Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
This is News Radio seven to ten WNTM. Uncle Henry
here with you once again on Ask the Expert, and
today we have Billy Miller with us. Billy Miller is
with Kitchen and Bath Center. Kitchen and Bath Center with
locations in Mobile, Fair, Hope, Maryester, Florida. You can find
out more at any time by going to Kitchen and
Bathcenter dot net. That's Kitchen and Baths Center dot net.
(00:31):
Billy Miller, thanks for coming in today.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Well, thank you, Uncle Henry, and enjoying it.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Now. How are things? I know that people love renovating,
remodeling kitchens and baths. How busy are you at Kitchen
and Bath Center?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Well, we stay pretty busy, you know. You know here
lately where the housing market not very many homes out
there to be sold. The homeowners are now wanting to
stay in their homes longer, and they're deciding now instead
of moving and finding a new home, they come in
and they say, let's remodel our kitchen, our baths, let's
(01:05):
remodel our home. And that's been a big factor in
our business the last several years.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Okay, now we're going to talk about remodeling kitchens and
baths and other things. First of all, I want to
let let the listeners know where are your locations of
Mobile and in fair Hope.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
So, and Mobile we're located just west of Schildinger's Road
off Cottage Hill Road, okay. And then fair Hope we're
located right there off Greenow Road, just south of Fair Hope, Okay.
And then we're also located in Maryester, Florida, off Page
Bacon Road.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Okay. So, Kitchen and Baths Center, give the people listening
an idea of what what are you able to do?
What services do you provide?
Speaker 2 (01:51):
So at Kitchen and Bass Center, we offer everything from cabinry, countertops, flooring,
you know, culture Marble. We manufacture our own Culture Marble
as well. Okay, and we offer shower doors. And so
we have two manufacturing plants, one and Mary Esther Or
(02:11):
Fort Walton and then the other ones in fair Hope, Alabama.
So at any time we can get something made pretty
quick if it need be. You know, if there's something
that goes wrong, we're able to turn that around quickly,
just because we are a manufacturer of Culture Marble.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Now do you do anything beyond kitchen and baths.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
At this point, we know we're not we do mainly
we structured you know, kitchen and baths, flooring, stuff like that.
We work with a lot of remodelers, a lot of
contractors that they do other things in the house and
then they bring us in to do those projects for them.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Okay, now I want to talk to you about kitchen
and bathroommodels. But I've got friends and family at this
point in my life and in their lives where they
have difficulties physically due to age or illness, and several
people I know are thinking about converting their bathrooms into
(03:12):
something that are easier to handle when you have physical problems.
Do you run into this a lot? Do you help
people convert bathrooms to be handicap accessible or just easier
to use?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Yes, sir, we most definitely do so. That is probably
one of our biggest things that we offer right now
for customers. Most people you know are staying in their homes.
They're not going to be moving, so they're wanting to
get their home their bathrooms ready for them as they
get older. Okay, and then we do have situations where
people if unexpectedly had accidents or something like that, something
(03:47):
has happened that we have to convert their tub into
a shower. So we have what we call a remodeler's package.
It goes into the same place as where a existing
tub was, and we can do the culture marble pan,
we can do the seats. We put bench seats in it,
corner seats in it. You're nice jumbo soap dishes. Turn
(04:10):
that into a nice bathroom one and then two. It's
very accessible for people, you know, with handicap issues or
like you just said earlier, you're getting old in life.
It's just life, you know, and you know we'll we'll
put in you know, make sure we put in blocking
behind the wall so you know, whether you do it
now or you do it later, you know there's wood
(04:31):
blocking back there so you can put grab bars, you know,
because you've got if you need assistance getting in and
out to hold on to something.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
So this is something you do a lot of tub
to shower conversions, then.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Yes, sir, that we do. We probably do three or
four of those a week.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Now. How that is something that I've never been a
part of. How how major a project is a tub
to shower conversion for us?
Speaker 2 (04:54):
It's not customers customers think, oh my gosh, here.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
And what it is. That's our bathroom has changed, right,
big deal.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
The customers, they stress, We try to we try to
keep that stress level. We try to assure them, Hey,
just just sit back, enjoy, go go watch us. We
can be in and out in three days, you know,
by the time, by the time we demo it, by
the time we you know, the plumber comes in, and
then we're right back putting it all back together. So,
(05:21):
I mean, you know, sometimes we run into some you know,
glitches or here, something that might take an extra day,
but we've got you within let's just say, within a week.
You know, on something as simple as a tub conversion,
you're back to your normal life with your brand new shower. Now.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
By the way, if you just tuned in, you're listening
to Billy Miller with Kitchen and bath Center. Kitchenanbathcenter dot
net is the website.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
You can go there.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Anytime and find out more about what Billy Miller is
telling us. So the tub to shower conversion. Uh, do
you do you ever work with a VA on these things?
Speaker 2 (05:56):
We do. So we are set up through the VA.
So if you're a veteran and you apply through the VA,
we're one of the vendors that they ask you to call,
We go out, we give the quotes to the VA
I mean, to the customer to do that tub shower conversion.
Because majority of the vas that we get are getting
(06:18):
to wear either the age or they've been disabled or something,
and they've got to be able to get in and
out of a shower, and so we work closely with them.
We get a lot of business through the VA for
the veterans.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Okay, so if this is something that a veteran is
thinking about doing their family, they can get in touch
with you and you can help them walk through the process.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Yes, we most definitely can.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
All right now, when somebody comes to you for a
kitchen remodel, what is most popular right now? What are
people really gravitating toward these days?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
So right now, one of the biggest things is the
shaker door on cabintry. Everybody wants that clean, simple look
and the shaker cabinet doors and the white cabinets and
the gray cabinets has been the hottest thing going for
the last several years. So people are coming to us
(07:17):
with their you know, twenty twenty five year old kitchen
that is all dark and they decide to come in
there and they want to remodel and go brighten it up. Unfortunately,
I had to do my house about two years ago
due to a fire. Oh well, I had the dark
kitchen in the house. Yeah, after I got done with it,
(07:38):
I changed out, went to nice quartz countertops, you know,
had dark for mica countertops actually prior, and dark cabinets.
So people would come to my house, friends of mine
that had been in my house, you know, weekly walk
in and say, oh my god, what have you done
to your kitchen? It's so much bigger. And I'm like,
I haven't done anything other than change the cabinets out
(08:00):
and made them white, lightened up the floor, lightened up
the countertops. And it's a perception that it makes your
kitchen so much bigger. And then when you're changing cabintry
out from the you know you're existing to new cabin
try there's so many things you bells and whistles you
can add. Now, the biggest thing is the soft closed
doors and the soft closed drawers.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Now I've never heard of this. Explain to me what
that is. What is a soft closed door on a cabinet.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
So you when you close your door, you can go
to shut your door, and it'll stop at a certain
point and then it'll just close by itself. Oh, your drawers,
when you open your drawers, they're full extension underguide guides,
and they're also soft closed. So in other words, on Hendrey,
(08:46):
if you had a bad day and you were mad
at something and your drawer was open, and you went
to slam your drawer, you're not going to tear your
drawer up because it's gonna stop to a certain point
and then it's gonna close quietly.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Well. See, I I never want to slam the cabinet
doors or drawers because I'm paid for them. But I
know other people that enjoy slamming the cabinet doors to
make a point to let everybody know what's going on.
Let's slam a door. So this the and it's called
soft clothes.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Yes, soft clothes.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Now you also brought up quartz countertops. Yes, I've never
interviewed anybody about this. What are the qualities of a
quartz countertop that people like?
Speaker 2 (09:27):
So on the quartz countertops, Now everybody's wanting to come.
Everybody's wanting lighter colors. You know, they're wanting to brighten
up their kitchens with lighter colors. Well, in granted you
don't have that option. Most of your granted is going
to be it's it's granite comes out of the ground,
so a lot of it's earth tones. You do have
some grays and some lighter colors and granite, but they're
(09:50):
not the whites. So with quartz, it's a man made product.
There's several different kinds of quartz out there, and it
basically is it looks like real marble, So it gives
that customer that real marble look, that light color. You
can get it with white, with gray veins, you can
get it white with brown veins. There's so many different options.
(10:12):
And you can still get the darker colors in quartz
as well. But majority of people are trying to lighten up,
brighten up their kitchens, you know, and that's that's been
a very popular sell in the last seven to eight years.
You know.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Well, as you pointed out just a few minutes ago,
it is such a startling difference. I had the same
experience you did when I had a dark, dark kitchen
cabinets and all I did was paint and white and boom,
I mean, it looked like a completely it looked twice
as big, right as you said, even though all it
was was a color change. Tell me about what do
(10:48):
what kind of flooring do people want in kitchens? Because
you know, over the years, I know, since you've been
doing this since nineteen ninety eight, I'm sure you've seen
it go for so many different types of flooring popular now.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
So flooring right now, there are so many options in flooring.
You can you a customer can get overwhelmed runing at
flooring because there's just so many looks. Right. But one
of the biggest things customers are looking for less grout lines.
You know, everybody wants that minimum size grout lines and
the least amount. So your twelve by twenty four tiles
(11:23):
has gotten popular.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Okay, Now are we talking ceramic tone.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Yes, sir, karamic porcelain towels, Okay, yes, sir. So you're
you're twelve by twenty four look, you know, has gotten
to be very popular versus a twelve by twelve which
was back in the day. So half the grout lines now.
They are making bigger towels nowadays. So the key is
(11:48):
people want to see less grout. Nobody likes grout because
it's just so hard to keep up.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Yes, it is.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
And even in showers with tiles, showers, they're getting bigger
and bigger with tile, you know, people are doing the
twenty four by forty eight's in tile showers now and
then that's where you know and keep the grout lines minimum.
But that's where the Culture Marble comes in too. Culture
Marble for your showers. We have a product right now
(12:16):
that is it's Culture Marble, but it looks like subway tile.
And Uncle Henry, let me tell you. I started doing
this probably about eight years ago. I was in a
parade house and I set it up for the builder
in the parade house and I worked the home show
that weekend. So many people walk through that house and
(12:39):
I'm sit in the bathroom. I said, how do y'all
like that shower with no grout? And they're like, no grout.
They couldn't believe me. They had to open the door
and go in there and look. People thought it was
real subway tile. And it's just from that point on
it has taken off and so many builders have taken
(12:59):
a notice of it, and I get that is probably
one of our hot cellars right now for showers. Is
our culture marble subway tile.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Now in a kitchen remodel, if if somebody listening, what
if they only want to do cabinets or or only
want to do a countertop, can you do those kind
of jobs too, or.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Most definitely we we we can do the littlest or
the biggest part, you know. Uh, you know, and we've
had people that say, you know, they're going to repaint
their cabinets, and well, that's fine, we don't do that part. Uh.
We have now access through our company where we can
refinish cabinets a certain way. So we're getting into that,
(13:41):
but we don't do that right now. We're not big
into that. But we we go in there and we'll
put countertops and you know, they'll come back and they'll
paint their cabinets later, or they decide they want to
refigure the look of their kitchen. You know, we've had
it where we've gone in and they said, I'd really
(14:02):
like to have my refrigerator over here because it makes
more sense over here than over here. And then we'll
move stoves, we'll move things around, reconfigure their kitchen and
then with all the new things that you can do
in cabinry now that you could didn't do back in
the day. All the different accessories that people like, you know,
the lazy Susans, the rollout drawers inside, all the soft
(14:24):
clothes like we were talking about earlier. People really want
these things and so then they decide, Okay, it's gonna
cost me this much to repaint. Well, if I spend
another five thousand dollars, I can get a whole brand
new kitchen with all the bells and whistles that I want.
So most people will change and go to spend the
extra money and get all the bells and whistles.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Speaking of money, financing.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
We do financing so we can get you up to
you know, zero interests up to twenty four months. You know,
we have all kinds of different options for financing. And
that's just easy. I mean, we can get that signed
up quickly. You know. You just go online and fill
out the stuff and it takes a few minutes to
get your approval.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Again. If you just tuned in, you're listening to Billy
Miller with Kitchen and Bath Center. You can find out
more by going to the Kitchen and Bathcenter dot net. Locations
of Mobile Fair, Hope and mary Ester, Florida, now talk
to me about backsplashes in kitchens because I have through
the years, I feel like I've seen almost every substance
(15:28):
known to man experimented with as a backsplash with people.
What's trendy? What do people like these days in backsplashes?
Speaker 2 (15:36):
So right now with you know the tile, backsplash has
always been popular, right you know your subway tile, that
has always been a popular. Now the people are doing
so many different designs. But I'll tell you one of
the hottest things that's going and this has probably been
in the last year, I would say, okay, is when
you do your countertop, they're taking the countertop all the
(15:58):
way up as a backsplash. Okay, so now you have
no scenes. Now your countertop and your backsplash all are
the same. And then if you've got if you got
the countertops that have the veining going through it when
you're looking at it, because when you walk into a kitchen,
you don't really see the veining because your countertop's laying flat,
but on the wall it's standing up vertical. So when
(16:19):
you walk into a kitchen, you're seeing all of that veining,
and that makes your kitchen pop. And that's what people
are looking.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
At well, it makes sense the way you described it,
it makes sense. And also if you've got beautiful countertops,
why wouldn't you right?
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Why when you do that right and then we're already
there putting the countertops in, So the cost of that
is minimum extra going from that to regular tiles backsplash
because tile backslash, you're paying for material. Then you got
to pay for a different labor to come in and
install it, where with the countertops, we're paying for the
countertop material, but we're also same labor is doing everything,
(16:55):
so it all can be done at one time and
it's finished.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Now, what about sinks, are they still the same as
they've always been or their innovations or different materials being
these these days?
Speaker 2 (17:04):
So most sinks, you know, most people are doing the
stainless still right, And a lot of folks now back
in the day, you always had the fifty to fifty
or the sixty forty, you know, to where you clean
your vegetables in one side of this is in the other.
But so many people are cooking more nowadays, and you
have all these bigger pots in the bigger pans, so
(17:26):
everybody's pretty much going to the big, large single sink.
It's just a big sink, okay, you know, and then
the farm sink look has gotten popular where it's the
apron type sink. Yeah, and it's just a big, large
sink with the apron look. That is a good looking look,
especially when you're doing the shaker cabintry. It's just a
(17:49):
clean look.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Okay, we have just a few minutes left. We've talked
a lot about kitchens, and I guess I focused on
that a lot with you because I'd mentioned to you
before we started the conversation. I talk with real estate
agents and they tell me kitchens sell houses, and I
know that just people. Uh, people focus on kitchens and
spend a lot of time in kitchens. Uh. But bathrooms,
(18:13):
are there any trends? What is what is really popular
in bathrooms these days? When people get a remodel.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
So if you've got the room people are trying to
get now most people want to try to get a
big walk in shower.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Walk in shower is is where everything's going. Uh. We're
seeing it in a lot of new construction now. People
are doing away with the tub and the master bath
and making their showers double the size and putting nice
seats in the shower, you know, the rain heads, all
the all the all the bells and whistles, the jets
and stuff like that. So the big walk in showers
(18:50):
is probably one of the biggest things that we try
to do. The look of that you could either be
the culture marble or the tiell. You know, it's it's
just amazing look. And then no glass. People people trying
to get away from glass. So when you get these
big walk in showers, you put all your water at
(19:12):
one end of the shower, You've got a wall, and
then you just have a doorway at one end and
you walk in that way. You turn on your shower
and you walk into your shower. No glass is needed.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Now for for a lot of homeowners probably love these things,
but wouldn't even I know, I wouldn't even have the
imagination to come up with this kind of stuff. You
help with the design, right, I mean, you can help
us show us what's possible.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
We do we do so in all three locations we
have showrooms. So in those showrooms we have different displays
we have. We have the ladies in there that will
help you design. They'll help you pick out colors. You know,
we I mean they're great. They're great to work with.
I was just with a builder this morning and his decorator,
(20:00):
and she was telling me how she loves our girl
in the mobile office, Tasha. She goes. All my customers
keep telling me, we want to go back deal with Tasha,
We want to go back and deal with Tasha, and
and it's it's you know, she's great at I mean,
they're all great. All of them are great at all locations.
At helping the customers. We listen, We listen to what
you want, and then we throw in our knowledge of
(20:24):
what we've done in the past. We show you things,
and then we put your thoughts and our ideas together
and we come up with that beautiful kitchen or beautiful bathroom.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Now in a in a complete remodel of a kitchen.
Do you also offer suggestions or help if we want
to do different lighting or different appliances, do you help
with those things or at least at least offer suggestions
on this thing.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
So we work with a lot of different other vendors.
Uh So in this market you have to, because you know,
we refer to different companies, they refer to us. It's
that scratch your back method. You know, Hey, you help me,
I help you. So, yes, when customers come in and
there's things that we're doing that we don't offer, we
(21:09):
will bring in that other company and say, hey, we
need this done, and they'll help us out so we
can we can actually do it turn key, you know,
from start to finish on everything. But we do work
with a lot of other companies in town that make
people's dreams come true.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
All right, we're just about out of time here. Kitchen
and bath center locations of Mobile Fair, Hope and Mary Esterra, Florida.
What are your days of operation? If people want to
come in the showroom and look around, what days are
you open for them to do that?
Speaker 2 (21:40):
So all our showrooms are open Monday through Friday from
nine to five. Our showrooms on the and Mary esther
it's open Saturday, I believe from eight to one. And
then if customer needs to come in on the weekends
or even after hours, we make appointments. We will we
(22:02):
will work when we know people work, you know, and
so we will make appointments to meet customers after hours
on the weekends.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
You know.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
So it's we're we're very flexible. So if you need
to get in and look we're gonna get you in
all right.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Very good you the listener. If you have any questions
at any time, you can always go to Kitchen and
Bathcenter dot net. That's Kitchen and Bathcenter dot net. Billy Miller.
Great meeting you.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Uncle Henry has been great enjoyed it.
This is News Radio seven to ten WNTM. Uncle Henry
here with you once again on Ask the Expert, and
today we have Billy Miller with us. Billy Miller is
with Kitchen and Bath Center. Kitchen and Bath Center with
locations in Mobile, Fair, Hope, Maryester, Florida. You can find
out more at any time by going to Kitchen and
Bathcenter dot net. That's Kitchen and Baths Center dot net.
(00:31):
Billy Miller, thanks for coming in today.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Well, thank you, Uncle Henry, and enjoying it.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Now. How are things? I know that people love renovating,
remodeling kitchens and baths. How busy are you at Kitchen
and Bath Center?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Well, we stay pretty busy, you know. You know here
lately where the housing market not very many homes out
there to be sold. The homeowners are now wanting to
stay in their homes longer, and they're deciding now instead
of moving and finding a new home, they come in
and they say, let's remodel our kitchen, our baths, let's
(01:05):
remodel our home. And that's been a big factor in
our business the last several years.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Okay, now we're going to talk about remodeling kitchens and
baths and other things. First of all, I want to
let let the listeners know where are your locations of
Mobile and in fair Hope.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
So, and Mobile we're located just west of Schildinger's Road
off Cottage Hill Road, okay. And then fair Hope we're
located right there off Greenow Road, just south of Fair Hope, Okay.
And then we're also located in Maryester, Florida, off Page
Bacon Road.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Okay. So, Kitchen and Baths Center, give the people listening
an idea of what what are you able to do?
What services do you provide?
Speaker 2 (01:51):
So at Kitchen and Bass Center, we offer everything from cabinry, countertops, flooring,
you know, culture Marble. We manufacture our own Culture Marble
as well. Okay, and we offer shower doors. And so
we have two manufacturing plants, one and Mary Esther Or
(02:11):
Fort Walton and then the other ones in fair Hope, Alabama.
So at any time we can get something made pretty
quick if it need be. You know, if there's something
that goes wrong, we're able to turn that around quickly,
just because we are a manufacturer of Culture Marble.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Now do you do anything beyond kitchen and baths.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
At this point, we know we're not we do mainly
we structured you know, kitchen and baths, flooring, stuff like that.
We work with a lot of remodelers, a lot of
contractors that they do other things in the house and
then they bring us in to do those projects for them.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Okay, now I want to talk to you about kitchen
and bathroommodels. But I've got friends and family at this
point in my life and in their lives where they
have difficulties physically due to age or illness, and several
people I know are thinking about converting their bathrooms into
(03:12):
something that are easier to handle when you have physical problems.
Do you run into this a lot? Do you help
people convert bathrooms to be handicap accessible or just easier
to use?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Yes, sir, we most definitely do so. That is probably
one of our biggest things that we offer right now
for customers. Most people you know are staying in their homes.
They're not going to be moving, so they're wanting to
get their home their bathrooms ready for them as they
get older. Okay, and then we do have situations where
people if unexpectedly had accidents or something like that, something
(03:47):
has happened that we have to convert their tub into
a shower. So we have what we call a remodeler's package.
It goes into the same place as where a existing
tub was, and we can do the culture marble pan,
we can do the seats. We put bench seats in it,
corner seats in it. You're nice jumbo soap dishes. Turn
(04:10):
that into a nice bathroom one and then two. It's
very accessible for people, you know, with handicap issues or
like you just said earlier, you're getting old in life.
It's just life, you know, and you know we'll we'll
put in you know, make sure we put in blocking
behind the wall so you know, whether you do it
now or you do it later, you know there's wood
(04:31):
blocking back there so you can put grab bars, you know,
because you've got if you need assistance getting in and
out to hold on to something.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
So this is something you do a lot of tub
to shower conversions, then.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Yes, sir, that we do. We probably do three or
four of those a week.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Now. How that is something that I've never been a
part of. How how major a project is a tub
to shower conversion for us?
Speaker 2 (04:54):
It's not customers customers think, oh my gosh, here.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
And what it is. That's our bathroom has changed, right,
big deal.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
The customers, they stress, We try to we try to
keep that stress level. We try to assure them, Hey,
just just sit back, enjoy, go go watch us. We
can be in and out in three days, you know,
by the time, by the time we demo it, by
the time we you know, the plumber comes in, and
then we're right back putting it all back together. So,
(05:21):
I mean, you know, sometimes we run into some you know,
glitches or here, something that might take an extra day,
but we've got you within let's just say, within a week.
You know, on something as simple as a tub conversion,
you're back to your normal life with your brand new shower. Now.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
By the way, if you just tuned in, you're listening
to Billy Miller with Kitchen and bath Center. Kitchenanbathcenter dot
net is the website.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
You can go there.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Anytime and find out more about what Billy Miller is
telling us. So the tub to shower conversion. Uh, do
you do you ever work with a VA on these things?
Speaker 2 (05:56):
We do. So we are set up through the VA.
So if you're a veteran and you apply through the VA,
we're one of the vendors that they ask you to call,
We go out, we give the quotes to the VA
I mean, to the customer to do that tub shower conversion.
Because majority of the vas that we get are getting
(06:18):
to wear either the age or they've been disabled or something,
and they've got to be able to get in and
out of a shower, and so we work closely with them.
We get a lot of business through the VA for
the veterans.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Okay, so if this is something that a veteran is
thinking about doing their family, they can get in touch
with you and you can help them walk through the process.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Yes, we most definitely can.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
All right now, when somebody comes to you for a
kitchen remodel, what is most popular right now? What are
people really gravitating toward these days?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
So right now, one of the biggest things is the
shaker door on cabintry. Everybody wants that clean, simple look
and the shaker cabinet doors and the white cabinets and
the gray cabinets has been the hottest thing going for
the last several years. So people are coming to us
(07:17):
with their you know, twenty twenty five year old kitchen
that is all dark and they decide to come in
there and they want to remodel and go brighten it up. Unfortunately,
I had to do my house about two years ago
due to a fire. Oh well, I had the dark
kitchen in the house. Yeah, after I got done with it,
(07:38):
I changed out, went to nice quartz countertops, you know,
had dark for mica countertops actually prior, and dark cabinets.
So people would come to my house, friends of mine
that had been in my house, you know, weekly walk
in and say, oh my god, what have you done
to your kitchen? It's so much bigger. And I'm like,
I haven't done anything other than change the cabinets out
(08:00):
and made them white, lightened up the floor, lightened up
the countertops. And it's a perception that it makes your
kitchen so much bigger. And then when you're changing cabintry
out from the you know you're existing to new cabin
try there's so many things you bells and whistles you
can add. Now, the biggest thing is the soft closed
doors and the soft closed drawers.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Now I've never heard of this. Explain to me what
that is. What is a soft closed door on a cabinet.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
So you when you close your door, you can go
to shut your door, and it'll stop at a certain
point and then it'll just close by itself. Oh, your drawers,
when you open your drawers, they're full extension underguide guides,
and they're also soft closed. So in other words, on Hendrey,
(08:46):
if you had a bad day and you were mad
at something and your drawer was open, and you went
to slam your drawer, you're not going to tear your
drawer up because it's gonna stop to a certain point
and then it's gonna close quietly.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Well. See, I I never want to slam the cabinet
doors or drawers because I'm paid for them. But I
know other people that enjoy slamming the cabinet doors to
make a point to let everybody know what's going on.
Let's slam a door. So this the and it's called
soft clothes.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Yes, soft clothes.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Now you also brought up quartz countertops. Yes, I've never
interviewed anybody about this. What are the qualities of a
quartz countertop that people like?
Speaker 2 (09:27):
So on the quartz countertops, Now everybody's wanting to come.
Everybody's wanting lighter colors. You know, they're wanting to brighten
up their kitchens with lighter colors. Well, in granted you
don't have that option. Most of your granted is going
to be it's it's granite comes out of the ground,
so a lot of it's earth tones. You do have
some grays and some lighter colors and granite, but they're
(09:50):
not the whites. So with quartz, it's a man made product.
There's several different kinds of quartz out there, and it
basically is it looks like real marble, So it gives
that customer that real marble look, that light color. You
can get it with white, with gray veins, you can
get it white with brown veins. There's so many different options.
(10:12):
And you can still get the darker colors in quartz
as well. But majority of people are trying to lighten up,
brighten up their kitchens, you know, and that's that's been
a very popular sell in the last seven to eight years.
You know.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Well, as you pointed out just a few minutes ago,
it is such a startling difference. I had the same
experience you did when I had a dark, dark kitchen
cabinets and all I did was paint and white and boom,
I mean, it looked like a completely it looked twice
as big, right as you said, even though all it
was was a color change. Tell me about what do
(10:48):
what kind of flooring do people want in kitchens? Because
you know, over the years, I know, since you've been
doing this since nineteen ninety eight, I'm sure you've seen
it go for so many different types of flooring popular now.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
So flooring right now, there are so many options in flooring.
You can you a customer can get overwhelmed runing at
flooring because there's just so many looks. Right. But one
of the biggest things customers are looking for less grout lines.
You know, everybody wants that minimum size grout lines and
the least amount. So your twelve by twenty four tiles
(11:23):
has gotten popular.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Okay, Now are we talking ceramic tone.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Yes, sir, karamic porcelain towels, Okay, yes, sir. So you're
you're twelve by twenty four look, you know, has gotten
to be very popular versus a twelve by twelve which
was back in the day. So half the grout lines now.
They are making bigger towels nowadays. So the key is
(11:48):
people want to see less grout. Nobody likes grout because
it's just so hard to keep up.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Yes, it is.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
And even in showers with tiles, showers, they're getting bigger
and bigger with tile, you know, people are doing the
twenty four by forty eight's in tile showers now and
then that's where you know and keep the grout lines minimum.
But that's where the Culture Marble comes in too. Culture
Marble for your showers. We have a product right now
(12:16):
that is it's Culture Marble, but it looks like subway tile.
And Uncle Henry, let me tell you. I started doing
this probably about eight years ago. I was in a
parade house and I set it up for the builder
in the parade house and I worked the home show
that weekend. So many people walk through that house and
(12:39):
I'm sit in the bathroom. I said, how do y'all
like that shower with no grout? And they're like, no grout.
They couldn't believe me. They had to open the door
and go in there and look. People thought it was
real subway tile. And it's just from that point on
it has taken off and so many builders have taken
(12:59):
a notice of it, and I get that is probably
one of our hot cellars right now for showers. Is
our culture marble subway tile.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Now in a kitchen remodel, if if somebody listening, what
if they only want to do cabinets or or only
want to do a countertop, can you do those kind
of jobs too, or.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Most definitely we we we can do the littlest or
the biggest part, you know. Uh, you know, and we've
had people that say, you know, they're going to repaint
their cabinets, and well, that's fine, we don't do that part. Uh.
We have now access through our company where we can
refinish cabinets a certain way. So we're getting into that,
(13:41):
but we don't do that right now. We're not big
into that. But we we go in there and we'll
put countertops and you know, they'll come back and they'll
paint their cabinets later, or they decide they want to
refigure the look of their kitchen. You know, we've had
it where we've gone in and they said, I'd really
(14:02):
like to have my refrigerator over here because it makes
more sense over here than over here. And then we'll
move stoves, we'll move things around, reconfigure their kitchen and
then with all the new things that you can do
in cabinry now that you could didn't do back in
the day. All the different accessories that people like, you know,
the lazy Susans, the rollout drawers inside, all the soft
(14:24):
clothes like we were talking about earlier. People really want
these things and so then they decide, Okay, it's gonna
cost me this much to repaint. Well, if I spend
another five thousand dollars, I can get a whole brand
new kitchen with all the bells and whistles that I want.
So most people will change and go to spend the
extra money and get all the bells and whistles.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Speaking of money, financing.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
We do financing so we can get you up to
you know, zero interests up to twenty four months. You know,
we have all kinds of different options for financing. And
that's just easy. I mean, we can get that signed
up quickly. You know. You just go online and fill
out the stuff and it takes a few minutes to
get your approval.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Again. If you just tuned in, you're listening to Billy
Miller with Kitchen and Bath Center. You can find out
more by going to the Kitchen and Bathcenter dot net. Locations
of Mobile Fair, Hope and mary Ester, Florida, now talk
to me about backsplashes in kitchens because I have through
the years, I feel like I've seen almost every substance
(15:28):
known to man experimented with as a backsplash with people.
What's trendy? What do people like these days in backsplashes?
Speaker 2 (15:36):
So right now with you know the tile, backsplash has
always been popular, right you know your subway tile, that
has always been a popular. Now the people are doing
so many different designs. But I'll tell you one of
the hottest things that's going and this has probably been
in the last year, I would say, okay, is when
you do your countertop, they're taking the countertop all the
(15:58):
way up as a backsplash. Okay, so now you have
no scenes. Now your countertop and your backsplash all are
the same. And then if you've got if you got
the countertops that have the veining going through it when
you're looking at it, because when you walk into a kitchen,
you don't really see the veining because your countertop's laying flat,
but on the wall it's standing up vertical. So when
(16:19):
you walk into a kitchen, you're seeing all of that veining,
and that makes your kitchen pop. And that's what people
are looking.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
At well, it makes sense the way you described it,
it makes sense. And also if you've got beautiful countertops,
why wouldn't you right?
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Why when you do that right and then we're already
there putting the countertops in, So the cost of that
is minimum extra going from that to regular tiles backsplash
because tile backslash, you're paying for material. Then you got
to pay for a different labor to come in and
install it, where with the countertops, we're paying for the
countertop material, but we're also same labor is doing everything,
(16:55):
so it all can be done at one time and
it's finished.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Now, what about sinks, are they still the same as
they've always been or their innovations or different materials being
these these days?
Speaker 2 (17:04):
So most sinks, you know, most people are doing the
stainless still right, And a lot of folks now back
in the day, you always had the fifty to fifty
or the sixty forty, you know, to where you clean
your vegetables in one side of this is in the other.
But so many people are cooking more nowadays, and you
have all these bigger pots in the bigger pans, so
(17:26):
everybody's pretty much going to the big, large single sink.
It's just a big sink, okay, you know, and then
the farm sink look has gotten popular where it's the
apron type sink. Yeah, and it's just a big, large
sink with the apron look. That is a good looking look,
especially when you're doing the shaker cabintry. It's just a
(17:49):
clean look.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Okay, we have just a few minutes left. We've talked
a lot about kitchens, and I guess I focused on
that a lot with you because I'd mentioned to you
before we started the conversation. I talk with real estate
agents and they tell me kitchens sell houses, and I
know that just people. Uh, people focus on kitchens and
spend a lot of time in kitchens. Uh. But bathrooms,
(18:13):
are there any trends? What is what is really popular
in bathrooms these days? When people get a remodel.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
So if you've got the room people are trying to
get now most people want to try to get a
big walk in shower.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Walk in shower is is where everything's going. Uh. We're
seeing it in a lot of new construction now. People
are doing away with the tub and the master bath
and making their showers double the size and putting nice
seats in the shower, you know, the rain heads, all
the all the all the bells and whistles, the jets
and stuff like that. So the big walk in showers
(18:50):
is probably one of the biggest things that we try
to do. The look of that you could either be
the culture marble or the tiell. You know, it's it's
just amazing look. And then no glass. People people trying
to get away from glass. So when you get these
big walk in showers, you put all your water at
(19:12):
one end of the shower, You've got a wall, and
then you just have a doorway at one end and
you walk in that way. You turn on your shower
and you walk into your shower. No glass is needed.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Now for for a lot of homeowners probably love these things,
but wouldn't even I know, I wouldn't even have the
imagination to come up with this kind of stuff. You
help with the design, right, I mean, you can help
us show us what's possible.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
We do we do so in all three locations we
have showrooms. So in those showrooms we have different displays
we have. We have the ladies in there that will
help you design. They'll help you pick out colors. You know,
we I mean they're great. They're great to work with.
I was just with a builder this morning and his decorator,
(20:00):
and she was telling me how she loves our girl
in the mobile office, Tasha. She goes. All my customers
keep telling me, we want to go back deal with Tasha,
We want to go back and deal with Tasha, and
and it's it's you know, she's great at I mean,
they're all great. All of them are great at all locations.
At helping the customers. We listen, We listen to what
you want, and then we throw in our knowledge of
(20:24):
what we've done in the past. We show you things,
and then we put your thoughts and our ideas together
and we come up with that beautiful kitchen or beautiful bathroom.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Now in a in a complete remodel of a kitchen.
Do you also offer suggestions or help if we want
to do different lighting or different appliances, do you help
with those things or at least at least offer suggestions
on this thing.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
So we work with a lot of different other vendors.
Uh So in this market you have to, because you know,
we refer to different companies, they refer to us. It's
that scratch your back method. You know, Hey, you help me,
I help you. So, yes, when customers come in and
there's things that we're doing that we don't offer, we
(21:09):
will bring in that other company and say, hey, we
need this done, and they'll help us out so we
can we can actually do it turn key, you know,
from start to finish on everything. But we do work
with a lot of other companies in town that make
people's dreams come true.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
All right, we're just about out of time here. Kitchen
and bath center locations of Mobile Fair, Hope and Mary Esterra, Florida.
What are your days of operation? If people want to
come in the showroom and look around, what days are
you open for them to do that?
Speaker 2 (21:40):
So all our showrooms are open Monday through Friday from
nine to five. Our showrooms on the and Mary esther
it's open Saturday, I believe from eight to one. And
then if customer needs to come in on the weekends
or even after hours, we make appointments. We will we
(22:02):
will work when we know people work, you know, and
so we will make appointments to meet customers after hours
on the weekends.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
You know.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
So it's we're we're very flexible. So if you need
to get in and look we're gonna get you in
all right.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Very good you the listener. If you have any questions
at any time, you can always go to Kitchen and
Bathcenter dot net. That's Kitchen and Bathcenter dot net. Billy Miller.
Great meeting you.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Uncle Henry has been great enjoyed it.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.