Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp the
Speaker 1: house Whisper on demand on the iHeart Radio app. Hey
Speaker 1: follow us on social media. We are on all the
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Speaker 1: your home is in need of some personal house Whisperer attention,
Speaker 1: you can always book an in home design consult with
Speaker 1: me and the tea. Just go to house Whisperer dot Design,
Speaker 1: house Whisper dot design for more information or to fill
Speaker 1: out a request for such a thing. We do it,
Speaker 1: we do, we love it, happy to help as always,
Speaker 1: which is why I am here with you live every
Speaker 1: Saturday and Sunday morning. And here we are in the
Speaker 1: twentieth of April, Easter Sunday morning, and we're talking about makeovers.
Speaker 1: We're going to return to that conversation very shortly, but
Speaker 1: it's top of the hour, which means it's time to
Speaker 1: let you set the agenda for the show. I'm going
Speaker 1: to go to the phones, and I want to talk
Speaker 1: to John. Hey, John, welcome home.
Speaker 2: Hello Dean.
Speaker 1: How are you today? I am well, how are you sir?
Speaker 1: How can I.
Speaker 2: Help doing good. I have some dad looking cement, my patio,
Speaker 2: my sidewalks, down on the side of my house, even
Speaker 2: the front porch. I don't like the look of the cement,
Speaker 2: and I was thinking about staining it. I got a
Speaker 2: quote for staining everything, including some papers in the back,
Speaker 2: some pebble in the back well, one about three quarter
Speaker 2: inch rock around the pavers. And I like the wet look.
Speaker 2: But then the guy said, you know, I asked him
Speaker 2: how long it would last and the river. I'm out
Speaker 2: in Riverside, so you know, it gets hot and a
Speaker 2: sunbeats down in the backyard mainly, and he said about
Speaker 2: two years. And it's an investment. You know, it's three
Speaker 2: thousand to do everything. So I wanted to hear your
Speaker 2: opinion on the wet look versus a colored stain versus
Speaker 2: not doing it at all.
Speaker 1: Okay, gotcha? So all right, let me I'm gonna draw
Speaker 1: some lines to to just to make sure you've been
Speaker 1: informed fully and everybody else listening can kind of understand
Speaker 1: the process if when it comes to rehabbing an old cement.
Speaker 1: I'm a big fan of stain because it's it's something
Speaker 1: that can be done if you can embrace the vibe
Speaker 1: of the look that you're going to get from it.
Speaker 1: A good stain job, it's going to darken the concrete.
Speaker 1: It's going to model the concrete model m O T
Speaker 1: L ED is that right, modeled country? Okay. In other words,
Speaker 1: it's going to be an uneven color. It's going to
Speaker 1: be uneven if but unevenness can be worked into the vibe. Okay.
Speaker 1: If you had a situation where the concrete was going
Speaker 1: to just beautifully stain all one color, then you probably
Speaker 1: don't have unattractive concrete to begin with. So the whole
Speaker 1: idea is that getting a kind of a naturalistic, relaxed,
Speaker 1: modeled look, and a good staining company knows exactly how
Speaker 1: to do that and make it look fantastic. And the
Speaker 1: reason I'm in favor of stain stain versus what stain
Speaker 1: versus all the cost of tearing it all out, or
Speaker 1: stain versus the cost of a coating on the surface
Speaker 1: that never works out. So people are like, well, what
Speaker 1: kind of paint should I put on my concrete? And
Speaker 1: my answer is always, if you can avoid it, no
Speaker 1: paint on your concrete at all. And that's because concrete
Speaker 1: is a synthetic stone. It's porous, it's soaking up moisture
Speaker 1: from underneath. Moisture in the concrete is going to eventually
Speaker 1: push off from underneath, push off whatever sealed surface you
Speaker 1: set up on top of that cement. It's gonna push
Speaker 1: it off eventually. It's going to fail eventually, I guaran
Speaker 1: darantee it. So here's the thing. Stain is a is
Speaker 1: something that soaks into the concrete and doesn't sit on
Speaker 1: the surface, and so the effective stain is it's never
Speaker 1: gonna flake, It's never gonna get pushed off. It's going
Speaker 1: to last. I'm talking about the color. Now, will it
Speaker 1: eventually depending on the quality of the stain and how
Speaker 1: UV resistant the stain is, will it eventually kind of
Speaker 1: bleach out and fade and light, Yes, it will. Will
Speaker 1: it do it uniformly? Yeah, it pretty much will. And
Speaker 1: so eventually stained concrete most people get around to restaining
Speaker 1: it again. But we're not talking about a couple of
Speaker 1: years from now. We might talk about a decade or
Speaker 1: a two from now, depending So but here's where I'm
Speaker 1: gonna split the hair, because this is what I think
Speaker 1: I heard when you said you like the wet look Okay,
Speaker 1: let me be really clear. I got to get real
Speaker 1: technical here. Okay. There are stone enhancing treatments that are
Speaker 1: that say that they are wet look okay, and there
Speaker 1: are stone enhancing treatments that are color enhancing. Okay. Now
Speaker 1: what is the difference. Let's just take a look at
Speaker 1: two things happen. When you take a hose and you
Speaker 1: spray a rock right with a hose, two things happen. One,
Speaker 1: the rock is enhanced. The color in the rock is
Speaker 1: enhanced by that water. It darkens and it riches, It enriches,
Speaker 1: and like all the all the character of that stone
Speaker 1: suddenly pops forward. Right. That's the first thing that happens.
Speaker 1: The second thing that happens is the surface of the
Speaker 1: rock is gliss because of the water that's sitting on
Speaker 1: the surface. There's a shiny glisten. I mean like what, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you look at and you're like wet. That is the
Speaker 1: difference between a product that says color enhancing and wet look.
Speaker 1: I for the same reason that I just explained to you,
Speaker 1: I stay away from, and I urge people to stay
Speaker 1: away from in extreme heat and sunny environments, the wet
Speaker 1: look product because the wet look. Product not only darkens
Speaker 1: and enriches your concrete or stone, but it leaves a
Speaker 1: surface glaze. Ah surface glaze, and guess what that falls
Speaker 1: right back into the category of something that water underneath
Speaker 1: or in the stone will eventually push off. And that
Speaker 1: is what I suspect the guy you were talking to
Speaker 1: is saying, Hey, it's only going to last a couple
Speaker 1: of years. The wet look with the shiny surface is
Speaker 1: only going to last a couple of years before it
Speaker 1: starts to peel from the back. But a stone enhancing
Speaker 1: a color enhancing, all that does is it digs into
Speaker 1: the stone. It doesn't leave a shiny, wet look on
Speaker 1: the top, but it does accomplish the first part of
Speaker 1: what water does, which is deepen and enriched the color
Speaker 1: of the stone, and that will not get pushed off
Speaker 1: by water inside the rock. Does that make sense?
Speaker 2: Yes, it does. That's great. Do you have a brand
Speaker 2: name that you prefer over one or the other or
Speaker 2: just let a guy that doesn't pick whether he likes
Speaker 2: to use.
Speaker 1: Well, I like to. I like to let experts pick
Speaker 1: what they like to use. But I also want to
Speaker 1: see him. In other words, I want to I don't
Speaker 1: want to just say to the staining guy, yeah, just
Speaker 1: go for it, man, No, tell me what the product
Speaker 1: are you using. And then I do a little research
Speaker 1: on it on the side and I find out, oh,
Speaker 1: this guy's using literally the cheapest stuff out there, or
Speaker 1: he he's using the best of the best. So you know,
Speaker 1: I always check up on contractors to make sure what
Speaker 1: they're doing and what they're using. But you know, let
Speaker 1: him make his recommendations because there's probably a reason he's
Speaker 1: using it that way. Okay, that's great, all right, buddy
Speaker 1: gool much. You are very very welcome, my friend, and
Speaker 1: good luck with getting that concrete looking great again, bringing
Speaker 1: it back to life. Yeah, guys, don't put shiny surface
Speaker 1: ceiling stuff on exterior stone and concrete unless your plan
Speaker 1: is a year or two from now doing it all
Speaker 1: over again. Surface ceiling products on porous materials that sit
Speaker 1: outside are going to flake and crack and peel. They
Speaker 1: just are the end. Okay, more of your calls when
Speaker 1: we return.
Speaker 3: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 3: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: Good Easter Sunday morning to you. Thanks for joining us
Speaker 1: on the program. I appreciate you and I am honored
Speaker 1: to be talking to you about your home this morning,
Speaker 1: like we do every Sunday morning. Right now, we are
Speaker 1: taking calls and then we're going to continue our conversation
Speaker 1: about a few bits of makeover magic for your home.
Speaker 1: If you're holding back on your budget but you still
Speaker 1: want to make some big changes, hang with us. I'm
Speaker 1: going to be cruising through some items and some ideas
Speaker 1: of how you can make some relatively big changes in
Speaker 1: your home for relatively small cost outlay, which a lot
Speaker 1: of us are thinking about doing right now. But right
Speaker 1: now we are going to the phones, as is our custom,
Speaker 1: and I want to talk to Susie. Hey, Susie, welcome.
Speaker 4: Home, Good morning, Dean. I have a very simple and
Speaker 4: boring question, but oh no, I'm never boring. This is
Speaker 4: a boring question. So we have a dishwasher. He's connected
Speaker 4: to the garbage disposal'll all be, and I'm always smelling
Speaker 4: this rotten smell from the garbage disposal, even though I,
Speaker 4: you know, run the garbage disposal, and so I'm totally blind.
Speaker 4: I've called you before. I stuck my finger down there
Speaker 4: and I see where the water's coming in from the dishwasher,
Speaker 4: and it's full of gunk. So I pulled some of
Speaker 4: it out, but obviously I can't really get on there
Speaker 4: to pull it all out. So the dishwasher is about
Speaker 4: ten years old, but my husband's lips here twenty and
Speaker 4: that's never been cleaned out.
Speaker 1: Okay, so what do I do?
Speaker 4: I thought of vinegar, but I thought i'd better call
Speaker 4: you first.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, you can always try vinegar, because vinegar is
Speaker 1: a mild ascetic acid, and vinegar is one of those
Speaker 1: things that you know, if it sits in a line
Speaker 1: long enough up against a clog, it can eat its
Speaker 1: way through and kind of loosen stuff up. Okay, but
Speaker 1: you know you're not going to be able to clean
Speaker 1: it out from inside the garbage disposal. However, that dishwasher
Speaker 1: line is connected to the side of the garbage disposal
Speaker 1: with one of two things. Either a pressure clamp what
Speaker 1: we call a spring clamp, which is just a pressurized
Speaker 1: spring that has a couple of tabs sticking out from it.
Speaker 1: That's designed that if you grab that with a like
Speaker 1: a large pair of pliers, and you grab each tab
Speaker 1: on each side of the pliers and squeeze it, you'll
Speaker 1: open up that spring clamp. You'll be able to pull
Speaker 1: the hose off from the side of the garbage disposal
Speaker 1: and have full access to the little the little port
Speaker 1: going into the garbage disposal and full access to clean
Speaker 1: out the hose as well. It's either that or it's
Speaker 1: attached to the garbage disposal with a hose clamp, which
Speaker 1: is even easier, which is one of these bands that
Speaker 1: has a screwdriver or a hex nut fitting at the top,
Speaker 1: and you simply unloosen that. It'll come unlose and you
Speaker 1: can pull the hose off and as a result, you
Speaker 1: can get to whatever is unked up down at the
Speaker 1: garbage disposal line. So that is super easy. You should
Speaker 1: probably have like a you know, clear out the bottom
Speaker 1: of the cabinet and have like a bucket or a
Speaker 1: pan down there, because you know, if you clear out
Speaker 1: that there may be some standing water that wants to
Speaker 1: drip out. You don't want to mess up the inside
Speaker 1: of your cabinet. But I will also tell you this
Speaker 1: that is there any problem with the dishwasher draining. I'll
Speaker 1: ask you that question. Okay, so the dishwasher is draining
Speaker 1: just fine? Yes, okay, so stuff is getting through. It
Speaker 1: just sounds like you've got some gucks. So the other
Speaker 1: thing is up on top of your sink, next to
Speaker 1: your faucet. There's a there's you know, normally what looks
Speaker 1: like a little stainless steel cylinder sitting up there. That
Speaker 1: is called the air gap. Okay, the air gap can
Speaker 1: also be cleaned by you. You can grab that stainless
Speaker 1: steel cover, it's just a cover, it's just slid on,
Speaker 1: and pull it off. You might have to spin it
Speaker 1: a little little bit to loosen it up, especially if
Speaker 1: it hasn't been touched in twenty years, but you can,
Speaker 1: with your hand and just a little bit of effort,
Speaker 1: slide that thing back and spin it back and forth
Speaker 1: until it loosens up. You can pull that off, and
Speaker 1: what you're gonna find underneath is a weird plastic assembly.
Speaker 1: And right at the top of that weird plastic assembly
Speaker 1: is a little top piece that is connected with a
Speaker 1: couple of tabs you can pull. You squeeze those tabs
Speaker 1: and pull it out and it will expose the tops
Speaker 1: of the two lines. One is the drain line coming
Speaker 1: from the dishwasher, and the other is the drain line
Speaker 1: heading down towards the garbage disposal That gives you access
Speaker 1: to both ends of that garbage disposal hose so that
Speaker 1: you can get that thing cleared out completely. There's a
Speaker 1: chance there's a really good chance there might be guck
Speaker 1: up at the top of that partially blocking that line
Speaker 1: as well. It's just a good idea to occasionally do
Speaker 1: this every few years. It doesn't have to be like
Speaker 1: a six month thing. Just every few years, or when
Speaker 1: you see something starting to act up and you're starting
Speaker 1: to get the weird smell, go ahead and clean it out.
Speaker 1: But it really is accessible and uh and pretty easy
Speaker 1: to do.
Speaker 4: Well, thank you. I know that my dishwasher is draining,
Speaker 4: but it probably is not draining as fast as it
Speaker 4: should be. But I just not how many and I
Speaker 4: don't put I'm not one of those that puts my
Speaker 4: my dishes in the dishwasher full of gunk. I rinse
Speaker 4: them off, so I've been very careful about that. I've
Speaker 4: looked in the trap and it's clean, it's not doesn't
Speaker 4: have any garbage in it, but that I've sure pulled
Speaker 4: out a lot of gunk with my fingers. I thought, oh,
Speaker 4: there's work on comes from there. I better call Dean.
Speaker 1: Well, call Dean for the gunk and the boring question.
Speaker 1: Actually it's a really good question. And and Susie, I
Speaker 1: gotta tell you there's a there are one thousands, five
Speaker 1: thousand people right now who are like you. See, I
Speaker 1: told you we should do that. So thank you very
Speaker 1: much for your question. And uh, and just know, just
Speaker 1: peace of mind. If you understand those two components, you
Speaker 1: can get it all cleaned out. Everything's going to be
Speaker 1: working spick and span for you. Just find and by
Speaker 1: the way, once you get it all done, stuff, maybe
Speaker 1: have sitting down in the garbage disposal too long. Run
Speaker 1: to the hardware store and get a couple of garbage
Speaker 1: disposal deodorizer pellets that you can run some water and
Speaker 1: grind up in there and it'll clear out any residual odor.
Speaker 4: I've been pouring a little bit of Life Style concentrate
Speaker 4: in there because everyone so it's like, whoa, yeah, I
Speaker 4: can't take it. And it's all it's not all the time.
Speaker 4: It's just everyone's like it's the garbage disposal.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 4: Well, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: You are so welcome. Happy Easter, and uh, and good
Speaker 1: luck on your dishwasher project. She's so nice. All right, y'all?
Speaker 1: Should we do okay, I should all right, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: We're gonna go to the phones one more time before
Speaker 1: we get back to our conversation because we've got callers
Speaker 1: who just need to talk and I need to talk
Speaker 1: to you, so more of your calls when we return.
Speaker 3: You're listening to Home with Dean show on demand from
Speaker 3: KFI Am sixty.
Speaker 1: You are Home with Dean Sharp the house Whisper. Thanks
Speaker 1: for joining us on the program today. It's a beautiful
Speaker 1: spring day, beautiful easter Sunday morning here in southern California,
Speaker 1: and we are talking about your home. Going to get
Speaker 1: back to our topic on makeovers and the creative ideas
Speaker 1: of how to make big changes in the house on
Speaker 1: small budgets. But right now still taking calls. I want
Speaker 1: to go back to the phones. I want to talk
Speaker 1: to Arnold. Hey, Arnold, welcome home.
Speaker 5: Thank you very much for taking my call. I love
Speaker 5: listening to your show, and you've inspired me to do
Speaker 5: something in my backyard.
Speaker 1: Oh what's that?
Speaker 5: To make a fire pit and a huge tree in
Speaker 5: the summertime to shade it good?
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm so proud of you.
Speaker 5: Yes, So basically I'm wondering I live in alpine and
Speaker 5: it gets down to thirty degrees in the winter. And
Speaker 5: I know you have a gorgeous ash tree in your backyard.
Speaker 5: Would that work in alpine?
Speaker 1: Oh? Okay, now you're calling on my instant botanist inside,
Speaker 1: and you know, I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm
Speaker 1: not I don't want to. I don't have time to
Speaker 1: look it up right now, but I do. I do
Speaker 1: know this, my friend. I know that there are absolutely big,
Speaker 1: beautiful trees that will in fact work for you. Okay,
Speaker 1: I don't think that. I don't think. I think the
Speaker 1: ash will probably do just fine. You know, it's you
Speaker 1: don't expect it to thrive in thirty degree weather. No
Speaker 1: tree thrives in thirty degree weather. They all kind of
Speaker 1: go into their torpor, They go into their slow growth mode. That,
Speaker 1: by the way, everybody is what tree rings are. It's
Speaker 1: not bark. When you cut across the tree and you
Speaker 1: see a dark ring and a light ring, and a
Speaker 1: dark ring and a light ring, that's every light and
Speaker 1: dark ring represents a year of growth because the dark
Speaker 1: ring is slow growth, very dense, very slowly growing wood,
Speaker 1: and then the light ring is all of that spring
Speaker 1: and summer growth where the tree just like boom, goes out.
Speaker 1: So there are lots and lots of big, beautiful feature
Speaker 1: trees that are going to do fine surviving a thirty
Speaker 1: degree winter or regular thirty degree temperatures and then just
Speaker 1: burst out and thrive during the spring and summer. Just
Speaker 1: do your research, talk to local experts on trees for
Speaker 1: your area, and I'm sure arnold you're going to find it.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you've kind of tapped beyond my instant tree
Speaker 1: knowledge to know exactly which ones are going to be
Speaker 1: best for you. But I would do the same thing
Speaker 1: that I'm suggesting that you do, which is just dive in,
Speaker 1: do the research, and find it. As far as the
Speaker 1: fire pit goes, by the way, any questions about.
Speaker 5: That, Yes, the only gas line the fire pit's going
Speaker 5: to be about sixty feet from my house. The closest
Speaker 5: gas line is in my kitchen, which is behind my stove. No,
Speaker 5: I'm wondering, would they have to like drill a whole
Speaker 5: bunch of holes through all the cabinets.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no, we got to come here's the
Speaker 1: news on the gas line. We got to come right
Speaker 1: off the meter. Oh, right off the meter for that one.
Speaker 1: We're not going to be drawing. We're not going to
Speaker 1: be drawn because here's the thing. Two reasons why. Number one,
Speaker 1: we don't want to mess up the house and anything
Speaker 1: going on there. And two, all of the gas lines
Speaker 1: in the house have already branched out to their appliances
Speaker 1: at their optimal size, and so you know, it's a
Speaker 1: half inch gas line behind the stove. Half inch gas
Speaker 1: line is the tiniest, little, littlest, most minute fire pit
Speaker 1: feed And I would never recommend any buddy feed fuel
Speaker 1: a fire pit with a half inch gas line. If
Speaker 1: you've just got a portable one, you know, with the
Speaker 1: little propane tank. That's that's basically what we're talking about there,
Speaker 1: as far as the equivalent of a half inch gas
Speaker 1: line a fire pit out away from your home that
Speaker 1: you really want to be able to blaze and to
Speaker 1: keep you warm. And okay, understand this is my theory
Speaker 1: on fire pits. When I build a fire pit for
Speaker 1: myself or any of our clients, the idea is a
Speaker 1: fire pit. You know, maybe it's not going to keep
Speaker 1: you warm on you know, when it's twenty degrees outside
Speaker 1: in a blizzard, that's fine, nobody's doing that. But on
Speaker 1: a cool night that drops into the forties. You know,
Speaker 1: a fire should keep you warm, and to do that,
Speaker 1: you're gonna need to run a minimum three quarter inch line.
Speaker 1: Most likely, my recommendation is a one inch line out there.
Speaker 1: And yeah, now it's not gonna it's it's not It
Speaker 1: doesn't need to sound intimidating, it's not going to blow
Speaker 1: out a bunch of gas, and it's not going to
Speaker 1: be any more expensive really than just running a half
Speaker 1: inch line out there. But you need to run it
Speaker 1: from the meter. You run a nice size line out there,
Speaker 1: because here's the thing, my friend, to have a nice
Speaker 1: burn on a nice size fire pit. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you've noticed this, but natural gas is it's pressurized,
Speaker 1: but it's the minimal. It's the least pressurized substance running
Speaker 1: through our homes. In other words, water is running through
Speaker 1: your house at anywhere from sixty to eighty pounds per
Speaker 1: square inch of pressure. That's a lot of pressure. So
Speaker 1: if you bust a if you were to undo something
Speaker 1: and just have an open pipe and turn on your
Speaker 1: water supply, there's no way you're gonna be able to
Speaker 1: put your hand or your finger over that pipe and
Speaker 1: stop it. Because it's just coming out at such high pressure.
Speaker 1: A gas line is usually running between five and maybe
Speaker 1: a lie pounds per square inch of pressure. And I'm
Speaker 1: not suggesting anybody do this. I'm just saying, if, if you,
Speaker 1: because I've had to do this occasionally. We've got like
Speaker 1: we've we detached a stove and it's sitting out in
Speaker 1: the middle of the kitchen floor and somebody bumped the
Speaker 1: gas line, and or we've taken off the valve and
Speaker 1: somebody actually bumps the gas line to turn it back on.
Speaker 1: I'm like, hey, turn off the gas And in the meantime,
Speaker 1: I just put my thumb over the end of the
Speaker 1: pipe and I block it. I stop it. It just
Speaker 1: stops because it's very very low pressure. So what that
Speaker 1: means is it's not high pressure coming through the gas line.
Speaker 1: So if you want a nice, big, healthy flame that's
Speaker 1: going to keep you warm on a cool night, you
Speaker 1: need volume. When you don't have pressure, you need volume.
Speaker 1: And so as a result, instead of a one half
Speaker 1: inch line running out there a you know, three quarter
Speaker 1: inch line, which is almost fifty percent more, and a
Speaker 1: one inch line which is like three times more than
Speaker 1: a half inch line. That's what you want for your
Speaker 1: fire pit, and you will not be disappointed by that.
Speaker 1: Believe me. You'll thank me for that advice later.
Speaker 5: All right, gee, thank thank you very much for all
Speaker 5: the information.
Speaker 1: You're very welcome, Arnold. And by the way, before you
Speaker 1: run that gas line out there, call uh call dig Alert.
Speaker 1: Call eight one one, and I think that number is
Speaker 1: con it may not be DIGG Alert in your area,
Speaker 1: but call eight one one just to make sure that
Speaker 1: they'll notify all of the utilities, anybody who might have
Speaker 1: had something in your yard, under your property anywhere. They'll
Speaker 1: take three days to come out. It's all free and
Speaker 1: they'll come out and they'll mark stuff with flags, because
Speaker 1: I don't want you to trench in a gas line
Speaker 1: through your backyard and hitting something, you know, major, or
Speaker 1: cutting across cables or anything else that might be buried there.
Speaker 1: Always call them first, get everything marked before you dig.
Speaker 1: Call before you did. And the number is eight one
Speaker 1: one here in southern Califoria. I think it's the same
Speaker 1: number across the entire state, but it may not be
Speaker 1: dig Alert per se. Anyway, call eight one to one
Speaker 1: and get everything marked off, all right, y'all when we return.
Speaker 1: You see that's why we take calls. Everybody learns when
Speaker 1: we come back, let's talk about some more makeover magic
Speaker 1: for your home.
Speaker 3: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 3: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: Hey, I just got a text from my buddy Andy Wells,
Speaker 1: who has been a leader among the Dig Alert and
Speaker 1: dig a Call before You dig community, been a director
Speaker 1: of that program, and he just confirmed to me in
Speaker 1: the text. He's like, Yeah, eight one one is a
Speaker 1: universal nationwide number, just like nine to one one is.
Speaker 1: Eight one one is universal nationwide, regardless of what the
Speaker 1: local program is called in southern California and you hear
Speaker 1: it's called dig Alert in other places it's called other things,
Speaker 1: but nationwide. So if you are going to dig anything, uh,
Speaker 1: you're gonna dig a trench anywhere on your property, you
Speaker 1: call eight one one and you alert them to the
Speaker 1: fact that you would like to dig a trench, uh,
Speaker 1: and they are going to contact all of the relevant utilities.
Speaker 1: They've got the maps and everything that anybody. Everybody, every
Speaker 1: everybody from from from petroleum companies that have lines running
Speaker 1: under your property, to the power company to the cable
Speaker 1: company to telecommunication lines and everything. Everybody will all get contacted.
Speaker 1: They'll all check their maps. They have to. It's their job,
Speaker 1: it's their agreement. And uh, they will send out a
Speaker 1: rep I believe within two or three days. And uh
Speaker 1: and uh they'll send out a rep. And they'll just
Speaker 1: put flags, just saying, hey, well now we're just here
Speaker 1: in response to your you know, your dig alert, call
Speaker 1: this fla hear how deep where the lines are so
Speaker 1: that you don't have to hit them and cause major
Speaker 1: problems when you dig your trench. It's that simple, and
Speaker 1: it's free and you should absolutely always do it. Thanks, Andy,
Speaker 1: appreciate it. And you know what, also, I love I
Speaker 1: love that industry professionals listen to the show and appreciate
Speaker 1: what we're doing here. That should give you a level
Speaker 1: of confidence as well. We have a lot of contractors, engineers, architects,
Speaker 1: industry professionals in every imaginable way who enjoy listening to
Speaker 1: the show because they know I'm not jerking you around,
Speaker 1: telling you the honest truth about things, and hopefully it
Speaker 1: makes a big difference. All right, let's get back to
Speaker 1: makeover stuff. I want to get out of the bathroom,
Speaker 1: but before I do, I'm going to suggest two things Okay,
Speaker 1: one of them going to be highly controversial. Ready are
Speaker 1: you ready? This is this controversial? As I get you
Speaker 1: may have an old shower door that you desperately want
Speaker 1: to replace because you hate the way that thing looks.
Speaker 1: It's got the big old brass or silver track running across,
Speaker 1: and it's got the wavy glass, and it's all gunked up,
Speaker 1: and it looks like it was, you know, put in
Speaker 1: there in nineteen sixty four. I get it. And yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: So here's the thing you're thinking. I'd love to have
Speaker 1: one of those new sleek shower surrounds and new glass,
Speaker 1: but that's gonna cost me like two thousand or more
Speaker 1: dollars to do, and you'd be probably right about that.
Speaker 1: How about this? How about removing all of that garbage
Speaker 1: that's there right now, patching up the walls, and then
Speaker 1: putting in a curtain rod. Now, don't don't stop, don't
Speaker 1: don't get upset with me, because I know what you're saying. Really, Dean, really,
Speaker 1: that's about as low class as it gets, right, A
Speaker 1: curtain a rod, A shower curtain. Why I want to
Speaker 1: have some shiny vinyl shower curtain with ducks and you know,
Speaker 1: flowers that look like they used to decorate the dating
Speaker 1: game show in my bathroom. I want to take it
Speaker 1: another way. That's not what I'm talking about. And if
Speaker 1: that's what you think your only option is these days,
Speaker 1: you need to get out there and take another look.
Speaker 1: I would suggest I. By the way, I am a
Speaker 1: lover of shower curtains, okay, and I'll tell you why.
Speaker 1: Number One, they don't have to be classless. Okay. The
Speaker 1: shower curtains that I love to install whenever possible are
Speaker 1: ceiling mount tracks. Ceiling mount so now there's no rod
Speaker 1: going across obscuring your view. And ceiling mount tracks with
Speaker 1: little ball bearings and hooks in them. And then the
Speaker 1: curtains that hang from those can just be white fabric
Speaker 1: based curtains, fabric based, vinyl embedded, fabric based. And so
Speaker 1: you buy two curtains, the curtains are custom they hang
Speaker 1: down just the right amount. You buy two curtains, run
Speaker 1: a curtain for a while on the hooks. If it
Speaker 1: starts to get a little grody on you at the
Speaker 1: bottom and you're like it's starting to show with you.
Speaker 1: After a couple of months of hanging there, you pull
Speaker 1: it off. Throw it into the washing machine, put the
Speaker 1: replacement up, and then fold this one when it's done.
Speaker 1: And you're always just rotating them on and off. It's classy,
Speaker 1: it's fabric. It's just a drape hanging there in the corner.
Speaker 1: But here is the thing that I love about shower curtains,
Speaker 1: and I know you're not going to be able to
Speaker 1: disagree with me on this one. The thing I love
Speaker 1: about shower curtains is there's a lot of money spent
Speaker 1: on the tile and or stone work or whatever is
Speaker 1: going on inside that shower, a lot of it. And
Speaker 1: then we spend all this money on that, and then
Speaker 1: we put a glass door in front of it, and yeah,
Speaker 1: we can see through the glass, but we don't get
Speaker 1: the full impact of that. And if you have a
Speaker 1: smaller bathroom, a glass door, even as full all transparent
Speaker 1: as it may be, is still a divider. It's still
Speaker 1: a surface barrier that says, hey, you're stuck in this space.
Speaker 1: That thing is over there, and it makes a small
Speaker 1: bathroom even smaller. Why I love a shower curtain. It
Speaker 1: can be ugie, It can hang elegantly like a drapery
Speaker 1: without any funky, weird patterns, or shine or sheen to it.
Speaker 1: And when you pull that shower curtain back, there's nothing
Speaker 1: in the way and you get to absorb the volume
Speaker 1: of the shower space visually, psychologically, emotionally that belongs to
Speaker 1: the main space of the bathroom that you're in. Shower
Speaker 1: curtains make small bathrooms feel as large as they can
Speaker 1: feel because all of that volume and the visual of
Speaker 1: all the tile work is all there with you in
Speaker 1: the space. Even when you're standing in front of the
Speaker 1: vanity or sitting on the toilet doesn't matter. All of
Speaker 1: that's available to you because you haven't walled off the bathroom.
Speaker 1: That's all I'm saying. That's all I'm saying. You have
Speaker 1: to decide whether that works for you. But give it
Speaker 1: some thought, because you do not have to live with
Speaker 1: those old, grody shower doors, nor do you have to
Speaker 1: replace them with you know, bank account breaking new glass.
Speaker 1: Maybe the answer for you is something as simple as
Speaker 1: a ceiling mount shower curtain track. Give it some thought,
Speaker 1: Give it some thought. Used to be, back when I
Speaker 1: started doing this to Holmes, this kind of thing actually
Speaker 1: didn't technically exist for homeowners. You know. Tina likes to
Speaker 1: pat me on the back. She's like, you're always doing
Speaker 1: things like several years ahead of the trend, and so
Speaker 1: as a result, we had to get really creative. When
Speaker 1: I first wanted to do this in a home, I
Speaker 1: had to call a hospital curtain company, because you know
Speaker 1: hospital curtains, they're attached to the ceiling and they drape
Speaker 1: down and fabric I had to call a hospital curtain
Speaker 1: company to have this kind of made. But nowadays, guess what.
Speaker 1: You go ahead, just google the ceiling mount shower curtain track.
Speaker 1: You will find there are companies that now do it
Speaker 1: just for you and just for your home, and they're
Speaker 1: glorious and they're easy, and it could make a big difference.
Speaker 1: All right. The last thing for the bathroom before we
Speaker 1: get out of it and move to the rest of
Speaker 1: the house is the paint. No bathroom these days has
Speaker 1: to put up with super shiny, reflective paint. We want
Speaker 1: Matt Finish, no sheen or low sheen paint and rich
Speaker 1: colors in a bathroom and to make it feel as
Speaker 1: sumptuous as any other room in the house. And thanks
Speaker 1: to companies like Benjamin Moore, whose Aura bath and Spa
Speaker 1: paint is both Matt Finish and completely water and steam
Speaker 1: and moisture resistant. You can simply re paint your bathroom
Speaker 1: and bring its textural quality up to you to exceed
Speaker 1: the decorator's bar. Just use the right paint. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: can get rid of all that shiny stuff out of
Speaker 1: the bathroom and really make it rich and sumptuous and warm.
Speaker 1: There you go, all right. When we come back, we'll
Speaker 1: move from the bathroom to some other spaces and we
Speaker 1: will keep revealing our makeover magic. Your Home with Dean Sharp,
Speaker 1: the House Whisper on KFI. This has been Home with
Speaker 1: Dean Sharp, the House Whisper. Tune into the live broadcast
Speaker 1: on KFI Am six forty every Saturday morning from six
Speaker 1: to eight Pacific time and every Sunday morning from nine
Speaker 1: to noon Pacific time, or anytime on demand on the
Speaker 1: iHeart Radio app