November 1, 2025 • 31 mins
Dean answers all!!! Every Saturday morning @ 6a on KFI AM640!
Dean gives landscaping advice for homes in Mediteranean climates, and how to keep your storybook home up-to-date.
Dean gives landscaping advice for homes in Mediteranean climates, and how to keep your storybook home up-to-date.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Good morning and welcome home. I am Dean Sharp, the
house whisper, custom home builder, custom home designer and every
weekend your guide to better understanding that place where you
live it is and all calls Saturday morning here on
the very first day of November twenty twenty five. Good Lord,
(00:30):
where has the year gone? Man? We are in the
last eight weeks of this year. I cannot believe it.
I just it's been a year, right, yeah, And I'm
glad the holidays are here though. It's time to breathe
deep and enjoy some good food, good times with great
people and nothing. There's just nothing better. There's nothing better
(00:53):
than the holidays. There's nothing better than autumn in my opinion, too,
my favorite time of year. I am glad to be
here on the program with you this morning, and I'm
glad you're up and getting ready for your day and
that you are here with me. It's an all calls weekend,
like I said, or an all call Saturday like I said.
So just FYI. The number to reach me eight three
(01:14):
three two ask Dean eight three three. The numeral two
ask Dean A three three two? Ask Dean, it's just
that simple anything that's got you scratching your head about
your home? All right, I'm gonna go back to Chip.
We have Chip on hold. Chip lives in a one
hundred year old house and needs to redo like everything,
(01:35):
and right now he's concentrating on the exterior, new windows,
new siding, new roof. And the question is should they
all be bundled together and is handled by one contractor
should we work them independently of each other? And if so,
what's the timing of all of that? Chip? Are you
(01:57):
still with me? I didn't hang up on you today?
Oh yes, okay, uh so did I get that right?
We're you know, those are the three things that we're
we're trying to figure out when it comes to the
order of events here generally speaking, generally speaking, uh you know,
let me ask you this. What's going to be up
(02:18):
on the roof? What are we doing up there?
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Probably just just replacing the shingles and all of the
wood trim.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Okay, but I see as far as the roofing material is,
as far as the roofing material, is it asphalt composition?
Is it? Are we doing a lightweight concrete. What have
we got going on up there?
Speaker 3 (02:44):
It is, it's just asphalt shingle right now.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Okay, all right. The reason I'm asking is because is
because you know, the heavier the roofing material is, the
more important it is that we actually get that roofing
material up there before we do other things down low. Okay,
so let me we weave this into a narrative for you. Generally,
(03:07):
speaking of those three things windows, you know, roofing, and sighting,
the most logical progression is to get the roof at
least dried in. Okay, Now, dried in does not mean
that all the shingles are finished and that it's all
all the edgemental is done and done and done and done. Well,
we're concerned about are two things moisture and you know,
(03:30):
protecting the house, and and the weightload of the roof
up there. The dried in means that at least the
roofing membrane, if there's resheting to happen, we get that done.
And the roofing membrane, the underlayment of the roof, the
thing that really does the primary job of protecting the
(03:52):
house from water intrusion. That that is in place, okay,
and we don't want to leave that exposed for two
long And by too long, I mean most roofing membranes
don't want to have you expose them to the direct
sun for more than like ninety days, so I mean
that's three months. That's a long time. Something's gone wrong
(04:13):
if the roofing membrane is sitting up there for more
than three months. But the point is we want to
get it dried in because that's you know, when the
rains come, as they will not too long from now,
that we don't have to worry about it whether there's
a single shingle up on the roof or not. If
the membrane is in place, you're good to go. The
(04:33):
second thing that is always I think wise now you're
not you've got sighting, not stucco going on. So this
is much more of a concern with stucco, but still
it's relevant, and that is getting the weight of the
new roofing material up on the roof. Okay, it's what
we call loading the roof. We again, they don't all
(04:53):
have to be installed, but what we want to do
ideally is we want to have the roof for actually
load the shingles up in, you know, in bundles up
there laying out on the roof, uninstalled, still in their pack.
What was that?
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Do you like metal roofs? Oh?
Speaker 2 (05:12):
I love metal roofs. I love metal roofs. So that's
that's a serious option as well. But the but the
point is, as far as order of events, we just
want to get the weight of the roof up there
because that will cause a little bit of settling to
happen down through the studs, down through the window openings
and so on, and we want that seedtling to happen.
We want we want the roof underload so that I
(05:36):
believe me, I've seen it happen where somebody has gone
ahead and dried in the roof, but they haven't loaded
the roof. Like especially in a stucco house. They've done
fresh stucco all over the outside of the house, and
then the roofing materials show up and they start to
load it, and guess what, we get spider cracking through
all the stucco as the house kind of settles and
bears down under the load of the roof. So ideally,
(05:59):
dry in the roof, get it loaded up there so
that the house settles, It just resettles into its weight,
and now you have the permanent weighted condition to install
the vapor barrier for the siding and the siding itself,
and of course the new windows. Now the question of
(06:20):
whether or not, and by the way, the order would
be load the roof, at least do the windows, because
the windows have got to go in presiding, right, because
the windows have to flash in against the bare studs
and the old walls, and then the siding comes along,
laps on top of those windows and covers up of
those flashings. So it's going to be load, roof, windows,
(06:43):
and siding, and whether or not that all happens by
the same contractor whether you're going to kind of general
it yourself. You know, it's all about how comfortable you
are handling the job. That way, I like the idea
of using a general to handle all three, or at
least at least the siding in the windows. The roof
(07:04):
is really kind of a separate thing. You can have
a roofer come up and do that. In fact, a
lot of most general contractors don't actually do the roofs themselves.
They just have their own roofing sub come in and
do it, and they supervise it. But most general contractors
also will in fact do the siding and the windows themselves.
And I like the fact that the siding and the windows,
(07:27):
because they are paired together, are done by the same people.
Because if there is a leak, nobody's pointing fingers at anybody.
It's like, oh, it's the siding guys didn't do their flat.
Oh it was the window guys didn't flat. No, you
did the whole job right, sidings and windows. That means
it's all buttoned up and leak proof. Does that make sense?
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Yeah, it does. There's at least an hour area here
in central Florida. There's quite a few reputable contractors that
have been around for decades that offer all three as
a package. And it seems like the easier way to go.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Yeah. I have no issues whether whatsoever. No, I mean,
I mean all three great, at least the two and
and and all three. Why not just you know, just
interview them really well and make sure that that you know,
you're clear with them that you know we want to
get the roof dried in first, wrap the house, get that,
get the windows in place, get the siding in place,
(08:32):
so that we're doing in the in the right order,
especially during hurricane season. Chip, I'm up against a break, buddy.
I really appreciate the call. Thanks for the call from
Central Florida, and good luck on wrapping up that one
hundred year old house. I am jealous of you. I
love old houses, Ugh the best. All right, y'all, more
of your calls when we return your home with Dean Sharp,
(08:53):
the house whisper. Dean Sharp, the house whisper here to
help you take your home to the next level. Thanks
for joining us on the pro this morning. It's an
all call Saturday morning. As we do. The number to
reach me eight three three two ask Dean eight three
to three the numeral to ask Dean. I want to
go back to the phones. Let's talk to uh uh Andrea.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
Morning, sir, Thanks for taking my call. We purchased nineteen
twenty seven Spanish duplex in Long Beach. Glad you here.
You love old home. Everything period is good structurally, but
the landscape is horrible. It has probably fifteen palm trees,
and I hate palm trees. So I want to know
(09:40):
some advice from you on how we can do some
good landscape choices that maybe don't involve palm trees. I
don't know three something anything.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Well, yeah, okay, so I'm going to explode a myth here, Andrea,
I just want you to understand, hear me, because I'm
hoping that you're going to be very, very encouraged by this. Okay.
The idea of a Spanish style home quite often gets
confused here in Southern California, especially with you know, Mexican
(10:18):
style homes. Okay. And the reason I the reason I
draw differential is because by and large, when we do
like a Mexican style home, we're thinking dry, arid, you know,
semi desert kind of things happening around a you know,
a Mexican rancho home. And you know that never it
(10:41):
never doesn't work, but it usually just doesn't really excite
and thrill people in general. They think that, well, because
you know, this is the style of my home. It
can't be green and lush and verdant and shady and
all of the above. And I want to explode that myth.
Number one, that is not a requirement even for a
(11:04):
full on Mexican home setting, but a Spanish home, Spanish style,
which the vast majority of homes in southern California that
are built in that style are in fact, I just
want to remind everybody it's a Mediterranean climate. If you've
ever been to Spain, Okay, it's not a desert, far
from it. And so we've got lots and lots and
(11:26):
lots of options. Now. People usually go for things like
they think, well, you know, I'm gonna put in succulents
and agave's nothing wrong with that. I'm in a As
far as trees go, you know, I might be tempted
to put in cypress trees, you know, like like an
Italian style cypress trees. People. I honestly, I kind of
(11:49):
feel if I'm not in Italy, I feel about the
same way about Italian cypresses as you feel about palm trees,
which is like, I have no use for no use
for the whatsoever. They're just long and tall, and they're
not shading anything, and they're just gonna catch on fire
one day, and so uh yeah, I feel I feel
(12:11):
so so all of this to say all of this
to say, go for it on the landscape for your home.
A Spanish style home can actually take a wide, wide
swath of landscape options, Okay, uh, and as long as
we're not, you know, intentionally going for a strong theme
(12:33):
like Southern plantation style for your Spanish home. Then the
fact of the matter is, you know, you're you're, You've
got just about every option available. Don't feel like you
have to stick with olive trees and things like that. Now,
all of trees are beautiful. They're beautiful. Okay, they're also
did you know, by the way, everybody that that all
(12:54):
of trees are technically shrubs? Okay, they they are. Every
olive tree you've ever seen, an olive plant is technically
a shrub that has to be trained to grow into
a tree, and they grow incredibly slow. Okay, So if
you're gonna get a full mature olive tree that's gonna
(13:16):
like produce shade for you, you're gonna pay a mint
or you're gonna plant a small to medium size one
and you'll get that shade in about thirty years from now.
So again, nothing against olive trees. I love them. If
we're using them for a decorative motif, that's great. But
if we're really looking to get like shade and other
(13:40):
elements like that going with our home, then you know,
branch out and feel free to widen the palate. You
don't have to go with the typical iconic things lush
verdant planting. Now, do I want you to primarily use
native and and California tolerant plants? Of course I do,
(14:03):
because I don't want you to pull in pouring tons
and tons of money into, you know, watering the yard
just to keep it done, because you've filled it with
eastern plants that need ten times the water that things
do out here. Plus, I want you to build a
habitat around your home, and a habitat means that I
want you to use as many California native plants as possible,
(14:26):
because with those come the little critters, and with the
little critters come the larger critters, meaning birds and bees
and things that you actually want in your garden and
in your yard. And it all starts with the tiniest
of insects. And another fun fact for everybody to understand
about landscape design is that insects co evolve with the
(14:46):
plants in any given area. And so when we don't
use California native or friendly California friendly plants, they don't
all have to be native, but they have to be friendly.
Then no insects, and if there are no insects, then
there will be no birds. And so to bring bird
(15:08):
song into our gardens, we've got to start with plants
that the insects can actually use and utilize. And so
that's why we lean in that direction. But the point is,
you've got so many options, and I would encourage you
to not go dry and desert y with your landscape choices.
And I would also encourage you to start with not
(15:31):
to start with trees. Okay, trees and the options of
trees are in fact the things that change our climate
and that change the micro climate around your home. Everybody
who I almost almost to a person, everybody I talked
to about landscape design, they want to talk about flowers
and shrubs and grasses. And I asked the question, all right,
(15:54):
what's going on on the lot on the property with
your trees? And they're like, what trees? And I'm like, exactly,
let's get some tree going on here. Okay, trees are
the cornerstones. They anchor. And I'm talking about big, beautiful
trees that bring shade and cooler temperatures. And the reason
I say that as well, and I'm pushing up against
a breaker you know what, Andrea, You know I really
(16:15):
want to talk to you about this a little bit more. So,
can you hang tight, because I'm gonna I'm gonna get
up my soapbox and I'm gonna talk to everybody about
landscape design when it comes to their home, and I
want to explain the place of trees as the anchor
plants for any good landscape design, and why they open
(16:36):
up not only are they beautiful and do amazing things
to your property, but they open up other options for you. Anyway,
you hang tight, We'll talk about this more on the
other side. Your Home with Dean Sharp, The house Whisper.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Dean Sharp the house Whisper here to transform your ordinary
house into an extraordinary home, as we do every weekend
here for you on the show and of course on
the podcast. If you are listening, welcome. If your home
needs some personal house Whisper attention, you can book an
in home design consult with me and Tea. You just
(17:17):
go to house Whisper dot Design for more info. House
Whisper dot Design. All right, it's an all calls Saturday
morning we're going to go back to the phones. I've
got Andrea on the line. Are you still there? Did
I hang up on you?
Speaker 4 (17:32):
Yeah, I'm here.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Okay. So Andrea made the mistake of asking me about plants,
because there are very few things that I get more
jazzed about when it comes to design and a home
than landscape design outside. And I have some very strong
opinions about it, especially as it pertains well, you know, nationwide,
(17:57):
but especially the way that landscape technically gets it's done
here in southern California, boring and very very limited in
its imagination or its thought. And so just a couple
other things I wanted to share with you, Andrea and
everybody before we move on one. I just want to
make it really clear. I know you got a Spanish
(18:18):
style house. That's great, fantastic, And when it comes to
the landscape, don't fall into the trap of having to
do the you know, typical stuff that goes with Spanish
whatever people think that is. And you know, all you
have to do is go online and put in Spanish
style landscape and you get the same old stuff that
(18:38):
pops up every time. So the artist in me, the designer,
and the landscape designer in me wants to give you
permission to free yourself because the truth. I will speak
the truth to you now. The truth is that Spain
(18:58):
in its history has been, unfortunately for many, a colonizer.
A colonizer meaning you know, like the French, like the British.
You know, they went elsewhere. They left Spain and then
started claiming territories all over the world, you know, from
Honduras all the way to the Caribbean. And the point
(19:22):
is that means that Spanish architecture shows up everywhere. I
mean everywhere. It's one of the most common forms of
architecture globally. Okay, not a lot of Spanish villas up
in Germany, granted, but to elsewhere across the world, lots
and lots of Spanish style architecture. And what does that
(19:43):
tell you. It tells you that there's all sorts of
landscape that goes with Spanish style architecture. Because yeah, you
can do a Spanish style house right on the edge
of a semi arid desert and use a gave and
you know, and succulents and things like that. It looks great,
looks fine. But also there are Spanish homes standing in
(20:07):
you know the Caribbean, and you can surround a Spanish
home with tropical And by tropical, I don't mean palm trees, okay,
I mean lush, tropical, verdant, green and anything in between.
So the point is, I want you to be free
with your landscape. And the second thing is I want
you to think when you're redoing your landscape first and
(20:30):
foremost always about trees. I think of trees in terms
of landscape design like I think of foundations in terms
of building a house. Okay, it's the first and most
important cornerstone, things that everything else builds on. And the
reason why I want you to think in terms of
trees a couple of reasons. At least. Number one, trees
(20:52):
are the most prominent and most beautiful striking feature in
a landscape. When you've got big, beautiful trees, then everything
else drops below it and complements it. But they are
the focal point of most landscapes that they find themselves in.
Number Two, trees and their shade ends up giving you
(21:14):
even more landscape options because they create microclimates within your property.
Right now, you've got a barren property. I'm not saying
it is, but I'm saying, if you've got a barren
property that's treeless, you've got shrubs and groundcover. That's what
your options are. And you've got a lot of sun
hitting it all, which means they're all going to have
(21:35):
to be full to partial sun. Shrubs and groundcover, and
that limits your options. You put in trees, you get
shady areas. Now you've got half shade mostly shade areas
and under and around those trees where that shade hits.
That means you can start shifting to other flowering plants
and other plant I mean, you've got enough trees in
(21:57):
your ard. You can be growing ferns in one side
of the yard and a gave on the other side
of the yard that gets full sun. The point is
it expands the palette that you can use immensely in
all the best possible ways. And just to top off
my little tree sermon here, trees are undoubtedly the best
(22:21):
return on investment investment you can make in a property,
and I mean period inside or outside. All right. The
National Association of Realtors have researched this again and again
and again. They always present the exact same data. It
hasn't changed, and that is that a house with big,
(22:41):
beautiful feature trees, like out in the front and in
the back. The cost of those trees, whatever they were,
adding them to a well landscaped home increases the value
of a home anywhere from five up to ten percent.
Let's just take the low side of that. We had
a seven hundred thousand dollars house and you add a
(23:04):
ten thousand dollars tree to the front yard. That tree,
the minute it goes in the ground is now where
thirty seven thousand dollars has added thirty seven thousand dollars
to the value of your home outright just boom. So
the point is, you know, and as a as a designer,
I'm always getting asked. In fact, I was with some
(23:25):
beautiful clients just the earlier this week add a tree nursery.
We were dealing with this. They wanted a shade covering
in their backyard and they're like, how much will it
cost to build this thing? And you know, and we
went through all the options, and I said, you know,
in your situation especially, I'm not sure a built cover
is what you want. How About we create all this
(23:46):
shade that you want with a big, beautiful feature tree
instead of spending twenty thousand dollars building a pergola, another
man made structure, and they really dug into that and
they're like, yeah, let's do that. So we would easily
have spent twenty thousand dollars plus on this big, beautiful
shade pergola. What we ended up with is spending eight
(24:08):
thousand dollars on a twenty foot tall ash tree that's
going to continue to grow and get even more shade
and shade. So the point is I'm big on that.
It allows you to spread out your landscape options and Andrea,
you know what landscape your yard any way you want,
you know, primarily focus on California native plants. That gives you,
(24:32):
you know, thousands of options. It does, it doesn't limit
you in any way. Then you can add in non
natives as accent pieces, but get some shade is integrated
also so that you've got the full palette of landscape.
There's no reason that a Spanish style house in southern
California can't be lush and verdant and have all sorts
(24:53):
of interesting things happening, as opposed to whatever is typically
considered Spanish boomp in quote. Okay, how is that?
Speaker 4 (25:03):
Thank you? Thank you so appreciate your time, have a
great day.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
You're You're so very welcome. I probably talked your ear off,
but you know what, it's so important for everybody to
realize how many options you are have when it comes
to landscape. All right, more, when we return your home
with Dean Sharp, the house Whisper. Dean Sharp, the house
Whisper here to remind you every home deserves great design,
(25:28):
including yours, especially yours. Why because you're there, That's why,
my friend. All right, it's an all call Saturday morning.
Let's go back to the phones. I want to talk
to Jen. Hey, Jen, welcome.
Speaker 5 (25:41):
Home, Hidine, thank you. So I have a nineteen thirty
storybook house in Los Angeles and it's getting a complete
refurbishment and the exterior paint's going to be kind of
a toe with black trim, black gutters, and black around
(26:05):
the windows. So I'm wondering about the vents, should they
be black or the tope? And I'm wondering about a
third accent color. I had thought of either a creamy
or a dark olive green, or should I just stick
(26:28):
to the two colors? So thoughts hmmm?
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Okay, Well, first of all, events are the vents architecturally detailed.
Do we have architectural detailed colors on the vents or
are they just plain screen?
Speaker 5 (26:49):
They're original to the house, and they're they do stand out.
They're not just screen. They're kind of bars that go across.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Okay, so they've got his. You know, it's a toss up.
Without seeing the house and evaluating it with eyeballs on,
I would say it's a toss up. The question is
do you want them to pop? In other words, that
are they an architectural feature that you want to pop?
If so, then you know, paint them with the black
against the you know, the the tope wall. If if
(27:21):
they're fine, they're not unattractive, but it's not really a
place where you want my eyeballs to zero in and
focus on. Then just paint them along with the tope
wall and let them do their job, and then and
look for other ways of exciting the exterior detail of
the house. Does that make sense?
Speaker 5 (27:40):
Yes? Yes?
Speaker 2 (27:42):
And I think your idea about a third color now
the question the question really is what are we doing
with that third color. I love I love color trios
as opposed to just two colors going on a house,
But the third color. It sounds like you've got really
good taste color. So the black, the tope and then
this kind of green that is blended in sounds like
(28:06):
a wonderful opportunity. The big question is you know where
we putting it. I would definitely use it as an accent.
So when it comes to you know, tricolor combos, we
want we've obviously we have our primary color that the
main surface of the house is going to be the tope.
Then the primary color for trim everywhere, trim, trim, trim
(28:30):
everywhere is going to be the black. And then in
the same way that we have a percentage of surface
coverage differential between the tope and the black, we want
there to also be a far less percentage of use
of that third color, but in meaningful ways. So it's
just about finding a few places to accent with the green.
(28:52):
But you know, I would give you, I mean, conceptually,
I give you two thumbs up for that whole idea.
I think it's going to sound wonderful and in keeping
with storybook. Especially those muted, kind of earth earthy based
colors I think are wonderful because they really kind of
(29:12):
speak to that more rustic, rugged fanciful vibe coming out
of the earth. Storybook. By the way, for everybody who's
wondering the storybook, what is that? Storybook is actually an
authentic original Southern California architectural style dates back to the
late twenties early thirties, when the studios were first, you know,
(29:35):
making Hollywood here. And we've got all of these workers, set, decorators, carpenters,
crafts people working at the studios, building their homes in
the LA area around the studios and thinking to themselves,
you know what, why can't I have a witch's cottage
for my house. I've got this land, it's available, and
(29:58):
so Storybook these fanciful homes that look like they just
popped right out of the pages of snow White or
you know this.
Speaker 4 (30:06):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
These were studio workers who were originally saying, gosh, dang it,
I'm gonna have a Hollywood house. So I'm gonna sit
spend my life working on the movies. I'm gonna live
in a storybook house. And that's where Storybook was born.
By the way.
Speaker 5 (30:22):
That's fascinating, yes, And so.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
You're living in one of them, Jen, Congratulations and make
sure you you know, send me some pics of the
house when you when you get it all painted up,
because I'm I'm curious and I'd be thrilled to see them. Jen,
thanks for the call. Here we are at the end
of another couple hours together, my friends. Tomorrow's show is
(30:45):
a reality. It's gonna be preempted in Los Angeles and
broadcast because the Chargers are playing tomorrow morning. But I'm
doing the show, doing the show live. You can hear
it on Cogo out of San Diego Live, or you
can listen on the stream on the Cogo stream live,
(31:06):
or you just catch the podcast after we're done. But
it's happening and we're talking about holiday paints, so you're
not gonna want to miss it until then. Get out
there in this beautiful first day of November and get
busy building yourself a beautiful life. We'll see you tomorrow.
This has been Home with Dean Sharp the House Whisper.
(31:27):
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.
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Good morning and welcome home. I am Dean Sharp, the
house whisper, custom home builder, custom home designer and every
weekend your guide to better understanding that place where you
live it is and all calls Saturday morning here on
the very first day of November twenty twenty five. Good Lord,
(00:30):
where has the year gone? Man? We are in the
last eight weeks of this year. I cannot believe it.
I just it's been a year, right, yeah, And I'm
glad the holidays are here though. It's time to breathe
deep and enjoy some good food, good times with great
people and nothing. There's just nothing better. There's nothing better
(00:53):
than the holidays. There's nothing better than autumn in my opinion, too,
my favorite time of year. I am glad to be
here on the program with you this morning, and I'm
glad you're up and getting ready for your day and
that you are here with me. It's an all calls weekend,
like I said, or an all call Saturday like I said.
So just FYI. The number to reach me eight three
(01:14):
three two ask Dean eight three three. The numeral two
ask Dean A three three two? Ask Dean, it's just
that simple anything that's got you scratching your head about
your home? All right, I'm gonna go back to Chip.
We have Chip on hold. Chip lives in a one
hundred year old house and needs to redo like everything,
(01:35):
and right now he's concentrating on the exterior, new windows,
new siding, new roof. And the question is should they
all be bundled together and is handled by one contractor
should we work them independently of each other? And if so,
what's the timing of all of that? Chip? Are you
(01:57):
still with me? I didn't hang up on you today?
Oh yes, okay, uh so did I get that right?
We're you know, those are the three things that we're
we're trying to figure out when it comes to the
order of events here generally speaking, generally speaking, uh you know,
let me ask you this. What's going to be up
(02:18):
on the roof? What are we doing up there?
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Probably just just replacing the shingles and all of the
wood trim.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Okay, but I see as far as the roofing material is,
as far as the roofing material, is it asphalt composition?
Is it? Are we doing a lightweight concrete. What have
we got going on up there?
Speaker 3 (02:44):
It is, it's just asphalt shingle right now.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Okay, all right. The reason I'm asking is because is
because you know, the heavier the roofing material is, the
more important it is that we actually get that roofing
material up there before we do other things down low. Okay,
so let me we weave this into a narrative for you. Generally,
(03:07):
speaking of those three things windows, you know, roofing, and sighting,
the most logical progression is to get the roof at
least dried in. Okay, Now, dried in does not mean
that all the shingles are finished and that it's all
all the edgemental is done and done and done and done. Well,
we're concerned about are two things moisture and you know,
(03:30):
protecting the house, and and the weightload of the roof
up there. The dried in means that at least the
roofing membrane, if there's resheting to happen, we get that done.
And the roofing membrane, the underlayment of the roof, the
thing that really does the primary job of protecting the
(03:52):
house from water intrusion. That that is in place, okay,
and we don't want to leave that exposed for two
long And by too long, I mean most roofing membranes
don't want to have you expose them to the direct
sun for more than like ninety days, so I mean
that's three months. That's a long time. Something's gone wrong
(04:13):
if the roofing membrane is sitting up there for more
than three months. But the point is we want to
get it dried in because that's you know, when the
rains come, as they will not too long from now,
that we don't have to worry about it whether there's
a single shingle up on the roof or not. If
the membrane is in place, you're good to go. The
(04:33):
second thing that is always I think wise now you're
not you've got sighting, not stucco going on. So this
is much more of a concern with stucco, but still
it's relevant, and that is getting the weight of the
new roofing material up on the roof. Okay, it's what
we call loading the roof. We again, they don't all
(04:53):
have to be installed, but what we want to do
ideally is we want to have the roof for actually
load the shingles up in, you know, in bundles up
there laying out on the roof, uninstalled, still in their pack.
What was that?
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Do you like metal roofs? Oh?
Speaker 2 (05:12):
I love metal roofs. I love metal roofs. So that's
that's a serious option as well. But the but the
point is, as far as order of events, we just
want to get the weight of the roof up there
because that will cause a little bit of settling to
happen down through the studs, down through the window openings
and so on, and we want that seedtling to happen.
We want we want the roof underload so that I
(05:36):
believe me, I've seen it happen where somebody has gone
ahead and dried in the roof, but they haven't loaded
the roof. Like especially in a stucco house. They've done
fresh stucco all over the outside of the house, and
then the roofing materials show up and they start to
load it, and guess what, we get spider cracking through
all the stucco as the house kind of settles and
bears down under the load of the roof. So ideally,
(05:59):
dry in the roof, get it loaded up there so
that the house settles, It just resettles into its weight,
and now you have the permanent weighted condition to install
the vapor barrier for the siding and the siding itself,
and of course the new windows. Now the question of
(06:20):
whether or not, and by the way, the order would
be load the roof, at least do the windows, because
the windows have got to go in presiding, right, because
the windows have to flash in against the bare studs
and the old walls, and then the siding comes along,
laps on top of those windows and covers up of
those flashings. So it's going to be load, roof, windows,
(06:43):
and siding, and whether or not that all happens by
the same contractor whether you're going to kind of general
it yourself. You know, it's all about how comfortable you
are handling the job. That way, I like the idea
of using a general to handle all three, or at
least at least the siding in the windows. The roof
(07:04):
is really kind of a separate thing. You can have
a roofer come up and do that. In fact, a
lot of most general contractors don't actually do the roofs themselves.
They just have their own roofing sub come in and
do it, and they supervise it. But most general contractors
also will in fact do the siding and the windows themselves.
And I like the fact that the siding and the windows,
(07:27):
because they are paired together, are done by the same people.
Because if there is a leak, nobody's pointing fingers at anybody.
It's like, oh, it's the siding guys didn't do their flat.
Oh it was the window guys didn't flat. No, you
did the whole job right, sidings and windows. That means
it's all buttoned up and leak proof. Does that make sense?
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Yeah, it does. There's at least an hour area here
in central Florida. There's quite a few reputable contractors that
have been around for decades that offer all three as
a package. And it seems like the easier way to go.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Yeah. I have no issues whether whatsoever. No, I mean,
I mean all three great, at least the two and
and and all three. Why not just you know, just
interview them really well and make sure that that you know,
you're clear with them that you know we want to
get the roof dried in first, wrap the house, get that,
get the windows in place, get the siding in place,
(08:32):
so that we're doing in the in the right order,
especially during hurricane season. Chip, I'm up against a break, buddy.
I really appreciate the call. Thanks for the call from
Central Florida, and good luck on wrapping up that one
hundred year old house. I am jealous of you. I
love old houses, Ugh the best. All right, y'all, more
of your calls when we return your home with Dean Sharp,
(08:53):
the house whisper. Dean Sharp, the house whisper here to
help you take your home to the next level. Thanks
for joining us on the pro this morning. It's an
all call Saturday morning. As we do. The number to
reach me eight three three two ask Dean eight three
to three the numeral to ask Dean. I want to
go back to the phones. Let's talk to uh uh Andrea.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
Morning, sir, Thanks for taking my call. We purchased nineteen
twenty seven Spanish duplex in Long Beach. Glad you here.
You love old home. Everything period is good structurally, but
the landscape is horrible. It has probably fifteen palm trees,
and I hate palm trees. So I want to know
(09:40):
some advice from you on how we can do some
good landscape choices that maybe don't involve palm trees. I
don't know three something anything.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Well, yeah, okay, so I'm going to explode a myth here, Andrea,
I just want you to understand, hear me, because I'm
hoping that you're going to be very, very encouraged by this. Okay.
The idea of a Spanish style home quite often gets
confused here in Southern California, especially with you know, Mexican
(10:18):
style homes. Okay. And the reason I the reason I
draw differential is because by and large, when we do
like a Mexican style home, we're thinking dry, arid, you know,
semi desert kind of things happening around a you know,
a Mexican rancho home. And you know that never it
(10:41):
never doesn't work, but it usually just doesn't really excite
and thrill people in general. They think that, well, because
you know, this is the style of my home. It
can't be green and lush and verdant and shady and
all of the above. And I want to explode that myth.
Number one, that is not a requirement even for a
(11:04):
full on Mexican home setting, but a Spanish home, Spanish style,
which the vast majority of homes in southern California that
are built in that style are in fact, I just
want to remind everybody it's a Mediterranean climate. If you've
ever been to Spain, Okay, it's not a desert, far
from it. And so we've got lots and lots and
(11:26):
lots of options. Now. People usually go for things like
they think, well, you know, I'm gonna put in succulents
and agave's nothing wrong with that. I'm in a As
far as trees go, you know, I might be tempted
to put in cypress trees, you know, like like an
Italian style cypress trees. People. I honestly, I kind of
(11:49):
feel if I'm not in Italy, I feel about the
same way about Italian cypresses as you feel about palm trees,
which is like, I have no use for no use
for the whatsoever. They're just long and tall, and they're
not shading anything, and they're just gonna catch on fire
one day, and so uh yeah, I feel I feel
(12:11):
so so all of this to say all of this
to say, go for it on the landscape for your home.
A Spanish style home can actually take a wide, wide
swath of landscape options, Okay, uh, and as long as
we're not, you know, intentionally going for a strong theme
(12:33):
like Southern plantation style for your Spanish home. Then the
fact of the matter is, you know, you're you're, You've
got just about every option available. Don't feel like you
have to stick with olive trees and things like that. Now,
all of trees are beautiful. They're beautiful. Okay, they're also
did you know, by the way, everybody that that all
(12:54):
of trees are technically shrubs? Okay, they they are. Every
olive tree you've ever seen, an olive plant is technically
a shrub that has to be trained to grow into
a tree, and they grow incredibly slow. Okay, So if
you're gonna get a full mature olive tree that's gonna
(13:16):
like produce shade for you, you're gonna pay a mint
or you're gonna plant a small to medium size one
and you'll get that shade in about thirty years from now.
So again, nothing against olive trees. I love them. If
we're using them for a decorative motif, that's great. But
if we're really looking to get like shade and other
(13:40):
elements like that going with our home, then you know,
branch out and feel free to widen the palate. You
don't have to go with the typical iconic things lush
verdant planting. Now, do I want you to primarily use
native and and California tolerant plants? Of course I do,
(14:03):
because I don't want you to pull in pouring tons
and tons of money into, you know, watering the yard
just to keep it done, because you've filled it with
eastern plants that need ten times the water that things
do out here. Plus, I want you to build a
habitat around your home, and a habitat means that I
want you to use as many California native plants as possible,
(14:26):
because with those come the little critters, and with the
little critters come the larger critters, meaning birds and bees
and things that you actually want in your garden and
in your yard. And it all starts with the tiniest
of insects. And another fun fact for everybody to understand
about landscape design is that insects co evolve with the
(14:46):
plants in any given area. And so when we don't
use California native or friendly California friendly plants, they don't
all have to be native, but they have to be friendly.
Then no insects, and if there are no insects, then
there will be no birds. And so to bring bird
(15:08):
song into our gardens, we've got to start with plants
that the insects can actually use and utilize. And so
that's why we lean in that direction. But the point is,
you've got so many options, and I would encourage you
to not go dry and desert y with your landscape choices.
And I would also encourage you to start with not
(15:31):
to start with trees. Okay, trees and the options of
trees are in fact the things that change our climate
and that change the micro climate around your home. Everybody
who I almost almost to a person, everybody I talked
to about landscape design, they want to talk about flowers
and shrubs and grasses. And I asked the question, all right,
(15:54):
what's going on on the lot on the property with
your trees? And they're like, what trees? And I'm like, exactly,
let's get some tree going on here. Okay, trees are
the cornerstones. They anchor. And I'm talking about big, beautiful
trees that bring shade and cooler temperatures. And the reason
I say that as well, and I'm pushing up against
a breaker you know what, Andrea, You know I really
(16:15):
want to talk to you about this a little bit more. So,
can you hang tight, because I'm gonna I'm gonna get
up my soapbox and I'm gonna talk to everybody about
landscape design when it comes to their home, and I
want to explain the place of trees as the anchor
plants for any good landscape design, and why they open
(16:36):
up not only are they beautiful and do amazing things
to your property, but they open up other options for you. Anyway,
you hang tight, We'll talk about this more on the
other side. Your Home with Dean Sharp, The house Whisper.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Dean Sharp the house Whisper here to transform your ordinary
house into an extraordinary home, as we do every weekend
here for you on the show and of course on
the podcast. If you are listening, welcome. If your home
needs some personal house Whisper attention, you can book an
in home design consult with me and Tea. You just
(17:17):
go to house Whisper dot Design for more info. House
Whisper dot Design. All right, it's an all calls Saturday
morning we're going to go back to the phones. I've
got Andrea on the line. Are you still there? Did
I hang up on you?
Speaker 4 (17:32):
Yeah, I'm here.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Okay. So Andrea made the mistake of asking me about plants,
because there are very few things that I get more
jazzed about when it comes to design and a home
than landscape design outside. And I have some very strong
opinions about it, especially as it pertains well, you know, nationwide,
(17:57):
but especially the way that landscape technically gets it's done
here in southern California, boring and very very limited in
its imagination or its thought. And so just a couple
other things I wanted to share with you, Andrea and
everybody before we move on one. I just want to
make it really clear. I know you got a Spanish
(18:18):
style house. That's great, fantastic, And when it comes to
the landscape, don't fall into the trap of having to
do the you know, typical stuff that goes with Spanish
whatever people think that is. And you know, all you
have to do is go online and put in Spanish
style landscape and you get the same old stuff that
(18:38):
pops up every time. So the artist in me, the designer,
and the landscape designer in me wants to give you
permission to free yourself because the truth. I will speak
the truth to you now. The truth is that Spain
(18:58):
in its history has been, unfortunately for many, a colonizer.
A colonizer meaning you know, like the French, like the British.
You know, they went elsewhere. They left Spain and then
started claiming territories all over the world, you know, from
Honduras all the way to the Caribbean. And the point
(19:22):
is that means that Spanish architecture shows up everywhere. I
mean everywhere. It's one of the most common forms of
architecture globally. Okay, not a lot of Spanish villas up
in Germany, granted, but to elsewhere across the world, lots
and lots of Spanish style architecture. And what does that
(19:43):
tell you. It tells you that there's all sorts of
landscape that goes with Spanish style architecture. Because yeah, you
can do a Spanish style house right on the edge
of a semi arid desert and use a gave and
you know, and succulents and things like that. It looks great,
looks fine. But also there are Spanish homes standing in
(20:07):
you know the Caribbean, and you can surround a Spanish
home with tropical And by tropical, I don't mean palm trees, okay,
I mean lush, tropical, verdant, green and anything in between.
So the point is, I want you to be free
with your landscape. And the second thing is I want
you to think when you're redoing your landscape first and
(20:30):
foremost always about trees. I think of trees in terms
of landscape design like I think of foundations in terms
of building a house. Okay, it's the first and most
important cornerstone, things that everything else builds on. And the
reason why I want you to think in terms of
trees a couple of reasons. At least. Number one, trees
(20:52):
are the most prominent and most beautiful striking feature in
a landscape. When you've got big, beautiful trees, then everything
else drops below it and complements it. But they are
the focal point of most landscapes that they find themselves in.
Number Two, trees and their shade ends up giving you
(21:14):
even more landscape options because they create microclimates within your property.
Right now, you've got a barren property. I'm not saying
it is, but I'm saying, if you've got a barren
property that's treeless, you've got shrubs and groundcover. That's what
your options are. And you've got a lot of sun
hitting it all, which means they're all going to have
(21:35):
to be full to partial sun. Shrubs and groundcover, and
that limits your options. You put in trees, you get
shady areas. Now you've got half shade mostly shade areas
and under and around those trees where that shade hits.
That means you can start shifting to other flowering plants
and other plant I mean, you've got enough trees in
(21:57):
your ard. You can be growing ferns in one side
of the yard and a gave on the other side
of the yard that gets full sun. The point is
it expands the palette that you can use immensely in
all the best possible ways. And just to top off
my little tree sermon here, trees are undoubtedly the best
(22:21):
return on investment investment you can make in a property,
and I mean period inside or outside. All right. The
National Association of Realtors have researched this again and again
and again. They always present the exact same data. It
hasn't changed, and that is that a house with big,
(22:41):
beautiful feature trees, like out in the front and in
the back. The cost of those trees, whatever they were,
adding them to a well landscaped home increases the value
of a home anywhere from five up to ten percent.
Let's just take the low side of that. We had
a seven hundred thousand dollars house and you add a
(23:04):
ten thousand dollars tree to the front yard. That tree,
the minute it goes in the ground is now where
thirty seven thousand dollars has added thirty seven thousand dollars
to the value of your home outright just boom. So
the point is, you know, and as a as a designer,
I'm always getting asked. In fact, I was with some
(23:25):
beautiful clients just the earlier this week add a tree nursery.
We were dealing with this. They wanted a shade covering
in their backyard and they're like, how much will it
cost to build this thing? And you know, and we
went through all the options, and I said, you know,
in your situation especially, I'm not sure a built cover
is what you want. How About we create all this
(23:46):
shade that you want with a big, beautiful feature tree
instead of spending twenty thousand dollars building a pergola, another
man made structure, and they really dug into that and
they're like, yeah, let's do that. So we would easily
have spent twenty thousand dollars plus on this big, beautiful
shade pergola. What we ended up with is spending eight
(24:08):
thousand dollars on a twenty foot tall ash tree that's
going to continue to grow and get even more shade
and shade. So the point is I'm big on that.
It allows you to spread out your landscape options and Andrea,
you know what landscape your yard any way you want,
you know, primarily focus on California native plants. That gives you,
(24:32):
you know, thousands of options. It does, it doesn't limit
you in any way. Then you can add in non
natives as accent pieces, but get some shade is integrated
also so that you've got the full palette of landscape.
There's no reason that a Spanish style house in southern
California can't be lush and verdant and have all sorts
(24:53):
of interesting things happening, as opposed to whatever is typically
considered Spanish boomp in quote. Okay, how is that?
Speaker 4 (25:03):
Thank you? Thank you so appreciate your time, have a
great day.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
You're You're so very welcome. I probably talked your ear off,
but you know what, it's so important for everybody to
realize how many options you are have when it comes
to landscape. All right, more, when we return your home
with Dean Sharp, the house Whisper. Dean Sharp, the house
Whisper here to remind you every home deserves great design,
(25:28):
including yours, especially yours. Why because you're there, That's why,
my friend. All right, it's an all call Saturday morning.
Let's go back to the phones. I want to talk
to Jen. Hey, Jen, welcome.
Speaker 5 (25:41):
Home, Hidine, thank you. So I have a nineteen thirty
storybook house in Los Angeles and it's getting a complete
refurbishment and the exterior paint's going to be kind of
a toe with black trim, black gutters, and black around
(26:05):
the windows. So I'm wondering about the vents, should they
be black or the tope? And I'm wondering about a
third accent color. I had thought of either a creamy
or a dark olive green, or should I just stick
(26:28):
to the two colors? So thoughts hmmm?
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Okay, Well, first of all, events are the vents architecturally detailed.
Do we have architectural detailed colors on the vents or
are they just plain screen?
Speaker 5 (26:49):
They're original to the house, and they're they do stand out.
They're not just screen. They're kind of bars that go across.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Okay, so they've got his. You know, it's a toss up.
Without seeing the house and evaluating it with eyeballs on,
I would say it's a toss up. The question is
do you want them to pop? In other words, that
are they an architectural feature that you want to pop?
If so, then you know, paint them with the black
against the you know, the the tope wall. If if
(27:21):
they're fine, they're not unattractive, but it's not really a
place where you want my eyeballs to zero in and
focus on. Then just paint them along with the tope
wall and let them do their job, and then and
look for other ways of exciting the exterior detail of
the house. Does that make sense?
Speaker 5 (27:40):
Yes? Yes?
Speaker 2 (27:42):
And I think your idea about a third color now
the question the question really is what are we doing
with that third color. I love I love color trios
as opposed to just two colors going on a house,
But the third color. It sounds like you've got really
good taste color. So the black, the tope and then
this kind of green that is blended in sounds like
(28:06):
a wonderful opportunity. The big question is you know where
we putting it. I would definitely use it as an accent.
So when it comes to you know, tricolor combos, we
want we've obviously we have our primary color that the
main surface of the house is going to be the tope.
Then the primary color for trim everywhere, trim, trim, trim
(28:30):
everywhere is going to be the black. And then in
the same way that we have a percentage of surface
coverage differential between the tope and the black, we want
there to also be a far less percentage of use
of that third color, but in meaningful ways. So it's
just about finding a few places to accent with the green.
(28:52):
But you know, I would give you, I mean, conceptually,
I give you two thumbs up for that whole idea.
I think it's going to sound wonderful and in keeping
with storybook. Especially those muted, kind of earth earthy based
colors I think are wonderful because they really kind of
(29:12):
speak to that more rustic, rugged fanciful vibe coming out
of the earth. Storybook. By the way, for everybody who's
wondering the storybook, what is that? Storybook is actually an
authentic original Southern California architectural style dates back to the
late twenties early thirties, when the studios were first, you know,
(29:35):
making Hollywood here. And we've got all of these workers, set, decorators, carpenters,
crafts people working at the studios, building their homes in
the LA area around the studios and thinking to themselves,
you know what, why can't I have a witch's cottage
for my house. I've got this land, it's available, and
(29:58):
so Storybook these fanciful homes that look like they just
popped right out of the pages of snow White or
you know this.
Speaker 4 (30:06):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
These were studio workers who were originally saying, gosh, dang it,
I'm gonna have a Hollywood house. So I'm gonna sit
spend my life working on the movies. I'm gonna live
in a storybook house. And that's where Storybook was born.
By the way.
Speaker 5 (30:22):
That's fascinating, yes, And so.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
You're living in one of them, Jen, Congratulations and make
sure you you know, send me some pics of the
house when you when you get it all painted up,
because I'm I'm curious and I'd be thrilled to see them. Jen,
thanks for the call. Here we are at the end
of another couple hours together, my friends. Tomorrow's show is
(30:45):
a reality. It's gonna be preempted in Los Angeles and
broadcast because the Chargers are playing tomorrow morning. But I'm
doing the show, doing the show live. You can hear
it on Cogo out of San Diego Live, or you
can listen on the stream on the Cogo stream live,
(31:06):
or you just catch the podcast after we're done. But
it's happening and we're talking about holiday paints, so you're
not gonna want to miss it until then. Get out
there in this beautiful first day of November and get
busy building yourself a beautiful life. We'll see you tomorrow.
This has been Home with Dean Sharp the House Whisper.
(31:27):
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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On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!