August 17, 2025 • 30 mins
Dean unpacks the “Iron Triangle” of construction—Cost, Quality, and Time—and how it impacts every home project. He explores how falling in love with a home often means accepting its imperfections, leading to “house blindness” and stalled remodels—yet another reason why design truly matters most. Dean shares key tips on what not to do during a remodel, the value of hiring a designer, and how it can help maximize your budget and avoid common pitfalls. Plus, he introduces the concept of “Post-Traumatic Design Disorder”—when past design mistakes haunt a home—and how a good designer can help heal and free your space. Because in the end, good design reigns.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp the
House Whisper on demand on the iHeartRadio app. I am
Dean Sharp, the house Whisper, custom home Builder, custom home Designer,
and your guide every week to better understand that place
where you live. Here we are at the beginning of
our third hour this morning. We've taken some calls and
(00:21):
we've begun well. We've had one half of our conversation
about why design matters most, ten reasons why design matters most,
and I want to dive back into that yet again.
Here I am doing my best to sell you on
the idea that when it comes to truly transforming your home,
(00:42):
it is secondarily second hear me. Now, it's secondarily about
the materials that you're choosing, secondarily about the quality of
the contractor that you're choosing. These are very very important.
I'm not dissing them at all, not subjugating them at all,
in their a level of importance. It's very important. I
(01:02):
want you to work with qualified builders who know their
stuff and do it well. And I want you to
purchase the most creative, most you know, long lasting materials
that your budget can afford you. I want you to
have it all, okay, but understand this, when it comes
(01:22):
to truly transforming your home, it is the time that
you spend on the design before you engage in the
other things that makes the biggest difference. How big I
call it like eighty twenty or ninety ten, honestly, And
it's not just become Well, you're you're an architectural home designer, Dean.
Of course you think that. No, no, no, I'm not
(01:44):
just feathering my own nest here. Okay. I am here
to give you advice and an advice that you're not
getting from other places. And so you know, I get
I get asked this question on time a lot too,
which is like, Dean, how long is the project going
to take? To which I have to answer, well, it's
going to take longer if you don't take the time
(02:06):
up front to get it designed well, because you're going
to run into snaffoos, you're going to run into difficulties,
you're going to run into the you know, the lack
of planning upfront will make a difference in the actual
time executing the project. Along the way, design matters most
and taking the time upfront in fact, haha, is he
(02:29):
leading to us to another. One of us points, yes,
he is. Okay, why does design matter most because you
only have so much money? But time is on your side. No,
I'm not going to sing the song. Don't worry. Some
of you have heard me say this before. If you're
new to the program or you've never heard me actually
(02:50):
talk about the Iron triangle, then listen up. There is
a thing, a concept of project management or project reality.
It absolutely one percent applies all the time to the
construction industry. However, it also applies to other industries. So
(03:11):
you may have heard it in the context of your
own business before, but I am talking about how it
applies to construction and specifically to custom home construction or remodeling,
whatever the case may be for you. So here we go.
It is known as the iron triangle. Why is it
iron because it is an unbreakable rule. Yeah, it there
(03:33):
is no getting around it. It is what it is. Now,
I want you to picture a triangle. There you go.
That wasn't hard, was it? Okay? You got three sides
to this thing, all right, And we're gonna label these
three sides. We're gonna label one side cost Yeah. The
second side we're gonna label quality, and the third time cost,
(03:58):
quality and time. Are you writing this down? Draw a
little picture cost, quality in time. That is the iron triangle.
Now how does the iron triangle work? It's very simple.
You get to pick any two of those sides that
are your biggest priority. Okay, any two, Just pick two.
You know which one do you want the most? You
(04:20):
get two of them, but understand that you will pay
for those two sides with the third side. Ah, there's
the rub. This is the iron triangle. So for instance,
let's go through the three possibilities. Let's say you've decided, Dean.
(04:41):
You come to me and said, I want the best
possible quality that I can have, top notch quality on
this project, and I want it done tomorrow. All right,
we can do that. Just get ready to third side, right,
a really big check. Okay, yes, yes, we can get
(05:03):
things done faster than normal and at an exceptional level
of quality. But you're gonna pay. Oh, you're gonna pay
for that. Okay, So there you go. You want quality
and time as the priority, then get ready to pay
the cost of that. All right. Let's go for another scenario.
Let's say that you want cost and time. In other words,
(05:26):
I want the lowest price possible, and I want it
done overnight, fast and cheap. All right, So guess what
The only thing you have to sacrifice for fast and
cheap is quality the third side. So now you're getting
the vibe of how this works. Now, if you're a
(05:47):
normal human being, then the third scenario is the thing
that ideally you want. Most people I've met in my
line of work say, of course I would like the
best quality and i'd like it at the best value. Okay,
so you pick quality and you pick cost, and guess
(06:10):
what you have to sacrifice to get the quality and
the cost. Yeah, you have to spend time extra time.
And for some reason, even though this is the most
popular choice, spending extra time is the thing that most
people don't want to do, all right. It's just a struggle.
It's like, yeah, I say that, but I really also
(06:32):
would like it done by next Thursday. Can we do that?
I'm like, no, no, we can't. So, and we're not
just talking about the schedule of the project itself. What
I'm really talking about here where we spend time is
the time we spend in the design phase and the
planning phase of the project before we even get started
(06:54):
and you know, pick up the first hammer and pound
the first nail. Okay, time time is on your side.
You only have so much money and you want the
best quality possible. Get ready to pump the brakes and
spend some time.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Now.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
I just said I said it during it to a
couple of our callers. It's like, Hey, the only way
you're gonna know how to uh you know what the
real cost and which direction you go with which plumbing
contractor for instance, to repipe your house, is to spend
the time up front, your time and get different bids
so that you really get a perspective. Does that make sense? Yeah,
(07:35):
so ahead of time before the project begins, if you
want the And by the way, time also buys time.
In other words, the more time you spend planning out
this project, getting every detail hammered out, ordering materials ahead
of time, okay, the faster the actual execution of the
(07:56):
project will go. All right, So time even by time,
But time is the key, and time in the design phase.
This is yet another reason why design matters most. Solving
the design problems now having the very very best design
in this project, because as I've said before, you can
(08:20):
buy fancy materials and You can have the best contractor
on the planet installing all of this, but if the
design is poor, all you end up with is a
long lasting, high quality, very expensive, poorly designed project, and
nobody wants that. That's why it makes all the difference.
All right, when we come back, we will continue our list.
(08:40):
You are Home with Dean Sharp, the House Wisdom.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Forty, here to help you take your home to the
next level, like we do every week here on the
program Welcome Home. It is a beautiful, beautiful sunny day
here in southern California. So sorry if you're not here
with us in so cal I don't mean to make
you jealous or anything like that. I'm just saying we're
celebrating it here. I hope the weather wherever you are
(09:10):
is treating you right, and that you are making do
even if it's not, and that you're going to get
out there and make the most of this day as
it continues here, because you know what, the day that
we have in our hand, that's why we have to
make the most of it, and we make do with
whatever falls below the bar. As it were, we are
(09:30):
talking about ten reasons why design matters most for your home. Yes,
I am promoting the concept of design for the mainstream homeowner,
not just for the fancy, rich people who live up
on the hill behind the double gates, but for you,
for you, for you and me, Both design matters most.
(09:53):
It is the number one way to transform your home
the right design, getting the flow right, getting the volume right,
getting the vistas right, getting the you know, the concepts right,
solving really really solving the problems. Okay, identifying the problem
and acknowledging the problem and then solving the problem. This
(10:17):
is what makes the difference when people walk through a
fancy home or a regular home. It doesn't really matter
after it's all said and done. Yes, there are places
where you know, people gawk about like I can't believe
they had gold plated walls, and okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But the end of the day, the things that really
(10:37):
stick with us, the things that we talk about after
the fact that things that impress us are not necessarily
the materials, very rarely actually the materials, but the way
the place felt, the way the place looked, the way
it felt to move through it. That's design. That's what
I want you to realize along the way. All right,
(10:57):
let's step up to the next item on the list.
I mentioned with the weather as I came in to
this segment that you know, if the weather isn't so
great where you are right now, that I hope you're
making do. Making do is a great thing when it
comes to being a homeowner, and it's also a problematic thing.
And so ten reasons why design matters most. Our next
(11:20):
reason is design matters most because it's time to stop
making do. And what does that mean? Well, first of all,
I'm going to applaud you because if you are a resilient,
creative human being, here's how it went down with you
and your home. You found this home, you really liked
this home, and you bought this home, and you moved
(11:42):
into this home. Now, this home very very likely was
not absolutely perfect, but there were so many things you
liked about it, whether it's circumstantially or whether it's the
house itself that you thought, you know what, this is
the one, this is the one. Yes, it's not perfect,
and there's this thing, and there's that thing, and here's
the thing. When it comes to those areas, those imperfections,
(12:06):
what do you do because you're a resilient human being.
Well from day one, you start enjoying the home for
the reasons you purchased it, and for the rest of it,
you start making do. You just make do with them.
You know, you find a way around them, through them,
over them. You know, you turn your back to them.
You don't let them bug you on a daily basis,
You don't let them bog you down. You just keep
(12:29):
marching ahead and you make do. And that's a wonderful thing.
And I am applauding you, and I'm not telling you
that that is the wrong thing to do. It is
absolutely the right thing to do until it comes time
to remodel your home and to transform your home. And
that is when you have to get out of that habit.
(12:50):
You have to stop making do because making do does
this thing. It drives problems into your subconscious. It makes
you house blind, blind to those areas because you just
don't think about them anymore. You just make do with them.
And this is why design matters most A designer who
walks into your home for the first time is not
(13:11):
house blind. They have not been making do with your
home for the last ten, twenty thirty or more. Years.
They are fresh to it. They don't have to make
do and they don't have to play by the rules.
And what does that mean. We'll talk about it right
on the other side of the break your Home with
Dean Sharp, the House Whisper.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Here to help you transform your ordinary house into an
extraordinary home. Thanks for joining us on the program today.
We are talking about ten reasons why design matters most
and where I left Jahangen was this reason here. Because
it's time to stop making do with your house. Because
you've lived in it so long, and because you're a
(13:58):
resilient human being. The imperfections of your home, the things
that aren't right about your home, you've learned to make
do with them. You have moved out of the way
of them. You have changed, You've altered your course and
your habits and your whatever the case may be, to
allow the house to be where it is and how
(14:19):
it is. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, because
that's what resilient human beings do. We get creative and
we stay positive and we move forward. But this is
not what you should be doing when you're planning your remodel,
because when the remodel comes, it's time for the house
to get out of your way. Yeah, so it's time
(14:42):
to stop making do easier said than done when you're
on your own. Hence reason why design matters most. A
designer is not house blind to your house the way
that you are. They have not spent the last fifteen
to twenty years living in your house making do they
walk in the door fresh and clean. They don't have
(15:02):
any of that baggage in their subconscious that's keeping them
house blind to what the real solutions may be. And
they don't have to play by the rules. And now, when
I say play by the rules, and I know I
left you hanging on the break on that thought, I'm
not talking about bad architecture and I'm not talking about
bending and violating code. Those aren't the rules I'm talking about.
(15:23):
And the rules that I'm referring to is that they
don't have to play by are the rules that you've
established for your lifestyle in that house to get out
of the way of the problems. Designer doesn't have to
do that. We don't have to play by those rules,
and so fresh perspective creative perspective coming in and make
(15:45):
all the difference in the world. I've got a client
right now, Tina and I have a client with clients,
wonderful people, wonderful house. But here's the problem. We come
in to do a console for them, and they're like, Okay,
we don't know what we can do with the house
because we love our house. The kitchen is in a room,
(16:05):
kind of an oddly shaped room up front. Face of
the kitchen faces the street, the front edge of the house.
But they have, you know, in the years that they've
done things to their home. They have transformed the backyard
just into this wonderful sanctuary play area, and this is
where we spend all of our time. We don't know
how to make this better, considering that you've got to
(16:27):
go halfway across the house. Now, this may be a
thought that's crossing your mind right now. Oh, I bet
Dean's gonna say move the kitchen. And yes, that's exactly
what I said to them, which of course blew them away.
Now it may not blow you away, this idea, and
you may be thinking, oh, right now, see that's exactly
what designers do. Deane. You come in here and now
(16:47):
you're going to have them spend all this much more money.
Not true, It's not true, okay, because here's the thing.
They were already planning on a full kitchen remodel. Do
you know the kind of money lay down for a
full kitchen remodel. They're gonna completely gut this room. There
will be a moment where there is nothing in the
(17:08):
there's kitchen in there, now there will be nothing in there. Okay.
So if we're going to gut an entire kitchen and
put an entire brand new kitchen back, let's just say
that project alone on a house there size is one
hundred thousand dollars, okay, which is not that unrealistic unfortunately,
(17:28):
but let's just say that's the case. Okay. Well, whether
we put the kitchen back here in this empty room,
or move it to switch places with a bedroom adjacent
to the family room over here on the backside of
the house, where now it becomes a part of the backyard,
a part of the family room, a part of the
(17:48):
entertainment flow, and so on and so forth, that move
only results in adding less than seven percent to the
already existing budget. So imagine you got a budget and
if I came to you and said, okay, if we
can increase this budget or at least find room in
(18:09):
this budget for a seven percent change of expenditure seven percent,
we completely changed that house, totally changed the game. That's
the difference between oh, well we had a kitchen, but
we made it nicer to you know, for one hundred
thousand dollars, or for one hundred and seven thousand dollars
(18:30):
we had a kitchen, and we totally changed the game.
And now our house is the dream house that we
always wanted. That's what I'm talking about. Now. What did
they say to me when I made that suggestion? They
say the thing that we've heard a million times, which is,
I never would have thought of that in a million years. Now,
maybe you would have if you had walked into their house.
(18:51):
And so I'm not patting myself on the back saying
I'm the most you know, creative and genius designer ever,
I'm simply saying this. This is the fact I was
not house blind to their house. I did not have
to live there and make a do with that kitchen
for all those years. So what seemed painfully obvious to
Tina and I fifteen minutes into the conversation is we
(19:14):
got to get this kitchen to the backside of that house.
And that's what's happening. We're working on that design right now,
and let me tell you it is gagg gorgeous. It
is a game changer. That's the difference between oh, that
was a nice upgrade to your kitchen and oh wow,
you guys have changed the game. So a reason to
(19:38):
understand that design matters most because when it comes to
your remodel, it's time for you to stop making do
It's time for the house to get out of your
way this time. Okay, that's how you maximize the money.
Now you've heard me say, Okay, design is a part
of the budget. Okay, yes, does it save you money?
(19:59):
I don't know this save you money. I mean the
budget is the budget. This is what you're going to spend.
But it will maximize the value of every dollar the
right design. See, we could have spent one hundred thousand
dollars on a dreamy kitchen in the front of the house,
and what we would have in the end is a
(20:19):
nice kitchen in the front of the house. Or we
could spend that same amount of money plus a little
bit more and change the entire game, which would you
rather have? That's exactly what I'm talking about. Okay. Reason
next for why design matters most is because your tracked
(20:41):
home wasn't fit for you or your property because it
was designed without reference to the lot that it's sitting on.
If it's a typical American tracked home, but it can be,
it isn't fit for your for you, you weren't in
their mind when that ulse was designed and put on
(21:03):
that piece of property. Even the property wasn't necessarily in mind.
Because the way you know tracked homes are built, We're
going to have three or four floor plans, We're going
to change the facades on each one. We're going to
flip them right and left. So we're going to create
the illusion that this neighborhood has like twelve to twenty
(21:23):
different homes when in reality there are like four. Okay,
those were not designed with that particular lot in mind,
the one that you're sitting on. Because some of your
house in your neighborhood are sitting at the end of
cul de sacs. Some of your house in your neighborhood
might be view lots. Some of your house in your
(21:44):
neighborhood might be just soldiered in right next to others
on the straight part of a street with five foot
setbacks with no view same house. That's not the way
it works in the custom world. And now that we
are remodeling your house, now it's time to fit it
to the property you're on. That my friend takes some design. Okay,
(22:08):
So the last reason for this moment or design mattering
most because your home was not fit for you or
your property. But it can be all right when we
come back. Let's talk about a condition that your house
likely suffers from post traumatic design disorder. What we'll talk
(22:29):
about that right after the break you are home with
Dean Sharp the house Whisper.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Here to remind you that design matters most. Absolutely. I
do that every week, but man, are we doing it
today because the very topic of our show today is
ten reasons why design matters most? And guess what we're
going to finish our list? Yes we are. Before the break,
I hinted to you that our next reason why design
(23:00):
matters most is because your house has post traumatic design disorder,
or it very likely does. All right now. I coined
that phrase TM. All right, don't go using it. I'll
have to sue you. Yeah, it's all right. Post traumatic
design disorder. This is what I have decided to call
homes that are old enough now that they've been through
(23:22):
some changes, you know, some changes that you know you're
not likely the original owner of your home, and even
if you are, well, then it's your fault. But we'll
just blame the other owners for the rest of us.
You know, a little thing has been done here wrong,
A little decision has been there made, they're not the best.
(23:43):
A little thing has been tweaked over here, material has
been used. Oh you know what I'm saying. Bad decisions
or less than great decisions have been made in years past,
and of course you are making do with them. Okay,
But now, as I said, is the time to not
make do. But can we actually get to the root
(24:06):
of that problem or are we going to further this
issue that I call post traumatic design disorder?
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Now?
Speaker 1 (24:12):
The reason why it sounds like PTSD is because it
strangely follows the same pattern. So in a human being,
you get PTSD because you go through some kind of trauma,
and the trauma itself obviously is a bad thing. I
mean it's an intense thing. Okay, it's stressful, it's intense,
(24:33):
life changing, And there you go. That's not what PTSD is.
PTSD is not the trauma. PTSD is what comes after
the trauma. It's post traumatic disorder. Right, So PTSD is
about a life that now, instead of facing the trauma,
(24:56):
diving in and healing from it, it's a life now
that bends itself around the trauma, compensates for the trauma,
and as a result, creates more malgrowth around the trauma. Okay,
post traumatic stress disorder, more stresses come because we're in caps.
(25:18):
We're trying to encapsulate the trauma. We're trying to bend
our lives around it, and we're not really facing it
straight on and just dealing with it until we find
our path. Okay, that's that. I'm not a psychologist, but
I do understand it to that level. In a home,
post traumatic design disorder is when something traumatic has happened
(25:41):
to the home. And I don't mean a tree fell
on it or an earthquake. I mean something happened to
it at the hands of another human being who made
a mistake, who allowed a bad design to come through.
Sometimes it happens at birth. Sometimes a home is just
not designed well right out of the camp, but likely
things have been layered on, and then the next person
(26:03):
who tries to deal with the problem doesn't get to
the root, but they compensate for that, and you get
a whole a house that's old enough. At some point
you realize, wow, now there's been thirty years of compensating
or attempting to compensate for this original bad decision. And
(26:25):
of course, because we're all making do and because it's
now now, the compensations are so much a part of
this house you don't even notice that they're compensations anymore.
It's just awkward and weird and not something that we love. Well.
The reason that design matters most is again, a designer
comes in, and a designer worth their salt can look
(26:48):
at the fundamentals of the house and identify, you know,
what it was back in sixty four when this problem happened,
or it was back in ninety six, or it was
last year, and you guys did this. I'm sorry to say,
but the point is we got to get to the
root of the trauma that originally happened to the house
(27:09):
and fix it so we can free your home, free
it to be everything that it could possibly be. We've
got to heal it in order to get past it.
Because what do they say, They say that that that
that a trauma that goes unhealed. Will you either transform
(27:31):
it or it will transmit itself? Okay, right, yeah, So
if you have an illness and emotional illness or something
tweaked inside you that isn't transformed, you're going to transmit it.
It's going to transmit into other things. And we want
to free your house to be everything it can be.
So second to last reason why design matters most is
(27:54):
that you simply deal with traumatic design disorder. Get to
the root of the problem, cut it out at its root.
Maybe traumatic for you to think about it, but it
will free you for your house to become everything it
can be. The last reason, and this should make everybody happy,
(28:15):
whether you're into this artsy Farsi stuff or not, is
simply this good design is what makes it rain, and
I mean not rain from the sky, but you know,
dollars as far as the value of your property, I
cannot emphasize this to you more than I have, but
I will try to underscore it one more time. When
(28:35):
somebody walks through your home and evaluates the value of
that piece of property, it is not the gold and
the silver and the platinum that you've poured into it.
In fact, you can ask any realtor. Realtors will tell
you they show people this one home. Oh, the materials
are just so scrumptious and they're so lux and they're
so amazing. But you know what, we really like this
(28:57):
home over here. Why it was open, the layout, and
we love where the windows are, and we love the
vistas and the views. Guess what, that's design, design more
than materials, even more than craftsmanship. Dare I say? And
as a builder, I don't want to say that, but
it's true. Design is what makes it rain. All right, y'all,
(29:18):
we made it through our list. These are the reasons
why I hope I have helped sway you in that direction,
because it's what's going to change your home. Now. I
want you to take this beautiful day and get out
there with the rest of it and get busy building
yourself a beautiful life, and we will see you right
back here next weekend. This has been Home with Dean Sharp.
(29:39):
The house Whisper. Tune into the live broadcast on KFI
AM six forty every Saturday morning from six to eight
Pacific time, and every Sunday morning from nine to noon
Pacific time, or anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp the
House Whisper on demand on the iHeartRadio app. I am
Dean Sharp, the house Whisper, custom home Builder, custom home Designer,
and your guide every week to better understand that place
where you live. Here we are at the beginning of
our third hour this morning. We've taken some calls and
(00:21):
we've begun well. We've had one half of our conversation
about why design matters most, ten reasons why design matters most,
and I want to dive back into that yet again.
Here I am doing my best to sell you on
the idea that when it comes to truly transforming your home,
(00:42):
it is secondarily second hear me. Now, it's secondarily about
the materials that you're choosing, secondarily about the quality of
the contractor that you're choosing. These are very very important.
I'm not dissing them at all, not subjugating them at all,
in their a level of importance. It's very important. I
(01:02):
want you to work with qualified builders who know their
stuff and do it well. And I want you to
purchase the most creative, most you know, long lasting materials
that your budget can afford you. I want you to
have it all, okay, but understand this, when it comes
(01:22):
to truly transforming your home, it is the time that
you spend on the design before you engage in the
other things that makes the biggest difference. How big I
call it like eighty twenty or ninety ten, honestly, And
it's not just become Well, you're you're an architectural home designer, Dean.
Of course you think that. No, no, no, I'm not
(01:44):
just feathering my own nest here. Okay. I am here
to give you advice and an advice that you're not
getting from other places. And so you know, I get
I get asked this question on time a lot too,
which is like, Dean, how long is the project going
to take? To which I have to answer, well, it's
going to take longer if you don't take the time
(02:06):
up front to get it designed well, because you're going
to run into snaffoos, you're going to run into difficulties,
you're going to run into the you know, the lack
of planning upfront will make a difference in the actual
time executing the project. Along the way, design matters most
and taking the time upfront in fact, haha, is he
(02:29):
leading to us to another. One of us points, yes,
he is. Okay, why does design matter most because you
only have so much money? But time is on your side. No,
I'm not going to sing the song. Don't worry. Some
of you have heard me say this before. If you're
new to the program or you've never heard me actually
(02:50):
talk about the Iron triangle, then listen up. There is
a thing, a concept of project management or project reality.
It absolutely one percent applies all the time to the
construction industry. However, it also applies to other industries. So
(03:11):
you may have heard it in the context of your
own business before, but I am talking about how it
applies to construction and specifically to custom home construction or remodeling,
whatever the case may be for you. So here we go.
It is known as the iron triangle. Why is it
iron because it is an unbreakable rule. Yeah, it there
(03:33):
is no getting around it. It is what it is. Now,
I want you to picture a triangle. There you go.
That wasn't hard, was it? Okay? You got three sides
to this thing, all right, And we're gonna label these
three sides. We're gonna label one side cost Yeah. The
second side we're gonna label quality, and the third time cost,
(03:58):
quality and time. Are you writing this down? Draw a
little picture cost, quality in time. That is the iron triangle.
Now how does the iron triangle work? It's very simple.
You get to pick any two of those sides that
are your biggest priority. Okay, any two, Just pick two.
You know which one do you want the most? You
(04:20):
get two of them, but understand that you will pay
for those two sides with the third side. Ah, there's
the rub. This is the iron triangle. So for instance,
let's go through the three possibilities. Let's say you've decided, Dean.
(04:41):
You come to me and said, I want the best
possible quality that I can have, top notch quality on
this project, and I want it done tomorrow. All right,
we can do that. Just get ready to third side, right,
a really big check. Okay, yes, yes, we can get
(05:03):
things done faster than normal and at an exceptional level
of quality. But you're gonna pay. Oh, you're gonna pay
for that. Okay, So there you go. You want quality
and time as the priority, then get ready to pay
the cost of that. All right. Let's go for another scenario.
Let's say that you want cost and time. In other words,
(05:26):
I want the lowest price possible, and I want it
done overnight, fast and cheap. All right, So guess what
The only thing you have to sacrifice for fast and
cheap is quality the third side. So now you're getting
the vibe of how this works. Now, if you're a
(05:47):
normal human being, then the third scenario is the thing
that ideally you want. Most people I've met in my
line of work say, of course I would like the
best quality and i'd like it at the best value. Okay,
so you pick quality and you pick cost, and guess
(06:10):
what you have to sacrifice to get the quality and
the cost. Yeah, you have to spend time extra time.
And for some reason, even though this is the most
popular choice, spending extra time is the thing that most
people don't want to do, all right. It's just a struggle.
It's like, yeah, I say that, but I really also
(06:32):
would like it done by next Thursday. Can we do that?
I'm like, no, no, we can't. So, and we're not
just talking about the schedule of the project itself. What
I'm really talking about here where we spend time is
the time we spend in the design phase and the
planning phase of the project before we even get started
(06:54):
and you know, pick up the first hammer and pound
the first nail. Okay, time time is on your side.
You only have so much money and you want the
best quality possible. Get ready to pump the brakes and
spend some time.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Now.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
I just said I said it during it to a
couple of our callers. It's like, Hey, the only way
you're gonna know how to uh you know what the
real cost and which direction you go with which plumbing
contractor for instance, to repipe your house, is to spend
the time up front, your time and get different bids
so that you really get a perspective. Does that make sense? Yeah,
(07:35):
so ahead of time before the project begins, if you
want the And by the way, time also buys time.
In other words, the more time you spend planning out
this project, getting every detail hammered out, ordering materials ahead
of time, okay, the faster the actual execution of the
(07:56):
project will go. All right, So time even by time,
But time is the key, and time in the design phase.
This is yet another reason why design matters most. Solving
the design problems now having the very very best design
in this project, because as I've said before, you can
(08:20):
buy fancy materials and You can have the best contractor
on the planet installing all of this, but if the
design is poor, all you end up with is a
long lasting, high quality, very expensive, poorly designed project, and
nobody wants that. That's why it makes all the difference.
All right, when we come back, we will continue our list.
(08:40):
You are Home with Dean Sharp, the House Wisdom.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Forty, here to help you take your home to the
next level, like we do every week here on the
program Welcome Home. It is a beautiful, beautiful sunny day
here in southern California. So sorry if you're not here
with us in so cal I don't mean to make
you jealous or anything like that. I'm just saying we're
celebrating it here. I hope the weather wherever you are
(09:10):
is treating you right, and that you are making do
even if it's not, and that you're going to get
out there and make the most of this day as
it continues here, because you know what, the day that
we have in our hand, that's why we have to
make the most of it, and we make do with
whatever falls below the bar. As it were, we are
(09:30):
talking about ten reasons why design matters most for your home. Yes,
I am promoting the concept of design for the mainstream homeowner,
not just for the fancy, rich people who live up
on the hill behind the double gates, but for you,
for you, for you and me, Both design matters most.
(09:53):
It is the number one way to transform your home
the right design, getting the flow right, getting the volume right,
getting the vistas right, getting the you know, the concepts right,
solving really really solving the problems. Okay, identifying the problem
and acknowledging the problem and then solving the problem. This
(10:17):
is what makes the difference when people walk through a
fancy home or a regular home. It doesn't really matter
after it's all said and done. Yes, there are places
where you know, people gawk about like I can't believe
they had gold plated walls, and okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But the end of the day, the things that really
(10:37):
stick with us, the things that we talk about after
the fact that things that impress us are not necessarily
the materials, very rarely actually the materials, but the way
the place felt, the way the place looked, the way
it felt to move through it. That's design. That's what
I want you to realize along the way. All right,
(10:57):
let's step up to the next item on the list.
I mentioned with the weather as I came in to
this segment that you know, if the weather isn't so
great where you are right now, that I hope you're
making do. Making do is a great thing when it
comes to being a homeowner, and it's also a problematic thing.
And so ten reasons why design matters most. Our next
(11:20):
reason is design matters most because it's time to stop
making do. And what does that mean? Well, first of all,
I'm going to applaud you because if you are a resilient,
creative human being, here's how it went down with you
and your home. You found this home, you really liked
this home, and you bought this home, and you moved
(11:42):
into this home. Now, this home very very likely was
not absolutely perfect, but there were so many things you
liked about it, whether it's circumstantially or whether it's the
house itself that you thought, you know what, this is
the one, this is the one. Yes, it's not perfect,
and there's this thing, and there's that thing, and here's
the thing. When it comes to those areas, those imperfections,
(12:06):
what do you do because you're a resilient human being.
Well from day one, you start enjoying the home for
the reasons you purchased it, and for the rest of it,
you start making do. You just make do with them.
You know, you find a way around them, through them,
over them. You know, you turn your back to them.
You don't let them bug you on a daily basis,
You don't let them bog you down. You just keep
(12:29):
marching ahead and you make do. And that's a wonderful thing.
And I am applauding you, and I'm not telling you
that that is the wrong thing to do. It is
absolutely the right thing to do until it comes time
to remodel your home and to transform your home. And
that is when you have to get out of that habit.
(12:50):
You have to stop making do because making do does
this thing. It drives problems into your subconscious. It makes
you house blind, blind to those areas because you just
don't think about them anymore. You just make do with them.
And this is why design matters most A designer who
walks into your home for the first time is not
(13:11):
house blind. They have not been making do with your
home for the last ten, twenty thirty or more. Years.
They are fresh to it. They don't have to make
do and they don't have to play by the rules.
And what does that mean. We'll talk about it right
on the other side of the break your Home with
Dean Sharp, the House Whisper.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Here to help you transform your ordinary house into an
extraordinary home. Thanks for joining us on the program today.
We are talking about ten reasons why design matters most
and where I left Jahangen was this reason here. Because
it's time to stop making do with your house. Because
you've lived in it so long, and because you're a
(13:58):
resilient human being. The imperfections of your home, the things
that aren't right about your home, you've learned to make
do with them. You have moved out of the way
of them. You have changed, You've altered your course and
your habits and your whatever the case may be, to
allow the house to be where it is and how
(14:19):
it is. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, because
that's what resilient human beings do. We get creative and
we stay positive and we move forward. But this is
not what you should be doing when you're planning your remodel,
because when the remodel comes, it's time for the house
to get out of your way. Yeah, so it's time
(14:42):
to stop making do easier said than done when you're
on your own. Hence reason why design matters most. A
designer is not house blind to your house the way
that you are. They have not spent the last fifteen
to twenty years living in your house making do they
walk in the door fresh and clean. They don't have
(15:02):
any of that baggage in their subconscious that's keeping them
house blind to what the real solutions may be. And
they don't have to play by the rules. And now, when
I say play by the rules, and I know I
left you hanging on the break on that thought, I'm
not talking about bad architecture and I'm not talking about
bending and violating code. Those aren't the rules I'm talking about.
(15:23):
And the rules that I'm referring to is that they
don't have to play by are the rules that you've
established for your lifestyle in that house to get out
of the way of the problems. Designer doesn't have to
do that. We don't have to play by those rules,
and so fresh perspective creative perspective coming in and make
(15:45):
all the difference in the world. I've got a client
right now, Tina and I have a client with clients,
wonderful people, wonderful house. But here's the problem. We come
in to do a console for them, and they're like, Okay,
we don't know what we can do with the house
because we love our house. The kitchen is in a room,
(16:05):
kind of an oddly shaped room up front. Face of
the kitchen faces the street, the front edge of the house.
But they have, you know, in the years that they've
done things to their home. They have transformed the backyard
just into this wonderful sanctuary play area, and this is
where we spend all of our time. We don't know
how to make this better, considering that you've got to
(16:27):
go halfway across the house. Now, this may be a
thought that's crossing your mind right now. Oh, I bet
Dean's gonna say move the kitchen. And yes, that's exactly
what I said to them, which of course blew them away.
Now it may not blow you away, this idea, and
you may be thinking, oh, right now, see that's exactly
what designers do. Deane. You come in here and now
(16:47):
you're going to have them spend all this much more money.
Not true, It's not true, okay, because here's the thing.
They were already planning on a full kitchen remodel. Do
you know the kind of money lay down for a
full kitchen remodel. They're gonna completely gut this room. There
will be a moment where there is nothing in the
(17:08):
there's kitchen in there, now there will be nothing in there. Okay.
So if we're going to gut an entire kitchen and
put an entire brand new kitchen back, let's just say
that project alone on a house there size is one
hundred thousand dollars, okay, which is not that unrealistic unfortunately,
(17:28):
but let's just say that's the case. Okay. Well, whether
we put the kitchen back here in this empty room,
or move it to switch places with a bedroom adjacent
to the family room over here on the backside of
the house, where now it becomes a part of the backyard,
a part of the family room, a part of the
(17:48):
entertainment flow, and so on and so forth, that move
only results in adding less than seven percent to the
already existing budget. So imagine you got a budget and
if I came to you and said, okay, if we
can increase this budget or at least find room in
(18:09):
this budget for a seven percent change of expenditure seven percent,
we completely changed that house, totally changed the game. That's
the difference between oh, well we had a kitchen, but
we made it nicer to you know, for one hundred
thousand dollars, or for one hundred and seven thousand dollars
(18:30):
we had a kitchen, and we totally changed the game.
And now our house is the dream house that we
always wanted. That's what I'm talking about. Now. What did
they say to me when I made that suggestion? They
say the thing that we've heard a million times, which is,
I never would have thought of that in a million years. Now,
maybe you would have if you had walked into their house.
(18:51):
And so I'm not patting myself on the back saying
I'm the most you know, creative and genius designer ever,
I'm simply saying this. This is the fact I was
not house blind to their house. I did not have
to live there and make a do with that kitchen
for all those years. So what seemed painfully obvious to
Tina and I fifteen minutes into the conversation is we
(19:14):
got to get this kitchen to the backside of that house.
And that's what's happening. We're working on that design right now,
and let me tell you it is gagg gorgeous. It
is a game changer. That's the difference between oh, that
was a nice upgrade to your kitchen and oh wow,
you guys have changed the game. So a reason to
(19:38):
understand that design matters most because when it comes to
your remodel, it's time for you to stop making do
It's time for the house to get out of your
way this time. Okay, that's how you maximize the money.
Now you've heard me say, Okay, design is a part
of the budget. Okay, yes, does it save you money?
(19:59):
I don't know this save you money. I mean the
budget is the budget. This is what you're going to spend.
But it will maximize the value of every dollar the
right design. See, we could have spent one hundred thousand
dollars on a dreamy kitchen in the front of the house,
and what we would have in the end is a
(20:19):
nice kitchen in the front of the house. Or we
could spend that same amount of money plus a little
bit more and change the entire game, which would you
rather have? That's exactly what I'm talking about. Okay. Reason
next for why design matters most is because your tracked
(20:41):
home wasn't fit for you or your property because it
was designed without reference to the lot that it's sitting on.
If it's a typical American tracked home, but it can be,
it isn't fit for your for you, you weren't in
their mind when that ulse was designed and put on
(21:03):
that piece of property. Even the property wasn't necessarily in mind.
Because the way you know tracked homes are built, We're
going to have three or four floor plans, We're going
to change the facades on each one. We're going to
flip them right and left. So we're going to create
the illusion that this neighborhood has like twelve to twenty
(21:23):
different homes when in reality there are like four. Okay,
those were not designed with that particular lot in mind,
the one that you're sitting on. Because some of your
house in your neighborhood are sitting at the end of
cul de sacs. Some of your house in your neighborhood
might be view lots. Some of your house in your
(21:44):
neighborhood might be just soldiered in right next to others
on the straight part of a street with five foot
setbacks with no view same house. That's not the way
it works in the custom world. And now that we
are remodeling your house, now it's time to fit it
to the property you're on. That my friend takes some design. Okay,
(22:08):
So the last reason for this moment or design mattering
most because your home was not fit for you or
your property. But it can be all right when we
come back. Let's talk about a condition that your house
likely suffers from post traumatic design disorder. What we'll talk
(22:29):
about that right after the break you are home with
Dean Sharp the house Whisper.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Here to remind you that design matters most. Absolutely. I
do that every week, but man, are we doing it
today because the very topic of our show today is
ten reasons why design matters most? And guess what we're
going to finish our list? Yes we are. Before the break,
I hinted to you that our next reason why design
(23:00):
matters most is because your house has post traumatic design disorder,
or it very likely does. All right now. I coined
that phrase TM. All right, don't go using it. I'll
have to sue you. Yeah, it's all right. Post traumatic
design disorder. This is what I have decided to call
homes that are old enough now that they've been through
(23:22):
some changes, you know, some changes that you know you're
not likely the original owner of your home, and even
if you are, well, then it's your fault. But we'll
just blame the other owners for the rest of us.
You know, a little thing has been done here wrong,
A little decision has been there made, they're not the best.
(23:43):
A little thing has been tweaked over here, material has
been used. Oh you know what I'm saying. Bad decisions
or less than great decisions have been made in years past,
and of course you are making do with them. Okay,
But now, as I said, is the time to not
make do. But can we actually get to the root
(24:06):
of that problem or are we going to further this
issue that I call post traumatic design disorder?
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Now?
Speaker 1 (24:12):
The reason why it sounds like PTSD is because it
strangely follows the same pattern. So in a human being,
you get PTSD because you go through some kind of trauma,
and the trauma itself obviously is a bad thing. I
mean it's an intense thing. Okay, it's stressful, it's intense,
(24:33):
life changing, And there you go. That's not what PTSD is.
PTSD is not the trauma. PTSD is what comes after
the trauma. It's post traumatic disorder. Right, So PTSD is
about a life that now, instead of facing the trauma,
(24:56):
diving in and healing from it, it's a life now
that bends itself around the trauma, compensates for the trauma,
and as a result, creates more malgrowth around the trauma. Okay,
post traumatic stress disorder, more stresses come because we're in caps.
(25:18):
We're trying to encapsulate the trauma. We're trying to bend
our lives around it, and we're not really facing it
straight on and just dealing with it until we find
our path. Okay, that's that. I'm not a psychologist, but
I do understand it to that level. In a home,
post traumatic design disorder is when something traumatic has happened
(25:41):
to the home. And I don't mean a tree fell
on it or an earthquake. I mean something happened to
it at the hands of another human being who made
a mistake, who allowed a bad design to come through.
Sometimes it happens at birth. Sometimes a home is just
not designed well right out of the camp, but likely
things have been layered on, and then the next person
(26:03):
who tries to deal with the problem doesn't get to
the root, but they compensate for that, and you get
a whole a house that's old enough. At some point
you realize, wow, now there's been thirty years of compensating
or attempting to compensate for this original bad decision. And
(26:25):
of course, because we're all making do and because it's
now now, the compensations are so much a part of
this house you don't even notice that they're compensations anymore.
It's just awkward and weird and not something that we love. Well.
The reason that design matters most is again, a designer
comes in, and a designer worth their salt can look
(26:48):
at the fundamentals of the house and identify, you know,
what it was back in sixty four when this problem happened,
or it was back in ninety six, or it was
last year, and you guys did this. I'm sorry to say,
but the point is we got to get to the
root of the trauma that originally happened to the house
(27:09):
and fix it so we can free your home, free
it to be everything that it could possibly be. We've
got to heal it in order to get past it.
Because what do they say, They say that that that
that a trauma that goes unhealed. Will you either transform
(27:31):
it or it will transmit itself? Okay, right, yeah, So
if you have an illness and emotional illness or something
tweaked inside you that isn't transformed, you're going to transmit it.
It's going to transmit into other things. And we want
to free your house to be everything it can be.
So second to last reason why design matters most is
(27:54):
that you simply deal with traumatic design disorder. Get to
the root of the problem, cut it out at its root.
Maybe traumatic for you to think about it, but it
will free you for your house to become everything it
can be. The last reason, and this should make everybody happy,
(28:15):
whether you're into this artsy Farsi stuff or not, is
simply this good design is what makes it rain, and
I mean not rain from the sky, but you know,
dollars as far as the value of your property, I
cannot emphasize this to you more than I have, but
I will try to underscore it one more time. When
(28:35):
somebody walks through your home and evaluates the value of
that piece of property, it is not the gold and
the silver and the platinum that you've poured into it.
In fact, you can ask any realtor. Realtors will tell
you they show people this one home. Oh, the materials
are just so scrumptious and they're so lux and they're
so amazing. But you know what, we really like this
(28:57):
home over here. Why it was open, the layout, and
we love where the windows are, and we love the
vistas and the views. Guess what, that's design, design more
than materials, even more than craftsmanship. Dare I say? And
as a builder, I don't want to say that, but
it's true. Design is what makes it rain. All right, y'all,
(29:18):
we made it through our list. These are the reasons
why I hope I have helped sway you in that direction,
because it's what's going to change your home. Now. I
want you to take this beautiful day and get out
there with the rest of it and get busy building
yourself a beautiful life, and we will see you right
back here next weekend. This has been Home with Dean Sharp.
(29:39):
The house Whisper. Tune into the live broadcast on KFI
AM six forty every Saturday morning from six to eight
Pacific time, and every Sunday morning from nine to noon
Pacific time, or anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
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