Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp The
Speaker 1: House Whisper on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Hey, welcome
Speaker 1: to home where every week we help you better understand
Speaker 1: that place where you live. I'm Dean Sharp, the House
Speaker 1: Whisper here with you live like I am every weekend
Speaker 1: Saturday morning six to eight Pacific time, Sunday mornings nine
Speaker 1: to noon Pacific time. Thanks for joining us on the program.
Speaker 1: You are welcome to be a part of our third
Speaker 1: hour here starting off from eleven to noon. Today, we
Speaker 1: are talking about the home monitoring revolution, as it were,
Speaker 1: the fact that connectedness, this connected world that we live
Speaker 1: in technologically has led to a number of really, really
Speaker 1: beneficial ways in which we can keep track of what's
Speaker 1: going on in our home via our smartphones, apps and
Speaker 1: the kind of hardware and fixtures that communicate with them
Speaker 1: about what's going on in our homes. We're going to
Speaker 1: return to that conversation in just a bit, but right now,
Speaker 1: top of the hour, it's time to go to the phones.
Speaker 1: When it comes to your calls, it can be anything
Speaker 1: you want to talk about. Let's talk to Diego, Ay diego,
Speaker 1: Welcome home.
Speaker 2: Who Hi? I have unfinished basement and it has a
Speaker 2: bathroom and a kitchenet. We really don't use it. It's
Speaker 2: been just a catch all over the years, and the
Speaker 2: kids left and now we have there are some of
Speaker 2: their stuff still here, but mold has produced. You can
Speaker 2: smell it. You can see to some of the clothing
Speaker 2: that we now keep it for winter. And so that's
Speaker 2: how we came across it. And the neighbor and next
Speaker 2: story is a commercial person there. So they finally finished
Speaker 2: their landscape and now we're getting more water the summer.
Speaker 2: I put in a French drain because I saw that
Speaker 2: and I'm known to have some water problems coming up.
Speaker 2: That's when we have Nina in two thousand and nine,
Speaker 2: I think it was, and we were swimming almost down here,
Speaker 2: and so we put that friend straight in. But the
Speaker 2: mold it's still there. How do you attack mold and
Speaker 2: how do you prevent it from happening again? We have
Speaker 2: a cement, just unfinished cement. Did they have carpet here?
Speaker 2: One time? Somebody did and they pulled it all off.
Speaker 2: You can see all the glue marks everywhere and some
Speaker 2: paint they tried to use. The paint. I looked it
Speaker 2: up out a year ago, and everybody have bad reviews,
Speaker 2: good and bad reviews about different products. One part I
Speaker 2: really liked is you can't be around it after you
Speaker 2: put it on. I means you can't live there or
Speaker 2: be around it because but it works really great. We'll
Speaker 2: be to the point of doing that then, because we
Speaker 2: like to hide down here because it's cooler when we
Speaker 2: get the heat waves. Right, So what do you suggest?
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, it could be a very big subject because
Speaker 1: there are different ways of approaching this, whether you're approaching
Speaker 1: it on the level of just maintaining a mold free
Speaker 1: environment in the basement or on the other end of
Speaker 1: the spectrum, going to greater measures of protecting the basement
Speaker 1: against moisture intrusion. To begin with, okay, how old is
Speaker 1: the house and where is the house?
Speaker 2: By the way, the house it sits in some Marco's
Speaker 2: border at Scabido area, and it's a sixty four house,
Speaker 2: sixty years old.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, yeah, it's so a full basement in
Speaker 1: sixty four. That's that's quite a remarkable kind of situation.
Speaker 2: The front of the house is a level, it's all level,
Speaker 2: and then the back of the house is like fifteen
Speaker 2: twelve feet deeper. So they decided instead of having just
Speaker 2: a basement, they finished it. Well, the neighbor copios too,
Speaker 2: they did.
Speaker 1: I got it, all right, all right, that makes sense,
Speaker 1: all right, Okay, So here's the thing. If you really
Speaker 1: want to deal with the moisture intrusion, generally speaking, then
Speaker 1: there is the whole process of digging down around those
Speaker 1: basement walls, digging a trench down around the basement walls,
Speaker 1: getting French strains deeper down, closer to the base of
Speaker 1: the walls, and while you're at it, getting better water
Speaker 1: proofing on the exterior of those walls, whether it's a
Speaker 1: bitumous membrane, whether it's coated, roll on water proofing and
Speaker 1: then protected with protection boards or foam boards so that
Speaker 1: rocks and soil don't come in and scratch it or
Speaker 1: penetrate it and kind of ruin it. Concrete in and
Speaker 1: of itself is not going to stop moisture from coming
Speaker 1: in through the ground around it and into the room.
Speaker 1: So I'm just saying that I'm not I think I
Speaker 1: understand the spirit of your question that you're not asking
Speaker 1: for that kind of major redo, But that's kind of
Speaker 1: what we're looking at right, if it gets and I'm
Speaker 1: mentioning it, because if it gets to the point where
Speaker 1: you end up with like potentially standing water in the basement,
Speaker 1: then we really have to treat this basement like basements
Speaker 1: are treated all across the country. Unlike here in relatively
Speaker 1: traditionally dry southern California, all across the country, basements are
Speaker 1: treated with heavy waterproofing on the outside before they're backfilled.
Speaker 1: They've got drains on the outside connected sometimes quite often
Speaker 1: to some pumps that because they're below grade, and they
Speaker 1: will drain that water out. Some pumps placed in the
Speaker 1: basement floor so that if water begins to build up
Speaker 1: on the floor, it has a place to drain to
Speaker 1: and to be removed, and so on and so forth.
Speaker 1: All right, Putting that aside, though, let's just say we've
Speaker 1: got lately, because of the neighbors landscaping redo, because we've
Speaker 1: had a couple of El Nino years and some heavy winters,
Speaker 1: Let's say we've got unusually high amounts of moisture building up,
Speaker 1: and that moisture is not leaking through but just sort
Speaker 1: of seeping into the concrete walls, and as a result
Speaker 1: of being down in this dark moist place down in
Speaker 1: the ground. Mold, Okay, mold and mildeed. That can still
Speaker 1: be dealt with as long as we don't have water
Speaker 1: pouring through. We can deal with it in a couple
Speaker 1: of ways. Number One, the first thing is we got
Speaker 1: to kill the mold that's there, all right. That can
Speaker 1: be as simple as a mixture of water and bleach
Speaker 1: washing down the walls and the floor to kill what's there. Secondly,
Speaker 1: we want to keep that room dry. Okay, a dehumidifier.
Speaker 1: Now dehumidifier could take the form of a split system
Speaker 1: heat pump, air conditioner slash heater. But why put an
Speaker 1: air conditioner in a room that's already cool, that you
Speaker 1: guys already escape to because it's a cool place. But dehumidification,
Speaker 1: this is critical. Mold is not going to no matter
Speaker 1: how much moisture is in the wall, Mold is not
Speaker 1: going to form on the surface of the wall and
Speaker 1: on the surfaces of stuff down there and on the
Speaker 1: close if the air is dry. One of the you
Speaker 1: know there, there are rules to mold and mildew. They're
Speaker 1: not just magical creatures that show up whenever they want to.
Speaker 1: It's got to be dark it's got to be moist
Speaker 1: and the air around it has to be moist as
Speaker 1: well in order for it to thrive. So dry air
Speaker 1: down inside the basement area is going to be your
Speaker 1: biggest ongoing weapon to combat mold. So think about a dehumidifier.
Speaker 1: They can be portable, they can be built in, you
Speaker 1: can have it blown out one of the you know,
Speaker 1: windows or what have you. But a dehumidification system down there,
Speaker 1: the drier the air is in the basement, the less
Speaker 1: issues you're ever going to have with mold on your stuff,
Speaker 1: on the floors, on the walls, and especially in the clothing.
Speaker 1: That's going to be the key. Lastly, there are some
Speaker 1: things not paint. Paint is a terrible approach, as you've
Speaker 1: seen to ceiling concrete, because moisture that builds up on
Speaker 1: the backside of the paint will simply bubble it and
Speaker 1: push it off and make it flake and crack and
Speaker 1: just it's a mess. But there are some pretty decent
Speaker 1: seilers out there that you can absorbing sealers that you
Speaker 1: could go ahead and just coat the concrete wall your
Speaker 1: side with the interior. Is it going to stop moisture
Speaker 1: from completely coming through?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 1: But if you coat the concrete floor and the walls
Speaker 1: with these penetrating sealers, then it's definitely going to slow
Speaker 1: it down. You combine that with dehumidifying the airspace and
Speaker 1: getting some good airflow down there, and you know what,
Speaker 1: I'm guessing, if you don't have a standing water problem,
Speaker 1: you're probably going to be in good shape.
Speaker 2: My friend, sounds good. Well, Thank you so much, Jean.
Speaker 2: I appreciate that.
Speaker 1: All right, diego look into that dehumidification system. That's going
Speaker 1: to be the key to keeping mold under control. All right,
Speaker 1: when we come back, how about another call or so, yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll do it.
Speaker 4: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 4: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: The house Whisper at your service. Thanks for joining us
Speaker 1: on the program. We're talking about the connected monitored home today.
Speaker 1: I'm going to get back to that conversation in just
Speaker 1: a bit, but right now, going to take another call.
Speaker 1: Still got some calls on the board, trying to get
Speaker 1: through as many as I can. Let's talk to Linda. Hey, Linda,
Speaker 1: welcome home.
Speaker 3: Hi Dean, thank you for taking my call. I'm remodeling first,
Speaker 3: my first remodel of primary bath and the construction has
Speaker 3: already started, and I love the contractor, and so anyway,
Speaker 3: the design part is what I'm I picked everything and
Speaker 3: now I'm up to the paint color. And it's now
Speaker 3: that I've listened to you for so long, it has
Speaker 3: to be Benchin more now. And I don't know where
Speaker 3: you were the whole rest of my life, but anyway,
Speaker 3: so it was, but not not not where I could
Speaker 3: hear you. So so anyway I want I remember hearing
Speaker 3: a previous show, maybe a couple of years ago. I
Speaker 3: don't know, I don't know how to find it on
Speaker 3: your in the library, but you talked about a paint,
Speaker 3: a paint that you use pretty often, and I wanted
Speaker 3: to be neutral white without yellow in it. And I
Speaker 3: remember you talked about gloss, not too gloss. Right now
Speaker 3: it's a high gloss cottage white color and so uh,
Speaker 3: and it's all neutrals from chocolate vanity. It's a seventy
Speaker 3: two inch vanity. There's a chocolate solid oak vanity with
Speaker 3: a weeded front. And I'll get to the metal part
Speaker 3: in a minute, because it's the two part questions. So
Speaker 3: I just wanted to ask you about what paint color
Speaker 3: would you recommend that's not a stark white, a warm
Speaker 3: white without yellow, and that will hold up to what
Speaker 3: you need in a bathroom.
Speaker 1: Okay, so first of all, two questions there, because one
Speaker 1: is the color and one is the type of paint.
Speaker 1: The ultimate paint my favorite paint for bathrooms, hands down,
Speaker 1: no question about it. Aura A U R A. That's
Speaker 1: Benjamin Moore Aura Bath and Spa. There's a regular Aura
Speaker 1: for the rest of the house. Aura Bath and Spa
Speaker 1: is water resistant, mildew resistant, moisture resistant paint. And the
Speaker 1: amazing thing about it is it comes in a flat
Speaker 1: matte finish, so no more high reflective gloss in the bathroom.
Speaker 1: It can be sexy and silky and matt finished on
Speaker 1: the walls and the ceiling and not lose its clean
Speaker 1: ability and not lose its water resistance. Aura Bath and Spa.
Speaker 1: That's the paint you want to use and can come
Speaker 1: in literally any color you want. And if you're talking
Speaker 1: about and there are a lot of options here, but
Speaker 1: if we're talking about a bright white that is just
Speaker 1: you know, soft, but not yellow, ye not creamy cream colored,
Speaker 1: you know that has that distinct creaminess to it. Just
Speaker 1: a warm white's what we call a warm white. Then
Speaker 1: you're probably looking at either decorators white or Swiss coffee,
Speaker 1: which I know gets tossed around a lot these days
Speaker 1: as like, oh, that's what they painted my apartment in. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't really care about the what color they painted
Speaker 1: your apartment. I care about the quality of the paint.
Speaker 1: And the fact of the matter is this is that,
Speaker 1: you know, because white, if you go too bright, you
Speaker 1: can start to go into the blues and that's going
Speaker 1: to really kind of mess with your chocolate, choice of
Speaker 1: cabinetry and all of that. So that's what we're talking about.
Speaker 3: And the porcelain tiles, which is the other big opposite
Speaker 3: wall of the vanity with the tubs around and the shower,
Speaker 3: is a creamy white porcelain with light tope, very light
Speaker 3: tope banning. It's not busy baning, just a very minimal baining.
Speaker 3: So it could be more than.
Speaker 2: A warm white. It could be a Queenie white.
Speaker 3: I guess I don't know which way to go I
Speaker 3: need to look at. So what would be the Queenie white?
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, yeah, I can't tell you the names off
Speaker 1: the top of my head because there's thousands of them.
Speaker 1: But I will tell you this. You take those tiles
Speaker 1: and you head to the Benjamin Moore store and keep
Speaker 1: your tiles with you and any other color reference items
Speaker 1: in the bathroom, bring those with you while you are
Speaker 1: selecting a spectrum of samples three, you know, two, three,
Speaker 1: four samples, and be a little bold with your samples.
Speaker 1: Go a little darker, and go a little creamier, go
Speaker 1: a little wider. Then order the sample size paints where
Speaker 1: they're just these tiny they're not even pints anymore. There's
Speaker 1: just these tiny, little sample size and then get in
Speaker 1: the room and get them on the wall, get a
Speaker 1: good size swatch of them on the wall, and evaluate
Speaker 1: them at that point. That's the key.
Speaker 3: Perfect, Thank you so much. This is the other thing,
Speaker 3: and I remember you having this conversation, so thank you.
Speaker 3: And the other thing is that they're twenty four y
Speaker 3: forty eight porcelain tiles, so they're really big, and I
Speaker 3: don't want to see grout and white kind of shows
Speaker 3: up ease can see white. So is there another background
Speaker 3: grout color that won't show dirt hopefully, but also just
Speaker 3: will blend in so it doesn't, you know, just notice grout.
Speaker 3: I don't want the groud to be a design feature.
Speaker 1: Gotcha. So you want a non sanded grout, okay, Because
Speaker 1: nonsanded that allows you to set those tiles as absolutely
Speaker 1: close together as possible. We don't want to make the
Speaker 1: mistake of not using a grout because the tiles will
Speaker 1: shift and we don't want them rubbing against each other
Speaker 1: and chipping. The grout actually is a buffer for that
Speaker 1: to actually protect the tile. But talk to your contractor
Speaker 1: about using any POxy based grout Number one. Any POxy
Speaker 1: based grout means you can use any kind of light
Speaker 1: color you want. Any POxy grouts when they dry, they
Speaker 1: or I should say they when they cure, they are
Speaker 1: non porous. They don't absorb stains, They don't absorb the
Speaker 1: dirt or scum or anything like that. It takes a
Speaker 1: qualified installer who knows what they're doing to put the
Speaker 1: epoxy groud in because you don't want to have any
Speaker 1: leftover film on top of the tile surface. But an
Speaker 1: epoxy based growd is going to give you absolute smallest
Speaker 1: and strongest and least stained sensitive grout in between those tiles.
Speaker 1: And then as far as the color goes, it's just
Speaker 1: like the paint. You want to get a couple of
Speaker 1: samples of colors. Now you're not going to have a
Speaker 1: billion options when it comes to any grout color. You
Speaker 1: only have the spectrum of color that the grout company offers.
Speaker 1: But there's a lot, and there's a lot in the
Speaker 1: white and cream area. So you want to decide which
Speaker 1: one you like better, whether you go slightly darker than
Speaker 1: the tile, or whether you try and get one that
Speaker 1: matches as close to the main surface of the tile
Speaker 1: so that it just goes away. The good news in
Speaker 1: your case, even if you went a little bit slightly
Speaker 1: darker and you could see the grout line a little
Speaker 1: bit more noticeably. Uh, you know, twenty four by forty
Speaker 1: eight porcelain tie, there's a large format tiles. You've got
Speaker 1: minimal grout there anyway, But of course, of course try
Speaker 1: for the matching color or something that blends in as
Speaker 1: well as possible, if that makes sense.
Speaker 3: Great. And also my contractors have tile specialist, flooring specialists
Speaker 3: all of that.
Speaker 2: So but this is what this is.
Speaker 3: These are the two main things that I really needed
Speaker 3: to know. And do you have another second for a
Speaker 3: quick question?
Speaker 2: That's super quick?
Speaker 1: Got super quick?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: Mixing metals there's brush gold tiny knobs on the vanity
Speaker 3: and around on a giant light, a big light fixture
Speaker 3: over the vanity. But I did, I got all stained
Speaker 3: less faucets and you know, graceful faucets and handles and
Speaker 3: for the thinks, tub and shower. Have you ever mixed metals?
Speaker 3: Is this thatrong? Okay, it can be.
Speaker 1: Okay, it can I mean mixing metals. And usually what
Speaker 1: we want when we mix metals is a contrast and uh,
Speaker 1: and it's it's I can't, I can't give you a
Speaker 1: a solid answer sight unseen. Uh. Typically when we mix metals,
Speaker 1: will use a central fixture that has both of them
Speaker 1: in it, so that that gives us the freedom to
Speaker 1: throw a little bit of brush gold on the light fixture,
Speaker 1: throw a little brush gold on the knobs, because there's
Speaker 1: a little bit of brush gold along with the stainless
Speaker 1: in the faucet set. But that doesn't mean necessarily that
Speaker 1: you can't just do a full on stainless faucet set
Speaker 1: and have the brush gold in other locations. Really has
Speaker 1: to do visually with how each one ties in and works.
Speaker 1: But changing metals and having more than one inside a space,
Speaker 1: a room, a kitchen area, a bathroom. It is not
Speaker 1: in any way, shape or form a sin or a mistake. Again,
Speaker 1: it's just one of those things where you have to
Speaker 1: stand back, you know, take a look at the samples
Speaker 1: that you've got evaluated and make sure that it works.
Speaker 1: And you know, in your case, the worst case scenario
Speaker 1: is maybe the cabinet knobs get changed out to a
Speaker 1: stainless versus the brush gold. But you know, I'm thinking
Speaker 1: it's probably gonna work. So there you go. All right, Linda,
Speaker 1: you got three three major questions answered, my friend, Thanks
Speaker 1: for being such a fan of the show, by the way,
Speaker 1: really really appreciating good luck on what sounds like is
Speaker 1: a really great bathroom remodel. And you have learned the
Speaker 1: lesson design matters most. All right, everybody, when we come back,
Speaker 1: we're gonna to get back into the monitored home. I've
Speaker 1: got so much more to talk to you about. We
Speaker 1: will do it.
Speaker 4: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 4: KFI AM six.
Speaker 1: Forty Welcome home your Home with Dean Sharp. The house whisper,
Speaker 1: that's me and we're talking about your home. That's what
Speaker 1: we do every weekend, talk about your home. This weekend.
Speaker 1: I'm specifically talking about your monitored home, meaning the kind
Speaker 1: of world that we live in now, connected technology giving
Speaker 1: us the ability to monitor our homes when we are
Speaker 1: both there and away in ways we never dreamed of
Speaker 1: possible just a few years ago. So I know I
Speaker 1: cover this stuff throughout the year when we hit various
Speaker 1: other subjects because these each of these areas are kind of,
Speaker 1: you know, subtopics of larger areas, but today it's all
Speaker 1: just an overview of monitoring your home. Very quickly, I
Speaker 1: want to mention one last thing in regards to safety
Speaker 1: that not a lot of people are aware of, and
Speaker 1: you should be. If you are thinking about upgrading your
Speaker 1: electrical system, if a new panel is part of you know,
Speaker 1: maybe you're adding an ADU, maybe you're just doing an
Speaker 1: expansion or remodel, and you're like, you know what, we
Speaker 1: need more power. We're going to are electrician is going
Speaker 1: to put in a new panel. One of the things
Speaker 1: that you should at least be aware of and check
Speaker 1: out and talk to your electrician about is a smart
Speaker 1: panel or at least smart breakers in your existing panel. Now,
Speaker 1: smart breakers breakers are have to be the brand or
Speaker 1: compatible with the brand of panel that you have. Okay,
Speaker 1: so the smart breakers coming out, for instance, Leveton smart breakers,
Speaker 1: they aren't going to work in a square D panel
Speaker 1: as an example, And you're like, what is a square
Speaker 1: D panel? Doesn't matter, just know that it has to
Speaker 1: be brand specific or at least intentionally brand compatible. But
Speaker 1: the nice thing about a smart breaker is you don't
Speaker 1: need a whole panel upgrade. You can just start changing
Speaker 1: out the breakers from the old dumb breakers, the stupid
Speaker 1: breakers that you've got right now, which are just mechanically
Speaker 1: operated breakers. You know, you get a short and they
Speaker 1: pop and then you go and you reset them, or
Speaker 1: an overload and they pop and you reset them. A
Speaker 1: smart breaker can give you feedback on that circuit into
Speaker 1: an app to let you know energy usage. But also
Speaker 1: a smart breaker will alert you when it goes off.
Speaker 1: And some smart breakers can actually be remotely reset. So yeah,
Speaker 1: that's smart. That really is smart. And now there are panels,
Speaker 1: entire panels built with nothing but smart breakers, leaner, cleaner,
Speaker 1: way better, and the panel itself will help monitor energy
Speaker 1: flow and energy usage through your home and they can
Speaker 1: be set instead of you know, used to buy a
Speaker 1: regular breaker'll do, but you can buy a regular breaker
Speaker 1: standard like fifteen AM breaker, or you can buy a
Speaker 1: GFCI breaker which is a ground fault interrupt breaker for
Speaker 1: bathrooms and kitchen areas, areas where there's water sensitivity. Or
Speaker 1: you can get an arc fault breaker, which is required
Speaker 1: by code in some rooms now throughout the home that
Speaker 1: monitor little arc faults like a worn cord or anything
Speaker 1: like that. Those are all specific, individualized breakers, but on
Speaker 1: some of these new smart panels, they simply come with
Speaker 1: universal smart breakers and you can set each one to
Speaker 1: be what you needed to be, GFI, arc fault or standard,
Speaker 1: whatever the case may be. So this is the future,
Speaker 1: by the way. I mean twenty years from now, we're
Speaker 1: not going to be having this conversation because everybody's going
Speaker 1: to have a smart panel anyway, and we'll be moving
Speaker 1: on to other things. But I'm just letting you know,
Speaker 1: if you're in the market for upgrading right now, this
Speaker 1: is yet again another monitored system that you can have
Speaker 1: control of in your pocket. All right, Before we are
Speaker 1: done today, I absolutely want to talk about this, and
Speaker 1: that is well being monitoring. Talking about somebody in your family,
Speaker 1: maybe an aging parent or an aging relative, or somebody
Speaker 1: who needs some assistance in regards to their health and
Speaker 1: their well being. And of course, you know, the conversations
Speaker 1: are endless these days about the Sandwich generation, those of
Speaker 1: us who are both taking care of kids and aging
Speaker 1: parents at the same time. All of that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: The cost of if you don't have, you know, if
Speaker 1: they don't have stellar insurance, The cost of getting somebody
Speaker 1: who may be suffering from dementsia or Alzheimer's or something
Speaker 1: like that into a nursing care facility can be massive.
Speaker 1: The cost of in home nursing care can be massive.
Speaker 1: So there are some technologies now that are considerably less
Speaker 1: massive that may, in many many circumstances enable a loved
Speaker 1: one to stay in their home longer and still receive
Speaker 1: the kind of attention necessary. Now, it's going to make
Speaker 1: people shirk back when I say this, but the kind
Speaker 1: of care and attention that these systems do is a monitored,
Speaker 1: algorithm based attention. It's kind of an AI sort of
Speaker 1: attention that does not mean that big brother is watching you.
Speaker 1: Most of these systems employ what's called passive behavior discovery.
Speaker 1: What that means is I just give you an example.
Speaker 1: I'll give you an example from envoy at home. Okay,
Speaker 1: you can go check this out at envoy at home
Speaker 1: dot com. They're a great system. They're not the only
Speaker 1: one out there, but they're a great one to talk
Speaker 1: about because they kind of, you know, are a great
Speaker 1: example system. Envoy at home. You would pay a subscription
Speaker 1: for monitoring an activity, a monthly subscription, and then the
Speaker 1: house gets installed with motion detectors and sensors in various
Speaker 1: parts almost every room of the house, hallways and so
Speaker 1: on and so forth, among other things. Now, does that
Speaker 1: mean somebody is looking at you. No, it's not cameras, okay,
Speaker 1: they're motion detectors and sensors. So, as a result, the system,
Speaker 1: once it's installed, it starts learning. Let's say Mom's routine
Speaker 1: or a daily routine. Mom normally gets up at eight thirty.
Speaker 1: Between eight thirty and eight forty five every morning. Mom
Speaker 1: usually spends about a half an hour in the bathroom
Speaker 1: before she heads out to the kitchen and da da
Speaker 1: da da. These are just recorded. It's like a learning system, okay,
Speaker 1: and it just learns it passively. Nobody's watching her, okay,
Speaker 1: it's just being recorded in the sense of sensors activated
Speaker 1: motion detector learning Mom's motion throughout the house. Then the
Speaker 1: day comes when Mom is not out of bed at
Speaker 1: eight forty five, maybe it's nine point fifteen, maybe it's
Speaker 1: nine thirty. And because this falls outside of the normal routine,
Speaker 1: you get an alert. It's that simple. You get an
Speaker 1: alert saying, hey, it doesn't appear that mom has gotten
Speaker 1: out of bed on her normal schedule this morning, and
Speaker 1: what does that mean? You can do with that what
Speaker 1: you want. Maybe you're like, well, I know why that happened,
Speaker 1: because she was up late partying last night. Or maybe
Speaker 1: you just give a call, Hey, Mom, just call and
Speaker 1: checking in, how you doing, what's going on? So on
Speaker 1: and so forth. It's that kind of system that can
Speaker 1: be placed in a house these days. Okay, And there
Speaker 1: are all sorts of levels to it, and I won't
Speaker 1: go into that because we don't have time, but just no.
Speaker 1: And you may be sitting there thinking maybe rightly so, oh,
Speaker 1: my parents would never go for that because they don't
Speaker 1: want to be watched. Well, they're not really being watched.
Speaker 1: They're simply having a second level of redundancy about you
Speaker 1: know what it is, their daily stuff, trip detection, fall detection,
Speaker 1: it's all a part of this kind of stuff. And
Speaker 1: they can be really, really useful in the right situation.
Speaker 1: One last thing as a part of that if you
Speaker 1: are unaware of this, and that is especially with dimension
Speaker 1: Alzheimer's individuals, is remote medication dispensing. There are now, you know,
Speaker 1: countertop appliances like the size of a coffee maker, where
Speaker 1: you can load up a month's worth of meds, very
Speaker 1: very complex medical dosing throughout the day. Maybe there's maybe
Speaker 1: you're maybe it's once or twice a day that mom
Speaker 1: or dad need to remember to take their pills, or
Speaker 1: maybe they're in a situation where they need to get
Speaker 1: their meds, you know, three or four or six times
Speaker 1: during the day. These can be programmed and these divice
Speaker 1: is these appliances that are just plug and play sitting
Speaker 1: on the countertop. They can be set up so that
Speaker 1: at the right time they give a notice, they chime
Speaker 1: a little chime, or they have a little voice to
Speaker 1: remind mom or dad, oh, it's time to take your stuff.
Speaker 1: It's nine o'clock in the morning, and then they dispense
Speaker 1: just the right meds and they will not no matter
Speaker 1: how much somebody pushes the button a half an hour later,
Speaker 1: redispense those meds again, and we know that that's when
Speaker 1: it comes to memory loss. That can be a problem
Speaker 1: of somebody kind of overdosing on their meds because they
Speaker 1: forgot that they just took them. So these are kind
Speaker 1: of devices are available. Hero herohealth dot com is one
Speaker 1: of those places you can go and see one of
Speaker 1: these units. You can control it, you can get an
Speaker 1: alert and you can kind of take control and not
Speaker 1: worry about that because again, remote medication, dispensing, remote monitoring,
Speaker 1: and all of the good things that go with it. Okay,
Speaker 1: a couple of lighter issues when we come back. Let's
Speaker 1: talk about home irrigation and some heating and cooling, and
Speaker 1: then we will be wrapped for the day, of course,
Speaker 1: not without some final thoughts for you. We will do
Speaker 1: it all right after.
Speaker 4: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 4: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: Dean Sharp, the house Whisper, Welcome home, Hey, thanks for
Speaker 1: joining us on the program today. Here we are at
Speaker 1: the end of another three hours. They just fly by,
Speaker 1: they really do. Hope you appreciated all the info. Got
Speaker 1: a little bit more for you here. We've been talking
Speaker 1: about the monitoring, the home monitoring revolution, living in the
Speaker 1: connected world that we live in, and what that technology
Speaker 1: means in terms of you being able to keep track
Speaker 1: of stuff when you're not home, which is in a
Speaker 1: lot of control in your hands now, a lot of
Speaker 1: agency in your hands if you want it to be
Speaker 1: able to take care of your home and keep an
Speaker 1: eye on out over it when you're not there. And
Speaker 1: one of those things a couple of last items, heating
Speaker 1: and cooling. I think it's a given everybody knows these
Speaker 1: days about smart thermostats, whether you have one or not.
Speaker 1: The real advantage I think of a smart thermostat is
Speaker 1: if you're on your way home and you've had your
Speaker 1: HVAC system off heating ind or cooling to save energy,
Speaker 1: which great idea. You're on your way home, you know
Speaker 1: you're going to be there in about a half an hour,
Speaker 1: and you can just pull out the phone and dial
Speaker 1: it up and set the thermostats so that it is
Speaker 1: waiting for you, a warm and or a cool house
Speaker 1: waiting for you when you walk in the door. And
Speaker 1: of course these thermostats are also what they call learning thermostats.
Speaker 1: I'm not necessarily convinced that they learn really, really well,
Speaker 1: but maybe that's just me because my schedule changes so
Speaker 1: much from day to day. It's not the same kind
Speaker 1: of nine to five routine for us. So the learning part,
Speaker 1: which can be turned off, has never really served Tina
Speaker 1: and I super well, but I get it. And if
Speaker 1: you have a relatively routined life, then the learning thermostat
Speaker 1: will anticipate when you're going to be home, when you're
Speaker 1: going to be leaving, what temperatures you like at this
Speaker 1: time of day versus that time of day, and so on.
Speaker 1: So the app controlled learning thermostat always always a good idea,
Speaker 1: and you know pretty soon you're not going to see
Speaker 1: the old manual ones around much anymore. And finally, smart
Speaker 1: irrigation control and monitored irrigation control. We're talking about controllers
Speaker 1: now that go way beyond just being able to control
Speaker 1: the timer of your irrigation system, but actually irrigation controllers
Speaker 1: that are connected to Wi Fi and to the internet. Therefore,
Speaker 1: they are reading weather forecasts themselves, and if they know
Speaker 1: that there's rain in the forecast for tomorrow, they just
Speaker 1: automatically shut the year gate system down and say, you know,
Speaker 1: give it a pause, and they'll restart it when the
Speaker 1: weather forecast clears up again. After a certain delay. But
Speaker 1: even beyond that, smart irrigation systems, they want to know
Speaker 1: your soil conditions, the plant type for every zone, so
Speaker 1: that they can actually figure out the right amount of
Speaker 1: moisture to put into those zones for those kinds of
Speaker 1: plants and that kind of soil. It really is kind
Speaker 1: of mind boggling how specific these systems can be and
Speaker 1: how well they work. I have a beehive system b
Speaker 1: dash hive with a y H y ve. We recommend
Speaker 1: this system to most of our clients. I just think
Speaker 1: it's one of the best ones out there right now.
Speaker 1: There are o there's but you check it out, check
Speaker 1: it out and see what kind of and you know.
Speaker 1: One of the things I love is when I'm out
Speaker 1: doing repairs, instead of walking back and forth to valves
Speaker 1: turning them on to see how things are working, I
Speaker 1: literally just have my phone in my hand. I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: turn on zone three and there it goes, and I
Speaker 1: can see whether what I've done is paying off or not,
Speaker 1: or whether I need to redo something. So there you go.
Speaker 1: It is a pretty amazingly connected world when it comes
Speaker 1: to our homes and as AI and our personal assistant
Speaker 1: Electronic assistance you know, the series, the Alexas and so on.
Speaker 1: As they start to continue to get smarter and smarter,
Speaker 1: eventually all of this stuff will just plug in and
Speaker 1: you'll have a conversation with one voice handling all the
Speaker 1: rest of the stuff. That is what I anticipate will
Speaker 1: be coming very very soon. Until then, we're all just
Speaker 1: going to have to muddle through living in a technologically
Speaker 1: advanced world. This morning, when I got up, you know,
Speaker 1: every Sunday morning I get up, I spend a little
Speaker 1: time just in my own head, my own thoughts, and
Speaker 1: quite often I'll write something down that I want to
Speaker 1: share with you. Sometimes I don't. You never know what
Speaker 1: it's going to be. I never know what it's going
Speaker 1: to be, and I don't do it ahead of time
Speaker 1: because I just feel like it's more authentic this way.
Speaker 1: And this morning, you know, I jotted down what sort
Speaker 1: of looks like a poem, but it doesn't rhyme or anything,
Speaker 1: but you know what, here it goes. So I'm going
Speaker 1: to leave you with this thought today. Once upon a time,
Speaker 1: there was a little boy, fresh and young and full
Speaker 1: of life. He sat and watched the big world moving
Speaker 1: so fast all around him, and wondered when he would
Speaker 1: take his place in it, and what he would be.
Speaker 1: He wasn't big or strong, he didn't know very much,
Speaker 1: but that was okay because he was alive and learning,
Speaker 1: and there was so much to see and do, and
Speaker 1: that was going to be enough. He was a good boy,
Speaker 1: but like all good boys, sometimes he made a mess
Speaker 1: of things. He laughed a few times, he cried a
Speaker 1: few times, and in the blink of an eye, the
Speaker 1: boy was gone, and in his place stood a young man,
Speaker 1: young and strong and full of life. He was moving
Speaker 1: so fast it felt like the world was holding him back.
Speaker 1: He was ready to take his place in it, ready
Speaker 1: to be somebody. He felt big, he felt strong, He
Speaker 1: felt like he knew so much. He was alive and
Speaker 1: hungry to see and do and be, and nothing was enough.
Speaker 1: And he was a nice young man, but like all
Speaker 1: young men, sometimes he made a mess of things. He
Speaker 1: laughed a few times, he cried a few times, and
Speaker 1: in a blink the young man was gone, and in
Speaker 1: his place sat an old man, not so fresh, not
Speaker 1: so strong, but still full of life. He sat and
Speaker 1: watched the world moving so fast all around him. In
Speaker 1: one if he still had a place in it, and
Speaker 1: what would he be. He knew for certain he wasn't
Speaker 1: big enough or strong enough, and would never know enough.
Speaker 1: But that was okay, because he was still alive and
Speaker 1: still learning, and there was still so much to see
Speaker 1: and do, and finally that was enough. He was a
Speaker 1: kind man, and like all older men, he tried really
Speaker 1: to not make such a mess of things. He laughed
Speaker 1: a few times, he cried a few times, and finally
Speaker 1: he found his place in the world. In that place,
Speaker 1: he got busy building himself a beautiful life. But there
Speaker 1: you go. I was my thought on a Sunday morning,
Speaker 1: probably somewhat semi biographical, I can prep. Nevertheless, it's thought
Speaker 1: I would share it with Hoki as it may be.
Speaker 1: I hope you've got a great day planned ahead of you.
Speaker 1: I hope you get out in this beautiful weather. I
Speaker 1: hope you're rooting for the Dodgers at five o'clock tonight,
Speaker 1: and most of all, I hope you get busy this
Speaker 1: week building yourself a beautiful life. And we'll see you
Speaker 1: right back here next week. 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: iHeartRadio app