Speaker 1: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty, AFI AM forty Live, Dreaming in
Speaker 1: h D everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. Dean Sharp The
Speaker 1: House Whisperer Live every Saturday and Sunday morning Saturdays from
Speaker 1: six to eight Pacific time, Sundays nine to noon Pacific time. Hey,
Speaker 1: follow us on social media. We only do the good kind, uplifting, informative,
Speaker 1: inspiring social media. It just follow us on social media.
Speaker 1: We're on all the usual suspects Instagram, TikTok, Facebook x,
Speaker 1: Home with Dean, same handle for them all. And of
Speaker 1: course this very program is the house Whisper Podcast that
Speaker 1: you can listen to anytime, anywhere on demand, hundreds of episodes,
Speaker 1: all searchable by topic. It is your home improvement reference library.
Speaker 1: And lastly, if your home is in need of a
Speaker 1: little more personal house Whisper attention, yeah, you can book
Speaker 1: an in home design consult with me and the tea
Speaker 1: at house Whisperer dot Design. Just go to house Whisper
Speaker 1: dot Design. Yeah, we'll come on over to your place,
Speaker 1: stand around, look at that problem thing, help you get unstuck.
Speaker 1: We helped a very very lovely couple get unstuck yesterday
Speaker 1: and they were very grateful in a good time was
Speaker 1: had by all. It's always fun. All right, y'all, let's
Speaker 1: get back to the phones. We're talking. By the way,
Speaker 1: if you just joined us about tracked homes this weekend,
Speaker 1: specifically tracked home weaknesses and as a result of understanding
Speaker 1: what those intrinsic weaknesses are, I've got a whole list
Speaker 1: for you, specifically on tomorrow's show for things that you
Speaker 1: can do, include in your rema to get a huge
Speaker 1: disproportionate win from a relatively small time and money investment
Speaker 1: to when it comes to plugging those holes and fixing
Speaker 1: those weaknesses. But today we're laying the groundwork of what
Speaker 1: those weaknesses are. We'll get back to that discussion, but
Speaker 1: right now I am taking calls and I want to
Speaker 1: talk to Shirley A Sureley. Welcome home.
Speaker 2: Hi, sir, I'm going to have to keep it short.
Speaker 2: In a buffet line, but I promise you I know
Speaker 2: what I'm going to say.
Speaker 3: You're in a buffet line.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so nass, but I'm sorry about that. Anyways, I
Speaker 2: have a short front top of my home. It's ten
Speaker 2: steps three yards each, so it's thirty feet completely at
Speaker 2: the front. It's small home. Is there a way I
Speaker 2: could do a wrap around porch?
Speaker 3: Could you do a wrap around port?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Versus a veranda, super small property. So I'm just saying,
Speaker 2: I just like that coziness that I don't know if
Speaker 2: I should do like a veranda type porch or a
Speaker 2: wrap around because that was one of a Walton's type
Speaker 2: porch and that's just may not be all.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, Okay, so one or two story house.
Speaker 2: One it's it's so small. You come in when you're
Speaker 2: almost twenty seat, twenty steps out to the backyard.
Speaker 3: Okay, I hear you, I hear you.
Speaker 1: Now the most important question of the well, there are
Speaker 1: two important questions. One, you know, we'd have to take
Speaker 1: a look at the style of the house to see
Speaker 1: if a wrap around porch will work for it. Assuming
Speaker 1: that it does. The only other limitation would be whether
Speaker 1: your small house is sitting right on its setback lines.
Speaker 1: In other words, for the city. Okay, because a just
Speaker 1: building out a porch, just a porch, not a problem.
Speaker 1: A porch is considered sort of a flat hardscape addition
Speaker 1: to the property, and you know that that's something that
Speaker 1: could for most municipalities, stick into the setback zone of
Speaker 1: your property, but putting the roof on it all right now,
Speaker 1: we are technically ending the envelope of the house. So
Speaker 1: let's say you've got a twenty foot setback for your house.
Speaker 1: If your house proper right now is sitting right on
Speaker 1: that setback line, then I mean you conchect with your city.
Speaker 1: But the chances of putting a wrap around porch with
Speaker 1: with an extended roof covering over it, They're going to say, Nope,
Speaker 1: you're in your setback. You can't you can't do that.
Speaker 1: But if you are well back of your setback, both
Speaker 1: front and on your sides, then wrapping a porch around
Speaker 1: with its you know, a tending covered roof, there's no
Speaker 1: If it's not a zoning land usage issue from the city,
Speaker 1: and you can just find out by giving them a call,
Speaker 1: then then it just comes down to whether the house
Speaker 1: can handle the style. And I agree with you, I
Speaker 1: think they're beautiful, and your little thirty foot house, by
Speaker 1: the way, will grow in size visually as a result,
Speaker 1: because if it's truly a rap around and not just
Speaker 1: a front facing porch, but if it wraps, if it
Speaker 1: turns the corner and wraps around. Then the depth of
Speaker 1: that porch, let's say, you know, eight feet or so,
Speaker 1: is going to add another sixteen plus feet to the
Speaker 1: overall you know, front presence of your home. So it
Speaker 1: could be a big win for you. But the key
Speaker 1: is to find out where your setbacks are and whether
Speaker 1: you can build into that space. Again, if it's just
Speaker 1: a porch, then it would be considered more of a deck,
Speaker 1: and in almost all cases that can be pushed out
Speaker 1: into the setback. But you put the roof over it,
Speaker 1: and the city is like, now you're extending the envelope
Speaker 1: of your house and we want you to keep it
Speaker 1: inside the setback.
Speaker 2: Awesome, thank you sir, giving me enough to think about,
Speaker 2: and I want to wish you a wonderful day. Thanks
Speaker 2: for your time.
Speaker 1: You're well, tell me what you're looking at on that buffet?
Speaker 1: What's the what's what's going to be in primary?
Speaker 2: Okay? Uh, the extra heavy cream with coffee and then
Speaker 2: scrambled riggs with a whole mushrooms that are not from
Speaker 2: the can. You could tell they were grilled, and then
Speaker 2: stick belf pepper barely grilled. That impressed me. So I'm
Speaker 2: gonna wait till I'm done with even moments like that.
Speaker 1: Next Sorry, surely enjoy your breakfast. Thanks for the call.
Speaker 1: Oh now I'm hungry. Now I'm hungry me too.
Speaker 3: That sounds really good. Geez, Heather, why are we standing
Speaker 3: in a buffet line? We need a home buffet like
Speaker 3: we need an outing to a buffet.
Speaker 1: I agree, all right, more of your calls when we
Speaker 1: uh well.
Speaker 3: Right after Heather gives us the.
Speaker 1: News, can't bye, hes darp the house with We're at
Speaker 1: your service. Thanks for joining us on the program. Today,
Speaker 1: we're gonna get back to our conversation on the intrinsic
Speaker 1: weaknesses design wise of a tract home, and that lays
Speaker 1: the foundation for us taking it further, especially in tomorrow
Speaker 1: show or for your podcast listener to the next episode
Speaker 1: of what are some of these magical elements that we
Speaker 1: can add to a tract home remodel to get a
Speaker 1: disproportionately big win for a relatively small amount of effort
Speaker 1: and or money. Big list. Most of that comes tomorrow. Today,
Speaker 1: we're just laying the foundation of understanding tracked homes better,
Speaker 1: especially their weaknesses. But right now I just want to
Speaker 1: finish up calls I've got time for maybe one more
Speaker 1: call today, and who's it gonna be. I think we're
Speaker 1: gonna talk Tordaura, Hey, Laura, welcome home.
Speaker 4: Hidine. I currently have rubber molt around my house when
Speaker 4: it doesn't fade like wooden molt and that kind of stuff,
Speaker 4: so it always holds its dark color. But I'm looking
Speaker 4: at replacing it because I'm assuming that rubber mult next
Speaker 4: to your house is probably not a great idea when
Speaker 4: you're in a buyer zone. So I know you spoke
Speaker 4: about pea gravel the other day. We have had two
Speaker 4: landscape architects look at our area and recommended decomposed Granted,
Speaker 4: what's the differences between the pea gravel and deepset Granted
Speaker 4: it doesn't come in different colors? And then where is
Speaker 4: a good place for a good source for California native
Speaker 4: throughout tolerant plants. We're looking at replacing all the plants
Speaker 4: in our flower beds where all this is going. I
Speaker 4: can go to our local gardens stores and that kind
Speaker 4: of stuff. But is really California native best being in
Speaker 4: southern California? Or can any drought toler plants be used?
Speaker 1: Okay, really really good questions Okay, So as far as uh,
Speaker 1: pea gravel versus decomposed granite, it's really a stylistic choice. Ultimately,
Speaker 1: decomposed granite looks like kind of you know, beige clay dirt.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, it looks like sort of a you know,
Speaker 1: sort of a desert Southwest kind of vibe and and
Speaker 1: or you know, Mediterranean so on uh and uh and
Speaker 1: pea gravel is gravel. Now decomposed granite it's a it's
Speaker 1: a little bit more uh. You know, some people find
Speaker 1: it more stable to walk on because it's just like
Speaker 1: walking on a dirt path. It's not dirt, though, it's
Speaker 1: tiny particulates of granite that have been compacted in Uh.
Speaker 1: I personally, I lean towards gravel because I it's easier
Speaker 1: to maintain, it is far less inexpensive to install, and
Speaker 1: it drains beautifully. And you can get it in any color,
Speaker 1: just about any color. So when most people think of
Speaker 1: peak gravel, they're like, well, I don't want the whole
Speaker 1: gray blue kind of tint or you know, but that's
Speaker 1: just standard peak gravel. There's you know, think about aquarium rocks.
Speaker 1: You know, you can get it in the same browns
Speaker 1: and beige's that decomposed granite essentially takes on you can
Speaker 1: nudge it in several different directions. So I'm only a
Speaker 1: fan of gravel because I'm a fan of gravel. Have
Speaker 1: I specified and designed decomposed granite for some clients and
Speaker 1: some designs, absolutely, So it's really about choosing the right one.
Speaker 1: But just understand decomposed granite it takes more time to install.
Speaker 1: It has to be installed well, I mean in order
Speaker 1: for it to work and not wash away or become unstable.
Speaker 1: It has to be installed by a pro or a
Speaker 1: homeowner who is meticulously following the steps. It's got to
Speaker 1: be compacted down at every turn. And that's why for
Speaker 1: a lot of instances, the labor there for me versus
Speaker 1: the resulting product. It's just far easier and a lot
Speaker 1: less expensive to use gravel because pretty much, once you've
Speaker 1: got your you know, your base soil leveled and firmed
Speaker 1: up in the direction of drainage whatever is necessary, you
Speaker 1: just pour the gravel out, break it out, pour it
Speaker 1: out a couple inches thick and there you go, and
Speaker 1: you're done. So that's that as far as native plants
Speaker 1: versus drought tolerant plants, I am always a fan of
Speaker 1: using as many native California plants as possible, or wherever
Speaker 1: you find yourself, using native plants for your region. And
Speaker 1: that the reason is not just the for California, the
Speaker 1: drought tolerance and the minimal watering that comes along with that,
Speaker 1: but also just habitat bird life, animal life in your yard.
Speaker 1: It all begins with insect life, okay, birds making a
Speaker 1: yard a backyard beautiful all begins with whether or not
Speaker 1: there is nectar and whether there are plants there that
Speaker 1: insects can utilize. And people are like, eh, I don't
Speaker 1: line in. It's like, well, if you want a sterile yard,
Speaker 1: then just plant completely non native plants. And here's the
Speaker 1: reason why. From an evolutionary perspective, insects, the you know,
Speaker 1: the food that birds eat coevolved with plants in this region,
Speaker 1: in every region. And so the problem is that non
Speaker 1: native plants the vast majority, well oh for ninety eight
Speaker 1: percent of native California insects have no use for a
Speaker 1: non native plant, which means they won't be there. And
Speaker 1: if they're not there, then the birds aren't there. And
Speaker 1: if the birds aren't there, then you don't have this
Speaker 1: beautiful outdoor landscape with the life thriving all over it. So,
Speaker 1: in terms of pure watering, any old drought tolerant plant
Speaker 1: will do. In terms of building habitat, you want to
Speaker 1: go native. Now, it doesn't have to be one hundred
Speaker 1: percent pure. No, my yard is a full on habitat.
Speaker 1: And I've got some drought tolerant non native plants in
Speaker 1: my yard, a few, Okay, I just don't build the
Speaker 1: entire yard out of them. The vast majority are plants
Speaker 1: that work here in Southern California. And this rule applies
Speaker 1: to everybody no matter where you're listening to the show
Speaker 1: from buy and plant native to your region. And finally,
Speaker 1: for your last question, here in Southern California, Yeah, undoubtedly
Speaker 1: the best single resource. Now you can buy these kinds
Speaker 1: of things just about anywhere, but the best resource for
Speaker 1: your education is the Theodore Pain Foundation. Theodore Pain Foundation,
Speaker 1: they have a twenty two acre nursery on the north
Speaker 1: edge of the San Fernando Valley over in Sunland. I
Speaker 1: think it's Sunland or Tahunga and Theodore Pain Foundation. They
Speaker 1: are a one stop showplace for all native California plants.
Speaker 1: You go there, you'll see displays you can actually buy
Speaker 1: from the nursery, but you can go there for an
Speaker 1: education bare minimum and see everything that California has to
Speaker 1: offer in terms of its own native plant offerings, and
Speaker 1: let me tell you, it is vast. It is a
Speaker 1: lot more than most people think. Laura, great question, Thank
Speaker 1: you for your call, and good luck on that landscape.
Speaker 1: I like all the moves that you're making. I think
Speaker 1: I think you're headed in the right direction. All right, y'all,
Speaker 1: let's get back to our conversation on the intrinsic weaknesses
Speaker 1: of tract housing and what we're going to do about it.
Speaker 3: Will all do that?
Speaker 1: All?
Speaker 3: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 3: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: Forty your Home with Dean Sharp, the house Whisper. Thanks
Speaker 1: for joining us on the program today. We are laying
Speaker 1: the ground work for our next episode, tomorrow's show, and
Speaker 1: it's all critically important information. But we're talking about big
Speaker 1: wins for your tracked home remodel. And what are the
Speaker 1: biggest wins, the ones that address the intrinsic weaknesses of
Speaker 1: a tract home, which most of us live in tracked homes. Now,
Speaker 1: I've already discussed a couple of the biggies in terms
Speaker 1: of what it is about a tract home that is
Speaker 1: an intrinsic weakness. Told you that it has its strength
Speaker 1: obviously the cost because most of us are living in
Speaker 1: homes that weren't custom built, and as a result, we
Speaker 1: get to live in a home. But now that you're
Speaker 1: in it, you are ready to remodel it. It's time
Speaker 1: to turn it into that custom home that you always wanted.
Speaker 1: So we got to address the shortcomings. Orientation on the
Speaker 1: lot is a massive, massive weakness of a tract home
Speaker 1: because it wasn't really designed for the lot. It is
Speaker 1: sitting on per se and as a result, it's windows,
Speaker 1: its doors, they don't take full advantage of or fight
Speaker 1: with the property, the view, the lack of view, the privacy,
Speaker 1: so on and so forth. It's not the only weakness.
Speaker 1: Maybe second to that weakness of orientation on the lot
Speaker 1: is is that a tract home lacks Most tracked homes
Speaker 1: lack any particular architectural pedigree. Now some of you are
Speaker 1: reacting to that thinking, well, wait my place. I mean
Speaker 1: it's clearly med it's a Mediterranean house. Okay, Well yeah,
Speaker 1: quite possible. Okay, I'm not saying every tract home falls
Speaker 1: under this category, but most do because of the thing
Speaker 1: I discussed earlier in the show, the desire for a
Speaker 1: for developers to kind of build the illusion that there
Speaker 1: are more homes in a neighborhood than there actually are,
Speaker 1: or more unique homes. You basically, you know, in most developments,
Speaker 1: you end up with about four different floor plans, four houses,
Speaker 1: and then to those four houses, you flip them left
Speaker 1: and right, and now we've got eight house plans because
Speaker 1: you know, four of them are facing the opposite direction
Speaker 1: of the other. And then you take those eight plans
Speaker 1: or the four the original four, and if you've got
Speaker 1: maybe four different facades for the front, then you've got sixteen.
Speaker 1: And then you know, you see how the math works.
Speaker 1: But it's that interchangeable facade on the front of most
Speaker 1: tracked homes. That's what I'm talking about about a lack
Speaker 1: of architectural pedigree. If if you live in a neighborhood
Speaker 1: where there are some of the homes with Spanish tile
Speaker 1: on the roof or s tiles something like that, and
Speaker 1: then you've got others that have sighting instead of stucco
Speaker 1: and flat tiles on the roofs. In other words, you
Speaker 1: may have homes in your tract that kind of look
Speaker 1: a little Colonial or a little Tutor, or a little
Speaker 1: Cape Cottish, or a little Mediterranean or Spanish, and you
Speaker 1: might have a mix of all of them, all of
Speaker 1: those facades going on essentially the same four floor plans.
Speaker 1: That is not an essential plan, that is specifically one
Speaker 1: architectural pedigree, you understand, because by definition, if we can
Speaker 1: interchange the style on the front of the house, then
Speaker 1: the structure of the house itself is not designed to
Speaker 1: be any one particular thing.
Speaker 3: Does that make sense? I hope?
Speaker 2: So?
Speaker 3: All right, So.
Speaker 1: This is more pronounced in latter years than it was
Speaker 1: a generation ago. By the way, in the nineteen fifties
Speaker 1: through the nineteen seventies, when the vast majority of California
Speaker 1: ranch style homes were built out here on the West Coast,
Speaker 1: California ranch homes were content to just be California ranch.
Speaker 1: But since the eighties, tracked homes have become far more
Speaker 1: ambiguous in its pedigree. And you know that is what
Speaker 1: it is. They think there's a silver lining hiding in
Speaker 1: a house with no real architectural pedigree. Do you want
Speaker 1: to hear what it is, Well, hang tight with me,
Speaker 1: we'll talk about it day. Hi, King Sharp the house Whisper,
Speaker 1: Welcome home. Thanks for joining us on the program today.
Speaker 1: I'm glad that you are here. We've got a beautiful
Speaker 1: Saturday ahead of us here. No matter where you are
Speaker 1: across this great land, it's gorgeous here in southern California.
Speaker 1: This is why people pay the big bucks to live here.
Speaker 1: It is a gorgeous spring day here in Southern California.
Speaker 1: I hope that spring is busting out wherever you are
Speaker 1: as well. And so and I'm glad you're here with us.
Speaker 1: We've been talking about the intrinsic weaknesses of tract homes now,
Speaker 1: you know. And I'm not piling on to a tract
Speaker 1: home to you know, poop pooh them, because I'm a
Speaker 1: custom home designer. That's not my goal at all. I
Speaker 1: live in a tract home. Chances are you live in
Speaker 1: a tract home and and there's there's good reasons for it.
Speaker 1: But we've got to understand when we're going to remodel
Speaker 1: our tract home and make it more hours, make it
Speaker 1: more custom, we want to address the things that are
Speaker 1: most intrinsically weak about the home in order to turn
Speaker 1: it into that dream home that we've always wanted to
Speaker 1: live in. So we've talked about things so far today,
Speaker 1: things like the craftsmanship of a tract home. You know,
Speaker 1: when a home is being built by spreadsheet, it's not
Speaker 1: going to be the finest craftsmanship in the world. We've
Speaker 1: talked about the fact that, on the other hand, the
Speaker 1: engineering of a tracked home far better and any home
Speaker 1: being built you know in the last you know generation,
Speaker 1: far better than you know super ultra custom wonderful homes
Speaker 1: built in the nineteen twenties, as far as it's engineering
Speaker 1: is concerned, in other words, its strength and its resilience
Speaker 1: to to handle you know, the elements that it sits in.
Speaker 1: But at the heart of weaknesses of a tract home
Speaker 1: lies this idea that very few tracked homes developments have
Speaker 1: strong architectural pedigrees. Now, somebody was asking during the break,
Speaker 1: so explain this architectural pedigree thing, And the easiest way
Speaker 1: to explain it is that to give you an example,
Speaker 1: let's take a Queen Anne Victorian, which is like a
Speaker 1: gingerbread y kind of Victorian home that you've all seen,
Speaker 1: and you're like, you know what they look like a
Speaker 1: Queen Anne Victorian, an authentic turn of the century Queen
Speaker 1: Anne Victorian home. No one in their right mind takes
Speaker 1: a Victorian home and tries to turn it into a
Speaker 1: Spanish med home because it's the hardest thing in the
Speaker 1: world to do. Why because it's a Queen Anne Victorian.
Speaker 1: You know, it knows exactly actly what it is down
Speaker 1: to its bones. It is a Victorian home. So changing it,
Speaker 1: I mean you might as well. Honestly, if you wanted
Speaker 1: a Spanish home and you bought a Victorian, you might
Speaker 1: as well just level it and start over. And the
Speaker 1: same is true like a craftsman home. There's no taking
Speaker 1: a craftsman home and turning it into a Victorian. So
Speaker 1: you get these are homes with strong architectural stylistic pedigrees,
Speaker 1: and your typical tract home which is really designed to
Speaker 1: be flexible enough to you know, have a colonial facade
Speaker 1: on the front, or have something that looks a little
Speaker 1: tutor on the front of the same floor plan, or
Speaker 1: that has something that looks Spanish met on the front
Speaker 1: of the same floor plan. If a home that can
Speaker 1: take all those kinds of facades doesn't really have its
Speaker 1: own strong particular pedigree. Okay, but wait, I actually think
Speaker 1: that's a silver lining for most of us. Don't see
Speaker 1: your place as a boring beige box. See it as
Speaker 1: a blank canvas longing for what it never really had,
Speaker 1: which is a real identity. So the truth of the
Speaker 1: matter is, if you're working with a home that was
Speaker 1: really designed as a hybrid, if you do the research,
Speaker 1: if you pile in on the design, the advantage to
Speaker 1: working with a home of questionable architectural pedigree is we
Speaker 1: can probably make it just about anything you want it
Speaker 1: to be, because in one sense, there's only two types
Speaker 1: of houses, those with pedigree and those without. And those
Speaker 1: with pedigree know what they're supposed to be and they
Speaker 1: give us a design playbook to follow in terms of
Speaker 1: the remodel. But those without a pedigree, it's a blank
Speaker 1: canvas to paint on as we please. And this means
Speaker 1: that every house has a path forward, every house has
Speaker 1: hope of becoming something truly special. And you know, I
Speaker 1: used to say this all the time. Most renovations don't
Speaker 1: need a bigger budget, They just need a better story.
Speaker 1: And when that story merges with your story, that is
Speaker 1: when you are in a position to take an ordinary
Speaker 1: tract home and make it an extraordinary custom home, built
Speaker 1: as if it was built just for you. That's the secret,
Speaker 1: that's the key. Okay, Now, this was just part one
Speaker 1: of this two part series. Today we took a look
Speaker 1: at the intrinsic nature of a tracked home, took a
Speaker 1: look at its weaknesses. Tomorrow on The Big Show Sunday
Speaker 1: Live from nine to noon, we will be taking a
Speaker 1: look at the whole essence of what are these things
Speaker 1: that we can take advantage of. I'm going to give
Speaker 1: you a preview. Most ranch, single story bedrooms have some
Speaker 1: sort of view into the backyard. That view is typically
Speaker 1: a window. So many ranch bedrooms would benefit from that
Speaker 1: window being turned into a door. And guess what, because
Speaker 1: of how a ranch house is built, turning the window
Speaker 1: into a door not a big deal at all, and
Speaker 1: actually not even making a structural change to the house.
Speaker 1: That's the kind of stuff we're going to be talking
Speaker 1: about tomorrow. Relatively small effort, relatively small budget, big big payoff.
Speaker 1: I've got a whole list of them. Join me here
Speaker 1: again tomorrow from nine to noon. Until then, get out
Speaker 1: into this big, beautiful day and get busy building yourself
Speaker 1: a beautiful life. We'll see you tomorrow. This has been
Speaker 1: Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper. Tune into the
Speaker 1: live broadcast on KFI AM six forty every Saturday morning
Speaker 1: from six to eight Pacific time, and every Sunday morning
Speaker 1: from nine to noon Pacific time, or anytime on demand
Speaker 1: on the iHeartRadio app