The Better Bathroom

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thirteen ten, Wui B and the Homer Modeling Show brought
you my Edge Construction. The website Edge Construction Company dot com.
That's all one word, Edge Construction Company dot Com. Always
a great data Head on over to the website. Always
new stuff going up today, especially important if you haven't
been to Edge Construction Company dot com, you definitely want
to head over there. We're going to be talking about
a recent project that they completed at Edge Construction. It's

(00:22):
titled Main Bathroom. We're going to talk about some of
the details of this particular remodel, also talk about bathroom
renovation in general as well. Of course, we'll be talking
this morning with Mike two Wig, owner of Edge Construction. Mike,
how you doing this week?

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Great Sean, Good.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
To see you. I mentioned the website Edge Construction Company
dot com. I haven't mentioned the telephone number which is
six oh eight six three six three three four three.
That number six three six Edge. How'd you come up
with that? By the way to do the number that way.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
Is actually we reached out to our carrier and said,
you know, can you give us some options for this
because we thought, you know, six re six edge would
be a good way to do it or you know,
like we didn't know what was open, but they helped
us out.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
You know, that's awesome. And the other nice thing about
it is who knew Edge was like nothing to do
with well, you knew the right people to call right
at number six three six three three four three spells
out six three six Edge. We're going to be talking
bathroom renovation, and we're going to get into some of
the some of the checklist items and things think about.
But first I do want to talk about, because this

(01:22):
is going to tie perfectly in with our conversation, talk
about this, uh this recently posted main bathroom remodel up
at Edge Construction Company dot com and I wrote the
word down before we we uh we uh came on
the air today used the word normal. It's a normal
bath which which is an important term in this because

(01:42):
I think, uh, if I, if I were to put
together a book of very profound things that you've said
to me over the years, which is one of them
was most people live in normal land, I think was
it was normal and and this ties right into that.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
Let's talk about this bathroom well, well, and if you
if you think about like you know, and we've fallen.
This kind of trap to you a little bit when
you put stuff up, when you post pictures, you're wanting
to post, you know, your very best stuff and kind
of fancy stuff. And a lot of people don't live
in those kind of houses.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
They live in normal land.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
So okay, look at how many small houses are on
Madison and this this is one of them. Just a
very nice it's a it's a late eighties house, I believe,
and it was kind of indicative of the original design
and I just.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
Wanted an update.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
Things were starting to wear at a little bit and
it was very nice to do it. And you know,
by the same token, just because you live in normal
land doesn't mean you don't have choices and you can't
pick out cool stuff. One thing, by the way, I
don't want to say it before I forget, is that
if you look at the tub, it's it's a fiberlazed
tub and shower unit. But if you look at it,

(02:52):
the tub looks so much different. Now we've got some
access to the color tubs that they make the absolute
most out of the space you give them, and so
they're they're deeper, wider, a hole, more water and you
can kind of tell when you're looking at it, uh,
that that it's a little different deal. It certainly looks
different than the standard ones that used to get put in.

(03:14):
It's maybe still get put in a little too often.
These are these are really nice and we have people
out for this stuff all the time.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
I could see why I was looking at just some
really really great and pictures.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
I think we actually have that one on our short Really,
folks that.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
Want to stop in right right off the belt line,
you guys are right in Monona, Manona or Madison technically
we are.

Speaker 3 (03:35):
We're Monona, but literally across the street. And it's sort
of I don't know how they carved up the city
over there, but uh, you know, yeah, it's the line
is not.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Straight, no, not even That's why I had to ask them,
like goodness depends on Yeah, you go two sidewalk squares
down and you're an entire different munitions of pallet with this,
with this project. And you mentioned the the tub that
you guys were able to put in and the and
the surround, and that that's the cooler stuff that you
were able to put in with this. That cut part

(04:03):
of that was kind of the driver I had commented
to you also before the show about the previous bathroom.
It was it was dated, but it doesn't to me,
it didn't look like terrible. I sometimes get this vision
of like, oh, you've got to remodel a bathroom. They're
you know, they're falling apart, and like there's like crack
tile or like missing this, and maybe it's just the photo.
The photo. The bathroom space didn't look terrible, but you

(04:25):
did mention to me about the previous bath that was
in there. It wasn't holding up particularly well. And it's
it's not unique in this problem.

Speaker 3 (04:34):
Right, those the older fiberglastub units, especially the kind of
builder grade ones, pick on them a little bit. I'm
sure you've seen this where the finish gets real dulls
starts to wear off. The fixtures that they put in
weren't that great, and i mean, let's face it, you
get thirty years and maybe a little more out of
that stuff, you're pretty lucky, I think.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
And then the.

Speaker 3 (04:55):
Floors start to get soft on those hubs, and it
actually drives a lot of remodeling because okay, this had
an older, uh maybe not super attractive, but very much
sign of the times tile and there in cabinets, and
so if you're pulling out that that tub unit maybe
doing something different, uh that that leads you into some
flooring probably and you're gonna update as much plumbing as

(05:18):
you can get at and pretty soon you're into a
bathroom model.

Speaker 2 (05:20):
Yeah. So yeah, the floors on those.

Speaker 3 (05:22):
Old fibers tubs would would would kind of wear out.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
You mentioned kind of when they kind of get dull
in that there is something about uh a, you know,
like a tub that you can clean but never looks
fully clean. And I don't know what that level is,
but like even even when it's like your own, you're
like it's just you know, like I just cleaned that, but.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
It just clean dirt.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
Yeah, exactly exactly. So we talk about kind of what
the what the start with with this bathroom model was.
Let's talk then about about what what that process looked like.
So obviously uh important things like the tub definitely need
a replacement and then kind of the overall upgrade. What
did that what that conversation kind of look like as

(06:04):
far as getting this all started.

Speaker 3 (06:06):
Yeah, I mean if you look at the like people, uh,
I can't remember how long they've owned this house, but
they knew they wanted to make a change right and
and this one was top on their list. And I
think it was because of the fixtures in there that
was kind of driving it that I know they didn't
like to design and you can kind of tell, okay,
the the basic layout of the bath was fine, Like

(06:29):
we didn't We actually didn't change it, which is is
a budget friendly option. A lot of times we've got
to move things, open up balls, pull out walls, move plumbing.
Sometimes what what the original builder did just didn't make sense.
And and the longer you live in it, the more
you're like, I want to fix I want to change this.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
I don't like this.

Speaker 3 (06:49):
But we didn't have to do any of that stuff.
It's more like refixturing, redoing the tile, floors. We obviously
had the cabinet stops and and all that stuff. But
I think it was a fairly quick design period for
this bathroom because there's there's just not It's it's not
picking out tile for the shower. Okay, it's a fiber
glass unit we have if we have in our showroom,

(07:11):
obviously get a good look at it, you know, like, okay,
this is what I want. And then our designers are
very helpful on picking out cabinets, tops, and and new
tile floor.

Speaker 1 (07:19):
Also, you know, one of the things I noticed about
the cabinets is is a very clean, very clean cabinet
that the painted cabinets just look amazing. The other thing
and I don't know if this is just something and
doing the show with you over time or what's happened,
but like my ear, my eyes right away catch like
very straight, very crisp, very aligned, aligns like, everything looks

(07:40):
very you know the words tighter, very like. It looks
really like you can tell her like some When this
was put together, there's there was a lot of you know,
there was there was a lot of work and thought
that kind of went into how these all these pieces
come together and they just fit absolutely perfectly together.

Speaker 3 (07:57):
You know that that is a testament to good installations. So,
oh that tile floor, actually we did that in our laundry.
That's one of my favorites right now. And I don't
know how to describe it. You just have to look
at it. Pull up the first bath that's on our website.
But yeah, that's that was a very cool thing, right

(08:18):
So you're I know what you're saying. Okay, the where
the cabinet doors and drawers come across. It looks like
everything is aligned perfectly. Believe it or not, they don't
usually show up in the factory that good. Are our
people are? You know, we have some really good installers
and they take their time and really make that stuff
look good. I know that I know the level of

(08:42):
cabinetry this is, and this is a really good cabinet.
But this, this can be a thing where you can
take a really good installer, a really good carpenter, can
install cabinets and have it make that initially, make that
look good. It's still as important to me to have
a a great cabinet that we're starting with, and it

(09:03):
actually makes that job a little bit easier to like,
like some of those cheaper brands and lines when they
come in, you can spend a lot of your time
as as trades people, trying to make them look like this,
and in the end you probably would have been better
off just buying a better cabinet and taking not having
all that extra labor in there. And so I know

(09:24):
it's a little bit of a bite at first, but
but that's that's one reason we picked the cabinets that
we picked.

Speaker 1 (09:29):
It really and it kind of pays it that you
talk about, you know, the amount to try and adjust
a lower quality. Why not just go with the higher quality,
set it and forget one of the things too, I
think with with this and what kind of jumps out
to me is, you know, like the previous the previous
cabinet tree was wood grain, and it's a little bit
more kind of a nat I don't know what natural

(09:50):
is right word, but like because of that, it kind
of it looks like it would hide like some of these.
You know, maybe if the like one of the cupboard
doors was slightly slightly a jar, maybe one of the
drawers was a little leaning, like because of the fact
that it's woodgrain, kind of hides that when you're doing
you know, and I know a lot of very modern
stuff with the painted cabinets, they're all one color and

(10:11):
they're very you know, you want them to look very clean.
Minute imperfections would stand out quite a bit.

Speaker 2 (10:19):
Yeah, very much so.

Speaker 3 (10:20):
And you know, there's a big difference here to us, right,
there's no if you looked at these cabinet drawers next
to a nice craftsman style door, a lot more straight
lines to deal with on the craftsmen stuff, So if
you are off a little bit, it can look like
a lot. Another thing that kind of magnifies that is
these are these the older cabinets are very common partial overlay,

(10:42):
we call it, so that like the doors and drawers
are smaller and you see more of the cabinet behind them,
whereas the new style, and it's actually really popular and
there's nothing wrong with partial overlay, by the way, like
I see nothing wrong with it. It's just like right now,
for quite a few years the style has been what
we call a furlough pool overlay, So the doors and

(11:02):
drawers kind of are all you see and you don't
see much of the cabinet behind them, and so but
that does make it tougher right for aligning everything and
make it look great.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
It's a real testamon to to the you talk about
the craftsmanship that goes into into these bathroom models. You
mentioned the tile on the on the in the room model,
and you you've seen you've applied this one other places
as well. Avenue.

Speaker 3 (11:23):
Yeah, we said, like I said before, my own laundry
has this tile. It's one of the favorite ones. When
it first showed up and I was going to install
and install it myself because I'd be embarrassed to have
somebody else do it. But I was a little nervous
because it's a I don't know how to describe it. It's
kind of like an octagon. And then it's got a
sort of a cross tile that that connects everything. And

(11:46):
I thought, okay, how is this Whenever you're doing that
and you're bringing two different styles of tile together in
a in a in a design, you know, the worry is,
you know, tile is not like see and seed out
of out of a sheet of tile, and they they
mix up material, get flat, getting getting the mold fire

(12:08):
in the oven and things can you know, things move
just a tiny bit they you know, when you when
you bake something, it doesn't always stay in exactly the
same shape that you started off with, right, and tile
is really very much the same way. So but I
was I was happy it was it was It was
really a decent install It wasn't it wasn't as uh
torturous as I thought it was going to be when

(12:28):
my wife picked out that tile. But but it turned
out great, and and I would say it was even
a little bit forgiving you like you don't see the
differences in those tiles. So it's a it's a really nice,
nicely manufactured product.

Speaker 1 (12:41):
And with with you know, we think about different flooring options,
and and of course tile is especially think for like
a bathroom, what a what a beautiful look that is?
And and uh as much as and I and nothing
against you know, other products out there, but most of
them are trying to imitate tile look. And my feeling
has always been nothing you may it may you know,

(13:01):
you look at it from afar, you may you know,
fool some people. If you walk on that floor, you're
gonna know right away it's it's real. It's the real deal.
It's a it's a real tile floor, like really well done.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
It is.

Speaker 3 (13:12):
It is really well done. And you know, we've done
plenty of the lvps and the luxury vinyl stuff and
it's a great product.

Speaker 2 (13:22):
They they used.

Speaker 3 (13:23):
To I don't know if it got sold a long
time ago as kind of waterproof stuff or water resistant
for sure. Yeah, if you take a piece of that
and put it in a five gallon pail of water,
it's not gonna get wrecked. It's it's it's gonna retain
its shape, it's gonna it doesn't absorb water. But the
the stuff that the reason I think tile is a

(13:46):
better product in a bathroom, it doesn't always fit into
people's budget. Is a little more expensive to do tile,
but the the the lvps you've got to lock them
together or you've got to glute them down, which means
there are joints there. And so if water sits in
a bath, which it shouldn't, okay, if you're getting your
getting floor rut, even tile floors, you should take a

(14:08):
take a towel and mop that stuff up. Don't don't
leave it sit for a long time because you just
don't want the chance of something seeping through and and
any kind of rot happening beneath that beneath the the
art that's on top of that floor, right, I mean
the floor that does all the work is beneath the
tile and beneath the l v p s or whatever

(14:29):
whatever else you're gonna put in there for.

Speaker 1 (14:30):
Folks that use it, it decided to go, and I
don't know why you wouldn't. I would definitely recommend it
go with the heated option for floors. Does it have
to be tile or can you use some of those
other materials? Tile best for that.

Speaker 2 (14:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (14:42):
Yeah, I mean I've seen people do it. A lot
of products just aren't going to hold up to that,
and uh we get asked all the time about it
and really tiles, tiles king there. There's there's great systems
now for doing heated floors. We've got one in our
house now the first time ever, and uh, I've said

(15:02):
to my wife, we actually undersold how great this is.
I mean, you know, they're they're fairly reasonable system to run.
It's low voltage. You can have it on a on
a smart thermostat, so you're if you get up at six,
you have it start warming up at five thirty, have
it quit by by Yes, fantastic, and so you can

(15:24):
you can do it so it's not running all day.
It's not really a primary source of heat, although we
have put him in places where it had to be
a primary source of heat and it worked well. But
uh yeah, there's there's there's just uh I can't speak
to how great.

Speaker 2 (15:38):
That that is.

Speaker 3 (15:39):
Again, like we realized, like everybody's got a budget and
you got to you gotta be smart about this and
stay within the budget. But the heated floors are sure nice.

Speaker 1 (15:46):
It's pretty it's really cool. As we talk about some
of the great things that can be done with with
the bathroom or model, there are those things that you see,
things that you don't see, and we're gonna talk a
little bit about some of those some of those things
you don't see. I also want to talk about lighting.
We talk a lot about lighting when it comes to
kitchen remodels and some of the other rooms bathroom models.
That's definitely not an area that it's overlooked either. We're
going with the details for Mike in just a moment,

(16:07):
and meantime, you haven't bent over the website Edgeconstruction Company
dot com. Head on over. That's Edgeconstruction Company dot com.
All one word teleph number six O eight six three
six three three four three that number six three six Edge.
We'll continu our conversation with Mike two egg. Of course,
Edge Construction brings you the Homer Modeling Show right here
on thirteen ten wuib A thirteen ten wu I v

(16:27):
A A Homer Modeling show, of course, brought to you
by Edge Construction Online. Edge Construction Company dot com. That's
all one word Edgeconstruction Company dot Com. They're teleph number
six O eight six three six three three four three
that number six three six Edge. I'm talking this week
with Mike about bathroom remodels and the renovation checklist, referencing
quite a bit some recent projects and one in particular

(16:48):
at Edgeconstruction Company dot com some of their newest projects there.
They're classic comfortable bathroom room model and talking about about
the project and Mike. One of those other things that
we talk about with I think a lot with kitchens,
and for good reason. Lighting is an important part of
a kitchen. As I'm looking at some of the pictures
of this bathroom model, lighting appears to be quite an

(17:09):
important part of a bathroom model. I guess probably almost
every model you do. But there's multiple lights, different areas,
different I mean, there's a lot of thought that goes
into that, isn't there.

Speaker 3 (17:19):
Yeah, And traditionally, like I don't if your houses like this,
that's the way mine was. You had the one kind
of bigger light over the sink and mirror, and that light.
He relied on that light to do a lot of
the heavy lifting, right I mean, And so a lot
of bathrooms that's all they have when we go in
there to remodel, and we want to at the bare
minimum Okay, we're going to replace that fixture and put

(17:42):
a we call it a shower can. So it's basically
an l E light in the shower, which is actually
really nice to have light in there. That's a pretty
pretty good thing. And then there's other ways we can
so we're trying to evaluate. Then, Okay, are there going
to be any spots where it just doesn't look like
there's enough light because it's very easy to add another
recess light or you know, recess led we call them

(18:05):
a recess light. But we also can get light. We
can do a fan light. So are we use the
nice Panasonic fans. They move a ton of air pretty quiet.
We can add a light in there, and you know,
that's a little bit softer light, and so it really
works well in some instances. Some masks are just kind
of weirdly shape. You might have the sink and light

(18:27):
fixture over here, and then eight feet over here is
the shower, and then it's sort of like the dead
zone in between, and so the shower the fan light
can really work nicely.

Speaker 1 (18:36):
There does does this? I think of some bathrooms that
are very tiny and sometimes don't may not even have
like a window, and even if they do have, as
in the bathroom, curtains are probably always dry. Does light
help proper lighting kind of help make that space feel
maybe bigger, more comfortable, less confined, because I think of like,
you know, I get to visit folks and they've got
like an interior bathroom where there's like, you know, there

(18:57):
is no window in there, and you really want to
use light, I think at that point to kind of
make that room feel a little more comfortable, a little
more open, a little more spacious.

Speaker 3 (19:05):
Oh yeah, And our theory is kind of in general,
is we want to daylight stuff. Okay, so whether it's
a basement, great room, or or bedroom down there or
any anything upstairs or on the main floor, we want
to daylight it, but then give you control of it.
Right So even if you've got that window in a bathroom,

(19:26):
which you know, windows and bass actually are kind of
challenging for mild because it sort of hems you into
designs like it's it's all the best place for a
new tile walking shower might be right where that window is.
And generally, like US Americans don't want to give up anything,
so it's like, oh, how can we do it and
keep the window and not have problems with water, and well, okay,

(19:47):
so you got to make some choices. The lights you
get from that window is great about what six months
of the years here in Wisconsin, and then and then
all of a sudden here it seems like it's dark
when you get up, and it's dark when you get
home from work, and so you're not you're not really
enjoying it. So you still need to daylight it. And
so getting the right amount of light is important. And

(20:10):
uh uh in a in a bathroom, it's it can
look weird when it's a little too much too, So
I think the designers are good help with that. And
you know, Dale, we have a master electrician Dale. Uh.
He's very experienced and and we we sort of now
team approach walk through this stuff. So designer Dale and
Homer when it comes time to decide at rough stage,

(20:30):
I mean that's when we're running the wires and picking
the spots before we dry. Well, that that's when when
everybody's brainstorming this and going Okay, Dale might say well
let's put one here and and oh and a designer
will go, hang on, Dale, you know, I'm not sure
that's that's the right idea. So what I'm getting to
is you need sort of this, uh, this meeting of

(20:51):
the minds here is to work through some of this too.
And and some owners like you know what, I want
lots of light as long as I can control it,
maybe I can shut something down, Uh it's a little obnoxious,
and then and keep going.

Speaker 2 (21:02):
That's what they want.

Speaker 1 (21:03):
One of the things I've learned from you over the years,
if you mentioned a brand name or like a company,
there's a reason for it. And you had very casually
mentioned Panasonic when it came to bathroom fans are no
joke there, although it does seem like even currently there
are some builders that just kind of throw them on
there as and afterthought, there's a reason why you mentioned

(21:25):
a specific brand of fans. Bathroom fans are important, aren't they?

Speaker 2 (21:29):
They are? They are.

Speaker 3 (21:30):
That's one of those things that are what is it
You're supposed to be seen, not heard, or something You're
supposed to do the job and not really stand out,
And that's what a bath fan does. I kind of
geek out over bath fans because nothing's better than a
bath fan that really works, right, You don't want Sometimes
we go into houses and they've got mold up in

(21:52):
the corners and things. And usually they've got a bath
fan that is way undersized and it's so loud they
don't want to turn it on, or or there are
certain members of their family that go, I'm not turning
that thing on, you know. Uh, so you you get
it quiet, you get it moving, a bunch of cfms
like keep it feet permitted of air. That's how they
measure it, and so so that everybody wants to put

(22:14):
it on. And then if you you know what, I
like the timers, I've got it in my house. I
don't know if you have the so let you you
can pick how many minutes you want the fan to
run after you leave. It's it's also like an efficiency thing,
right if you uh, if Madison walks in there, turns
the fan on and goes play video games, he he
may remember the next day that he put the van in,

(22:36):
but probably not so. Yeah, if you you know, if
you can set it for twenty minutes or something. And
by the way, if you're if you're showering, things are
getting fogged up, it's supposed to run for another twenty
thirty minutes after you get out of there. Because now
the data and you might be going.

Speaker 2 (22:52):
What, who's paying for all this electricity? But you know
they don't.

Speaker 3 (22:55):
Really the new stuff is pretty efficient, but it's it's
it's well worth it to have a good fan and
have it operate the way it's supposed to.

Speaker 1 (23:03):
And that's one of those not so glamorous things that
really does make right.

Speaker 3 (23:07):
Okay, So the builder grade one, I know exactly what
almost every builder in town puts in.

Speaker 2 (23:13):
Yes, it does.

Speaker 3 (23:14):
It costs them like twenty bucks. Yeah, and you know
if you spent another sixty bucks, which I realize is
three times twenty, which that goes against what most builders
believe in. But okay, if you were building a house
and it costs what houses costs today five six, one
hundred thousand dollars, believe it or not, would you be
willing to spend another one hundred bucks to have decent

(23:35):
fans throughout your house?

Speaker 2 (23:37):
I would be willing. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:40):
The other thing too, with and I know you've talked
about this year. Sometimes you'll find ceiling fans that are
just vented to in attic, have you. Oh yeah, let's
talk about that too. Is not just moving the air out,
but literally moving the air you want to get that out.

Speaker 3 (23:54):
Needs to go out, Yeah, needs to go through the
road for vented into a soft what you do that
quite often? Uh, but yeah, we we find you know,
and that is a can be disastrous. We've had houses
that we've we've it's led to many thousands of dollars
worth of fixes. When when that happens, because we get
up there and look around, I mean sometimes we were

(24:16):
not even there to do that. We were up there
running wires or something. We notice that the fans are
vented into the attic, which creates a ton of humidity
in that attic.

Speaker 2 (24:27):
You we we're cold, meats warm, you.

Speaker 3 (24:31):
End up with with water paper or water. And so
if that's happening in a roof above the insulation, that's
a that's a terrible thing. Means you're you're gonna get rot.
We've had to virtually do trust fixes, tear things out, uh,
tear platter, offer roofs, let to let it. Let you know,
mat if you shingled it last year or or yesterday.

(24:54):
A lot of times that stuff has to all come
off and be dealt with. And so make sure that
whoever's doing this work knows what they're doing and ask
the right questions right, make sure it's vented out.

Speaker 1 (25:03):
Who new ceiling fans would be so important and so
exciting as we talk this morning, Mike two Wig, owner
of Edge Construction, the website Edge Construction Company dot com.
That's all one word, Edge Construction Company dot Com. DOLF
number six oh eight six three six three three four
three That number six three six Edge talk a little
bit more about bathroom renovation. We will do that next
if the Homer Modeling Show with Edge Construction continues right
here on thirteen ten Wiva. This is the Homer Modeling

(25:28):
Show brought to you by Edge Construction Online. Edge Construction
Company dot com. Again, that's Edge Construction Company dot Com.
They're telephone number six O eight six three six three
three four three. First, always remember six three six Edge
talking about bathroom remodeling. A little bit about kind of
that renovation checklist, talking about a recent remodel, kind of
focusing a lot on that because it's a really great

(25:49):
example of just kind of a really nice, really well done,
but a pretty normal remodeling project. And again, as Mike,
I know you started the conversation off kind of pointing
this stuff out. I think of like I love taking
pictures of my dog Homer. The pictures I generally take
are pictures of him sitting. We've got on the back
of our house. I've got the windows on three sides

(26:11):
on natural light. There's plants, but beautiful area. Take a
lot of pictures from back there. I don't take a
lot of pictures of him. I'm sitting on my bed
in the morning. We're like, oh, my clothes are piled
up or anything like that. But the same thing is,
like you want to obviously, there's that temptation always to
show like the really and extravagant stuff, which there's a
lot of that out there, but kind of a regular
one is always helpful as well. And one of the

(26:31):
things that that caught me about this and we started
our conversation this week talking about the bathtub shower that
upgrade there. This is and tile work is gorgeous. It's
it's amazing what you guys do with edge construction, with
some of these like these walking showers and some of
the other stuff that you guys that you guys do,
and just really really beautiful spaces. This is this is different,

(26:54):
this is this is kind of this is now that's
surround is that by Kohler as well, and how is that? Yeah,
looks really really well done and really nice. Let's talk
a little bit about that about that product and that's around.

Speaker 2 (27:05):
Yeah, that's.

Speaker 3 (27:07):
So when you're when you're when you're not picking the
budget basement stuff, right, I mean, And it's tough for
owners because if you stood all this stuff side by
side at first, a lot of these things are going
to look fairly similar. Like you're gonna say, well, the
finish looks exactly the same here as it does here.
About sixty percent of plumbing products in America come from

(27:29):
this place far away. It starts with C and they
and I'm not saying it's it's all bad, but they're
you know there, it's a little bit of a minefield
and negotiate and you from as from a standpoint of
my standpoint, okay, I've got to go, well, okay, is
it worth saving a couple hundred bucks on something like
that around and to really not know what you're getting

(27:50):
versus I love the Wisconsin product color right right here
up by Sheboygan, great company, very innovative. I talked about
just how how the tub's tub has changed and how
much more room is in there and how much deeper
it is. They're operating with the same amount of space
as everybody else. It's just better designed. Now somebody over

(28:12):
there is probably copying it as we speak, so they're
going to do that. But for me, these products have
to stand the test of time because, like I said,
you don't know what's going to drive the NEXTRA model.
So if there's if twenty or thirty years down the road,
it goes an extra ten years because we put in

(28:32):
a great shower, surround and tub that that didn't drive
the NEXTRA model. Then to me that speaks to efficiency
and products lasting and that makes that product green to me, Like,
if it's going to last longer, then it's not going
to be the problem that's going to force the issue.

Speaker 2 (28:48):
Right.

Speaker 1 (28:49):
You mentioned too obviously this being the surround, and of
course tilework I know at edge construction with bathroom models
you guys do in this obviously the floor and here
as a prime example of that, really really good like
the tile work, and that is an absolute art to
do it, to do tile work well, and that and
its sometimes you know, like a lot of things is

(29:10):
because it's not a problem, it's it's sometimes misses the
appreciation folks that have had bad tile jobs or tried
to do tile themselves quickly appreciate people.

Speaker 3 (29:20):
Right, There's always there's another level to everything.

Speaker 2 (29:23):
And I think.

Speaker 3 (29:26):
The the the process that we have now, Okay, there's
there's never been more choices than we have today in tile.
So like if you come into our showroom and we
we pull from all of our suppliers and we sort
of build an inventory in our showroom, and I don't know,
we've we've got at least several hundred and probably more
than that of samples of tile, and and what we're

(29:48):
looking for. Tiles that fit into budgets, are cool, you know.
I don't know if there's you know, some of the
trendy stuff we pull in because some the trendy stuff
that I think is going to be around for a
long time. But that's sort of how we're building it.
If we pull in a cool tile that's fifty dollars
a foot, it's not going to be very budget friendly.

(30:09):
And I believe it or not, you're not getting a
better tile. You're not getting a ten times better quality
tile than you are at the five dollars foot. It's
just a unique design and maybe it's maybe it's only
produced in small lots, and maybe it's traveled a long ways,
and good designers will help find a really similar or
the same look in a tile that's a little more

(30:32):
budget friendly or easier to get. Or a lot of
times those expensive tiles you end up with other problems,
right you can't get them, the manufacturing is a little
less reliable, and so working through that all the time.
The process also behind the tile. So like I learned
from my uncles, they grew up in flooring with them,

(30:55):
and they always said, Okay, the tile that you see,
that's just the artwork. The real the real shower is
behind the tile. So there's where we use the shlooter,
membranes and and you know the curdy stuff. They're all
of their things to waterproof and make sure this this

(31:17):
this shower is gonna last a long time, and and
that all adds up to a great job.

Speaker 1 (31:21):
A couple of words I've heard of used also over
the years, block in block you're blocking in for like, uh, towel,
I think that's I think that's the term that that
you've used. But you mentioned stuff that you that you
don't see. But those like those little things as far
as the design. Obviously having a water water proof and
water resistant membrane huge and something you're never going to

(31:43):
see as a homeowner, but makes a big difference having
that plan in place as well to have the you know,
the proper again, I'll use the word blocking for like
you know, towel racks and those type of things. Again,
stuff you're not going to see, but really does make
a huge difference to the longevity of that that space.

Speaker 3 (32:00):
It does, and we have we also want to block
for the future. So we we if we're doing a
tile shower. You know, the first one I did was
maybe twenty twenty five years ago, I don't know what
it was, but I had blocked for grab bars down
the road because okay, you we always go it thirty

(32:22):
six inches up. And so that our idea basically is
when we're when we're framing in a tile shower, we
want to uh because you know, you got to be
picky on how you're going to do this when you
got tile.

Speaker 2 (32:33):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (32:34):
So we we put up two by six or two
by eight or two by ten blocks that go all
the way around so that if in the future we
want to add a grab bar somewhere we can and uh.
A few years ago, I actually got a call from
somebody that said, Okay, you did my shower. How many
you know, at least twenty years ago and you had

(32:54):
told us that you blocked for uh, grab prep for
that all that.

Speaker 2 (32:58):
Time, all that time ago.

Speaker 1 (33:00):
Do you do what you're saying that all that time?

Speaker 2 (33:03):
All that time?

Speaker 1 (33:04):
Do you do what you're saying? You don't always realize
and you're selfing a huge measure favor. And that's one
of the cool things in working with Mike and the
team at Edge Construction is is doing those little extra
things that may not always you may not notice until
twenty years later when you decide I probably need something
installed there. It's a great day to start that conversation
at edge Construction website Edge Construction Company dot com. That's

(33:25):
Edge Construction Company dot com. All on word TELP number
six O eight six three six three three four three
that number six three six Edge can't talk. This is
the Homer Modeling Show brought you by Edge Construction Online,
Edge Construction Company dot com. That's all one word Edge
Construction Company dot Com. TELP number six so eight six

(33:46):
three six three three four three That number six three
six Edge match the website. I don't think I've mentioned
it all in this program. About the links there to
have Pinterest, Facebook and how is h o u z
z great resources think about doing summer modeling. Start at
Edge Construction Company dot com. Quick on those links and
check out those projects. Been ready to start a projects,
start that conversation. I can just give them a call

(34:06):
at Edge Construction TELF number six So eight six three
six three three four three that number six three six
Edge talking about bathroom renovation bathroom remodeling this week with
Mike Twig of Edge Construction Real quick. Toilets already? Yeah?
Are they? Have we seen improvements in because it seems
like a pretty basic design. But have we seen any

(34:28):
changes or improvements or any any advancements in the world
of toilets?

Speaker 2 (34:32):
I mean, you know they they have.

Speaker 3 (34:36):
There's not no okay, But I think what they're doing
is is now they're because all the options have been there, right,
The heated seat's been there, the fan to take away
the smell has been there, the self cleaning part has
been there. The Bluetooth speaker so you can I don't know,
listen to music whatever for rail sounds or something, trying

(34:57):
to think of what else, what else would there be
barring barring just a pop up TV screen or something,
so you can watch the Simpsons.

Speaker 1 (35:07):
And they're working on it right now.

Speaker 2 (35:10):
But I think they are doing everything better.

Speaker 3 (35:12):
And so my favorite place to go I've talked about
this a lot at the National Builder Show every year
is the is color Land where they have people talking
about toilets there and they're explaining what they've done and
changed and done differently, and I I always enjoy it.
I do think they are getting better every year, getting

(35:34):
a little more efficient. The self cleaning thing has gotten
is much bigger than I thought it would be. There's
there's a lot of people that really like that part
of it, you know. And if you you've looked at
at a toilet with all these features that you bought
ten years ago, it would be clearly kind of dated
a little bit. It seems really weird talking about toilets

(35:56):
like they could be dated. But oh yeah, and what's
the what's the other.

Speaker 2 (36:02):
Where that cleans you?

Speaker 3 (36:04):
The bidet part of that cleaning both? Yeah, yes, so
we got both things covered. You know that that was
really hitting its stride over the last few years and
now all of a sudden we' seen him be geting
less questions about that. And so I don't know if
that's going out of style a little bit or what's happening.
But obviously it's pretty easy to do with the new

(36:24):
the new toilets.

Speaker 1 (36:25):
You know, we were talking earlier about about kind of
forward thinking and you know, you never know maybe adding
a bar and blocking things up. Are you seeing folks
that may not be going with some of these more
advanced toilets, but but as part of it saying maybe
put power nearby, or run you know, while we've got
the walls open, maybe run hot water in that direction
as well.

Speaker 3 (36:45):
Yeah, yeah, we have prepped for a lot of that
stuff because people go, well, you know, I don't know
if I want to do it, do it now? Or
they might want the option. You can do the add
ons right, you can do the aftermarket pa days. Some
of those are actually pretty fancy to and offer a
lot of different options. But you do need power and
do need warm water to make that work, and so

(37:06):
otherwise I think you'd be pretty surprised if you is
that who needs coffee?

Speaker 1 (37:12):
A quick question too, about as we talk about bathrooms
and and kind of getting things kind of ready for
future use. I know a lot of the builders in town,
if they've got a basement that's unfinished, they will get
a space ready for potential remodeling, potential renovation or building
or including putting a bathroom down there. And you guys

(37:34):
come across it a lot where folks have maybe been
in their house ten years or so when they say,
you know what, we've got this this space that's just there,
let's let's do some of it. People are adding bathrooms
in their in their basements, aren't they.

Speaker 3 (37:47):
They are because you know, this is a probably a
result of COVID, I think, but it's been a lot
of basement finishes over the last four or five years.
And yeah, if you have a newer house, meaning in
the last probably fifteen twenty years, the builder, when they
originally do the plans would have drawn abasement potential basement

(38:07):
finished ideas, and they're they would have located where a
bathroom would fit in that in that design and roughed
in and so that we call it roughed in. Roughed
in just means they're putting in the stuff you don't
normally see. So they put in the drain pipes in
the and whatever else there is. It's mainly the drains,

(38:29):
the supplies that's hot cold water. Those are very easy
to run in a basement. They grow up high, they
can come in down low. So usually we're not roughing
those in. But the drains are in there, they're underneath
the concrete. We can get at them pretty easily, and so.

Speaker 2 (38:43):
We fast forward.

Speaker 3 (38:45):
Now, if your house has built ten years ago, there's
a lot of people go, I don't know why they
put the bathroom there, But you know what about fifty
percent of the time now we actually break up concrete
move that bath a little bit.

Speaker 2 (38:58):
You know, we're generally not moving at.

Speaker 3 (38:59):
A forty feet across the basement, but we might be
moving around the corner. And it's not as big a
deal as you think. So it's it's really nice when
those pipes are there, even if we are breaking up
a little concrete moving things around a little bit. But yeah,
it works out great when they are there.

Speaker 1 (39:15):
I think we've all been to a house or maybe
own a house. I've got an older home. They've got
the right in the middle, there's.

Speaker 2 (39:21):
A random yes, yeah.

Speaker 1 (39:25):
Now can those be moved as well. Like let's say
I decided I want to do a basement romane, you
can do that as well.

Speaker 2 (39:30):
Yeah, of course.

Speaker 3 (39:31):
And there's a lot of small houses in the neighborhoods
in Madison and Monona where one bathroom house and we're
remodeling that bathroom and all of a sudden, you can't,
you know, you don't have a bathroom. So they're pretty
thankful for that weird toilet that sitting out in the
middle of nowhere. And there's several times we've actually built
a bathroom around those toilets too, So they were in

(39:52):
a good enough location that people went, you know what,
we need other paths.

Speaker 2 (39:55):
We're gonna do it right there.

Speaker 1 (39:57):
I know we've dug into that topic on some preview.

Speaker 3 (39:59):
I don't know, Wisconsin thing or a Midwest thing or
an American thing or what.

Speaker 1 (40:03):
I think it's a Midwest there. There's a bunch stays,
but they are and there. It's it's fascinating, but it's
also really cool when you think about obviously a newer
home making use of that space, but if you've got that,
you know, that older home, and you think about where
property values are right now and being able to add
that second bathroom, and what a huge benefit.

Speaker 2 (40:22):
That is exactly. And we you know I mentioned cor
a little bit.

Speaker 3 (40:25):
Uh, you know, there are more even if they're got
not getting used one hundred percent of the time, there
are there's offices getting put downstairs or flexible areas where
it could be a guest room slash office. People have
Madison's a melting pot. They have family everywhere, people who
have family all over the country that come and stay
once in a while too.

Speaker 2 (40:41):
So it's nice to have the extra space.

Speaker 1 (40:43):
It is a great day. And you look at that
extra space, great day. To give them a call at
Edge Construction Company telephone number six O eight six three
six three three four three that number six three six
edge of course the website edge Construction Company dot com.
That's Edge Construction Company dot com. Left talk to the again.
They're number six O eight six three six three three
four three. Of course. Edge Construction brings you the Homer
Modeling Show right here on thirteen ten wib I