December 15, 2024 • 31 mins
In Hour 3 Dean continues exploring the art of nostalgic design and the creative integration of antique and vintage elements into modern homes. He answers listener calls about unique renovation challenges, discusses the craftsmanship behind timeless designs, and shares tips on balancing historical authenticity with contemporary living.
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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 Whisperer on demand on the iHeartRadio app. You know,
this very program is also the house Whisper podcast that
you can listen to anytime, anywhere on demand, hundreds of episodes,
all searchable by topic. It is your personal home improvement
(00:24):
reference library on the free iHeart app or wherever your
favorite podcasts are found. And if you're thinking, hey, that's
all great, but what we really need is Dean and
Tina in our house, well you know what you can
do that too. You can book an in home design
consult with me and Tea. Just go to house Whisperer
dot design. All right, it's top of the hour. We're
(00:47):
going to come back to more insights into antique and
vintage and retro. But right now I want to go
back to the phones and I want to talk to Tim. Hey, Tim,
welcome home.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Hi there, I need a recommendation. I'm working on a
nineteen seventies track home in San Diego. We're tearing We're
gonna tear out all the dry wall on the interior
of the house. It was a mouse and to get
rid of all the mice and insulation inside. My question
would be when I go to re build this place.
(01:25):
I know house wrap is a great thing, but what
would you recommend if I'm down to the studs. I
don't want to take the stucco off the outside because
it's perfect. What do you think about that?
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Okay, so you're just so your goal is to just
better waterproof the house or vapor vapor proof the house.
So what are you looking for for the house wrap?
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Well, just because I'm taking the whole the entire house
down to the studs, the ceiling, the drywalls coming off,
the ceiling, the walls, there's nothing going to be left
but the stucco and the So I just wonder if
there's you recommend some try to seal it some way
before I put the dry wall back on and insulate.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
I got you, I got you. Okay. Yeah, so your
bear stud on the inside, but the outside sheathing, all
all of that, the sighting, all of that, the stucco,
it's all staying put. Okay, So from the backside. So yeah,
a couple of things. One, yeah, if you want to
do your due diligence on this, uh and uh, you know,
(02:29):
inspect every exterior wall stud bay. Take a look at
the condition of the paper that is backing the stucco,
the back of the stuck stuck the backing on the
stucco and uh and uh you know, get yourself, I
mean literally, you can get down and dirty with this.
(02:51):
You can. You can get yourself a big five gallon
bucket of like red Guard waterproofing membrane. It is. You
can find it at the big box store. They're they're
they're available everywhere nowadays. Red Guard. It's not cheap, but
it's a wonderful brush on waterproofing membrane. Uh. And what
(03:14):
you could do is you can backbrush the backside of
all of that paper, fix any cracks. Uh. And it
will also go up against the studs and help seal
things so that every stud bay would essentially be sealed
unto itself before you reinsulate those walls. And that would
do an amazing job. Another option, and this is a
(03:35):
little bit trickier, and you're going to hire a company
to do this, would be to arrow seal and I
say arrow e a E R O errow seal the
house while it's in this state of stripped studs. And
what happens there is this company will come in. They
will basically uh uh seal up all the windows and doors.
(03:59):
They will set up a pressurized fan membrane on one
of the door exterior door openings, doors or windows, and
they will pump the house full of pressure. They'll pressurize
the air inside the house, and they will have these
basically kind of like fine calking compound emitters, silicone emitters
(04:21):
in every single room, all spraying and making this very
fine mist. And what happens is it's kind of like
I equate it to like you know those cans that
you use to blow up a tire right that has
gone flat on the freeway. It's a foam. It goes
inside the tire and because of the pressure, the foam
(04:44):
finds the holes and it seals the hole. It's not
a permanent thing for a tire, but it's the same concept.
So once they pump the house full of air pressure,
that air wants to leak out. It wants to leak
out every hole, every crack, every little thing everywhere. And
if you simultaneously fill a room with this uh calking
(05:06):
compound mist, guess what happens. It drives that compound into
all of those cracks, they build up and you can
air seal, a rodent seal, bug seal the entire house
and talk about energy efficiency. That's a great way to go.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Now.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
You can also if you just want to go Bay
for Bays stud for stud and do this diyat yourself.
That's totally totally a thing you can do. But you
can have a company come in and in one day,
just a few short hours, boom hit the entire house
all at once, and have the confidence of knowing that
man our house, no matter how old it is, it
(05:43):
is sealed up. And I applaud you for wanting to
do that at this stage, because you know what, once
you've stripped down the whole house and you've got all
of these stud walls bear, now is the time to
do something exactly like that.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Tim, Yeah, it looks like it's my one chance to
do it now. This is still okay. I'm removing all
the ceiling drywall and insulation from the attic also so
that pressurized system is still workable like that.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Yeah, it's workable that way as well. Now. Sometimes some
people want to put the ceiling lid on Before they
do that, just be to keep it all in the
usable air space, But I would call the company and
talk to them about your your options, you know, as
far as that goes.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Okay, that leads me to one more little question about this.
I'm also going to remove all the roof tile. I'm
gonna i'd like to put foil faced plywood on the
roof surface and remove all the roofing and put the
replace everything with foil fate plywood to keep the heat
out of the attic. Do you have any thoughts on that?
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Uh, it's it's a great way to go. That Foil
backing is standard practice now for us new home full
remodel redo. We wouldn't we would not resheet we I
mean our company would not resheet a roof without using
the foil backed OSB sheathing up there, because it really
(07:08):
does when it comes to infrared. Now, it's just foil
and so it's not going to be an insulator like
resisting heat rising up through the house or anything. But
what the foil does is it knocks out a huge
chunk of infrared which which brings additional unnecessary heat to
the attict. So yeah, it is a it is a proven,
(07:30):
uh proven effective building material that that we use every time.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Okay, well, appreciate your your help with those two things.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Thanks all right, Tim, Good luck with all that. Buddy.
You're you're you're thinking right, you're thinking properly about this.
You got it all stripped out. Now is the time
to do some major rehab that helps everything before you
close all those walls back up. All right, when we
come back, more of your calls your Home with Dean Sharp,
the house Whisper.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI Am six forty.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
We're talking antique vintage retro today on the show, just
giving you tips and some wisdom along the way. How
to incorporate it, how to handle it, what your options are,
how to understand it better. We're going to return to that,
of course in just a bit, but right now taking calls.
I want to go to the phones. Let's talk to Michael. Hey, Michael,
(08:27):
welcome home.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Oh thank you for taking my call. I have a question.
I have a refrigerating at vacant guest house. If I
turn off, would I create a problem when I turn
on later on, like you know, several months from now.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
No, it shouldn't. If if you make sure that you
have cleaned the inside of that thing to the point
of sterile keep it, you know, and before you after
you clean it, before you close it up, you make
sure you keep the door open and let it dry
out completely. Because the thing is a refrigerator that has
(09:08):
been in use, has been used, you know, moisture develops
inside and then as long as as long as you
keep the refrigeration on, then that moisture never turns into mold, mildew,
all of that stuff. But once you've got moisture trapped
inside this box that is completely sealed up, the moisture
(09:30):
has zero places to go, and you raise the temperature
inside that box, you're literally creating a situation where mold
and mildew, you know, want to grow because it's got
enough air to do it. And then some people come
back months later and open it up and find, oh
my gosh, what did we do. So it can totally
(09:52):
be done. Totally totally be done. It's not an issue
of the refrigerator motor at all. Just unplugging and not
using a fridge that's not a problem. But you just
got to make sure that it's cleaned up on the inside.
And some people, by the way, if it's unused, some
people will prefer to clean it and then just slightly
(10:12):
prop opened the door so that airflow continues in there
and it's not completely sealed up. So as long as
it's clean and dry, no problem unplugging a fridge for
an extended period of time.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Okay, I appreciate it. I have another quick question. I
have we remodeled the kitchen many years ago, and we
could create a wet bar, but we have not used
it for many years. I turn the water on. There's
no water come on. So if I guess, if you
don't use it, you lose it.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
No, all right, don't don't, don't fool yourself. Okay, okay,
but yeah, so what has happened. Very likely there's still
water there. There's still water. So don't think, oh, let's
just tear this out and just we'll get a saw
and we'll just cut those pipes off because there's no
water in them. Oh yes there is, Oh yes there is.
(11:07):
Here's what happens though. An angle stop. An angle stop
that's the official name for the valve that's down below
the sink. Okay, that's the valve that transitions from the
water in the pipes to the hose that leads up
to the faucet. Angle stops are notorious for wearing out
(11:29):
just as they sit in place, because let's face it,
if you know, in an ideal situation, we turn that
valve on and you know, maybe twenty thirty years later
we go back to do we decide to change the
sink out. That's the first time in thirty years that
this valve has been operated. So what is most likely
the case is that the valve is frozen, or even
(11:51):
though the valve the top a knob is spinning, it's
not actually closing the valve down, or I should say
opening the valve up in your case, because you're going
to it was closed a long time ago and now
it's just spinning and it's not opening. But I guarantee
you there's water back there. So what you've got is
a situation where totally you can completely get rid of
(12:13):
that wet bar if you want, but if you want
to reactivate it, you have to shut the maine down
for the house and actually replace the angle stops so
that it lets the water through.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Okay, I appreciate the information, been very helpful. Thank you
very much.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Thank you, Michael appreciated. Good luck on all that you're
doing there. All right, y'all. When we come back, let's
dive back into antique and vintage and retro. And I've
still got some more pearls of wisdom for you. Your
Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
You are Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper. That's me.
We're talking antique, vintage, retro, nostalgic dec today, and they're
huge subjects. I mean, each one of those categories is
a major subject. What I'm doing is sort of introducing
you to the genre genre. Why are you laughing at me?
(13:16):
Why does she laugh at me? I know I'm a
nerd anyway, I'm just introducing you to this stuff today
and giving you some tips and hopefully some perspective as
to what you can do if you are one who
leans towards loving antique, vintage in all storms of nostalgic design.
(13:42):
So a few more tips for you here, pearls of wisdom.
One of the things that you should decide right up
front when you are working on a house and you're thinking, okay,
what's the effect that we're going to get here. Oddly enough,
not a lot of people think this through. Decide whether
you want to create a hundred year old house or
(14:05):
a new house with one hundred year old design sensibility. Wait,
isn't that the same thing? No, I'm going to say
that again. Decide whether what you want to create in
the end is the look of a of a hundred
year old house, meaning someone looks at it and says, WHOA,
this is old, or a brand new house that just
(14:27):
happens to look like it was built, you know, one
hundred year old design? Does that make sense? Am I
making any sense? What's so? The point is this, You
got a lot of antiques out there, a lot of
vintage stuff that's distressed. That's like weathered barnwood. There's a
(14:48):
perfect example. Weathered barnwood is a very vintage look. Right,
So if you're going for that vibe, then somebody walks
in and it's like, woh, that thing looks like it's
a one hundred years old. That's not the case though,
if you are trying to do a hundred year old
(15:08):
design motif that looks like it was just built yesterday. Right,
So you understand what I'm saying, so when that barn
was built, wherever that weathered barn would come from, when
that barn was built one hundred and fifty years ago,
it looked brand spanking new, but it is clearly one
hundred and fifty year old design and craftsmanship gone into
(15:31):
the barn. So what you've got to decide is whether
you want the barn looking brand new circa one hundred
and fifty years ago, or whether you want the effect
to be this thing's been sitting here for one hundred
and fifty years, and you see how weather it is.
It's got that patina. A brand new nineteen twenties built
(15:52):
has is a house with no patina, Okay, a house
who's point and focus is to really give you that Hey,
look you're in a one hundred year old room. That's
a room with patina, That's what I'm saying. So that's
one of the most foundational decisions you make from a
design perspective before you start acquiring vintage and antique pieces
(16:16):
for decor, because they need to lean one way or
the other. Are they fully restored so they look brand
spank and new, or do they look their age? Okay?
There you go. Another thing that you're always trying to
do if you're striking for that to vintage or antique feel.
And this is regardless of whether you're looking aged or not.
(16:37):
In the home is to conceal as much twenty first
century technology as possible. Nothing ruins the effect of a
vintage room like a big old flat screen TV. Right,
But I want you to have your TV in your
vintage living room or family room. I just want you
to find a creative way of having it there, so
(16:57):
you go out and get yourself like a Samsung frame
that is a TV that's specifically designed to look like
a painting as it hangs there and not being used.
Or we find a way to hide the TV in
a cabinet behind bifold doors, whatever the case may be,
so that when it's not movie night and TV night,
(17:18):
the room really holds up and holds to its vibe.
So hiding twenty first century technology is a challenge, but
a great discipline of craft when it comes to creating
a new old look. There you go. Craftsmanship in general.
(17:39):
Craftsmanship in general is the truest vintage element that we
strive for when we're leaning towards vintage and antique. I
mean let's face it, the old phrase. You know, they
don't make them like they used to. I just try
and imagine a world. I mean, I know, find join
(18:00):
craftsman today. They are few and far between.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Now.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
If you live here in southern California, by the way,
it's on you, because they're out there, they're here, they
are here. You may not be able to find this
kind of thing in the middle of the Midwest in
a small rural town, but you can find it here
in southern California. So if you're looking for it, you
got to look beyond the big box stores and the
big commercial builders. You can find that fine craftsmanship here.
(18:29):
It's a small pool, but it's here, and so that's
on you. But I think craftsmanship in general is the
thing that we missed the most from a bygone era.
It's almost as if we really enjoy the comedy of
John Mulaney. He has a bit where he's like, oh,
you wake up. It's like nineteen ten. You wake up,
(18:50):
and you're like, oh, it's the olden times, and what
are we gonna do to there's literally nothing to do.
There's nothing to do today, and so it's as if
you have nothing better to do. Than to wake up
in nineteen ten and do everything slowly with incredible care.
(19:11):
That is the byproduct of living in olden times. And
I think that just sort of holds true. I'm sure
that wasn't the case. I'm sure they had plenty of
things to do, but it certainly was a time when
you know, we were up in Solving this week. There
is a clock store in Solving. I call it a
(19:33):
clock store. I think it's Renaissance antiques. If you get
a chance to get to Renaissance antiques, you will be
blown away if you are a lover of clocks and
music boxes and antiques in general. They have an exquisite collection.
But you know, it's the kind of stuff I'm staring
at a grandfather clock and thinking how long did the
(19:55):
clockmaker take to make this piece? And the answer is
usually months and or years, and that is just kind
of an unheard of thing these days. Right. So, ultimately, craftsmanship,
the truest vintage element that we're actually going for, that
puts us right there in that place. And that means
(20:15):
that when you are handling these things, when you are
and I don't mean physically handling, I mean your incorporation
of these elements into your home. Do them with care,
not slipshod, not just you know, just sort of you know,
half cocked as you go. Do it with care. Do
it with care, take time, and do the details right,
(20:39):
and you will be infinitely rewarded. In the process of
acquiring vintage, retro and antique things, take the care and
when it comes to fitting it well in your house,
research research, research, research, research. You need to become a
student of not only so you can identify antiques and
(21:04):
vintage stuff when they come along, but so you understand
the original intent of what these things were and you
can incorporate them well and not abuse them as they
become a part of your home.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Welcome home, Hey, thanks for being with us on the
program today. Another three hours spent talking about your home,
all of its potential, all these different facets of things
that we can do. What was that, Tina, I'm sorry,
she's mouthing something from and I'm not getting it. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
when the time comes. Yeah, oh, I thought you were
(21:47):
reminding me about the video, so you inadvertently did it.
You did it you reminded me up on social media
right now, we just did a quick video raising the
subject of an antique piece. Do you preserve it and
don't touch it or can you do stuff to it
and incorporate it into your home and honor it? Does
(22:09):
it honor it or destroy it? So you got to
look at the video and you have to make up
your own mind. We just use an example from our
little guesthouse bathroom there and you can figure it out.
That's on all of our soot, well not all of it.
It's on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. There you go home with Dean.
While you're there, why don't you just say howdy and
(22:29):
maybe also like and follow us or refer us to
somebody else share share the love, all right, I'm not begging.
I'm just saying, Okay, last thoughts now on vintage and
antique for the day, doing that kind of authentic work.
I touched on it right before the break. I just
(22:51):
want to underscore this when it comes to doing this,
you know what, if you have a passion for it,
then you've just got to dive in and research, research, research, research.
It all comes down to research and educating yourself along
the way, and believe me, that is a constant process
for me. Constant, all right, And I know a lot,
(23:13):
but I am constant. If there's one thing that absolutely
everybody could say that is true of Dean is that
he is just a consummate student when it comes to
these kinds of things. I don't like calling myself a
master of anything, but I will proudly tell you that
I am a student of a lot of things because
(23:35):
I love learning and if you're going to pull off
some things, you really really got to understand them from
down below. I remember back in the very I mean,
this has been the way it's been for my whole career.
In the early nineties, I got the first large research
project that I was ever handled at handed as a designer.
(23:58):
I was personally in charge as the design director of
a build. We were building a twelve thousand square foot
eighteenth century Tuscan villa in Brentwood Park. And long before
we broke ground, I was a regular fixture at Hennessy
and Ingles. And if you don't know what Hennessy and
(24:19):
Ingles is, it is a it's in the arts district downtown.
It is I still believe the largest art architecture and
design bookstore in the Western United States, and I was
like there, it was literally kind of like a hey, dean,
you just headed back to your table in the back
yal see. That's how Haffen. I was in there, pouring
(24:41):
over every detail, every book I could find, every detail
of eighteenth century Tuscan villa architecture, from cornice to columns, hinges,
door profiles, you name it. So all of that to
say that you know authentic construction or restor and the
integration of antiques and vintage items into all of that.
(25:07):
It's a tricky thing, right, and when you pull it off, man,
it's masterful. But you can also just toss something in
a room without much care and you end up looking
like a thrift store just with a bunch of dusty
old antiques lying around. I don't want that for your home, right,
We're not after that. We're after you know, showstoppers that
really really add to the character and the story of
(25:29):
your home. Not even many architects go there. By the way,
when it comes to authentic construction and restoration, I think
the folks who probably do it the very best, and
I actually learned this from them, Hollywood set decorators and
production designers. They are the ones that have to go
in because you know, audiences nowadays so sophisticated that you know,
(25:52):
if you accidentally put a nineteen thirty model telephone in
a house that's supposed to benineteen twenty seven house these days,
you're gonna get emails, you'd be like, oh, buddy, I
just happened to be a telephone officionado. And you know
that's the thing. So I like doing my best to
(26:15):
research things to the inth degree so that we can
do things as accurately as possible. But at the same time,
I want to integrate. So I would be the guy
to take the right phone for the right era. But
maybe maybe if it's your thing, paint it blue instead of,
you know, to incorporate it onto a blue wall and
(26:36):
the blue phone if that's the art piece that we're
going for. So you know, it all depends on that
sense of artistic flexibility. Are we trying to just create
a museum piece or are we really integrating it to
a news story? And there you go, and that's at
the heart of what we're talking about today. All right,
(26:59):
are you ready for this? Teeny teen is going to
videotape this because we've been putting these up online and
that's always kind of a fun thing. So here is
my closing thought for you today. Definitely not a masterpiece
of master craftsmanship, just a thought, and it's just the
thought I had sitting around the fire this morning. I'm
wearing my hoodie that I wore at the holiday show
(27:23):
with the shoulders that can display a velcrow patch on
each shoulder. You see that there's a little veltrope. I
don't know if it's cool or stupid, honestly, but I'm
having fun with it. And now I have this growing
collection of patches to choose from depending on where my
head and hard are at on any given day. Today
(27:44):
we've been talking vintage, which always makes me look forward
and backward at the same time. So today's patches are,
let's see here, my favorite childhood memory is my back
not hurting. That's a good one. And then on the
other shoulder, it says be rave enough to suck at
something new, which I think are two great bookends to
(28:05):
what we're talking about today, looking back and looking forward,
like it or not, if you're more than twenty years old,
you've actually started down the road of becoming vintage. You
might only be twenty eight and feeling in the prime
of your youth. But to it, like I said earlier
in the show, to a thirteen year old, you're already
old and you are headed toward ancient quickly. That's upsetting
(28:27):
to me. Oh, our Andrew Caravella, don't worry, buddy, You
and I we're both vintage, by the way, I suck
at my back, not hurting. Just for the record, There
you go. There it is. So there's no turning back
the clock. But that's okay. It's not the worst thing
to be vintage.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
You know.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Vintage is a word taken from wine making. It means
that time has brought a thing to its full depth
of flavor. Right, So yeah, time has passed, but that's
what you need to make a fine wine. Difference between
juice and wine is time. So try not to fear
being a bit vintage. Age has a depth and a
(29:09):
dignity about it. And if we allow time to pry
some of the vanity out of our hands, then instead
of always obsessing with outward youth, there's more room for
the far more important task of becoming inwardly young again.
So here are my tips. Don't fear growing old, only
fear growing unteachable. Don't fear not being at the center
(29:32):
of things, only fear not finding your own center. Don't
fear growing old, only fear growing unadventurous. Don't fear inflexible joints,
only fear an inflexible mind. Don't fear growing old, only
fear growing sour. Don't fear the presence of gray, only
(29:54):
fear the absence of wonder. Don't fear growing old, only
fear wasting time. Some people have always been old. I
think by that standard, others will never be old. That's
who I want to be. That's my hope for you. Today.
It's the only day we've got. It's the only today
(30:16):
we have. Let's not waste it. And by the time
it's done, we'll all be a little older, or maybe
a little younger. It's all up to us live in
the past or build ourselves a beautiful life. Well, you
all have a great Sunday afternoon, and we will see
you right back here next week. This has been Home
(30:42):
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 iHeart radio Apphi
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp the
House Whisperer on demand on the iHeartRadio app. You know,
this very program is also the house Whisper podcast that
you can listen to anytime, anywhere on demand, hundreds of episodes,
all searchable by topic. It is your personal home improvement
(00:24):
reference library on the free iHeart app or wherever your
favorite podcasts are found. And if you're thinking, hey, that's
all great, but what we really need is Dean and
Tina in our house, well you know what you can
do that too. You can book an in home design
consult with me and Tea. Just go to house Whisperer
dot design. All right, it's top of the hour. We're
(00:47):
going to come back to more insights into antique and
vintage and retro. But right now I want to go
back to the phones and I want to talk to Tim. Hey, Tim,
welcome home.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Hi there, I need a recommendation. I'm working on a
nineteen seventies track home in San Diego. We're tearing We're
gonna tear out all the dry wall on the interior
of the house. It was a mouse and to get
rid of all the mice and insulation inside. My question
would be when I go to re build this place.
(01:25):
I know house wrap is a great thing, but what
would you recommend if I'm down to the studs. I
don't want to take the stucco off the outside because
it's perfect. What do you think about that?
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Okay, so you're just so your goal is to just
better waterproof the house or vapor vapor proof the house.
So what are you looking for for the house wrap?
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Well, just because I'm taking the whole the entire house
down to the studs, the ceiling, the drywalls coming off,
the ceiling, the walls, there's nothing going to be left
but the stucco and the So I just wonder if
there's you recommend some try to seal it some way
before I put the dry wall back on and insulate.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
I got you, I got you. Okay. Yeah, so your
bear stud on the inside, but the outside sheathing, all
all of that, the sighting, all of that, the stucco,
it's all staying put. Okay, So from the backside. So yeah,
a couple of things. One, yeah, if you want to
do your due diligence on this, uh and uh, you know,
(02:29):
inspect every exterior wall stud bay. Take a look at
the condition of the paper that is backing the stucco,
the back of the stuck stuck the backing on the
stucco and uh and uh you know, get yourself, I
mean literally, you can get down and dirty with this.
(02:51):
You can. You can get yourself a big five gallon
bucket of like red Guard waterproofing membrane. It is. You
can find it at the big box store. They're they're
they're available everywhere nowadays. Red Guard. It's not cheap, but
it's a wonderful brush on waterproofing membrane. Uh. And what
(03:14):
you could do is you can backbrush the backside of
all of that paper, fix any cracks. Uh. And it
will also go up against the studs and help seal
things so that every stud bay would essentially be sealed
unto itself before you reinsulate those walls. And that would
do an amazing job. Another option, and this is a
(03:35):
little bit trickier, and you're going to hire a company
to do this, would be to arrow seal and I
say arrow e a E R O errow seal the
house while it's in this state of stripped studs. And
what happens there is this company will come in. They
will basically uh uh seal up all the windows and doors.
(03:59):
They will set up a pressurized fan membrane on one
of the door exterior door openings, doors or windows, and
they will pump the house full of pressure. They'll pressurize
the air inside the house, and they will have these
basically kind of like fine calking compound emitters, silicone emitters
(04:21):
in every single room, all spraying and making this very
fine mist. And what happens is it's kind of like
I equate it to like you know those cans that
you use to blow up a tire right that has
gone flat on the freeway. It's a foam. It goes
inside the tire and because of the pressure, the foam
(04:44):
finds the holes and it seals the hole. It's not
a permanent thing for a tire, but it's the same concept.
So once they pump the house full of air pressure,
that air wants to leak out. It wants to leak
out every hole, every crack, every little thing everywhere. And
if you simultaneously fill a room with this uh calking
(05:06):
compound mist, guess what happens. It drives that compound into
all of those cracks, they build up and you can
air seal, a rodent seal, bug seal the entire house
and talk about energy efficiency. That's a great way to go.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Now.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
You can also if you just want to go Bay
for Bays stud for stud and do this diyat yourself.
That's totally totally a thing you can do. But you
can have a company come in and in one day,
just a few short hours, boom hit the entire house
all at once, and have the confidence of knowing that
man our house, no matter how old it is, it
(05:43):
is sealed up. And I applaud you for wanting to
do that at this stage, because you know what, once
you've stripped down the whole house and you've got all
of these stud walls bear, now is the time to
do something exactly like that.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Tim, Yeah, it looks like it's my one chance to
do it now. This is still okay. I'm removing all
the ceiling drywall and insulation from the attic also so
that pressurized system is still workable like that.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Yeah, it's workable that way as well. Now. Sometimes some
people want to put the ceiling lid on Before they
do that, just be to keep it all in the
usable air space, But I would call the company and
talk to them about your your options, you know, as
far as that goes.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Okay, that leads me to one more little question about this.
I'm also going to remove all the roof tile. I'm
gonna i'd like to put foil faced plywood on the
roof surface and remove all the roofing and put the
replace everything with foil fate plywood to keep the heat
out of the attic. Do you have any thoughts on that?
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Uh, it's it's a great way to go. That Foil
backing is standard practice now for us new home full
remodel redo. We wouldn't we would not resheet we I
mean our company would not resheet a roof without using
the foil backed OSB sheathing up there, because it really
(07:08):
does when it comes to infrared. Now, it's just foil
and so it's not going to be an insulator like
resisting heat rising up through the house or anything. But
what the foil does is it knocks out a huge
chunk of infrared which which brings additional unnecessary heat to
the attict. So yeah, it is a it is a proven,
(07:30):
uh proven effective building material that that we use every time.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Okay, well, appreciate your your help with those two things.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Thanks all right, Tim, Good luck with all that. Buddy.
You're you're you're thinking right, you're thinking properly about this.
You got it all stripped out. Now is the time
to do some major rehab that helps everything before you
close all those walls back up. All right, when we
come back, more of your calls your Home with Dean Sharp,
the house Whisper.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI Am six forty.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
We're talking antique vintage retro today on the show, just
giving you tips and some wisdom along the way. How
to incorporate it, how to handle it, what your options are,
how to understand it better. We're going to return to that,
of course in just a bit, but right now taking calls.
I want to go to the phones. Let's talk to Michael. Hey, Michael,
(08:27):
welcome home.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Oh thank you for taking my call. I have a question.
I have a refrigerating at vacant guest house. If I
turn off, would I create a problem when I turn
on later on, like you know, several months from now.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
No, it shouldn't. If if you make sure that you
have cleaned the inside of that thing to the point
of sterile keep it, you know, and before you after
you clean it, before you close it up, you make
sure you keep the door open and let it dry
out completely. Because the thing is a refrigerator that has
(09:08):
been in use, has been used, you know, moisture develops
inside and then as long as as long as you
keep the refrigeration on, then that moisture never turns into mold, mildew,
all of that stuff. But once you've got moisture trapped
inside this box that is completely sealed up, the moisture
(09:30):
has zero places to go, and you raise the temperature
inside that box, you're literally creating a situation where mold
and mildew, you know, want to grow because it's got
enough air to do it. And then some people come
back months later and open it up and find, oh
my gosh, what did we do. So it can totally
(09:52):
be done. Totally totally be done. It's not an issue
of the refrigerator motor at all. Just unplugging and not
using a fridge that's not a problem. But you just
got to make sure that it's cleaned up on the inside.
And some people, by the way, if it's unused, some
people will prefer to clean it and then just slightly
(10:12):
prop opened the door so that airflow continues in there
and it's not completely sealed up. So as long as
it's clean and dry, no problem unplugging a fridge for
an extended period of time.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Okay, I appreciate it. I have another quick question. I
have we remodeled the kitchen many years ago, and we
could create a wet bar, but we have not used
it for many years. I turn the water on. There's
no water come on. So if I guess, if you
don't use it, you lose it.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
No, all right, don't don't, don't fool yourself. Okay, okay,
but yeah, so what has happened. Very likely there's still
water there. There's still water. So don't think, oh, let's
just tear this out and just we'll get a saw
and we'll just cut those pipes off because there's no
water in them. Oh yes there is, Oh yes there is.
(11:07):
Here's what happens though. An angle stop. An angle stop
that's the official name for the valve that's down below
the sink. Okay, that's the valve that transitions from the
water in the pipes to the hose that leads up
to the faucet. Angle stops are notorious for wearing out
(11:29):
just as they sit in place, because let's face it,
if you know, in an ideal situation, we turn that
valve on and you know, maybe twenty thirty years later
we go back to do we decide to change the
sink out. That's the first time in thirty years that
this valve has been operated. So what is most likely
the case is that the valve is frozen, or even
(11:51):
though the valve the top a knob is spinning, it's
not actually closing the valve down, or I should say
opening the valve up in your case, because you're going
to it was closed a long time ago and now
it's just spinning and it's not opening. But I guarantee
you there's water back there. So what you've got is
a situation where totally you can completely get rid of
(12:13):
that wet bar if you want, but if you want
to reactivate it, you have to shut the maine down
for the house and actually replace the angle stops so
that it lets the water through.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Okay, I appreciate the information, been very helpful. Thank you
very much.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Thank you, Michael appreciated. Good luck on all that you're
doing there. All right, y'all. When we come back, let's
dive back into antique and vintage and retro. And I've
still got some more pearls of wisdom for you. Your
Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
You are Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper. That's me.
We're talking antique, vintage, retro, nostalgic dec today, and they're
huge subjects. I mean, each one of those categories is
a major subject. What I'm doing is sort of introducing
you to the genre genre. Why are you laughing at me?
(13:16):
Why does she laugh at me? I know I'm a
nerd anyway, I'm just introducing you to this stuff today
and giving you some tips and hopefully some perspective as
to what you can do if you are one who
leans towards loving antique, vintage in all storms of nostalgic design.
(13:42):
So a few more tips for you here, pearls of wisdom.
One of the things that you should decide right up
front when you are working on a house and you're thinking, okay,
what's the effect that we're going to get here. Oddly enough,
not a lot of people think this through. Decide whether
you want to create a hundred year old house or
(14:05):
a new house with one hundred year old design sensibility. Wait,
isn't that the same thing? No, I'm going to say
that again. Decide whether what you want to create in
the end is the look of a of a hundred
year old house, meaning someone looks at it and says, WHOA,
this is old, or a brand new house that just
(14:27):
happens to look like it was built, you know, one
hundred year old design? Does that make sense? Am I
making any sense? What's so? The point is this, You
got a lot of antiques out there, a lot of
vintage stuff that's distressed. That's like weathered barnwood. There's a
(14:48):
perfect example. Weathered barnwood is a very vintage look. Right,
So if you're going for that vibe, then somebody walks
in and it's like, woh, that thing looks like it's
a one hundred years old. That's not the case though,
if you are trying to do a hundred year old
(15:08):
design motif that looks like it was just built yesterday. Right,
So you understand what I'm saying, so when that barn
was built, wherever that weathered barn would come from, when
that barn was built one hundred and fifty years ago,
it looked brand spanking new, but it is clearly one
hundred and fifty year old design and craftsmanship gone into
(15:31):
the barn. So what you've got to decide is whether
you want the barn looking brand new circa one hundred
and fifty years ago, or whether you want the effect
to be this thing's been sitting here for one hundred
and fifty years, and you see how weather it is.
It's got that patina. A brand new nineteen twenties built
(15:52):
has is a house with no patina, Okay, a house
who's point and focus is to really give you that Hey,
look you're in a one hundred year old room. That's
a room with patina, That's what I'm saying. So that's
one of the most foundational decisions you make from a
design perspective before you start acquiring vintage and antique pieces
(16:16):
for decor, because they need to lean one way or
the other. Are they fully restored so they look brand
spank and new, or do they look their age? Okay?
There you go. Another thing that you're always trying to
do if you're striking for that to vintage or antique feel.
And this is regardless of whether you're looking aged or not.
(16:37):
In the home is to conceal as much twenty first
century technology as possible. Nothing ruins the effect of a
vintage room like a big old flat screen TV. Right,
But I want you to have your TV in your
vintage living room or family room. I just want you
to find a creative way of having it there, so
(16:57):
you go out and get yourself like a Samsung frame
that is a TV that's specifically designed to look like
a painting as it hangs there and not being used.
Or we find a way to hide the TV in
a cabinet behind bifold doors, whatever the case may be,
so that when it's not movie night and TV night,
(17:18):
the room really holds up and holds to its vibe.
So hiding twenty first century technology is a challenge, but
a great discipline of craft when it comes to creating
a new old look. There you go. Craftsmanship in general.
(17:39):
Craftsmanship in general is the truest vintage element that we
strive for when we're leaning towards vintage and antique. I
mean let's face it, the old phrase. You know, they
don't make them like they used to. I just try
and imagine a world. I mean, I know, find join
(18:00):
craftsman today. They are few and far between.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Now.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
If you live here in southern California, by the way,
it's on you, because they're out there, they're here, they
are here. You may not be able to find this
kind of thing in the middle of the Midwest in
a small rural town, but you can find it here
in southern California. So if you're looking for it, you
got to look beyond the big box stores and the
big commercial builders. You can find that fine craftsmanship here.
(18:29):
It's a small pool, but it's here, and so that's
on you. But I think craftsmanship in general is the
thing that we missed the most from a bygone era.
It's almost as if we really enjoy the comedy of
John Mulaney. He has a bit where he's like, oh,
you wake up. It's like nineteen ten. You wake up,
(18:50):
and you're like, oh, it's the olden times, and what
are we gonna do to there's literally nothing to do.
There's nothing to do today, and so it's as if
you have nothing better to do. Than to wake up
in nineteen ten and do everything slowly with incredible care.
(19:11):
That is the byproduct of living in olden times. And
I think that just sort of holds true. I'm sure
that wasn't the case. I'm sure they had plenty of
things to do, but it certainly was a time when
you know, we were up in Solving this week. There
is a clock store in Solving. I call it a
(19:33):
clock store. I think it's Renaissance antiques. If you get
a chance to get to Renaissance antiques, you will be
blown away if you are a lover of clocks and
music boxes and antiques in general. They have an exquisite collection.
But you know, it's the kind of stuff I'm staring
at a grandfather clock and thinking how long did the
(19:55):
clockmaker take to make this piece? And the answer is
usually months and or years, and that is just kind
of an unheard of thing these days. Right. So, ultimately, craftsmanship,
the truest vintage element that we're actually going for, that
puts us right there in that place. And that means
(20:15):
that when you are handling these things, when you are
and I don't mean physically handling, I mean your incorporation
of these elements into your home. Do them with care,
not slipshod, not just you know, just sort of you know,
half cocked as you go. Do it with care. Do
it with care, take time, and do the details right,
(20:39):
and you will be infinitely rewarded. In the process of
acquiring vintage, retro and antique things, take the care and
when it comes to fitting it well in your house,
research research, research, research, research. You need to become a
student of not only so you can identify antiques and
(21:04):
vintage stuff when they come along, but so you understand
the original intent of what these things were and you
can incorporate them well and not abuse them as they
become a part of your home.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Welcome home, Hey, thanks for being with us on the
program today. Another three hours spent talking about your home,
all of its potential, all these different facets of things
that we can do. What was that, Tina, I'm sorry,
she's mouthing something from and I'm not getting it. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
when the time comes. Yeah, oh, I thought you were
(21:47):
reminding me about the video, so you inadvertently did it.
You did it you reminded me up on social media
right now, we just did a quick video raising the
subject of an antique piece. Do you preserve it and
don't touch it or can you do stuff to it
and incorporate it into your home and honor it? Does
(22:09):
it honor it or destroy it? So you got to
look at the video and you have to make up
your own mind. We just use an example from our
little guesthouse bathroom there and you can figure it out.
That's on all of our soot, well not all of it.
It's on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. There you go home with Dean.
While you're there, why don't you just say howdy and
(22:29):
maybe also like and follow us or refer us to
somebody else share share the love, all right, I'm not begging.
I'm just saying, Okay, last thoughts now on vintage and
antique for the day, doing that kind of authentic work.
I touched on it right before the break. I just
(22:51):
want to underscore this when it comes to doing this,
you know what, if you have a passion for it,
then you've just got to dive in and research, research, research, research.
It all comes down to research and educating yourself along
the way, and believe me, that is a constant process
for me. Constant, all right, And I know a lot,
(23:13):
but I am constant. If there's one thing that absolutely
everybody could say that is true of Dean is that
he is just a consummate student when it comes to
these kinds of things. I don't like calling myself a
master of anything, but I will proudly tell you that
I am a student of a lot of things because
(23:35):
I love learning and if you're going to pull off
some things, you really really got to understand them from
down below. I remember back in the very I mean,
this has been the way it's been for my whole career.
In the early nineties, I got the first large research
project that I was ever handled at handed as a designer.
(23:58):
I was personally in charge as the design director of
a build. We were building a twelve thousand square foot
eighteenth century Tuscan villa in Brentwood Park. And long before
we broke ground, I was a regular fixture at Hennessy
and Ingles. And if you don't know what Hennessy and
(24:19):
Ingles is, it is a it's in the arts district downtown.
It is I still believe the largest art architecture and
design bookstore in the Western United States, and I was
like there, it was literally kind of like a hey, dean,
you just headed back to your table in the back
yal see. That's how Haffen. I was in there, pouring
(24:41):
over every detail, every book I could find, every detail
of eighteenth century Tuscan villa architecture, from cornice to columns, hinges,
door profiles, you name it. So all of that to
say that you know authentic construction or restor and the
integration of antiques and vintage items into all of that.
(25:07):
It's a tricky thing, right, and when you pull it off, man,
it's masterful. But you can also just toss something in
a room without much care and you end up looking
like a thrift store just with a bunch of dusty
old antiques lying around. I don't want that for your home, right,
We're not after that. We're after you know, showstoppers that
really really add to the character and the story of
(25:29):
your home. Not even many architects go there. By the way,
when it comes to authentic construction and restoration, I think
the folks who probably do it the very best, and
I actually learned this from them, Hollywood set decorators and
production designers. They are the ones that have to go
in because you know, audiences nowadays so sophisticated that you know,
(25:52):
if you accidentally put a nineteen thirty model telephone in
a house that's supposed to benineteen twenty seven house these days,
you're gonna get emails, you'd be like, oh, buddy, I
just happened to be a telephone officionado. And you know
that's the thing. So I like doing my best to
(26:15):
research things to the inth degree so that we can
do things as accurately as possible. But at the same time,
I want to integrate. So I would be the guy
to take the right phone for the right era. But
maybe maybe if it's your thing, paint it blue instead of,
you know, to incorporate it onto a blue wall and
(26:36):
the blue phone if that's the art piece that we're
going for. So you know, it all depends on that
sense of artistic flexibility. Are we trying to just create
a museum piece or are we really integrating it to
a news story? And there you go, and that's at
the heart of what we're talking about today. All right,
(26:59):
are you ready for this? Teeny teen is going to
videotape this because we've been putting these up online and
that's always kind of a fun thing. So here is
my closing thought for you today. Definitely not a masterpiece
of master craftsmanship, just a thought, and it's just the
thought I had sitting around the fire this morning. I'm
wearing my hoodie that I wore at the holiday show
(27:23):
with the shoulders that can display a velcrow patch on
each shoulder. You see that there's a little veltrope. I
don't know if it's cool or stupid, honestly, but I'm
having fun with it. And now I have this growing
collection of patches to choose from depending on where my
head and hard are at on any given day. Today
(27:44):
we've been talking vintage, which always makes me look forward
and backward at the same time. So today's patches are,
let's see here, my favorite childhood memory is my back
not hurting. That's a good one. And then on the
other shoulder, it says be rave enough to suck at
something new, which I think are two great bookends to
(28:05):
what we're talking about today, looking back and looking forward,
like it or not, if you're more than twenty years old,
you've actually started down the road of becoming vintage. You
might only be twenty eight and feeling in the prime
of your youth. But to it, like I said earlier
in the show, to a thirteen year old, you're already
old and you are headed toward ancient quickly. That's upsetting
(28:27):
to me. Oh, our Andrew Caravella, don't worry, buddy, You
and I we're both vintage, by the way, I suck
at my back, not hurting. Just for the record, There
you go. There it is. So there's no turning back
the clock. But that's okay. It's not the worst thing
to be vintage.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
You know.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Vintage is a word taken from wine making. It means
that time has brought a thing to its full depth
of flavor. Right, So yeah, time has passed, but that's
what you need to make a fine wine. Difference between
juice and wine is time. So try not to fear
being a bit vintage. Age has a depth and a
(29:09):
dignity about it. And if we allow time to pry
some of the vanity out of our hands, then instead
of always obsessing with outward youth, there's more room for
the far more important task of becoming inwardly young again.
So here are my tips. Don't fear growing old, only
fear growing unteachable. Don't fear not being at the center
(29:32):
of things, only fear not finding your own center. Don't
fear growing old, only fear growing unadventurous. Don't fear inflexible joints,
only fear an inflexible mind. Don't fear growing old, only
fear growing sour. Don't fear the presence of gray, only
(29:54):
fear the absence of wonder. Don't fear growing old, only
fear wasting time. Some people have always been old. I
think by that standard, others will never be old. That's
who I want to be. That's my hope for you. Today.
It's the only day we've got. It's the only today
(30:16):
we have. Let's not waste it. And by the time
it's done, we'll all be a little older, or maybe
a little younger. It's all up to us live in
the past or build ourselves a beautiful life. Well, you
all have a great Sunday afternoon, and we will see
you right back here next week. This has been Home
(30:42):
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 iHeart radio Apphi
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