's
Speaker 1: the kind of stuff that I'm trying to help you
Speaker 1: with this morning. Literally, if if you just joined us,
Speaker 1: then you just missed me explaining how you use a screwdriver.
Speaker 1: And I mean that in all seriousness, because there is
Speaker 1: a physical technique to using one adepthly, and so we
Speaker 1: talked about that. So you have to listen to podcast.
Speaker 1: If any of these great tips and tricks that you've
Speaker 1: missed along the way. In the spirit of what I
Speaker 1: just described with the screwdriving very quickly, what's the secret
Speaker 1: to setting a nail and nailing nails in without hitting
Speaker 1: your thumb with a hammer? Okay, it's very very simple.
Speaker 1: This one does not take as much time as the
Speaker 1: screwdriver tip. It's it's very simply this. The biggest problem
Speaker 1: that people have with hammer and nails and their fingers
Speaker 1: is the fact that they start off too aggressive with it.
Speaker 1: That you hold up the nail and you try and
Speaker 1: give it a good whack while you're still holding the
Speaker 1: nail and the nail hasn't started to enter the material yet. Okay,
Speaker 1: So it's very simple. You hold the nail and you
Speaker 1: hold the hammer, and you tap, just tap, tap, tap,
Speaker 1: very light tapping on that nail until the nail is
Speaker 1: standing on its own, and then you remove your hand
Speaker 1: from the crime scene and continue to hammer it in. Now,
Speaker 1: I can't guarantee that you're gonna hit that nail on
Speaker 1: the head and that you're not gonna mar up the
Speaker 1: material around you. That takes a little coordination and experience,
Speaker 1: but at least at least if that hammer is gonna
Speaker 1: miss it's not going to land on one of your
Speaker 1: phalangies and give you a black and blue nail and
Speaker 1: so on. So the point is this, you just tap
Speaker 1: the nail until it gets started and is stuck in
Speaker 1: there standing up on its own, and then you know
Speaker 1: that little tapping is never gonna Number one, it's not
Speaker 1: a swing. It's never going to miss, and even if
Speaker 1: it did miss, it's just a little tap against your finger.
Speaker 1: So you just lightly tap it until the nail is
Speaker 1: on its own and then remove your hand from the
Speaker 1: area before you start swinging that hammer. For real, very
Speaker 1: very simple. Something that a lot of people don't know
Speaker 1: the answer to is if you're doing any electrical work,
Speaker 1: and I don't mean rewiring your house. I just mean,
Speaker 1: let's say you're changing out a switch or an outlet
Speaker 1: and you run into a situation where there's a wire
Speaker 1: nut that you have to undo something, and then you've
Speaker 1: got to redo it. Wire nuts. You all know what
Speaker 1: a wire nut is, right. They're a little cone shaped plastic.
Speaker 1: They're either well, they come in different colors, and they
Speaker 1: come into different colors for a reason. There's different gages
Speaker 1: of wire nuts. There's orange, there's blue, there's red. There
Speaker 1: is when I just cover yellow. These are different gauges,
Speaker 1: meaning that wire nuts are raided to have a certain
Speaker 1: number of wires shoved up inside them before they twist
Speaker 1: and hold on to them, and so on. The package
Speaker 1: of wire nuts on the box itself, it'll tell you
Speaker 1: that a red wire nut is rated for four you know,
Speaker 1: twelve gauge wires or six fourteen gauge wires or you
Speaker 1: know whatever, that kind of thing. But the question is
Speaker 1: assuming you've got all that right, because that's just instructional.
Speaker 1: That's like, okay, that's the technical thing. I've got three
Speaker 1: of these wires, and so according to the box, I
Speaker 1: should use the yellow wire nut. Okay, got it. Now
Speaker 1: I have the yellow wire nut and I have these wires.
Speaker 1: How do I know what I'm about to do is
Speaker 1: done right? Okay? Because it's not just put the wire
Speaker 1: nut on the wires. There's a process there, right, So
Speaker 1: it's very simple. Here we go. Choose the right wire nut,
Speaker 1: have the wires stripped appropriately to the right depth, very
Speaker 1: very important, not too far and not too short. Again,
Speaker 1: the box will tell you how far quarter inch, half
Speaker 1: inch of exposed wire, whatever the case may be. Use
Speaker 1: a gauge and strip the wires to the right depth
Speaker 1: the nut on until it begins to grip. All three
Speaker 1: wires hold them together, and you feel that it begins
Speaker 1: to grip, and then keep twisting the wire nut until
Speaker 1: it's what we call bottoms out. When it bottoms out,
Speaker 1: it means that those wires have been drawn all the
Speaker 1: way up inside that wire nut and they're not going
Speaker 1: in any further. And then keep twisting that wire nut
Speaker 1: until the wires themselves, the wires that you can see
Speaker 1: down outside the wire nut, begin to twist around each
Speaker 1: other at least once. Yeah, that they actually spin on.
Speaker 1: That's how you know that wire nut is as tight
Speaker 1: as it's going to go, and it couldn't go any tighter.
Speaker 1: And believe me, you ask any electrician, they will tell
Speaker 1: you the biggest problem with DIY electrical work is that
Speaker 1: people don't put wire nuts on tight. In fact, the
Speaker 1: biggest problem that they have with their own apprentices is
Speaker 1: that you guys didn't put the nuts on tight enough.
Speaker 1: Down the road or somewhere, something slipped, something wiggled, and
Speaker 1: now we're losing contact. So wire nuts go on as
Speaker 1: tight as possible, how tight all the way in and
Speaker 1: we keep twisting until the wires themselves start twisting around
Speaker 1: each other. You don't have to do it ten twenty
Speaker 1: fifty times. Just get those exposed wires where the part
Speaker 1: of the rubberized insulation that you can still see cross
Speaker 1: over each other at least one time, at least once twice,
Speaker 1: just to be super safe. You don't need to go
Speaker 1: any further than that. And there you go. All right,
Speaker 1: I got more for you.
Speaker 2: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 2: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: Live streaming and HD everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. Yes,
Speaker 1: we are broadcast, and we are digital. We are terrestrial,
Speaker 1: and we are streaming. We are everywhere. We're right behind you.
Speaker 2: Watch out.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm just kidding your Home with Dean Sharp the
Speaker 1: house whisper. Thanks for joining us on the program. Today.
Speaker 1: I'm doing a list of those little tiny fix it
Speaker 1: tips and tricks that really really really end up making
Speaker 1: a difference. Either take your next DIY project and make
Speaker 1: it a pleasure, or if you don't understand them, make
Speaker 1: it a great frustration, even though you're following the instructions
Speaker 1: to a t Because these are not the kinds of
Speaker 1: things that end up in YouTube videos or instructions. They
Speaker 1: are these tiny, mechanical and sometimes coordinated tricks and tips
Speaker 1: and techniques that most people just don't talk about. And
Speaker 1: because I care for you, and because I know the
Speaker 1: kind of frustration that you experience when you get out
Speaker 1: your set of tools and you get right in the
Speaker 1: middle of a job and you realize, well, nobody told me.
Speaker 1: Of all the things they said, they didn't tell me
Speaker 1: how much to do, and how where did I get it?
Speaker 1: I get it? So let me get back to the list.
Speaker 1: I'm going to try and make this a bit of
Speaker 1: a lightning round. I want to get a few more
Speaker 1: of these in. How many wraps of electrical tape is
Speaker 1: enough when you are using electrical tape, Now, electrical tape,
Speaker 1: you know, we use it for a number of different reasons.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we use it to repair a nick or a
Speaker 1: cut in the or break in the insulation on a
Speaker 1: electrical line. Sometimes, after we have put a wire nut on,
Speaker 1: will give a few wraps of electrical tape just to
Speaker 1: kind of seal up the gap underneath the wire nut
Speaker 1: to the wires themselves. A lot of electricians like to
Speaker 1: do that as a as a just as a habit
Speaker 1: of extra moisture protection and so on. There are a
Speaker 1: number of different reasons to use electrical tape, but electrical
Speaker 1: tape primarily is an insulating and a repair tool, and
Speaker 1: it's very rubbery and it has an insulating quality to itself.
Speaker 1: So how many wraps is enough? Wraps? You see? That's
Speaker 1: the thing? How many is enough? This kind of gets
Speaker 1: down to the remember that old Tutsi pop commercial from
Speaker 1: do you remember? Are you old enough like me to
Speaker 1: remember that? From like the seventies and eighties, where the
Speaker 1: kid wanted to know how many licks does it take
Speaker 1: to get to the center of a Tutsi pop? And
Speaker 1: he asked the rabbit, and he asked the bear. I
Speaker 1: don't remember, he asked several woodland creature. I don't know
Speaker 1: why he's asking woodland creatures, but it's cute. Finally, they
Speaker 1: all referred him to the owl, and the owl said, well,
Speaker 1: let's find out, and he took like three licks and
Speaker 1: then he crunched it with his beak and he's like
Speaker 1: three So I don't think that was good advice, but
Speaker 1: this is good advice. How many wraps of electrical take?
Speaker 1: The general rule is this to exceed to meet or
Speaker 1: exceed the thickness of the wire insulation. So, in other words,
Speaker 1: if you take a look at that little rubbery coating
Speaker 1: that the wire has on it, and you're repairing a
Speaker 1: piece of missing insulation or cracked or damage, then how
Speaker 1: many wraps rapid enough so that the electrical tape wraps
Speaker 1: are roughly the same thickness as the wire insulation. And
Speaker 1: there you go. That makes sense and you'll be able
Speaker 1: to remember that from now on because it's not a number,
Speaker 1: it's just matched the thickness of the insulation of the wire.
Speaker 1: All right, A pilot hole. You know what a pilot
Speaker 1: hole is when you're putting a wood screw into a
Speaker 1: piece of wood or some other sensitive material. Putting a
Speaker 1: screw into sensitive material. You got to understand this that
Speaker 1: screws are basically wedges. They're wedge shaped. And so if
Speaker 1: we just take us and a lot of people ignore
Speaker 1: this because the wood that they're going into is soft,
Speaker 1: it's like pine or it's redwood or something like that,
Speaker 1: and you screw a screw down into a piece of
Speaker 1: soft wood like that, and you're not going to see
Speaker 1: anything happen at first, But then you come back later,
Speaker 1: whether it's hours, days, or weeks later, and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, where the screw is there's a crack. It
Speaker 1: has split the wood. Now, hardwood will split immediately, it'll
Speaker 1: show you the error of your ways right away. Soft
Speaker 1: wood might hide it for a while, but eventually the
Speaker 1: wood will split along the line of the screw because
Speaker 1: it's a wedge and you can't just put that much
Speaker 1: pressure into the wood and not expect the wood grain
Speaker 1: to split. So how do we avoid that. We use
Speaker 1: pilot holes. We drill a hole through the wood so
Speaker 1: that we're removing material and as the screw goes in,
Speaker 1: it's not wedging and forcing all this material around it
Speaker 1: to move out of place. So the question is how
Speaker 1: big should a pilot hole be? And it's a very
Speaker 1: very simple answer. You take the screw in question and
Speaker 1: you hold it up to the light. You want to
Speaker 1: ignore the threads. The threads are the part of the
Speaker 1: screw that bites into the wood. But inside the threads
Speaker 1: you'll see the shaft of the screw going the length
Speaker 1: of the screw, the thickness of that shaft. That's what
Speaker 1: you match your drill bit up to. Okay, your drill
Speaker 1: bit should not be any larger or smaller than the
Speaker 1: shaft inside, hiding inside the threads of that woodscrew. You
Speaker 1: drill that hole, and as the shaft goes in, it
Speaker 1: will not be splitting the woods. And yet the threads
Speaker 1: will dig into all the sides in three hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty degrees and the screw will hold beautifully. By the way,
Speaker 1: it also makes putting that screw in a lot easier
Speaker 1: in reference back to screwing screws in with a screwdriver.
Speaker 1: So there you go. The pilot hole is the thickness
Speaker 1: of the shaft of the screw itself. When fixing my
Speaker 1: sprinkler lines, Dean, which a lot of you're going to
Speaker 1: be doing. How much glue do I put on a
Speaker 1: PVC pipe and how many times do I turn the fitting?
Speaker 1: I've heard I'm supposed to turn the fitting, spin the
Speaker 1: fitting after putting the glue on. Very very simple, very
Speaker 1: very simple. Right, you apply to your PVC pipe after
Speaker 1: you have put some primer on. Primer very important first, Okay, first,
Speaker 1: a little bit of watery purple primer that opens up
Speaker 1: the porosity of the PVC. Put primer on the pipe
Speaker 1: and on the fitting. Both then one unbroken band of
Speaker 1: glue all around the fitting and the pipe, push them
Speaker 1: together and then make a one quarter turn. You turn
Speaker 1: it too much and you're wiping the glue away. Don't
Speaker 1: turn it at all, and you don't have the assurance
Speaker 1: that you've got even spread. So you put those PVC
Speaker 1: fittings together with the glue after the primer. One quarter
Speaker 1: turn and you're done, and you wipe off the excess
Speaker 1: and move on, and don't get the purple primer or
Speaker 1: the glue on your hand. You'll be fine. But it's
Speaker 1: a mess, and so wear gloves, have a rag nearby
Speaker 1: that you can throw away, wipe it all up, and
Speaker 1: you're good to go. All right, I got a couple
Speaker 1: more for you. We'll do it right after.
Speaker 2: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 2: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: Dean Sharp, the house Whisper at your service. Hey, thanks
Speaker 1: for joining us on the program today. It is truly
Speaker 1: a privilege and an honor. I really mean that. I
Speaker 1: take that very very seriously. I know I say it
Speaker 1: every week and it sounds cliche and it can get rote,
Speaker 1: but the fact of the matter is, I know how
Speaker 1: important your weekends are. I know how hard you work,
Speaker 1: and I know how important your home is, and you
Speaker 1: don't have to. I sound like the flight attendant on
Speaker 1: a Southwest flight. We know you have options when you fly.
Speaker 1: We thank you for flying Southwest. Well, I'm just saying
Speaker 1: I appreciate your attention and your confidence and your trust
Speaker 1: in me coming together to do everything we can to
Speaker 1: take your ordinary house and make it an extraordinary home.
Speaker 1: Because you know, at home is ground zero for all
Speaker 1: of our lives. It's where we live literally, and to
Speaker 1: improve upon that place, you know, is to improve everything
Speaker 1: about our lives in every meaningful way. And so that's
Speaker 1: why we do what we do around here, and I
Speaker 1: appreciate it. Just a quick reminder, follow us on social media.
Speaker 1: We're on all of the usual suspects, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, x,
Speaker 1: at Home with Dean same a handle for them all.
Speaker 1: This very program, this broadcast will very shortly after we
Speaker 1: go off the air today, become yet another episode of
Speaker 1: the House Whisper podcast, which is everywhere your favorite podcasts
Speaker 1: are found, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the free iHeartRadio app, wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite podcast and if your home
Speaker 1: is in need of some personal house Whisper attention. You
Speaker 1: of course can book an in home design consult with
Speaker 1: me and the tea. All you have to do is
Speaker 1: go to house Whisper dot Design and you'll know you're
Speaker 1: in the right place because you'll see Tina's beautiful smiling
Speaker 1: face right up front where it should be, and my
Speaker 1: ugly mug way in the background where it should be,
Speaker 1: and you'll know you're there and you can find more
Speaker 1: details on that as we go. All right, very quickly
Speaker 1: as we're wrapping up, can you believe another three hours
Speaker 1: has gone by? The time flies when you're having fun,
Speaker 1: But very quickly, as we're wrapping up the list of stuff,
Speaker 1: fix it tips and tricks that we do along the way,
Speaker 1: I want to I want to explain one thing to
Speaker 1: you before we're done here. And this is something again
Speaker 1: that happens in a lot of dy projects. You've got
Speaker 1: something that needs turning, tightening, grabbing, spinning, and you need
Speaker 1: a tool for this. It doesn't come as a surprise
Speaker 1: to me that most people couldn't give me a cogent,
Speaker 1: immediate answer as to what is the difference between a
Speaker 1: wrench and a pair of pliers. I know you can
Speaker 1: picture it in your mind, But if you really get
Speaker 1: technical about a thing, that's where things get start to
Speaker 1: get a little fuzzy. And I know they get fuzzy
Speaker 1: because I've been on many a project where I have asked,
Speaker 1: please hand me grabbing that bag over their pliers, and
Speaker 1: I have been handed by some assistant let's just say,
Speaker 1: a wrench, or I've asked for a wrench and I've
Speaker 1: been handed a pair of pliers. And so the question
Speaker 1: is what is the difference? And I want to explain
Speaker 1: it to you, very very simply. Wrenches can come in
Speaker 1: all sorts of shapes and sizes. Okay truly, but as
Speaker 1: a general rule, a wrench is part of a uniform
Speaker 1: system of mechanical parts that addresses the shape and the
Speaker 1: size of another part. In other words, a just imagine
Speaker 1: a wrench, your classic wrench like a mechanic's wrench, and
Speaker 1: one end it's kind of open ended. The other end
Speaker 1: has a circle around it or a circle enclosed end.
Speaker 1: That wrench is designed to go on a nut, and
Speaker 1: that nut has smooth sides on it that are parallel
Speaker 1: with each other. And therefore that wrench is designed with
Speaker 1: smooth sides that are parallel with each other. There are
Speaker 1: no teeth on that wrench, okay, because it doesn't have
Speaker 1: to grab into the metal. It simply slides along the
Speaker 1: edge of the nut, lines itself up, and then it
Speaker 1: gives you some leverage as you start to spin it
Speaker 1: and put the nut, you know, tighten and or loosen
Speaker 1: the nut. It's a classic definition of a wrench. You
Speaker 1: do not have to do anything other than slide it
Speaker 1: on or insert it into the pre shaped mechanical system. Okay,
Speaker 1: A half inch nut takes a half inch sized wrench.
Speaker 1: A three eight s nut takes a three inch sized wrench,
Speaker 1: and you put it on there. Some wrenches are adjustable
Speaker 1: end with that little spinner at the end, so you
Speaker 1: can move the jaws back and forth to fit the nut.
Speaker 1: So you can have one wrench that fits a lot
Speaker 1: of different sized nuts, but the principle is still the same.
Speaker 1: A pair of pliers inevitably has some kind of teethy
Speaker 1: grooves on it, because pliers are really all about non
Speaker 1: uniform systems. This thing is weirdly shaped, or you have
Speaker 1: to grab two of them at the same time and
Speaker 1: twist them, or it's round, or it's oblong, or whatever.
Speaker 1: Pliers are all about grabbing onto things that aren't necessarily
Speaker 1: uniform and structured. Pliers almost always have teeth on them
Speaker 1: because they need to get as good a grip as possible.
Speaker 1: And most importantly, pliers are almost always dependent on the
Speaker 1: strength of your squeezing them for their effectiveness. Now you
Speaker 1: think about that wrench. That wrench slides onto a nut,
Speaker 1: you don't have to squeeze it, all you have to
Speaker 1: do is turn it. Okay, so your hand grip is
Speaker 1: not dependent upon its effectiveness or the other way around,
Speaker 1: I should say. But with a pair of pliers, the
Speaker 1: degree that you can squeeze it and the strength that
Speaker 1: you apply in the grip of your hand to hold
Speaker 1: it onto that uneven, non uniform surface is directly related
Speaker 1: to how well those pliers grab and how well they
Speaker 1: do their job. So yeah, there's a difference between wrenches
Speaker 1: and pliers. And there you go. And that's the last
Speaker 1: thing I have time to tell you today on the broadcast.
Speaker 1: And I hope that these things have been useful to
Speaker 1: you and beneficial to you as we've been going along here. Okay,
Speaker 1: wrapping it up, I'm gonna leave you with this thought today.
Speaker 1: Some of you have noticed that in the past few
Speaker 1: weeks there have not been too many closing thoughts at
Speaker 1: the end of the show, and that has sparked a
Speaker 1: bit of concern among some of you, and perhaps a
Speaker 1: question or two as to whether everything is okay over
Speaker 1: here or we're changing the format of the show. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: and yeah, there have been some things, but TEENA is okay.
Speaker 1: I'm okay. Let's just say we've had some unexpected seasons
Speaker 1: of loss and pain that have kind of crossed paths
Speaker 1: with us here. Some of our close friends have suffered
Speaker 1: some loss and some pain recently, some of our family
Speaker 1: has suffered some loss and some pain recently, and some
Speaker 1: loss and pain have hit us too. And that's all
Speaker 1: I'll say about that, because I don't need to say more.
Speaker 1: Apt At a couple of weeks ago, a dear friend
Speaker 1: of mine sent me some beautiful prose by a woman
Speaker 1: named Rose Marie Tramer that probably expresses where I'm at
Speaker 1: with all of this better than I could, so I'm
Speaker 1: going to read it to you. She writes this, She said,
Speaker 1: I want a word that means okay and not okay,
Speaker 1: and more than that, a word that means devastated and
Speaker 1: stunned with joy. I want the word that says I
Speaker 1: feel it all at once. The heart is not like
Speaker 1: a songbird singing only one note at a time. It's
Speaker 1: more like a tufin throat singer, able to sing both
Speaker 1: a drone and simultaneously two or three harmonics high above
Speaker 1: it a sound the Tuvans say that gives the impression
Speaker 1: of wind swirling around rocks. The heart understands swirl. How
Speaker 1: the churning of opposite feelings weaves through us like an
Speaker 1: insistent breeze, leaves us wordlessly deeper into ourselves, blesses us
Speaker 1: with paradox, so that we might walk more openly into
Speaker 1: this world that is so rife with devastation, and this
Speaker 1: world so ripe with joy. Yeah, I think that's a
Speaker 1: good way of saying it. The heart understands swirl. Yes,
Speaker 1: I have a swirl on my forearm. I resisted for
Speaker 1: a long time, but now and forever I have a
Speaker 1: tattoo of my own design on each of my forearms.
Speaker 1: They are simple images stick figures. In fact, they are
Speaker 1: modeled after ancient Native American petroglyphs. The one on my
Speaker 1: right arm is simply the image of a man with
Speaker 1: uplifted arms and swirling above him and in him. Is
Speaker 1: the great mystery of life, depicted as a spiral, a swirl.
Speaker 1: It is the ancient Hopey image of the whirlwind, and
Speaker 1: something powerfully felt but unseen, present but out of reach,
Speaker 1: constant and constantly changing, dizzying, difficult, and beautiful all at once.
Speaker 1: Part of what it represents to me is the familiar
Speaker 1: and the unknowable. Part is how life sometimes throws everything
Speaker 1: at you all at once. So yes, I agree with
Speaker 1: Mss Traumer when I tell you how I'm doing. I
Speaker 1: too want a word that means okay and not okay
Speaker 1: at the same time, a word that means devastated and joyful.
Speaker 1: But also maybe I don't need one, because I suspect
Speaker 1: you know exactly what I mean. The heart understands swirl.
Speaker 1: So not sure there's a message here, except perhaps to
Speaker 1: update you, to remind us all that seasons come and
Speaker 1: seasons go. Pleasure and pain, joy and grief. They come
Speaker 1: and they go. But our hearts are big enough, and
Speaker 1: with a little help from our friends, they're big enough
Speaker 1: to hold it all. The heart understands swirl. Wounds are real,
Speaker 1: but a heart can heal and a heart can find
Speaker 1: its way back to building itself a beautiful life. And
Speaker 1: so I'll leave you with that today. Get out there,
Speaker 1: enjoy this beautiful spring day or whatever the weather is
Speaker 1: offering you today. Make this the most important day, because
Speaker 1: it's the day that's in your hand. And we'll see
Speaker 1: you right back here next weekend. This has been Home
Speaker 1: with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper. Tune into the live
Speaker 1: broadcast on KFI AM six forty every Saturday morning from
Speaker 1: six to eight Pacific time and every Sunday morning from
Speaker 1: nine to noon Pacific time, or anytime on demand on
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app