October 20, 2024 • 38 mins
Dean takes calls on mold prevention and bathroom remodel tips, including mixing metal hardware colors. He also shares advice on safely upgrading electrical panels and wraps up with more home monitoring tips.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp The
House Whisper on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Hey, welcome
to home where every week we help you better understand
that place where you live. I'm Dean Sharp, the House
Whisper here with you live like I am every weekend
Saturday morning six to eight Pacific time, Sunday mornings nine
(00:22):
to noon Pacific time. Thanks for joining us on the program.
You are welcome to be a part of our third
hour here starting off from eleven to noon. Today, we
are talking about the home monitoring revolution, as it were,
the fact that connectedness, this connected world that we live
in technologically has led to a number of really, really
(00:44):
beneficial ways in which we can keep track of what's
going on in our home via our smartphones, apps and
the kind of hardware and fixtures that communicate with them
about what's going on in our homes. We're going to
return to that conversation in just a bit, but right now,
top of the hour, it's time to go to the phones.
(01:04):
When it comes to your calls, it can be anything
you want to talk about. Let's talk to Diego, Ay diego,
Welcome home.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Who Hi? I have unfinished basement and it has a
bathroom and a kitchenet. We really don't use it. It's
been just a catch all over the years, and the
kids left and now we have there are some of
their stuff still here, but mold has produced. You can
smell it. You can see to some of the clothing
that we now keep it for winter. And so that's
(01:34):
how we came across it. And the neighbor and next
story is a commercial person there. So they finally finished
their landscape and now we're getting more water the summer.
I put in a French drain because I saw that
and I'm known to have some water problems coming up.
That's when we have Nina in two thousand and nine,
I think it was, and we were swimming almost down here,
(01:57):
and so we put that friend straight in. But the
mold it's still there. How do you attack mold and
how do you prevent it from happening again? We have
a cement, just unfinished cement. Did they have carpet here?
One time? Somebody did and they pulled it all off.
You can see all the glue marks everywhere and some
paint they tried to use. The paint. I looked it
(02:19):
up out a year ago, and everybody have bad reviews,
good and bad reviews about different products. One part I
really liked is you can't be around it after you
put it on. I means you can't live there or
be around it because but it works really great. We'll
be to the point of doing that then, because we
like to hide down here because it's cooler when we
get the heat waves. Right, So what do you suggest?
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Okay, Well, it could be a very big subject because
there are different ways of approaching this, whether you're approaching
it on the level of just maintaining a mold free
environment in the basement or on the other end of
the spectrum, going to greater measures of protecting the basement
(03:03):
against moisture intrusion. To begin with, okay, how old is
the house and where is the house?
Speaker 2 (03:08):
By the way, the house it sits in some Marco's
border at Scabido area, and it's a sixty four house,
sixty years old.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Okay, all right, yeah, it's so a full basement in
sixty four. That's that's quite a remarkable kind of situation.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
The front of the house is a level, it's all level,
and then the back of the house is like fifteen
twelve feet deeper. So they decided instead of having just
a basement, they finished it. Well, the neighbor copios too,
they did.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
I got it, all right, all right, that makes sense,
all right, Okay, So here's the thing. If you really
want to deal with the moisture intrusion, generally speaking, then
there is the whole process of digging down around those
basement walls, digging a trench down around the basement walls,
(03:58):
getting French strains deeper down, closer to the base of
the walls, and while you're at it, getting better water
proofing on the exterior of those walls, whether it's a
bitumous membrane, whether it's coated, roll on water proofing and
(04:18):
then protected with protection boards or foam boards so that
rocks and soil don't come in and scratch it or
penetrate it and kind of ruin it. Concrete in and
of itself is not going to stop moisture from coming
in through the ground around it and into the room.
So I'm just saying that I'm not I think I
understand the spirit of your question that you're not asking
(04:40):
for that kind of major redo, But that's kind of
what we're looking at right, if it gets and I'm
mentioning it, because if it gets to the point where
you end up with like potentially standing water in the basement,
then we really have to treat this basement like basements
are treated all across the country. Unlike here in relatively
(05:02):
traditionally dry southern California, all across the country, basements are
treated with heavy waterproofing on the outside before they're backfilled.
They've got drains on the outside connected sometimes quite often
to some pumps that because they're below grade, and they
will drain that water out. Some pumps placed in the
(05:23):
basement floor so that if water begins to build up
on the floor, it has a place to drain to
and to be removed, and so on and so forth.
All right, Putting that aside, though, let's just say we've
got lately, because of the neighbors landscaping redo, because we've
had a couple of El Nino years and some heavy winters,
(05:44):
Let's say we've got unusually high amounts of moisture building up,
and that moisture is not leaking through but just sort
of seeping into the concrete walls, and as a result
of being down in this dark moist place down in
the ground. Mold, Okay, mold and mildeed. That can still
(06:08):
be dealt with as long as we don't have water
pouring through. We can deal with it in a couple
of ways. Number One, the first thing is we got
to kill the mold that's there, all right. That can
be as simple as a mixture of water and bleach
washing down the walls and the floor to kill what's there. Secondly,
we want to keep that room dry. Okay, a dehumidifier.
(06:31):
Now dehumidifier could take the form of a split system
heat pump, air conditioner slash heater. But why put an
air conditioner in a room that's already cool, that you
guys already escape to because it's a cool place. But dehumidification,
this is critical. Mold is not going to no matter
how much moisture is in the wall, Mold is not
(06:54):
going to form on the surface of the wall and
on the surfaces of stuff down there and on the
close if the air is dry. One of the you
know there, there are rules to mold and mildew. They're
not just magical creatures that show up whenever they want to.
It's got to be dark it's got to be moist
and the air around it has to be moist as
(07:16):
well in order for it to thrive. So dry air
down inside the basement area is going to be your
biggest ongoing weapon to combat mold. So think about a dehumidifier.
They can be portable, they can be built in, you
can have it blown out one of the you know,
windows or what have you. But a dehumidification system down there,
(07:38):
the drier the air is in the basement, the less
issues you're ever going to have with mold on your stuff,
on the floors, on the walls, and especially in the clothing.
That's going to be the key. Lastly, there are some
things not paint. Paint is a terrible approach, as you've
seen to ceiling concrete, because moisture that builds up on
(08:01):
the backside of the paint will simply bubble it and
push it off and make it flake and crack and
just it's a mess. But there are some pretty decent
seilers out there that you can absorbing sealers that you
could go ahead and just coat the concrete wall your
side with the interior. Is it going to stop moisture
(08:21):
from completely coming through?
Speaker 3 (08:23):
No?
Speaker 1 (08:23):
But if you coat the concrete floor and the walls
with these penetrating sealers, then it's definitely going to slow
it down. You combine that with dehumidifying the airspace and
getting some good airflow down there, and you know what,
I'm guessing, if you don't have a standing water problem,
you're probably going to be in good shape.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
My friend, sounds good. Well, Thank you so much, Jean.
I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
All right, diego look into that dehumidification system. That's going
to be the key to keeping mold under control. All right,
when we come back, how about another call or so, yeah,
we'll do it.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
The house Whisper at your service. Thanks for joining us
on the program. We're talking about the connected monitored home today.
I'm going to get back to that conversation in just
a bit, but right now, going to take another call.
Still got some calls on the board, trying to get
through as many as I can. Let's talk to Linda. Hey, Linda,
(09:23):
welcome home.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Hi Dean, thank you for taking my call. I'm remodeling first,
my first remodel of primary bath and the construction has
already started, and I love the contractor, and so anyway,
the design part is what I'm I picked everything and
(09:48):
now I'm up to the paint color. And it's now
that I've listened to you for so long, it has
to be Benchin more now. And I don't know where
you were the whole rest of my life, but anyway,
so it was, but not not not where I could
(10:10):
hear you. So so anyway I want I remember hearing
a previous show, maybe a couple of years ago. I
don't know, I don't know how to find it on
your in the library, but you talked about a paint,
a paint that you use pretty often, and I wanted
(10:33):
to be neutral white without yellow in it. And I
remember you talked about gloss, not too gloss. Right now
it's a high gloss cottage white color and so uh,
and it's all neutrals from chocolate vanity. It's a seventy
(10:55):
two inch vanity. There's a chocolate solid oak vanity with
a weeded front. And I'll get to the metal part
in a minute, because it's the two part questions. So
I just wanted to ask you about what paint color
would you recommend that's not a stark white, a warm
(11:15):
white without yellow, and that will hold up to what
you need in a bathroom.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Okay, so first of all, two questions there, because one
is the color and one is the type of paint.
The ultimate paint my favorite paint for bathrooms, hands down,
no question about it. Aura A U R A. That's
Benjamin Moore Aura Bath and Spa. There's a regular Aura
for the rest of the house. Aura Bath and Spa
(11:42):
is water resistant, mildew resistant, moisture resistant paint. And the
amazing thing about it is it comes in a flat
matte finish, so no more high reflective gloss in the bathroom.
It can be sexy and silky and matt finished on
the walls and the ceiling and not lose its clean
ability and not lose its water resistance. Aura Bath and Spa.
(12:09):
That's the paint you want to use and can come
in literally any color you want. And if you're talking
about and there are a lot of options here, but
if we're talking about a bright white that is just
you know, soft, but not yellow, ye not creamy cream colored,
you know that has that distinct creaminess to it. Just
(12:31):
a warm white's what we call a warm white. Then
you're probably looking at either decorators white or Swiss coffee,
which I know gets tossed around a lot these days
as like, oh, that's what they painted my apartment in. Well,
I don't really care about the what color they painted
your apartment. I care about the quality of the paint.
(12:51):
And the fact of the matter is this is that,
you know, because white, if you go too bright, you
can start to go into the blues and that's going
to really kind of mess with your chocolate, choice of
cabinetry and all of that. So that's what we're talking about.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
And the porcelain tiles, which is the other big opposite
wall of the vanity with the tubs around and the shower,
is a creamy white porcelain with light tope, very light
tope banning. It's not busy baning, just a very minimal baining.
(13:29):
So it could be more than.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
A warm white. It could be a Queenie white.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
I guess I don't know which way to go I
need to look at. So what would be the Queenie white?
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Well, yeah, yeah, I can't tell you the names off
the top of my head because there's thousands of them.
But I will tell you this. You take those tiles
and you head to the Benjamin Moore store and keep
your tiles with you and any other color reference items
in the bathroom, bring those with you while you are
(14:01):
selecting a spectrum of samples three, you know, two, three,
four samples, and be a little bold with your samples.
Go a little darker, and go a little creamier, go
a little wider. Then order the sample size paints where
they're just these tiny they're not even pints anymore. There's
just these tiny, little sample size and then get in
the room and get them on the wall, get a
(14:23):
good size swatch of them on the wall, and evaluate
them at that point. That's the key.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Perfect, Thank you so much. This is the other thing,
and I remember you having this conversation, so thank you.
And the other thing is that they're twenty four y
forty eight porcelain tiles, so they're really big, and I
(14:52):
don't want to see grout and white kind of shows
up ease can see white. So is there another background
grout color that won't show dirt hopefully, but also just
will blend in so it doesn't, you know, just notice grout.
(15:14):
I don't want the groud to be a design feature.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Gotcha. So you want a non sanded grout, okay, Because
nonsanded that allows you to set those tiles as absolutely
close together as possible. We don't want to make the
mistake of not using a grout because the tiles will
shift and we don't want them rubbing against each other
and chipping. The grout actually is a buffer for that
(15:39):
to actually protect the tile. But talk to your contractor
about using any POxy based grout Number one. Any POxy
based grout means you can use any kind of light
color you want. Any POxy grouts when they dry, they
or I should say they when they cure, they are
non porous. They don't absorb stains, They don't absorb the
(16:01):
dirt or scum or anything like that. It takes a
qualified installer who knows what they're doing to put the
epoxy groud in because you don't want to have any
leftover film on top of the tile surface. But an
epoxy based growd is going to give you absolute smallest
and strongest and least stained sensitive grout in between those tiles.
(16:27):
And then as far as the color goes, it's just
like the paint. You want to get a couple of
samples of colors. Now you're not going to have a
billion options when it comes to any grout color. You
only have the spectrum of color that the grout company offers.
But there's a lot, and there's a lot in the
white and cream area. So you want to decide which
(16:48):
one you like better, whether you go slightly darker than
the tile, or whether you try and get one that
matches as close to the main surface of the tile
so that it just goes away. The good news in
your case, even if you went a little bit slightly
darker and you could see the grout line a little
bit more noticeably. Uh, you know, twenty four by forty
eight porcelain tie, there's a large format tiles. You've got
(17:12):
minimal grout there anyway, But of course, of course try
for the matching color or something that blends in as
well as possible, if that makes sense.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Great. And also my contractors have tile specialist, flooring specialists
all of that.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
So but this is what this is.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
These are the two main things that I really needed
to know. And do you have another second for a
quick question?
Speaker 2 (17:42):
That's super quick?
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Got super quick?
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Mixing metals there's brush gold tiny knobs on the vanity
and around on a giant light, a big light fixture
over the vanity. But I did, I got all stained
less faucets and you know, graceful faucets and handles and
for the thinks, tub and shower. Have you ever mixed metals?
(18:12):
Is this thatrong? Okay, it can be.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Okay, it can I mean mixing metals. And usually what
we want when we mix metals is a contrast and uh,
and it's it's I can't, I can't give you a
a solid answer sight unseen. Uh. Typically when we mix metals,
will use a central fixture that has both of them
(18:37):
in it, so that that gives us the freedom to
throw a little bit of brush gold on the light fixture,
throw a little brush gold on the knobs, because there's
a little bit of brush gold along with the stainless
in the faucet set. But that doesn't mean necessarily that
you can't just do a full on stainless faucet set
and have the brush gold in other locations. Really has
(19:00):
to do visually with how each one ties in and works.
But changing metals and having more than one inside a space,
a room, a kitchen area, a bathroom. It is not
in any way, shape or form a sin or a mistake. Again,
it's just one of those things where you have to
stand back, you know, take a look at the samples
(19:24):
that you've got evaluated and make sure that it works.
And you know, in your case, the worst case scenario
is maybe the cabinet knobs get changed out to a
stainless versus the brush gold. But you know, I'm thinking
it's probably gonna work. So there you go. All right, Linda,
you got three three major questions answered, my friend, Thanks
(19:45):
for being such a fan of the show, by the way,
really really appreciating good luck on what sounds like is
a really great bathroom remodel. And you have learned the
lesson design matters most. All right, everybody, when we come back,
we're gonna to get back into the monitored home. I've
got so much more to talk to you about. We
(20:05):
will do it.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Forty Welcome home your Home with Dean Sharp. The house whisper,
that's me and we're talking about your home. That's what
we do every weekend, talk about your home. This weekend.
I'm specifically talking about your monitored home, meaning the kind
of world that we live in now, connected technology giving
us the ability to monitor our homes when we are
(20:34):
both there and away in ways we never dreamed of
possible just a few years ago. So I know I
cover this stuff throughout the year when we hit various
other subjects because these each of these areas are kind of,
you know, subtopics of larger areas, but today it's all
(20:55):
just an overview of monitoring your home. Very quickly, I
want to mention one last thing in regards to safety
that not a lot of people are aware of, and
you should be. If you are thinking about upgrading your
electrical system, if a new panel is part of you know,
maybe you're adding an ADU, maybe you're just doing an
(21:15):
expansion or remodel, and you're like, you know what, we
need more power. We're going to are electrician is going
to put in a new panel. One of the things
that you should at least be aware of and check
out and talk to your electrician about is a smart
panel or at least smart breakers in your existing panel. Now,
(21:36):
smart breakers breakers are have to be the brand or
compatible with the brand of panel that you have. Okay,
so the smart breakers coming out, for instance, Leveton smart breakers,
they aren't going to work in a square D panel
as an example, And you're like, what is a square
D panel? Doesn't matter, just know that it has to
(21:58):
be brand specific or at least intentionally brand compatible. But
the nice thing about a smart breaker is you don't
need a whole panel upgrade. You can just start changing
out the breakers from the old dumb breakers, the stupid
breakers that you've got right now, which are just mechanically
operated breakers. You know, you get a short and they
pop and then you go and you reset them, or
(22:19):
an overload and they pop and you reset them. A
smart breaker can give you feedback on that circuit into
an app to let you know energy usage. But also
a smart breaker will alert you when it goes off.
And some smart breakers can actually be remotely reset. So yeah,
that's smart. That really is smart. And now there are panels,
(22:43):
entire panels built with nothing but smart breakers, leaner, cleaner,
way better, and the panel itself will help monitor energy
flow and energy usage through your home and they can
be set instead of you know, used to buy a
regular breaker'll do, but you can buy a regular breaker
standard like fifteen AM breaker, or you can buy a
(23:05):
GFCI breaker which is a ground fault interrupt breaker for
bathrooms and kitchen areas, areas where there's water sensitivity. Or
you can get an arc fault breaker, which is required
by code in some rooms now throughout the home that
monitor little arc faults like a worn cord or anything
like that. Those are all specific, individualized breakers, but on
(23:28):
some of these new smart panels, they simply come with
universal smart breakers and you can set each one to
be what you needed to be, GFI, arc fault or standard,
whatever the case may be. So this is the future,
by the way. I mean twenty years from now, we're
not going to be having this conversation because everybody's going
to have a smart panel anyway, and we'll be moving
(23:49):
on to other things. But I'm just letting you know,
if you're in the market for upgrading right now, this
is yet again another monitored system that you can have
control of in your pocket. All right, Before we are
done today, I absolutely want to talk about this, and
that is well being monitoring. Talking about somebody in your family,
(24:14):
maybe an aging parent or an aging relative, or somebody
who needs some assistance in regards to their health and
their well being. And of course, you know, the conversations
are endless these days about the Sandwich generation, those of
us who are both taking care of kids and aging
parents at the same time. All of that kind of stuff.
(24:36):
The cost of if you don't have, you know, if
they don't have stellar insurance, The cost of getting somebody
who may be suffering from dementsia or Alzheimer's or something
like that into a nursing care facility can be massive.
The cost of in home nursing care can be massive.
(25:00):
So there are some technologies now that are considerably less
massive that may, in many many circumstances enable a loved
one to stay in their home longer and still receive
the kind of attention necessary. Now, it's going to make
people shirk back when I say this, but the kind
of care and attention that these systems do is a monitored,
(25:25):
algorithm based attention. It's kind of an AI sort of
attention that does not mean that big brother is watching you.
Most of these systems employ what's called passive behavior discovery.
What that means is I just give you an example.
I'll give you an example from envoy at home. Okay,
(25:46):
you can go check this out at envoy at home
dot com. They're a great system. They're not the only
one out there, but they're a great one to talk
about because they kind of, you know, are a great
example system. Envoy at home. You would pay a subscription
for monitoring an activity, a monthly subscription, and then the
(26:08):
house gets installed with motion detectors and sensors in various
parts almost every room of the house, hallways and so
on and so forth, among other things. Now, does that
mean somebody is looking at you. No, it's not cameras, okay,
they're motion detectors and sensors. So, as a result, the system,
(26:30):
once it's installed, it starts learning. Let's say Mom's routine
or a daily routine. Mom normally gets up at eight thirty.
Between eight thirty and eight forty five every morning. Mom
usually spends about a half an hour in the bathroom
before she heads out to the kitchen and da da
da da. These are just recorded. It's like a learning system, okay,
(26:50):
and it just learns it passively. Nobody's watching her, okay,
it's just being recorded in the sense of sensors activated
motion detector learning Mom's motion throughout the house. Then the
day comes when Mom is not out of bed at
eight forty five, maybe it's nine point fifteen, maybe it's
(27:11):
nine thirty. And because this falls outside of the normal routine,
you get an alert. It's that simple. You get an
alert saying, hey, it doesn't appear that mom has gotten
out of bed on her normal schedule this morning, and
what does that mean? You can do with that what
you want. Maybe you're like, well, I know why that happened,
because she was up late partying last night. Or maybe
(27:34):
you just give a call, Hey, Mom, just call and
checking in, how you doing, what's going on? So on
and so forth. It's that kind of system that can
be placed in a house these days. Okay, And there
are all sorts of levels to it, and I won't
go into that because we don't have time, but just no.
And you may be sitting there thinking maybe rightly so, oh,
my parents would never go for that because they don't
(27:55):
want to be watched. Well, they're not really being watched.
They're simply having a second level of redundancy about you
know what it is, their daily stuff, trip detection, fall detection,
it's all a part of this kind of stuff. And
they can be really, really useful in the right situation.
(28:16):
One last thing as a part of that if you
are unaware of this, and that is especially with dimension
Alzheimer's individuals, is remote medication dispensing. There are now, you know,
countertop appliances like the size of a coffee maker, where
you can load up a month's worth of meds, very
(28:40):
very complex medical dosing throughout the day. Maybe there's maybe
you're maybe it's once or twice a day that mom
or dad need to remember to take their pills, or
maybe they're in a situation where they need to get
their meds, you know, three or four or six times
during the day. These can be programmed and these divice
is these appliances that are just plug and play sitting
(29:02):
on the countertop. They can be set up so that
at the right time they give a notice, they chime
a little chime, or they have a little voice to
remind mom or dad, oh, it's time to take your stuff.
It's nine o'clock in the morning, and then they dispense
just the right meds and they will not no matter
how much somebody pushes the button a half an hour later,
(29:25):
redispense those meds again, and we know that that's when
it comes to memory loss. That can be a problem
of somebody kind of overdosing on their meds because they
forgot that they just took them. So these are kind
of devices are available. Hero herohealth dot com is one
of those places you can go and see one of
(29:45):
these units. You can control it, you can get an
alert and you can kind of take control and not
worry about that because again, remote medication, dispensing, remote monitoring,
and all of the good things that go with it. Okay,
a couple of lighter issues when we come back. Let's
(30:06):
talk about home irrigation and some heating and cooling, and
then we will be wrapped for the day, of course,
not without some final thoughts for you. We will do
it all right after.
Speaker 4 (30:16):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Dean Sharp, the house Whisper, Welcome home, Hey, thanks for
joining us on the program today. Here we are at
the end of another three hours. They just fly by,
they really do. Hope you appreciated all the info. Got
a little bit more for you here. We've been talking
about the monitoring, the home monitoring revolution, living in the
connected world that we live in, and what that technology
(30:42):
means in terms of you being able to keep track
of stuff when you're not home, which is in a
lot of control in your hands now, a lot of
agency in your hands if you want it to be
able to take care of your home and keep an
eye on out over it when you're not there. And
(31:04):
one of those things a couple of last items, heating
and cooling. I think it's a given everybody knows these
days about smart thermostats, whether you have one or not.
The real advantage I think of a smart thermostat is
if you're on your way home and you've had your
HVAC system off heating ind or cooling to save energy,
(31:25):
which great idea. You're on your way home, you know
you're going to be there in about a half an hour,
and you can just pull out the phone and dial
it up and set the thermostats so that it is
waiting for you, a warm and or a cool house
waiting for you when you walk in the door. And
of course these thermostats are also what they call learning thermostats.
(31:45):
I'm not necessarily convinced that they learn really, really well,
but maybe that's just me because my schedule changes so
much from day to day. It's not the same kind
of nine to five routine for us. So the learning part,
which can be turned off, has never really served Tina
and I super well, but I get it. And if
(32:06):
you have a relatively routined life, then the learning thermostat
will anticipate when you're going to be home, when you're
going to be leaving, what temperatures you like at this
time of day versus that time of day, and so on.
So the app controlled learning thermostat always always a good idea,
and you know pretty soon you're not going to see
(32:26):
the old manual ones around much anymore. And finally, smart
irrigation control and monitored irrigation control. We're talking about controllers
now that go way beyond just being able to control
the timer of your irrigation system, but actually irrigation controllers
(32:47):
that are connected to Wi Fi and to the internet. Therefore,
they are reading weather forecasts themselves, and if they know
that there's rain in the forecast for tomorrow, they just
automatically shut the year gate system down and say, you know,
give it a pause, and they'll restart it when the
weather forecast clears up again. After a certain delay. But
(33:08):
even beyond that, smart irrigation systems, they want to know
your soil conditions, the plant type for every zone, so
that they can actually figure out the right amount of
moisture to put into those zones for those kinds of
plants and that kind of soil. It really is kind
(33:28):
of mind boggling how specific these systems can be and
how well they work. I have a beehive system b
dash hive with a y H y ve. We recommend
this system to most of our clients. I just think
it's one of the best ones out there right now.
There are o there's but you check it out, check
it out and see what kind of and you know.
(33:49):
One of the things I love is when I'm out
doing repairs, instead of walking back and forth to valves
turning them on to see how things are working, I
literally just have my phone in my hand. I'm like, oh,
turn on zone three and there it goes, and I
can see whether what I've done is paying off or not,
or whether I need to redo something. So there you go.
(34:09):
It is a pretty amazingly connected world when it comes
to our homes and as AI and our personal assistant
Electronic assistance you know, the series, the Alexas and so on.
As they start to continue to get smarter and smarter,
(34:29):
eventually all of this stuff will just plug in and
you'll have a conversation with one voice handling all the
rest of the stuff. That is what I anticipate will
be coming very very soon. Until then, we're all just
going to have to muddle through living in a technologically
advanced world. This morning, when I got up, you know,
(34:51):
every Sunday morning I get up, I spend a little
time just in my own head, my own thoughts, and
quite often I'll write something down that I want to
share with you. Sometimes I don't. You never know what
it's going to be. I never know what it's going
to be, and I don't do it ahead of time
because I just feel like it's more authentic this way.
And this morning, you know, I jotted down what sort
of looks like a poem, but it doesn't rhyme or anything,
(35:14):
but you know what, here it goes. So I'm going
to leave you with this thought today. Once upon a time,
there was a little boy, fresh and young and full
of life. He sat and watched the big world moving
so fast all around him, and wondered when he would
take his place in it, and what he would be.
(35:37):
He wasn't big or strong, he didn't know very much,
but that was okay because he was alive and learning,
and there was so much to see and do, and
that was going to be enough. He was a good boy,
but like all good boys, sometimes he made a mess
of things. He laughed a few times, he cried a
(35:59):
few times, and in the blink of an eye, the
boy was gone, and in his place stood a young man,
young and strong and full of life. He was moving
so fast it felt like the world was holding him back.
He was ready to take his place in it, ready
to be somebody. He felt big, he felt strong, He
(36:22):
felt like he knew so much. He was alive and
hungry to see and do and be, and nothing was enough.
And he was a nice young man, but like all
young men, sometimes he made a mess of things. He
laughed a few times, he cried a few times, and
(36:42):
in a blink the young man was gone, and in
his place sat an old man, not so fresh, not
so strong, but still full of life. He sat and
watched the world moving so fast all around him. In
one if he still had a place in it, and
(37:04):
what would he be. He knew for certain he wasn't
big enough or strong enough, and would never know enough.
But that was okay, because he was still alive and
still learning, and there was still so much to see
and do, and finally that was enough. He was a
(37:25):
kind man, and like all older men, he tried really
to not make such a mess of things. He laughed
a few times, he cried a few times, and finally
he found his place in the world. In that place,
he got busy building himself a beautiful life. But there
(37:47):
you go. I was my thought on a Sunday morning,
probably somewhat semi biographical, I can prep. Nevertheless, it's thought
I would share it with Hoki as it may be.
I hope you've got a great day planned ahead of you.
I hope you get out in this beautiful weather. I
hope you're rooting for the Dodgers at five o'clock tonight,
(38:09):
and most of all, I hope you get busy this
week building yourself a beautiful life. And we'll see you
right back here next week. This has been Home with
Dean Sharp the House Whisper. Tune into the live broadcast
on KFI AM six forty every Saturday morning from six
to eight Pacific time, and every Sunday morning from nine
to noon Pacific time, or anytime on demand on the
(38:31):
iHeartRadio app
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp The
House Whisper on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Hey, welcome
to home where every week we help you better understand
that place where you live. I'm Dean Sharp, the House
Whisper here with you live like I am every weekend
Saturday morning six to eight Pacific time, Sunday mornings nine
(00:22):
to noon Pacific time. Thanks for joining us on the program.
You are welcome to be a part of our third
hour here starting off from eleven to noon. Today, we
are talking about the home monitoring revolution, as it were,
the fact that connectedness, this connected world that we live
in technologically has led to a number of really, really
(00:44):
beneficial ways in which we can keep track of what's
going on in our home via our smartphones, apps and
the kind of hardware and fixtures that communicate with them
about what's going on in our homes. We're going to
return to that conversation in just a bit, but right now,
top of the hour, it's time to go to the phones.
(01:04):
When it comes to your calls, it can be anything
you want to talk about. Let's talk to Diego, Ay diego,
Welcome home.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Who Hi? I have unfinished basement and it has a
bathroom and a kitchenet. We really don't use it. It's
been just a catch all over the years, and the
kids left and now we have there are some of
their stuff still here, but mold has produced. You can
smell it. You can see to some of the clothing
that we now keep it for winter. And so that's
(01:34):
how we came across it. And the neighbor and next
story is a commercial person there. So they finally finished
their landscape and now we're getting more water the summer.
I put in a French drain because I saw that
and I'm known to have some water problems coming up.
That's when we have Nina in two thousand and nine,
I think it was, and we were swimming almost down here,
(01:57):
and so we put that friend straight in. But the
mold it's still there. How do you attack mold and
how do you prevent it from happening again? We have
a cement, just unfinished cement. Did they have carpet here?
One time? Somebody did and they pulled it all off.
You can see all the glue marks everywhere and some
paint they tried to use. The paint. I looked it
(02:19):
up out a year ago, and everybody have bad reviews,
good and bad reviews about different products. One part I
really liked is you can't be around it after you
put it on. I means you can't live there or
be around it because but it works really great. We'll
be to the point of doing that then, because we
like to hide down here because it's cooler when we
get the heat waves. Right, So what do you suggest?
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Okay, Well, it could be a very big subject because
there are different ways of approaching this, whether you're approaching
it on the level of just maintaining a mold free
environment in the basement or on the other end of
the spectrum, going to greater measures of protecting the basement
(03:03):
against moisture intrusion. To begin with, okay, how old is
the house and where is the house?
Speaker 2 (03:08):
By the way, the house it sits in some Marco's
border at Scabido area, and it's a sixty four house,
sixty years old.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Okay, all right, yeah, it's so a full basement in
sixty four. That's that's quite a remarkable kind of situation.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
The front of the house is a level, it's all level,
and then the back of the house is like fifteen
twelve feet deeper. So they decided instead of having just
a basement, they finished it. Well, the neighbor copios too,
they did.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
I got it, all right, all right, that makes sense,
all right, Okay, So here's the thing. If you really
want to deal with the moisture intrusion, generally speaking, then
there is the whole process of digging down around those
basement walls, digging a trench down around the basement walls,
(03:58):
getting French strains deeper down, closer to the base of
the walls, and while you're at it, getting better water
proofing on the exterior of those walls, whether it's a
bitumous membrane, whether it's coated, roll on water proofing and
(04:18):
then protected with protection boards or foam boards so that
rocks and soil don't come in and scratch it or
penetrate it and kind of ruin it. Concrete in and
of itself is not going to stop moisture from coming
in through the ground around it and into the room.
So I'm just saying that I'm not I think I
understand the spirit of your question that you're not asking
(04:40):
for that kind of major redo, But that's kind of
what we're looking at right, if it gets and I'm
mentioning it, because if it gets to the point where
you end up with like potentially standing water in the basement,
then we really have to treat this basement like basements
are treated all across the country. Unlike here in relatively
(05:02):
traditionally dry southern California, all across the country, basements are
treated with heavy waterproofing on the outside before they're backfilled.
They've got drains on the outside connected sometimes quite often
to some pumps that because they're below grade, and they
will drain that water out. Some pumps placed in the
(05:23):
basement floor so that if water begins to build up
on the floor, it has a place to drain to
and to be removed, and so on and so forth.
All right, Putting that aside, though, let's just say we've
got lately, because of the neighbors landscaping redo, because we've
had a couple of El Nino years and some heavy winters,
(05:44):
Let's say we've got unusually high amounts of moisture building up,
and that moisture is not leaking through but just sort
of seeping into the concrete walls, and as a result
of being down in this dark moist place down in
the ground. Mold, Okay, mold and mildeed. That can still
(06:08):
be dealt with as long as we don't have water
pouring through. We can deal with it in a couple
of ways. Number One, the first thing is we got
to kill the mold that's there, all right. That can
be as simple as a mixture of water and bleach
washing down the walls and the floor to kill what's there. Secondly,
we want to keep that room dry. Okay, a dehumidifier.
(06:31):
Now dehumidifier could take the form of a split system
heat pump, air conditioner slash heater. But why put an
air conditioner in a room that's already cool, that you
guys already escape to because it's a cool place. But dehumidification,
this is critical. Mold is not going to no matter
how much moisture is in the wall, Mold is not
(06:54):
going to form on the surface of the wall and
on the surfaces of stuff down there and on the
close if the air is dry. One of the you
know there, there are rules to mold and mildew. They're
not just magical creatures that show up whenever they want to.
It's got to be dark it's got to be moist
and the air around it has to be moist as
(07:16):
well in order for it to thrive. So dry air
down inside the basement area is going to be your
biggest ongoing weapon to combat mold. So think about a dehumidifier.
They can be portable, they can be built in, you
can have it blown out one of the you know,
windows or what have you. But a dehumidification system down there,
(07:38):
the drier the air is in the basement, the less
issues you're ever going to have with mold on your stuff,
on the floors, on the walls, and especially in the clothing.
That's going to be the key. Lastly, there are some
things not paint. Paint is a terrible approach, as you've
seen to ceiling concrete, because moisture that builds up on
(08:01):
the backside of the paint will simply bubble it and
push it off and make it flake and crack and
just it's a mess. But there are some pretty decent
seilers out there that you can absorbing sealers that you
could go ahead and just coat the concrete wall your
side with the interior. Is it going to stop moisture
(08:21):
from completely coming through?
Speaker 3 (08:23):
No?
Speaker 1 (08:23):
But if you coat the concrete floor and the walls
with these penetrating sealers, then it's definitely going to slow
it down. You combine that with dehumidifying the airspace and
getting some good airflow down there, and you know what,
I'm guessing, if you don't have a standing water problem,
you're probably going to be in good shape.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
My friend, sounds good. Well, Thank you so much, Jean.
I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
All right, diego look into that dehumidification system. That's going
to be the key to keeping mold under control. All right,
when we come back, how about another call or so, yeah,
we'll do it.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
The house Whisper at your service. Thanks for joining us
on the program. We're talking about the connected monitored home today.
I'm going to get back to that conversation in just
a bit, but right now, going to take another call.
Still got some calls on the board, trying to get
through as many as I can. Let's talk to Linda. Hey, Linda,
(09:23):
welcome home.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Hi Dean, thank you for taking my call. I'm remodeling first,
my first remodel of primary bath and the construction has
already started, and I love the contractor, and so anyway,
the design part is what I'm I picked everything and
(09:48):
now I'm up to the paint color. And it's now
that I've listened to you for so long, it has
to be Benchin more now. And I don't know where
you were the whole rest of my life, but anyway,
so it was, but not not not where I could
(10:10):
hear you. So so anyway I want I remember hearing
a previous show, maybe a couple of years ago. I
don't know, I don't know how to find it on
your in the library, but you talked about a paint,
a paint that you use pretty often, and I wanted
(10:33):
to be neutral white without yellow in it. And I
remember you talked about gloss, not too gloss. Right now
it's a high gloss cottage white color and so uh,
and it's all neutrals from chocolate vanity. It's a seventy
(10:55):
two inch vanity. There's a chocolate solid oak vanity with
a weeded front. And I'll get to the metal part
in a minute, because it's the two part questions. So
I just wanted to ask you about what paint color
would you recommend that's not a stark white, a warm
(11:15):
white without yellow, and that will hold up to what
you need in a bathroom.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Okay, so first of all, two questions there, because one
is the color and one is the type of paint.
The ultimate paint my favorite paint for bathrooms, hands down,
no question about it. Aura A U R A. That's
Benjamin Moore Aura Bath and Spa. There's a regular Aura
for the rest of the house. Aura Bath and Spa
(11:42):
is water resistant, mildew resistant, moisture resistant paint. And the
amazing thing about it is it comes in a flat
matte finish, so no more high reflective gloss in the bathroom.
It can be sexy and silky and matt finished on
the walls and the ceiling and not lose its clean
ability and not lose its water resistance. Aura Bath and Spa.
(12:09):
That's the paint you want to use and can come
in literally any color you want. And if you're talking
about and there are a lot of options here, but
if we're talking about a bright white that is just
you know, soft, but not yellow, ye not creamy cream colored,
you know that has that distinct creaminess to it. Just
(12:31):
a warm white's what we call a warm white. Then
you're probably looking at either decorators white or Swiss coffee,
which I know gets tossed around a lot these days
as like, oh, that's what they painted my apartment in. Well,
I don't really care about the what color they painted
your apartment. I care about the quality of the paint.
(12:51):
And the fact of the matter is this is that,
you know, because white, if you go too bright, you
can start to go into the blues and that's going
to really kind of mess with your chocolate, choice of
cabinetry and all of that. So that's what we're talking about.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
And the porcelain tiles, which is the other big opposite
wall of the vanity with the tubs around and the shower,
is a creamy white porcelain with light tope, very light
tope banning. It's not busy baning, just a very minimal baining.
(13:29):
So it could be more than.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
A warm white. It could be a Queenie white.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
I guess I don't know which way to go I
need to look at. So what would be the Queenie white?
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Well, yeah, yeah, I can't tell you the names off
the top of my head because there's thousands of them.
But I will tell you this. You take those tiles
and you head to the Benjamin Moore store and keep
your tiles with you and any other color reference items
in the bathroom, bring those with you while you are
(14:01):
selecting a spectrum of samples three, you know, two, three,
four samples, and be a little bold with your samples.
Go a little darker, and go a little creamier, go
a little wider. Then order the sample size paints where
they're just these tiny they're not even pints anymore. There's
just these tiny, little sample size and then get in
the room and get them on the wall, get a
(14:23):
good size swatch of them on the wall, and evaluate
them at that point. That's the key.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Perfect, Thank you so much. This is the other thing,
and I remember you having this conversation, so thank you.
And the other thing is that they're twenty four y
forty eight porcelain tiles, so they're really big, and I
(14:52):
don't want to see grout and white kind of shows
up ease can see white. So is there another background
grout color that won't show dirt hopefully, but also just
will blend in so it doesn't, you know, just notice grout.
(15:14):
I don't want the groud to be a design feature.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Gotcha. So you want a non sanded grout, okay, Because
nonsanded that allows you to set those tiles as absolutely
close together as possible. We don't want to make the
mistake of not using a grout because the tiles will
shift and we don't want them rubbing against each other
and chipping. The grout actually is a buffer for that
(15:39):
to actually protect the tile. But talk to your contractor
about using any POxy based grout Number one. Any POxy
based grout means you can use any kind of light
color you want. Any POxy grouts when they dry, they
or I should say they when they cure, they are
non porous. They don't absorb stains, They don't absorb the
(16:01):
dirt or scum or anything like that. It takes a
qualified installer who knows what they're doing to put the
epoxy groud in because you don't want to have any
leftover film on top of the tile surface. But an
epoxy based growd is going to give you absolute smallest
and strongest and least stained sensitive grout in between those tiles.
(16:27):
And then as far as the color goes, it's just
like the paint. You want to get a couple of
samples of colors. Now you're not going to have a
billion options when it comes to any grout color. You
only have the spectrum of color that the grout company offers.
But there's a lot, and there's a lot in the
white and cream area. So you want to decide which
(16:48):
one you like better, whether you go slightly darker than
the tile, or whether you try and get one that
matches as close to the main surface of the tile
so that it just goes away. The good news in
your case, even if you went a little bit slightly
darker and you could see the grout line a little
bit more noticeably. Uh, you know, twenty four by forty
eight porcelain tie, there's a large format tiles. You've got
(17:12):
minimal grout there anyway, But of course, of course try
for the matching color or something that blends in as
well as possible, if that makes sense.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Great. And also my contractors have tile specialist, flooring specialists
all of that.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
So but this is what this is.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
These are the two main things that I really needed
to know. And do you have another second for a
quick question?
Speaker 2 (17:42):
That's super quick?
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Got super quick?
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Mixing metals there's brush gold tiny knobs on the vanity
and around on a giant light, a big light fixture
over the vanity. But I did, I got all stained
less faucets and you know, graceful faucets and handles and
for the thinks, tub and shower. Have you ever mixed metals?
(18:12):
Is this thatrong? Okay, it can be.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Okay, it can I mean mixing metals. And usually what
we want when we mix metals is a contrast and uh,
and it's it's I can't, I can't give you a
a solid answer sight unseen. Uh. Typically when we mix metals,
will use a central fixture that has both of them
(18:37):
in it, so that that gives us the freedom to
throw a little bit of brush gold on the light fixture,
throw a little brush gold on the knobs, because there's
a little bit of brush gold along with the stainless
in the faucet set. But that doesn't mean necessarily that
you can't just do a full on stainless faucet set
and have the brush gold in other locations. Really has
(19:00):
to do visually with how each one ties in and works.
But changing metals and having more than one inside a space,
a room, a kitchen area, a bathroom. It is not
in any way, shape or form a sin or a mistake. Again,
it's just one of those things where you have to
stand back, you know, take a look at the samples
(19:24):
that you've got evaluated and make sure that it works.
And you know, in your case, the worst case scenario
is maybe the cabinet knobs get changed out to a
stainless versus the brush gold. But you know, I'm thinking
it's probably gonna work. So there you go. All right, Linda,
you got three three major questions answered, my friend, Thanks
(19:45):
for being such a fan of the show, by the way,
really really appreciating good luck on what sounds like is
a really great bathroom remodel. And you have learned the
lesson design matters most. All right, everybody, when we come back,
we're gonna to get back into the monitored home. I've
got so much more to talk to you about. We
(20:05):
will do it.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Forty Welcome home your Home with Dean Sharp. The house whisper,
that's me and we're talking about your home. That's what
we do every weekend, talk about your home. This weekend.
I'm specifically talking about your monitored home, meaning the kind
of world that we live in now, connected technology giving
us the ability to monitor our homes when we are
(20:34):
both there and away in ways we never dreamed of
possible just a few years ago. So I know I
cover this stuff throughout the year when we hit various
other subjects because these each of these areas are kind of,
you know, subtopics of larger areas, but today it's all
(20:55):
just an overview of monitoring your home. Very quickly, I
want to mention one last thing in regards to safety
that not a lot of people are aware of, and
you should be. If you are thinking about upgrading your
electrical system, if a new panel is part of you know,
maybe you're adding an ADU, maybe you're just doing an
(21:15):
expansion or remodel, and you're like, you know what, we
need more power. We're going to are electrician is going
to put in a new panel. One of the things
that you should at least be aware of and check
out and talk to your electrician about is a smart
panel or at least smart breakers in your existing panel. Now,
(21:36):
smart breakers breakers are have to be the brand or
compatible with the brand of panel that you have. Okay,
so the smart breakers coming out, for instance, Leveton smart breakers,
they aren't going to work in a square D panel
as an example, And you're like, what is a square
D panel? Doesn't matter, just know that it has to
(21:58):
be brand specific or at least intentionally brand compatible. But
the nice thing about a smart breaker is you don't
need a whole panel upgrade. You can just start changing
out the breakers from the old dumb breakers, the stupid
breakers that you've got right now, which are just mechanically
operated breakers. You know, you get a short and they
pop and then you go and you reset them, or
(22:19):
an overload and they pop and you reset them. A
smart breaker can give you feedback on that circuit into
an app to let you know energy usage. But also
a smart breaker will alert you when it goes off.
And some smart breakers can actually be remotely reset. So yeah,
that's smart. That really is smart. And now there are panels,
(22:43):
entire panels built with nothing but smart breakers, leaner, cleaner,
way better, and the panel itself will help monitor energy
flow and energy usage through your home and they can
be set instead of you know, used to buy a
regular breaker'll do, but you can buy a regular breaker
standard like fifteen AM breaker, or you can buy a
(23:05):
GFCI breaker which is a ground fault interrupt breaker for
bathrooms and kitchen areas, areas where there's water sensitivity. Or
you can get an arc fault breaker, which is required
by code in some rooms now throughout the home that
monitor little arc faults like a worn cord or anything
like that. Those are all specific, individualized breakers, but on
(23:28):
some of these new smart panels, they simply come with
universal smart breakers and you can set each one to
be what you needed to be, GFI, arc fault or standard,
whatever the case may be. So this is the future,
by the way. I mean twenty years from now, we're
not going to be having this conversation because everybody's going
to have a smart panel anyway, and we'll be moving
(23:49):
on to other things. But I'm just letting you know,
if you're in the market for upgrading right now, this
is yet again another monitored system that you can have
control of in your pocket. All right, Before we are
done today, I absolutely want to talk about this, and
that is well being monitoring. Talking about somebody in your family,
(24:14):
maybe an aging parent or an aging relative, or somebody
who needs some assistance in regards to their health and
their well being. And of course, you know, the conversations
are endless these days about the Sandwich generation, those of
us who are both taking care of kids and aging
parents at the same time. All of that kind of stuff.
(24:36):
The cost of if you don't have, you know, if
they don't have stellar insurance, The cost of getting somebody
who may be suffering from dementsia or Alzheimer's or something
like that into a nursing care facility can be massive.
The cost of in home nursing care can be massive.
(25:00):
So there are some technologies now that are considerably less
massive that may, in many many circumstances enable a loved
one to stay in their home longer and still receive
the kind of attention necessary. Now, it's going to make
people shirk back when I say this, but the kind
of care and attention that these systems do is a monitored,
(25:25):
algorithm based attention. It's kind of an AI sort of
attention that does not mean that big brother is watching you.
Most of these systems employ what's called passive behavior discovery.
What that means is I just give you an example.
I'll give you an example from envoy at home. Okay,
(25:46):
you can go check this out at envoy at home
dot com. They're a great system. They're not the only
one out there, but they're a great one to talk
about because they kind of, you know, are a great
example system. Envoy at home. You would pay a subscription
for monitoring an activity, a monthly subscription, and then the
(26:08):
house gets installed with motion detectors and sensors in various
parts almost every room of the house, hallways and so
on and so forth, among other things. Now, does that
mean somebody is looking at you. No, it's not cameras, okay,
they're motion detectors and sensors. So, as a result, the system,
(26:30):
once it's installed, it starts learning. Let's say Mom's routine
or a daily routine. Mom normally gets up at eight thirty.
Between eight thirty and eight forty five every morning. Mom
usually spends about a half an hour in the bathroom
before she heads out to the kitchen and da da
da da. These are just recorded. It's like a learning system, okay,
(26:50):
and it just learns it passively. Nobody's watching her, okay,
it's just being recorded in the sense of sensors activated
motion detector learning Mom's motion throughout the house. Then the
day comes when Mom is not out of bed at
eight forty five, maybe it's nine point fifteen, maybe it's
(27:11):
nine thirty. And because this falls outside of the normal routine,
you get an alert. It's that simple. You get an
alert saying, hey, it doesn't appear that mom has gotten
out of bed on her normal schedule this morning, and
what does that mean? You can do with that what
you want. Maybe you're like, well, I know why that happened,
because she was up late partying last night. Or maybe
(27:34):
you just give a call, Hey, Mom, just call and
checking in, how you doing, what's going on? So on
and so forth. It's that kind of system that can
be placed in a house these days. Okay, And there
are all sorts of levels to it, and I won't
go into that because we don't have time, but just no.
And you may be sitting there thinking maybe rightly so, oh,
my parents would never go for that because they don't
(27:55):
want to be watched. Well, they're not really being watched.
They're simply having a second level of redundancy about you
know what it is, their daily stuff, trip detection, fall detection,
it's all a part of this kind of stuff. And
they can be really, really useful in the right situation.
(28:16):
One last thing as a part of that if you
are unaware of this, and that is especially with dimension
Alzheimer's individuals, is remote medication dispensing. There are now, you know,
countertop appliances like the size of a coffee maker, where
you can load up a month's worth of meds, very
(28:40):
very complex medical dosing throughout the day. Maybe there's maybe
you're maybe it's once or twice a day that mom
or dad need to remember to take their pills, or
maybe they're in a situation where they need to get
their meds, you know, three or four or six times
during the day. These can be programmed and these divice
is these appliances that are just plug and play sitting
(29:02):
on the countertop. They can be set up so that
at the right time they give a notice, they chime
a little chime, or they have a little voice to
remind mom or dad, oh, it's time to take your stuff.
It's nine o'clock in the morning, and then they dispense
just the right meds and they will not no matter
how much somebody pushes the button a half an hour later,
(29:25):
redispense those meds again, and we know that that's when
it comes to memory loss. That can be a problem
of somebody kind of overdosing on their meds because they
forgot that they just took them. So these are kind
of devices are available. Hero herohealth dot com is one
of those places you can go and see one of
(29:45):
these units. You can control it, you can get an
alert and you can kind of take control and not
worry about that because again, remote medication, dispensing, remote monitoring,
and all of the good things that go with it. Okay,
a couple of lighter issues when we come back. Let's
(30:06):
talk about home irrigation and some heating and cooling, and
then we will be wrapped for the day, of course,
not without some final thoughts for you. We will do
it all right after.
Speaker 4 (30:16):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Dean Sharp, the house Whisper, Welcome home, Hey, thanks for
joining us on the program today. Here we are at
the end of another three hours. They just fly by,
they really do. Hope you appreciated all the info. Got
a little bit more for you here. We've been talking
about the monitoring, the home monitoring revolution, living in the
connected world that we live in, and what that technology
(30:42):
means in terms of you being able to keep track
of stuff when you're not home, which is in a
lot of control in your hands now, a lot of
agency in your hands if you want it to be
able to take care of your home and keep an
eye on out over it when you're not there. And
(31:04):
one of those things a couple of last items, heating
and cooling. I think it's a given everybody knows these
days about smart thermostats, whether you have one or not.
The real advantage I think of a smart thermostat is
if you're on your way home and you've had your
HVAC system off heating ind or cooling to save energy,
(31:25):
which great idea. You're on your way home, you know
you're going to be there in about a half an hour,
and you can just pull out the phone and dial
it up and set the thermostats so that it is
waiting for you, a warm and or a cool house
waiting for you when you walk in the door. And
of course these thermostats are also what they call learning thermostats.
(31:45):
I'm not necessarily convinced that they learn really, really well,
but maybe that's just me because my schedule changes so
much from day to day. It's not the same kind
of nine to five routine for us. So the learning part,
which can be turned off, has never really served Tina
and I super well, but I get it. And if
(32:06):
you have a relatively routined life, then the learning thermostat
will anticipate when you're going to be home, when you're
going to be leaving, what temperatures you like at this
time of day versus that time of day, and so on.
So the app controlled learning thermostat always always a good idea,
and you know pretty soon you're not going to see
(32:26):
the old manual ones around much anymore. And finally, smart
irrigation control and monitored irrigation control. We're talking about controllers
now that go way beyond just being able to control
the timer of your irrigation system, but actually irrigation controllers
(32:47):
that are connected to Wi Fi and to the internet. Therefore,
they are reading weather forecasts themselves, and if they know
that there's rain in the forecast for tomorrow, they just
automatically shut the year gate system down and say, you know,
give it a pause, and they'll restart it when the
weather forecast clears up again. After a certain delay. But
(33:08):
even beyond that, smart irrigation systems, they want to know
your soil conditions, the plant type for every zone, so
that they can actually figure out the right amount of
moisture to put into those zones for those kinds of
plants and that kind of soil. It really is kind
(33:28):
of mind boggling how specific these systems can be and
how well they work. I have a beehive system b
dash hive with a y H y ve. We recommend
this system to most of our clients. I just think
it's one of the best ones out there right now.
There are o there's but you check it out, check
it out and see what kind of and you know.
(33:49):
One of the things I love is when I'm out
doing repairs, instead of walking back and forth to valves
turning them on to see how things are working, I
literally just have my phone in my hand. I'm like, oh,
turn on zone three and there it goes, and I
can see whether what I've done is paying off or not,
or whether I need to redo something. So there you go.
(34:09):
It is a pretty amazingly connected world when it comes
to our homes and as AI and our personal assistant
Electronic assistance you know, the series, the Alexas and so on.
As they start to continue to get smarter and smarter,
(34:29):
eventually all of this stuff will just plug in and
you'll have a conversation with one voice handling all the
rest of the stuff. That is what I anticipate will
be coming very very soon. Until then, we're all just
going to have to muddle through living in a technologically
advanced world. This morning, when I got up, you know,
(34:51):
every Sunday morning I get up, I spend a little
time just in my own head, my own thoughts, and
quite often I'll write something down that I want to
share with you. Sometimes I don't. You never know what
it's going to be. I never know what it's going
to be, and I don't do it ahead of time
because I just feel like it's more authentic this way.
And this morning, you know, I jotted down what sort
of looks like a poem, but it doesn't rhyme or anything,
(35:14):
but you know what, here it goes. So I'm going
to leave you with this thought today. Once upon a time,
there was a little boy, fresh and young and full
of life. He sat and watched the big world moving
so fast all around him, and wondered when he would
take his place in it, and what he would be.
(35:37):
He wasn't big or strong, he didn't know very much,
but that was okay because he was alive and learning,
and there was so much to see and do, and
that was going to be enough. He was a good boy,
but like all good boys, sometimes he made a mess
of things. He laughed a few times, he cried a
(35:59):
few times, and in the blink of an eye, the
boy was gone, and in his place stood a young man,
young and strong and full of life. He was moving
so fast it felt like the world was holding him back.
He was ready to take his place in it, ready
to be somebody. He felt big, he felt strong, He
(36:22):
felt like he knew so much. He was alive and
hungry to see and do and be, and nothing was enough.
And he was a nice young man, but like all
young men, sometimes he made a mess of things. He
laughed a few times, he cried a few times, and
(36:42):
in a blink the young man was gone, and in
his place sat an old man, not so fresh, not
so strong, but still full of life. He sat and
watched the world moving so fast all around him. In
one if he still had a place in it, and
(37:04):
what would he be. He knew for certain he wasn't
big enough or strong enough, and would never know enough.
But that was okay, because he was still alive and
still learning, and there was still so much to see
and do, and finally that was enough. He was a
(37:25):
kind man, and like all older men, he tried really
to not make such a mess of things. He laughed
a few times, he cried a few times, and finally
he found his place in the world. In that place,
he got busy building himself a beautiful life. But there
(37:47):
you go. I was my thought on a Sunday morning,
probably somewhat semi biographical, I can prep. Nevertheless, it's thought
I would share it with Hoki as it may be.
I hope you've got a great day planned ahead of you.
I hope you get out in this beautiful weather. I
hope you're rooting for the Dodgers at five o'clock tonight,
(38:09):
and most of all, I hope you get busy this
week building yourself a beautiful life. And we'll see you
right back here next week. This has been Home with
Dean Sharp the House Whisper. Tune into the live broadcast
on KFI AM six forty every Saturday morning from six
to eight Pacific time, and every Sunday morning from nine
to noon Pacific time, or anytime on demand on the
(38:31):
iHeartRadio app
Home with Dean Sharp News
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